Theme: Iris

The iris informs how we see the world around us. It expands and contracts, controlling how much light our eyes receive, shaping our perspective.

It is also visually stunning. A hallmark of individuality and beauty, no two irises are the same. And no two perspectives are the same. Each person sees things differently, shaped by their own experiences and stories.

Despite these differences, when we take the time to look one another in the eye and listen - we may recognize what we share in common: the beauty, richness, and depth of experience that we each have to offer.

Roosevelt Theater
6941 N Central Street
Portland, Oregon, 97203
United States

Amenta Abioto

Musician

Amenta Abioto is a songwriter and producer from Memphis, TN and currently based in Portland, OR. In her one-woman performance, she builds vocal and instrumental loops from synth, drum machine, kalimba, and guitar creating atmospheric textures. Amenta surprises and tantalizes audiences with mind bending ideas while skipping vocally from soul-shaking gospel to smooth jazz. Her music is boldly mystical and soul-fired, and her raw live performances invoke elements of both theatrical surprise and magic through ancient African diasporic sounds and stories.

Brandi Tuck

Advocate for Homeless Families

Brandi Tuck is the founding Executive Director of Portland Homeless Family Solutions (PHFS), whose mission is to empower homeless families with children to get back into housing and stay there. Since 2007, Brandi has led PHFS' efforts to expand and improve their services in the community - increasing from a $78,000 budget and serving 125 kids and parents in 2007 to an over $3mil budget and helping over 1,100 kids and parents end their homelessness in 2019. Under Brandi's leadership, PHFS has been recognized by the Oregon Business Journal as one of Oregon's Top 100 Nonprofits to Work For every year since 2011. With over 15 years working with people experiencing homelessness, Brandi has become passionate about trauma informed care - the idea that we can help people better if we understand what's going on in the brain when someone experiences something as stressful as homelessness. PHFS is proud to open the first shelter in Oregon designed using trauma informed design and architecture.

Daria Eliuk

Storyteller

Daria Eliuk is a familiar voice in the Portland, Oregon entertainment world. In addition to her 20-year influence on Portland radio, Daria’s impact can be seen in the fields of television, comedy, commercial work, creative writing, and comedy performance. Her rootedness in the Portland community makes her a sought after EmCee for major events. As an entertainer, Daria has endured as a strong, confident, witty, intelligent, wry, and persuasive female voice. She is considered by poll and press to be Portland’s favorite radio personality. Over the last 20 years at Entercom Communications, Daria broke new ground by showcasing stand-alone daily short story segments. A lifelong, passionate and outspoken Straight LGBTQ ally, Daria is currently writing fantasy fiction for this market. Her storytelling podcast can be found at “Radio Free Daria”. Daria lives in SE Portland with her husband Dallas and their son Xander.

DeAngelo Raines

Creative Architect / Artist in Residence

DeAngelo works daily to bring his unique perspective to the narrative of Portland’s growing music and art scene. Previous projects include SERVICE, an underground, multi-functional venue space used for film, photography and events; and ART NOT CRIME, a community organization built to teach underserved youth fine art through the lens of street art and graffiti. DeAngelo works freelance as an event producer, creative, and art director for various local and globally recognized agencies; all while supporting new and emerging brands, artists, and music performers in their development. Additionally, DeAngelo is a contemporary artist, underground curator and DJ who sits on the board of directors for MusicPortland representing the nightlife art, music and entertainment community.

Fountaine .

Musician and Creative Artist

Fountaine is a North East Portland native, anime lover, and well-rounded creative. As a music artist and producer, he's independently released 4 instrumental tapes [Season 1: Android 17, IM TRYING, Blue? (Blue Questions), & Rain?] and 3 full-length LPs [Blak $ushi, Wisteria, & Hell for Infinite Losers] since his start as a solo artist in 2015. His music is filled with witty punchlines that reference meaningful cultural symbols from his upbringing, all while being mediated through his smooth lyrical delivery and exploratory production techniques. Fountaine's artistic platform is best experienced through his live performances, which are participatory in nature, that often call on audience members to engage with him and one another to invite feelings of openness, personal fulfillment, & self confidence. In 2019, Fountaine is prepping for his upcoming album S.O.N. (South of Nowhere) scheduled to be released in the second half of the year.

