Page 2 August 7, 2019 Providing Insurance and Financial Services Home Office, Bloomington, Illinois 61710 Ernest J. Hill, Jr. Agent 311 NE Killingsworth St, Portland, OR 97211 503 286 1103 Fax 503 286 1146 ernie.hill.h5mb@statefarm.com 24 Hour Good Neighbor Service R State Farm R William DeMerrit (left) and Shayna Blass co-star in “Indecent,” the ethnically diverse exploration of Jewish identity which utilizes a touchstone of Yiddish theater, the 1906 play “The God of Vengeance,” as the vehicle to explore a vibrant lost history of a piece written ahead of its time. Diverse Play Explores Jewish Identity For your light bulbs & parts to repair or make fixtures o PinionAted J udge Web: www.sunlanlighting.com E-mail: kay@sunlanlighting.com 3901 N. Mississippi Ave. Portland, OR 97227 503.281.0453 Fax 503.281.3408 Established 1970 USPS 959 680 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 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 CALL 503-288-0033 FAX 503-288-0015 P ublisher : e ditor : Mark Washington, Sr. Office Manager/Classifieds: C reAtive d ireCtor : r ePorter /W eb e ditor : Leonard Latin Lucinda Baldwin Paul Neufeldt Danny Peterson P ubliC r elAtions : Mark Washington Jr. o ffiCe A ssistAnt /s Ales : Shawntell Washington Paula Vogel’s beautiful play about Jewish identity, “Inde- cent,” grapples with themes of outsiders facing threats to their freedoms and basic human rights, apropos in an age when synagogues face a resurgence of deadly violence. What does it mean to show Fire Investigation Underway Portland Police and Fire and Rescue are asking the public’s help to identify persons of interest in a residential fire investigation involving a three alarm fire at a home on Northeast Garfield Street on July 5. Surveillance video from a neighboring apartment complex recorded several people that authorities wish to identify for the fire that resulted in property damage and injured two. ‘Beloved’ Author and Nobel Laureate Dead at 88 Michael Leighton A dvertising M AnAger : by D arleen o rtega PO QR code news@portlandobserver.com • ads@portlandobserver.com subscription@portlandobserver.com Postmaster: Send address changes to Portland Observer , PO Box 3137 , Portland, OR 97208 Toni Morrison, the internationally acclaimed author whose prose spoke to the hardship and resilience of the African American experience, died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, NBC reports. The 88-year-old was the winner of the 1993 Noble Prize for Literature, 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom, and author of the novels “Beloved,” “The Bluest Eyes,” up as oneself, when one exists at the margins of privilege and identity? How does one with- stand pressure to conform, to assimilate, to succeed on terms that function to erase that which makes us distinct? It is a struggle familiar to immigrants and outsiders of Week in Review The all kinds, those of us who have faced the hazards of annihilation or demonization or oppression or genocide. To be accepted--in- deed, to survive at all--often in- volves erasing ourselves or our communities, accommodating the pressure to blend in and to validate how the dominant group defines goodness and success. “Indecent,” playing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland through October, grap- ples with these questions with C ontinueD on p age 12 Woman Sues Portland for Protest Injury Warren Calls Out White Supremacy Michelle Fawcett filed a lawsuit against the city of Portland Tuesday for injuries she said she suffered during an Aug. 4, 2018 protest against right-wing extremists. The 53-year-old woman’s claim is that she was struck in the arm by a flash-bang grenade, causing third-degree chemical burns, other physical injuries, and mental and emotion distress, stated the lawsuit, which seeks $250,000 in damages. Missing Man Found Rapper Returns to U.S. “Sula,” “Song of Solomon,” and many others. Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren said during a democratic debate that white supremacy should be labeled as domestic terrorism, saying to resounding applause: “it poses a threat to the United States of America.” That comes after FBI Director Christopher Wray’s assertion to the U.S. Senate that roughly 100 domestic terrorism-related arrests since October were connected to white supremacy. Gresham Police have successfully located a missing 67-year-old man with dementia, James Lee Rivers, over 30 hours after he was reportedly last seen. Rivers had been last seen at the Safeway at 1001 SW Highland Dr. between noon and 12:30pm Sunday and was reported found by Gresham Police by 10:30pm Monday. Rapper A$AP Rocky returned to the U.S. Saturday after being freed from a Swedish jail the night before, pending a verdict in his trial. Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, is accused with two others of beating a 19-year- old man in Stockholm on June 30, though he’s plead not guilty. The verdict will be announced Aug. 14.