Portland Observer, Apr« 24. 1906, Page 7
American Playhouse:
Tale of half-Black orphan
Although it was written more than
X) years ago, Kurt Vonnegut J r.’s
T h a Liberian mask. We. also called the Guere M ask, will be on dis
(play during Portland State University's "African A rt from Portland Col­
lections” exhibit. M ay 10 to June 14 in the Littman Gallery
(Photo: Jerry Taylorl
African art at PSU tribute
hy Nathaniel Scott
lection stems from Fast Africa. Gou
cher said the Gebauer collection is
Portland State University (PSU)
probably the “ finest collection’ ’ o f
and the Portland Art Museum will
Cameroon art in the U.S. and one o f
pqs special tribute to African art with
the finest in the world.
an A frican art symposium and ex­
In addition to the museum’s
hibition May IO and 11.
pieces,
collectors, both private and
The free symposium: "Contexts o f
public, arc contributing objects for
African A rt: Environment and So­
the exhibit, Goucher said.
ciety," ssill be held in the art muse­
“ The exhibition is a kind o f window
um’s Berg Swann Auditorium . It be­
o f A frican experience and it reflects
gins Friday, May IO and concludes
politics, economics, and the social
Saturday, May I I . In addition, the
and intellectual life o f A frican so­
museum w ill have A frican art objects
ciety," Goucher said. “ This exhibi­
on display both days.
tion is an opportunity for Portlanders
The exhibition: "A fric a n A rt from
to increase their awareness and under
Portland Collections,” May IO -
standing about African culture and
June I4, w ill be in PSU’s Littman
African history.”
_
Gallery, located on the second floor
"Y o u can look not only at the
o f Smith Memorial Center. To help
kinds o f tragedies — the apartheid
celebrate the exhibition’ s opening,
regime in South Afnca and the famine
Friday, May IO, Obo Addy will per
in Ethiopia — destroying individual
form and refreshments w ill be served
lives, but also tragedies that destroy
between 5 and 8 p.m. PSU’s Black
Studies professor, Candice Goucher, * the culture and cultural traditions of a
major part o f the w orld,” she said
is guest curator for the exhibition.
The A frican art exhibition w ill be
The art pieces: jewelry, textiles,
complimented by a host o f PSU events,
sculpture, masks, baskets, bronze
including: Joyce Carol Thomas' prose
castings and other pieces are "fu n c ­
and poetry readings on May I6 - 17;
tional. everyday items and items o f
the African developmental confer­
ceremonial and ritual importance."
ence; and the Spring Festival o f C ul­
Goucher said The art museum’s
tural Events, May 17; and the African
contribution will be pieces from the
( ultural Night, May 24
Gebauer and the Gladys l.awthcr
A ll events except the African ( u l­
collections. The Gebauer collection
tural Night are free and open to the
comes from the Cameroons in West
general public.
Africa and the Gladys Lawther col-
TURKEY
ARMOUR
BONELESS
READY TO COOK
IN THE OVEN,
ROTISSERIE,
COVERED GRILL.
OR MICROWAVE.
IT S
BUTTER
BASTED
short «lory, " D . P . , " which deals with
the offspring o f American G .I.s and
Cierman women in post-W orld War
II Germany, remains as pertinent to ­
day as when it was first published
in 1990.
Following the Second W orld War,
ones, towns and villages all across
Germany were filled with young chil­
dren without fathers and many w ith ­
out homes II is a problem compara­
ble to the one currently being expe­
rienced in Southeast Asia where thou­
sands o f children, sons and daugh­
ters o f American G .I.s and Vietna­
mese women, have been made out­
casts o f society by the Communist
regime which currently rules Vietnam.
"Displaced Person," Fred Barron’s
hour-long adaptation o f Vonnegut's
1950 short story, w ill be televised on
American Playhouse Monday. May
6, at 9:00 p.m ., ET. over the Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS)
The
story, which first appeared in the
volume, Welcome to the Monkey
House (Dell) in 1950. is a heartwarm­
ing drama about a young hall Black,
half-German homeless boy, some­
where in post-war Germany, who
believes that a Black Arm y sergeant is
his father.
