The following description comes from the event organizer.

VOICES, A BIPOC Adoptee Reading
Join us for an incredible evening of storytelling and connection at the Ellyn Bye Studio Theater in Portland, OR, USA. This in-person event features BIPOC adoptee authors who will share their unique perspectives through prose and poetry. Don't miss this opportunity to listen, learn, and connect with fellow community members. We can't wait to see you there!

ABOUT THE EVENT
Constellation is beyond thrilled to announce this beautiful collaboration, featuring these amazingly talented BIPOC adoptee authors:

Shannon Gibney - (shannongibney.com / @shannonelainegibney)
Susan Ito - (thesusanito.com / @thesusanito)
Sam Roxas-Chua - (samroxaschua.com / @samroxaschua)
Alice Stephens - (famousadoptedpeople.com / @alicestephensbooks)
Angela Tucker - (angelatucker.com / @angieadoptee)

This event is brought to you in partnership with VOICES, a BIPOC Adoptee Community, the Starlings Collective, and The Adoptee Lit Festival with the consistent, enthusiastic, and generous support of the amazing folks who host our regular monthly events: Tin House Writer’s Workshop and Bishop & Wilde, a local queer-owned bookstore, who will provide the book sales for this event.

***Big thanks to author Alice Stephens for helping start and organize this event and for helping moderate the author conversation! XO


📋 AGENDA 📋
Doors open at 6:30. Event starts at 7pm. Book signings and community connection after readings.
Schedule TBA


✅ NOTE TO NON-ADOPTED COMMUNITY MEMBERS ✅
Please see our Do’s and Don’ts Ally guide. This event is meant to be a safe, inclusive space for all BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, and disabled members of our community. Demeaning, discriminatory, insulting, or harassing language or actions will not be tolerated and will be swiftly and seriously handled.


♿️ ACCESSIBILITY
Portland Center Stage offers wheelchair accessible seating in all of their performances spaces. If you or your guests require a special seating arrangement, please contact us so that we can find you an appropriate seat. All levels of the building have elevator access and ADA accessible restrooms. For other accessibility questions or comments, please get in touch, and we will do the best we can to answer questions and meet your needs. constellationreading@gmail.com


🚙 A WARNING ABOUT PARKING 😖
Street parking by Portland Center Stage can be tough. Please give yourself plenty of time to find parking. There is a parking garage right across the street at NW 11th and Davis.


💸 DONATIONS, TRUST, AND AUTONOMY 💸
This event is FREE. (Mark $0.00 when you get your ticket!) Constellation is about building community and being together; this special event centers BIPOC adoptees, who are a unique, hard-to-find community. We want to eliminate barriers to community.

However, if you would like and are able to redistribute your funds / donate to support this event and our ongoing programming, we will gladly accept it – but it is our deep intention that no community member feels pressure to contribute monetarily! We respect you and trust that you know your own resources and situations best.

Note: For this event, all donations will go directly to authors and performers as a gift of thanks in addition to the operations costs of event production, such as bookseller time, food, drink, and technical assistance and to the VOICES, a BIPOC Adoptee Community for operations support. 


🙏 SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS 🙏
A huge thank you to Portland Center Stage (shout out to Jonas!) for the generous donation of the space (including labor!). Our hearts are filled right up for this support!

We are also being supported by the Region Arts and Culture Council who are providing funds to help provide food and drinks and small stipends for readers. This event is also supported by Travel Portland for supplementary funding to help with remaining fees for the venue. Thank you, thank you!



😷 OUR COVID POLICY 😷
We continue to monitor COVID-19 in relation to our events. We use guidance from Multnomah County and the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Please make your own informed choices about masking, travel, on-site behavior, and community engagement – but understand that we are a group that centers the overall health and wellness of our community. We ask that you prioritize others and stay home if you are not feeling well, testing positive for COVID, or are recovering from COVID and still testing positive, even if you no longer have symptoms.

We believe it is the just, compassionate, socially responsible, and ethical choice to be vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 (unless you have a medical exception).

Please direct questions to constellationreading@gmail.com.



CONSTELLATION IS...
Constellation is an on-going, once-monthly reading series in Portland, OR that meets every second Thursday of each month (no readings in July and Dec) at Bishop & Wilde / Tin House. Our goal is to cultivate a diverse, intersectional community space for people who love reading and writing. As much of a community-building space as a space to hear amazing literature, we provide food and beverages before and after the reading, so the community can socialize, connect with old friends and make new friends. For the most up-to-date information and to get a better sense of the series, check out our Constellation Instagram.