4 THE RAPS SHEET MAY 2022 Upcoming RAPS events AUGUST Thursday, August 18 Mark your calendars for the August picnic! Details will be announced in the summer issue of The RAPS Sheet. SEPTEMBER Thursday, September 15 Guided Tour of the Vanport Building, new home of PSU’s College of Education and the OSHU-PSU School of Public Health. Seventh Vanport Mosaic Festival highlights collaboration with PSU THE 7TH VANPORT Mosaic Festival, described by longtime editor Bob Hicks as “a highlight of Portland’s cultural calendar, blending history, culture, arts and activism into a living and highly creative memorial,” will run from May 20 to June 7. As part of the 2022 festival, the Vanport Mosaic will present at the Smith Memorial Students Union building: n A display of selected archival photos and material from the exhibit “Vanport: A Surge of Social Change.” n “Lost City, Living Memories: Vanport Through The Voices of Its Residents,” a screening of short oral history documentaries, part of the Vanport Mosaic’s large collection of interviews in the process of being archived at PSU Special Collections. n Presentations by Ed Washington, Vanport survivor and director of community outreach and engagement at PSU, and faculty members. The Vanport presentation at Portland State continues the Vanport Mosaic’s long-standing collaboration with the Portland State University Department of History, Special Collections & University Archives, Portland State University Library, and the Office of Global Diversity & Inclusion. This year’s “memory activism” centers on the 80th anniversary of the building of the city of Vanport, once Oregon’s second largest city. Built by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser in 1942 to house the thousands of people pouring into Portland to work in his company’s shipyards, Vanport became the most racially and ethnically diverse city in Oregon at a time when exclusion and racial segregation were the norms. Looking west at Vanport City. When a dike protecting Vanport from the Columbia River broke on May 30, 1948, the resulting flood destroyed the city and, with it, the Vanport Extension Center, the forerunner of Portland State University. This thriving small city was also home to the Vanport Extension Center, which later became Portland State University. On May 30, 1948, a devastating flood destroyed the entire city, killing at least 15 people and forcing Portland to open its doors to thousands of local refugees. Many stayed, forever changing the social, economic, and political fabric of our region. Since 2014 the Vanport Mosaic—a multidisciplinary collective that amplifies the silent histories of our city and region—has been collaborating with former residents of Vanport and survivors of the 1948 flood to preserve their experiences. This community-driven collaborative effort received the Oregon Heritage Excellence Award, the Spirit of Portland Award, and the Columbia Slough Watershed Council’s Achievement Award. Portland State, with its own roots in Vanport and its rich archives, has been a critical partner in these efforts, culminating in the naming of the newest addition to its campus. The Vanport Building, a collaborative project among Portland State, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland Community College, and the city of Portland, opened early this year with a Vanport Mosaic permanent tribute to the “spirit of Vanport” at the entrance. Oregon Historical Society, No. 68762
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