“People who are tied together through an idea, hobby, interest, or physical space make a community. Community is connection.”

-Mia

“My community is made of the people that make me laugh and cheer me up when I’m down. Those that catch me when I fall, but don’t coddle me, and let me make mistakes. Community is uplifting.”

-Kailyn

“Community means being able to lean on one another in times of need, banding together for the greater good of everyone. People of my community include friends and family. They play an integral part in my life in that they support me and are there for me when I need them. Community is equity.”

-Savannah Townsend

“To me, community means a group of people with a shared set of similar values and morals. Those in the community work hard to support one another, both tangibly and emotionally.The people in my community are the people that I feel confident that can rely on and who can also rely on me. Community is support.”

-Emily Capan

“Community means safety in the people around you, wether that be in shared interests, common goals, or simply the assurance that you don’t have to be anything other than yourself. Community is family.”

-Anonymous

“Community to me means having people that support you and the pursuit of what you love. People who make you feel strong because of the love they have for you whether thats being there to comfort you when you are down or push you further! The people in my community are my support system. They are the ones who encourage me to chase after my happiness and my dreams. Community is love.”

-Bridget Cunningham

“When I think of community, I think of that feeling of belonging and love that comes with interacting with either a single person or many people connected by something particular, whether you are close with the other individuals or not. I also think of the hilarious hit NBC sitcom “Community”. Those within my community vary in their personal connection to me. Some are friends and family, while others are neighbors and workers. Regarding the roles they take, universally I would consider all those within my community to be kind and generous to others, and that I, as well as everyone else, would be willing to reciprocate such kindness as appropriate. Community is humanity helping each other and maintaining a network of support, with no one left behind. Community is humanity!”

-Matthew Althoff

“Community is a way of feeling our connectedness to each other, a way of learning about each other, and acting toward the good of all. My community includes storytellers, activists, caregivers, artists, historians, librarians, and family members of the larger family that is humankind (though my community also includes animals and insects, etc!!) Community is connectedness.”

-Kathleen

“Community to me means a group of people with like-minded interest or respect for one another. We share the communities of small town living, naturalists, animal lovers, some artsy stuff, theatre, animation, dc universe stuff, and pasta enthusiasts… My idea of community in a single word is neighbor.”

-Nikole

“I think community for me means showing up for the people in your life as well as trying to navigate my town in a way that respects the other living creatures I share my environment with. Not being super close with my family, I have found community has been a way for me to feel seen and fulfilled as an individual. We’re both country kids and theater kids. We bonded a lot through hours and hours of speech and theater rehearsals! Community is camaraderie.”

-Mason Rousey

“Community means EVERYTHING. Like, the world is harsh and cruel and unforgiving. Community gives you life. It lifts you up. It supports you. It shelters you from that storm.

I absolutely would not be where I am without my communities. For instance, my comics community, many of us met as zinesters making our own mini-comics when we were in our early/mid-twenties and we bonded over a love of comics and appreciating each others work. That connection stays and it sustains you. It keeps you making work and keep sharing it and supporting each other and decades later and now we’re all professional authors, but we still are supporting each other. Whether that’s writing a blurb for someone’s book, showing up to their author event, or even just commiserating and comforting each other at the difficulties of the job. But then there’s like my gaming community too, which is like just as important.

I’m immunocompromised, so my world has shrunk drastically the last three years. I’ve lost connection to so many people and become a bit isolated from a lot of friends. It’s been so hard. But I have found a community of people that I play video games with. We have like a standing playdate every night at 11:00pm and for a lot of people, especially older people, that might look at video games and poo poo them and look down on them, but these people have been such an important community to me. It’s been a lifeline. To have people to laugh and joke with and just hang out and talk when I have been so isolated has kept me sane. I’ve hung out with these people more than anybody else during the last three years. Those are just two examples, and I share them because they’re examples of how community - how all my communities - play a crucial role in my life.

Community is EVERYTHING.”

-Johnathan Hill

“Community means sharing with others the joy and difficulties in life. I think Covid helped me to clarify how important my communities are. I am intentionally a member of communities and think of them as my "tribe". Community is support.”

-Lynn Brown

“To me, community is a group of persons that share something. This could be a value, a belief, a passion, a workplace, a love of each other, a love of someone else, or a number of other things. There is some sort of thread that binds these people together. My community is made of family members, friends, coworkers, and romantic partners. Sometimes they play a supporting role in my life, and sometimes they are the lead and I am support. Community is union. ”

-Kennedy Pasley

“Community is my lifeline- having no blood family. The people in my community play the role of giving me perspective. Community is nourishing.”

