Walking the streets of Albina today, you might never guess that the neighborhood was once the beating heart of Portland’s soul music scene. For most of the 20th century, this area was home to a majority of the city’s Black population, a community anchored by a vibrant live music scene and a fleet of Black-owned venues and nightclubs. While decades of institutionalized discrimination and a series of misguided infrastructure projects irreversibly warped the once close-knit neighborhood, Albina’s musical legacy lives on with the help of a free mobile app and…
