Anna Perez, a participant in the Community Voices photography project, embellishes a photograph. Credit: Photo by Lauren Everett
Two years ago, Jasmine Werner moved to Oregon with her two young children to escape an unsafe situation on the East Coast.
“This is my home, and I want to make a difference here,” Werner said. She is studying to be an art therapist and recently participated in a photography workshop, along with about eight other residents of the Terrace Glen affordable apartment complex in Tigard.
The artists created photos representing the meaning of “home” in a free six-week workshop this summer under the direction of Portland State University professor Emily Fitzgerald. The photos will be displayed through the month of December in the Community Voices exhibition at the Blue Sky Gallery at 122 Northwest 8th Avenue in Portland. This project was funded by Metro and organized by EngAGE Northwest, a nonprofit providing intergenerational arts, wellness and educational programs to affordable housing communities.
Terrace Glen
About 300 people from a variety of cultural backgrounds and ages live at Terrace Glen. All qualify for affordable housing.
Terrace Glen is located in Washington County, where the area median income, or AMI, for a household of one is $81,830, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Thirty percent AMI for a household of one is calculated as $24,780 and 60% as $49,560. The monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment at Terrace Glen for 30% AMI is set at $615 and 60% AMI is set at $1,279.
Community members take a photo of a Terrace Glen family.
Terrace Glen has been open for about a year and a half. It offers 144 different-sized units, including space for intergenerational families with grandparents. Three units provide permanent supportive housing with Home Plate Youth Services for people ages 18 to 24. Pets are allowed and all units have air conditioning.
EngAGE Northwest and affordable housing
EngAGE Northwest provides free on-site programs in the arts, lifelong learning and well-being at Terrace Glen and five other apartment buildings, helping residents build a sense of community and stability.
Laura Spidell, executive director of EngAGE Northwest, enjoys getting to know the people at Terrace Glen. Residents include families, single elders, immigrants and refugees. She describes the building as having a positive atmosphere and phenomenal art spaces.
“The main focus is on the arts with benefits to the creative process and building community,” Spidell said. “We have a stable environment for residents to form relationships and connections to other tenants in the building. There is a chance for residents to get to know each other on a different level.”
EngAGE Northwest originated in California before expanding into Oregon in 2016. Its focus was on aging and affordable senior communities. Eventually, services evolved into family housing and intergenerational programming, Spidell said.
The photography workshop brought people together at Terrace Glen. These cross-cultural and intergenerational connections built friendships and mutual respect, according to participants.
Jasmine Werner’s story
When Werner first moved here, she missed her family and said it was hard to find ingredients for her Puerto Rican cuisine. She remembers the diversity of her upbringing in New York.
“My grandmother only spoke Spanish, and her best friend only spoke Chinese, but they played dominoes every Sunday,” Werner said. “They loved each other and treated each other with respect regardless of culture.”
Through the photography workshop, Werner has discovered the diversity of the Terrace Glen community. She had been isolating herself because of trauma but now has made connections with her neighbors and put down roots. She formed friendships with Rose Cavara, Carmen Perez-Anderson and Anna Perez, three sisters over the age of 50 who are also Puerto Rican.
A photo by Jasmine Werner for the exhibition, “Home is where little hands touch our hearts.”
One goal of EngAGE Northwest programming is to connect individuals across generations. The workshop was open to all ages, and the youngest attendee was eight years old.
“When I started initially with the project, I felt displaced and didn’t want to be here,” Werner said. “I started with photos of what home meant. It is my kids and making memories. Getting to know my neighbors and what they felt like home was opened my eyes and warmed my heart. Home is what you make it. Home is the warmth of everybody around you.”
She now volunteers for events at Terrace Glen and participates in art activities with her children, like recently making cards with uplifting messages to give to others.
“To have a part in making other people feel like home made me feel like home,” Werner said.
Stories from the sisters
Perez, Cavara and Perez-Anderson share an apartment at Terrace Glen. In the workshop, they each created their own interpretation of the theme of “home.”
Perez, 59, said home means four things. First, her family is most important. She fondly remembers her parents, who were married for 71 years. The second part is the group of friends and parents from her time as a preschool teacher. The next part includes her godchildren and their families. The future of her home is with her fiance.
“I enjoyed the class and learned a lot,” Perez said. “I see scenery and surroundings differently because of what Emily taught us. Home could be any part of what you have in your heart.”
