February 7, 2018
Page 11
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Black History Month comes alive with ‘Who I Am Celebrating Me,” a stage performance centered on identity, culture and the lived experiences of African Americans from
Portland’s World Stage Theater. This is the first year the play is part of an expanded Black History Festival NW, with performances Feb. 11-12 at the World Trade Center,
downtown, at area schools and other locations, along with other Black History events all month long.
by D ana l ynn b arbar
t he P ortlanD o bserver
World Stage Theatre, a
multi-cultural local organization
committed to performances that
inspire social reflection, hosts its
first annual Black History Festival
NW this month.
The main event is a stage per-
formance centered on identity,
culture, and the lived experiences
of African Americans, entitled,
“Who I Am Celebrating Me.” The
play is written by Shalanda Sims
of Portland, the festival’s founder
and artistic director.
Who I Am is now in its 12
season, and the festival is an ex-
pansion of World Stage Theater’s
Who We Are
Black History Festival puts focus on culture, identity
work in engaging the community
with black history.
“We’ve always known we
wanted to do something bigger
than the play to engage the broad-
er community, but we didn’t have
the funds in the beginning,” Sims
said.
A $25,000 place making grant,
however, from Metro was awarded
to the group recently allowing it to
expand their mission of reaching a
larger audience, and thus creating
Black History Festival NW.
Sims wanted to take advantage
of the entire month to focus on
black history. In addition to the
play, scheduled Feb. 11-12 at the
World Trade Center, downtown,
and at local schools, the festival
features various events centered
on African American history and
culture throughout the month in
different areas of Portland.
The events include a scavenger
hunt for the entire month, a book
fair with the Black Parent Initia-
tive on Saturday, Feb. 10 at Barnes
and Noble in Clackamas, a game
night at Jefferson High School on
Feb 17, and a Black History Unity
Gala at Self Enhancement, Inc.,
featuring ESPN correspondent
Jemele Hill as the keynote speak-
er, on Feb. 24.
Recognizing black history and
culture in Oregon is important to
Sims for many reasons, a main
one being a response to the state’s
own history of excluding African
Americans.
Laws that explicitly forbade the
black population from residing in
Oregon since its founding in 1859
were not repealed until the mid
1920’s. During the World War
II era, a large number of African
C ontinueD on P age 14