Pogo (they/them)
Pogo is a 59-year-old nonbinary person who lives in a small town in eastern Oregon, approximately 50 miles from Boise, Idaho. After spending more than two decades in Los Angeles, where they worked in the entertainment industry, Pogo returned to rural Oregon to care for their aging father and uncle. Their ties to the region, however, extend much further back. Pogo spent their childhood immersed in and nurtured by Boise’s gay community in the 1970s, where they experienced firsthand the power of queer community, mutual support, and activism. Among the people who helped shape their early experiences was their babysitter, a transgender woman.An artist and activist, Pogo uses their art as a means of self-expression and to foster connection within their rural community. Their creative practice is also part of a broader effort to build community while navigating the complexities of visibility, belonging, and recognition as a Sansei (third-generation Japanese American) of Japanese and Welsh descent whose family survived the Heart Mountain and Tule Lake prison camps, both within and beyond queer communities. Drawing on the community support and activism they witnessed and experienced as a child in Boise, Pogo carries those formative lessons into their work today, cultivating connection and resisting recurring political efforts to target queer, trans, and other minoritized communities.Audio Stories | Transcripts
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