Far Singers Join by Kim Stafford
Chris Gribble— for the music bearers who carry our common light across generations and borders. In their distant countries, each bird drank from a different spring. Each flew here from a…
My Audacious Grandfather
Erica Naito-Campbell, the author of Portland’s Audacious Champion: How Bill Naito Overcame Anti-Japanese Hate and Became an Intrepid Civic Leader in conversation with Eliza Canty Jones– chief program officer at…
I learned a lot about how to survive
When Thao Nguyen was born in Vietnam, she was seen as an outsider. The daughter of a Vietnamese woman and an African-American soldier, she was considered an American in her…
From the Silk Road to Couture Designs
From early childhood, says Oxana Ake, “I wanted to create things.” Her father, an engineer, taught her how to make boats from wooden sticks, twigs and boards, “and I liked…
A Uniquely Global Citizen
To call Sinait Sarfino a “global citizen” would be an understatement. Fluent in English, Arabic, and Mandarin, she is now learning Korean. She has lived in various countries including Ethiopia,…
What Color is Freedom
TK grew up an exile in his own home country of Rhodesia. Under white minority rule, Black people weren’t allowed in certain schools or movie theaters and it could even…
An Artist with Many Voices
For Dao Nguyen Strom, identity is no simple concept. Raised in the California countryside, Strom was originally born in Vietnam—a country she escaped as a baby and returned to as…
Beyond the Familiar Summit
Although Ang Pemba Sherpa was born in 1982 in Namche Bazar, Nepal, a small village nestled at 3,500 meters in the highest peaks of the world near Everest Base Camp,…
Creating Joy For Others
When Shi Choong, now a wedding planner helping other Portlanders celebrate their love, thinks about her childhood, she recalls the bright colors of her family’s two story shop house in…
Soaring High, Staying Rooted
“Volando alto sin olvidar de dónde vengo,” a popular Spanish saying that can be translated in English as “Flying high without forgetting where I came from,” describes Ernesto Fonseca’s philosophy…