May 2019 Cultural Work Roundup

What is flowering for you this month? We know that there are lots of arts and cultural opportunities blooming this May. Here are our top arts and cultural picks!

EVENTS

• Wednesday, 5/1: May Day is for Everyone: A Festival of Resistance – This year the May Day Coalition have decided to celebrate the work that is being done, in the form of a “festival of resistance”. The Coalition wishes to emphasize that May Day is for everyone, that we are connected by our desire to resist those who would see us erased. This festival will attempt to show that it is not the fascist that have the power, or the imperialists, or the capitalists, or the colonizers, or the ruling class, or the bosses. It is us. It is the dispossessed, oppressed, and marginalized masses of poor and working people who are the makers and shapers of history. 4pm-6pm, NE Holladay St & NE 11th Ave..
• Thursday, 5/2 - Saturday, 6/23: Ghost Net Landscape: interactive marine debris art installation – Join artist Emily Miller for an interactive art installation and daily performance with 600+ pounds of "ghost net" fishing rope debris. Help transform this dangerous ocean trash into artwork! Opening on Thursday, 5/2 at 12pm. Ongoing through 6/23, Elisabeth Jones Art Center.
• Friday, 5/3: Canton Grill Degustatory Research – Investigating both personal and collective histories alongside the role of food in migration, this dinner is a sensorial ten-course tasting experience serving degustatory samples intermingling culinary art, performance, research and personal histories. It promises to be a beautiful, complex, fine dining experience that will tickle your palette and tease your soul. Free of charge. 6:30-8pm, Canton Grill.
• Friday, 5/3 - Sunday, 5/5: Performance: sugar – sugar is a performance that explores themes of care, harm, memory and prefiguration. The performer and the audience engage in a series of tasks with ambiguous results. Historical references and utopian gestures find voice through repetitive movement, video, and poetic forms. Created and performed by claire barrera; video: Roland Dahwen Wu; dramaturgy: Allie Hankins. 7:30pm, Milepost 5.
• Sunday, 5/5: Makers de Mayo: a Decolonized Market & Celebration – This Cinco de Mayo, spend your day supporting local BIPOC makers at Makers de Mayo: a decolonized market and celebration hosted by Noche Libre and the Portland Mercado. 12pm-6pm, Portland Mercado.
• Sunday, 5/5: Jim Gion Celebration of Life – Join us for a free community event celebrating the life and work of a renowned local sculptor, Jim Gion. Alongside his many public works, Jim sculpted over a thousand portraits of dogs, and we are honoring his legacy with a dog-focused event! Free treats for dogs and humans, dog photo booth, music, art and more! (Kids also welcome!). 3pm-6pm, A-1 Bird Bath.
• Sunday, 5/5: QTIPOC Draw Night – Draw, craft, chat with other Queer/Trans/Inter* People of Color! The venue has free parking, and light snacks and tea will be provided. 6pm-10pm, Independent Publishing Resource Center.
• Monday, 5/6: Not Welcome: opening night – NOT WELCOME: CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART + CULTURE. A show by: Shokoufeh Alizadeh, Emad Alkubati, Demian DinéYazhi', Noha Intibint, V Maldonado, maximiliano, Mo Murshed, Jamaali Roberts, Melanie Stevens, Anna Vo. Opening is May 6th, 6-8pm and will consist of a performance by V Maldonado. 6pm-8pm, Center for Contemporary Art + Culture, 511 NW Broadway.
• Tuesday, 5/7: Simon Tam/The Slants Portland book & cd release party – Join us for an evening of music, art, and activism in celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. This event will be the Portland launch for for Simon Tam's new memoir, Slanted: How an Asian American Troublemaker Took on the Supreme Court, and The Slants' new EP. They'll be joined by local musician, Joe Kye. 6pm-9pm, Milepost 5.
• Thursday, 5/9: Una Vida Mejor: A Tribute to the Original Dreamers – In 2017, we put together our very first event as a group, We the Dreamers: An Art Show to Defend DACA - raising $16,000 to give back to organizations doing work for the immigrant community. This May we are doing it again, but shifting the focus from DACA to a different part of the undocumented community: the original dreamers, the parents. The event will feature: Artwork by several undocumented artists, raffle with several participating Portland businesses, food & drinks by our amazing organizers & caterers, presentation, very special musical guest & DJ to follow, and new merch for sale. 6pm-10pm, Ecotrust.
• Thursday, 5/9: Mamas Day Celebration: Power & Flowers – Mamahood is not one size fits all. But most popular images of mothers exclude mamas based on their sexual orientation, gender, race, income, immigration status and more. Our mamas deserve to be seen and honored. Join us this year to celebrate Mamas in Oregon! Join our hosts Cole and Dayna Reed, Rae Dunnaville, YeeWon Chong, Cleo Tung, Abel Valladares, Jessie Burke, Lindsay Sadlou, and Ruthie Crawford to build community and challenge the narrative around motherhood. You'll also have the opportunity to write cards to the mamas in your lives. Food and beverages will be provided. 6pm-8pm, DISJECTA.
• Thursday, 5/9: Rose City Rolodex: a Portland in Color Networking Event – Portland in Color invites industry professionals and BIPOC creatives to gather for an evening of old-fashioned, face-to-face conversation and exchange over beverages and light snacks provided by Tillamook. Build your rolodex, listen to tunes provided by DJs NoBiEs and Anjali, and try your luck at our raffle featuring prizes from Bitch Media, Literary Arts, Holocene, Icon Tattoo, and more. All raffle sales directly benefit the next season of Portland in Color features. 6pm-9pm, Swift Agency, 1250 NW 17th Ave.
• Friday, 5/10 - Saturday, 5/11: Tomorrow Will Be... – Boom Arts and the TEAM (NYC) present two unique interactive evenings of music, social justice, and living out the hopes for tomorrow... today! This is a multigenerational event; children are welcome. 7pm, The Old Church.
• Saturday, 5/11: NAYA Spring Marketplace – See Facebook event for more details. 11am-4pm, Native American Youth & Family Center.
• Saturday, 5/11: PSU Pacific Islanders Club 17th Annual Lū'au – Join the PSU Pacific Islanders Club at our 17th Annual Lū'au: Let The Legends Be Told on Saturday May 11th 2019 for some legendary storytelling from around the Pacific through song, dance, food, and fun! Dinner Show performance by Kaloku and The Krew! Dinner catered by Ohana's Hawaiian Cafe! 4pm-9pm, PSU Viking Pavillion.
• Wednesday, 5/15: Opening Celebration: Overspaced by Jaleesa Johnston – 'Overspaced' combines videos, projections and performance art to explore abstract representations of the Black body using image layering, analog editing and filters. It was created by artist Jaleesa Johnston during her fall 2018 residency as part of Open Signal’s New Media Fellowship program. Please join us for this special opening celebration. 7pm-9pm, Open Signal: Portland Community Media Center.
• Sunday, 5/19: Potluck at Blue Lake – Brown Folks Fishing (BFF) will be hosting our first potluck event of the year in collaboration with POC Hike leaders Pamela and Rikeem, Get Hooked Foundation/LLC, PDX Climbers of Color, Outdoor Asian Oregon, and more! Come join us for food and stay for fishing, nature walks, a raffle, giveaways, and good times. 9am-3pm, Blue Lake Regional Park.
• Tuesday, 5/21 - Wednesday, 6/5: The Vanport Mosaic Festival 2019 – In these times of collective amnesia, remembering is an act of resistance. For the fourth year Vanport Mosaic invites you to explore the many silenced histories that surround us, in order to better understand our present, and write a new chapter where we all belong. Join us for two weeks of MEMORY ACTIVISM to explore and confront our local past and recent history of “othering, ” and its tragic consequences. Through exhibits, documentary screenings, tours, performances, and dialogues we will celebrate the lessons of resilience and resistance as defined and told by historically oppressed communities. Various times and locations.
• Thursday, 5/23: Trans Dudes with Lady Cancer film screening – Join filmmakers YeeWon Chong and Brooks Nelson, along with community organizations, for a short film documenting the journey of two transmasculine people, their families and communities, as they navigate breast cancer and ovarian cancer through our medical system. 5:30pm-7:30pm, PCC Cascade.
• Saturday, 5/25: Portland Mercado 4th Year Anniversary – Join us on May 25th from 12-7pm for our 4th year anniversary celebration. Dream 4 More, is a reflection of our community’s hopes, aspirations, and resilience in the face of uncertain times. Come with the whole family to enjoy live music, art, kids activities and authentically diverse flavors. 12pm-7pm, Portland Mercado.
• Wednesday, 5/29: Say Hey! by Partners in Diversity – Partners in Diversity and Legacy Health are hosting Say Hey! on Wednesday, May 29, 2019, at Legacy Emanual Medical Center in North Portland. Say Hey! is an evening program to welcome professionals of color who recently relocated to our region. Join us for a fun evening of connecting, celebrating and showing our newest neighbors that there's a rich and thriving multicultural community here! This is a safe and welcoming space for POC to meet other POC and allies of POC in the area. 5:30pm-8:30pm, Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

