AFS Staff and Local Committee Explore Portland During Site Visit
Site visits to conference locations provide an essential opportunity for AFS staff and the Local Committee to lay the groundwork for a meaningful and generative AFS annual meeting, building relationships and partnerships that can extend far beyond the conference. In this photo essay, Annual Meeting Director, Roz Rini Larson and Special Projects Consultant, Cassie Rosita Patterson explore the city of Portland from April 14 – 18, 2023. While in town, we caught up with Local Committee members Rick March (Portland resident and retired State Folk Arts Specialist, Wisconsin Arts Board) and Mathilde ‘Tilly’ Frances Lind (former Portland resident and Director of Programs and Research, TAUNY Center).
Special thanks to the entire Local Committee for preparing us for our visit!
Later, we learned that you can download the HOP app, which allows you to easily pay for individual rides or day passes from your smartphone. Watch this video to learn more about how HOP works and how you can use it during your time in Portland!
Listen to this podcast episode from PDX Beat about the Portland Mercado, where they interview Jamie Melton of Hacienda CDC about the impetus for and framework of the project.
We sampled food from several food trucks, and Rick and Roz got to try chamoy for the first time.
Later, we met up with Mathilde ‘Tilly’ Frances Lind and her friend Kelly, a longtime Portland resident, to explore Powell’s City of Books (the largest used and new bookstore in the world) and the Portland Japanese Garden.
Visiting the Oregon Historical Society and Museum
The Oregon Historical Society (OHS) is a private museum, archival library, and educational institution headquartered in downtown Portland. It was founded on December 17, 1898, with the purpose of forwarding the “collection, preservation, exhibition, and publication of material of a historical character, especially that relating to the history of Oregon and of the United States.”
OHS exhibitions engage complex histories of the state. Read some of OHS’s blog posts to learn more!
- Oregon Statehood Day and the Legacy of Exclusion
- OHQ on the Road: Connecting Chinese History to Places in Oregon
- “It’s Not Over”: Developing an OHS Exhibition Documenting Forty Years of HIV/AIDS in Oregon
- K–12 Oregon Social Science: New Perspectives
- Recognizing ‘Our Ancestor’ in the Forest: Documenting Oregon’s Heritage Trees with OHS Digital Collections
- Collaborating to Preserve Immigrant Voices
Good Eats in Portland
- Fogo de Chao (this Brazilian steakhouse offers tapas at the bar and a flat-rate all-you-can-eat dinner as well a takeout orders)
- Portland Mercado
- Grassa (handmade pasta and seasonal ingredients in a long-table, open-seating style)
- Veggie Grill (just block from the conference hotel, quick, easy, plenty of seating, and affordable)
- Toki (high-end food and drinks; try the wing flight!)
- Screen Door (southern fare in the Pearl District; plan on a short drive or long walk; try the praline bacon!)
- Mayoyama Sushi and Sake Bar
- Voodoo Doughnut (viscous hibiscus and mango tango highly recommended)
- Mayrose at the Duniway (caddy-corner from the hotel, nice ambiance and spacious)
Note: We redistributed our restaurant leftovers after our meals. Learn more about food redistribution in the resources below.
Portland Experience Resources
- Travel Portland, especially their culture and LGBTQ+ Nightlife resources
- Volunteer and donation opportunities (PDF) from HandsOn Greater Portland
Advocacy and Social Services
While the Local Guide will provide a more in-depth and complex background on Portland’s history and contemporary scene, these resources (which we will continue to update leading up to the conference) can get you started thinking about how you engage the city during your stay.
- Prosper Portland focuses on building an equitable economy, based on four cornerstones: growing family-wage jobs, advancing opportunities for prosperity, collaborating with partners for an equitable city, and creating vibrant neighborhoods and communities. To support that work, we seek to maintain an equitable, innovative, financially sustainable agency. Prosper Portland invests financial and human capital to serve the city and its residents.
- The spirit of the My People’s Market is to celebrate community, culture and business while reimagining ways to support local multicultural entrepreneurs with broader exposure to grow and support their businesses.
- Trauma Informed Oregon is a statewide collaborative aimed at preventing and ameliorating the impact of adverse experiences on children, adults, and families. Trauma Informed Oregon works in partnership with providers, individuals with lived experience, and families to promote and sustain trauma informed policies and practices across physical, mental, and behavioral health systems and to disseminate promising strategies to support wellness and resilience.
- Portland Street Response, a program within Portland Fire & Rescue, assists people experiencing mental health and behavioral health crises. The program is currently responding citywide and you can request service by calling 911.
- Downtown Portland Clean & Safe District provides essential services to the people, places and businesses within a core 213-block area of the city. Operating since 1988, the district is one of the oldest, largest and most successful enhanced service districts in the nation.
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