Program Schedule

The 2022/2023 BSTRONG Unfiltered program will focus on:

• the policy and history of tobacco commercialization targeted specifically to Black communities,

• its relationship to slave labor and agricultural production, and

• how we archive its history for our self-reclamation.

This program is a collaboration between three Learning Hubs: BSTRONG Learning Hub, Feed’em Freedom Farm, and Mayo House ARTchives.

The BSTRONG Hub

The Hub’s Youth Educators will engage youth in oral histories with Black community members on the predatory practices of the tobacco industry and current policies to protect our community from tobacco’s harmful advertising.

In collaboration with a community-based videographer, students will use audio and video equipment to record community stories on how tobacco has impacted our community.

The Feed’em Freedom Farm

At the farm, youth educators will engage youth to explore the exploitation of Black slave labor in tobacco’s agricultural production, how Black lives and labor continue to be exploited for tobacco’s growth, and how despite ancestral ties to agriculture, Black people have been dispossessed and alienated from it.

Youth will develop a Tik Tok channel that reflects on their relationship to the land as they reclaim a legacy of agrarianism and critique how the tobacco industry has preyed on Black and African American people since the1600s – from slavery to vaping.

The Mayo House ARTchives

In co-creation with the other hubs, youth will develop educational zines to archive and provide civic outreach in our community.

Zine development will be supported by a community-based artist, printed and made available at community events, including the annual Black Student Success Summit

Instructors will introduce the youth to research methods collaborating with the City of Portland archives, the Portland State University special collections, and the Oregon Black Pioneers.