-Ramona

“Community means the fabric we wear, the wonder we witness, the web we weave. The people in my community play the roles of satellites, co-conspirators, energy sources/re-sources. Community is liminal.”

-Con Christenson

“Community means a group of people who live and work around each other. We met in elementary school. I remember looking for fairies at your house as children. My idea of community in a single word is neighbors.”

-Tabi

“A true community is about connection. It’s built through the synergy of all kinds of people working to do their part. It’s a group that leans on each other and allows every person to offer something unique to the table. It’s also often a lot people that come together with something that links them all together (perhaps a common goal or purpose, or maybe just simply a common trait). A lot of people in my communities have served as work colleagues, friends, mentors, and family. Community is family.”

-Barbie Brown

“Boof!” *emphatically

-Thumbelina

“Community to me is what keeps you going and holds you up. The people around you that in some ways, you are sharing your life with, whether that be in a big way or a small way. It is where you go to feel held in your lowest moments, and lifted higher at your best. A space where you can go to be seen and heard, and to see and hear others to learn and grow. Community to me is never static, but always changing and becoming, together. Some people in my community are friends, others mentors, some blurring the lines between. There are people who may look to me for support and remind me to always consider my own involvement in my community as well.

I think of people I used to volunteer with, their dedication to our work. We were sharing together in our role to be givers and doers. This question is difficult, in that roles feel more nebulous. We are all here together, and overtime, may we all share in the many ways we can be.

I consider myself as belonging to the queer community. I belong to the Jewish community. While I may be away from it now the PNCA community still feels like my own, and returning to it, my small hometown is a community I belong to as well.

We met my first year at PNCA, back in the fall of 2018. I believe we first began talking when I joined the theater club. I believe we both helped run student orientation for the 2019-2020 school year, and I just really cherished getting to spend those days working with you as we got the opportunity to welcome in a new wave of people to our college. In a single word, I think I would describe community as either learning OR sharing.”

-Echo

“Community means sharing a space and providing support and a welcoming environment. The people in my community are very supportive and make me feel seen. I belong to the book club, puzzle community, Insurance community, family community, and Bloomington community. Community is warmth.”

-Nia Lee

“Community to me means a caring group. The people in my community are teachers, students, friends, and acquaintances. We are friends and artists. Community is fellowship.”

-Anthony Cade

“Community to me is the uplifting of a bond. When you put work and love into a shared connection, whether that’s a shared history, or a passion, or identity, from that a community is born. Community is support.”

-Beau Peterson-Quinn

“I perceive community in a positive light. It means acceptance or agreement and making connection(s) with other people on a single or even multiple subjects. Like our picture book group is a community of alumni from PNCA and take an interest in picture books. Or like someone's work community all relate and revolve around the company they work for. Community is togetherness and connection.”

-Kathryn Herndon

“Community means having a group of people you feel you belong to who you uplift and who uplift you, not in a transactional way but by way of love and compassion. Community is home.”

-Kiara Lime

“Community means knowing and caring for those in your immediate, close-by physical community and those on the margins, a distance from you, including the houseless, and a feeling of unity. My wife and I are blessed with wonderful neighbors in a very diverse, multicultural community. We are the senior family as regards age and time in the community, (Thirty-plus years), we've seen little ones grow up, move out, attend college, start careers, marry, and start their own families. Those young ones we watched grow up are always members of our community and family. We consider our community, and extended family. Community is closeness.”

-Everitte Rice

“Community means an interconnected group of people, social constructs, and services or lack thereof. Community is variable.”

-Melissa Marie

“Community means a close, comfortable group that generally enjoys each other's company. The people in my community are friends, classmates, instructors, and partners. We share communities of artists and friends. Community is kin.”

- Isaac Galewsky

“Community means having people you can go to for any reason, people you know will be there because of some kind of a connection you share. My community is made up of friends, loved ones, role models, and coworkers. Community is togetherness.”

-Everlynn Roberts

“Community means friendship and kindness, feeling safe with a group of people, like mindedness. They are my friends, and family. They are the people I seek out to talk to every day, the people I constantly form celebrations of life with. Community is safety.”

-Linnea Dennhardt

“To me a community is a group of people who value each other’s presence. This value can come from small or big things. But simply existing in close proximity with others brings the value of another human who happens to be coexisting in your phase of life and feeling less alone in the unique circumstances we all find ourselves in. I think that’s what makes community itself, and from that starting point people can choose to involve or not involve themselves as much as is comfortable for them. But having it provides a core fulfillment for most people. Community is coexistence.”

