A space to
Remember
‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVI • Number 32
‘Stolen Angels’
honor lives
lost to police
shootings
Whole Child
Education
KairosPDX school
program celebrates
See Local News, page 3
See Metro, page 9
Established in 1970
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • August 9, 2017
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Police
Chief
Named
Oakland cop will
be first black woman
to lead bureau
M iChael l eighton
P ortland o bserver editor
Citing the
national push
for
police
reforms and
the opportu-
nity to hire
someone with
qualities he
wants, Mayor
Ted Wheel-
er Monday
picked Dan-
ielle Outlaw,
an
experi- Danielle Outlaw
enced assis-
tant police chief from Oakland, Calif., to
become Portland’s new police chief and
the first black woman to lead the bureau.
Outlaw has 19 years of experience.
She was only the second female deputy
chief in the history of the Oakland Police
Department and the first this century.
At 41-years old, she will take com-
mand of a Portland Police Bureau that
has struggled to hire new officers; is
noncompliant with a federal settlement
agreement that requires changes to bu-
reau policies training and community
engagement; has ongoing controversies
about the police handling of large pro-
tests; and has suffered from a breakdown
in trust with community members.
Wheeler said Outlaw shares his goals
by
Photo by C hrista M C i ntyre /t he P ortland o bserver
Music Millennium Owner Terry Currier has contributed to Portland’s music scene for generations. Saturday, the city cele-
brates, as Mayor Ted Wheeler proclaimed, Aug. 12 as “Terry Currier Day.”
A Music Man’s Music Man
Terry Currier
has his day
C hrista M C i ntyre
t he P ortland o bserver
Terry Currier is a local hero. His rep-
utation doesn’t rest on saving kittens
from trees or aiding senior citizens at
crosswalks. While you may not have
heard of him, Portland’s diverse music
scene and recording artists across the
country have benefitted from his love of
music and his drive to keep it playing.
Saturday, Aug. 12, the owner of Port-
land’s oldest music store, Music Millen-
nium, is honored for his achievements
as the mayor has officially designated
the day as Terry Currier Day.”
Currier has a lot on his plate. He is
an organizer with the Portland Jazz Fes-
tival, an advisor to the Cascade Blues
Festival, a founder and board member
of the coalition of Independent Record
by
stores, founder of the Oregon Music
Hall of Fame, and owner of Burnside
Records and Burnside Distribution
Company.
His day job is running Music Mil-
lennium, the oldest record store in the
Pacific Northwest, located at 3158 E.
Burnside. Music Millennium caters to
every music taste that’s been put down
on vinyl, tape, c.d. and digital unless
of course you’re looking for a Garth
Brooks’ album. A national dispute over
selling used copies of albums led Cur-
rier and Brooks to have a public show-
down between the record industry and
the stores that put music into the hands
of customers.
Currier won in a big way and from
the intense battle came a kernel of an
idea, to celebrate the brick and mortar
places which house artist’s titles and are
usually staffed by walking music ency-
clopedias. Record Store Day has been
celebrated since 2007, with people lin-
ing up around the block to buy special
releases in indy music shops around the
world.
Since 1989, Currier has pioneered
the in-store live music experience with
over 4,000 concerts held at Music Mil-
lennium. While the who’s who of mu-
sic has played in the store, two concerts
are highlights in Currier’s career. A few
years before his death, Mal Waldron,
Jazz siren Billie Holiday’s regular ac-
companist and pianist for John Col-
trane, Max Roach, Eric Dolphy played
a set. Currier also holds dear to his heart
a performance by five time Grammy
Award winning gospel group, The Blind
Boys of Alabama. Currier was intrigued
and surprised, when member Jimmy
Carter, went digging through the store’s
catalog for his favorite Country and
Western artists.
Currier is a music fan’s music fan. As
a kid he played the clarinet and because
of his intense dedication to the craft, it
C ontinued on P age 4
C ontinued on P age 13