May 24, 2017
Page 13
Arts &
Vanport’s
History
ENTERTAINMENT
C ontinued froM p age 3
Stand Up Comedy Showcase
An actor and comedian making
a splash on the national stage will
land in Portland this holiday week-
end for Minority Retort, one of two
Hollywood Theater stand-up com-
edy showcases planned for this
year featuring comedians of color.
David Gborie will perform on
Friday, May 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the
historic theater located at 4035
N.E. Sandy Blvd.
Gborie made his TV debut last
year on the Viceland TV series
Flop House and has since appeared
on Conan. Originally from San
Francisco, he has appeared at The
Bridgetown Comedy Festival, the
SF Indie Fest, and Denver’s Too
Much Funstival, as well as the SF
Punchline, The Denver Comedy
Works, and other impressive ven-
ues.
Hosted by Jeremy Eli, the Mi-
nority Retort show will also fea-
ture popular Portland comedians
Mohanad Elshieky, Debbie Woo-
ten and Anthony Lopez.
Tickets are $12. Call 503-281-
1142 or visit hollywoodtheatre.
org.
David
Gborie
Touching and
Heartbreaking
The NW Film Center at the Portland Arts Museum
continues its ‘Constructing Identity’ black cinema
series with a screening of ‘Tongues Untied!’ a 1990
documentary that is one of the most important
films on black gay life in the U.S. Among filmmaker
Marlon Riggs’ touching and heartbreaking topics
are remembrances of his own sexual awakening
and of friends lost to AIDS. Shows on Saturday, May
27 at 4:30 p.m. For more info, visit nwfilm.org.
worked at Vanport. The city had four Afri-
can American police officers, as well.
“It changed the nature of work and
boosted salaries if you’re looking specif-
ically at black people,” Harrison told the
Portland Observer.
“Before that about 90 percent of blacks
in Portland worked with the railroad,” he
said. “There were very few professionals.
In fact, there was only one black doctor
who was brought in specifically to min-
ister to the railroad workers, but also to
anyone else in the city.”
But Vanport wasn’t a utopia for Afri-
can-Americans, Harrison said. The Hous-
ing Authority of Portland, for example,
imposed de jure segregation. Portland’s
fear of outsiders and racism influenced
the attitudes many people and politicians
took towards the city and its residents.
Harrison traces his interest in histo-
ry to being a student in high school in
Harlem when he poured over books by
African-American authors like Harlem
Renaissance writer and poet Langston
Hughes. Author Frederick Douglass, an
escaped slave who taught himself to read
and became an advisor to presidents, be-
came his personal hero.
He began doing his own research in
African-American studies in college and
graduated from Hunter College in New
York in 1967. He taught for almost 20
years at Portland area high schools be-
fore becoming an instructor at PCC.
It Does Good Things
TM
This page is sponsored by Oregon Lottery
C ALENDAR
May 2017
MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
22
23
24
25
Victoria Day in
Canada
Buy-A-Musical
Instrument Day
29
Memorial Day
John F. Kennedy
Born in 1917
Peter Parnall
born, 1936
Penny Day
First Morse Code
Message Sent from
Washington DC
to Baltimore, 1844
30
Ice Cream Freez-
er Patented In
1848 by William
Young
31
Jay Williams
born, 1981
World No Tobac-
co Day
R
National Missing
Children’s Day
National Tap
Dance Day
FRIDAY SATURDAY
26
27
Blueberry
Cheesecake Day
Ramadan Begins
Golden Gate
Bridge Opened
in 1937
SUNDAY
28
Jim Thorpe Born
in 1888