Preserving Albina’s Black arts and cultural legacy.
archive
community
What is the Community Archive?Preserving Black Portland through music, memory, and material history.
Albina Music Trust's community archive is dedicated to preserving the historic Black music and cultural legacy of Albina—long recognized as the heart of Black Portland. Built through community collaboration and care, the archive documents the musicians, venues, families, events, and everyday moments that shaped Albina’s music and social life. It exists to ensure these materials and stories are not lost, misrepresented, or separated from the people who lived them.
Archive Collection
Albina Music Trust is the only full service community archive in the United States dedicated to the revitalization of a Black community’s historic music culture.
Our community archive houses more than 13,000 items from over 180 private and organizational collections, making it the largest archive dedicated to Black Oregonians’ cultural legacy in the state. These materials span decades and genres, reflecting the depth and diversity of Albina’s Black History.
Why It Matters
For generations, Albina’s Black musicians helped shape Portland’s cultural identity—often without recognition in leading institutions. Albina Music Trust’s community archive exists to correct that absence.
This is a living archive. Materials are gathered through collaboration and consent. Contributors remain connected to their contributions, and the community remains core to the ways in which these historic materials are shared.
Our community archive is not just about the past—it is a resource for education, creativity, and intergenerational connection today.
A Living Resource
This community archive is activated through Albina Music Trust’s programs—exhibits, radio, concerts, walking tours, and conversations—bringing archived materials back into public life.
Each photo, recording, or document is part of a larger story: a family tree of musicians, neighbors, mentors, and cultural leaders whose influence continues to shape Black Portland.
Contribute to the Archive
If you have photographs, recordings, fliers, documents, or stories connected to Albina’s music community, we would love to hear from you.
Nothing enters the Archive without conversation and consent. Contributions help ensure Albina’s cultural history is preserved for future generations.