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.
