Remembering Forward

History is Now:

HISTORY IS NOW was conceived during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic by a collective ofcultural organizers, historians, educators, and designers who participated in the Vanport Mosaic Memory Activism Virtual Unconference. This exhibit came to life in 2021 as part of the 6th Vanport Mosaic Festival, where 65 vacant storefront windows along Portland’s North Park Blocks were transformed into a Museum Without Walls, challenging the sanitized, selective history this city has long embraced.

As part of the Design as Protest collective, we supported organizations to tell their stories through graphic design, formatting, display design, installation, and interaction.

This exhibit continues to travel around the state, telling stories of oppression and triumph for Black, Indigenous, Chinese American, Japanese American, Immigrant, and Unhoused communities in our region. 

Participants assemble Tactical Protest signs to claim public space at scale with memory and calls to action: