May 22-28, 2015
Tori Abernathy
Portland Renters'
Assembly now in session
BY ANN-DERRICK GAILLOT
STAFF W RITER
n February, local artist and activist Tori
Abernathy decided to use her latest
installation piece “Make Yourself at Home”—
exploring ideas of home, construction and
placemaking— as the first venue for a new series
of gatherings she called the Portland Renters’
Assembly.
Part presentations by local housing advocates,
part group story
sharing and
brainstorming, the
Portland Renters’
Assembly has moved
beyond Abernathy’s
temporary
exhibition, taking
place in a different
part of the city each
time. .The focus,
Abernathy explains,
is on educating the
average Portland
tenant who may not
yet know how to
access housing rights
activism. It’salso
about empowering
tenants through the
Tori Abernathy
sharing of personal
stories. I sat down
with Abernathy
recently to talk about Portland Renters’
Assembly, housing justice and the activist role of
Portland’s arts community
I
Ann-Derrick Gaillot: Tell me what Portland
Renters’ Assembly is.
Tori Abernathy: It’s a gathering of people
who are united by the burden of rent, and we aim
to, in part, educate people on housing justice
issues and what their rights are. But more of our
focus is just building solidarity around the
concept of what it might mean to be a renter, in
Portland and in general. We are more focused on
building a better understanding of what the
different struggles that people encounter might
be in an effort to understand best how to move
forward together. It’s really guided by the people
there. That’s something that in our planning
meetings we were really careful about — to make
sure that we can just educate people, and the fact
that they can get involved, but also not to derail
the focus of the assembly away from it being a
space where people can share their stories and
their experiences, because ultimately that’s most
important thing.
A.G.: From my perspective it feels like being
a renter is just a given and that’s just how
things are.
T.A.: Yeah, it’s very
naturalized, right? But it’s
News
not necessary. What we’re concerned with is the
idea that housing should be a human right and we
need to shift consciousness in that direction so
that policy can change in accordance with that
value. So I think that’s a big aspect of what we’re
trying to do is just to have people unfold their
stories so they can maybe start to understand
how some of these situations are not the best and
that other people are experiencing similar
hardships so that we can move towards having a
bigger population of people that feel that it’s
unjust in general. And I think that it is true that
people are talking about rent a lot and people
understand on a very basic level that there’s
something wrong with that. So it becomes a way
to talk about a lot of shared issues like debt as a
force, racism as a force, a lot of things.
A.G.: Was there anything that came out of the
first two assemblies that surprised you even after all
of the research you’ve done?
T.A.: I’ve definitely learned a lot from the
speakers that we’ve had come. The format is
such that we usually have speakers at the
beginning who give presentations on topics that
are related to the issue and then we open it up
for the assembly portion, which is people sharing
their stories and general discussion.
In the moments where we break out into
people sharing their stories, that has been some
of the most emotional yet safe space for people to
share these things. That has been really impactful
for me. You can really explain what happened to
you and I think it’s super cool to see that happen.
A.G.: From what you're saying it sounds like
what's most important in Portland Renters’
Assembly is making the issue of rent and changing
the system seem alittle less scary for people and
something that everyone can do. Are you guys trying
to make it easier for people to get involved?
T.A.: That’s a value that we have, so yeah. It’s
not the only thing we’re trying to do, but it is a
priority. We are very committed to that sense of
it being accessible, that’s not just a buzzword,
and I think that’s the biggest strength of what
we’re doing in relation to other types of activities
that are going on. It’s why so many other groups
are wanting to be involved now, because they see
the success of that.
We are also thinking of how we can develop as
à group in a way that kind of extends outside of
just the assembly itself. There have been ongoing
projects that have started to percolate outside of
thè assemblies.
A.G.: How did you decide to start this?
T.A.: I had the opportunity to do
this, exhibition {“Make Yourself
at Home”] and I had been
thinking about this
exhibition for a long
time, and it wasn’t
enough. It was
already
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conceived of as an environment for people to
inhabit — the actual exhibition itself — based on
what it was inspired by. It was intended to kind of
shift that into a more feminine, less brutal space
than the construction site, basically, and playing
on the idea of the host versus the builder. So it
was already kind of going in that direction and K
then it was a very easy jump from this to the
event. Then there need to be events around
these issues. OK — how are they organized and
on what terms? So it was just like figuring that
out, and I think I just also kind of really wanted
to share. There are certain people who are really
inspiring to me, like I wanted to share the stuff
that Ibrahim Mubarak (with the homeless
organization Right 2 Dream Too) was doing and
to kind of bridge that gap between his community
and other communities like the arts community.
That’s something I’m always interested in doing.
So yeah, it was just like that basically, all those
things coming together. '
A.G.: Can you tell me more about bridging the
arts community and the housing justice
community?
T.A.: As an activist and an artist I feel like the
most important thing for me or the biggest
motivation that I have is trying to expand our
subjectivity such that we can dream bigger about
what’s possible in the future. And specifically
together, not about our own lives. We don’t have
a problem with that, but we have a problem with
envisioning a better world for all of us. Basically
it’s very important for me to find ways to bring
people together and as an artist it’s just exciting
to think about how to do that in ways that
actually impact people. Because you can tell
someone they should care about this stuff but .
they’re h o t gdriiia ifsTehro you. So you have to
kind of show them so they can come to that on
their own terms. It’s just like, in connecting those
communities people see the humanity and that
it’s important.
Next series of Portland Renters’ Assemblies will
begin again in July. Visit
portlandrenfersassembly.info for more
information.