FREE COURSE: Been Here, Still Here: Black Portland, Past, Present & Future
Spring 2027 | Lewis & Clark College + Albina Vision Trust with Professor Reiko Hillyer
January 21through April 29
(12 weeks)
Thursdays 6-9pm
Dinner provided
Earn college credit & $500 stipend
Childcare and transportation support provided upon request
What if a college course about Black Portland were created not just about the community, but with the community?
This January 2027, AVT and Lewis & Clark College will launch the first Face to Face course. This course will bring together L&C students and members of the Albina community to explore the history, lived experience, and future of Black Portland.
Together, we’ll ask: What stories should be told about Black Portland? What can we learn from the places and neighborhoods that have shaped those stories? What has been left out of the archives—and what do community members know that the archives cannot tell us? And how can the past help us imagine Albina’s future?
The course will explore topics including segregation, urban renewal, environmental racism, displacement, resistance, gentrification, and the ongoing struggle over who gets to shape Portland’s future. But community knowledge and lived experience will be at the heart of the course. Participants will help shape the questions we ask, the stories we tell, and the knowledge we create together.
We encourage community members to apply and participate in this course.