lune 13. 2007
Page A3
il!‘ IJo rtlau h © bseruer
Local
Grads
Honored
Bridge Builders
Celebrate
The community is invited to join
the Bridge Builders as the mentoring
group celebrates its African ances
tors and local high school gradu
ates.
The Bridge Builders MaafaCom-
memoration and Announcement
takes place Saturday, June 16 at 8
p.m. at the University of Portland -
Buckley Center Auditorium, 5(XM)
N. Willamette Blvd.
Maafa is a Swahili word mean
ing, "great catastrophe." So this
special event marks the great catas
trophe of centuries ago when 50
million Africans died as they were
transported during the middle pas
sage from Africa to slave-trading
countries including America.
The Bridge Builders will first rec
ognize its senior graduates who are
participating in the organization's
African-centered rights of passage
program through the Prospective
Gents and Imminent Ladiesof Vir
tue clubs at the Announcement
program.
More than 15 passage candi
dates from schools, including
Benson, Central Catholic, Grant,
Aloha, David Douglas, Roosevelt,
and Jesuit, will take part in the cer
emony and give aw e-inspiring
speeches that they have spent
months preparing.
After the Announcement the
students, their families and guests
will gather at the knoll on the cam
pus, where the Ben York statue
honoring the black member of the
Lewis and Clark Exposition is lo
cated. White helium-filled balloons
will be released to commemorate
the millions of lives in the Maafa.
Negro spirituals will also be sung.
Because this is a special cer
emony all attendees are asked to
where white in accordance, and
bring several of their own white
helium balloons.
For more inform ation, visit
www.thebridbuilders.org.
in terim
Superintendent
Selected
Ed Schmitt, retiring superinten
dent of the Multnomah Education
Service District, will take the helm
of Portland Public Schools as in
terim superintendent after Vicki
Phillips leaves June 30.
Phillip is leaving PPS to join the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The school board has launched a
recruitmentandhiringeffort. Mon
day it hired Schmitt to lead the
district on a temporary basis.
A fo rm er E ng lish te a c h e r,
Schmitt worked for Portland Public
Schools from 1980 to 1996, and
served as PPS Director of Person
nel before he became Superinten
dent of the Multnomah ESD.
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P a i e N ei eeedi /T iii P orti w ii O bni km k
Twin Protests on Martin Luther King
O pponents to a Planned P arenthood clinic rally on o n e sid e o f N ortheast Martin Luther King Jr.
Boulevard where it c r o s s e s B eech S tre e t (left) while p roponents e x p re ss their support on the
op p o site sid e (above). The duo p ro te sts were held Thursday a t the p ro p o sed site o f the family
planning center, which is controversial b e c a u se o f abortion services. The Portland D evelopm ent
C om m ission approved the plans earlier this year after hearing from both s id e s in the issu e .
Finding a Voice with Poetry and Songs
Inspirations
from a local
author
by N icole
R onal H ooper
T he P ortland O bserver
W hen D arlene S olom on-
Rodgers read a poem by the fa
mous African American author
Nikki Giovanni she found hercall-
ing.
As a little girl, she hadn't heard
G iovanni's story about Santa
Claus being a black man, espe
cially since she was bused to a
school where the majority of the
students were white. Some two
decades later. Solomon-Rodgers,
also known as Blacque Butterfly,
is now a poet, singer and motiva
tional speaker. She’s a Jill of all
creative trades in addition to her
job as Health Access Coordina
tor at the Portland teen homeless
shelter Outside In.
Butterfly took her name from a
Soundsof Blackness song, “Black
Butterfly.” She believes it was
divine intervention brought about
aftertwo friends in the same three-
way phone conversation talked
of butterflies in their car and on
top of a flag pole.
“From that point on, I was
Blacque Butterfly," she said.
In 2005, she became an author
with the self-published "BlackGirl
Blacque Butterfly
Can I Comb Your Hair,"acol lection
of 30 pages of poetry. She made 250
copies and managed to sell them.
"I was opening for (local singer)
Liv Warfield and wanted a product
to sell and there’s nothing more
satisfying than publishing it your
self,” she said.
Butterfly's entrepreneur spirit
didn't stop there.
In 2006, she came out with Col-
lide-A-Scope, a spoken word CD
set to music and with other local
artists, including her best friend,
activist Rochell “Ro Deezy” Hart.
Butterfly can understand as a
fellow artist and Oregonian, the
disappointment Ro felt when she
was rejected for a reading at
Powell’s Books earlier this year.
Because o f the book seller's
fallout with her home girl she said
she will never shop there again.
She says she com m itted to shop
ping only at black-ow ned busi
nesses to help rejuvenate the
community.
Another thing Butterfly will
never do is watch certain television
shows, like "Flavor of Love” or the
spin-off "Charm School.”
“ I think its te le v isio n or
hellivision that is doing a disser
vice and showing us what we we're
supposed to be doing by watching
TV,” she says. "If we spent more
time with our kids then things would
be better."
Butterfly watches Vh I Soul, but
true to form, the once neo-soul
channel is piggy backing on the
same tried and true rap videos chock
full of booties, booze and bling.
"I was so mad at Nelly for his
song "Tip Drill," said Butterfly. The
video is more famous than the song,
in which rapper Nelly is shown slid
ing a credit card in between a
woman’s buttocks.
“The rap game is run by media
moguls,” said Butterfly. "Thatgoes
back to people thinking there is no
integrity in our art.”
Technology, she feels, is partly
to blame, with people more con
nected to iPods than each other.
She recalls days when blacks in
Portland were segregated and how
M H N M M M M I
MHCC President Takes
Job in California
the "clan" used to march on North
Williams Avenue.
"We learned to lean on each
other because we didn’t have a
choice. It was more community and
social based," said Butterfly.
She grows frustrated when the
black community acts negatively
towards each other, especially chil
dren. Butterfly, who is the mother
of one adult son. made an effort to
instill him with respect towards el
ders.
“When you see someone on the
street who looks like you and you
don't speak to them, that is just as
bad as gentrification," she said.
In the winter. Butterfly plans to
move to Atlanta, a city she says is
more conducive to her creativity.
"It's been hard but it's time for
me to go. If it would have been up
to me I would have left five years
ago," said Butterfly. "But. it w asn't
the right lime."
You can catch Blacque Butter
fly on June 15 at 9 p.m. at New
Born Tribe, 3525 N.E. Martin
Luther King Jr. Blvd. For more
in fo rm atio n about upcom ing
sh o w s v isit m y s p a c e .c o m /
blacquebutterflypdx.com .
July 18, 2007
THE ALAN
BROADBENT
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@THE OLD
ALAN BRO AD BEN T sp^doXTen
a,7pm
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catering by
A Simple
Elegance
KMHD 89.1 FM presents in association
w/Fendel-Allen Productions
The Alan Broadbent L.A. Trio
Tickets available during the KMHD Spring
pledge drive June 14—June 17, 2007
or by calling 503.491.7271 or at www.kmhd.fm
Beautiful Father's Day Portraits.
Following six years of serv ice sonable driving distance to both of
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Silverman leaves a legacy of
to leave the college to be closer to growing the college’s Nursing
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Silverman has accepted the health facility and guiding the
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lege in Victorville, Calif., begin of budget cuts due to insufficient
ning early July, to be within rea state funding.
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