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CymaSpace

@cymaspace

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We make arts, culture & hospitality services inclusive for the Deaf & Disability community. Currently feeding those who are losing their SNAP benefits

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We’re not okay, but we’re still feeding people.

Woodstock Café isn’t a regular café. We’re a Deaf and disability run nonprofit in Portland that hires, trains, and feeds our community. And right now, every system that’s supposed to support us is crumbling workforce grants gone, education access cut, and now SNAP stripped from the very people we serve and employ.

We don’t have corporate sponsors or safety nets. Every paycheck, every repair, every sandwich comes from what walks through our door and this week, it wasn’t enough to cover payroll. Our team’s burned out, but we’re still showing up for each other.

So here’s the truth:

If you’ve lost your SNAP, have a meal on us. No proof. No questions. Just care.

If you’ve got a little extra, this is the time to step in. Your donation keeps Deaf and disabled workers paid, meals flowing, and a community hub alive when everything else is being taken away.

💛 We’re not okay. We’re not quitting. We’re nonprofit and we’re still here.
✊🏾 Feed the fight. taken in Woodstock Cafe by @cymaspace

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a year ago

Everybody loves the smell of freshly ground coffee, but have y’all ever wondered what the grinder sounds like to the people working behind the bar?

Well, we gathered some of our crew for a little dramatic reenactment, and apparently this machine has been threatening everybody’s peace since opening day.

One minute we’re making your cute little latte, the next we’re auditioning for Jurassic Park with a side of espresso.

And before y’all ask, YES, the grinder is working perfectly fine. It’s the staff we’re concerned about.

Welcome to Woodstock Café, where the coffee is fresh, the beans are loud, and the baristas have officially lost the plot.

Now come get some coffee before we start growling at customers too. taken in Woodstock Cafe by @cymaspace

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8 days ago

NATIONAL COFFEE DAY + DEAF AWARENESS MONTH?

Oh toots!
Somebody put our name on the calendar.

Today, you don’t have to choose between celebrating good coffee and showing up for Deaf community, you can literally do both before the caffeine kicks in.

Come grab a latte, cortado whatever keeps your eyes open and your business handled. Every cup supports a Deaf-operated café, Deaf employment, accessible community space, and the work we’re building beyond the counter.

September might be Deaf Awareness Month.

But around here, Deaf community is year-round.

So yeah…
drink coffee. support Deaf spaces. This house open to all.
We’ll handle the espresso. ☕️

And happy National Coffee Day from the crew at Woodstock Café. taken in Woodstock Cafe by @cymaspace

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17 days ago

SATURDAY, WE OUTSIDE.

The Community Bake Sale is back this Saturday, and the tables are about to be acting disrespectful.

Our community + Cymaspace have been in the kitchen putting together homemade goods to help Woodstock Cafe cover the stuff a latte and a sando can’t always carry by themselves, equipment costs, repairs, rent, and the everyday overhead that keeps this Deaf community space alive and vibing .

So come raid the tables. Traditional treats, vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, keto, everybody got a lane.

AND HOLD UP… 🐾
This month, your best friend gets a lil something too. We’ve got homemade dog biscuits, because pulling up to the bake sale and bringing your dog home NOTHING is diabolical. 😂

Bring the kids for Kids Play from noon–2pm, bring the dog, bring the homies, grab something sweet, and help us knock a few bills upside the head while we’re at it.

📍 Woodstock Cafe
4103 SE Woodstock Blvd
🗓️ Saturday, Sept. 26
⏰ 10am–3pm | Front Patio

Community baked it. Community eats it. Community keeps the doors open. taken in Woodstock Cafe by @cymaspace

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22 days ago

Travels with the Chairman: Portland, Oregon

Aug 17, 2026
Recently, Chairman Carter spent a whirlwind day with the Oregon Arts Commission and Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, exploring several highlight’s of Portland’s vibrant arts community.

Chairman Carter started her visit at CymaSpace’s Woodstock Cafe.

CymaSpace is working to make the performing arts more accessible and inclusive to Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities. Known as the “sign language cafe,” their Woodstock Cafe is both a cafe and events space, offering special ASL social, arts, and technology events. In 2026, CymaSpace received a Research Grants in the Arts award from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the development and testing of a music-focused STEAM curriculum for K-12 youth who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.

Full article link in our bio! taken in CymaSpace by @cymaspace

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a month ago

TODAY IS RAE’S LAST DAY WITH US. 🖤

There are people who work in a place, and then there are people who become part of the reason that place works.

