Steff D.
Yelp
Mayo Street Arts is another one of those examples why Portland really is such an amazing community. Similar to other arts venues in town, it's a repurposed historic church that's now being used for a host of cool things: craft fairs, music series, puppet shows,(my personal favorite) The Dark Follies (Portland's vaudeville style variety show), and as a community space.
(Although, I think Mayo Street Arts [the actual brick and mortar of it] secretly would like to host things like bean supper's and BINGO nights... I'm sure that Portland could bring the cool factor back for both and make them vibrant and welcoming social gatherings like they were 'lo those many, many moons ago, and not exorbitantly priced. Resurgam, guys! Let's do this!).
My lone complaint with Mayo Street Arts is the claustrophobia factor I sometimes feel when I'm here. It just always seems like there's a million people at every event I attend here. And bumping into and tripping over people just makes me feel extremely anxious.
I think my favorite thing about Mayo Street Arts is the book drop/exchange area outside - it looks like a large mailbox (in my head, I irrationally associate it with the Blue's Clues mailbox... though it looks nothing at all like that [maybe it's just because there's always something wonderful inside it?]), or maybe a breadbox; anyway, when you open it, there are a number of books for you to take. No gimmicks. It's like the "need a penny, take a penny" bowls. If you need a book... take a book. If you'd like to leave a book... well, then, leave a book. This is an actual, thing, by the way. My family - for as long as I can remember - have been leaving our read books all over the world (in Starbucks, in laundromats, on planes, etc). There were some serious gems in the Mayo Street Arts book box the last time I was there, too: a Stephen King, the entire Hunger Games series, the first two Harry Potters, a Kurt Vonnegut, and The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou. If you're a reader, please consider passing along your unwanted books through this method!