Woodlawn School mural by Isaka Shamsud-Din

This Sunday, the Dill Pickle Club is in the running for a STOCK grant for our upcoming publication, Walls of Pride, a guide book and audio tour of African American murals in Portland, as researched by Robin Dunitz. This will be our third time in the running (the last two times we lost by a paltry handful of votes). Unmoved, we are back for a third bid at the prize.

STOCK is a public dinner event and presentation series which uses direct democracy to fund artist projects. Diners pay a modest $10 for a meal of homemade soup and other local delicacies, and the chance discuss and vote on which artist proposal will receive the evening’s proceeds. The dinner’s profits immediately become the artist grant, which is awarded according to the choice of the diners.

The details:
Sunday, June 6th, 
6-8PM
Disjecta
8371 North Interstate Avenue
Cost: $10 (pay at the door)
RSVP to: portlandstock@gmail.com

Please attend and support this great project! Read the full proposal and see more images after the jump.

See you there!

1. Project Summary: (100 words)
Walls of Pride will be a book and CD showcasing African American murals in N/NE Portland in conjunction with a guided Dill Pickle Club tour to take place in the fall. The publication will feature biographies, essays, photos and transcriptions to highlight the research of Robin Dunitz, curator of Walls of Heritage, an exhibition on African American murals at Oregon Historical Society. The CD will give information on more than 15 public works of art featured on the tour, including pieces by: Adriene Cruz, Lewis Harris, Charlotte Lewis, Isaka Shamsud-Din and Charles Tatum. Selections from the book and audio program will be made available on our Website free of charge. Sales of the publication will support ongoing programming of the Dill Pickle Club.

2. How will you use the funding toward the realization of your project? (50 words)
Funding will subsidize production costs, all produced locally: Printing–Eberhardt Press-$850; CD Duplication–NW Media-$450; Audio Editing-Erin Yanke-$850; Book Design–Ian Lynam-$400; Packaging–Art Media-$50; Total-$2600. Supplementing a Stock grant, advertising will raise $600. The printing is at a discounted rate and much of the production is volunteer.

3. How will it manifest at the next Stock event? (100 words):
We will present some of our research for the publication at an upcoming Stock dinner. We will show slides of featured murals and give a brief overview of our findings. We will credit Stock in the publication and on any media releases related to the project. We will also donate copies for Stock’s archives.

4. Why is this project important? (100 words)
The history and cultural contributions of African Americans to Portland are integral to our shared history. Sadly, many of Portland’s African American murals are no longer extant. The development and transformation of many neighborhoods in N/NE has led to an unfortunate lack of documented history. Walls of Pride will celebrate these vital contributions by documenting Portland’s remaining African American murals. While highlighting icons familiar to neighborhood old-timers, our tour and publication’s purpose is to raise awareness to those who may overlook these important works. A publication will also make this knowledge available to those unable to attend the tour, as well as to future generations.

1. Woodlawn School mural by Isaka Shamsud-Din, North Portland

2. Brotherhood by Charles Tatum at Bonneville Power Administration, NE Portland

3. Charlotte Lewis, Children of Humanity, conference room at the N/NE Police Bureau, NE Killingsworth at MLK Blvd.

4. Previous Dill Pickle Club publications