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Located between Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon, Vanport was a temporary wartime housing project built in 1942 to support the workers of the Kaiser shipyards. Working class people of African, Japanese, European, and Indigenous descent came for its well-paying jobs and affordable housing. 

Despite the fact that segregation was the norm in Oregon at the time, Vanport was a multicultural place where people felt a sense of acceptance and belonging. The city was built on a floodplain, but residents were assured the surrounding dykes would never break. However, in 1948, a wall of water totally and rapidly destroyed the community. Those who survived were left devastated and had to begin their lives from scratch. The ripples of Vanport’s destruction continue to be felt in Portland today. 

For the past eight years, the nonprofit Vanport Mosaic has been collecting oral histories from Vanport survivors and descendants and putting on an annual festival to celebrate their memories. May 30 will be the 75th anniversary of the Vanport flood — and this Vanport Mosaic festival will not be one to miss. 

We are collaborating with Vanport Mosaic to develop a podcast series about Vanport and the lessons it still teaches us today. The whole team is on planes to Oregon now, as we speak, and we would love to see you at the Festival, too. Admission is free! See you there?  https://www.vanportmosaic.org/festival2023

Voices Heard in This Teaser (In order of appearance): 

• LaVeta Gilmore

• Luther Avery

• William Stacey

• Chisao Hata

• Janice Okomoto

• Bea Gilmore

• Ed Washgington

Credits: 

Thank you to Laura Lo Forti, LaVeta Gilmore, and Chisao Hata. Your hosts are Deqah Hussein-Wetzel and Vanessa Quirk. This episode was edited by Vanessa Quirk and Connor Lynch and mixed by Connor Lynch. Our music is by Adaam James Levin-Areddy. 

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