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