Walk of Heroines worth a visit, additional names
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/anna_griffin/index.ssf/2009/09/walk_of_heroines_worth_a_visit.html
Unless you work or study at Portland State, it's possible to miss the Walk of the Heroines, a new public plaza just off the South Park Blocks and in front of Hoffman Hall. Still, you need to get there. Take your lunch break on one of the stone benches. Save a few minutes to read the names engraved into the curved granite walls.
Public spaces are important. We get that here in Portland, a city smart enough to turn a lousy old parking garage into Pioneer Courthouse Square. Communal gathering spots, no matter the size, give us a chance to think about the future and remember the past.
We're not so great at honoring the role women play in creating and maintaining our fair city. Part of the problem is that so much of the work women do is hard to summarize in a monument-ready sentence or two. Part is that women, by and large, often resist the urge to take credit.
Eleven years ago, PSU professors Janice Haaken and Johanna Brewer set out to memorialize the contributions women have made. The idea for a blocklong plaza grew out of some deep conversations about exactly what heroism means. Do you have to be a newsmaker? Does simply inspiring a girl to try something new qualify?
The list of almost 500 names etched into the walk includes the obvious heavy-hitters and public figures, women such as former Gov. Barbara Roberts, former U.S. Sen. Maurine Neuberger and Mother Joseph, the missionary who helped settle the Pacific Northwest. It also includes lesser-known names such as civil rights activists Beatrice Cannady, a founder of Portland's NAACP; inventor Josephine Cochran, creator of an early version of the automatic dishwasher; and Nancy Russell, who pushed to protect the Columbia River Gorge.
Large corporations and public institutions donated to the $2.7 million effort. So did families seeking to honor mothers or grandmothers.
"We didn't want it all to be white middle-class women from within the PSU community," said Haaken, a psychology professor. "We didn't want it to be one person's definition of a heroine, or even one group's. The goal is that it will be a repository for cultural meaning. I hope that doesn't sound too
academic."
Maybe just a smidge.
Raising the money to honor a collection of women from disparate backgrounds - versus just one person with one loyal constituency -- proved more difficult than organizers first thought, thus the 11-year gap between idea and finished product. The nonprofit managing the memorial still needs $340,000 to add art and build the outdoor stage that should be the plaza's centerpiece. Yet the June grand opening attracted several hundred people and packed plenty of emotion.
It's not perfect. There's a little too much gray and not enough green. PSU engineers are still working to win city permission to turn the fountain on full time. Although the walk contains almost 500 names, there are still some important omissions -two that come quickly to mind are author Beverly Cleary, and peace protestor and gay-rights activist Bonnie Tinker.
But the trees and plants just need time to grow, and there's plenty of room for more names. Now all Portland's newest public spaces needs is discovery. Take your lunch.
Better yet, take your daughter.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/anna_griffin/index.ssf/2009/09/walk_of_heroines_worth_a_visit.html
Unless you work or study at Portland State, it's possible to miss the Walk of the Heroines, a new public plaza just off the South Park Blocks and in front of Hoffman Hall. Still, you need to get there. Take your lunch break on one of the stone benches. Save a few minutes to read the names engraved into the curved granite walls.
Public spaces are important. We get that here in Portland, a city smart enough to turn a lousy old parking garage into Pioneer Courthouse Square. Communal gathering spots, no matter the size, give us a chance to think about the future and remember the past.
We're not so great at honoring the role women play in creating and maintaining our fair city. Part of the problem is that so much of the work women do is hard to summarize in a monument-ready sentence or two. Part is that women, by and large, often resist the urge to take credit.
Eleven years ago, PSU professors Janice Haaken and Johanna Brewer set out to memorialize the contributions women have made. The idea for a blocklong plaza grew out of some deep conversations about exactly what heroism means. Do you have to be a newsmaker? Does simply inspiring a girl to try something new qualify?
The list of almost 500 names etched into the walk includes the obvious heavy-hitters and public figures, women such as former Gov. Barbara Roberts, former U.S. Sen. Maurine Neuberger and Mother Joseph, the missionary who helped settle the Pacific Northwest. It also includes lesser-known names such as civil rights activists Beatrice Cannady, a founder of Portland's NAACP; inventor Josephine Cochran, creator of an early version of the automatic dishwasher; and Nancy Russell, who pushed to protect the Columbia River Gorge.
Large corporations and public institutions donated to the $2.7 million effort. So did families seeking to honor mothers or grandmothers.
"We didn't want it all to be white middle-class women from within the PSU community," said Haaken, a psychology professor. "We didn't want it to be one person's definition of a heroine, or even one group's. The goal is that it will be a repository for cultural meaning. I hope that doesn't sound too
academic."
Maybe just a smidge.
Raising the money to honor a collection of women from disparate backgrounds - versus just one person with one loyal constituency -- proved more difficult than organizers first thought, thus the 11-year gap between idea and finished product. The nonprofit managing the memorial still needs $340,000 to add art and build the outdoor stage that should be the plaza's centerpiece. Yet the June grand opening attracted several hundred people and packed plenty of emotion.
It's not perfect. There's a little too much gray and not enough green. PSU engineers are still working to win city permission to turn the fountain on full time. Although the walk contains almost 500 names, there are still some important omissions -two that come quickly to mind are author Beverly Cleary, and peace protestor and gay-rights activist Bonnie Tinker.
But the trees and plants just need time to grow, and there's plenty of room for more names. Now all Portland's newest public spaces needs is discovery. Take your lunch.
Better yet, take your daughter.