The boy, portrayed by Julius Gor­
don, lives in a makeshift orphanage
run by a nun. Sister Agnes, played by
Rosemary leach. His chief goal in
life is to find his roots by locating his
father whom, he has been told, was a
Black American G. I
One day when a group o f American
soldiers come into the area, the young
boy sees a Black sergeant (Stan Shaw),
the first Black man he has ever laid
eyes on. He immediately believes that
this man must be his lather
The sergeant is shocked when he is
approached by this adorable young
Black boy speaking German and
calling him "p a p a ." It is the first time
that he has been aware o f the prob­
lem: children left homeless by the
departure o f their American G .l.
fathers.
I hat problem, first written about
by Vonnegut in 1950, still exists in
(iermany and is responsible, in part,
for the continuing anti-Black senti­
ments that exist in Germany today,
according to a story which appeared
in the March 1 98 1 issue o f Newsweek
It is estimated that since W orld War
II, that story said, more than 10,000
"besal/ungs- k inder ’ '
(ixcupat ion
children) have been born to (iermany
mothers and Black American fathers
"T his situation is a universal one
which, I am sure, has existed in this
world ever since peoples began war­
ring with each o th e r," says Alan
Bridges, who directed "Displaced
Person" for American Playhouse.
"Il is a natural film subject when
you consider what a great instrument
the camera is for seeking out people’ s
communion with themselves," he
noies. "There is no conflict in ‘ Dis­
placed Person’ — simply a group o f
people looking for their id e n tity."
According Io the director. “ Il is a
vers basic story about the ownership
o f life, about orphans. It's not about
their misery or sadness, but about
young people left alone in a world
and how they communicate, particu­
larly one young boy who thinks he
has found his roots and his "raison
d'etre.’ However, he, with his dis­
arming innocence, represents the
rest o f us in a microcosm."
"T h is is a story that is being lived
right now in different parts o f the
world
southeast Asia, the middle
east, Afghanistan, Poland wherever
there is an occupation Army. It's a
story that is as pertinent itxlay as it
was m Biblical times, no d o u b t."
J O A N M O R R IS
(Photo: Richard J Brow n)
Jamaican novelist recounts
British society prejudice
by Nuthamel Scott
la w d 'G o d !
she‘s here
A voice.
A sony bird
beat my her wmys
ayainsl an unjust caye.
A sparkle.
A ray.
A storyteller
sinymy her sony.
She is .. .
Joan Morris.
Stan S haw . Julius Gordon and Rosem ary Leach in a scene from
an upcom ing A m erican Playhouse television production.
Vietnamese rediscovers medium
A fte r a long se p a ra tio n , C ahn
Truong has rediscovered art
The 21-ycar-old refugee from Viet­
nam didn’t draw for live years, mainly
because he was unable to locate the
medium he worked with in that coun­
try. A fte r considerable experimenta­
tion, he’s discovered he can make his
own charcoal m edium He's begun
w o rk in g on p o rtra its again fo r
pleasure.
Truong studied art for two years in
his ow n c o u n try and w orked as an
a rtis t fo r a sear and a h a lf. A t the
age o f 16, he escaped from Vietnam
on one o f the many boats that brought
people to Thailand. He lived there for
11 months, then came to the United
States to jo in a sister.
In P o rtla n d , T ru o n g attended
Cleveland H igh School. He slatted
classes at Portland C om m unity C o l­
lege’ s S ylvania C am pus in fa ll o f
1981 in the d ia llin g program Truong
dropped d ra ftin g a lte r a year. " I
d id n ’ t lik e i t , " he explains. He is
now a fu ll time commercial art stu­
dent and works part time in the c o l­
lege's Instructional Materials Center
as a sign painter.
Truong, who still has difficulty with
English, has a hard time explaining
how he discovered how to duplicate
the m edium he used fo r p o rtra its
when in V ietnam It comes fro m
France and he is unable to fin d it
here. He found that when he removed
the carbon b u ild u p fro m the chem-
neys o f o il-b u rn in g lamps it worked
the same as the material he purchased
in his native country.