-Samone Southerland

“To me community is represented by a band or bunch of likeminded people who are connected through some sort of commonality or understanding that forms a bond that ties them together. Though these may not be who they actually are— those in my community play the role of sage, mother, therapist, advisor. Others play the role of confidants, empathic support, sons, family, creative muse and collaborator, avid listener, colleague. Community is connectivity.”

-Julie Callahan

“Community means love, caring connection, reciprocity, communication, joy, humor, and support. The communities I belong to are family, my neighborhood, Black & BIPOC, queer, art, health, wellness and healing, yoga, Theater, and dance. Community is humanity.”

-Layna Lewis

“Community means sticking together and trusting that others have your back when it matters despite all obstacles in life. I think different people at different times play different roles, but the thing that cements people in my life is just reciprocal care and effort— and sometimes you trade roles in supporting each other as life goes on because you never know when life is going to get difficult and it means a lot to have people to fall back on that know they can rely on you to do the same for them. My family has always been my main source of community, one that I have really fought hard to maintain and give back to, and I find that the ways I interact with other communities often is influenced by that central unit of relationships for me. I am in the art community, including the PNCA community, the trans and queer community, and I spend some time in various communities online centered on my individual interests. Community is love.”

-Olive

“Community is a place where people--often of diverse backgrounds and perspectives--live and work together in ways that strengthen the quality of life for everyone. Strong communities are curious, inclusive, and respectful of tradition while being open to progress. They develop strong and effective institutions that foster dialog and broad participation. You and I share the “world” of art and ideas. I remember especially how you went from being a young assistant in our library program to becoming a teacher and leader...more a process than a moment. Community is reciprocal.”

-Catherine

“Community is a group that you find common interest or relations with. Community is a safe space that allows you to be supported and be yourself without judgement. You are encouraged to participate within the group or space and take ownership for that that connects you. There are many different communities that I find myself relating with. I think that the best part of community is that the aspects can connect to various parts of your personality and life. People in my communities help me when I am struggling, push me to step past the limitations I have set for myself and provide me with love and support. These are the people that I can call on to lend an ear when I need to vent or help me solve a problem I am struggling with. Community is safety.”

-Anonymous

“Community means safety, support, cooperation, and enrichment. The people in my community play roles with some being nonexistent, some being inconsistent, a precious handful steadfast. All distant. I liked painting those giant wood panels together during the pandemic, and doodling under St. John's bridge. Community is enrichment.”

-Kazi Kami

“Community means a gathering of people together by proximity or intent. They surround me with a buffer of sorts to the evils of the world. Community is inescapable.”

-Jim Callahan

“Community means a safe gathering of humans that support and celebrate each other. My community is made of family, work colleagues, professional colleagues, and former students who have become close friends. Community is embrace.”

-Jean Kerr

“Community means coming together sharing resources, skills, vibing on a common frequency, being creative and celebrating each other. My community is made of people that inspire me and motivate me to keep going down my path. Community is collaboration.”

-Anonymous

“Community is a network of people that I can reach out to for support, and who can also come to me for support. Support being talking when we’ve had a bad day, giving advice, listening when we need it, helping us see our flaws and grow from them. But support is also celebrating when we have successes, appreciating each other for who we are, being vocal about the love and care we have for each other! I am a social person, and what I really need is people to talk to.

My community is small but it is strong. I always say that I’m extroverted and I love people, but what I really NEED is “my people”. People who accept me for who I am while also still being honest with me when I’ve made a mistake, people who listen to me when I am struggling or succeeding, people who I can call just to talk. The biggest role they play in my life is helping me maintain relationships outside of my immediate vicinity. And often times I refer to it as ‘helping me feel like a person.’

My primary community is that of my closest friends; a tiny group of people I have know for upwards of ten years who I can talk to about anything. There is also a community of artists here in Portland, more specifically the people I went to college with who I have been able to watch grow and who have shared mutual support with me. My last community would be the people I work with, other teachers who are passionate about working with kids.

We met at PNCA! I can’t remember which class was our first together, but I do specifically remember being in design and image together and talking a lot, and then I joined student council and we were working together! Right before the shut downs in 2020, student council was hosting a fruit breakfast bar and you and I went to the grocery store together to buy all of the fruit. I’m not sure why but I go back to that memory a lot! It was a very sweet moment and I think one of the last “normal” memories before Covid hit. It was one of the last times I saw someone from PNCA in person and that’s still very special to me. Community is supportive.”

