Art Snack: Feed the Mass Opens Old Town Offices, Portland Frog Brigade in Washington DC

We’re a little over two weeks out from the Mercury‘s Spring Arts Issue—look for it starting March 11—and folks the art is arting. I want to put it on your radar that the Mercury moved back to monthly in 2026, and you’ll now be able to find new print issues every second Wednesday. Or you can subscribe! If you haven’t scooped the Black Innovation Issue, do not sleep on her; she’s lovely. Now, shall we snack?

• Portland’s Frog Brigade is in Washington, DC—this is not a drill and not one of their satellite pop-up squads. Last week, the costumed pod announced they were heading to the nation’s capitol to offer “the ultimate ‘ribbital’” to the President’s annual State of the Union address. The now-famous frog-symbols linked up with impact group hub defiance.org, and advocacy news media group Courier to create a counter event with the likes of Sen. Ron Wyden, author and activist Stacey Abrams, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, actors Robert De Niro, Mark Ruffalo, and Tom Arnold, and many others at the National Press Club, starting at 7 pm Eastern (that’s 4 pm Pacific). The President’s address won’t get going until 9 pm ET / 5 pm PT at the earliest, and the Swampers plan to boycott, defy, and party their way through the whole thing. Viewers can watch the livestream at defiance.org/sotu. The T-shirts are actually kind of good.

• Last week I mixed up my big naked Portland-located bike rides, after World Naked Bike Ride Portland announced their planned nude group cycling date. On Monday, Portland World Naked Bike Ride announced its date: Saturday, July 25th. The brief backstory between the similar names is that one year it looked like there wasn’t going to be a naked bike ride, so the second group started from volunteers. Please note the subtle name difference. Both rides are pretty big, but Portland (front) is arguably the massive one, although Portland (back) spear-headed the popular Emergency World Naked Bike Ride in October, so they may now have a more substantial draw. The 2026 Portland World Naked Bike Ride will be its 22nd ride! The theme, departure time, and location have not yet been announced.

• TEDxPortland dropped its list of speakers for the 2026 conference, happening April 11 at Portland Center Stage. The 14th year of earnest inspo-sharing includes 11 speakers, three live interviews, and three onstage performances, all centered around a theme of homecoming. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talks have taken on a wry reputation, over the years, as a more formal onstage rant platform, but there’s no denying they can be pretty inspiring and often enriching. Notable speakers this year: Sports Bra-founder Jenny Nguyen, Agility Robotics’ Jonathan Hurst, and Milky Kohno from OHSU B.R.A.I.N. Lab. I’m also liking these hosts: Karina LeBlanc, Luis Vargas, and the improvisor who always keeps trying—who weathers his friends’ ridicule and upon whose ideas the jokes are built—Broke Gravy’s Leon Anderson. Check out the whole line-up at tedxportland.com.

• At the beginning of February, Floating World Comics announced a distribution deal with British publisher Dark & Golden Books. The Portland comics shop, publisher, and distributer will import the indie press’ books to the US and allow other shops to buy wholesale through Floating World. “Run by Tom Oldham and Douglas Noble, [Dark & Golden] is an independent publisher dedicated to… finding and celebrating mislaid and forgotten classics,” a Floating World representative wrote, also noting that the full catalog was available and ready to go, including new releases like a collection out two out-of-print works by Carol Swain, another book of never-before-seen comics by Swain, and a re-printing of The Dead Are Awake and Walking by Dave Gibbons, part of Dark & Golden’s cult classic digest series, Pocket Chiller Library.

• Today in STAMP NEWS, USPS just dropped some very cool looking galaxy stamps! What is up, Crab Nebula stamp and “Galaxy Pair” stamp? But they’re only for priority mail and express priority mail respectively, so I need to come up with some people to send priority mail to immediately!

• Local food aid charity Feed the Mass just bought the former Portland Airbnb headquarters—the historic Blagen Block building located next door to theWhite Stag Building. The organization will celebrate a grand opening on Wednesday, February 25, reintroducing it to the community as the newly christened Nourish Building. At an open house last week, we saw not only how whimsically Portland Airbnb HQ had been living but the turnkey-ready spaces that Feed the Mass plans to fill with co-working offices and room rentals for mission-aligned organizations, especially smaller local nonprofits. That’s the initial use of the space, but in mid-March, expect the addition of cooking classes to the building’s programming. This is actually a return to the vision founder Jacobsen Valentine began with, as Feed the Mass started out to provide education around cooking to support health, community, and self esteem. “This building is here so young people can learn,” Valentine said, “so parents can learn, so folks changing careers can learn, so neighbors can learn: how to cook, how to build, and how to start again.” The current plan outlines a purpose for each floor. Feed the Mass occupies the fourth floor and will host cooking classes on the third. Most of the co-working space is on the second, but there are large event areas that can be rented out on the first. A major goal of the Nourish building is a first floor market where fresh produce and ready-to-go meals will be available for purchase. The team is pushing to have that up and running by the end of summer. Keep up with them on socials or via their newsletter for updates. There’s a rumor going around that they’re going to sell a bunch of that whimsical Airbnb furniture soon.