Page 2 September 4, 2019 The Week in Review in a fully renovated building, part of a school improvement bond passed in 2012. The renovation retains the historic features of the school, with improvements to the building’s interior. Teen Shot at Pier Park A 15-year-old boy was hospi- talized with non-life threatening injuries Tuesday after being shot around 1:45 a.m. at Piet Park in St. Johns. Police were called to the park on reports of gunfire. No Lillard Helps Kids Start School arrests were made. Portland Trail Blazer and NBA great Damian Lillard helped Scooter Crash Kills Woman A 66-year-old Portland woman Rigler Elementary kids start on a scooter died early Friday classes on the first day of school evening after a crash with a Ford last week part of an initiative Expedition. Police said the SUV with Moda Health and Tools for turned in front of Susan V. Bart- School program. lett around 8:45 p.m. at Northeast 40th and Tillamook. The driver of the SUV was charged with mak- ing an illegal left turn. Four Escape Albina Fire Four people were dis- placed by an early Sunday morning fire at an apartment at 3955 N. Al- bina St. Fire- fighters said a woman with significant injuries was rescued from her second story apartment. A man had minor injuries after jump- ing from the second floor. Gov. Signs Student Success Act Gov. Kate Brown met freshmen at Jefferson High School on the first day of school last week in a special ceremony to sign the Stu- dent Success Act. The legislation was approved in May, adding $1 billion in state support to class- rooms across Oregon Homeless Camp Arson Roy Elworthy, 44, of Portland was charged last week with set- ting a fire in a homeless camp because he was frustrated about Grant Opens with Upgrade Grant High School students start- “police not enforcing laws ed their new school year last week against homeless people.” He is being held in Clackamas County. 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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. Michael Leighton A dvertising M AnAger : 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 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 photo by J enny g rahaM /o regon s hakespeare F estival Martin Jodes (Tony Sancho) and William Joad (Mark Murphy) find they are related, connected by Anglo and Latinx cultures in “Mother Road,” now showing through October at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. Road Trips of Cultural Connections Ashland plays bring richness of Latinx experience One diverse and largely Latin American cast per- forms two plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this season, offering opportunities for them, and us, to explore the complexity and richness of Latinx experience. Both productions are world premieres with deep connections to classic work that did not originally seek to explore the experiences of people of color—and both productions, in their way, carry those classic stories into new and fertile territory. Most excitingly, one of them is a fully bilingual in- vitation to English- and Spanish-speaking audiences to be in community in a radical way. “Mother Road” opened at the top of OSF’s long-running season, the first Latinx play to be pro- grammed in a season-long spot. The inspiration for the play came during a road trip commissioned by the Steinbeck National Center in preparation for a celebration of John Steinbeck’s classic novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.” In retracing the steps of the fam- o PinionAted J udge by d arleen o rtega ily in the novel along Route 66 from Oklahoma to California, playwright Octavio Solis began to notice the many connections between the white “Okie” mi- grants in Steinbeck’s story and Mexican farmwork- ers then and now. In “Mother Road,” then, Solis conceives a jour- ney from California back to Oklahoma. William Joad, an elderly cousin of Tom Joad (the protagonist of Steinbeck’s novel), comes to California looking for his only remaining kin, Tom Joad’s great-grand- son, hoping to pass the family property in Oklaho- ma to him. It turns out that his last living relative, Martin Jodes, is a Mexican-American farmworker. Their road trip back to the family land in Oklahoma c ontinued on p age 8