Rae has been one of those people.

If you know Rae, you know this man has RANGE. Manager, problem solver, food maker, team wrangler, keeper of approximately 47 things happening at once, and someone who has carried an incredible amount of this café on his shoulders.

But Rae’s capacity has never stopped at our doors.

He’s a maker and creative, and you can catch him out in the markets selling his own crafts and putting another piece of himself into the world. He’s also an advocate for children’s rights and trans equity — showing up for people and communities whose dignity, safety, and ability to simply exist deserve to be protected.

That tells you a lot about the person we’ve had standing behind this counter.

A lot of what Rae has done here isn’t necessarily something you can see from the other side. It’s in the systems that work, the staff who had someone to lean on, the food that made it into your hands, and the countless little fires handled before anybody else even smelled smoke.

That kind of capacity is rare. And that kind of impact stays with a place.

So today, we’re not trying to turn Rae’s departure into a sales pitch. We want him to experience the community he helped care for one more time.

Come eat something he helped make happen. Come bother him. Come give him his flowers. Come tell him what his presence here has meant to you.

And yeah… clear out that cooler and pastry case while you’re here.

Not because we’re chasing a big sales day, but because there would be something pretty damn special about Rae finishing his last shift, looking into those empty cases, and knowing that everything he and this team prepared found its way from their hands into yours.

We’re going to miss the hell out of having him here. But whether you catch Rae at a market with his crafts, advocating for his communities, or wherever his next chapter takes him, we already know he’s going to keep leaving fingerprints on the places and people around him.

Today is for Rae. Come send our hero off with some love. 🖤 taken in Woodstock Cafe by @cymaspace

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a month ago

Meet the Peanut Butter & Jelly Scone, because PB&J has been carrying the snack industry on its back for generations and frankly, it deserved a café era.

Peanut butter. Jelly. Scone.
No reinvention speech. No unnecessary TED Talk. We knew the assignment.

She’s thick. She’s nostalgic. She absolutely requires a beverage nearby.

Now sitting pretty in the pastry case at Woodstock Café.

Come get reacquainted with an old friend, just with better taste now. taken in Woodstock Cafe by @cymaspace

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a month ago

🍪 THE BIG COMMUNITY BAKE SALE — TOMORROW.

Okay Woodstock. We need bodies. We need appetites. We need people who make questionable financial decisions around baked goods.

Tomorrow we’re taking over the front patio at Woodstock Café for our monthly Community Bake Sale, and this one needs some COMMUNITY behind it.

Cookies. Cakes. Brownies. Pastries.
Traditional goodies. Gluten-free goodies. Vegan goodies. Sugar-free and keto goodies.

Basically, bring your dietary restrictions, somebody’s auntie, neighbor, baker or kitchen magician probably understood the assignment.

And yes, this is a fundraiser.

The money raised helps keep Woodstock Café operating, keep our community programs moving, and keep a Deaf-centered space for ASL, connection, events and education planted right here in Woodstock.

And for our fundraiser people, home bakers, community-builders and folks who simply enjoy showing up when something good is happening:

COME THROUGH.

You don’t have to drop $100.
Buy a cookie. Buy six. Grab coffee. Bring the kids. Tell your neighbor. Share this post. Bring somebody who has never been here before.

Small purchases become a BIG community effort when enough of us show up.

🍪 THE BIG COMMUNITY BAKE SALE
📅 TOMORROW — Saturday, August 29
⏰ 10AM–3PM
🧸 Kids Play 12–2PM
📍 Woodstock Café
4103 SE Woodstock Blvd

We did the baking. Now we need y’all to do the eating.

Tomorrow, we’re trying to make that patio look like Woodstock heard there was free parking at Trader Joe’s. 😭 taken in Woodstock Cafe by @cymaspace

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2 months ago

Sometimes it is lonely at the top.

I chair two boards. Two orgs. Two sets of messy, distinctive challenges that don’t fit neatly into anyone’s comfort zone, or interest in leading.

If you’ve known me for a while, you might remember the version of me who had more time to sit, sign, and talk through ideas. Before I became “too busy” because I said yes to leading in places where no one else would.

Leadership at this level can be isolating, especially as a Black Deaf leader. When priorities shift and environments change, it’s easy for people to leave me under the bus. My access needs, my perspective, and my labor are welcomed in the vision… until it gets hard to center them in practice.

