My Story Workshops :: Every Child Has A Story

Tune in to KZME 107.1 FM this Sunday to hear Alex Ney from My Story interviewed on Artclectic PDX! The show airs at 5pm, and the interview will be in the second half of the show. If you’re at home, you can stream the interview at: http://icy1.abacast.com/mhcc-kmhc-64.m3u
Thanks Dennise for the great interview!

We’re so excited to be bringing an enthusiastic group of My Story students to see Josh Groban at the Rose Garden tonight! Thank you Josh Groban and the Find Your Light Foundation for this amazing opportunity!! Check back tomorrow for news about the concert and photos!!

This morning, as we were leaving a meeting at New Columbia in the Portsmouth neighborhood, we ran into one of our very first students! After chasing us down and giving us hugs, Egbevado shared a few of the amazing things been doing since he took a My Story workshop back in the summer of 2006!

Along with helping manage the Villiage Market, a new nonprofit community store at New Columbia, Egbevado has started his own nonprofit organization, We All Can Ride! We All Can Ride is a bicycling/active living organization that encourages & educates low income/communities of color (New Columbia St. Johns Wood) to start riding bicycles not only as a hobby, but as a mode of transportation and a tool for exercising.

You can learn more about Egbevado and this great new organization by visiting http://weallcanride.org/. We’re proud of you, Egbevado!!

Here’s a photo of Egbevado and his classmates from 2006!

We had a blast at the Cully Roll and Stroll this weekend! A fantastic group of youth from Hacienda CDC properties in the Cully neighborhood ran our mobile community portrait studio for the day, taking free portraits of community members who attended the event. Hacienda youth just completed a My Story workshop, and will be hosting another “Family Portrait Day” on July 10th at the Cully Community Market at 5600 NE 42nd Ave and NE Killingsworth St. Come out and get your portrait taken by some amazing young photographers!

We owe a special thanks to photographer Debbie Baxter who spent the afternoon mentoring youth as they photographed families in the community. You can learn more about Debbie by visiting: http://www.debbiebaxterphoto.com/.

We also want to thank Hacienda CDC and their amazing staff who helped out at the event, the City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning & Sustainablility for inviting us to the event, and Central Northeast Neighbors for supporting this project with an Neighborhood Grant. This project is supported in part by an award from the Oregon Arts Commission.

My Story has been running photography workshops since 2006 and in that time we have served thousands of Portland youth. Through these workshops, after-school programs, and summer camps, our students have generated an enormous amount of film based imagery. We recently began scanning all of this archived work as part of a plan to inspire future workshops participants and preserve the rich history of both My Story photography programming and Portland youth culture. Here is a glimpse into that archive: A look through their eyes….

We just brought a wonderful group of girls from Hacienda CDC’s “Expresiones” program to spend three afternoons at Newspace Center for Photography. They had a blast learning to develop their own film and print their own photos. We owe a big thanks to Newspace Center for Photography and Umpqua Bank for making this exciting project possible!

You are invited to the My Story photo exhibit. Drop in anytime from 5 PM to 7 PM on Wednesday, September 1st at CNN, 4415 NE 87th Ave. off of Sandy Blvd. Refreshments provided.

This spring, with the support of the Central Northeast Neighbors (CNN) Grant Program, My Story partnered with Hacienda CDC to offer a photography workshop to an enthusiastic group of youth. In this 5-session workshop, youth ages 11-17 living in Cully, explored their identity, dreams, and cultural values in a stunning collection of community portraits and stories. These young photographers worked together in groups, and had opportunities to take cameras home to photograph the things that matter most in their lives.

CNN is hosting an exhibit of the work by these talented youth. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to encounter community through the lens of Latino and Somali youth. For more information please contact Sandra Lefrancois at 503-823-2780, or sandral@cnncoalition.org.

My Story debuted a traveling community portrait studio last week with an exciting afternoon spent at Park Vista. Park Vista is a housing community in outer-South East Portland that primarily serves Russian and Ukrainian families.

We set up a professional portrait studio in Park Vista’s community room, and put Park Vista youth behind the camera. Families who live at Park Vista dressed up and had formal portraits taken by our young photographers. Each family who was photographed will receive free 8 x 10 prints from the session. It was an amazing afternoon!