February 29. 2012_________________
Mississippi
Alberta
North Portland
Portland Observer B la c k HlStOiy M o n th
Page II
Vancouver
East County
Beaverton
METRO
PCC Histories from 50 Years
Theater director
returns to his
college roots
Portland Com m unity College has
teamed up with a celebrated local the
ater director to produce a play that is
about the college’s last 50 years.
Jonathan W alters of Hand2M outh
Theatre and PCC theater students con
ducted a range of interviews with indi
viduals from the college community to
produce the interactive play, "Project 50:
From the Ground Up."
"We will give you this head-spinning,
and dizzying, amount of information from
all the lives that came through here and
all the history that went on, and tie it all
together to a much deeper question,"
Walters said.
W alters graduated from the PCC
Theater Arts Program in the m id-1990s.
T hat’s where, he said, he developed the
techniques that have won him and
H and2M outh plenty o f aw ards and
grants. Now, he’s enjoying sculpting a
play that is dedicated to telling stories
like his own.
"The fact we are doing a play about
the college and to bring back an alum to
produce the play couldn’t have been
better," said Patrick Tangredi, Theatre
Arts program director. "More so, he
Portland Community College students audition for the interactive play about P C C ’s 50 years o f serving the community.
continued
on page 18
Laundry Maze Exhibit, an Immigrant Story
Speaks to struggles of low-wage work
The Chinese laundry is an iconic thread
of the early China-to-US immigration
story. It was a business that required
little start-up capital or spoken English
and was viewed as an undesirable task
that could be passed on to immigrants
without controversy.
Regardless of professions they may
have attained before coming to the U.S.,
many Chinese immigrants found this
particular small business to be one of the
few career options open to them in their
new country.
In a broad sense, jobs with “laundry”
roots still represent work that a wide
variety o f immigrants find easily acces
sible regardless of past experience. Dry
cleaning and housekeeping services of
ten have a disproportionate number of
immigrants filling their ranks, once again
doing difficult, lower wage work that
more established Americans are happy
to pass on.
Using the Chinese laundry as a jum p
ing-off point, artist Shu-Ju Wang will
present The Laundry Maze in the Port
land Building Installation Space through
March 16.
As she began her research, Wang
found that immigrants continue to com
promise and take on jobs with less pres
tige as they resettle; those with the most
training and the most prestigious jobs in
their native countries are generally the
most impacted.
But the results were more varied than
continued
on page 18
Shu-Ju W ang's The Laundry M aze will be on view at the Portland
Building Installation Space through March 16.