The Black Portlanders

I’ve been writing about this mural for several weeks. There’s so much about it that I’ve been trying to say. It’s about us. And the history within it, I take that so seriously. Those words are still coming. Meanwhile a mural …
BabeSis, Aunts Tenn, Ms. W, Miss Choomby … & In Our company

.. is up on SE Grand & Ash in Portland OR.

This was made within sight of this deep feeling knowledge I have about Black girls’ sight and -self- visionary capacities. How these visions, these forms of sight, show themselves to us and how our sight-doing makes presents, pasts and futures.. fans out worlds of change. Plural. This is reference and instruction.
This work was made in sight of and in dedication to women and girls in my family. My mom is here, a sister, my aunties in Memphis, my family history is on this wall. My grandparents’ names are here .. and the story of my aunts, the seven Lee sisters, Black girls and young women, who together during the sit-in movement in Memphis in the 1960s were called the most arrested family in the country. These were Black girls - teaching a world that told them it did not want them - through their actions and bravery, their vision. Black girls, visionaries. And they still are today. I stand in the wake of their and so many Black girls’ visions. We all do. So this is in sight of them.

This is in sight of and in dedication to Black women and girls in Portland. Lameah, Black girl artist .. AnAkA, sister, angel, storyteller.. Joyce Harris, educator and founder of Portland’s groundbreaking Black Educational Center, Mama Makini .. Chabre Vickers .. Oregon Supreme Court Justice Adrienne Nelson.. artist and poet Renee Mitchell .. all those imaged here .. and all those not imaged but here nonetheless. There is something about the line of Black women’s presence here, something close and made and done and continuing. Some ongoing way of life that regards itself and builds with its heart steadily. There’s an ongoing courage in and of Black girls, Black women, and Black femmes here - and everywhere - that holds itself in the midst of. I see you and been seeing you. There is something to us. This work feels close. And more words will be said.

I want to give deep thanks to the two Black women poets who said yes to my ask to open and close this mural with their words. The first night after we began mounting the images I stayed up all night with my brain open to everything .. and it said the mural needed words from a Black woman in Portland. And so from the title poem of Samiya Bashir’s 2017 work, her Oregon Book Award winning Field Theories ..

.. What is a thing of beauty/ if not us?..

A mirror cupped in the hand, these words tllt .. to catch .. and regard us .. ring-shining our lights right back to us. A gift. An illumination. Leading us imaginatively out of the mural, yet right back in. Saying .. here .. here .. here. Looking .. and gesturing towards our lookings. Written, painted as they are here, it is as much sight as seeing.
Thank you so much, Samiya.

And given to me framed by a dear friend, Nikky Finney’s “Instruction, Final: To Brown Poets from Black Girl with Silver Leica” has become for me what I call a fairy god story or fairy god poem.

I felt - feel! - so seen by this poem and its title, not just my adult self but my Black girl photographer self, herself beginning to teach me at 14 what I was to know .. finding her own form of Instruction ..
and what her teaching still tells me, remembers me to me of our purpose and our ways. Our eyes - together - still opening, shutter still catching, still letting the light Black in.

Worlds open in the visual and vision-ing field.

Like these portraits, surfacing in the black, what emerges here?
Who sees Black girl image makers, teaching, learning, telling?
What do we feel-hear in that gleaning between vision and the image, feeling and photograph?
The language of “Instruction, Final: To Brown Poets from Black Girl with Silver Leica” sees me, specifically as a Black girl Black woman photographer as almost no other written language has. It calls me to me, speaks of Black girls and Black women’s vision-making .. world-telling .. Instruction .. photographic, visual spoken, told, felt, recounted, recalled, written, danced, passed up, lived, dreamed.. and more.. and otherwise.. always.

It tells me to “Be camera..” and my own “black-eyed aperture.”
It charges me to “Watch your language!”
Thank you, Ms. Finney!! Thank you for the Instruction.
I am ! still listening .. learning. We are always looking!

With the words of these Black women poets a living frame to these portraits was made and a truth said .. and I am so thankful. What a gift and excitement to have work set against the work of these poets. I am still not over it.

Thank you to my friend and poet Fork Burke, all the way in Switzerland, who when I emailed her at 4:23 AM on July 3rd asking “.. is quoting a poet in this way as an inscription/epigraph before a mural an acceptable or common practice?” responded within minutes.. !

