Just weeks into the advent of a new regime that gained power in part via promises of division, inequity, and exclusion might seem an unpropitious moment to celebrate multiculturalism. Then again, it might have happened at just the right time. 

That’s how it felt at last Sunday’s Multicultural Celebration for Connection, Love, and Peace, where well over 100 attendees enjoyed music, dance, poetry, and food from various cultural origins, while interacting with neighbors from different origins who now share a home region. Far more than an excuse to feast and frolic, or even to hear the work of one of Oregon’s finest poets refracted through more than a dozen languages, the event, held at Hillsboro’s Walters Cultural Arts Center, provided a much-needed respite from a resurgence of racism and exclusion, at least in the national government and among its acolytes. 

“This celebration acknowledges the shared experiences of immigrants, refugees, and people of color, recognizing the profound losses and separations many have endured,” the program noted. “By creating a space for connection and healing, the event serves as a reminder of the power of unity and the joy of coming together.” 

As Joe Cantrell’s images attest, it was also an exaltation, inspired by some of the multifarious cultures that enrich Oregon’s most diverse county. It was, in other words, a welcome community spirit booster.

And for those experiencing discrimination, denigration or even the danger of deportation, the celebration offered a sheltered space to stand in solidarity with others who share the appreciation of cultural pluralism — a moment to catch a breath, to fortify themselves for the struggle ahead. 

A Space for Connection

The initial impetus for the event came from Piyawee Ruenjinda, who in her work as a community organizer with Unite Oregon sensed a desperate loneliness in many of the immigrants she worked with, especially traumatized refugees who’d experienced violence from repressive regimes or conditions they were fleeing.

 “For people who come from other cultures and places, the social structure here is very different,” Ruenjinda explains. “The way people interact is very different. There are fewer opportunities for people interact organically because of the ways cities are built. There are language barriers and cultural barriers, and the support system people used to have is just gone. They feel lonely.” 

Hearing their harrowing stories often made her break down in tears. “I know too many of them,” she says. “I thought, ‘What can I do?’ I felt hopeless and helpless.”

But as she grew emotionally stronger, Ruenjinda started talking to friends she’d worked with (including Hillsboro Community Engagement Manager Marcus Ford and Hillsboro theater company Bag & Baggage Productions‘ Artistic Director Nik Whitcomb) about creating ways to overcome that common loneliness and isolation. “We have to welcome people and make them feel warm,” she insisted. “There was a feeling that we need a common space for people to come together.”

Out of those conversations and then many others with other partners emerged the idea for the Multicultural Celebration. It was planned before the most recent national election, but its results have only intensified feelings of fear and concern in the communities UO serves.

When Unite Oregon approached Ford, asking “how we can lift up the ideas of peace, love, and connection in a time of uncertainty for a lot of our community members,” he recalls, “the city was more than happy to provide a gathering space and other resources.” That included funding the event and covering additional expenses when the venue changed to the Walters Center.

“We’re all from somewhere else”

The connections began even before entering the performance space, with tables from a half-dozen community groups providing information about everything from supporting Ukraine’s resistance to Russian invasion to services for women and families, programs supporting Black and African neighbors, translation and interpretation services, and more.

Included on the tables were free copies of presenting poet Kim Stafford’s 2024 chapbook, A Proclamation for Peace, containing 50 translations of his inspirational 2019 title poem and links to audio readings. (Order here, and see ArtsWatch stories about Stafford here, here, and here.)

The Walters’ entrance lobby also boasted a rich panoply of free food from various cultures, happily prepared and dispensed by volunteers. As Misty Schoene, community engagement manager in the state Office of Immigrant and Refugee Advancement, noted in a brief welcome speech, “food binds us together across cultures.” With the main event featuring more than a dozen languages in readings of Stafford’s new poem, the community’s diversity was visible, audible — and edible. 

At a nearby table, while All Classical Portland 2023 Young Artist in Residence Amir Avsker played original classical piano compositions, attendees (many sporting clothing or symbols of their cultural heritage) could write messages of peace, love or hope on ornaments hung on a Tree of Peace, and pick up Seeds for Hope — packages of garden seeds provided by Mountain Rose Herbs, VERDE, the United Plant Savers, the Banks Seed Library, and Oregon State University’s Bee Project.

