MAY 9, 2018
Portland and Seattle Volume XL No. 32
News .............................. 3,8-10 A & E .....................................6-7
Opinion ...................................2 World News Briefs ........10
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
TEEN SUMMER
MUSICAL AUDITION
PHOTO BY A. DAVEY (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
This April 21 photograph
depicts a building under
construction on N.
Missisippi Ave. Rents
in newly constructed
buildings fell in 2017,
according to the city’s
State of Housing report
— but renters of color are
still unable to afford rent
in any neighborhood in
the city.
25
CENTS
Rents
Too High
for Black
Portlanders
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
new report from the Portland
Housing Bureau paints a bleak
picture for renters of color in
Portland.
The 2017 State of Housing Report,
released at the end of April, contains
a few encouraging signs — including
signs that rents in newly constructed
have decreased for the first time since
the Portland Housing Bureau started
publishing the report in 2015.
A
See HOUSING on page 3
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
State of Housing report
shows most renters of
color can’t afford to live
anywhere in the city
Kids audition for the 2018 Teen Summer Musical May 5 at Rainier Beach Community Center. Dozens of kids showed up May 5 and May 6 to try out for
a chance to participate in the popular program. The kids selected for the musical will began rehearsing June 25 and will perform the musical for an
audience on Aug. 16 -19.
Activists Raise Money to Bail Out Black Mothers
Local campaign is part of a national movement to end money bail
TIM TAI/THE PHILADELPHIA
INQUIRER VIA AP
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
ortland-area activists
are raising money to
bail Black mothers
out of jail this week-
end so they can be reunit-
ed with their children for
Mother’s Day.
A fundraising site that
was posted Monday had
raised $13,000 toward a
$25,000 goal by Wednes-
day morning.
The fundraiser is part of
P
Meek Mill speaks during a news conference
promoting Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposals to reform the
criminal justice system in Philadelphia, May 3, 2018.
a movement called the Na-
tional Bail Out, conceived
by Mary Hooks of the At-
lanta-based
organizing
group Southerners on New
Ground. The idea behind
it is twofold: first, to raise
funds to post bail for indi-
viduals currently in jail,
and to draw scrutiny to the
cash bail system, hopefully
bringing about its end.
The Portland-area cam-
paign was sparked by Gina
Spencer, a nurse practi-
tioner who moved to the
Portland area last year
from Philadelphia, where
she had contributed to
a Mother’s Day bailout
campaign previously. She
reached out to local activist
groups to find out if some-
thing similar was happen-
ing in the Portland area
this year for Mother’s Day,
and when she found out
there wasn’t, she worked
with Portland’s Resistance
to start a local campaign.
Organizers have been
in contact with the pub-
lic defender’s office and
have reviewed the Mult-
nomah County Sheriff ’s
Office rolls to generate
a list of eligible women,
and plan to go downtown
on Friday and post bail to
reunite them with their
families. Average bails in
Multnomah County hov-
er around $5,000, and the
group has set a target of
$25,000 so they can help
free five women for the
weekend.
Rapper Seeks
Criminal
Podcast Shares Perspectives of Immigrant Youth
Justice Reform New
The three-part podcast asks immigrant students to reflect on the work of
Microsoft to Use AI
to Assist Disabled
page 8
photographer Fazal Sheikh, on display at the Portland Art Museum
The Skanner News
n a unique collaboration with the
Portland Art Museum and the
Refugee and Immigrant Student
Empowerment (RISE) Program at
David Douglas High School, Portland
Meet Portland has produced a three-
part podcast that takes an introspec-
tive look at the photographic works
of Fazal Sheikh. 
Sheikh’s exhibit “Common Ground”
I
— on display at the Portland Art Mu-
seum until May 20 — is a collection
of documentary-based photographs
spanning 25 years of stories and por-
traits from displaced people around
the world.
His subjects are marked by war,
ethnic and religious strife, climate
crises and social banishment — at
the fulcrum are human rights and
dignity. Sheikh often spent months
See PODCAST on page 3
PORTLAND MEET PORTLAND
Meek Mill’s eight years
of probation turned into
16 years
page 9
See MOTHERS on page 3
Portland Meet Portland’s executive director
Manuel Padilla is host of a podcast series in
partnership with Portland Art Museum and
IRCO’s RISE Program at David Douglas High
School.