The Albina Arts center was once a significant cultural hub for Black communities in North and Northeast Portland. But the building had fallen into disrepair and various plans have been proposed to reinvent and revitalize it. Darrell Grant, a musician and professor of Jazz Studies at Portland State University, began holding cultural events at the space last year, and partnered with writer and artist Renee Mitchell to create the Soul Restoration Center this year.
In 2016, after decades of the building falling into disrepair, the Oregon Community Foundation accepted temporary ownership of the one-story structure, at the request of the state of Oregon. Now, OCF is in the process of figuring out how to gift the building back to a Black-led non-profit that is willing to center arts, healing and intergenerational community-building within the space, in perpetuity.
By: scott.huish in NAMC Oregon December 22, 2020
1:23 pm
New Member Spotlight:
Jeana Woolley
For Jeana Woolley, the opportunity to empower the Black community in Northeast Portland and make it stronger and more economically viable is personal. The longtime community activist and business owner has worked for more than 45 years on a variety of economic development initiatives and projects intended to benefit Northeast Portland, its residents and its business owners.
In 1997, Woolley developed Allen Fremont Plaza, the first affordable housing project ever sponsored by a Black organization in Oregon. She was a founding board member of community development organizations such as Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives Inc. and Albina Community Bank (now Beneficial Bank) that continue to serve the Black and BIPOC communities today.
Portland leaders, acknowledging racist anti-Black policies, seek to right historic wrongs
Updated Dec 17, 2020;
Posted Dec 17, 2020
North Williams Avenue and Russell Street (pictured) was once the commercial center for Black residents in Portland. (File photo)
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Portland officials are considering pumping millions of dollars into affordable housing and economic redevelopment that could benefit families displaced from Portland’s historic Black neighborhoods.
A wide array of Black community leaders crafted the proposed $67 million initiative, which would build 40 to 50 new single-family homes to own and at least 100 apartments to rent.
People whose families were pushed out of the historic North and Northeast Portland Albina neighborhood would have first rights to live there.