As the nation celebrates Pride Month, the city is reviving a downtown park and recognizing the queer community in the most Portland way.
Portland Parks and Recreation hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, June 18 to celebrate the unveiling of Darcelle XV Plaza, a vibrant redesign of a previously vacant city block.
The lot at Southwest Harvey Milk and Park Ave, now known as Darcelle XV Plaza, was formerly O’Bryant Square, which closed in 2018 due to issues with the parking garage below. On Thursday, elected officials and community members joined together to unveil a public park three years in the making, featuring an entertainment stage covered by brightly colored canopies, in honor of Portland legend Darcelle XV.
Darcelle XV is the drag name for Portlander Walter Cole. Four months after Cole’s death in 2023 at the age of 92, the former City Council unanimously voted to rename the site to honor his legacy as a messenger of acceptance and inclusivity.
District 2 Councilor Dan Ryan was the city commissioner in charge of the parks bureau when he brought forward the resolution to rename the park. He said Thursday that the opening of the plaza overwhelmed him with happiness.
“I think we landed it in a very elegant way,” Ryan told the Mercury. “Which Darcelle and all her queens would want.”
Cole performed as Darcelle XV for over 50 years, including at the namesake venue Darcelle XV Showplace in the Old Town neighborhood. It was the longest running drag show on the West Coast, and Darcelle XV was named the oldest drag queen by the Guinness World Records in 2016 at the age of 85. The venue, which opened in 1967, became the first LGBTQIA2S+ establishment in Oregon to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.
Poison Waters, a local activist and drag performer who has performed regularly at Darcelle XV Showplace since the 1990s, emcee’d the event. At the event’s close, Waters passed out flowers to the crowd, saying it was a symbol of joy and happiness that Darcelle always wanted to share with the world.
“Sharing Darcelle’s story of joy, being true to yourself and always in times of trouble, remembering that the show must go on,” Waters said.
Darcelle’s daughter, Maridee Cole Woodson, said it was a great honor for her family, from the city her father loved.
“We take pride in knowing how thrilled he would be that his legacy will live on in a gathering place of happiness, love, and community,” she said. “He loved his club, Darcelle XV Showplace. He loved performing. He performed for 56 years. He was a brilliant businessman and a trailblazer for the LGBTQ+ community.”
The ribbon-cutting ceremony featured musical performances from DJ Aspen and the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus. It also featured drumming and a land blessing from Turquoise Pride Intertribal Drum Group, speeches by Mayor Keith Wilson, District 4 Councilors Olivia Clark and Mitch Green, an alumnus of Darcelle XV Showplace LaWanda Jackson, and the Deputy City Administrator of Public Works Priya Dhanapal.
The plaza closed following the ceremony so the city can finalize upgrades to the park in time for the grand opening celebration next week. That event, called “Spectacular-Spectacular,” begins at 5 pm on June 25, and will feature a full evening of entertainment including drag shows. That celebration is meant to activate downtown as part of the “Summer of Love” programming, presented by the Portland Metro Chamber-aligned nonprofit Downtown Clean & Safe.
Ryan said revitalizing downtown is an important part of the city’s efforts to bring in sufficient revenue, ideally making its budget easier to balance. The city finalized a challenging budget cycle the night prior to the opening, and Ryan said the city has been slow to recover from the impacts of COVID-19. But he said new places for people to gather could help.
“I absolutely think something like this helps jumpstart that,” Ryan said.
