PORTLAND, Ore. — During his five years behind bars, Brandon Morlock found ways to stay busy and keep hope alive. He worked in factories and woodworking shops, learning skills that would stay with him. And he had a dream: to create a space once he got out of prison, one where he and others could learn and practice their arts and trades.
"I wanted to do this thing," Morlock told KGW in October 2021, "it was my obsession and it kept me sane while I was incarcerated."
Morlock thought that the trades he learned on the inside would help him get a job once he got out. He was wrong.
"No one would even respond to me," he said.
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Instead, Morlock decided to make his dream a reality all on his own. He opened a little place called Past Lives, offering a makerspace to people who might otherwise be turned away. The warehouse included a wood and metal shop, offering classes for some and work spaces for others.
"It makes me feel like I can have meaning and help people," Morlock said.
Kirk Charleton is himself an ex-convict, serving 25 years in prison. He's also an artist, drawing portraits of his past experiences to work through his trauma. At Past Lives, he's both a patron of the business and an inspiration to others.
"If I didn't have art, I don't know what I'd be doing," Charlton told KGW in 2021. "I don't think I'd be around."
Fast forward a little less than a year, and Past Lives is flourishing. Morlock is still at the helm, but he now has the support of someone who has been around the block when it comes to building a business: Glenn Dahl, co-founder of Dave's Killer Bread.
Now Past Lives has a big new warehouse space and even more utility for artists, makers and people interested in learning a craft or trade — particularly those who have been incarcerated before, those who are looking to turn their lives around and those desperately in need of an outlet.
"I'm passionate about giving people extra chances in life," Dahl said, "not necessarily a second chance — oftentimes it's a first chance."
Dahl built up what was once a little family bakery in Portland alongside his brother Dave, famously a former convict who turned to the bread business, and did it while providing jobs to people with criminal records. It was a similar mission to Morlock's, which explains why Dahl chose to invest in the younger man's vision.
"Come check it out," Morlock said of the new space. "Make up your mind after seeing it. I promise you there is no facility like it."
