Write Around Portland

In 2022 Write Around Portland fully resumed our in-person programming alongside continued remote programming that began during the pandemic. We published two community anthologies, including our first publication since december 2019, which included all of the writing from workshops that took place between jan 2020 and april 2022. We also held two in-person readings in june and december 2022, the first since december 2019. We partnered with social service agencies in the community to identify the way they would like to bring writing to their communities and prioritized returning to in-person spaces for people who had been especially isolated or who had limited access to internet. We continued to offer our online sliding-scale workshops open to everyone and free bipoc workshops to offer a supportive space for black, indigenous and people of color to Write and share. We began applying our racial equity framework to policies and programming and relaunched our in-person volunteer program, welcoming volunteers to our office and into the community again. In total we held 115 workshops with 485 participants, had 103 volunteers contribute 1300 hours to our programs and welcomed 255 audience members to our readings. 2022 also brought staff transitions and new leadership, reinvigorating the team and the work. New energy has been infused into programming at all levels, and the community has been enthusiastic about our return to in- person work. We look forward to continuing these efforts to ensure writing in community is accessible to all.