-Faith Capalia

“Community means support, connection, and togetherness to me. It means not only embracing the diversity of the people around you, but finding ways to celebrate and share in that diversity. It's something that we all contribute to and benefit from.The people in my life act as listeners, giving me a chance to vent and feel heard; they act as sources of meaning, by providing me a role to play in their lives as well; and they act as allies who remind me that none of us can so it alone, and none of us are ever alone in the ways we are feeling or the ways in which we identify and see ourselves. I belong to my school community at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point; my community of coworkers and friends in Normal, Illinois; and the community I grew up in In Frankfort Illinois where so many of my friends and family still live. We are both a part of the thriving community our library shares in and supports; we support each other as both coworkers and friends. Community is holistic.”

-Kevin Norris

“To me, community means being a part of something that includes everyone. Neighbors helping neighbors. when I think about community I like to think of the show Letterkenny. It centers around Wayne, his sister Katy, and best friends Squirrelly Dan and Daryl and their small Canadian community called Letterkenny. Almost every episode, Wayne is helping someone. One of my favorite lines that’s used throughout the show is ‘When a friend asks for help, you help them.’ I’m a part of a few different gaming communities, where gamers can come together to give tips and advice, and of course my neighborhood. Community is dependable.”

-Connor Stiles

“Community means a collection of people whose unwritten rules and expectations of each other have the goal to make everyone happy and operate at a high capacity. Can be loved ones and friends or neighbors and colleagues. People in my closest community are very supportive and caring. They are inspirations and people to teach, and they are unconditionally loved by all! I have such fond memories of doing spooky ouiji board stuff in the basement of your parents house, to walking the area with everyone, and also the lunar new year party was awesome!! But the memories go way back to even doing art with my mom at our house and then her studio hahaha. Community is togetherness.”

-Chris Callahan

“To me community is a group of people who are close (either in proximity or in like-mindness) who all support each other in whatever way they need. All of my lovely coworkers at the Normal Public Library truly do provide the community and myself which such a feeling of support and belonging. Also, I appreciate my friends who make an effort to organize events and bring people together… (I will make it to one of your potlucks soon I promise.) We met when you started working at the library! I remember thinking that your style was so lovely. Though I’m running the risk of sounding like a broken record, we definitely share a community through NPL, and I would also say through us both being lovers of kitschy things (I don’t know if that counts haha.) Community is belonging.”

-Ava

“Community means a network with shared interests (whether in the sense of "we all like these things" or "we share priorities") and acts of both socialization and caretaking. My community is made of family, friends, and mentors. They play the part of listening ear, advice, moral support. They provide laughs, respite from hard times. I belong to various performing communities (Haunted Basement, circus, etc.), family and friend circles, and online communities around shared interests/hobbies. Community is support.”

-Ware Carelton-Ford

“Community means family, help, organizations, fun, activities, and coming together. The people in my community are the holders together for everyone. Community is empowering.”

-Sorcha

“In community, we care for each other. Our togetherness makes us stronger, which in turn gives me more confidence to take risks. I feel safe sharing things with them. They grant me permission to try new things and make mistakes while being a forgiving place to return to. Community is support.”

- Isa

“I think community is an affirmation of one's existence amongst others. To be heard, to be seen, to have fun, to process grief, to create, to be touched and know you are perceived and loved as you are perceived. Community is confession.”

-Rebecca

“Community is a sense of belonging for me. For me community means a group of friends or people I feel I have a genuine authentic bond to. Whether that’s emotional or a shared interest or common goal. They are my support system and a place to go to or people to meet talk with that I know I feel I have a sense of acceptance and comradeship with. Community is empowerment.”

-Ada

“Community means those around us in living proximity, in work, in schooling, and in recreation.They are my friends, mentors, and those that I exist around. Community is togetherness.”

-Adam

“Community means a diverse group that exists together in the same place and therefore share a sense of belonging and familiarity. They’re the people I interact with daily as I move about my city. My idea of community is safe.”

-Anonymous

“Lately for me, community means letting go of the individualistic philosophy that we're raised with in the U.S. We're stronger as a collective. I think that when we start with our immediate community, then we branch out to thinking about the environment, and that we're stewards to the planet. My community reaches out and helps when they don't need to, and it makes me want to do the same. Community is stewardship.”

-Beth

“Community is a gathering/place of many people that inspire you in life, and also make you feel at home. I'd like to think of it as a diverse, comforting place where people share ideas, time, feelings, laugh together, and everything has a nostalgic tint to it that makes you think of your favorite memory. Community is warmth.”

