New Oregon Interview Series

In April, I wrote about an after-work function in our neighborhood where I met a couple of women, Nora Robertson and Tiffany Lee Brown, who were then publicizing a series of live interviews with local artists that would start in late June.

Last week, I attended the first one -- and I'm glad I did. I've often thought of myself as having something of a cultural blind spot when it comes to first-hand knowledge of what Portland's creative class has to offer the city.

Sure, I understand it intellectually. Lots of people in their 20s and 30s who've moved here in the past 10 to 15 years -- typically college-educated, working one or more day jobs so they can make art -- and who've collectively helped transform the city's cultural life through their numbers and D.I.Y. approach toward work and the creative arts.

But until I spent a couple hours last Wednesday at a local coffeehouse, as part of a small but supportive audience there for the kickoff of The New Oregon Interview Series, I hadn't really come face to face with it. (Guess I've been spending too much time focused on politics, race, class, the economy and other topics.)

Nora moderated a program on music, interviewing Slim Moon, a band manager/spoken word artist, who got his start performing at punk rock venues in Olympia; Alicia Rose (above), a music club owner, occasional accordion player and self-described "gatekeeper," who's originally from L.A.; and Mic Crenshaw, a hip-hop artist from Chicago's South Side who moved here after a stint in equally white Minneapolis.

My colleague, Barry Johnson, wrote his weekly arts column about the debut program. I defer to his take, since he was able to sit through the entire program, including a group discussion, whereas I had to leave after just the individual interviews.

The series continues through February, with additional topics touching on film, books, performance, food, visual arts, fashion and urban planning. I hope to hit the next one in July.

Photo by Motoya Nakamura, The Oregonian