First Team Meeting of the Year

We started our day with coffee and conversation, two great stimulants. Our morning conversation centered around the Vanport Multimedia Project (a project of the North Portland Multimedia Center and the Skanner Foundation) that documents the stories and lives of those effected by the Vanport Flood of 1948. Laura Lo Forti, Project Director invited PC Perri, Filmmaker, and Milo Reed, Historian, to talk with the team about the project, the history of Vanport, and its connection to Portland's black population.

In the afternoon we stopped by the Emerson Garden where we learned about brownfield restoration and environmental justice with Cassie, Groundwork Portland's Executive Director. Will Bennett, Garden Coordinator, shared history of the garden as well as the Golden West Hotel, a historic black hotel in downtown portland, before leading half our group on a garden clean up project while the other half walked the neighborhood to teach neighbords about the garden.

We ended our day by visiting the site of a historic black neighborhood that was partially demolished to make room for Legacy Emanual Hostpital.  We spent some time with a permenant exhibit installed at the hospial explaining the hospital's role in the displacement of thousands of black Portlanders.