About A Place To Be |
A Place to Be supports the establishment of a permanent Black Arts and Cultural Center for the city of Portland. The project began with a discussion led by Renee Mitchell and Laura Lo Forti (who helmed the Vanport Mosaic www.vanportmosaic.org) held at The Skanner offices with the aim of making Black Arts, Culture and Heritage visible and supported in the city of Portland.
The A Place to Be website is documenting (just a fraction of) the varied historic and contemporary Black cultural experiences, productions and impacts on the city of Portland. On this website you will find a few examples in the form of films and visualizations that are meant to prompt a larger discussion of the even more diverse cultural productions and experiences by Black Portlanders occurring in the past, present, and future. The website also documents potential sites, programs, and visions for a permanent Center as a way of prompting the conversation with the Black community of needs, wants, and desires. This research-based design envisioning was done in consultation and through interviews with a variety of Black community organizations and leaders.
There is so much important work that has been and is being created by Black residents, but so often it’s not shared with the larger community. A Place to Be and its catalyst project, The Pop Up Porch, is one place to bring it out into the open where we can highlight and celebrate the powerful contributions of black artists and leaders in our city.
The Pop Up Porch is just one part of the A Place to Be project. The Porch is meant to catalyze this discussion and to witness how Black arts and culture matters to Portland. In doing so, the Porch is a temporary installation that aims to call attention to the need for a permanent, public center to celebrate African American and Black arts in our city. We want to start a discussion on the Porch that will continue and hopefully result in a permanent facility.
The form of a Porch was chosen because it (or the stoop) has figured prominently in African American heritage for centuries in the United States as a place for family, friends, gathering, storytelling, cooking, sewing, singing, music, and conversations both important and mundane. Expressing plans and dreams would all happen on the Porch as the only historically accessible public space for the African-American community in this country.
For two weeks, the Porch will occupy a space on the corner of SW 12th Avenue and Market Street, providing a public place for all manner of creative works in progress celebrating, and originating in, Portland’s Black and African American community. We invite you to come and hang out on the porch and share your picture as well as sharing pictures of your porches at home.
#porchpdx #popupporch #aplacetobepdx #blacksoulpdx
We invite artists to populate the Porch with works-in-progress during the two weeks that the porch will be open. Story-telling, spoken word, poetry, dancing, painting, sculpting, play-reading, filmmaking, all genres of music, and all forms of creative expression are welcome. We are seeking work that celebrates or explores Black culture, heritage, history, or arts, either directly or indirectly. Dance or music rehearsals, informal readings, workshops, practices, work sessions are encouraged. Polished, finished, produced work is not required. The goal is to create a focused space for Portland’s Black arts to be viewed, experienced, cherished, and discussed in the public sphere, in order to highlight the need for a permanent Black arts and cultural center.
This project was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, that was supported by the City of Portland’s Office of Equity and Human Rights. The project was also made possible with support from PSU’s Black Studies, School of Architecture, the Institute for Sustainable Solutions, and the Center for Public Interest Design.
Contacts: Renee Mitchell at [email protected] or B.D. Wortham-Galvin at [email protected]
The A Place to Be website is documenting (just a fraction of) the varied historic and contemporary Black cultural experiences, productions and impacts on the city of Portland. On this website you will find a few examples in the form of films and visualizations that are meant to prompt a larger discussion of the even more diverse cultural productions and experiences by Black Portlanders occurring in the past, present, and future. The website also documents potential sites, programs, and visions for a permanent Center as a way of prompting the conversation with the Black community of needs, wants, and desires. This research-based design envisioning was done in consultation and through interviews with a variety of Black community organizations and leaders.
There is so much important work that has been and is being created by Black residents, but so often it’s not shared with the larger community. A Place to Be and its catalyst project, The Pop Up Porch, is one place to bring it out into the open where we can highlight and celebrate the powerful contributions of black artists and leaders in our city.
The Pop Up Porch is just one part of the A Place to Be project. The Porch is meant to catalyze this discussion and to witness how Black arts and culture matters to Portland. In doing so, the Porch is a temporary installation that aims to call attention to the need for a permanent, public center to celebrate African American and Black arts in our city. We want to start a discussion on the Porch that will continue and hopefully result in a permanent facility.
The form of a Porch was chosen because it (or the stoop) has figured prominently in African American heritage for centuries in the United States as a place for family, friends, gathering, storytelling, cooking, sewing, singing, music, and conversations both important and mundane. Expressing plans and dreams would all happen on the Porch as the only historically accessible public space for the African-American community in this country.
For two weeks, the Porch will occupy a space on the corner of SW 12th Avenue and Market Street, providing a public place for all manner of creative works in progress celebrating, and originating in, Portland’s Black and African American community. We invite you to come and hang out on the porch and share your picture as well as sharing pictures of your porches at home.
#porchpdx #popupporch #aplacetobepdx #blacksoulpdx
We invite artists to populate the Porch with works-in-progress during the two weeks that the porch will be open. Story-telling, spoken word, poetry, dancing, painting, sculpting, play-reading, filmmaking, all genres of music, and all forms of creative expression are welcome. We are seeking work that celebrates or explores Black culture, heritage, history, or arts, either directly or indirectly. Dance or music rehearsals, informal readings, workshops, practices, work sessions are encouraged. Polished, finished, produced work is not required. The goal is to create a focused space for Portland’s Black arts to be viewed, experienced, cherished, and discussed in the public sphere, in order to highlight the need for a permanent Black arts and cultural center.
This project was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, that was supported by the City of Portland’s Office of Equity and Human Rights. The project was also made possible with support from PSU’s Black Studies, School of Architecture, the Institute for Sustainable Solutions, and the Center for Public Interest Design.
Contacts: Renee Mitchell at [email protected] or B.D. Wortham-Galvin at [email protected]