Skip to Main Content View Text-Only

The City of Portland, Oregon

Nick Fish (In Memoriam)

City of Portland Commissioner

phone: 503-823-3589

Email: nick@portlandoregon.gov

1221 S.W. 4th, Room 240, Portland, OR 97204

Celebrating the 2019 “Spirit of Portland” Awards

October 17, 2019

Tuesday night, Nick was honored to celebrate outstanding Portlanders at the 2019 Spirit of Portland Awards.

Every year, Nick selects an individual to receive an award. This year, he honored Renee Mitchell. Renee is a longtime community leader, artist, and teacher; a domestic and sexual abuse survivor and advocate; and a social justice champion.

Renee is perhaps best known for her 10 years at The Oregonian, where she was nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize for her twice-weekly Metro columns. Renee also organized Portland’s first conference of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Today, Renee heads her own company, Renee Mitchell Speaks, where she weaves together her love of writing, performance, and the arts to positively impact our community. She is the also the Founder and Director of Spit/WRITE, a youth writing, performance, and mentoring initiative. She also serves on Portland Parks and Recreation’s Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center Community Advisory Committee.

You can see the complete list of recipients here.

Congratulations to all of last night’s honorees!