Endurance Champ
Gives Back
Uses strength to raise
donations for a cause
See Metro, page 9
‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVI • Number 13
Hoop Dreams
and Gang
Culture
A Portland
author’s latest
novel
See Local News, page 3
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • March 29, 2017
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
photo by L eonard L atin /t he p ortLand o bserver
Bluesman Norman Sylvester presents business owner and entrepreneur Paul Knauls Sr. with a plaque to honor him for his nearly 30 years of support for the home-
grown Inner City Blues Festival and the event’s sponsorship of many community causes. The recent presentation was made at Knauls’ Geneva’s Hair Perfection Barber
and Beauty Salon as ticket sales get underway.
Community Activism and the Blues
Keeping the focus on
‘Healthcare for All’
t erry a nn r ogers
A health care law which is too expen-
sive or leaves too many people without
coverage is no solution for a large group
of local musicians who have announced
that the goal of universal health care will
once again be the community issue behind
their Inner City Blues Festival, returning
next month to the Eagles Lodge in north
by
Portland.
The April 22 concert will be a fund-
raiser for Health Care for All-Oregon, an
advocacy organization working to bring
an equitable, affordable, comprehensive,
publicly-funded health care system to all
Oregonians.
Universal health care goes way beyond
the limits of the Affordable Care Act or
anything that has been proposed as a re-
placement by President Trump and the Re-
publican Congress because it would pro-
vide health care and financial protection to
all citizens.
According to the musicians backing the
festival, the uncertainty about access to
health care in the current political climate
means that health care for everyone in Or-
egon is now more important than ever. A
great many musicians and artists suffer
greatly from the lack of medical care.
Iconic Portland bluesman Norman Syl-
vester, one of the festival’s organizers, said
the issue for him is that health care should
be seen as a human right.
“I have played too many benefits for
musicians who fell ill or more tragically
played for their Celebration of Life,” Syl-
vester said. “They didn’t have preventative
care because of years of not being able to
afford healthcare.”
Portland musician Rob Shoemaker
knows what it’s like to face huge medical
bills without a safety net.
“When my wife needed rotator cuff
surgery, we were forced to re-finance the
house to cover our part of the expenses.
C ontinued on p age 5