The
February 22, 2012
Portland Observer Black Histoiy Month
IN S ID E
This page
Sponsored by:
Page 3
Fred Meyer
What's on your list today?»
B lack H istory E dition
C lassifieds
page 8
Portland
author inspires
with best­
selling book
page 13
I
4«
Growing Up Biracial
1
by M indy C ooper
È
K?
*
A À
T he P ortland O bserver
A lth o u g h s h e d e s p e r a te ly
w anted to fit in, w hen best-selling
author H eidi W. D urrow first m oved
to Portland, she rem em b ers w hat it
felt like to be an o u tsid er and unseen
by those around her.
*
r
O pinion
w
g
«■HMH
H ealth
C alendar
F ood
pages 20-21
I
I
“W hat w as so frustrating to me
as a kid w as that I felt like my life and
m y ex p erien ce w as in ex p licab le,”
said D urrow , w ho grew up stru g ­
gling w ith h er identity as a biracial
girl. “ I cam e to P ortland in 1980, and
1 rem em b er feeling that this w as a
landscape that I d id n ’t belong in,
and yet, 1 w anted to d esp erately .”
Years later, her voice has been
heard, w ith her debut novel The Girl
W ho Fell from the Sky being read in
book clubs throughout the country
and becom ing a Ne w York Tim es best
seller after w inning the 2008 Bell­
w ether Prize for Fiction, an aw ard
w hich reco g n izes w o rk th at a d ­
dresses issues o f social justice.
H er novel has also been selected
for the 2012 M ultnom ah C ounty
E verybody R eads event, w hich b e ­
gins in M arch and en co u rag es resi­
dents o f the city, by reading the
sam e book, to talk w ith each other
about issues that m atter.
Set in northeast Portland in 1980s,
the b o o k is a co m in g o f age story
about a y o ung girl R achel w ho u n ­
dergoes an ad venture to find her
place w ithin society and escape the
categories
o f race
thrust upon
T o support
the success
o f A her.
fri­
T he m first
chapter
can-A
erican
and alone
o th er references
students
now w clo
sed the
W o Portland
n d er B read
o the
f color
ithin
co m B m ak
u ­ ­
ery
in
north
P
ortland
and
the
annual
nity, a p a re n t’s night w ill be held at
the G rant H igh School library in
n o r th e a s t P o r tla n d o n F rid a y ,
M arch 2 at 6:30 p.m .
T he m eeting w ill give parents
Heidi W. Durrow, Portland author of the book The Girl Who Fell
from the Sky, recounts her life experiences growing up biracial
and what it felt like to be an outsider.
R ose Festival.
“T o im agine a w hole story and all
o f these characters I m ade up in m y
m ind in the im agination o f o th er
people is an incredible h o n o r,” she
said. “M y hope is that the story, set
in the 1980s Portland, w ill generate
lively d iscussions about identity
and belonging in m y beloved ho m e­
to w n .”
A lthough no t yet a published
au th o r or novelist w hen she was
young, D urrow said she w as one o f
th o se kids w ho w o u ld save her
m oney to buy notebooks w ith spe-
cial things on the front. “I also loved
stationary, and I w as a big letter
w riter as a k id ,” she said. “ A lot o f
that had to do w ith the fact that w e
lived o v erseas.”
W ith h er dad in the A ir force,
D urrow said her fam ily w as c o n ­
stantly m oving around the w orld.
She lived in G erm any and T urkey
and w ould visit D enm ark, w here she
w ould go to stay w ith her m o th e r’s
fam ily. “ I think it w as very fortunate
w e got to live in a lot o f different
continued
on page 7
Parent’s Night on Equity in Schools
and educators the chance to dis­
cu ss district ch an g es and g ath er
inform ation about changes w ithin
P ortland Public Schools and their
im pacts on A frican A m erican c h il­
dren. R esources and inform ation
about college scholarship opportu-.
nities w ill also be available at the
event.
The goal o f the event is to in cor­
porate a new ‘culture o f re sp e c t’
that will focus on equity access to
academ ic achievem ent for all stu­
dents from all w alks o f life.
F o r m o re in f o r m a tio n , c a ll
Khandice Lawrence at503-408-1121.