December 18, 2013
^urtlanh (Obaeruer
inis page
Sponsored by
IN S ID E
Page 3
FredMeyer
Week Review
O pinion
N orthbound
pages 6-7
■•Ä ( 1
E ntertainment G uide
1 "î*
photo by D onovan M. S mith /T he P ortland O bserver
North Portland rapper Glenn Waco, whose real name is Dracey Ware, wears a gas mask he pur
chased from Israel as a symbol in his music, filtering negativity into positivity. He also calls himself
the ‘Dirty North Kid’ a young hip hop voice who is filliping stereotypes about his urban surroundings.
Young rapper voices a different side of the Rose City
D onovan M. S mith
T he P ortland O bserver
by
risin g and in tro s p e c tiv e re-
invisionment o f the Will Smith hit
‘S um m ertim e.’ W aco raps on
Oregon’s history with the KKK, and
gives nods to streets like Fessenden,
Greeley and Alberta:
A collage of news reports detail
ing shootings in north Portland with
a haunting chant of “bang! bang!
bang!” is how Glenn Waco, an up
coming young rapper in the city’s
hip-hop scene introduces listeners
to his second project, fittingly titled
“Northbound.”
Untrained ears may hear glorifi
cation in such a chant, but a closer
listen to the entire project reveals
the tale of a 21 -year-old man balanc
ing the struggles and joys of com
ing from what was once treated as a
forgotten part of town.
“I want people to look deeper
“Last Thursdays on Alberta’s
always fu ll o f f*****g drama.
There's no escape/ Fights with
hoodrats and they mamas. Hippies
fill up they pockets (ah do busi
ness). N****s fill up the squadron
cars to prison. That neighborhood
used to be ours back in the day.
Tales from the Crip LiT Smurf lin
gers on the K. ”
continued
on page 14
School District to Raise Benson Cap
C alendar
page 10
Portland School Superintendent Carole Smith an
nounced Monday that the school district will expand
the cap on Benson High School’s enrollment with a
final decision coming with the New Year. The school
board also approved plans Monday for the
remodel of Roosevelt and Franklin high ^ B b
C lassifieds
page 14
schools.
Smith said multiple options are on the
table to expand access district-wide to the
career-technical education focus at Benson
while continuing to support the strength of |
F ood
v
4
lb
Franklin and Roosevelt high schools keep both projects
on track for construction to begin in the summer of
2015 with completion anticipated for the fall of 2017.
The plans determine the overall layout of a school’s
■
learning spaces such as the gymnasium,
theater, common areas and classrooms. They
i B preserve historically significant portions of
■ 1 each school's buildings while adding new
I
v ^ B
buildings to promote 21 st century learning,
officials said.
J**1,
The school board also voted Monday to
all neighborhood high schools.
approve a new K-5 charter school in north
“As part o f our report on high school
B H Portland’s Kenton neighborhood with the
system design, we said we would look at
goal of closing the achievement gap for
Carole Smith
geographic enrollment adjustments in year
students of color.
three, which we are in,” Smith said. “And we know that
One goal of the Kairos PDX Public Charter School
there is strong community demand to increase access
will be to eliminate race and income as predictors of
to Benson’s programs.”
success, said Marsha Williams, one of the school’s
The approval of master plans for a modernized
organizers.