“I think you need not question if it’s a common practice or not- it comes through you- it exists now.” ..

And so the vision.. the reach of process.. the reach of our care.
.. And so I reached out to Ms. Finney .. and ..and ..and..
Thank you, Fork!! We really be needing us. So this is also you.
Thank you to the Portland artists who saw this vision up with me. Thank you to Eatcho who reached out asking me to do this and whose heart and dedication was the fire that soldered the many pieces. Thank you for your care, lift, this spark! Thank you Gage of Forest For The Trees! Thanks for your kindness and care and steady through.. and the printing and the printing and more printing. Thank you for asking me, “Are you happy?” that evening working at the mural when I was trying to listen to myself and the work, to really hear it. Eatcho and Gage, thank you for listening to my vision .. for your encouragement and your teaching. Thank you Matt! of FFTT for all your support. Thank you Ash Street Projects for hosting the mural. Thank you to Alex Chiu, Jeff Sheridan, Buckley, Jon Stommel .. artists in community who came through to paint, fix, wheat paste, and encourage. Thank y'all for your care in this process and bringing me into this mural life. It’s a wonder. Thank you to all.

And … ! *Miss Choomby is from Margaret Walker’s “For My People.” .. so thanks always to her.
Long the line!

Love,
Intisar Abioto

#theblackportlanders

#forestforthetreesnw

#fieldtheories

Well, hmmm, yes. These are not Black Portlanders.

On the morning of August 28th I drove out with my sister Kalimah Abioto to Cooks Landing on the Washington side of the Columbia River to meet with Yakama Nation activist, historian, writer, and poet Emily Washines. My goal was to contribute photographs for a piece on Yakama Nation fishing practices and the Sohappy v Smith case.

This week the piece, “Fish Warriors”, was published at Cascadia Magazine. I will leave it to you all to read and engage this history as written by Emily Washines. Please take the time.

An excerpt from “Fish Warriors” as written by Emily Washines ..
“The details of the civil rights struggle for treaty fishing rights, as well as life on the river for tribes today remains little known to many non-native people. For example, the 14 Yakama fishers who went to court in federal fishing cases beginning in 1968 are rarely referenced by name, even when the Columbia River tribes talk about the contemporary fishing rights movement. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of a complicated court victory involving federal, tribal, and state management of fish. Those 14 fishers were cited for fishing out of the “official” state season at various sites on the Columbia River, including the place we are fishing today.

These are the names of those involved in Sohappy v. Smith: Richard Sohappy, Aleck Sohappy, ‬David Sohappy, Myra Sohappy (David and Andy’s mother), ‬Clara Sohappy, James Alexander, James Alexander. Jr., Leo Alexander, Clifford Alexander, Henry Alexander, Andrew Jackson, Roy Watlamet, Shirley McConville, and Clarence Tahkeal. ‬For the purposes of the case, they are collectively known as the Yakama Fishers, with David Sohappy Sr. also identifying with his Wanapum lineage.

In 1968, the fishers were tired of the state trying to assert authority over treaty fishing rights and so challenged them in an act of civil disobedience. In 1969, a federal court in Oregon ruled in favor of the Yakama fishers and reaffirmed tribes’ treaty rights to fish in the “usual and accustomed places” they had frequented on the Columbia River for millennia.”

… I want to thank Emily Washines and David Sohappy Jr. for being open to having me in this space. I also want to thank the other fishermen and fisherwomen I briefly met, engaged with, and photographed in the few hours I was at Cooks Landing.

I first learned some about the history of the Columbia River Tribes in 2016 through a piece written Molly Harbager at the Oregonian. That story detailed the displacement of the Columbia River Tribes for the Bonneville, Dalles, and John Day dams. To this day the dams generate 40% of the state’s electricity. I was deeply affected by learning this history. I am not from the Pacific Northwest. I’m a Black woman of African descent originally from Memphis TN. Because of, not in spite of my identity and history, it became deeply important to me to figure out some way that I could healthily contribute in ways that might directly be of service, as defined by people coming from Pacific Northwest based Indigenous history and lineage.

I know that storytellers can have power. I know that the person who has the podium, wields the pen, or the camera can wield a power.