OPPORTUNITIES

• Caldera is hiring! Caldera is excited to announce that we are hiring for a Development and Communications Director! This position leads our fundraising and communications efforts with an inclusive approach to advance racial equity and strengths-based narratives of Caldera youth. We encourage Cultural Work Roundup community members and people of color to apply and/or share with your networks. Application period closes on May 24 at 5pm. Link to position description is here.
• Apply to be a vendor at the Beaverton Night Market. The market is seeking vendors who sell food, crafts, art, or other products that represent world cultures. It is not necessary to be an established business; we are looking for all who have a desire to share their culture in a market atmosphere. Applications due Friday, 5/17. Apply here.
• Low cost creative work spaces available at Broad Space, a co-working collective for artists who identify as female or non-binary. Spaces start at $95/month for a hot desk! Email: JeanettePDX@gmail.com for more details.

/// More on the Cultural Work Roundup ///

The Cultural Work Roundup is a monthly spotlight on arts and cultural events and opportunities that:

• Directly relate to APANO's cultural work strategies to impact beliefs, actions and policies through centering the voices of those most impacted and silenced, resisting and shifting harmful narratives and ideas, and moving beyond defensive strategies to envisioning alternatives.
• Centralize the voices of Oregon-based Asian and Pacific Islander artists and/or artists of color.

Events may include readings, exhibitions, festivals, openings, and performances. Opportunities may include calls for artistic submissions, grant and funding opportunities, and volunteer opportunities. The deadline for submissions is the third Monday of each month for events and opportunities that fall into the following month. For example, events and opportunities that take place in June are due to APANO by the third Monday in May.

The Cultural Work Roundup will be posted on APANO's website and shared via APANO's digital communications platforms. Events and opportunities will be posted at APANO's discretion based on alignment with our cultural work values. You may submit to the Cultural Work Roundup by filling out our Google Form at bit.ly/culturalworkroundup.

If you have any questions, please contact Cultural Work Manager Candace Kita at candace@apano.org. Enjoy!