September 25. 2013
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photo by D onovan M. S mith / T he P ortland O bserver
Imstar Abioti uses her camera to document black life in Portland. She credits a passion for 'a rt and
exploration, and the love o f African Diaspora cultures and photography for creating her own website
the blackportlanders.com.
Black Portlanders
Camera shoots
document life
in the city
by D onovan M. S mith
T he P ortland O bserver
Memphis native Inistar Abioti
was not surprised Portland falls
much behind her hometown when it
comes to cultural diversity. After all
Memphis is the birthplace of Blues
music and is 62 percent black, while
and the City of Roses doesn’t even
edge up on 7 percent.
When the 27-year-old multi-dis­
ciplinary artist made the decision to
come here, Abioti says she barely
had any real context to Portland’s
racial history. Initially it was the
food, the healing arts, lush green­
ery, and independent businesses
that intrigued her. However in time,
she became aware of other things
surrounding her.
Abioti started an Internet blog to
document black life in Portland.
Called The Black Portlanders, the
project keeps a camera tied to her
hip, and when intrigued by a per­
son, male, female, tall, short, dread-
head, or bald, she approaches. She
tells the person (or people), of her
blog, she asks if she can shoot their
picture; most oblige.
“What led me into it basically is
what led me into everything else —
art and exploration and the love of
black culture, a love of African
Diaspora cultures, and photogra­
phy,” she says. “The imagery, po­
etry in life, poetry of the visual,
finding powerful stories about life.
Those are all things [I’ve explored],
maybe since I was a teenager.
“I love our image, we’re beautiful,
we’re so diverse, you could put us all
together and we’ll all look different,
we’ll all have different experiences,
and come from different places. I just
love people. Whether they’re black
or white, there’s just so much beauty
in people. I love that,” she says.
Her work documenting the li ves of
c o n tin u e d
on p a g e 4
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Marine Charged with Murder
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C lassifieds
C alendar
F ood
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i / a i
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Victim’s family
looks for justice
in Hawaii
A Marine has been charged with
murder and other charges, includ­
ing patronizing a prostitute, in the
death of a Portland woman who was
on vacation in Hawaii, the Marine
Corps said Monday.
An A rticle 32 hearing, the
military's equivalent of a prelimi­
nary hearing in civilian court, will be
held at Marines Corps Base Hawaii
on W ed n esd ay to d ete rm in e
w hether M aster Sgt. Nathaniel
Ivanice ‘Ivy’ Harris
Nathaniel Cosby
Cosby should face a court-martial,
The Naval Criminal Investigative
Service took over from Honolulu
police the investigation into the
death of Ivanice "Ivy" Harris, who
was vacationing with her boyfriend
and friend to celebrate her 29th birth-
day. She was last seen outside a
co n tin u ed
on p a g e 4