For me it became, and still is, a working question of how to healthily contribute to the work, human, and civil rights struggles of communities of which you are not a part and are not directly descended. It’s a question that has also influenced my practice as a Black storyteller from Memphis working and actively researching the histories of Black people in Oregon. How do you contribute your gifts while listening, respecting, and not in practice wielding a power or authority that is not your own? There are so many nuances here to intuit and respect, particularly in communities that have historically been harmed, displaced, those whose cultures, presence, and inherent authority have been purposefully denied. There’s much, in practice, to learn. How do we begin? How do we continue?

I also want to thank Andrew Engelson over at Cascadia Magazine for his support in implementation of this piece. Almost two years ago we connected and I shared with him a passion I had to know more and be a part .. of something. I wasn’t connected with anyone from the Columbia River Tribes, so could not speak to much besides the history I had read and my feeling. I wasn’t sure where to begin. He supported the development of this project at every step and connected us with Emily Washines. Emily brought up the history of the Yakama Fishers, Sohappy v Smith, and the possibility of engaging with David Sohappy Jr. The project progressed from there.

This engagement was new for me, but personally important. I come from Black people and Black women historians, activists, artists, educators, civil rights lawyers, advocates .. for whom it was and is important to self-define, to know deeply one’s power, and to take part in the ongoing creative process of human rights.. human rights struggles, human rights stands. From my heritage, of which I am proud, this is the work. And it remains the foundational basis of my artistic practice and inquiry today. The work/s is/are ongoing. There’s much that I still don’t know about the histories of the Pacific Northwest. Much that I am still learning. These are deep and important histories. This is deep and important present. But I see confluence .. openings.. offerings.

If we are thinking about the history of civil rights movements there are cross sections of history here worth knowing and noting. In 1968, the 14 Yakama Fishers named above were making their stand on the Columbia River or Nch’i-Wàna, as it is known by the Yakama. This is history that everyone in this region and beyond should know. That same year, 1968, Black men, women, and children were making their stand in Memphis during the 1968 Sanitation Workers Strike that brought MLK and others to Memphis. We are 50/51 years out from both of these stands, these occurrences.. and many others that aren’t mentioned here. We should know and celebrate each and all of these contributions. There are many parallels, many stories to tell, and much power, still, through the telling to activate. We should know that the legacy of their contributions are still and yet playing out.. and the power and inspiration inherent to them, is still available to us. History is still being presented in our shared present. We can consider where we stand in these histories and make positive and powerful contributions to the moment. For present consideration, this past October 14th, the Yakama and Lummi Nations called for a takedown of the John Day, Dalles, and Bonneville dams. It’s important to continue to educate ourselves on the history actively being made by, and importantly as told by, the Columbia River tribes and Indigenous Peoples in the Pacific Northwest.

I won’t write more here. Please read Emily Washine’s excellent written work.
In addition on Tue. Dec 3rd, I’ll be joining Emily Washines, David Sohappy Jr., and Cascadia Magazine for a talk and slideshow about Yakama fishing traditions and the 50th anniversary of the Sohappy v Smith ruling at a free event at the Yakama Nation Cultural Center Heritage Theater in Toppenish, WA. The event will also feature a screening of the 1971 short video documentary “Little White Salmon Indian Settlement” by Harry Dawson.

Very best,

Intisar Abioto

#washingtonhumanities

#cookslanding

#columbiariver

29th Nov 201910 notes

Last Tuesday night I went out to Blanchard Education Center to stand with my community in support of Kairos PDX. Kairos PDX, which serves underserved children in Portland, is advocating to obtain a 5 year lease to remain in Humboldt School. We know Black children matter, beyond the concept of mattering, itself. Black children need space and the foundation to grow. Black Life. Black Youth. Black Imagination, brilliance, continuance, growth. This is where our communities are made. As a school founded by Black educators, Kairos PDX is doing that work and succeeding at it. They need to stay put, in Humboldt School, and PPS should be more than willing to support their continued home there, at least for 5 more years. Portland Public Schools will have an executive session tonight to make a decision regarding the lease for the Humboldt School space. Please do make your voice heard and show your support. There is still time to email PPS board members and however else you see fit to connect or share.

