OCTOBER 24, 2018
25
CENTS
Portland and Seattle Volume XLI No. 4
News ................................ 3,6,8 A & E ........................................5
Opinion ...................................2 Dr. Jasmine ......................6
Calendars ...............................4 Bids/Classifieds .....................7
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO BY LYNN FRIEDMAN (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
VIA FLICKR
SUN-RA EXHIBIT OPENS
The latest jobs report says Oregon’s unemployment
is at an all-time low – but data on the unemployment
rate of Black Oregonians is more difficult to ascertain.
Available data suggest
Black Oregonians see
less benefit from boom
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
L
ast week the Oregon Employment
Department released its latest jobs
numbers, reporting the state’s un-
employment rate is the lowest it
has been since comparable records be-
gan in 1976 — and keeping apace with
low national unemployment rates. But
it’s hard to get a good picture of how Af-
rican Americans are faring in the cur-
rent boom.
The state’s unemployment releases
new jobs data every month, and a Sept.
16 press release reported Oregon’s job-
less rate at 3.8 percent. Unemployment
rates nationwide dipped from 3.9 per-
cent in August to 3.7 percent in Septem-
ber.
But the OED’s numbers aren’t seg-
See JOBS on page 3
PHOTO COURTESY OF PORTLAND ART MUSEUM
Oregon
Unemployment
At Record Low
In the final project of the Portland Art Museum’s year-long series, “We.Construct.Marvels.Between.Monuments.,” artistic director Libby Werbel
partners with Deep Underground (Bethlehem Daniel, Madenna Ibrahim, Mia O’Connor-Smith, and Janessa Narciso) to present “MONUMENTS. The Earth
Expedition of Sun Ra” — a multimedia presentation of film, music, and art by Afrofuturist artist, musician, and philosopher Sun Ra (1934-1993). Sun Ra
was a jazz composer, musician, bandleader, teacher, and poet who became known for his theatrical performances and personal mythology: his name
references the Egyptian sun god, Ra, and his origin story proclaimed that he had come to Earth from Saturn. Sun Ra has been considered the pioneer
of Afrofuturism, a school of thinking that utilizes science fiction, music, art, and political theory to propose a thriving destiny for Black people. Sun Ra
and his collaborators left a comprehensive archive including 130 albums, countless books and broadsheets of poetry, posters, paintings, photographs,
and performance attire. The exhibition includes artifacts on loan from the University of Chicago’s Alton Abraham Collection of Sun Ra Archive, with
supplemental support from private collectors and music enthusiasts. The exhibit opening event and viewing, featuring performances from Alima Lee,
Anaka and The Ah Ra Dance Ensemble, will take place from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Portland Art Museum. Admission for the event is $5.
Staged Reading Comes Down With ‘Gospel Blues’
Play examines faith and music against backdrop of Memphis sanitation strike
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
AP PHOTO/AMANDA LOMAN
“G
In this Oct. 3, photo, Satyawart, left, and Balvinder
Singh, immigrants from India freed from the federal
prison in Sheridan, Ore., talk at the Dasmesh Darbar
Sikh temple in Salem, Ore.
ospel Blues,” a
musical
about
faith, a chance
encounter with
Martin Luther King, Jr.
and a perceived tension
between the two musical
genres referenced in the
title, will be performed
a staged reading this
weekend at two Portland
got him writing.
He reached out to pia-
nist and composer Janice
Scroggins and vocalist
Linda Hornbuckle for help
bringing his idea to life. He
wanted to create a musical
that was rooted in the mu-
sic itself, with the story fol-
lowing.
The story focuses on a
character named Clarence
— a nod to the late gospel
singer Clarence Fountain
churches.
Portland
playwright
Wayne Harrel, who wrote
the book and lyrics for the
show, said he started work-
ing on the play 20 years
ago. He grew up in the
church, played in a high
school jazz band and start-
ed listening to the blues in
college. An overhead state-
ment — “Christians got no
business singing the blues”
— got him thinking. Then it
of Blind Boys of Alabama
— who sings and works
as a sanitation worker in
Memphis in 1968. Hazard-
ous workers for sanitation
workers, many of whom
were Black and shut out
of more lucrative jobs,
such as driving garbage
trucks, eventually led to
the now-historic sanita-
tion workers strike, which
got the attention of the the
See GOSPEL on page 3
Oregonians
Crude Pipe Bombs Sent to Obama, Clintons, CNN
Help Detainees ‘Acts or threats of political violence have no
Rihanna Says No
to Superbowl
page 5
place in the United States,’ says Trump
By Michael Balsamo, Eric Tucker
and Colleen Long
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Crude pipe
bombs targeting Hillary Clinton, for-
mer President Barack Obama, CNN
and others were intercepted Tues-
day night and Wednesday in a rash of
attacks two weeks before nationwide
elections that could reshape Con-
gress and serve as a referendum on
the first two years of President Don-
ald Trump’s presidency.
The devices, which officials said
shared a similar design, were aimed
at prominent Democrats and a cable
news network often criticized by
political conservatives. A similar de-
vice was found Monday at the New
York compound of liberal billionaire
George Soros, a major contributor to
Democratic causes.
The bombs overtook other cam-
See BOMBS on page 3
AP PHOTO/RICHARD DREW
Sheridan has become a
way station for migrants
page 6
New York City Police Dept. officers arrive
outside the Time Warner Center, in New York
Oct. 24. A police bomb squad was sent to CNN’s
offices in New York City and the newsroom was
evacuated because of a suspicious package. No
injuries have been reported.