Conversation and Book Giveaway with Taylor Stewart and Sarah Sanderson
Taylor Stewart, founder and Executive Director of the Oregon Remembrance Project and Sarah Sanderson, author of The Place We Make: Breaking the Legacy of Legalized Hate, will be discussing sundown towns and how we tangibly reconcile that history, as well as the effects that manifest in the present day, including here in Lake Oswego.
Guests
Taylor Stewart is the founder and Executive Director of the Oregon Remembrance Project (ORP). He is a lifelong Portlander and graduated from the University of Portland in 2018 with a degree in Communication and a Master’s in Social Work from Portland State University in 2021. Taylor started the ORP in 2018 to help communities unearth stories of injustice and engage in the necessary truth telling and repair required to reconcile instances of historical harm. His work connects historical racism to its present-day legacies in order to inspire contemporary racial justice action. In what started as simply a way to memorialize a man named Alonzo Tucker, the most widely documented African American victim of lynching in Oregon, Taylor has grown to see the power of reconciliation to rectify further instances of historical injustice. He gave a TED Talk with TEDx Portland in 2022 titled “How do you reconcile a lynching?” which applies the three R’s of reconciliation—remembrance, repair, and redemption—to the lynching of Alonzo Tucker. His work now extends to cover other stories of historical injustice in Oregon.
Sarah L. Sanderson’s first book is The Place We Make: Breaking the Legacy of Legalized Hate (WaterBrook; on-sale 8/15/23). She holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative nonfiction from Seattle Pacific University, a master’s in teaching from Seattle University, and a bachelor of English and philosophy from Wheaton College. She was born in Oregon and returned there eight years ago, after living in various places. Sarah now lives with her family south of Portland near Oregon City and her pursuits include writing, speaking, teaching creative writing, learning to pray, and building the beloved community. Her writing has appeared in PBS Newshour and Christianity Today. Visit her at www.sarahlsanderson.com and Instagram.com/sarahlsandersonwriter.