Community / A.C.E.
November 7, 2016
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 11
Exhibit lays bare Portland’s
annexation east of 82nd Avenue
By Ryan Nakano
The Asian Reporter
he room is dark. Mounted on
the walls are large posters
bleeding red, black, and white
like old political propaganda pieces.
Underneath the posters sit stacks of
cardboard boxes once filed away with
documents that most of the people in
the room were unfamiliar with until
October. The art exhibit is part of a
city-funded program, but the
endeavor itself is a critique on the
city, its funding, and the projects that
developed from a long-forgotten
history of neighborhoods east of 82nd
Avenue.
The artist, 42-year-old Sabina
Haque, stands at the entrance of the
display held in Portland’s Jade
District, fielding questions from a
group of guests. To her right, a set of
three televisions simultaneously
screen the testimonials of residents
who grew up in east county.
One of the residents featured on
the televisions, Bonnie McKnight, a
community activist, talks about the
annexation process, explaining how
each citizen of the unincorporated
region would be worth around $7.50
to Portland, likening it to a giant
grant program for the city. One map
of the area, which was annexed
between 1983 and 1987, shows that
approximately 140,000 people lived
there.
“There
was
never
any
transparency when it came to the
annexation,” McKnight says in the
video. “It was generally, ‘here is what
we are going to do.’”
According to Haque’s artist
statement and explanation about the
exhibit, “82nd Avenue served as the
easternmost boundary of the city of
Portland. In the 1980s, Portland
expanded the city’s boundaries
roughly to 182nd Avenue …
Longtime residents, neighborhood
activists, and an influx of Southeast
Asian immigrants came together in
this evolving geographical space in a
decade marked by economic and
political turmoil.”
Today, Haque’s statement con-
tinues, east Portland is the most
diverse and rapidly growing section
of the city, encompassing one-quarter
of its population as well as nearly 40
percent of its youth.
A large projection in the exhibit
shows the transformation of 82nd
Avenue over the past 100 years, a
visual landscape of the history of the
existing multicultural melting pot of
the region told through storefront
billboards and neon signs.
The area became the home of many
immigrants. Before the ’80s, the
region was unincorporated, meaning
it was not officially part of Portland.
It was not even connected to the city’s
sewage system.
RACC grant
The Regional Arts & Culture Coun-
cil (RACC) granted funding to the
City of Portland Archives & Records
Center (PARC) to host an artist in
residency. It would be the second
opportunity for PARC to connect with
a local artist, so they put out the call.
There was the selection process:
hours of reviewing applicants and
more than 100 informational
sessions. Sabina Haque was chosen.
Haque, who was born in Columbus,
T
NEW RESOURCE CENTERS. Portland State University recently
opened the doors to its two newest cultural resource centers — the Pa-
cific Islander, Asian & Asian American Student Center and the Pan-African
Commons — that provide computer labs, lounges, study spaces, and
more to students. The grand opening of the centers was held November 2
and included performances (top photo), informational booths (bottom
photo), and more. (AR Photos/Jan Landis)
PSU opens two new
resource centers for
students of color
Portland State University (PSU) recently opened the
doors to its two newest cultural resource centers: the
Pacific Islander, Asian & Asian American Student Center
and the Pan-African Commons.
The two new centers join PSU’s three other cultural
resource centers: the Multicultural Center, the Native
American Student & Community Center, and La Casa
Latina.
In recent years, students had requested centers for
African-American and African students as well as
Asian-American, Asian, and Pacific Islander students.
Last December, students convened a Speak Out event to
publicly describe their experiences and challenges.
“When the students went up in the front of that room
and started to tell the administration with so much
passion and love and grace what they needed, I realized
that something was going to happen,” said Cynthia
Gómez, executive director of the university’s Cultural
Resource Centers.
Shortly afterward, PSU president Wim Wiewel
announced the formation of the two new centers. In the
months since, the leadership team of the Cultural
Resource Centers has engaged students and solicited
feedback to determine the role the centers should play in
the community; even the names of the centers were
chosen by public discussion and vote. PSU students,
faculty, and staff are encouraged to continue that effort to
help craft the missions for the new centers.
