Changing the Narrative: Epilogue

Epilogue contributors include: Kacy McKinney, Olivia DelGandio, Shaun H., Kimberléa Ruffu, McKensi Payne, Valerie W., Gigi Woolery, Liz Yerby, India Wynne, Quinn C. Amacher, Lee J., Erika Rier, Fran Power, Arantza Peña Popo, J., Christina Tran, Daniela Ortiz Mendez, Jai Milx

In addition to the above, Changing the Narrative contributors and research team members also included: Mike Bautista, Chitra , Marin Jurgens, Megan, Alana LSJ, E., Chitra, Abigail Mavity, Aven Handley-Merk, and Sarah Joan Salvador

This is a research project that led to an exhibition and a book. It is an arts-based impact assessment of the original research project and series of comics, Changing the Narrative: Stories of Student Homelessness and Housing Instability. In 2022, we completed more than 30 hours of interviews and a complex process of collaborative comics production that led to an 82-page book. We partnered with Street Roots to publish that book, printing 6,000 copies which sold out in a matter of weeks. It was distributed by Street Roots vendors who received 100% of book sales. Those comics are again on view in Epilogue the exhibition. The third edition of Changing the Narrative is available for purchase, again with 100% of sales going to Street Roots vendors. We are honored that the new edition of Changing the Narrative features poems written by vendors as they reflected on that work.

Epilogue

For Epilogue, we invited everyone - the participants/storytellers, comic artists, and research team members - back to reflect on how the project impacted them personally, professionally, and creatively. We started with a series of interviews and then asked each person to use a medium of their choice to creatively reflect on these experiences. The result of that research is the following book and our exhibition at ILY2 Too, Lloyd Center Mall, Portland, OR in April and May 2024.

Co-curators Olivia DelGandio and Kacy McKinney at the Epilogue exhibition at ILY2 Too at Lloyd Center Mall. All photos by Mario Gallucci (2023).

I started Changing the Narrative: Stories of Student Homelessness and Housing Instability in 2020 while a volunteer and member of the Board of Directors of Sisters of the Road and a faculty member in Urban Studies & Planning at Portland State University. As an artist and scholar/educator committed to disrupting harmful narratives around who experiences homelessness and poverty and why, the idea of qualitative academic research using a collaborative process of comics production felt like something vitally important. I have been deeply moved by the generosity of the artists who have been brought together with this project. I am beyond excited to share this series of art that I believe pushes the bounds of academic research and will help to build empathy, an essential ingredient for changing the narrative to one of respect and dignity for all.

Kacy McKinney, Portland, 2024

About two and a half years ago, I interviewed Kacy McKinney, lead researcher of Changing the Narrative, for a job I had at the time. As she talked about the connections between art and research, and the power that storytelling has to change our lives, I felt something inside me shift. Finally, someone was putting it into words. So when she invited me to be a part of her research team, I jumped at the chance and have been working on this project ever since. To learn from Kacy, to learn from the participants in this project, and to learn at the intersection of research and art has been one of the most important experiences of my artistic career and I’m thrilled to finally share what we’ve been working on.

Olivia DelGandio, Portland, 2024