May 23, 2018 The Skanner Page 3
News
cont’d from pg 1
The Summer Read-
ing game runs June 15
through August 31 and
this year, teenagers can
play online (though pa-
per gameboards are still
an option).
Participants can sign
up for free in person
starting June 15 at any
Multnomah
County
library to get a game-
board. To play the game,
they will color in one
space for each day they
read to a book. Each time
they mark at least 15 days
(they don’t have to be in
a row!), bring the game-
board to the library to
choose a prize.
Once
participants
have read 45 days total,
they’ve completed the
game. They can bring
game boards to the li-
brary on or after July 29
to get a prize, a T-shirt
(while supplies last),
coupons for Oaks Park,
Oregon Ballet Theatre
and Oregon Children’s
Theatre, and an entry in
the Grand Prize drawing.
Claim your prizes by Au-
gust 31, 2018.
Teens can use the li-
brary’s mobile site to
track their reading, or
can use the paper game
board to track every day
they read about an hour
or did challenge activi-
ties.
To learn more, visit
https://multcolib.org /
summer-reading.
Summer Learning Loss
Prevention at the Boys &
Girls Club
Boys & Girls Club of
Portland offers low-cost
daily programming for
youth throughout the
summer and free sum-
mer learning loss pre-
vention.
Summer learning loss
prevention is offered
at all sites for elemen-
tary kids daily, free of
charge, to help children
stay sharp academically
throughout the summer
Portland Parks & Recre-
ation Summer Free For
All
Portland Parks & Rec-
reation (PP&R)’s Sum-
mer Free For All (SFFA)
series returns for 2018
beginning Tuesday, June
12, with outdoor citywide
events all summer long.
This year, Movies in the
Park and Concerts in the
Park will take place at 43
different parks across
the city, and the Free
Lunch + Play program
will provide free lunches
to youth while classes are
not in session, in part-
nership with five local
school districts.
To view a full schedule,
visit
portlandoregon.
gov/parks/sffa.Sched-
ules are available in
English and eight other
languages (Arabic, Bur-
mese, Simple Chinese,
Nepali, Russian, Spanish,
Somali, and Vietnamese).
A kickoff celebration
will take place from 10:30
a.m. June 28 at Luuwit
View Park, NE 127th Ave.
and Fremont St.
Here’s a short list of
what will be on offer at
parks and community
centers over the sum-
mer:
Movies in the Park:
Portland Parks & Rec-
reation is planning on
showing around 35 Mov-
ies — including “Coco,”
which will be presented
en español at the annu-
al Festival Latino at the
new Thomas Cully Park
(grand opening on Satur-
day, June 30, 2018. 11:30
a.m. -4 p.m.).
Read the full story at
TheSkanner.com
Poor Peoples Campaign
The Reverend Bianca R. Davis-Lovelace explains the plans for the day during a rally outside the Legislative Building at the Washington
State Capital for the first day of the Poor Peoples Campaign’s 40 days of direct non-violent action. For the next six weeks, the Poor
Peoples Campaign, a revival of a movement started by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967, will participate in non-violent civil disobedience
and teach-ins in over 30 State Capitals in “A National Call for Moral Revival.” Like the movement that it inspired it, the new Poor Peoples
Movement is fighting for social and economic justice and for a moral agenda that challenges the evils of systemic racism, poverty,
ecological devastation, and the war economy.
Malcom X
cont’d from pg 1
that was shared with The Skanner.
Today our survival depends on
seeing the world in its three-di-
mensional, rounded, and fully
realized existence — understand-
ing that we are all of us the same
distance from its luminous cen-
ter. In the name of righteousness,
now is the time we must walk the
unbroken circle that binds us to-
gether.”
In an interview with The Skan-
ner, Mondaine said the time is
ripe to remember the legacy of
the civil rights movement of the
1960s, as well as the forces that
led to the 1909 formation of the
NAACP by a biracial group re-
sponding to lynchings and Jim
Crow laws.
The deaths of Malcolm X, Mar-
tin Luther King, Alfred King,
and John and Robert Kennedy in
the 1960s meant “so many voic-
es were gone” from the national
stage and many members of the
public became complacent about
racism, Mondaine said. He lik-
ened the 2016 election of Donald
Trump, who ran a campaign ex-
plicitly targeting Mexican and
Muslim immigrants, to turning
on the lights in an apartment that
hadn’t been cleaned for decades –
and discovering it full of scatter-
ing cockroaches.
