Memory & Place in Black Portland Exhibit
Photo of exhibit hosted at PSU’s Pan African Commons in Spring 2024
The “Memory & Place in Black Portland” project is based on a course taught by Portland State University professors Walidah Imarisha (Black Studies), Ryan Petteway (Public Health, Black Studies), and Lisa Bates (Urban Studies, Black Studies). In Black Portland History and Memory (BST411), students explored community building specifically in relationship to Black communities in Portland. Students engaged in history-centered conversations regarding placemaking, communities of care, collective safety, and multi-system impacts. A collaborative course, students were encouraged to bring their own personal experiences forward in the class to illuminate connections to the past. One of the ways students engaged was through creative participatory activities of photovoice (writing narratives based on photos), geopoems (writing poems about specific places), and participatory mapping — enabling them to literally and figuratively place their words on the map of Black Portland.
We organized BST 411 students’ work for a curated public exhibit at PSU in May 2024. The work below — a photo and poetry chapbook — presents just some of the work created by the Black Studies students who are currently incarcerated at Oregon State Penitentiary. The students chose locations in and around Portland to reflect in narratives and poetry. These locations were photographed by students in PSU’s Project Rebound, which supports students returning to the community from incarceration. Through the distinct voices of each student, their place and time-rooted memories of meaningful experiences, and the photography and reading presented here on campus, we expand and enhance our understanding of Portland’s Black history as it was and is experienced by community members.
The project and exhibit also involved the creation of individual and collective playlists on themes of Home, Memory, Joy/Play, Resistance, Growth/Healing, Future/Renewal, and Justice/Freedom. Each student chose weekly songs to situate and narrate their (re)connection to memory and place in Black Portland. Attendees were able to take home printed QR code stickers for each student’s playlist. Below is the compiled playlist for all students.
Cover image of project playlist curated by BST 411 students
Check out a story about the BST 411 course, Prof. Walidah Imarisha’s broader impact in prison education, and the photovoice/poetry exhibit here: https://www.pdx.edu/news/education-behind-bars