October 18: York Collective Presents "Our Rooted Futures"
📍LABS Media, 322 NW 6th Ave., Portland, OR 97209
Our Rooted Futures is a community-led storytelling and wellness gathering that uplifts Black, Afro-Diasporic, and allied voices in Portland through art, dialogue, and collective care. The event will feature a Community Wellness Fair alongside workshops, performances, exhibits, guest speakers, and panel discussions that highlight both the legacy of York—the only Black member of the Corps of Discovery—and the York Collective’s vision for the York Urban Village (YUV), a community-led development centered on liberation, place, and collectivism.
At the heart of the event is The Griot: Liberated Storytelling, Education, and Qualitative Research Hub, where participants will immerse themselves in oral histories, connect with elders, historians, and archivists, and contribute their own narratives in our Oral History Booth. Live performances, art exhibitions, and a Folk Opera performance inspired by York will animate the evening, affirming the power of story as a tool for justice.
- The Community Care Marketplace will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will bring together organizations aligned with the York Collective’s tenets—Wellbeing, Permanency, Storytelling, and Stewardship—creating opportunities for education, resource-sharing, fundraising, and fellowship.
- Over 12 community partners will be engaging in activities, tabling and vending showcasing their work, opportunities to get involved and to allow for a closer connection between our community and these organizations.
- Participants will have the opportunity to engage in interactive workshops on Regional Community Organizing and Collage Placemaking from 12-3 p.m., exploring creative and concrete strategies for building resilient communities.
- Our Rooted Futures will also unveil the York Urban Village Exhibit and Guilds Lake Diorama, curated in partnership with Colloqate, featuring renderings, dioramas, and archival materials that envision housing, health, cultural, and green spaces for Portland’s Black community.
- The York Collective, in partnership with BHIRD, Mentor$chip and One World Chorus and York the Explorer: Folk Opera, has co-created art and educational study guides, modules, a book and an interactive AR/VR gaming experience focused on York's perspective as a member of the Corps of Discovery. Students will have the experience to engage in educational material and games with a chance to apply and win the first York Scholarship in Oregon.
Our main program consists of speakers, performances and panel discussions and will be held from 5-8 p.m. We will confront themes of placemaking, legacy, co-optation, and solidarity, grounding the work in historical truths while imagining liberated futures. More than an event, Our Rooted Futures is a convocation—a space for healing, connection, and action. It honors the past, resists erasure, and seeds a living ecosystem of care and liberation for generations to come.
Learn about Our Rooted Futures
To learn more about York Collective and get updates, follow them on Instagram at @yorkcollectivepdx.
About York Fest
This event is part of York Fest, a Portland Monuments Project partner event being presented by the Oregon Black Pioneers.
220 years after an enslaved man named York reached present-day Portland as part of the Lewis and Clark expedition, people from Portland and beyond will gather to celebrate his legacy at York Fest. Nine days. Six events. One community.
Please note that York Fest events will be held in different venues throughout the greater Portland area. York Fest is presented by Oregon Black Pioneers, but each festival event is created and hosted by a different artist or organization.