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In Beaverton, a Little Night Music

... and as a bright and shiny Saturday fades into evening, food and art and crafts and celebrations of the many cultures of Washington County, too.

July 25, 2022

Joe Cantrell

Culture, News, Photography

Percussionists keep the beat for the Chinese Lion Dancers at Saturday’s Beaverton Night Market.

PHOTOGRAPHS by JOE CANTRELL

IF YOU CREATE IT, THEY WILL COME. And on Saturday afternoon and evening the crowds flocked to Beaverton Night Market, the first of two such free events scheduled for this summer. (The second will be Saturday, August 13.)

The market, which draws together a broad spectrum of Washington County’s immigrant communities and their friends, is a relatively recent tradition that’s taken off and become one of the area’s most popular summer draws, bringing a taste of the outdoor markets that are central features of life in cultures around the world. A project of the city’s Diversity Advisory Board, it began in 2015 and is now a highly anticipated event drawing about 14,000 visitors every summer.

Sponsor

People come for the food (all sorts, from various spots on the globe), the music, the crafts and art being sold at booth after booth, the Chinese Dragon Dance, the meeting and greeting, and the happy surprises that might pop up around any corner. Saturday’s market had more than 60 vendors and 15 performers or performing groups. It all took place on The Round, Beaverton’s town-center-in-the-making at 12600 S.W. Crescent Street, and this year an added attraction is The Round’s newest addition, the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, which threw its doors open and took an active role in the celebration.

Photographer Joe Cantrell was on hand Saturday and captured the action expected and unexpected, from Ukrainian musicians to traditional drummers to henna artists to a street barber giving beard trims. You can also see his photo essays on 2019’s pair of pre-Covid night markets, here and here. Take a look, and start making your plans for the next market on August 13.

Come on in; the market’s fine. And we have information, too.

The market’s many attractions spiraled upward and upward.

Faces in the crowd

Young women in their ancestral Mongolian clothing, enjoying a cooling drink.

An Iranian woman displaying her sign about the Cyrus Cylinder, which tells the story of the Persian King Cyrus the Great, his conquering and restoration of the ancient city of Babylon (now in Iraq) in 539 B.C.E., and the reforms he put in place.

Music, music, music

Circle dancing to the sounds of Ukrainian music.

Intricate beadwork makes the drum both a visual and an aural work of art.

Baskets, baskets, baskets

So much to see and buy …

A wealth of possibilities to choose from.

Cards from the kids …

Man meets mannequin

Grabbing a bite …

The dog looks longingly as a family sits down to a takeout meal.

Henna artists

… and special trims

Watching the lion dance

In and around the Reser

At the Reser Center on Saturday evening, volunteer Rebecca Benoit helps a visitor touring Emily Jung Miller’s installation “1,000 Moons.”

The sun glints over a large sculpture on the plaza, looking west toward the Reser Center.

Night Market visitors check out check out part of artist Sandra Honda’s “Camp Trauma” exhibit at the Reser.

The inside and outside of the Reser on Market Night.

On the plaza, getting up close and personal with the art.

Joe Cantrell

I spent my first 21 years in Tahlequah, Cherokee County, Oklahoma, assuming that except for a few unfortunate spots, ‘everybody’ was part Cherokee, and son of the soil. Volunteered for Vietnam because that’s what we did. After two stints, hoping to gain insight, perhaps do something constructive, I spent the next 16 years as a photojournalist in Asia, living much like the lower income urban peasants and learning a lot. Moved back to the USA in 1986, tried photojournalism and found that the most important subjects were football and basketball, never mind humankind. In 1992, age 46, I became single dad of my 3-year-old daughter and spent the next two decades working regular jobs, at which I was not very good, to keep a roof over our heads, but we made it. She’s retail sales supervisor for Sony, Los Angeles. Wowee! The VA finally acknowledged that the war had affected me badly and gave me a disability pension. I regard that as a stipend for continuing to serve humanity as I can, to use my abilities to facilitate insight and awareness, so I shoot a lot of volunteer stuff for worthy institutions and do artistic/scientific work from our Cherokee perspective well into many nights. Come along!