Part of the 7th Vanport Mosaic Festival May 20 - June 7, 2022
Festival Program Here
During the summer and fall of 2014, Intisar Abioto and Bruce Poinsette traveled throughout Oregon documenting case studies on Black life for the Urban League of Portland's "State of Black Oregon 2015" report. Their travels took them not just throughout the Portland Metro Area, but to places like Astoria, Bend, Pendleton, Klamath Falls and everywhere in between.
Many of the photos and stories from covering that project didn't make the report, yet offer enormous insights into the Black experience in Oregon. Abioto and Poinsette will be sharing unreleased photos and discussing stories and lessons from the journey.
Intisar Abioto (b. Memphis, TN. 1986) is an artist working across photography, dance, and writing. Moving from the visionary and embodied root of Blackgirl Southern cross-temporal cross-modal storytelling ways, her works refer to the living breath and breadth of people of African descent against the expanse of their storied, imaginative, and geographic landscapes. Working in long-form projects that encompass the visual, folkloric, documentary, and performing arts, she has produced The People Could Fly Project, The Black Portlanders, and The Black. With the five women artists in her family, she is the co-founder of Studio Abioto, a multivalent creative arts studio.
Bruce Poinsette is a writer, educator and community organizer whose work is primarily based in the Portland Metro Area. He hosts “The Blacktastic Adventure: A Virtual Exploration of Oregon’s Black Diaspora” and “The Bruce Poinsette Show” on the Numberz FM. A former reporter for the Skanner News Group, his work has also appeared in the Oregonian, Street Roots, Oregon Humanities, and We Out Here Magazine, as well as projects such as the Mercatus Collective and the Urban League of Portland’s State of Black Oregon 2015. Poinsette also contracts with the University of Oregon Equity and Inclusion Office and numerous Oregon nonprofits, as well as teaches journalism and creative nonfiction with Literary Arts’ Writers in the Schools (WITS) program. In addition to his professional writing work, Poinsette is also an organizer with Respond to Racism LO, a grassroots anti-racism organization in his hometown of Lake Oswego, Oregon."
