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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 2016)
September 7, 2016 The Skanner Page 3 News NAACP cont’d from pg 1 the event at the historic Billy Webb Elks Lodge. The lodge hosted the Culture Cub and Oregon Association of Colored Women’s “The Negro History Tea and Art Ex- hibit” — an inspiration for the Black Legacy Proj- ect to bring together art and history. ‘We highly encourage folks at every levels of history or writing or artwork to apply’ credentials in pdf doc- ument of 500 words or less. Applicants should also include some digital representation of the art- work or history project. Creatives may also receive a stipend of up to $300, and a chance to re- ceive a monetary award of $100 for the best work in either history or art. The NAACP Black Legacy Project has a community com- mittee of artists, historians and community el- ders curating the event. Commit- tee members in- clude PSU Black Portland Black history dioramas by Studies profes- Melissa Lang, project coordinator of the sor Darrell Mill- Charlotte NAACP Black Legacy Project. The NAACP is ner, currently seeking submissions from artists R u t h e r f o r d , of and historians for a new Black art and daughter Otto and Verdell history symposium. Rutherford and of voices to contribute Donnell Alexander, local work — people of many author and Oregon Hu- ages, those new to Port- manities Conversation land, those who have a Project facilitator. longstanding history Artists will also have here, people with ama- an opportunity to sell teur or professional cre- their work at the sym- dentials. posium for no fee. Their “We really want the work will be promoted levels of expertise to be on social media and on varied,” Lang said. “We the NAACP website. highly encourage folks —Arashi Young PHOTO COURTESY OF MELISSA LANG The project is open to all art forms as well as all works of history. Both original solo work and proposed collabora- tive works are welcome. Lang said the NAACP is looking for a diversity PHAME at OSF Celebrating after performing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival last weekend are members of PHAME: Stephen Beaudoin, executive director; Randy Hobson, keyboards; and his son, Aaron, who also played keyboards and sang a solo. The group played to an appreciative audience that included children and a Dalmatian. The family-friendly green show is free to the public. Church cont’d from pg 1 The church was nominated by the State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation for nation- al landmark status in mid-June. The church’s longtime home at 3138 N. Vancouver is actually its third location in the Portland area. It was organized in the 1940s when waves of African American settlers, most from the South, moved to Portland to work in the Kaiser shipyards and quickly out- grew its irst two buildings – the irst in a Vancouver shipyard, the second in another building in the Albina neighborhood -- before settling just south of Fre- mont in 1951. The building was built in 1909 and had previously housed a Methodist Episcopal congregation. It had a capacity of 600 – which the congregation at the time found inadequate un- til its renovation in 1957 under the leadership of the Rev. Oliver Booker Williams, to accommo- date 200 more people. During the Civil Rights Move- ment of the 1950s and 1960s, Vancouver Avenue First Bap- tist Church hosted a variety of noted speakers involved in the movement. They included Mar- tin Luther King Jr., who spoke at “ The Oregon Heritage Exchange post notes the building stands in an area that was once a hub for African American businesses and has since undergone dramat- ic redevelopment, new construc- It was organized in the 1940s when waves of African American settlers, most from the South, moved to Port- land to work in the Kaiser shipyards and quickly outgrew its irst two build- ings...before settling just south of Fre- mont in 1951. the church in 1961 during a tour organized by the national Urban League. He spoke on “The Future of Integration” and described segregation as a “cancer in the body of democracy.” The church also hosted John Lewis and Ralph Wilkins during the peak years of the movement. tion and attendant displacement of neighbors — including long- time congregants. However, the congregation — now led by the Rev. J.W. Matt Hennessee — is still considered one of the largest Af- rican American congregations in the state. —Christen McCurdy cont’d from pg 1 tributions. Performer Patrick Seraya blends jazz guitar pieces with a tradi- tional African sound. “There’s jazz, there’s R&B, there’s hip hop, there’s funk, there is all kinds of diferent music and we wanted to make sure we had a little bit of all of that in this festival,” Newton said. The festival was born out of series of conversations between Newton and Ozier. Both of them had traveled widely and lived in many cities before coming to Portland. In cities with larger Black populations, there were more Black heritage and music festivals. In Portland they saw Black music highlighted only during neighborhood fairs such as the Good in the Hood cel- ebration. Newton said the Portland Black Music Festival will build commu- nity and foster a welcoming space. “For people to have a place in any community, they have to feel like they are worth something — they want to feel like they are part of this commu- nity,” Newton said. “I feel like a cele- bration like this makes people feel at home, makes them feel like a part of the community.” Initially, Newton and Ozier had been “ festival’,” Newton said. For Ozier, the hardest part of cre- ating the festival was turning eager musicians away. The festival has one stage for one day — not enough time ‘I feel like a celebration like this makes people feel at home, makes them feel like a part of the community’ planning the festival for some time in the future. But when they teamed up with Dj O.G. One and partnered with McMenamins who ofered the Mission Theater Venue, everything fell into place quickly. Newton said he has received some racist online harassment for creating a festival focusing on Black music and musicians. “Lately we’ve been getting a lot of cynical people who are asking ‘when are you going to start the White music and space to showcase every deserving Black musician in Portland. “So many people wanted to be in- volved in it, it was beautiful,” Ozier said. “But because we only got one day to do it, we had to tell a lot of people, our friends, no.” Newton says there are plans to ex- pand the festival in the future. He hopes to extend it to a three-day afair, involving a larger venue -- and they may even add in a Black music confer- ence to the oferings. PHOTO COURTESY OF FARNELL NEWTON Music PHOTO BY BOBBIE FOSTER “ at every levels of history or writing or artwork to apply.” Interested people should submit an appli- cation to naacppdxinfo@ gmail.com by Sept. 15. Applications should in- clude a summary of one’s background, artist’s statement or historian Tyrone Hendrix is one of the artists featured in the irst annual Portland Black Music Fest happening this Sunday at McMenamins Mission Theater.