August 2021 Cultural Work Roundup

/// August 2021 ///

Welcome to Leo season! As the days get shorter and the sun sets earlier, I hope your summer has, and continues to be, rejuvenating. Below is a list of BIPOC makers, radical thinkers, and doers who can guide and ground us, featuring recommendations by Cultural Work Intern Alisa Chen at alisa.chen@apano.org and APANO's Arts & Media Project (AMP) members.

WATCH

• ALOK on the Man Enough podcast– Do you know who you are outside of who you have been told you should be? Acclaimed gender non-conforming writer, performer, and speaker, ALOK, shares their story, and the stories of those who came before them, with an urgency that invites us to step into our power and the power of interdependence. As the creator of the growing movement to degender fashion, ALOK is helping others move beyond the binary into full expression. In a conversation filled with wisdom, historical insight, and radical mercy, ALOK challenges us to value compassion over comprehension, to try harder for each other in the name of love, and reminds us that learning is a sign of being alive.
• Suni Lee’s Olympic routines– Watch gymnast Suni Lee’s gold-winning route at the Tokyo Olympics! Lee is the first Hmong American athlete to compete on the Olympic stage and is the fifth-consecutive American woman to win the all-around medal.

PRACTICE

• Oregon Arts Commission Artist Registry– The Oregon Arts Commission, in partnership with The Ford Family Foundation, seeks to build a statewide Artist Registry to increase access to funding programs and build a case for greater artist resources. Sign up to receive information about upcoming programs and funding opportunities, to build the case for allocating resources to artists in Oregon, and more!
• Archives for Black Lives: A Liberated Archives Exhibition by Don’t Shoot Portland– Don’t Shoot Portland presents Archives for Black Lives: A Liberated Archives Exhibition at Holding Contemporary. The multimedia installation will open on Saturday, August 7 and run through Saturday, August 28. Gallery hours will be Thursday – Sunday, noon – 5pm. Safety and social distancing requirements will still be in place. Archives for Black Lives: A Liberated Archives Exhibition centers on education, documentation, and preservation of history. Through a partnership with the City of Portland Archives, Don’t Shoot Portland gained access to informational archives that inform current systems. These educational assets are vital to sustaining social change and through building upon these dialogues through a historical context, Don’t Shoot Portland is activating a call to action.
• BIPOC Paddle by Wild Diversity– Join Wild Diversity at the Sellwood Riverfront Park for a day of paddling on the Willamette River! There is a $25 suggested donation and this event will be on Wednesday, August 18th from 12:00-3pm.
• Portland Indigenous Marketplace– Portland Indigenous Marketplace will be hosting another in-person marketplace August 21st from 1-7pm at 431 NE 74th Ave. These marketplaces are held to ensure that Indigenous vendors have an opportunity to sell their wares at an affordable and culturally respectful vending event.
• My People’s Market– My People’s Market is back in real life! Join them on Friday-Sunday, August 6th, 7th, and 8th on the North Park Blocks in downtown Portland for a market experience that only the MPM crew can deliver. Immerse yourself in the vibrancy Portland has to offer at My People’s Market. Connect with BIPOC entrepreneurs, makers, artists, culinary wizards, and beverage crafters. And experience the sounds of local Portland artists and performers.

LISTEN

• Brown Girl Green podcast– Brown Girl Green is hosted by Kristy Drutman, a Jew-Pina American environmental media host, speaker, activist, and digital media strategist. She interviews environmental leaders and advocates about diversity and inclusion as well as creative solutions for coping with the climate crisis. She is working to change the image of what it means to be an environmentalist in the 21st century.
• All My Relations podcast– All My Relations is a podcast hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) and Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation) to explore our relationships— relationships to land, to our creatural relatives, and to one another.
• What a Day podcast– Join hosts Gideon Resnick, Tre’vell Anderson, and Priyanka Aribindi each morning as they break down the biggest news of the day, share important stories you may have missed, and show you what “Fox & Friends” would sound like if it were hosted by people whose parents read to them as children. What A Day is available Monday through Friday starting at 5 a.m. EST, so you’ll always be caught up on everything from impeachment hearings to the creepy “Cats” trailer, and all the harrowing and hopeful news in between.

READ

• A Year of Heartbreak and Resilience: Our Response– Read about APANO’s work this past year to respond to the moment with work including advocating for and distributing immediate aid to workers impacted by COVID-19, major wins for climate justice, and the events team work to lead bimonthly Resilience Series events. APANO invites folks to join us in engaging, talking about what matters to us, and what we want our futures to look like. Join the August Listening session by filling out this form! If you can’t make it, we still want to hear from you! Let us know what is impacting your community by filling out our member survey here.
• Portland In Color Features– Portland in Color envisions a future where Portland’s Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color creatives are supported beyond visibility. In their features and all their work, they highlight the voices, experiences, and contributions of the BIPOC creative community as a vital step towards an equitable arts and media landscape.

This programming message brought to you by APANO Communities United Fund, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.