After welcoming remarks by Schoene and Marcus Ford, who also served as a genial MC and kept everything running on schedule, ArtsWatch’s own frequent contributor Joe Cantrell offered the most creative land acknowledgment I’ve ever seen. Instead of a rote recitation of displaced Native peoples, he displayed a long rope that graphically represented the vast chronological scale that our area’s indigenous inhabitants nurtured these lands.

As he walked down the center of the hall, unspooling the rope, the Cherokee artist and photographer pointed out segments representing approximate dates of events such as the intentional displacement of the Native inhabitants of Celilo Falls, the arrival of the Lewis & Clark Expedition that heralded the overthrow of their civilization, and all the way back to the Missoula Floods that shaped this land and its original inhabitants’ way of life. It beautifully conveyed the significant and sustained — and continuing — contributions of our area’s original denizens. 

Then came the pulsating dance and music of Mitotiliztli Tezkatlipoka group, whose six dancers (clad in traditional regalia including magnificent headdresses) and four drummers (one doubling on flute and pipe) amped up the energy and delight, with drumsticks flying. Solidarity doesn’t have to be solemn or silent. 

Leader Johnny Martinez’s remarks were as eloquent as the dancers’ moves. “This is the time to raise up our voices and tell everyone what we need. They want us to stay silent, to shut up, stay in line,” he said. “I’m not about that.” And later: “We speak through our feet, with movement. Our Aztec people were always moving, always migrating. We’re all from somewhere else.”

Found in Translation

After that stirring overture, Oregon Society of Translators and Interpreters President Allison deFreese introduced Stafford’s book, which she co-edited. “This project grew out of hope for peace for the world,” she explained. “Music and dance and poetry are also languages. Everyone has something important to say.” 

Stafford read his short poem aloud twice, then introduced the dozen readers who’d declaim it in as many different languages, and noting the poignance of the opening and closing translations, in the languages of two countries, Afghanistan and Vietnam, that suffered the consequences of war with the United States. For this event, Ruenjinda brought in a few new participants to translate and read in languages that hadn’t been included before, such as Amharic, Fulani, and Lao. 

The former Oregon poet laureate grinned through each subsequent reading of his short poem, enchanted by the varied music of his words played through different human instruments. “When I hear it read in Arabic or Japanese or Tagalog or the others,” Stafford said, “I feel like I’m joining a flock of singing birds.”

A Proclamation for Peace

Whereas the world is a house on fire;
Whereas the nations are filled with shouting;
Whereas hope seems small, sometimes
        a single bird on a wire left by
        migration behind.

Whereas kindness is seldom in the news
        and peace an abstraction
        while war is real;

Whereas words are all I have;
Whereas my life is short;
Whereas I am afraid;
Whereas I am free—despite all
        fire and anger and fear;

Be it therefore resolved a song
        shall be my calling—a song
        not yet made shall be vocation
        and peaceful words the work
        of my remaining days

Sponsor

(Reprinted by permission of Kim Stafford from Wild Honey, Tough Salt, Red Hen Press, 2019.)

The event also made space for other poems of peace from different cultures, intoned in their original languages by still other translators. Mohammad Bader’s Perhaps We Have Peace was chanted in Arabic and read in English by its Palestinian/American author.

“We’ve heard that phrase ‘Lost in Translation,’ Bader said. “Kim told me he wrote his book to be found in translation.”

The two most charismatic readers, both of Afghan origin — Dawwaish Zakhil, followed by Sabrina Ibraimkhail — read poems in Pashto and Dari, with explanatory remarks in English. And pianist Avsker’s father, Mark (“I’m an engineer, not a poet”), movingly read the Hebrew lyrics of a popular 2009 Israeli song that prayed for peace. He didn’t mention it in his remarks, but Avsker, a peace and reconciliation advocate, and his family know all too well the price of war and violence. His brother-in-law remains held hostage in Gaza. 

