RESONANCE ENSEMBLE and PORTLAND ASSEMBLY CENTER PROJECT present “WE ARE STILL HERE” at the VANPORT MOSAIC FESTIVAL
An afternoon of music, theatre, and movement, spotlighting the history of the Portland Assembly Center where nearly 4,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated.
“Eighty three years later, on This Land...We Still Sing America.”
On Sunday, June 1st at 3:00 pm, as the culminating event of the 10th Annual Vanport Mosaic Festival (May 17 - June 1), Resonance Ensemble and Vanport Mosaic present We Are Still Here—an immersive site-specific performance at the Portland Expo Center, the former site of Japanese American incarceration during World War II.
This powerful afternoon brings together the award-winning voices of Resonance Ensemble under its Associate Conductor Shohei Kobayashi; the world premiere of a new commission by Kenji Bunch; and the Portland Assembly Center Project’s unique blend of poetry, movement, and narratives devised by Chisao Hata, a third-generation Japanese American artist and cultural organizer, in collaboration with actor and director Heath Hyun Houghton, amplifying the words and memories of Japanese Americans incarcerated at this historic site. Through song, spoken word, and embodied storytelling, We Are Still Here confronts the legacy of injustice and the urgent need to reckon with this chapter of Portland’s shared history.
Portland Expo Center
THE HISTORY
More than 120,000 Japanese Americans—most of them U.S. citizens—were forcibly removed from their homes and unjustly incarcerated during World War II. This mass incarceration was authorized by Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942, which gave the military the power to exclude and detain people of Japanese ancestry without due process.
In Portland, the Pacific International Livestock Exposition Center was quickly converted into the Portland Assembly Center, one of 15 temporary detention sites used to confine Japanese Americans before they were sent to more permanent concentration camps like Minidoka in Idaho. From May to September 1942, approximately 3,676 Japanese and Japanese Americans from Oregon and southwest Washington were held in overcrowded, inhumane makeshift conditions at what is now known as the Portland Expo Center. We Are Still Here activates this historic space through music, poetry, movement, and theater.
THE PERFORMANCE AND ARTISTIC COLLABORATION
Commissioned composer, Kenji Bunch
This collaborative performance brings together Resonance Ensemble and the Portland Assembly Center Project to offer a layered reflection on memory, displacement, and collective reckoning. The Portland Assembly Center Project's original work is the culmination of three years of community-centered process and creative development. Weaving together reader’s theater, movement, archival materials, and survivor testimonies, the Portland Assembly Center Project seeks to reclaim the Expo Center as a space for remembrance, resistance, and healing.
“The weaving of community taking place in the creation of We Are Still Here is important work,” says Kobayashi. “I am inspired by Chisao and Heath and their vision for telling these stories — especially as we witness and cry out against the authoritarian rise in abductions by ICE and the increasing population of prisoners at inhumane detention centers. It is critical that we grapple with the connections between this history and our current struggles.”
The musical elements of the program by Resonance Ensemble, directed by Associate Conductor Shohei Kobayashi, include works by Eric Tuan, Toru Takemitsu, Ayanna Woods, and Caroline Shaw, alongside the world premiere of On This Land, a double-choir composition by Kenji Bunch, setting an original poem by Chisao Hata.
Community Weaver & Portland Assembly Center Project Creator, Chisao Hata
“It’s a huge honor for me to work with Resonance Ensemble and to be a part of Vanport Mosaic’s program to close this year’s festival,” says Bunch. “As a Japanese-American, it’s particularly meaningful to be involved in the important work of memory activism for our community. I feel strongly that only through learning and understanding our shared past can we heal and move forward together, and the concert on June 1st will be an important step in this process.”
Hata, whose parents were incarcerated at Poston, Arizona, draws from her family’s experience. Her piece incorporates poetry by Lawson Inada, Ken Yoshikawa, and Hata herself, with music by Joe Kye and a special appearance by Toshiko Namioka, honoring the lived experiences of survivors and their descendants.
“I am who I am because of Executive Order 9066,” says Hata. “It shaped my life, isolated me from the community, and denied my parents and so many Japanese Americans their dignity and rights. Who might I have become if racism hadn’t impacted my life so deeply?”
A CULMINATING WEEKEND OF THE VANPORT MOSAIC FESTIVAL
We Are Still Here concludes the final weekend of the 10th Vanport Mosaic Festival, marking a decade of memory activism dedicated to amplifying silenced histories and celebrating resilience, solidarity, and radical imagination.
Over two weeks (May 17 - June 1, 2025), the festival honors the past and present experiences of communities of color impacted by displacement, exclusion, and systemic injustice.
On Saturday, May 31, Vanport Mosaic hosts a day of reclamation and reactivation at two key historic sites: Delta Park, the former site of Vanport, and the Portland Expo Center, once the Portland Assembly Center. Through tours, performances, pop-up exhibits, story circles, film screenings, and a memory activism fair, the day acknowledges the layered histories and ongoing legacies of displacement and resilience within Portland’s Indigenous, Black, and Japanese American communities.
That evening, Chamber Music Northwest and the Portland Japanese Garden will present a concert featuring Kenji Bunch, George Takei, and works by Andy Akiho and Paul Chihara—offering another powerful reflection on Japanese American history through music.
“This is not just a performance. It’s a declaration. It’s a reminder that the land remembers even when the official record tries to forget,” says Laura Lo Forti, co-founder and director of Vanport Mosaic. “We Are Still Here is memory activism in action. It is a ceremony, a reckoning, and a refusal to let erased histories stay buried. We return to this site not to reenact the past, but to confront it, name it, and make space for healing.”
For tickets to We Are Still Here, click here.
For more on the 10th annual Vanport Mosaic Festival visit VanportFestival10
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
WHAT: WE ARE STILL HERE
WHEN: SUNDAY | JUNE 1, 2025 | 3 PM
WHERE: Portland Expo Center | Hall A | 2060 Marine Drive W | Portland, OR 97217
TICKET INFORMATION:
$35 General Admission
$15 Student/Working Artist/Veteran
$5 Arts for All (available at the door only)
Click here to purchase tickets
Note to Journalists: Katherine FitzGibbon, Shohei Kobayashi, Kenji Bunch, Laura Lo Forti, Chisao Hata, and featured guests are available for print, online, and broadcast interviews. If you would like more information on our season or would like to schedule an interview, please contact Liz Bacon Brownson at liz@ohcreativepdx.com or by calling 971-212-8034.
THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR SPONSORS
Vanport Mosaic Festival and the Portland Assembly Center Project are made possible by the Autzen Foundation, Marie Lamfrom Foundation, Oregon Historical Society, Metro, and Travel Portland.
The performance and premieres by Resonance Ensemble are made possible by the City of Portland Office of the Arts, Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Community Foundation, Oregon Cultural Trust, Metro, Regional Arts & Culture Council, and Ronni Lacroute.
