To say it was a tough week doesn’t really seem to cover it.
Portland is still reeling from the stabbing that badly shook up the city’s sense of relative safety and tolerance. Book lovers said a painful goodbye to one of the strongest and most prolific regional writers. Today we offer up thoughts for strength and solidarity, as we ponder how community is pulling people together in all manner of tough situations.
One week ago, two Portland men were stabbed to death and a third was wounded on a MAX train by a man who startled fellow passengers with a stream of racist invectives toward a pair of young women. One of the girls was black, and the other wore a hijab.
The survivor of the attack, Micah Fletcher, is a promising young poet, whose work focuses on the strength of standing together in community. We hear his friend photographer Julie Keefe speak with "Think Out Loud" host Dave Miller (click here to find their entire interview) and listen to Fletcher's winning poem from the year he took the 2103 prize at high school poetry competition Verselandia. You can support the girls here and donate to the families of two men who did not survive, Rick Best and Taliesin Namkai-Meche right over here. Here is another page set up by the local Muslim community, dedicated to fundraising for Fletcher, Namkai-Meche and Best. And here is a page set up for Fletcher's medical expenses.
Portland artist Sabina Haque felt a particular horror at Friday’s stabbings. Her work has taken her all over the east side of town, for a project she did through the City Archives called “The Untold Story of Portland: East of 82nd.” She’s one of several artists with projects concerning a sense of place and social justice, and she’s working out of the Jade/APANO multicultural space on the corner of Division Street and 82nd Avenue. Her project with students from Madison High is on view through the weekend at JAMS.
Feeling overwhelmed by recent events? Maybe you’re not sure what to do?
Here’s one option: the Portland music community was already planning a big social justice benefit party called the Liberty Ball on June 17 to channel anger, sadness and helplessness into social good. There’ll be performances by Máscaras, Blue Cranes, Hungry Ghost and more, and the proceeds will be given to immigrant and refugee aid, the ACLU of Oregon and other groups. Portland band Loch Lomond, who is set to play the Liberty Ball, came into the opbmusic studio last fall. Their first U.S. album in five years, “Pens from Spain,” offers lush orchestration while introducing a new electronic sound. We revisit their opbmusic session and conversation with "State of Wonder's" Aaron Scott. You can watch videos of their performance here.
Brian Doyle was the type of writer whose characters flew out of the page, making you miss them once they were done. He won an Oregon book award in 2016 for his magical young adult “Martin Marten,” which explored an unlikely friendship between a teenage boy and a small forest animal. After being diagnosed with a brain tumor last year, Doyle passed last week on May 27.
His newest book, “The Adventures of John Carson In Several Quarters of the World: A Novel of Robert Louis Stevenson” came out in March. You can see his 2015 "Oregon Art Beat" profile here. We also hear "Art Beat" host Katrina Sarson's conversation with him from last year’s Wordstock. We revisit some of his great essays and hear from his good friend Author Robin Cody of “Ricochet River.” You can hear "Think Out Loud" host Dave Miller’s entire conversation with Cody here.
Without women, do we have horror films? You have to have somebody screaming, right? And someone running through the woods with a mysterious monster in hot pursuit? However, sometimes it seems like women in horror are eye candy or plot devices. Or live bait. Portland Horror Film Festival is flipping this script this year by waiving submission fees for female directors. As a direct result, their count on women filmmakers is twice that of last years’ fest. We hear from co-founder Gwen Callaghan and filmmakers Monica Demes, Izzy Lee and Tara Price about what it means to be a woman in the horrorscape.
For 20 years, Blake Nelson has told stories about the lives of teens that now serve as literary snapshots of Portland’s youth culture. They have also served as the basis for a number of movies. His breakthrough novel, “Girl,” came out in 1994 and was made into a film starring Dominique Swain and Sean Patrick Flanery. “Paranoid Park” was made into a film by Gus Van Zant. And “Recovery Road” became a TV series. Nelson’s latest novel is called “Boy.” It serves as a bookend of sorts to the re-release of “Girl.” Ready for the full conversation?
Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP, Pool
/Micah Fletcher, a victim of a stabbing attack on a light rail train that left two dead, watches as suspect Jeremy Christian is arraigned in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland, Ore., Tuesday, May 30, 2017.
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The project, led by Sabina Haque and created by students at Madison High School, includes zine work, art posters, and murals.
Book Readings and more of Brian Doyle's novels can be found at Powells Books here in Portland, OR
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