OUR WORK
Keep Alive The Dream
Our annual tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been recognized as the largest community cultural event of its kind in the State of Oregon. With King’s work as a guide, Keep Alive The Dream highlights pioneering activists, community leaders, artists, musicians, and youth whose valiant efforts have left lasting impacts in Oregon’s African-American community. This event has official designation from the National Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission.
Urban Wings and Aerospace Leadership Club
Urban Wings is a supplemental education program serving at-risk middle school and high school youth in Portland, Oregon. With aviation at its core, the program explores the holistic development of young people through hands-on learning strategies utilizing STEM and character development with a special focus on the Tuskegee Airmen.
OUR LEGACY
Albina Music Trust
Albina Music Trust is preserving North Portland’s music culture with programming that documents the community’s oral history, archival media, and special events. In collaboration with Albina musicians, founders Bobby Smith and Calvin Walker have brought to light a definitive catalog of historic music and the memories of its creators.
Alberta Street Project
Surveyed in 1992 and again in 2015, this cultural resource inventory was conducted by WAFI and local high school students, with support from Portland Public Schools, Prosper Portland, and Black United Fund Of Oregon. The report documents the conditions of the Alberta neighborhood for residents and businesses while making recommendations for mitigating gentrification, social displacement, crime, poverty, and unemployment in the area.
Cultural Recreation Band/ American Music Program
Founded by WAFI in 1983, this multicultural jazz orchestra was comprised of middle and high school youth in Portland Public Schools under the direction of Thara Memory, Greg McKelvey, and Ronnye Harrison. In 2005, Memory went on to form the non-profit American Music Program to mentor youth jazz musicians and compete in national competitions. The program cultivated the talents of youth musicians such as Esperanza Spalding, Charlie Brown III, and Domo Branch.
Creative Jazz Orchestra
With assistance from WAFI, this 24-piece orchestra directed by Thara Memory performed a historical suite of 20th century jazz compositions, re-imagined through soul music and international influence. CJO performed unique thematic concerts throughout the Pacific Northwest during the 1970s and early 1980s.
From The Pulpit, From The People
This 1978 oral history program featured theatrical performances drawing from the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The program raised funds for scholarships sending African-American students to Catlin Gabel School. The program was produced by WAFI and broadcast on KGW-TV.
