JULY 5, 2017
Portland and Seattle Volume XXXIX No. 40
25
CENTS
News .............................. 3,8-10 A & E .....................................6-7
Opinion ...................................2 Dr. Jasmine on Pets .........9
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO BY MELANIE SEVCENKO
NATURALIZATION CEREMONY
Harriet Adair
By Melanie Sevcenko
Of The Skanner News
H
arriet Adair was only four-years-
old when her mother enrolled her
in first grade at Vestal Elementa-
ry School in Northeast Portland.
At that time she was reading and writ-
ing at a third grade level.
Her aptitude, she said, was thanks to
the guidance of her older sister, who
was her first real teacher.
“I come from a family background
where education is key,” she told The
Skanner.
Adair’s dedication to educating oth-
ers has been an inspiration at Portland
AP PHOTO/CZAREK SOKOLOWSKI
See ADAIR on page 3
Workers prepare chairs for the audience in front of
the monument to the heroes of the 1944 Warsaw
Rising in Krasinski Square where U.S. President
Donald Trump will speak in Warsaw, Poland,
Wednesday, July 5, 2017. Trump will be in Warsaw
before traveling to Germany for a G-20 summit of
top world leaders.
World News
Briefs page 12
Kam Reviews ‘Baby
Driver’ Movie
page 6
Paula T. Vetani from Fiji and Zeyneb Nasir from Ethiopia and 500 other people from 67 countries took the oath to become United States citizens at
the annual Independence Day Naturalization Ceremony at Seattle Center on July 4 at Seattle Center. The ceremony was attended by numerous public
officials, including Governor Jay Inslee, US Senator Maria Cantwell, King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, who was the
Master of Ceremony for the event.
Expanding Urban Farming to Everybody
Startup engages communities of color in growing and learning about food
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
S
hantae Johnson and
Arthur Shavers both
grew up in Portland
and both grew up gar-
dening.
Johnson’s great-grand-
mother grew berries for
the J.M. Smucker company,
and her family grew much
of its own food. Shavers
helped his grandmother
in the garden when he was
young. When they met
they kept a garden wherev-
er they could — in commu-
nity garden plots or in the
back yard of a condo — but
dreamed of having their
own farm.
Now they’ve launched
MudBone Grown, a com-
pany focused on promot-
ing farming, education
and community outreach
— and a culturally specific
urban food systems project
at the Oregon Food Bank’s
33rd Avenue farm.
Prior to the company’s
launch, Johnson worked
for Multnomah County as
a community health work-
er and breastfeeding peer
counselor. Shavers had
worked as a leathersmith,
firefighter and emergency
medical technician.
Having inherited an in-
terest in growing food,
they wanted to pass that on
to their children: they each
had two from previous re-
lationships when they met,
and have since had two to-
gether.
“We wanted to teach our
kids to be self-sufficient,”
Johnson said.
They also wanted to cre-
ate a community space —
one where diverse groups
can learn and work togeth-
er – and finally found the
opportunity to do so when
they were asked to help
manage the food bank’s
farm earlier this year.
The farm is situated right
next to the Oregon Food
Bank’s Portland location,
and people who volunteer
there can go home with
food they harvest. School
groups come to learn and
volunteer, and recently,
Johnson said, a group of
adults with developmental
disabilities started com-
ing to work on the farm.
Johnson and Shavers are
working on creating an
outdoor classroom space,
See FARMING on page 3
Doctor Raises Awareness of Racial Bias in Transplants
Vanessa Grubbs, MD, embarks on book tour with
her new memoir about kidney transplants
By Melanie Sevcenko
Of The Skanner News
V
anessa Grubbs, MD, had only
been dating Robert Phillips
nine months when she gave
him one of her kidneys.
That was 12 years ago. At the time
Grubbs was a primary care doctor in
Oakland, Calif., and Phillips had been
on dialysis for a number of years to
treat his end-stage kidney disease.
“One of the things (Robert) told me
when we first when out was that he
had lots of first dates, but not many
second dates,” Grubbs told The Skan-
ner.
The harsh reality of his debilitating
kidney condition turned most wom-
en away. But Grubbs was different.
She began a romantic relationship
with Phillips, and came to under-
stand the plight of kidney failure
from a patient’s perspective — while
uncovering the racial bias of the
transplant system.
Grubbs’ personal experiences and
See DOCTOR on page 3
PHOTO COURTESY OF KIM-FROM-L.A.
After 47 years, the
award-winning educator
closes a chapter
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Harriet
Adair Says
Goodbye to
PPS
Vanessa Grubbs and Robert Phillips on their
wedding day.
