Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 30, 2018)
Page 2 May 30, 2018 t ri m et A community member places a flower onto a mural adorned with messages of hope and inspiration at the Hollywood Transit Center during its dedication Saturday to the victims of a fatal MAX train stabbings that occurred at the location one year ago and sent shockwaves through the city. The two men killed and another man who was injured in the attack were defending two teenage girls subjected to a racist tirade. Photo Courtesy oF Photo By J enny g raham , o regon s hakesPeare F estival Tanis Parenteau (left) and Rainbow Dickerson star in “Manahatta,” one of the summer and fall attractions at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland , a play that moves between time periods to explore and give a voice to the exploita- tion and colonization faced by Native Americans. o PinionAted J udge By d arleen o rtega Rare Perspectives on Stage formerly worked in Manhattan) has found resonant parallels between the economic pressures driving events in all three sto- ries and the patterns of exploitation and colonization that recur again and again. In this play -- as frequently happens for indigenous and marginalized people--the Lenape characters invest in relationship, and what they offer in friendship and good faith is used as leverage for their removal. Moving between the stories in this way captures a sense, common to indigenous cultures, that ancestors move among us and may help us to respond to suffering with hard-one wisdom from the past. The play offers an exceedingly rare opportunity to experience mainstream art that is driven by indigenous story- telling rhythms and that centralizes the perspective of its indigenous characters, rather than the more usual erasure of in- digenous people or the tendency to crop their story into a narrative that belongs to the dominant culture. We get a sense of how the first peoples viewed their early trades with European settlers, and of how persistently the perspectives of the colo- nizers erase evidence of agency and omit signs that they are dealing with a worthy trading partner. When a Lenape character addresses a settler in his language, he re- marks in surprise, “You speak,” as though It is no exaggeration to say that three plays currently on offer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Asland are making space for authentic, rarely-heard perspec- tives, and are changing the landscape of the American theater. “Manahatta,” the astonishing work of Cherokee playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle, takes place in three settings and two time periods. A few years before the 2008 finan- cial crisis, a Lenape woman, Jane Snake, arrives on Wall Street -- to Manahatta, the very land her ancestors were forced to leave in the 1600s. She has taken a job in a prestigious investment bank and is fighting for credibility and opportunities to demon- strate her skills, but in a place where she is not seen or expected to rise. Meanwhile, her family is facing personal and financial troubles back in Oklahoma that eventual- ly lead her mother to take out a mortgage loan that will jeopardize the family home. Finally, much of the play involves Lenape people in Manahatta encountering Dutch settlers for the first time, leading to a series of failures of communication with disas- trous consequences for the Lenape people. Staging these three stories together is a feat of theatrical genius, performed by a talented cast under the facile direction of Laurie Woolery. All seven cast members move between time periods, with subtle but clear shifts of costume, movement, and tone, and Nagle (herself an attorney who C ontinued on P age 5 Established 1970 USPS 959 680 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 CALL 503-288-0033 • FAX 503-288-0015 P ublisher : e ditor : Mark Washington, Sr. Hope and remembrance one year after deaths Hundreds of Portlanders gathered Sat- urday at a new mural adorning the Hol- lywood Transit Center with messages of hope and remembrance one year after a The Week in Review Shelter Shooting Video On Friday, Portland Police released video from surveillance cameras inside a south- east Portland homeless shelter which re- corded the police shooting death of John Elifrtiz, 48, last April when he entered the shelter while experiencing a mental health crisis and wielding a knife. Elifritz’ wife, Barbara Elifritz, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and eight law en- forcement officers in federal court. Rosanne Racism Dooms Show ABC Tuesday canceled its hit reboot of the show “Roseanne” following a racist Twit- ter rant by the show’s star, Roseanne Barr. A few hours earlier, Barr apologized for a tweet she sent out Monday that said “mus- lim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” which falsely tried to denigrate a former aide to President Obama, Valerie Jarrett. Historical Boxer Pardoned A pardon was issued by President Trump Thursday for the late boxer Jack Johnson, an African American convicted a centu- ry ago for the crime of taking a woman The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. © 2008 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. The Portland Observer--Oregon’s Oldest Multicultural Publication--is a member of the National Newspaper Association--Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association. Rakeem Washington A dvertising M AnAger : Office Manager/Classifieds: c reAtive d irector : Leonard Latin Lucinda Baldwin Paul Neufeldt P ublic r elAtions : Mark Washington Jr. double fatal stabbing on MAX light rail stunned the community. When an anti-Muslim, racial tirade against two young women was challenged by other passengers, the perpetrator then turned on Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche C ontinued on P age 14 across state lines, saying it righted a wrong in American history. In 1912, the heavy- weight boxer was arrested with Lucille Cameron, a white woman he would later marry. NFL Bans Anthem Protests Some athletes in the NFL are discussing alternative ways of protesting after NFL owners voted on a new policy last week that fines teams for any personnel that “do not show proper respect for the flag and Anthem.” Kneeling during the national anthem rose to prominence when former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick did so to protest racial inequality and police bru- tality in 2016. Dolezal Charged With Fraud The former NAACP leader in Washington State whose life was turned upside down when she was exposed as a white woman pre- tending to be black is now facing welfare fraud charges. Rachel Dolezall, who legal- ly changed her name to Nkechi Diallo, has been charged week with theft by welfare fraud, perjury, and false verification for public assistance. Starbucks Anti Bias Training Turning away customers looking for an afternoon jolt of caffeine, Starbucks shops across the U.S. began closing up early on Tuesday to hold training for employees on recognizing hidden prejudices. It was part of the coffee chain’s effort to deal with the outcry over the arrest of two black men last month for sitting in a Philadelphia Star- bucks without buying anything. Harvey Weinstein Arraigned Michael Leighton e xecutive d irector : PO QR code Transit Memorial Dedication news@portlandobserver.com • ads@portlandobserver.comn • subscription@portlandobserver.com Postmaster: Send address changes to Portland Observer , PO Box 3137 , Portland, OR 97208 Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was brought to court Friday on charges of first- and third-degree rape and committing a criminal sexual act in the first degree, which stemmed from incidents from two different women in 2013 and 2004. The arraignment follows claims of multiple decades of abuse by many women first re- ported in the New York Times in October.