Rita Moore Board Chair rmoore5@pps.net

Julie Esparza Brown Vice Chair jebrown@pps.net

Julia Brim-Edwards jbrim-edwards@pps.net

Scott Bailey sbailey@pps.net

Amy Kohnstamm akohnstamm@pps.net

Paul Anthony panthony@pps.net

Mike Rosen mrosen@pps.net

Please see, below, a statement submitted by Senator Avel Gordly in support of our children and Kairos PDX.

—-

Portland Public Schools Board Meeting August 28, 2018

Submitted by Avel Louise Gordly Oregon State Senator Retired

We are here because we love our children. We are here because we believe in creating beloved community. We are here because we believe in speaking the truth. We are here because we want to advance what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.said about love and power, power and love- well over 50 years ago:

“Power without love is reckless, love without power is sentimental and anemic.Power at its best is love implementing the demands of Justice and Justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

We are here as taxpayers to question why you are arrogantly continuing a pattern of misdirecting Board power against the best interests of educating our Black children at Kairos.

Portland Public Schools as an institution has a shameful history of demonstrating that it does not care about educating Black children and has been terribly slow and resisted efforts to dismantle white racism.

Some of us in this room are products of Portland schools and have been activists in this struggle for justice for our children in this school district for over 40 years.

We will still be here when you are no longer in your roles as Board members. The people who have demonstrated that they know what is best for our children and how to serve them and effectively educate them are sitting before you and in the audience and out in the community. We are here to say–Stop disrespecting our experts.

When will you listen and hear and act on what we are telling you is in the best interest of our children. What will you do with Board power on your watch to interrupt and correct decades of institutional racism. Stop disrespecting our experts. Stop disrespecting what Parents want for their children. Stop disrespecting the Black Community. Stop upholding institutional racism.

What will you do now to demonstrate that you respect the Black Community’s demands for how and where to educate our children. We are here to say that we are sick and tired of being sick and tired of petitioning for Board policies that are right, just and fair for our children’s education.

We are here to say do not serve more platitudes and paternalism- again. Stop harming our children. Stop derailing their paths to success. We are here demanding that you now serve the demands of justice for Black children, for the Black community, and that going forward you commit to putting in place the resources that will lead to a quality non racist education for Black children and all children in Portland Public Schools.

Power at its best serves the needs of justice. Justice in this situation is giving Humboldt School to Kairos for the period of time the community demands.

#the black portlanders

#black children

#kairospdx

#portland public schools

4th Sep 201812 notes

Rita Moore Board Chair rmoore5@pps.net

Julie Esparza Brown Vice Chair jebrown@pps.net

Julia Brim-Edwards jbrim-edwards@pps.net

Scott Bailey sbailey@pps.net

Amy Kohnstamm akohnstamm@pps.net

Paul Anthony panthony@pps.net

Mike Rosen mrosen@pps.net

Please see, below, a statement submitted by Senator Avel Gordly in support of our children and Kairos PDX.

—-

Portland Public Schools Board Meeting August 28, 2018

Submitted by Avel Louise Gordly Oregon State Senator Retired

We are here as taxpayers to question why you are arrogantly continuing a pattern of misdirecting Board power against the best interests of educating our Black children at Kairos.

Some of us in this room are products of Portland schools and have been activists in this struggle for justice for our children in this school district for over 40 years.

Power at its best serves the needs of justice. Justice in this situation is giving Humboldt School to Kairos for the period of time the community demands.

#the black portlanders

#black children

#portland public schools

#education

4th Sep 20188 notes

You ever need it to be a vision?

I do. I do.

I’m excited to share that this month I’m exhibiting over 150 portraits of Black Portlanders at Portland State University’s Littman Gallery. Black Portlanders, Black Portlands pulls from an almost five year period of photographing and learning about Black Portland. It pulls from five years of my life in this city.

In this exhibit I’m seeking to offer one collective portrait of a Black Portland community I’m still learning so much about. The exhibit features portraits of Black elders, artists, historians, poets, activists, luminaries, individuals, and families. It images and honors community members. It will include street photography from the earliest days of The Black Portlanders.

I’ve put so much effort into this. I hope the love is felt. There will be a reception and artist talk this Thursday Nov 9th from 6-8. Our fav Deena Bee will be spinning sounds from 6-7. I’ll be doing an artist talk about the images starting at 7. I hope you can make it out.

