Future Prairie

Hello! I'm Joni Renee Whitworth. I'm a poet, performance artist, curator, and producer from rural Oregon. I've performed at The Moth, the Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts, and the Museum of Contemporary Art alongside Marina Abramovic. I served as the inaugural Artist in Residence at Portland Parks and Recreation, Poet in Residence for Oregon State University's Trillium Project, and 2020 Queer Hero for the Gay & Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest.

In 2018, I founded Future Prairie, the first queer art museum in the Pacific Northwest. Since then, our community of artists has grown to 65 artists and counting. We have 15 artists actively producing new work as members of our core collective. We are happy and thankful to be surviving and thriving during quarantine by coming together virtually to make art.

Our work centers the narratives of women, disabled, racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities, and low-income individuals. We host virtual artist residencies in beautiful downtown Portland, Oregon, and we pay marginalized artists to create art. Collectively we've released 5 award-winning short films, hosted 12 large-scale community-building events, published 25 issues of our online magazine, and released 62 episodes of our podcast, Future Prairie Radio.

Our multidisciplinary artist collective features poets, musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, authors, designers, activists, and intuitive healers. We believe artists have an opportunity to design and co-create a future that is inclusive and inspiring. Our work is grounded in community care. We believe art is a valid form of social and personal healing. We believe art is just one stroke of a broader suite of forward-looking societal upgrades, including access to nourishing food, a healthy environment, safe housing, and education.

We are hoping to raise $45,000 this year to distribute to our 15 core collective members in monthly $250 payouts. Supporting our work is one way to show solidarity with your community while improving material conditions for marginalized artists in Portland. With your support, we can continue to work together online during quarantine to read and write poetry, perform and share new work, share skills, and collaborate on new media projects. Join us and donate today!