James Dixon talks with Laura Lo Forti and Damaris Webb, curators and artistic directors for the 2018 Vanport Mosaic Festival. This festival commemorates the 70th Anniversary of the Vanport Flood and the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act through screenings, live performances, tours, exhibits, and community engagement initiatives. We’ll hear about their multi-disciplinary programming for the festival including a fully staged theatrical production “Left Hook” written by local Portland playwright Rich Rubin and directed by Damaris Webb.

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More about the festival: The Vanport Mosaic is a community-driven, artist-led non-profit that amplifies, honors and preserves the silenced histories of the Pacific Northwest to better understand our present. . The festival runs from May 23rd through May 28th and programming/ticket information can be found by visiting their website at www.vanportmosaic.org. Featured stage play in the Festival: The Vanport Mosaic Presents: LEFT HOOK Written by Rich Rubin Directed by Damaris Webb May 24 through June10th Thursday-Saturday at 7:00pm, Sundays at 2pm The Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center (IFCC), 5340 N. Interstate Avenue Tickets $25 Suggested, $5 Seniors/Students Book Tickets for “Left Hook” at https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=87410. Presented as part of the 2018 Vanport Mosaic Festival: In these times of collective amnesia, remembering is an act of resistance. Join us for 6 days of memory activism opportunities, commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Vanport Flood and the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act through screenings, performances, tours, exhibits, and community engagement. The place is Portland; the time, the early 1970s. A proposed hospital expansion has resulted in the razing of hundreds of homes and businesses, and the disruption of a once vibrant African-American neighborhood. Ty King, the owner of the Left Hook Boxing Club, is among those who now have to move. But Ty has a plan – a way to succeed even in the face of turbulence and adversity. However, when government funding runs out and the hospital expansion is aborted, Ty and those closest to him are caught off-guard, and are forced to confront life-altering consequences both for themselves and the entire community.

Damaris Webb and Laura Lo Forti
Damaris Webb and Laura Lo Forti