All of the university’s cultural centers offer resources
such as computer labs, lounges, and study spaces. They
also provide event and program facilitation, as well as
opportunities for student leadership, employment, and
volunteer work.
“When someone walks into our space, they should be
able to see themselves,” said Makerusa “Mak” Porotesano,
director of the Pacific Islander, Asian & Asian American
Student Center. He hopes visitors to the centers will see
themselves in the art and in the faces around them, that
they’ll hear themselves in the music, and that they’ll
think, “I’m from here.”
To learn more, visit <www.pdx.edu/cultural-resource-
centers>.
The Asian Reporter is published on
the first & third Monday each month.
News page advertising deadlines
for our next print edition are:
November 21 to December 4, 2016 edition:
Space reservations due:
Wednesday, November 16 at 1:00pm
Artwork due: Thursday, November 17 at 1:00pm
ANNEXATION & TRANSFORMATION. An art installation by Sabina Haque that focuses
on neighborhoods east of 82nd Avenue is open for viewing on Thursday, November 17 from 6:00
to 8:00pm at the Jade/APANO Multicultural Space, located at 8114 S.E. Division Street in Portland.
(AR Photos/Ryan Nakano)
Ohio, but grew up in Karachi, I found as big as possible,” Haque
Pakistan, has spent the past 10 years said. “I wanted to shine a light on
living in Portland with her husband these neighborhoods east of 82nd so
and two kids. She is a visual artist people could experience its presence
and a professor of art at Portland in a big way.”
And then, of course, there is the
State University.
In past projects, Haque has worked venue where the exhibit is currently
with students, teaching cultural and housed — the working space of the
oral histories through the arts. She Asian Pacific American Network of
has coordinated activities tackling Oregon (APANO), which is located at
the issue of annexation and the corner of 82nd Avenue and
assimilation from an Indian and Division Street.
Even before Haque was selected for
Pakistani perspective.
Before connecting with PARC, the residency, city archivist Diana
Haque knew very little about the Banning had chosen east Portland as
history of east Portland. So for the the topic.
“We chose east Portland because
last year, she and a team of research
assistants have been digging. What we wanted to shine a light on 82nd to
immediately struck her was the hopefully introduce the idea that
absence of transparency by the city these communities existed and still
and the lack of voice given to exist in the records and that the city
residents of the unincorporated archives have records that pertain
to all of its city’s citizens,” Banning
region.
“Things were done behind closed said.
Banning also mentioned how the
doors,” Haque said. The city told
residents to “please come to these team was really excited for the
community meetings — after they exhibit to be on view within the
had already made the decision to community it represents.
By displaying her work at the Jade/
incorporate the east.”
Haque believes the lack of APANO Multicultural Space (JAMS),
transparency continues to be a Haque has been able to bring art to
challenge when it comes to the city the forefront of the community it is
and its relationship with the reflecting. Banning likens the
communities that exist within it. She research process for the artist-in-
went on to say that while her exhibit residency program to that of falling
serves as a means of historical through a rabbit hole.
For some viewers, Haque’s art
documentation, it is also a way to
exhibit of Portland east of 82nd might
address possible solutions.
“How do we find our voice? How can feel very much the same. But after
we come up with solutions that work seeing it, she hopes they will not say
for everybody, not just the people in to themselves, “look at what
power? How can cities effectively happened,” but rather “what will
work with citizens?” — These are become of it?”
Another viewing of Haque’s exhibit
questions she hopes the exhibit
takes place on Thursday, November
elicits.
Stepping into the display, there are 17 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm at the
a couple very noticeable things. One Jade/APANO Multicultural Space,
located at 8114 S.E. Division Street in
is the documents themselves.
“Because most of this specific part Portland. The event also features an
of the city went underrepresented artist talk at 7:00pm. To learn more,
and under-documented for so long, I call (971) 340-4861 or visit <www.
wanted to make the information that apano.org>.