As Stafford wrote afterwards to the participants (and shared here with his permission): 

At the celebration of love and peace
where our dear Piyawee gathered us,
Syed spoke in Urdu, Zaher in Pashto,
Huang Ta in Vietnamese, Mark in Hebrew,
Darwaish and Sabrina in Dari, Mohammad 
and Muwafaq in Arabic, Prabu in Tamil, Yulia 
in Russian and Inna in Ukrainian, Eugenie in 
Fulani, Soumountha in Lao, Bing in Mandarin—
on and on as one after another spoke peace, and 
all our human world songs filled the room with 
salt and honey we sipped, guzzled, drank deep 
in sweet connection, our kinship gifting taste
to every tongue, words in splendid beauty
filling the air that give us breath, as Om  
said, “We make peace by eating.”

Hope and Healing

Judging by the smiles, spirit of welcome, and sense of joy that pervaded the Walters Center Sunday, I’d say the celebration succeeded in its announced goal of transforming the former Lutheran sanctuary into “a space for healing and reflection,” according to the program. It felt like something our community needed — and will continue to need. Similar events are under consideration. 

“We had a great turnout,” Ford told ArtsWatch. “The overwhelming response was positive and we were asked numerous times to please do this again in following years. We have heard many times that gathering space is one of the most important things for community. The City of Hillsboro wants to ensure that all of our community members feel safe, seen, and a sense of belonging. That was one of the key benefits of this event and we hope to continue to facilitate the feelings of safety in an otherwise uncertain time for many people.”

Which is why I was surprised and initially disappointed to discover that the celebration wasn’t actually a public event. Instead, it was publicized through its organizer partners, which included Bag&Baggage Productions, City of Hillsboro, the Ukrainian support organization DAWN, Hillsboro School District, Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, Greater Middle East Center, Lutheran Community Services Northwest Beaverton Office, Oregon Society of Translators and Interpreters, TriMet, and the Washington County Chapter of Unite Oregon. It turns out that restricting attendance was a purposeful, and, sadly, understandable choice, because of unwanted attention, even threats, from immigration authorities and white supremacist groups targeted at earlier, similar gatherings.

A few of the faces of America

Which also demonstrates just why this celebration was needed. I’ve always been mystified that the most welcoming, inviting immigrant subcultures are the ones most repressed, excluded and evicted by the dominant one, despite all the evidence that their work and presence constitute a net benefit to our shared society. This event provided a needed antidote to that intensifying meanness, a reminder that the propaganda we’re hearing from Washington, D.C.,  needn’t — doesn’t — define our own reality. That reality was reflected in the joyful, supportive presence of so many neighbors of many ages and ethnicities, celebrating e pluribus unum.

It was especially appropriate for Hillsboro, one of Oregon’s largest and most diverse cities. According to census data, nearly half the population belongs to communities of color, and nearly a third speak a language other than English at home. Before the show, I’d coincidentally partaken of its daily diversity by strolling a few blocks from the Walters to the Latino cultural district along Calle Diez (10^th Avenue) to pick up some pastries and other treats. The shops and restaurants there (and elsewhere in the area) stock Mexican and Latin American foods and other goods. Most of the signs and labels are in Spanish. English, Spanish and Spanglish words and music reverberate. The merchants – all Latino – are as friendly as you’ll find anywhere. It feels like visiting another world, warm and welcoming — and just down the street. Those merchants, the street vendor who sets up his stand every day on a nearby corner to sell naranjas y pomelos, the construction workers laboring late to build desperately needed apartments just a few blocks away… will they still be here next year? Next week?

Diversity isn’t a special event in Hillsboro. It’s something many of us live and cherish every day, a vital and valuable part of the rich tapestry of life here, and I hope events like this one, where the arts can help bestow a space and a moment for solace and shelter, can help sustain it.

***

Lewis & Clark College hosts an online reading of Kim Stafford’s “A Proclamation for Peace” in many languages at 5:30 pm Thursday, February 27. Register here.

Read more stories about Hillsboro arts.