Live music, food and activities will fill the two-acre green space at George Park during Kidz Outside2 from 2 to 4 p.m. August 26.
The second installment of the lauded family-friendly festival will showcase regional talent and continue efforts to bring attention to the overlooked George Park located in the St. Johns neighborhood. Portland Monthly listed last year’s festival as one of the “Best Summer Events,” and almost 300 people attended.
Ultimately, organizers hope the events will spur the city to invest in upgrades for the park while incorporating community feedback.
LaQuisha Minnieweather, co-founder of Mxm Block and Tenacious Rose PDX, is in charge of expanded school supply giveaways at the festival, returning a popular feature from last year’s event.
“Every year, I want us to show up more than we did the year before and give back to more community members,” Minnieweather said.
Entertainment this year
When it comes to organizing the music, Kidz Outside co-founder and Portland rapper Mat Randol likes to highlight local and regional family-friendly performers.
Randol will perform at the event, along with Seattle-based rapper C’est La. Portland singer-songwriter Yawa (formerly known as Amenta Abioto), who describes her freestyled performances as a blend of “synthy, rocky, soul, hip-hop” will be there. Gospel, jazz and African sounds influence her one-woman show.
Nikki Brown the Clown, Portland’s first Black clown, will be back, running bean bag toss competitions and making balloon animals. Brown was awarded Clown of the Year in 2015 and Portland Rose Festival Entertainer of the Year in 2014. She has worked in North and Northeast Portland to promote literacy for Black children and to promote cultural diversity awareness and pride. She kicked off her clown career in 2011 at the Juneteenth parade in Portland.
Running the show
Randol and writer Donovan Scribes, a former NAACP Portland vice president, formed Kidz Outside with a focus on Black and Latinx communities. Scribes and Randol won a 2021 Portland Parks Foundation Parks Champion award. According to Portland Parks Foundation, they have worked on projects that include “communities of color who have traditionally been left out of placemaking and stewardship events.”
They are partnering again with Portland Parks and Recreation to organize the Kidz Outside2 festival.
Portland Parks and Recreation Summer Free For All supervisor Jarrell Hosley has been working with the duo.
“We’re excited about the Kidz Outside festival and bringing it back another year,” Hosley said. “Our program specifically isn’t designed for park improvements. But hopefully, hosting the event highlights the desires of the group to improve the park. We definitely would love to partner more with St. Johns neighborhood and North Portland overall.”
CareOregon, dedicated to helping people access free health care, and Wonderfolk, a youth leadership development program for historically underserved communities, provided fiscal backing for the event.
George Park Improvement Survey results
Gathering feedback from the community about what changes they want to see at the park is key to reimagining the space. Many people have expressed interest in overhead lights and basketball courts.
More than 100 current and former North Portland residents responded to the George Park Improvement Survey at the Kidz Outside Festival last year.
Many respondents reported they are alumni from the schools around the park; James John Elementary, Sitton Elementary, George Middle School and Roosevelt High School. Safety and lack of play equipment were significant concerns. According to the survey data, 40% feel generally unsafe at George Park, and 75% rate the play structure as inadequate, with 45% giving it a score of 1-3 out of 10, with 10 being the most effective.
“We live three blocks from George Park and have never gone there," one resident said on the survey. “Only walked right on by.”
Another comment highlights the need for play equipment. “I prefer any other park, honestly. We’re always the only ones there, and the structure is so tiny there isn’t much to do. Would love to see swings, a slide, monkey bars, anything really!”
Kidz Outside wants to work with the city to ensure this park isn’t missed. They believe at some point, the park will get developed with a community engagement plan around what neighbors want. The effort to reimagine the space and make it a priority is growing.
“What people want is for it to not feel like a forgotten park,” Scribes said. “For a community that has been there a long time, it feels like an afterthought. Lights in the park are wanted. The Fessenden side, when the sun goes down, is drenched in darkness. When you have a park off the main road when there's not lights, it’s antithetical to a city for everyone. So that came through loud and clear.”
Gentrification in St. Johns
One survey participant spoke about the history and diversity of the neighborhood.
“St. Johns has become so gentrified, and people that move here don’t even realize it. As someone who grew up in the north and has seen how much it changed, I would love to see something that represents St. Johns and the diversity.”
St. Johns originated as a separate settlement from Portland at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. From 1902 to 1915, it was an incorporated city with its own municipal buildings until citizens of Portland and St. Johns voted for its annexation, which took effect July 8, 1915. This has provided a unique culture and history to this part of the city.
In 2020, according to Portland.gov, close to half of the St. Johns population is Hispanic, Black, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, American Indian or Native Alaskan. The Portland Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan 2017-2020 addressed issues of racial equity, incorporating initiatives from the Five Year Racial Equity Plan.
“Through the city assessment and engagement tools, it didn’t come up as a priority park,” Scribes, founder of Gentrification is Weird, a platform focused on elevating Black voices, said. “But if you see who attended the event, it’s everybody that the parks bureau says they are trying to be equitable around and serve.”
He said the city has planned out investments since 2017. Kidz Outside is trying to wave the flag around for this place without taking away from any other place. Scribes said they want all parks around the city to be great.
With the high cost of housing throughout Portland, long-time residents have been priced out of purchasing homes in St. Johns. In addition to this, the overall culture of this area is impacted. In some parts, expensive high rises have replaced family homes. High rents have forced some local businesses out.
Back to school
With school starting at the end of August, Minnieweather is preparing 140 backpacks with school supplies — twice as many as last year — which 50-60 donors have purchased through an ongoing Amazon wish list.
“Back to school is not just backpacks,” Minnieweather said. “You have to think about all the things that can hinder you on the first day of school. A lot of kiddos coming for free backpacks. Chances are they’re not going to school in brand-new clothes. We make sure families that come have laundry soap so they can wash their summer clothes for the first day of school. We’ve got hygiene kits, body soap, deodorant and all the things that get put on the back burner when you think about the first day of school. They want to be prepared.”
Hopes for the future
“I have an eighth-grader, a seventh-grader and a fourth-grader,” Minnieweather said. “When I was younger, I would hang out with my friends and be at the park, but my kids don’t have that. They won’t have those memories. I miss those memories for them. I miss my memories.”
She remembers playing on the grass while she waited for her bus after school.
Kidz Outside has hopes for the next generation.
“My son is eight years old and in third grade,” Randol said. “That is the closest park to us, but we have to go to other parks. I want him to see that I take a stance along with my partner to do something better for the community, for him to see that dream realized and give him the motivation that he can do whatever he wants to do one day … We’ll just continue to show up and do what we can for the community.”
The group said they will work with Parks and Recreation, elected officials and community leaders to ensure the momentum for change continues. It is the ongoing discussion and spotlight on the park that builds plans for the future, even if it takes decades.
On April 5 this year, Scribes wrote in a Metro News article that after last year’s festival, then-parks commissioner Carmen Rubio met with them and expressed support of their plans. Harper’s Playground founder Cody G. Goldberg has offered help. He has expertise in designing fully accessible parks for those with disabilities. These are effective allies. Since January this year, Commissioner Dan Ryan has been overseeing Portland Parks and Recreation. Both Rubio and Ryan were invited to this year’s festival.
District 2 Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal will speak at the event.
“There's things you can put in a park that make it cool, that make it something engaging,” Scribes said. “But it's little things that speak to a community that say this place is for me. It's not just what gets put up but how we put it up and saying to the community that your voice is heard in the process.”
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