Frequently Asked Questions
What is SWANA Rose?
The SWANA Rose Culture + Community Center is a gathering space located in NE Portland centering those with lineages tied to SouthWest Asia and North Africa, focused on education, arts, and intersectional solidarity.
SWANA Rose is entirely volunteer-run and community-funded. We are also a masks-required space (you can read our mask policy and contact us with any questions). Our goal is to offer an affordable, accessible gathering space for communities and organizers in Portland.
Who can come to SWANA Rose?
SWANA Rose is home to a vibrant multi-ethnic, multi-cultural community. Our events range from private events, to ones that are open to everyone, and you can find that information in the event descriptions.
Who runs SWANA Rose?
The day-to-day operations of SWANA Rose is run by a small group of core SWANA organizers who help make sure the lights stay on. We also have a lovely group of volunteers. Anyone can join us by becoming part of our community or sign up to volunteer. SWANA Rose is fiscally sponsored by Open Signal.
What happens at SWANA Rose?
SWANA Rose is a hub for SWANA Cultural events in Portland. In 2025 alone, 272 events, including 46 fitness events, 36 stitch events, 26 library events, and 27 arts events were hosted at SWANA Rose.
Our focus is having a SWANA cultural space and supporting SWANA cultural reclamation, resilience and community, and our space is open to anyone who wants to host an event here.
We host recurring monthly events like SWANA Movie Night, yoga and pilates, SWANA Storytime, Group for Reading, SWANA Stitch, and one-time events like private meetings, art shows, workshops and fundraisers. Besides a few fundraising events a year to raise money for the space, SWANA Rose itself does not organize events, but anyone can host an event in our space whether SWANA or not.
SWANA Rose also houses The Center for The Study and Preservation of Palestine (CSPP) Library, the only SWANA community lending library on the West Coast (possibly the whole US).
Cost to Use the Space
We want the SWANA Rose to be a genuine third space that is accessible and affordable to our community. There is no mandatory space use fee when hosting free events. For events that generate revenue, we request a space use fee of sliding scale 10 – 20% of profits.
How can I get involved?
Come to our events!
Host your event in our space!
Become a monthly supporter on Patreon!
Volunteer with us!
As an entirely volunteer-run community-supported space we need more folks to be involved.
We’d love for you to be part of SWANA Rose!