May I. 2013
UJortlanh (Dbaeruer
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IN S ID E
ThcWeek Review
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FredMeyer
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What's on your list today?.
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photo by D onovan
M .S mith /T he P ortland O bserver
Verna Glass looks to the treasure o f her family history for inspiration.
METRO
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Power of the Pen
G etting through hard times by writing
D onovan M . S mith
T he P ortland O bserver
by
C lassifieds
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C alendar
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F ood
happened and what possibly could
have gone wrong and make sce
narios, I got up every day and I got
dressed and went.”
Write Around Portland is a 10-
week free creative writing workshop
offered to people in low-income
apartments, hospitals, senior cen
ters, prisons, schools, homeless
youth centers, social service agen
cies, and treatment programs.
They provided Glass with a jour
nal, and she began to write fever
ishly. She was told by a facilitator to
write in it every day for 20 minutes;
she wrote more.
Naturally, much of what she wrote
initially was her attempt to process
continued
on page A 19
Portland Remembers Kendra James
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■I
2013 J
JOYCE
The domino effect has certainly
left its mark on Verna Mae Glass.
Continually faced with tragedy, the
Portland woman arrived at the point
where despair had almost overtaken
her completely. But an opportunity
to exercise her deepest thoughts
with just a pen and paper offered a
gateway for positivity to once again
flow into her orbit.
In the fall of 2010 Glass lost her
son, daughter-in-law, and one of her
grandchildren all at once in a heated
domestic dispute turned tragic.
“I really had no will to live at that
point.” The struggle for answers
berated her consciousness every
day, she said.
The unfortunate series of events
did not stop there. Her partner of
more than 12 years was soon to be
deported. Less than a week after her
son’s funeral, he was sent to prison
in Washington State to be deported
back to his native Mexico.
With her family seemingly falling
apart, depression washed over her.
“I didn’t even want to go out of the
house anymore,” she said.
That was until the day her daugh
ter came to her, ecstatic about a writ
ing workshop she had been attend
ing, called Write Around Portland.
Her daughter urged her to attend.
“I’d never really gotten a chance
to express how I feel, so rather than
just sit in the house every day and
make my mind wander through what
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W ashington C lassic
The shooting death of Kendra
James galvanized Portland when it
occurred in 2003.
The Albina Ministerial Alliance
Coalition for Justice and Police Re
form will lead a memorial vigil on
Sunday, May 5, for James, the 25-
year-old African American woman
who was killed by Portland Police
exactly 10 years ago on the Skidmore
overpass in Portland.
The memorial, beginning at 5 p.m.,
will be held outside the Greater Faith
Baptist Church at 931 N. Skidmore. Kendra James
Members of James' family will be in
attendance.
Jam es’ death was a touchstone
for many in Portland who saw the
shooting of an unarmed African
American woman as a symptom of a
Police Bureau needing major re
forms.
The event is endorsed by Port
land Copwatch and other commu
nity organizations.
For more information call Dr.
LeRoy Haynes Jr., chair of the AMA
Coalition at 503-287-0261.