Jenny Nguyen has recreated herself again and again.
As a high school jock from a first-generation immigrant family in Portland, Nguyen shocked her parents by coming out as a gay woman. She shocked them again by dropping her plans to become a doctor to pursue a career as a chef, instead.
And then Nguyen shocked herself by quitting her job as executive chef at Reed College, her “dream job,” to chase something new.
“It was scary, but what that did was it created space,” Nguyen told an audience of hundreds Saturday at this year’s TEDx Portland conference. “It created space for me to dream and dream really big.”
The result in 2022 was the Sports Bra, the first sports bar dedicated to women’s sports, which quickly became a viral sensation. The lesson, Nguyen said, is that we don’t have to cling to anyone’s idea of who we are.
“When we learn to let go, we make room for more,” she said. “We make room to find a place where we belong.”
Speakers at the annual TEDx conference hit that theme again and again Saturday. A former star athlete, Oregon university scientists, entrepreneurs and a high school student encouraged a sold-out theater audience at Portland Center Stage at The Armory to find ways to inspire themselves and their community.
TEDx is an offshoot of the nonprofit TED Conferences, a global nonprofit showcasing Technology, Entertainment and Design. Saturday’s talks alternated with dance and live music.
Longtime WNBA guard Diana Taurasi was on hand to celebrate the Portland Fire expansion franchise, which begins play next month. She said there is broad enthusiasm about Portland’s return to the league (a prior incarnation of the Fire played briefly in the WNBA early this century.).
“That is the beauty about this city and this fan base,” Taurasi said. “It’s authentic and you can feel it.”
After retiring from pro basketball in 2025 as the WNBA’s all-time scoring leader, Taurasi said she’s taken time to slow down and appreciate what everyone else is doing with their lives.
“I feel like I’ve been reborn,” Taurasi said. “I’m learning that it’s okay to say I’m not doing anything. It’s okay. It’s okay to give yourself some grace.”
That’s the same point Sunset High School student Aneesh Agarwal made Saturday. He said too many ambitious students suffer from “leisurephobia,” keeping themselves unnecessarily busy because they feel guilty if they allow themselves any breathing room.
Doing nothing isn’t laziness, Agarwal said. It’s a skill that many people have forgotten how to use.
“Slowing down doesn’t mean abandoning ambition,” he said. “It means creating space to make sure your ambition is pointed in the right direction.”
The James Beard Public Market, opening next year at the corner of Southwest Sixth Avenue and Alder Street downtown, is moving slower for just that reason.
Jessica Elkan, the market’s executive director, said she decided to postpone its earlier planned opening this year to take more time to ensure the market properly showcases its timber framing.
“It was an opportunity but it was also a huge shift in timelines and other things,” Elkan said.
When the market opens a year from now, she said it will be a showcase for Oregon produce and for Portland, which is still trying to recover from years of setbacks. Elkan said she recalls growing up in Portland in 1990, when all of Oregon was cheering for the Portland Trail Blazers amid a historic playoff run, and said she believes the market can help unify Oregonians in the same way.
“I believe that we will get to that point again,” Elkan said, “where everybody will be cheering Portland on from across the state.”
Mike Rogoway reports on the intersection of community and technology, from the science of semiconductors to the impact of billion-dollar data centers in Oregon’s small towns. Mike has worked in communities...
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