“
We’re in a
critical state in
America
“We’ve been given a gift in Pres-
ident Trump. The gift is our abil-
ity to see ourselves in what we’ve
built together as a nation.”
Mondaine is from St. Louis, and
recently made a trip home that in-
cluded a solemn, solitary pilgrim-
age connecting two sites critical
to the racial history of the United
States. Mondaine realized Dred
Scott, who was born into slavery
and whose unsuccessful lawsuit
to obtain freedom resulted in the
U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark
ruling that people of African
descent could not be citizens, is
buried just three miles from the
site where 18-year-old Michael
Brown was shot and killed by po-
lice in 2014, sparking protest and
national scrutiny of law enforce-
ment’s interactions with young
Black men. Mondaine walked
from Scott’s grave to the site of
Brown’s death weeping, without
company or ceremony.
“We’re in a critical state in
America,” Mondaine said, and
Malcolm X’s calls for better edu-
cation, for economic enterprise
and for unapologetic self-defense
are timely.
The week of events honoring
Malcolm X’s legacy and life start-
ed May 19 with a birthday event
in the branch’s new office at Lloyd
Center Mall, continued Wednes-
day with a night of readings from
local spoken word artist Mic
Crenshaw and musical perfor-
mances May 23.
The celebration will culminate
with a fundraising brunch from
10 a.m. to noon May 26 with key-
note speaker Ilyasah Shabazz, the
daughter of Malcolm X and Betty
Shabazz. For more information,
visit
https://xfactor.ticketleap.
com/xfactor/.
cont’d from pg 1
New York graffiti artist-turned-paint-
er Jean-Michel Basquiat as a major in-
fluence. After taking a screen printing
class at Portland’s Makehouse, Hobbs
has developed his own t-shirt line called
City Troll, which features designs of his
pen and ink animal renderings.
“Realistically, raising funds for bal-
let is an ongoing project, which is why
I am not doing a Go Fund Me,” he said.
“To do all of the extra programs and
classes, I need to be self-reliant sooner
than later. That’s why I am trying to set
up a financial foundation with my own
business.”
His t-shirts and greeting cards are
currently selling at Green Haus Gal-
lery + Boutique in North Portland. All
proceeds will go to fund his summer
dance programs. In addition, commu-
nity members can help support Hobbs
by making a tax-deductible donation
through the International Association
of Blacks in Dance.
Hobbs has already raised $3,000 and
is hoping to make his goal of $7,000 in
time for his summer travels.
Never short on ideas it seems, he re-
cently exhibited his drawings at the
Swoon Salon on May 20 — which was
actually his fourth art show — and he’s
also taken up the cello for school.
“
I need to be self-
reliant sooner than
later
Although not enrolled in public
school, Hobbs is part of the “unschool-
ing” movement.
Similar to homeschooling, unschool-
ing allows students the freedom to “ex-
cel in what you’re good at,” explained
Hobbs, adding that he learns at home
with the assistance of his mother and
through online classes.
Although he mentioned the “couple
thousand pounds of Legos” in his house,
but said he only plays with them when
his friends come over, which is seldom
these days, due to his busy schedule.
But that’s perfectly fine with him.
“I have a really good social life at
dance school anyway,” he said, adding
that he would like to attend a middle
school in another city or state. As for
Portland, Hobbs said “it’s not the right
fit. Professionally, for dance, it doesn’t
have very many opportunities.”
Ultimately, Hobbs would like to dance
for a company such as the Houston Bal-
let. “They have a really strong men’s
program,” he said.
“I’m masculine, I prefer being mascu-
line,” Hobbs said of his gender identity.
“I don’t like it when I’m mistaken for
being feminine. I’m not anti-feminine.
I support women’s rights and I’m re-
spectful of women, but I identify as a
man. Especially in dance, I want people
to know it can be a really masculine ac-
tivity and art.”
At the moment, his biggest influence
is the Cuban-born Osiel Gouneo, who
started dancing in Cuban National Bal-
PHOTO BY MELANIE SEVCENKO
Waters
— and no signup is re-
quired.
To learn more about
this and other summer
programs offered at Port-
land Boys & Girls Clubs,
visit http://bgcportland.
org/summer/.
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Summer
Portland dancer Hobbs Waters is selling his own
T-shirt designs to raise funds for two summer
intensive dance programs.
let and is now with the Bavarian State
Ballet.
Like his heroes, Hobbs dances be-
cause he’s driven to. And when asked
what he feels when he’s doing it, he
said, “I feel free.” Enough said.
