Stadium
Envisioned
The Barber
of Seville
Riverfront site
gets backing
Magic of
opera for kids
See Local News, page 3
See Metro, page 9
‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVII • Number 46
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • December 5, 2018
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
photo credit d anny p eterson /t he p ortland o bserver
Volunteers with Critical Resistance Portland have a home in a new community gathering space open to multiple social justice organizations and communities of color at
14 N.E. Killingsworth St. Pictured are Mohamed Shehk (from left), Anna Swanson, Myell Thompson and Cory Lira.
Shared Stewardship
Social justice advocates introduce new space for organizing
by d anny p eterson
t he p ortland o bserver
A new public gathering space for multiple organiza-
tions to share and one geared toward social justice issues
and support for communities of color is giving various
non-profit groups a better way to consolidate their limited
resources and make a bigger impact.
The Dismantle, Change, Build Center (DCBC) is the
newest designation for the old storefront at 14 N.E. Kill-
ingsworth St.
The stewards behind the center are attempting to op-
erate it within the spirit of how the space has historically
been used: To provide a culturally diverse and enriching
gathering and organizing space for community members
in the tradition of the former Albina Arts Center, and later,
In Other Words feminist bookstore, two organizations the
space formally housed.
The importance of holding a shared stewardship of a
community space is seen as both a logistical one in terms
of cost sharing and for the ability to build on the number
of voices who advocate and envision a better future for
their stakeholders in the community, according to Anna
Swanson, one of the organizers of the center and a volun-
teer with the group Critical Resistance Portland.
“We’re taking the opportunity to be the future that we
are working to create by holding this space, holding it col-
lectively, living that sort of shared vision of sharing re-
sources, not treating anyone as disposable, having a space
that’s really oriented around that,” Swanson told the Port-
land Observer.
Critical Resistance Portland is a chapter of an interna-
tional movement dedicated to the abolition of what it calls
the “Prison Industrial Complex” through activism work.
Their efforts are often geared toward advocating for the
c ontinued on p age 4