February 1, 2023
Black History Month 2023: Resources and Events
February is Black History Month! At Cascadia, we’re inviting community members to use this month as an opportunity to learn, reflect, and grow. To that aim, we’re sharing resources curated by our Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Department, as well as events focused on Black History Month and anti-racism.
Attend
All Month Long:
Black History Festival Northwest: A Celebration of Culture and Heritage
The monthlong festival will have events all over the city throughout February highlighting African American culture as well as local black artists and businesses. Most events are free to attend, and they range from a BIPOC drag show to a flash mob at the Portland Winter Light festival. The full schedule of events can be found on the Black History Festival NW website.
Recurring:
‘In My Shoes’ – Walking Tours with Word is Bond
Word is Bond presents “In My Shoes,” a storytelling campaign in celebration of Black History Month that features nine walking tours in neighborhoods across Portland led by community ambassadors of the Portland nonprofit Word is Bond. The tours are designed to highlight the voices, dreams, and experiences of rising Black men as well as the neighborhoods in which they live. Tours take place every Saturday this month.
Ongoing, starting Saturday, February 4:
33rd Annual Cascade Festival of African Films
This free event runs throughout February and has both virtual screenings and in-person showings at Portland Community College – Cascade Campus. Films in this festival represent a range of different countries, cultures, and lifestyles, as well as settings from pre-colonial, modern times, rural, and urban spaces. The full film schedule is found on the event website.
Saturday, February 4:
National Museum of African American History & Culture – Livestream Tour
Join The National Museum of African American History and Culture for a free virtual tour of the Washington, D.C., museum. February 4, 5:00 p.m. PST.
Tuesday, February 7:
A Look at Restorative Justice: A Salem Reads Event
Local law professionals discuss the highly effective method of restorative justice. Learn how reconciliation can improve and bond communities through effective, equitable, and transformative approaches. Seating is free on a first-come, first-seated basis. Event runs from 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, February 8:
From Stumptown to Motown and Back Again: An Evening with Mel Brown
Famed Portland jazz drummer Mel Brown spent several years in the 1960s and 1970s making records and playing live shows with some of the greatest stars of Motown, including Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and The Temptations. In this program — inspired by the exhibition Motown: The Sound of Young America, on view at the Oregon Historical Society until March 26, 2023, — Brown will share stories from his years with Motown Records and may even play a few notes for the audience to enjoy! Doors open at 5:30 p.m.; guests are encouraged to come early to tour the exhibition!
Friday, February 10 & Saturday, February 11:
Black and African American Art – Smithsonian Livestream (Two Parts)
A free livestream taking viewers through the Smithsonian’s collection of African American Art. Presented in two parts: Friday, February 10, 5-5:30 p.m. PST and Saturday, February 11, 7-8:30 a.m. PST.
Friday, February 17 through Sunday, February 19:
The Turnout: Storytelling. Comedy. Community.
The Turnout will celebrate our Portland Black community while making connections across the diaspora—sharing, learning, and growing together through the power of story. February 17-19, 2023, in the heart of the Historic Alberta neighborhood, Broke Gravy and Alberta House will bring four nights of storytelling, improv comedy, and community—buoyed by intimate gatherings and workshops. Get tickets for any or all of the shows and workshops.
Thursday, February 16 through Sunday, February 19:
NW Black Comedy Festival at the Curious Comedy Theater
This year’s NW Black Comedy Festival will feature eleven showcases, two live podcasts, and over sixty Black comics from all over the world will be in town for four days and hours of laughter. The NW Black Comedy Festival Was Recognized By The New York Times As One Of The Best Black History Month Events In The Country And The Company Was Awarded The 2020 Precipice Fund Through PICA From The Andy Warhol Foundation For Visual Arts.
Wednesday, February 23:
From Slavery to Freedom Film Series: Torchbearers
Attend this free online screening of Torchbearers, part of the 2023 From Slavery to Freedom Film Series presented by the Heinz History Center. The film revisits Pittsburgh’s struggles during the golden era of civil rights and introduces many of the people who lit the way for the generations that followed.
Watch
A Conversation on Race and Privilege with Angela Davis and Jane Elliott
A discussion between Angela Davis and Jane Elliott, two luminaries who have long been on the front lines of pushing the national conversation on race and racial justice forward.
Angela Davis: Revolution Today
A discussion with Dr. Cornel West at MIT from 2018.
James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett Show
James Baldwin Debates William F. Buckley (1965)
James Baldwin Discusses Racism | The Dick Cavett Show
A Frontline film about Jane Elliott. The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third-grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and gave them a daring lesson in discrimination. This is the story of that lesson, its lasting impact on the children, and its enduring power 30 years later.
‘King in the Wilderness’ Full Film (2018)
King in the Wilderness chronicles the final chapters of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, revealing a conflicted leader who faced an onslaught of criticism from both sides of the political spectrum. While the Black Power movement saw his nonviolence as weakness, and President Lyndon B. Johnson saw his anti-Vietnam War speeches as irresponsible, Dr. King’s unyielding belief in peaceful protest became a testing point for a nation on the brink of chaos.
OPB Documentary: “The Flooding of Vanport”
OPB Documentary: The Flooding of Vanport
Priced Out | Portland’s History of Segregation and Redlining – Full Documentary
A documentary following Portland’s history of segregation, redlining, and gentrification.
TEDxFlanders – Olivia U. Rutazibwa – Decoloniser
In response to the sentiments of fear and anger that globalization evokes for many, Olivia U. Rutazibwa presents ideas for a society model in a globalized world. These ideas are based on her personal experiences and her research on diversity and the post-colonial relations between Europe and Africa.
“The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander
‘The New Jim Crow’ – Author Michelle Alexander, George E. Kent Lecture 2013
Michelle Alexander, highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, Associate Professor of Law at Ohio State University, and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, delivers the 30th Annual George E. Kent Lecture, in honor of the late George E. Kent, who was one of the earliest tenured African American professors at the University of Chicago.
Tricia Rose: How Structural Racism Works
Professor Patricia Rose, Director of Brown University’s Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, delivers a talk on structural racism.
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide
A talk by Carol Anderson, professor and chair of African American Studies at Emory University.
Why aren’t there more Black People in Oregon?
A presentation by Walidah Imarisha and Thomas Robinson for the Diverse and Empowered Employees of Portland. You can also watch a recent stream with Imarisha with the Forest Grove City Libary that includes a condensed presentation and Q&A session here, and a 20-minute condensed timeline presented by Imarisha here.
Listen
‘Who We Are – A Chronicle of Racism in America’
This six-episode podcast series is based on the presentation of the same name by Jeffery Robinson, ACLU deputy legal director and director of the ACLU Trone Center for Justice and Equality. It explores a side of American history that most of us didn’t learn about in school: a history of the people and systems that sought to justify human trafficking, slavery, and the subjugation of Black Americans long after slavery was legally outlawed. Robinson spent nine years researching his multi-media “Who We Are” presentation, which was recently released as a documentary. Learn more about the film here.
You can listen to parts of Robinson’s original presentations on YouTube here and here.