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Kaia Sand

Executive Director

Kaia Sand
Motoya Nakamura

she/her

Kaia Sand became executive director of Street Roots in late 2017, two decades after she worked as a staff reporter for the Burnside Cadillac, the predecessor to Street Roots. In those subsequent 20 years, Sand worked as a poet, artist, community organizer, and university professor, focusing particularly on economic injustice and homelessness — from a magic show she created about the financial collapse to the Right 2 Survive Ambassador Program she co-founded for housed people to learn from people experiencing homelessness. She taught at Portland State University, Pacific University, Willamette University and St. Mary’s College of Maryland; co-founded Vignettes & Verses, a writing and personal history institute; and performed and taught internationally, including in England, Ireland and Brazil. She has widely exhibited her artwork and served in residencies, from a public art commision at the City of Portland Archives and Records Center to the Despina International Artist Residency in Rio de Janeiro. A  member of PEN America, she is author of three books of poetry — interval (a Small Press Traffic Book of the Year in 2004), Remember to Wave and A Tale of Magicians Who Puffed Up Money that Lost its Puff — and the co-author of Landscapes of Dissent: Guerrilla Poetry & Public Space. Two books in Jim Dine's Hot Dreams series are comprised of her text. In 2019 she was awarded a Spirit of Portland award by Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty; and in 2019, the regional Society of Professional Journalists small newsroom first prize for Best Column.

Articles by Kaia Sand

  • Street Roots
    A collage of Street Roots issue covers from 2022. Some of the covers are in black and white and others in color.

    Kaia Sand | Good journalism is worth the investment

    OPINION | Street Roots editorial team continues in-depth coverage in 2023
    By
    Kaia Sand
    January 4, 2023
  • Street Roots
    Street Roots vendor Joseph “White Cloud” Smits and his dog, Gabriel.

    Kaia Sand | Despite inhospitable conditions, unhoused communities harbor hope

    OPINION | Urban prosperity pairs with homelessness
    By
    Kaia Sand
    December 28, 2022
  • Street Roots
    Rick Davis smiles for a photo and holds issues of Street Roots Holiday Zine while standing in front of the Street Roots offices.

    Kaia Sand | ‘All I want for Christmas is a smile’

    OPINION | After 20 years without teeth, Rick Davis begins the journey toward dental implants with a new friend
    By
    Kaia Sand
    December 21, 2022
  • Street Roots
    Josephine Allen speaks into a microphone held by another person. Dan Ryan and Ted Wheeler listen to her speak while sitting at a table.

    Kaia Sand | Portland City Council is using a red state playbook

    Opinion | Republican-led legislatures roll out bans and government-sanctioned camps that look eerily similar to Wheeler’s plan
    By
    Kaia Sand
    December 13, 2022
  • Street Roots

    Kaia Sand | Street Roots vendors have a lot to teach about ‘Finding Joy in Chaos’

    OPINION | Street Roots’ 2022 Holiday Zine provides readers with lessons, affirmations and challenges to common misconceptions
    By
    Kaia Sand
    December 7, 2022
  • Street Roots
    Maddy Brown-Clark is wearing a face mask and glasses while she poses for the photo. She is holding newspapers.

    Kaia Sand | Funding Street Roots means funding hope

    OPINION | Street Roots’ winter fund drive is a critical time for the organization, homeless Portlanders and local journalism
    By
    Kaia Sand
    November 30, 2022
  • Street Roots
    Two people smile for a photo in front of a mural.

    Kaia Sand | Multnomah County offers constructive contrast to mayor’s plans for mass camps

    OPINION | The Behavioral Health Resource Center adds drop-in, showers, laundry and shelter
    By
    Kaia Sand
    November 23, 2022
  • Street Roots
    Many people are gathered at Blanchet House to testify on the camp ban

    Kaia Sand | Camping bans, mass camps will worsen Portland’s problems

    OPINION | Portland City Council’s camping-ban vote ignores concerns of unhoused Portlanders, undermines progress
    By
    Kaia Sand
    November 7, 2022
  • Street Roots
    A cover page of an October 2000 issue of Street Roots. Large text says, |Camping ban overturned."

    Kaia Sand | A quarter century of camping bans, sit-lie ordinances

    OPINION | Wheeler, Ryan proposal joins a long line of city actions countered by protests and lawsuits
    By
    Kaia Sand
    November 2, 2022
  • Street Roots
    A black banner with white text says, "house keys not handcuffs" on a red background.

    Kaia Sand | Wheeler, Ryan, you are cordially invited to a town hall. Please RSVP.

    OPINION | It is the best of plans, it is the worst of plans: Talk to those impacted before voting to change their lives
    By
    Kaia Sand
    October 26, 2022

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