“Community Healing through Art” is an arts-focused, community-informed collective grieving and healing initiative. The initiative is led by our former Creative Laureate, Subashini Ganesan-Forbes, with support from the City Arts Program, Mayor Wheeler's Office and Commissioner Rubio's office. Our initiative seeks to:
respectfully amplify the diverse ways by which we grieve, mourn and heal as a community.
honor and highlight artistic and communal resiliency.
recognize that our survival depends on intertwined communities of cultural organizers, artists and activists creating and sharing space, resources and mutual aid.
The Community Healing through Art initiative was designed by Ganesan-Forbes to amplify the power of art to support healing in our community. For several months, Ganesan-Forbes collaborated with multicultural communities and convened community conversations to inform a citywide strategy for honoring the community’s reflections on the events of the past year and a half – including the COVID-19 pandemic, political discord around the necessary racial reckoning work, extreme climate disasters like wildfires and an ice storm, and other drastic changes to daily life.
“These thoughtful and deeply emotive projects are evidence that in these historic times of heightened emotional exhaustion and grief, so many local artists are showing up in grounded and significant ways,” said Ganesan-Forbes. “Through these and other activations, we as a City can work towards healing as a community by building meaningful relationships between art-makers and cultural organizers. It is this intersection that has the ability to highlight and deepen our communal resilience.”
We hope you can join us at one of these events.
October events:
Black Arts Showcase
Akela Jaffi and the Black Sun Collective will present a three-day mini music festival October 22-24 with food, vendors and a panel discussion with Black creatives. Visit https://akelajaffi.com/connect/ for more information.
Dawson Park Concerts
The Elliot Neighborhood Association has restarted its summer concert series that holds a special place in the hearts and minds of the Historic Albina community, particularly Black Portlanders. Join us October 7 from 4-7; for more information, visit https://eliotneighborhood.org/c….
Graves into Gardens
East Portland Collective presents Graves into Gardens, a project to create a permanent community art mural in memory of Robert Delgado, one of Lents’ houseless neighbors who was experiencing a mental health crisis at Lents park when he was shot and killed by Portland Police in April 2021. A community event is scheduled for October 9 at Lents Park; visit https://www.eastpdxcollective.o… for more information.
Palestine through the Senses
The Center for the Study and Preservation of Palestine will present three events that engage the community in collective grieving, healing and empowerment. Each event will address a different sensory aspect of Palestinian culture: sound art, visual art, and engaging with the land through nourishment The first event, "Food as Medicine, Food as Ritual" is Sunday, October 3 from 1-5pm in Woodland, Washington.
The second event, "Art as Visioning, Art as Remembering" will be held Saturday, October 16 from 11-5 p.m. at CSPP headquarters, 2942 NE MLK Jr. Boulevard. Activities include mural painting, screenprinting, embroidery and calligraphy workshops. For more information, visit https://www.cspp.site/ .
Poetry is a Prompt - a Joint Collaborative Poem Garland
The Independent Publishing Resource Center invites you to contribute to a collaborative poetry garland that is a collective meditation on grief and healing. Visit the IPRC’s new Martha Grover Zine Library/classroom through October 2 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays between noon and 6PM to be, to write, and to take away journals and booklets made by IPRC staff to help you continue your healing journey through writing.
Intisar Abioto, Stephanie Adams-Santos, jayy dodd, Catie Hannigan, and Coleman Stevenson have created first lines of poetry to inspire your writing. Crystal Thomas has created a sculptural structure to hold your lines of poetry written on paper chain garlands. For more information, visit https://www.iprc.org/event/poet…;
Remembering
REMEMBERING is a collaborative effort by the Portland Native Community, Friendly House, Laura Campos, and a.c.ramírez de arellaño. The project will create a large weaving, each strand representative of each person's interrelatedness within a larger whole. Materials will be provided, and participants are encouraged to bring small meaningful objects from home that can be woven into the public artwork. The event on October 10 and 11, which is free and open to the public, will include intergenerational activities such as storytelling, music, children’s activities, and food. For more information, visit https://fhpdx.org/event/remembe…;
Together, Stitching Hope: Peace by Piece
This creative-making, anti-violence, and community-healing project connects Black youth to Black elders through the act of making culturally relevant and spiritually infused quilts . The project also provides wisdom and empowerment to youth, including those who are gang affiliated, or have been involved in the criminal justice system. Through conversation and creative action, this project attempts to inspire Black youth to invent new patterns for their lives and create something beautiful.
Participants are invited to help sew quilts throughout the month of October (visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d… for more information), and the final quilts will be presented in November.
Other events in development:
BIPOC Ritual Time Capsule
On December 19, YGB Portland will present BIPOC Ritual Time Capsule, an opportunity for community members to commune and pick up time capsule kits that they can take home and share with friends and family. These kits, including various pieces of art and media, will guide folks to slow down and make space for reflection, healing, and grief – a literal and energetic holder of memories and time, which is so important for BIPOC people in a world that seeks to erase their histories. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/YGBPor… .
Black Art Heals: Honoring Trans Lives, Legacies and Futures
Black & Beyond the Binary Collective is hosting an event on November 3 to promote connection and healing on the topic of public safety for the trans community. Artist Daren Todd will help synthesize a vision for the celebration of Black trans life and remembering those we have lost. Our ask is that folx come to discuss what a mural might look like that honors trancestors like Marsha P. Johnson, Aja Raquel Rhone-Spears, TeTe Gulley, and the Black trans future we are building for our trans youth. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/events…;
Black Feast
Founded and curated by two Black queer artists, guests and artists across communities will come together to share an intimate and sensory four-course meal, and experience poets, musicians and artists of many mediums. Black Feast is literally and figuratively a warm blanket to hold you, hot tea to soothe you, food to love you, art to uplift you, and a best friend to hear you. Stay tuned for more information, or visit https://blackfeastdinner.com/.&…;
Community Healing through Art, Youth Outreach, and Conversations about Belonging
Color Outside the Lines is bringing together an array of BIPOC artists and underserved youth to collaboratively create eight murals on the East side of the Willamette River. Several murals have already been created, and the organization will present a workshop series next spring to encourage conversations about belonging and healing. Stay tuned for more information, or visit https://coloroutsidelines.org/…;
KIMJANG! - Nourish Your Soul
In the spring of 2022, Joe Kye will present KIMJANG! - Nourish Your Soul, an afternoon of communal healing and refueling for Asian American creatives. Chef Han Ly Hwang of Kim Jong Grillin will produce a communal meal of Korean BBQ, with attendees making their own kimchi to take home. The event will be dedicated to Matt Choi, the late owner of Choi’s Kimchi, a Portland-based Kimchi company, who passed away tragically in October 2020.
UwUnoco Flo
UwU Collective is a Portland-based artist collective that uplifts the voices of Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (QTBIPOC) and Trans/Gender non-conforming (T/GNC) people. In the summer of 2022, the collective will present UwUnoco Flo, an all-day multidisciplinary art event with visual art, dance, and nature to help community members process grief. This event will serve as the catalyst to individual and communal healing. For more information, visit https://www.instagram.com/uwupdx/
Community Healing through Art events are funded in part by the City of Portland, the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, and the Oregon Community Foundation.
