We went to the Portland Children's Museum a little while back and were invited to watch the free puppet show. It was a surf-style version of a fairytale and featured many repetitive, lengthy songs. The whole thing went on so long...
I scanned the audience--the room was packed--and saw a theater full of white faces. Every single face was white. People had told me about this Portland phenomenon, but to see it firsthand is surprising, especially because I have spent the last 20 years of my life in Oakland. It worried me because I am raising two children here, and I am determined that they will see diverse races and hear diverse languages in their daily lives. So, I am seeking Portland diversity for myself and my family, and will report on my findings.
The other day, I was happy to hang out at the neighborhood park--Alberta Park--with my son Max. Although he spent half the time at the top of the twisty slide, refusing to come down because of all the off-leash dogs, the other half of the time he spent playing with two girls who were African-American. It turned out that their mom is a jazz singer and performs at the Candlelight Lounge (7334 NE Glisan) every week.
Maybe someday, when I'm not nursing every three hours, I will be able to explore Portland's night life rather than just its day life. I have dreams of the Candlelight Lounge, VooDoo Donut (at http://www.voodoodoughnut.com/), happy hour at Pambiche (http://www.pambiche.com/), joining the Spanish group at that cafe on Alberta Street, crashing the Portland Artist Trading Card meetup [ATCs are my favorite tiny art obsession; find out about them at http://www.artist-trading-cards.ch/), and going to some lowbrow art openings.
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