This is an invitation to the people who once knew me as more than “the board chair”

I’m still that person. I just got buried under layers of responsibility. If you see me in the comments or DMs, say hi. Remind me who I was before all this. Help me remember why I started.

📸 @alydray taken in Portland, Oregon by @cymaspace

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2 months ago

THE JELLING — $10
Rosemary focaccia stacked with our hearty gluten-free meatloaf — made with carrots, celery, garlic, gluten-free Worcestershire and Gruyère — then loaded with seasoned roasted Brussels sprouts & peppers and finished with our red pepper cream sauce.

Or if we want it to sound a little more Burger Week / Woodstock Café:

THE JELLING 🥊🍔
A thick slab of café-baked gluten-free meatloaf loaded with carrots, celery, garlic, Gruyère and all the savory business, stacked on toasted rosemary focaccia with seasoned Brussels sprouts & peppers and our red pepper cream sauce.

$10. No, we are not debating whether meatloaf on focaccia is a burger today. It’s the last day. 😂

One tiny correction before this hits the menu: Worcestershire — because “GF whorechester” is an entirely different Burger Week special and Portland is absolutely not ready for that. 😭 taken in Woodstock Cafe by @cymaspace

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2 months ago

DAY TWO AND THE GRANT FAIRY STILL AIN’T SHOW UP. 😭🍔

So you know what that means…

BACK TO THE MEATLOAF.

Burger Week Day 2 and we’re still outside turning one inch thick slabs of café baked meatloaf into nonprofit operating revenue.

And the wild part?

THIS WHOLE THICK SITUATION IS TEN DOLLARS.
💵 $10. THAT’S IT.

Because Burger Week is about getting folks through the door, trying something ridiculous, and showing Portland what our little nonprofit café can throw down when the pressure is on.

You’re getting café-baked meatloaf, melted Gruyère, roasted summer veggies, tangy pickled onions and house sauce, pressed between buttery toasted focaccia.

The veggies are still there for legal representation. 🥬
The meatloaf remains in charge.

And yes, we’re having fun with it but this is also a fundraiser. Grants have been moving slow while rent, payroll, utilities and every other bill somehow remain extremely motivated. 😂

So we’re doing what we do:

GET OUT THERE AND HUSTLE.

Grab the $10 Burger Week special.
Bring somebody with you.
Come back twice. 👀
And if that $10 price leaves a little room in your budget, throw a few dollars toward the café.

Because right now, every burger and every donation helps keep our crew working and our doors open.

$10 BURGER.
GRANTS SLACKING.
MEATLOAF STACKING.
BILLS GETTING HANDLED.

DAY TWO. LET’S WORK. taken in Woodstock Cafe by @cymaspace

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2 months ago

AYOOOOO — IT’S BURGER WEEK. 🍔

Last time we jumped into Portland’s foodie scene back in March, somebody damn near tried to close the shop.

Cute, right

We’re still here. And now we’re slanging MEATLOAF.

Introducing the Jelling Our Meatloaf Melt, because apparently when the grant purse gets light, the nonprofit has to put on an apron and start moving burgers. 😂

And we did NOT come outside with a lil’ polite patty.

We’re talking a SOLID INCH of café-baked meatloaf, stacked with nutty melted Gruyère, roasted summer vegetables, tangy pickled onions and house sauce, all getting acquainted between buttery, toasted focaccia.

And yes, there are vegetables on it.
That’s between you and your doctor. 🥬

Here’s the bigger reason we need y’all this week:

Woodstock Café is a nonprofit operation, and grants have been moving real funny lately. The bills, however? Extremely punctual. Rent did not forget our address. Payroll continues to know exactly where we live.

So fine.

WE’RE ON THE STREET SLANGING BURGERS. 😭🍔

Every Burger Week order helps us keep this Deaf-operated community space moving, our crew working, and these doors open while we keep fighting for the funding our work deserves.

So if you’ve been wondering how to support us:

EAT THE FUNDRAISER.

Come grab the burger. Bring somebody hungry. Tell your group chat. Donate a few extra dollars if you’ve got it. Come back again before Burger Week ends.

We have bills to pay, a community to serve, and approximately ZERO plans to disappear.

🔥 BURGER WEEK • AUGUST 10–16
🍔 Jelling Our Meatloaf Melt
💸 Come help us turn meatloaf into operating funds.

GRANTS SLACKED. WE STACKED.

Now come eat. 😮‍💨

@woodstock.biz @woodstockpdx taken in Woodstock Cafe by @cymaspace

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2 months ago