Vanport Mosaic

03/06/2026

Vanport Mosaic presents:
Activism 101:
The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program
THEN, NOW, and US
A memory activism gathering for perilous times, envisioned by Michael Stevenson Jr.

Sat. 3/7, 11:30-2pm
Historic Alberta House, 5131 NE 23rd Ave
FREE/By Donation
Bit.ly/BlackPanthers_Activism101

✊🏽Special guest: Mr. Kent Ford, Portland Black Panthers’ founding member

We’re living in perilous times. As we navigate an increasingly tense global climate, the legacy of the Black Panther Party offers urgent lessons for today’s challenges. In 1966, the Black Panther Party wrote the Ten-Point Program, a bold set of demands for dignity, housing, education, justice, and an end to police brutality.

Sixty years later, its words land with an unsettling familiarity.

Come ready to engage with that history directly, to sit with it, wrestle with it, and connect it to the world we live in now.

Together we will move through the Ten-Point Program as a community, examining what has changed, what has not, and what it asks of us today.

After our group activity, Portland’s own Kent Ford, a founding member of the Portland Black Panther Party, will share some of his wisdom and guidance as we forge forward towards equity and social justice objectives before enjoying a shared meal in community and solidarity.

A Note on Registration & Donations
This event is free and open to all. We gratefully accept donations to help cover the cost of the community brunch and to support the ongoing work, including the Black Panthers’ 60th Anniversary Celebration in October 2026.

02/25/2026

Built nearly overnight during World War II, Vanport was the second-largest and most integrated city in Oregon until it was destroyed by a flood in 1948.

Join us for a virtual event to learn about Oregon’s Katrina, and explore the legacy of the Miracle City, built in less than a year and erased in one single day.

Wednesday, March 4 | 6-8 pm
LOST CITY, LIVING MEMORIES:
Vanport Through the Voices of Its Residents

A virtual screening of selected oral history videos from Vanport Mosaic’s collection, hosted by Bruce Poinsette.

FREE - thanks to the generous support of
RSVP at Bit.ly/VanportVirtualScreening

The Vanport Mosaic has spent the past decade unearthing the silenced history of Vanport, working alongside former residents, survivors, and descendants. Together we built the largest collection of first person narratives about life in the Miracle City, the flood, and its aftermath.

We are honored to share the gift of our memory-keepers’ memories with you, and to reflect together on their stories of struggle and resistance.

This event is part of the
SLOUGH FEST 2/27 -3/8. Check out the full series at their website.

02/24/2026

We’re thrilled to be part of ’s SLOUGH FEST alongside some of our favorite partners!

Join BIRDHERS for a beautiful Force Lake History & Birding Tour
📍Saturday, March 7, 10–11am.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Local archivist Marti Clemmons and Bo Lyons of Birdhers will guide us through an exploration of the layered history of this beloved birding site, once nestled within Vanport, Oregon’s second largest city. We’ll watch and listen to the birds that have called this place home across generations — threads through time connecting us to what came before, and deepening our sense of place today.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

🎟️Thanks to the generous support of , this event is FREE !​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Link in bio for more details and to register for this event. Limited spots and RSVP required.
📷Sean Meagher/The Oregonian

02/12/2026

Still thinking about our visit to the Hanthorn Cannery Museum, right after our talk at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria!

Perched at the end of Pier 39, all rusty and weathered, it’s the oldest fish-processing plant on the Columbia River. Built in 1875 by J.O. Hanthorn, it eventually became part of what we now know as Bumble Bee Seafoods. When they packed up and moved to San Diego in ’81, they left behind this incredible piece of history.

The museum is actually inside three massive industrial freezer rooms that used to be stacked with frozen tuna. Now they’re filled with 130 years of fishing history: old canning equipment, CRPA and Bumble Bee artifacts, and these powerful life-size banners of the women who worked the production lines, watching over everything. Outside under the cannery roof, there are four historic wooden gillnet boats complete with their original cotton nets.

We loved this place even more after learning that former Bumble Bee workers and managers came together in 2004 to create a foundation and then established an interpretative center and a scholarship for descendants.

The best surprise? Running into maritime writer Peter Marsh! If you’ve been to past festivals, you might’ve met him. We reconnected over his vital research on the Kaiser Shipyard. If you grabbed his book back then, hold onto it because it’s now out of print! Peter is a true memory activist who was instrumental in getting this museum established.

If you’re ever in Astoria, don’t skip this one.

02/11/2026

Heart full after the meaningful morning we spent at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria!
Between LaVeta Gilmore Jones’ engaging talk about Vanport’s history and her own family’s story, attendees watched a few oral history videos from Vanport Mosaic’s collection.

Stories build communities. We have witnessed this over and over throughout the past decade of memory activism work, but in these horrific times we are living, it feels like soul balm.

Vanport descendants gathered with cherished scrapbooks, survivors shared their memories, and we received a precious donation for our living archive: a survivor’s 3rd grade report card.

🧡 A heartfelt thank you to for hosting us and creating space for these vital stories and community connections. This museum truly is a jewel of the Oregon Coast, with incredible exhibits that honor our region’s rich maritime heritage. We can’t wait to return and explore the historic vessels, artifacts, and the exciting new Mariners Hall expansion coming in 2026.
If you haven’t visited yet, this museum is a must-see.

