My Voice Music Block Party & Ascending Flow Show
Community Mural & BUS-A-Flow Reveals
Sunday, August 30, 2026 | 1-6PM
My Voice Music | 8911 SE Stark St., Portland
On SE 89th Avenue at Stark
All ages, Free
Join My Voice Music and Ascending Flow for a day-long block party celebrating youth creativity, community collaboration and two major unveilings at our East Portland home.
We’re closing down one block of SE 89th Avenue just north of Stark alongside My Voice Music, a youth music non-profit for 9-24 year olds creating original rock and hip-hop music. The event will include live music, DJs, skate ramps and basketball from Dream Big City, and the public reveal of a new youth-led mural covering the exterior of MVM Studios. We’ll also launch BUS-A-Flow, Ascending Flow’s newly transformed mobile recording and media arts studio, as part of the organization’s annual Ascending Flow Show.
A Mural Created With—and for—Young People
The new mural was created through a partnership between My Voice Music and Ascending Flow, with support from an Oregon Metro Community Placemaking grant. Ascending Flow led the organization of the project, while Cada Casa provided curriculum and helped guide the youth-centered creative process.
Young artists participated in workshops centered on identity, cultural expression and music. Members of the My Voice Music community shared what MVM and the studio have meant to them, and the young artists interpreted those stories, experiences and ideas to develop the mural’s imagery and design.
Artists Damon Smyth and OC Note led the mural’s design and execution, helping participants build artistic skills while keeping youth voices at the center of the finished work. Smyth is a Portland muralist and comic-book illustrator known for community-centered work exploring history, empathy and healing, including The Life of Frederick Douglass with David F. Walker and the collaborative Portland mural Streets of Hope. OC Note is a former My Voice Music student and one half of the rap duo Alta Vocez, which recorded its debut album through My Voice Music.
The completed mural transforms the exterior of MVM Studios into a public expression of youth voice, creativity, culture and community—and makes the energy inside the building visible from the street.
Introducing Bus-A-Flow
Ascending Flow’s BUS-A-Flow is much more than a renovated bus. It is a mobile creative studio that will bring free music production, media arts, mentorship, performances, leadership development and workforce opportunities directly into Portland neighborhoods—removing transportation barriers and making creative opportunities available to more young people.
Ascending Flow youth helped design the studio and documented its transformation through photography and filmmaking. The project also brought together the Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission, Canopy Builds, muralist Alex Chiu, interior designer Malcolm Pascua-Weaselboy, My Voice Music and a community of artists, builders, educators and supporters. August 30 isn’t the finish line for BUS-A-Flow—it is the launch of a new creative resource built to travel throughout Portland for years to come.
Live Music All Day
The street will come alive with performances by:
Talilo Marfil • FRENZI • Shiloh Day • ShockT • DJ Tempo • Pale Season • P.L.E.T.O. • Sid Murrell • Zay the Maker • Kai Wickham Trio • TaiShoku
The day will be co-headlined by FRENZI, a My Voice Music’s youth band, and renowned Portland hip-hop artist and cultural practitioner Talilo Marfil, whose work connects cultural storytelling, community building and youth justice. Talilo’s set will feature a live backing band made up of Ascending Flow and My Voice Music students.
The Next Chapter of a Community Vision
The block party also represents another milestone in the vision of My Voice Music founder Ian Mouser, who spent years working to establish a permanent East Portland home where youth could write, record, perform and build lasting relationships—and where organizations with shared missions could grow together.
Ian died in 2021 before the building was completed. MVM’s staff, board and community carried his vision forward, opening the new studio in 2023. Today, the partnership with Ascending Flow, the youth-led mural and the launch of BUS-A-Flow are helping the building become the community youth-arts hub Ian imagined.
Come celebrate the artists, young people, mentors and community partners who are transforming what creative opportunity can look like in East Portland.