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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (June 21, 2023)
JUNE 21, 2023 Portland and Seattle Volume XLVI No. 20 CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW 25 CENTS News ................................ 3,6,8 A & E ........................................5 Opinion ...................................2 RFK, Jr. .............................6 Calendars ...............................4 Bids/Classifieds .....................7 PHOTO BY ANDREW SELSKY/AP JUNETEENTH The legislative session ends on Sunday. By Saundra Sorenson Of The Skanner News T he recently passed Measure 113 bans lawmakers with 10 or more unexcused absences from imme- diately running for re-election, but did little to dissuade Republicans from staging their fourth walkout in five years. At six weeks, the walkout broke state records and added to the anxiety that by effectively quashing new environmental legislation, Re- publicans could prevent the state from receiving hundreds of millions of dol- lars in funding to battle climate change made available through the recently passed federal Inflation Reduction Act. The six-week standoff came to an end last Thursday, with 10 Republican state senators likely to be the first to be cen- sured under the new measure. With the legislative session scheduled to end on Sunday, two bills in particular have undergone significant compromise: a gun control measure that was passed See LEGISTLATURE on page 3 Black Filmmakers Say Melanin-Challenged Cannes Film Festival Can Do Better page 5 Paul Knauls, affectionately known as The Mayor of Northeast Portland, receives a lifetime achievement award on June 18, at the Juneteenth Oregon 2023 event. The two-day celebration of “Freedom Day” featured a parade, live music, local vendors, food and kid’s activities. On Saturday, the crowd enjoyed musical performances by Cupid, BridgeCity Soul, Kirk Green, Greater Kind, and the Jason Neville Funky Soul Band. On Sunday festival goers danced in spotty rainshowers to BridgeCity Jazz, Tyrone Hendrix & Jubu Smith, Alonzo Chadwick, Saeeda Wright and Arietta Ward. BIPOC Farm Collective Starts Strong with Two Major National Awards The Strawberry Lane Collective in Milwaukie will offer no-cost land access for BIPOC growers. By Saundra Sorenson Of The Skanner News A small farm project in Milwaukie that will provide no-cost land for BIPOC growers has received two national awards in its first year of operation. The Strawberry Lane Collective launched in Jan- uary with the aim of mak- ing the farm a land trust for BIPOC growers and beekeepers. The Practice Grant will help launch the collective’s Rotate, Graze, Grow project to place a pair of blackbelly sheep around the farm to help remove aggressive and in- vasive plant species, more quickly readying the land for growers. The collective was also recognized with the Garden Conservancy Award this year. “It’s always been im- portant to (farm owner Monica Melger) to make sure that BIPOC growers have access to that land, as a kind of reparations project,” collective mem- ber Dorian Campbell, who runs the project with Den- nise Mofidi, Jasmine Bar- ber and Dawn Cohoe, told The Skanner. “So while folks who live out there are white, they’re allowing BIPOC folks to farm or gar- den or grow mushrooms or work with bees out there, free of charge, knowing that land access is a big problem for BIPOC folks, and for Black folks in this area…it can be really diffi- cult and really expensive.” The Practice Foundation provides “direct funding to grantees for projects that expand the ways hu- mans design and care for the land,” according to co- founder Emily Hicks. In their application for the grant, the collective PHOTO VIA INSTAGRAM/PRACTICE LANDSCAPE @PRACTICELANDSCAPE With Republicans Back from Walkout, Legislators Race to Keep Key Legislation Afloat PHOTO BY ANTONIO HARRIS Oregon State Capitol Building noted only 1.5% of U.S. farmers are Black, and point- ed out that due to Or- egon’s his- tory of vi- Dorian Campbell of Otter Paw Herbs tends to the garden olent and at Strawberry Lane Collective. exclusion- ary racist laws, only 0.1% the collective. This inter- of farmers throughout the view has been edited for length and clarity. state are Black. The Strawberry Lane What will the Practice Collective is part of a bur- Grant allow you to do? geoning movement to help Campbell: The Prac- BIPOC Oregonians access tice Grant was a major the state’s rich agricultural game-changer for all of resources. us. We’re all really new- “Everything is no cost,” er, smaller projects, but Campbell said. “Everyone we won. It’s allowed us to out there has access to any have money – at least for part of the land that they’re me, to do things right, as a interested in, water use, new business owner, to not bathroom, kitchen use on have to take shortcuts or the property – all for free.” compromise on the quality. The Skanner sat down It’s allowing us the mon- with Campbell and Mofidi ey to build the infrastruc- to discuss their vision for See FARM on page 3