Black Portlanders, Black Portlands
Nov 3-30 at Littman Gallery/ Room 250
Smith Memorial Student Union at Portland State University
1825 SW Broadway

Littman Gallery hours are
M-W 12-5 pm
Th-F 12-6 pm

Thanks!
Intisar

7th Nov 201740 notes

Please do take the time to get out and support Black Sun, an original production created by brilliant Black artists in Portland .. many of whom I’ve photographed over the years. I had the opportunity to photograph the collective several weeks ago. See more info below.
—
BLACK SUN
an original play

◉

Directed by Akela Jaffi
Tickets:
https://www.tixtactoe.com/blacksun
__________

may these words attest to our freedom
and speak of our wings

◉

Ripley Snell
Blacque Butterfly
Kwang Kwoo
Libretto
Isaiah Spriggs
Tim Blanchard
Madenna Ibrahim
Mia Charnelle
Rashida Young
Uriah Boyd
Melina Anderson
more…

___________

March 9
8pm
Paris Theater

this is a 21 and older event

if you would like to get involved or support in the production of Black Sun please contact us
theblacksuncollective@gmail.com

if you would like to donate to the Black Sun Collective please follow the link below or email us for our list of needed resources
paypal.me/blacksuncollective

Promo photos shot by Intisar Abioto

AFTERPARTY
dj timothy bee
wes guy
dj lamar leroy
amenta abioto

$5 w/o ticket

“Even the sun is black here…”

#black sun

#the black portlanders

9th Mar 201716 notes

Some bit ago I got to run around these Portland streets with some comedian guy named W. Kamau Bell. Among other esteemed comedic appointments, he’s the host of CNN’s United Shades of America. Their latest episode, in which The Black Portlanders is featured, aired this past Sunday and focuses on Portland and gentrification. It was all pretty cool, honestly. Here are some images from that day. Check out United Shades of America and try to find the Portland episode if you haven’t seen it! Thanks, Kamau!

- I. Abioto … one Black Portlander

#theblackportlanders

#unitedshades

#Portland Oregon

31st May 2016132 notes

Mitchell S. Jackson
Portland Native
Award-winning author of “The Residue Years” ..

Photographed on SW Broadway
Special thanks to Literary Arts

29th May 201619 notes

Sirius Bonner & Ellison Bonner Scott
From Long Beach, CA
Reed ’05
Portlander for 15 years

I feel like the greatest gift that I got from Reed is the validation of my intellectual curiosity and the opportunity to really explore that. I feel like I never really struggled academically at Reed. That wasn’t really my tough aspect of Reed. My tough was the social stuff and the lack of diversity. I’d gone to predominantly white private schools my whole life and didn’t think this would be any different. I remember in high school sitting doing my homework. My dad comes in and he’s got this sheet of paper. It’s got this pie chart on it. He hands it to me and goes, “You really need to look at the diversity statistics of that Reed place you’re looking at.” And I’m just like, “Whatever, Dad.” Again, white schools my whole life. No big deal. Not a concern.

When I got to Reed, all of a sudden I was confronted with Portland which is really white.. which is really different from Long Beach/LA area. And not having my family there. Even though I was used to this in certain ways, I always had multiple methods of escape and multiple ways to connect with who I was. Not so much at Reed. So it was very very difficult to navigate that and understand that. Eventually, I sort of got the hang of it. I found really like-minded people and connected in that way rather than connecting with people who looked like me.

I: How has it been, your transition out of Reed? Do you feel connected?

Sirius: It’s complicated. In some ways I definitely do feel like I have a community. I certainly feel like I have a family here - my husband, my daughter, my aunt. In some ways I’m very connected with the Black community in Portland, but in other ways very disconnected. In the Black community in Portland there’s always this sense of like “Were you born here? Where’d you go to high school? Oh, you’re not from here? Well..” There’s always a barrier to building some connections, but .. I definitely feel like I’ve been able to explore and understand the Black community in Portland in a way that I really wasn’t able to as a student. I don’t know if they’ve introduced the concept of the Reed bubble to you. Understanding and building connections with other Black people didn’t really happen until after I graduated. A lot of those connections were forged professionally and not socially. They’ve melded now, but certainly that’s how I found Black people .. through professional networks. — Sirius Bonner

… Exhibited at Black Portland, Black Reed at Reed College, Feb 2016.

#the black portlanders

31st Mar 201623 notes