When Perez lost her job a few years ago, she became homeless, and her sisters gave her a roof over her head so she wouldn’t have to live in her car.
“I have lived at Terrace Glen for a year and three months,” Perez said. “The people here are so warm and welcoming. When Emily was teaching, she shared photos of her family. She made us feel so comfortable we could share anything. She even made us feel like she was part of our family.”
At 70, Cavara is the oldest sister. She is enjoying this chapter in her life and said she now knows what to look for when she takes photos. She got to know some of her neighbors more, including Werner and her children, who always give her hugs.
Different ages brought new perspectives to the class. Cavara remembers a teenager asking if home could be a person, and she enjoyed that exchange of ideas. She recalls a little boy in the class telling her about his Muslim religion. Before the class, Cavara had never spoken to him, but now they always greet each other in the building.
Perez-Anderson, who is 68 years old, improved her picture-taking skills when she joined the class with her sisters.
“It was a very educational program,” Perez-Anderson said. “I’m the type of person who would cut people’s heads off when I took photos. The class was an excellent thing for me because I learned how to take pictures, and I see things differently when I take pictures. I learned how to take pictures without cutting people’s heads off.”
Perez-Anderson is part of a safety committee at the building. About living with her sisters, she said she wouldn’t change it for the world. For Perez-Anderson, home is comfort.
“Everybody needs a home, a safe place they can afford,” Spidell said. “We transform the physical building into a community. We help them to experience new things. They loved the photo class and it was great to see the transformation, thinking about the world differently and thinking about home differently. We get people to have exchanges and learn about each other and have a new perspective.”
Photo workshop
When Fitzgerald facilitated the workshop, she started with sensory activities. She asked people to draw a map of their home with everything in it. They thought about their home through the senses; what it looks like, sounds like and smells like.
People brought recipes and family photos that were meaningful to them. Perez-Anderson and her sisters shared old photos of their mother making over 100 tamales at her kitchen table.
Fitzgerald supplied participants with simple pocket-size Ilford Sprite film cameras to use in class. The photographers could focus on light, color, shape, texture, lines and general composition. The photographers created black-and-white 35mm film images and written reflections. Fitzgerald processed and printed the film.
“This is what I would call a socially engaged photo workshop, using art to tell stories collaboratively,” Fitzgerald said. “There was a lot of writing and mapping and different conversation-based exercises.”
Fitzgerald printed people’s images and showed them to the class. Everyone weighed in, starting the discussion with the person who took the photo.
“A general intimacy was built in the group with depth and levels of introspection and reflection,” Fitzgerald said. “The camera is a tool for observation, for seeing the world and slowing down. Some started opening up, and I could see their world through images. There was lots of engagement and community building and desire to share with one another.”
Fitzgerald’s experience with photography started with years of freelancing and has changed over time. One year ago, she started a tenure-track, full-time position at Portland State University. Prior to that, she taught in adjunct positions. Ten years ago, Fitzgerald went to graduate school and shifted to a more traditional approach to photography. Her work became more socially engaged and collaborative.
“A lot of my practice and research is about making photos with people rather than of people,” Fitzgerald said. “I am interested in self-representation and collaborative storytelling and using camera and images as tools to build intimacy, empathy and more authentic observation.”
Fitzgerald creates structures and spaces that utilize images as a tool for understanding alternative approaches and methods to image making.
“I love working with images. It’s an opportunity to see the world through someone else’s eyes,” Fitzgerald said. “The act of making images can take someone from an active participant to being an observer. They can also be a tool for connection, critical conversation and dynamic understanding of lived experience. That happened in the workshop.”
Fitzgerald’s work has been shown at the Contemporary at Blue Star in San Antonio, Texas and The Community for Positive Aging in Portland, according to her bio. Her photos have been displayed at TriMet bus stops, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School and other public places. Support for her work has included grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Regional Arts & Culture Council.
Metro’s part
Metro provides a number of publicly funded programs in the Portland area for people to share their stories and insights. The Community Voices project, with $9,000 in Metro funding, is part of this effort.
Residents in the Glen Terrace Apartments brought forward the meaning of home through photography and the written word. Funding for the apartments and this project came from the voter-approved Metro affordable housing bond in 2018. More than 5,000 bond-funded affordable homes are being built across the region, according to Metro.
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