“World domination, that’s our goal!” says Kate Sokoloff, who is no slouch of an idealist. As an active citizen and a unique contributor to Portland life and culture, Kate is delighted with the ever-increasing success she is experiencing from her labor of love, Live Wire Radio. Kate Sokoloff has a huge passion for the arts and has been affiliated with many local organizations in the entertainment business including The Portland Revels, Mississippi Studios, Ensemble Loupan, and Theatre Productions. Most notably, however, she is known as the executive producer and artistic director of Live Wire Radio on Oregon Public Broadcasting. (more…)
Chiyo was born in Orient, Oregon to Japanese parents. Before she was two years old, her family moved to Portland, settling in the northwest downtown area known as “Japan Town” because of its heavily concentrated Japanese population. The Nomis established a restaurant there, and Chiyo graduated from Lincoln High School in 1939. As tensions increased between Japan and the United States, the Nomis remained informed about those events because their restaurant was located only a block away from the Japanese American Citizens League [JACL] office. Later Chiyo wrote that the JACL “workers would come in and review the day’s happening[s].” In 1942, the Nomis, along with hundreds of other Japanese families living in the western states, were evacuated under Executive Order 9066. Portland families were initially interned at the Portland Assembly Center, an area that had been recently converted from the city stockyards. (more…)
Born to Chinese parents in Portland, Betty experienced racial discrimination from an early age. As a young girl, she was the target of racial slurs when she was mistaken for a Japanese girl. Her parents had to petition to be allowed the services of a realtor when they decided to buy their home in Northeast Portland. Of the two thousand students in her high school, Betty was one of only two minority students. She was blackballed when she attempted to enter a sorority while attending the University of Oregon. Later she learned that a friend quit a sorority because of the treatment Betty received. (more…)