02/10/2026

Join us TOMORROW!

📅 Feb 10 • 11AM-12PM
📍 Columbia River Maritime Museum, Astoria

LOST CITY, LIVING MEMORY
Discover the legacy of Oregon’s second-largest city and the catastrophic flood that destroyed it.

Featured Speakers:
✨ LaVeta Gilmore Jones - Vanport descendant, Vanport Mosaic Board member, producer of the annual Vanport Reunion, and keeper of her parents’ legacy as former Vanport residents
✨ Laura Lo Forti - Vanport Mosaic Co-founder & Director. “story midwife” preserving community narratives through oral history and ethical storytelling

Vanport Mosaic is a platform for memory activism dedicated to amplifying, honoring band preserving the silenced histories that surround us. Working alongside Vanport former residents, flood survivors and their descendants, we built the largest collection of oral history about life in Vanport, the tragic day of the flood, and its aftermath.

💙 Included with museum admission | Members FREE
🪑 Limited to 80 seats—first come, first served

01/26/2026

01/18/2026

Shout out to the students and staff who spent their morning with us at the historic Alberta House, honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy through community service. Together, they took time to visit our Vanport mini museum and to audit oral history transcripts, listening closely to stories of struggle, resilience, and resistance from the Vanport community.

We’re grateful for their care, attention, and willingness to sit with these histories.

If you’re interested in joining a future virtual oral history auditing session, you can visit our website (🔗in bio) and sign up for the Vanport Mosaic newsletter to receive updates.

01/14/2026

Join us tomorrow, Thursday, 1/15

Talk + screening of selected oral history videos from our living archive on Vanport, once Oregon second largest city, and the flood that destroyed it in 1948.

📍 Mt. Hood Community College, Student Union
2600 SE Stark St, Gresham, OR 97030
🕚 12 pm to 2 pm
🎟️ Free and open to all
Presented and sponsored by Mt. Hood Community College

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we invite you to gather with us to listen, remember, and be in community.

“We are tied in a single garment of destiny.”
Dr. King’s words feel especially urgent right now, when fear is used to divide us.

Vanport tells a different story.

At a time when exclusion and racial segregation were the norm, Vanport, once the largest WWII federal housing project in the country, was a place of belonging for a multiracial, working-class community. People built lives across differences and relied on one another in the face of injustice.

In 1948, a flood destroyed the city in a single day. Vanport was never rebuilt, but its legacy lives on.

Tomorrow, in partnership with Mt. Hood Community College, Vanport Mosaic will share short documentaries from our living archive and hold space for reflection with LaVeta Gilmore Jones, alongside members of the Vanport community.

These stories remind us that survival has always depended on solidarity and care, and that our lives are bound together.

Our exhibit Vanport: A Story Lived; A Story Told is on view through tomorrow.
We hope you’ll join us!

01/01/2026

💛Our hearts are full.💛
We began this year-end campaign with a $5,000 goal - not because our needs are small, but because we know how hard this year has been for so many.

And still, our community showed up.

As of today, we've raised $8,395. We are humbled by your generosity, and by your belief in the importance of our memory activism.

Your donations, no matter the size, help us:
*Record oral histories with story-keepers
* Gather and make meaning together
* Care for and share our community-based archive
* Amplify silenced histories through art and education
* Create place-based activations and experiences to remember and repair our collective past, and create a future where we all belong.

We're just $1,605 away from closing our
TENTH anniversary year at $10,000.

If you've already made a gift this year: thank you!
If you're able to make a final donation before midnight, you can do so here: https://givebutter.com/VanportMosaic10

But most of all: thank you for walking with us, in whatever way you have. We don't take it for granted.

With deep gratitude,
The Vanport Mosaic team

The Vanport Mosaic turns 10. In this divisive moment, memory activism matters more than ever. Help us preserve silenced histories for another decade.

12/22/2025

~~𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝟏𝟐/𝟏𝟓: $𝟓𝐊 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝! 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭 $𝟏𝟎𝐊?~~

We did it! Thanks to your generosity and kind support, dear community, we raised $7,545, meeting our initial end-of-year fundraising goal of $5,000 and then some!

𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 $𝟐,𝟒𝟒𝟓 𝐛𝐲 𝟏𝟐/𝟑𝟏 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 $𝟏𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫?

As attacks on the honest telling of history accelerate, and cultural erasure becomes policy, preserving our stories of struggle and resistance is more critical than ever.

Countering deliberate historical amnesia requires all of us. Will you join us in this movement?

♦️𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐮𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞!
Your tax-deductible gift ensures that, in 2026 and beyond, we will collect, share, and preserve our community's stories, train new memory activists, and create spaces to celebrate our shared humanity. Every donation directly sustains this vital work.

If you're not in a position to give financially right now, we understand entirely, and we're grateful to have you as part of this community. We have big news to share with you, so make sure to follow us on social media, or, even better, visit the Vanport Mosaic website and ♦️sign up for our newsletter: www.vanportmosaic.org

Want to make your support easier to renew in the future? Select the option to donate monthly or annually.
If you're not in a position to give financially right now, we completely understand, and we're grateful to have you as part of this community. Forwarding this email to friends, colleagues, or collaborators who care about this work is a gift in itself.

The Vanport Mosaic turns 10. In this divisive moment, memory activism matters more than ever. Help us preserve silenced histories for another decade.