Hello! I am alive, well, and at the Q Center forever and ever -Carin Carrion, BFA Illustration 2025

Hi! This blog post has been crazy belated since starting my internship at the Q Center but WOW it has been lively, to say the least. During my first week (around June 5th), I got situated at my desk and started preparing Google Forms, getting introduced to my coworkers, and the projects I could start working on. This included working on logo designs for the Q Center’s Marsha P. Johnson fund, which is a community fund that offers microgrants to transgender Black and Indigenous people. I made some sketches and after discussing with my coworkers, I will be working on a finalized version of the sketch where she is holding the flower bouquet!

My first week’s adventures did not stop there, while on a break with my coworkers Julie and Ryley, I saw tiny horses attached to antique horse posts on the sidewalk, they were very cute! The Q Center is located on Mississippi Avenue and there are many local businesses such as a taxidermy shop that could potentially rival RISD’s own collection!

Speaking of local business during the first week a local pizza business called Wild Child Pizza came in and gave my coworkers and I this DELICIOUS rainbow pizza. They held a special fundraiser for the Q Center by donating a percentage they earned from the rainbow pizzas to the center. Purple was onions dyed with beets, blue was pineapple combined with citrus to make it blue, green and yellow were bell peppers, orange was seasoned squash, and red was pepperoni! Wild Child Pizza would not be the only place holding fundraisers for the Q Center during Pride month, a few weeks later a local vegan ice cream place called Kate’s Ice Cream would hold a fundraising event both at their shop and the Q Center, but I plan to touch on that event on my next blog post!

On the Saturday of my first week there also was a fundraising concert event on the weekend with music artist Bobby Jo Valintine. There I had the opportunity to talk with a volunteer named Josie, who is a local queer elder, drag king, and artist in Portland, they are also Puerto Rican! We talked about our experience growing up in Puerto Rican families and how LGBTQIA+ culture has changed or shifted, especially in finding spaces of community.

At the concert event, I helped out setting up the outside area, trained volunteers on using the online donation system, and processed donations. Bobby Jo Valentine’s performance was lovely! Bobby Jo mentioned he made a song as a hint for a past partner of his to propose to him. Later on, he would perform the song at weddings, and in the audience was a couple he had played for in the past! While the performance was happening I was sketching people at the event when there was time. ANYWAY thank you for tuning in! I’m hoping in blog post #3 I can talk about my adventure curating a gallery show at Portland Pride Waterfront Festival this weekend, but alas there is still so much internship lore I must blog about before then MUAHAHAHAHA!