Event date: February 25, 2023

On February 25, 2023, Future Prairie filled One Grand Gallery with music, oral history, art, and a whole lot of love for Portland’s Black musical elders.

Created by City of Portland artists-in-residence Onry and Liam Whitworth, Listening Lounge was an immersive multimedia exhibition and live performance event connected to Future Prairie’s broader Flowers for Black Elders initiative.

The project honored five extraordinary Black musicians who helped build the creative and cultural life of Northeast Portland: Libretto Jackson, Alonzo Chadwick, Derrick McDuffey, Mel Brown, and Saeeda Wright. Through recorded stories, portraits, music, and performance, we celebrated their artistry and preserved some of the history they helped create.

That history matters deeply. Albina was once the heart of Portland’s Black community, but generations of residents were displaced by discriminatory housing policies, urban-renewal projects, the construction of Interstate 5, and continuing gentrification. Too often, the artists who gave a neighborhood its identity are celebrated only after they have been priced out, overlooked, or separated from the community they helped sustain.

Listening Lounge was our way of pushing against that erasure. It gave these artists their flowers while they were here to receive them—and gave the wider community an opportunity to listen.

The evening came alive with performances by Onry, Parker Hines, Matt HH, DJ Passports, and additional participating artists. Guests gathered to hear stories, experience new performances, celebrate Portland’s Black cultural legacy, and spend time together in a space built around memory and gratitude.

It was joyful, moving, and full of life: part exhibition, part listening party, and part love letter to the artists who helped make Portland sound like Portland.

Listening Lounge took place from 7–10 p.m. at One Grand Gallery, 1000 E Burnside Street, Portland, Oregon.

Acknowledgments

Lead support for Flowers for Black Elders came from Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program. The project was developed through a City of Portland artist residency, with portraits by photographer Brett Brown.

Thank you to One Grand Gallery for hosting Listening Lounge; to performers Onry, Parker Hines, Matt HH, and DJ Passports; and, above all, to Libretto Jackson, Alonzo Chadwick, Derrick McDuffey, Mel Brown, and Saeeda Wright for sharing their art, histories, and time with us.