Garet Lahvis

Research Pioneer

Garet Lahvis is a pioneer in academic research on the mental experiences of laboratory mice and is an internationally recognized scientific expert on empathy. Using sophisticated behavioral experiments, his laboratory discovered that mice enjoy living with other mice and they can also feel their pain. Garet has studied ground squirrels, sea lions, dolphins, deer, and children and his research has informed cancer, surgery, and mental health. Garet recently left academic research to focus on what he sees as a growing divide between what society expects of science and what science can provide. He sees the mantra ‘scientists are figuring it out’ as a salve that disengages regular people outside the scientific community from engaging with the problems we face together as a society. He is concerned about how ideas that sound “scientific” can shape public thinking and believes scientists need direction from an informed and engaged public.

Jan Black

Author

Jan Black is the creator of Ludi-Q’s(R), an unconventional method and suite of products that open our eyes to the unspoken ludicrous questions behind our sorriest, scariest, and most frustrating situations and relationships. Her latest book, May I Screw Up Your Life?, is the official guide to Ludi-Q’s. Jan materializes brands, books, and content for leaders in many fields while also developing projects of her own. Leaders like Ben Krause of DisabledVets.org and Marydee Sklar of Executive Functioning Success have relied on Jan’s “soul to street” mastery to bring their breakthrough ideas to life. Jan is a best-selling author, as well as an artist, poet, songwriter, and speaker. One of her passion projects is OnlyWhileImHuman.com, a phrase that also underlines her life and work: “Only while I’m human can I, so I do.” Now’s her chance, and she’s taking it.

Jo Ann Hardesty

Citizen Representative

Jo Ann Hardesty grew up in Baltimore. She joined the Navy after high school and, as one of the first women to go on board ships, she traveled across the world. After the Navy, she decided to settle down and create a permanent home in Oregon because it had things she was looking for - the ability to be close to the water and mountains, and where she felt like she could really make a difference. After working as a community advocate for years, Jo Ann now serves as Portland City Commissioner with the belief that we need to take into account voices from every walk of life - especially those largely left out of city hall. She ran on the belief that we need to find commonality - that there’s an opportunity to not be divided by where one lives in the city, by economics, gender, race, sexual orientation or any other way that we can find division, but to be one Portland. That time is now.

Kevin Jones

Conversation Starter

Kevin E. Jones is the principal conjurer and co-creator of The August Wilson Red Door Project, a nonprofit using the arts to change racial ecology. As Artistic Director and CEO, Kevin brings decades of experience as a professional theatre artist and a communications consultant, whose approach utilizes systems thinking, cognitive mechanics, and organizational change theory. The Red Door’s ground-breaking production of Evolve is about racial profiling but from a multiplicity of perspectives that make it surprising, disarming and provocative. Evolve interweaves monologues from the New Black Fest’s Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments, written by African American playwrights, with those from the Red Door’s play, Cop Out: Beyond Black, White & Blue. Cop Out is written by playwrights commissioned to create monologues based on interviews with police. Kevin's work offers a new way to approach seemingly intractable issues in our hyper-divisive environment.

May Arden

Musician

May Arden is an innovative pop artist that strips down opera, amplifies it and plays it on aggressive acoustic guitar in the vein of Elliott Smith and Kurt Cobain. The result is a highly emotional, transportive and visceral experience.

Mercy M'Fon

Architect of Change

Mercy’s drive to form Wild Diversity came from the desire to support a robust community of POC & Queer outdoorists and be an architect of much needed change for diversity in the outdoor industry. She wanted a welcoming and safe place for her underrepresented communities to thrive. Mercy has over 15 years in community leadership as an educator and facilitator directly serving community. She has also traveled to over a dozen countries training and leading workshops as a roller derby coach to empower women to realize their potential. She brings that passion to the Wild Diversity community and is proud to be a part of community growth.

Shannon Walker

Advocate for Veterans

Fox News radio stations seem to think Shannon Walker is the go-to expert voice representing the power of a service-dog in the life of combat veterans. No wonder. Shannon Walker is the founder and CEO of Northwest Battle Buddies, a non-profit foundation that matches expertly trained service-dogs with combat veterans battling PTSD. Shannon’s spark comes from two loves: a deep love for dogs, and an overwhelming respect for our nation’s veterans. With 24 years as a professional dog trainer, Shannon holds both regional and international Schutzhund titles. She trains with police canine teams, rescue dogs and thousands of family pets. But, in 2011 a US veteran of the Iraq conflict changed everything by requesting Shannon’s help with his dog. Watching the transformation in this veteran ignited a desire to help others by eliminating barriers through matching service dogs with our American Heroes.