Portland Taiko conducts ongoing community building and outreach projects in the local Portland region and throughout Oregon as part of its mission. Two primary programs help us to achieve our mission in this area:
1) The Community Performance Outreach Project (CPOP)
2) Community-Based Creative Process
Portland Taiko’s Community Performance Outreach Project (CPOP)
From its origins in Japan, taiko has been a catalyst for bringing the community together--in times of crisis and in celebration. We are excited to be continuing that tradition today with the Community Performance Outreach Project (CPOP). CPOP is an ongoing effort by Portland Taiko to collaborate with community-based organizations as Project Partners. We hope to reach new and underserved audiences and to build bridges between our group and others working to strengthen our communities, through awareness and respect for the cultural diversity of Oregon. Through selected performances at events and celebrations hosted by our Project Partners, CPOP increases opportunities for Oregonians to attend, appreciate and to participate in Asian American performing arts. We are able to offer assistance to a limited number of groups to supplement their organization’s budget to include Portland Taiko as part of an upcoming event or celebration that advances their work.
Project Partners are community-based organizations working with constituencies that are new and underserved audiences for taiko, such as those from the Asian American community, other communities of color, low-income people and other minorities. The organizations that serve those constituencies are the groups that have the networks and know-how to make events in their communities successful. Project partners play a key role in mobilizing their constituencies and in arranging event logistics. PT supports these efforts with consultation and outreach assistance.
CPOP has enabled PT to introduce the power of taiko to over 65,000 people through dozens of community organizations and events--people who might not otherwise have access to Taiko. If you are interested in building new bridges between communities through multicultural arts and the dynamic voice of the taiko and would like to know more about the details of the project, please contact us.
CPOP 2002-2003 is, in part, funded by the Black United Fund of Oregon, the Collins Foundation, and the PGE Foundation. Past foundation support has included: The Equity Foundation, the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation, the Oregon Community Foundation, and the Spirit Mountain Community Fund.
Community-Based Creative Process
Over the years Portland Taiko has developed a unique process to work with the community in creating taiko works that address pressing issues of the Asian American and broader communities.
To date, this process has produced four pieces: Onkochishin (exploring intergenerational issues), Bamboo Bridges (about the relationship between the Japanese American and Filipino American communities), Questions of Loyalty (about the internment of Japanese Americans and the division it created within the JA community), and Rock The Boat (a creative response to racism targeting Asian Americans).
These community-based projects:
1. strengthen a sense of unity and identity among diverse Asian American communities by exposing both the stereotypes that target us and the cultural dictates that limit us;
2. involve community members in creating new performance pieces as a response; and
3. share these works with other Asian Americans, people of color, progressive communities, and the broader public.
JOIN Portland Taiko Fans for updates on performances, events, classes & workshops!