Black History Month 2026: A recap of Pitch Black participants – Portland Oregon startups, tech, news, events, jobs, and community

Every February, Stephen Green celebrates a series of amazing folks for Black History Month by posting one post a day for the entire month. This year, he focused his efforts on folks who participated in Pitch Black — the Portland-born movement that celebrates Black founders across the country. Then, it’s my turn to grab every single daily post and throw together a recap so that you can find them all in one place. It’s tradition.

Here’s every day of the series, so you can meet each of these incredible people.

Ben Berry, Airship Technologies Group

Grace Ewuraesi, A Sprinkle Of Grace

Herbert Beauclere, Sneaker Week PDX

Paige Hendrix Buckner, Tique Box / All Raise

Chris Dixon, CNSTNT DVLPMNT

Jada Commodore

Kronda Adair

Blaire Hervey

James Pritchett, MoreBots

James Norman, Pilotly / Black Operator Ventures

Ian Williams, Deadstock Coffee

Kayin Talton-Davis, Soapbox Theory / Albina Vision Trust

Damola Omotosho, Swyft Studios / CardCraft

Desiree Williams-Rajee, Beaverton Black People’s Union

Joy Alise Davis, Design Culture Lab / Imagine Black

Ime Etuk, Speak Lion / Outdoor School Movie

Winta Yohannes, Albina Vision Trust

Rashad Frazier, Camp Yoshi

Cyrus Coleman & Adewale Agboola, Creative Homies

Lindsey Murphy, The Fab Lab

Lori Caldwell, Minnie & George

Devin Boss, Where We Going Film

Jelani Memory, A Kids Co. / Pitch Black

Paula Hayes, Hue Noir

Anyeley Hallova, ADRE

Jordan Hayles

Cole Blackbird, Open Haus PDX

Tyrone Poole, OneApp

Thank you to Stephen Green for putting this incredible series together. Since 2015, Pitch Black has been a home for Black ideas — and this Black History Month recap is a beautiful testament to the founders, creators, and builders who have shared their stories on that stage.

To learn more about Pitch Black, follow @pitchblackorg on Instagram and visit linkin.bio/pitchblack.

Previous Black History Month recaps

For previous years’ recaps, please see:

Category: Portland

Published by Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with the Portland startup community. Founder and editor at Silicon Florist. Cofounder and general manager at PIE. Follow me on Twitter: @turoczy View all posts by Rick Turoczy

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