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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2011)
WWW . THESKANNEr . COM O CTOBEr 19, 2011 P OrTlANd , O rEgON V OluME XXXIII, N O . 51 25 CENTS i nSiDe Black Marriage page 6 Wellness Village page 8 Jessie Jackson Jr, C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow Vigil Will Honor Victims page 5 OccupatiOn Because nobody should have to die for love By helen Silvis of The Skanner News Photo By helen SilViS I n the last year, 27 Oregonians have lost their lives to domestic violence. Three others killed themselves after killing their partners. To remember the victims, and to draw attention to these preventable tragedies, the Portland’s Women’s Crisis Line is holding a vigil from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday Oct. 20, at Dawson Park in North Portland. “It’s important that the community under- stands that we all play a role in ending domestic violence,” says Rebecca Nickels executive director of the nonprofit crisis line. “Often when we are talking about domestic violence people may feel over- whelmed and uncertain how they can make a difference.” Rev. Lynn Smouse Lopez and domestic violence survivor, Anastacia Papadopulous will speak at the event, along with family members and friends of slain teen Yashanee Vaughn. The Crisis Line offered case management support to 350 people last year and fielded 23,000 calls, Nickels says. “Some are from community members and professionals, but the vast majority are peo- ple experiencing domestic violence.” According to the State of Oregon statis- tics, 35 people lost their lives to domestic violence in 2010 and almost one-third of Oregon women have experienced violence from an intimate partner at some time in their lives. Sadly, children witness many of the assaults, including sexual assaults, put- ting them at risk for emotional problems, as well as making it more likely they too will be victims of family violence. Organizations like the crisis line, Raphael House, Volunteers of America’s Home Free program and Bradley Angle’s Healing Roots center are dedicated to helping victims reach safety, despite the fact that most have lost significant funding during the reces- The Occupy Portland protest has set up camp opposite City Hall, and protesters told The Skanner News they plan to stay indefinitely. Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish sent an open letter to the camp asking them to move because the damage to the parks is inconsistent with their goals. Meanwhile, in New York last week, Professor Cornel West was arrested at the Occupy Wall Street demonstration. He later was released. Prof. Brown: ‘We Fail Children So Early’ Lewis and Clark expert says we can and must unlearn violence? By helen Silvis of The Skanner News W hen a string of tragedies drew atten- tion to the impact of relationship violence, Dr Andrae Brown had to act. Working with Oregon Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Brown and Pastor Cliff Chappell of St. John’s All Nations Church started the Leap of Faith program that brings together men and boys to end violence through faith and com- See Vigil on page 11 inDeX munity. The assistant professor at Lewis and Clark’s Graduate School of Education and Counseling, has seen violence from many angles. His research centers on how to prevent vio- lence, working with families, schools and street youth. Yet he also understands on a personal level how violence can carry forward through generations. One of his grandfathers was killed in an arson fire; the other died at his own hand. And as a young man, Brown lost a best friend to murder. We asked Dr. Brown about his life and work. where did you grow up? I was born in North Carolina but my family moved to New York when I was two. We lived upstate, but my dad was a min- ister. He had a church in Manhattan and then the Bronx so I got to go to the city a lot. I stayed there until I was 11 or 12 then went back to North Carolina. My father was minister of a nondenominational Church of God of Prophesy. The church was integrated, but a lot was based on ethnicity. So in New York we had a lot of Jamaicans and when we came down south we had a black church and a white church. It was the same denomination but there was not a lot of mingling except at spe- cial events. I had seven siblings so there was always a whole lot happening. what was that move like? The transition was quite diffi- cult because I wasn’t used to the way things were done. In school See Brown on page 3 Kwei Quartey’s Next Big Mystery News ................2,3,8,9 The author tells all about his novels, his home country, and writing Opinion ..................4,5 By lisa loving of The Skanner News A & E ......................6,7 Food..........................8 Bids/Classifieds ........11 K wei Quartey is a surgeon and mys- tery author whose sleuth, Ghanaian police inspector Darko Dawson, this year solved his second big mystery in “Children of the Street.” Quartey’s debut novel, a mystery also featuring Dawson, was “The Wife of the Gods.” Born and raised in Ghana himself, the son of an African American mother and a Ghanaian father who were both university professors, Quartey says he wanted to be a writer from childhood. Here the Skanner news spoke with the author about his novels, his home country, and writing. The Skanner News: Your background is so interesting – one foot on the African con- tinent and one foot in America, like the President. Quartey: I think you’re right, and I think even maybe more so than the president because my childhood was spent on both continents — on the American continent and the African continent, in Ghana specifi- cally. See Quartey on page 3
