Brooke Jackson Glidden

Jan 13, 2025 | pdxmonthly.com | Brooke Jackson Glidden

A decade ago, a group of Portland artists and community members began to develop an idea for an event in the style of Lyon, France’s Fête des Lumières or Edinburgh, Scotland’s Hogmanay. In 2016, the Portland Winter Light Festival glowed for the first time along Southeast Portland’s waterfront. Some 30,000 attendees over four nights meandered through a collection of around 30 light-based art pieces and sculptures, animated lighting towers and works shaped like paper airplanes.

Dec 16, 2024 | pdxmonthly.com | Brooke Jackson Glidden

On July 13, 2024, Portland chef, business owner, and industry advocate Naomi Pomeroy drowned in a tubing accident. She was 49. Pomeroy’s name was “synonymous with Portland’s independent food scene,” in the words of Portland Monthly restaurant critic Karen Brooks. Upon her death, everyone from US Rep. Earl Blumenauer to had something to say about Pomeroy’s dedication to her craft and community, her inspirational passion and creativity, and her determination as a leader and activist.

Dec 10, 2024 | pdxmonthly.com | Brooke Jackson Glidden

In January 2024, an ice storm pummeled the city in sleet, freezing rain, and snow that left Portland roads slippery and, in many cases, unpassable. There were at least eight fatalities in Multnomah County alone, and the lengthy cold snap meant power outages, lost income, and costly home repairs, due in part to burst water pipes. Multnomah County warming shelters served more people than ever before, and locals landed in emergency rooms for cold-related illnesses and falls.

Dec 3, 2024 | pdxmonthly.com | Brooke Jackson Glidden

In 1875, Nils Fredrik Palmquist, a Swede previously living in Kansas, moved to Oregon and settled on a farm near present-day Gresham. His brother soon followed, and eventually, a growing population of Swedes grew the farm into Powell Valley, the state’s first Swedish settlement. In the early twentieth century, Astoria, Oregon, was home to the largest settlement of Finns west of the Mississippi; by 1905, 18 percent of Astoria’s total population was Finnish.

Nov 25, 2024 | pdx.eater.com | Brooke Jackson Glidden

When trying to track down top-tier tamales, there are more places to look than your local Mexican restaurant. Tamale vendors outside grocery stores and gas stations have sold corn-husk-wrapped gold for decades, filling moist, pillowy masa with everything from chicken mole to Oaxacan cheese. In Portland, you’ll find tamales across the city and in its surrounding suburbs — on restaurant menus, at food carts, in the deli cases of Mexican markets, and out of coolers.