This is a free, all-ages event. Advanced registration is required. Participants are encouraged to join us for a half hour before the event, from 12:30-1:00 p.m., for optional conversation and socializing. 

Register for this workshop. 

No matter who we are or where we live, we all have the capacity to move the needle of change in our communities. This is a workshop about taking action for people who may not yet see themselves as activists.

In this workshop we’ll explore a collective approach to tackling local issues with the help of Randal Wyatt, a lifelong Portland resident who created Taking Ownership PDX, an organization which renovates and revives Black-owned homes and businesses. Drawing from years of community organizing, Randal will guide us in thinking about the specific issues impacting our communities and help us collaborate on designing grassroots models to address them. We will also explore how we can connect our own initiatives to other solutions—those imagined by our fellow participants as well those taking shape in our communities right now—and to grow our reach and our impacts.

This workshop is a chance to dig in, ditch the bureaucratic red tape, and contribute to multi-faceted solutions to pressing local challenges—all while sharing perspectives and lifting up others who want to do the same. Let’s imagine the actions we can take, starting today, starting together. 

Venue and workshop details

• Works Real Estate is a wheelchair-accessible venue. 
• This venue has one gender-neutral ADA-accessible restroom. 
• Public transportation: This venue can be accessed by the Max Yellow line and the 4 and 44 bus routes.
• Participants can expect to be seated for the majority of this workshop (excluding breaks). Comfortable seating will be available for all participants. 
• There will be 1-2 breaks throughout the workshop. Participants are encouraged to break as needed for their own comfort.
• Beverages and light snacks will be provided. 

Register for this workshop. 

About the presenter 

Randal Wyatt is a lifelong Portland resident who grew up in both southeast and northeast Portland, where he witnessed gentrification transpire firsthand and was directly impacted by it. As a biracial Black man, he struggled with identity until he discovered a love for hip hop and a talent for emceeing and songwriting. He continues to use hip hop as a platform to voice his experiences and world views and has gained quite a following in the Pacific Northwest over the last twenty years. He has performed around the Northwest and West coast with his former band Speaker Minds and as a solo artist. He learned early that it is not enough to talk about injustices and that one must be active in their community to try and combat these issues. He has organized several programs ranging from workshops that teach youth about hip hop culture while giving them access to studios and venues, to coordinating a Measure 11 education curriculum and reform/repeal effort. His philanthropic efforts through hip hop also landed him a ten-year career as a counselor, mentor, advocate, and community engagement specialist for youth from marginalized communities.

Taking Ownership and PDX Housing Solidarity Project are his latest projects to aid the Black community in a city that has historically and continually displaced and ignored their needs. Taking Ownership provides reparations in the form or free repairs and financial assistance for Black homeowners and small business owners. PDX Housing Solidarity Project was born from a reparations-based homebuying transaction involving him and an ally that resulted in him acquiring a large sum of equity. He and the seller organized a platform for privileged allies to donate funds and resources to aspiring Black and Indigenous homebuyers. He received his bachelor’s degree in social science with a double minor in Black Studies and Sociology, and the knowledge he’s gained in those studies have helped him create the reparation and community-based platforms that serves the Black community he loves in Portland. His work has gotten him recognized as a Hometown Hero by the Portland Trail Blazers and he received the Trailblazer Award from Portland Hip-Hop Week for setting the bar and being an example for Hip Hop to thrive.