-Hannah Johnson

“Community means a group of people with shared values, interests, and/or passions. Community is the people who challenge you to grow and value your worth as who you are. They help me when I’m struggling, they encourage me when I’m down, they remind me who I am when I feel lost, they challenge me to grow. Community is to share.”

-Hope Morris

“To me (in a basic sense), a community is a group of people (3 minimum, otherwise it's a pair, haha!!) that has something in common. Whether it be for a cause, an event, a hobby, education… yada-yada. But what makes communities come together is that gooey-sticky positive love-y stuff, or a certain desire to see something through, or money! I don’t know what the word is for when there's a word that you hear, but there's more than spelling and definition. Anyway, the word(s) "presents" and "presence" describe my idea of community. Being there for each other when in need, having each other is a gift, something special that you don't let go of.”

-Sarah

“A community is a group of people who have common interest in certain aspect of things and gather together with their thoughts, thoughts that transfer from one person to another and make connections. The people in my community are supports, both in positive ways and critiques, a collective hivemind that have different thoughts colliding with each other to either back up my own opinion/expand on my opinion/point out the wrongs. Community is interlinked.”

-Tony Zhang

“A community is a group of people who share something in common and enjoy such a thing/things (e.g., hobby, activity, religion, culture, etc.) To be in a community is to share.”

-Wanheng Li

“Community comes in many forms, but to me it is having people who, through shared identity and experiences, are going to show up and be there to support one another even when we maybe don’t have the closest interpersonal relationships on the surface. I think community is a collective understanding and support. It can be incredibly deep and powerful and help us find resources and navigate life a little less alone. They are people I can ask for advice and rely on when I need a little more support, they are the people who I know will drop everything to help me even if we haven’t talked recently. I also see community from the perspective of those who I can be there for and find ways to help. I belong to my family, my workplace, I have found community online, the queer community, the disabled community, and my cohort whom I am going through grad school with. You and I shared the same community growing up, a shared volunteer community, and art community, and having overlapping shared interests puts us in other communities together as well. Community is togetherness.”

-Sami Pierce

“To me, community means acting in ways that benefit many people, not just yourself, and striving to create an environment of inclusion and support even when it's not to your personal benefit or if it creates additional work for yourself. Creating community is not easy and takes care and effort, and putting that in to ensure others feel supported and loved is what creates community. The people in my life who I consider part of my community work towards setting up events and get-togethers to help others feel more included and part of a group. They are good conversationalists and know how to help others feel listened to and appreciated. They also recognize others' boundaries and are able to navigate those boundaries while still offering support and care to others. Community is equity.”

-Cadence

“My first thought is the OCD community. Through organizations like the International OCD Foundation, as well as my own nonprofit, Not Alone Notes, I have met and connected with so many other people who have OCD. My nonprofit mails free, handwritten notes to others, spreading hope and encouragement through snail mail. I started it out of my college dorm room because I wanted to reach others who felt alone with OCD. It's all about being and feeling less alone. That is so important with something like OCD, which can be isolating and lead to feelings of shame. @notalonenotes www.notalonenotes.org I'm always happy to answer more questions about this. My friends with OCD get me on such a deep level. No thought is too weird for them. They've probably had that thought too. My brain is ordinary, in the best possible way, and the ways it is extraordinary can then be celebrated. It's a careful balance to stay friends and not be each others' therapists, but we also all have such solid relationships because we've had therapy before. Community is not alone.”

-Morgan Rondinelli

“Community means a gathering of people who are able to share a common interest or part of their background, and celebrate these with each other. I’m pretty close to some people in my community, and I’m glad I’m able to go back to them whenever I feel like I need support, or I have support to provide. I don’t want to treat community support like a one way street! We met while I was hanging out with Linnea, and we bonded over fairy tales and fantasy. We have a lot of common interest in theatre, and wanting to provide for other people (with stuff like cooking for each other, and enjoying quality time.) Community is like-mindedness.”

-Nolan Rice

“Community means a group of people that have a shared connection and shared understanding. My community is made of listeners, advice givers, and comrades. Community is understanding.”

-Anna Troyer

“Community means a place to belong, to be supported and grow within. I remember working together as a team to navigate the madness of the winter holiday art sale. Presenting PowerPoint presentations, supporting and encouraging each other when we needed the confidence. The people in my community play the roles of friends, wiseman, teachers, and innovators. My idea of community in a single word is neighborhood.”

-Rose