Weaving the Web
Five years ago this month, I returned from an artist residency in Senegal where I had the privilege of working with a powerful group of women ceramicists and an entire village of hopeful and amazing people. Early on in my residency, I was struck by one of the most devastating bits of news impacting the world: Trump was elected.
After I returned home to an angry and divided country, all I wanted to do was head back to the village. Then one day, I was riding my bike down the southeast esplanade and blew a tire. I was near a camp under the Steel Bridge that I had ridden by many times. On those rides, I had observed a bike mechanic living in that camp, so I stopped and gently pulled up. I was greeted with “stick ‘em up” arms and a nervous “what do you want?!” I raised my arms back, in sadness and solidarity.
“Good morning,” I said. “I just blew a tire and wanted to know if the bike mechanic who lives here could be contracted to fix it.”
“Bike mechanic? Who’s that?” they replied.
“A tall Black man with dreads who fixes bikes” I said.
“Ohhhhhhhh yea,” they replied. “He’s not here, but what are you going to do? How can we help? You want some water?”
We exchanged names and talked for a while about the weather and the election. This exchange warmed my heart, and as I rolled my bike to my studio, I thought “What if more people could have interactions like this? The world would be a softer place.” Since moving here in 1989, I have seen the city grow, change and watched the houseless crisis rise. I have spent time volunteering in agencies that serve our houseless community. My time that morning made me reflect on the possibility of contributing to these efforts. I wondered what I could do here, for and with the city of Portland, to bring housed and unhoused people together in creative and extraordinary ways, to build bridges and relationships with a strong belief that our actions collectively could contribute to supporting people experiencing houselessness and poverty (PEHP) and solutions towards safe and equitable housing.
It is from that blown tire in the winter of 2017 that the seeds were planted to grow Gather:Make:Shelter. That was the beginning and GMS has since grown to over 2,800 participants, worked with 23 social service agencies where we have held workshops, and formed ongoing relationships with participants who have become leaders in this project. We participated in setting up and creatively programming the first three culturally specific villages for PEHP in Portland, and we are currently partnering to create three more safe rest villages. We have cultivated partners and champions in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors city wide and are collaborating on mutual aid projects with sister organizations that serve the houseless population. Participants talk about this project as a “movement they are proud to be a part of.” We are making a palpable difference to the landscape.
Our projects over the past five years have changed lives, mine included. There is always more to do, but we've proven that meeting each other at our base level of our shared humanity and collectively dreaming projects into being makes a difference. We are better together. I will continue to keep you posted as we have a robust calendar of activities this year.
I am so thankful to all of you who have found your way to this web of love, action and hope we are weaving in Portland and look forward to what will come.
— Dana Lynn Louis