Five Oaks Museum Showcase

In the first year under their new name, Five Oaks Museum has cut a new path for history and culture institutions. The Guest Curator program has produced three game-changing, community-led exhibitions so far: This IS Kalapuyan Land, Gender Euphoria, and DISplace. Join the museum for their first fundraising event within the new brand – a showcase of vibrant performances and speakers that celebrates these exhibitions and the incredible community leaders who created them.

The virtual event is free and open to the public. Funds raised are infused back into the community as ethical compensation for the storytellers who shape the museum. Their exhibitions, Instagram takeovers, events, and collaborative projects bring vitality to local history, arts, and culture.

Guests will hear directly from all of the museum’s past and current Guest Curators — Steph Littlebird Fogel, Becca Owen, Kanani Miyamoto and Lehuauakea — about how their exhibitions have uplifted marginalized histories and changed the work and lives of those involved.

Three special performances will also be shared that correlate to the three exhibitions. In celebration of Gender Euphoria, Kevin Lionga Aipopo and Des Spicer-Orak will share original poetry that dwells in the interconnections of gender fluidity, climate activism, Pasifika empowerment and the search for ancestral knowledge. Making her worst attempt at honoring This IS Kalapuyan Land, the region’s premier drag clown, Carla Rossi (created and performed by Anthony Hudson), offers a reflection on what she — as an arts administrator at the Institute for Metaphysical Digestive and Clown Research — has learned from the last year of pandemic, America’s racial reckoning, and her sourdough starter. Maria “Songbird” Remos, a musician and DJ who’s family story is featured in DISplace, will be playing dancey soul music from well known Motown to unknown labels for a zoom-room dance party outro.

The museum thanks presenting sponsors Pat Reser and Bill Westphal for making this exciting event possible.

Big shout-out as well to Community Sponsors Karen Pérez-Da Silva, Clarinda White, Brenda Rodoni, Alfredo Moreno, Jeremy Estrella, Dick Schouten, Sheri Schouten, and Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Community Sponsorships are still available, ask today!

Kevin Lionga Aipopo (all pronouns) is a community advocate, storyteller, and student leader based in traditional Kalupuya, Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, and Atfalati lands (Beaverton, Oregon). Their work centers around the intersections between their ethnic identity as a Black American and Samoan person and their gender fluidity. Kevin uses their platforms to interrogate systems of power, challenge normalcy, and uplift voices within their communities. Through interpersonal connection, community organizing, poetry, and education, they have found space as an emerging voice for Black, Indigenous, Queer, Trans, and Climate liberation.

Des Spicer-Orak (she/they) is a queer mixed Palauan poet currently residing in Portland Oregon, where she has spent all of her life. A BSW student, author, mentor, and activist, Des has come to understand herself and her culture through her relationship to the ocean. She believes that the ocean embodies all of life’s extremities, this truth undeniably reflected in her work. Their strong passion for learning and teaching involve them in many organizational positions focused on building community resilience and healing. Des believes in the power of knowledge, and its ability to transform our impact on both each other and the Earth. In her work, Des intentionally amplifies the voices of her people and their struggles. Without recognition and action, several smaller Pasifika communities will continue to suffer silently in the development of climate crises.

Anthony Hudson (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, filmmaker, and performer sometimes better known as Portland, Oregon’s premiere drag clown Carla Rossi. Together they host and program Queer Horror, the only ongoing LGBTQ+ horror film and performance series in the country at Portland’s historic Hollywood Theatre. Anthony has received project support and fellowships from the NEA, National Performance Network, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, Western Arts Alliance, Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Community Foundation, USArtists International, Ucross Foundation, Caldera Arts Center, and more; Anthony’s performances have been featured at the Portland and Seattle Art Museums, Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, PICA’s TBA Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, La Mama, and have toured internationally. Find out more at TheCarlaRossi.com.

Portland based and Hawai’i grown, Maria “Songbird” Remos is a soul and reggae focused vinyl DJ set on sharing music knowledge and joy through trading cards, zines, and music at TYLE Records along with her partner Nomad. Songbird is one fifth of the local Wayward Girls Soul Club, an all female vinyl soul club and a member of the reggae sound system Pressure Down Sounds. She started the Hawaii chapter of Motown on Mondays which is an international party started in San Francisco. Look forward to rare soul cuts and well known dance floor ragers! IG: @hisongbird uwebsite: www.tylerecords.com