Morris is from Jamaica. She came
to Portland (and America) from Eng
land. She brought the scars of British
societies' racial prejudice with her
And beneath those scars are scars:
other scars that stem from "th e slrug
gle for the liberation o f the people;
Jamaican people,” she said, as she
introduced her first fiction novel.
The I'nbelonymy
Ihe novel w ill be released (in
America) this May. Doubleday w ill
publish it in America and the Women's
Press is publishing it in England It is
ihe story o f a West Indian woman
who didn't grow up She remains an
II year-old child. C onsequently she
doesn’t see either the Jamaican or
British society in their true light; the
light that illuminates suppression and
bigotry.
Morris exudes pride; Black Jamai­
can pride She emphatically denies
that Blacks are inferior And in 26
years o f living, she has faced a life
time o f grief.
Born in Hopewell St. Mary, Ja­
maica, she studied political comm uni­
cation in Brighton, England, and she
found through self-experience that
"West Indians arc treated shabbily by
British society.” Moreover, she said,
"West Indians are treated as if they
are third class citizens in British so­
ciety."
The novel, Ih e Unbelonymy. is not
M orris’ first attempt at portraying Ihe
problems West Indians lace when
they attempt to assimilate into British
society.
While studying for hei master's
degree, she published, under an as
sumed name, a series ol papers ex­
posing "th e closed aspect o l British
society." She said she d idn’t use her
name because the things she wrote
about were "sensitive" things.”
lo r instance, Morris slated, up
until the late 60s, 70 percent ol all
West Indian children who went to
Britain ended up in "o il-s ite units."
O il site units arc the equivalent ol the
Portland School D istrict’ s special
education classes that supposedly ed
ucate the "problem c h ild ," “ the slow
learner," the rebellious, the unm oti­
vated, the disadvantaged, the calc
gories that are disproportionately
Black
When writing poetry, M orris said
she writes about life: " A lot o f my po­
etry is p o litica l." She explained the
political aspects o f her life and poetry
in this manner: " I grew up in a so­
ciety that was torn and it was d ifficu lt
for children not to take sides."
The society Morris grew up in is on
Jamaican soil. She said it had, and it
continues to have, very little sem­
blance to democracy. “ We have an
eradication squad in the police de
partment whose duty is to eradicate,"
she said " I n Jamaica we go to the
polls with the gun at our heads."
Morris has a lour year-old daugh
ter. l.ethra. and her 12 yearold hus
band, Wesley Morris, is a biochemist
al Oregon's Health Science ( enter
She said the family plans to stay in
America (Portland) lor three more
years A lter that, she said, the slrug
gle w ill be from the homeland
Chiropractic Week: Health Fair
Mayor J. E. " B u d " Clark w ill sign
a proclamation on May 2, 1985, de­
claring the first fu ll week o f May to be
the First Annual Chiropractic Aware­
ness Week
The idea o f a week-long event cele­
brating the chiropractic profession
was developed to promote the fact
that chiropracters are healers To as­
sure the success o f this prom otion,
the chiropractors in the metropolitan
Portland area w ill put aside their
personal feeling and open their hearts,
minds, and office doors The mayor
has suggested that free spinal exams
be offered to anyone calling fo r an
appointment during that week and
that open houses be held for the gen
eral public on Wednesday, May 8,
from 5 - 8 p.m.
POUND
Cahn Truong. Vietnam »«« artist, displays his w ork, hamparad for
five years
Western States Chiropractic C o l­
lege is offering a free Health Fair
May 11 and 12 featuring gaii analysis,
blood pressure screening, massage,
nutrition and exercise counseling,
entertainment and food
Mayor
"B u d ” ( lark will open the fair Sal
urday morning and there w ill be an
8-K run beginning and ending at the
campus Free gifts will be offered to
the first MX) mothers attending the
fair.
Health Fair times w ill be Saturday,
May I I , 10a m 6 p tn , and Sunday
May 12, 12 noon - 5 p.m at the col­
lege campus, 29(X) NF. 112nd Ave ,
just o ff Halsey For more informa
non. call 2514X182
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
284 7722
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Portlend Observer