Street Books and Portland City Archives collaborate to publish oral history

A collaboration between Portland-based nonprofit Street Books and the Portland City Archives recently culminated in the release of a new book. "Keeping the Flame of Love & Creativity Alive: A Collection of Oral Histories" highlights the history of Street Books and serves to document the stories of Portlanders who use its services.

"We've been connected with Portland City Archives for many years-beginning when the former archivist, Diana Banning, chose to highlight Street Books at the 2017 Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting," says Street Librarian Diana Rempe, who has been with the organization for 15 years in 2026. "In 2023, I met with their team about potentially doing a collaborative project and the oral history project was created!"

Street Books is a street library that provides community, resources, and advocacy for people living outside or at the margins in Portland-a community whose stories are often left out of the historical record. The organization, of the Office of Arts & Culture's 79 General Operating Support grantees for 2025-26, cultivates mutual relationships by showing up and meeting people where they are every week, rain or shine.

This project, which collected oral histories of 25 people between February 2024 and March 2025, provided an opportunity to share and preserve the life stories of individual Portlanders as a tool to amplify diverse experiences and memories of life in Portland.

"We always search for ways to include our patrons' words in our work," says Rempe. "But of course, we recognize that their voices are rarely included in the machinations of power-in decision-making, policy, and within the city's history. When the archivists asked us how we would like to partner with them, gathering stories from our patrons seemed like an excellent first step."

"Keeping the Flame of Love & Creativity Alive: A Collection of Oral Histories" is now available through the Street Books library, Multnomah County Library, and digitally through Portland City Archives.

Check out the digital book

_{Header photo courtesy of Street Books}