School Needs
a New Home
‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVII • Number 20
Neighbor
Mourned
Lease running
out for De La
Salle North
Memorial
planned for
slain fabricator
See Metro, page 11
See Local News,
page 3
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • May 23, 2018
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
photo by D anny p eterson /t he p ortlanD o bserver
Laura Lo Forti (left) and Damaris Webb, co-organizers of the Vanport Mosaic Festival, outside the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center on North Interstate Avenue,
showcasing one of the primary event venues for the annual celebration taking place this long Memorial Day weekend on the 70th anniversary of the Vanport Flood. The
IFCC will host several exhibitions, like Vanport: The Surge of Social Change; Anywhere but Here: The History of Housing and Discrimination in Oregon; and Our City, Our
Voice: Excavating Portland’s History through Art. A new play about displacement in Portland, “Left Hook,” will also make its world premiere at the IFCC on Thursday.
Vanport Mosaic
commemorates 70
years since flood
On a warm Memorial Day 70 years ago,
Portland was forever transformed by Ore-
gon’s biggest natural disaster of the 20th
century: The Vanport Flood.
It’s a big anniversary, and that’s why the
Vanport Mosaic Festival is pulling out the
stops for six days of activities that weave
together fun, fascination, family and seri-
ous reflection.
It’s all happening with events begin-
ning Wednesday, May 23 and continuing
through the Memorial Day holiday on
Monday, May 28 at multiple venues that
are specifically free of charge or kept at
low-cost for the community.
Co-organizers Laura Lo Forti and Dam-
A City
Transformed
aris Webb have created a rich program that
combines storytelling, performance, histo-
ry, physical activities and even a disaster
preparedness workshop. The Royal Rosar-
ians will also be planting a special com-
memorative rose at Peninsula Park, and
the Rosarian planting is himself a Vanport
survivor.
A big highlight for 2018 is a partnership
with the Confluence Project, which pro-
motes understanding of indigenous com-
munities of the Columbia River through
historic preservation and construction of a
series of hiking trails stretching along the
Washington side of the Columbia Gorge.
The trails are vast and fascinating land-
scapes designed by architect Maya Lin,
creator of the US Veterans Memorial in
Washington, D.C.
Like the Vanport survivors who have
contributed oral histories to the Vanport
Mosaic project, Native American families
have joined voices in oral histories about
their experiences. A fascinating panel of
local indigenous leaders will be screening
a film of these oral histories at the festival
as well.
Key to local tribes was loss of Celilo
Village on the Columbia when the Dalles
Dam was built in 1957. Before being flood-
ed for the dam by the federal government,
Celilo was considered the oldest sustained
community on the North American con-
tinent. The damn also destroyed Celilo’s
huge waterfall, one of the most important
tribal fishing spots and a center of the tribal
economy.
“We feel a sense of urgency right now
because many of the elders who lived
through these things are in their 80s and
90s,” Lo Forti says. “We can’t lose their
stories because they have so much to teach
us and that is how we really learn -- from
C ontinueD on p age 6