Japhety Ngabireyiamana and Jospin Mugisha are cousins who lived and played in a refugee camp in Tanzania, East Africa. Japhety would run around playing soccer, hanging out with friends during the day then eating homemade food with his extended family members in the evenings. Life was carefree, albei
At the request of the State of Oregon, the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF), which annually distributes more than $200 million statewide in grants and scholarships, is the current temporary administrator of the building. Currently, OCF is preparing for a community-led process that will eventually transfer permanent ownership of the one-story building to a Black-run 501(c)3 nonprofit willing to authentically honor the Black community’s cultural ties to the facility. The selected organization will be chosen by community members and stakeholders participating in OCF’s upcoming visioning conversations.
At the request of the State of Oregon, the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF), which annually distributes more than $200 million statewide in grants and scholarships, is the current temporary administrator of the building. Currently, OCF is preparing for a community-led process that will eventually transfer permanent ownership of the one-story building to a Black-run 501(c)3 nonprofit willing to authentically honor the Black community’s cultural ties to the facility. The selected organization will be chosen by community members and stakeholders participating in OCF’s upcoming visioning conversations.
Portland, Oregon, native Elijah Hasan is using his artistic talent to bring awareness to the growing gun violence currently taking place in his city.
Earlier this month, Hasan, along with anti-gun activists, including representatives from organizations such as The No Hate Zone, the Portland Rotary Peace Builders, and Loved is Stronger, came together to unveil one of many billboards focused on getting to the root of the gun violence issue that has struck the city of roughly 665,000 residents, roughly 6 percent of whom are African-American.
The billboard displays an image of a Black man’s head next to a bullet inscribed with a stylized drawing of the hold of a slave ship, both images accompanied by the message: “Racism + Self-hate = gun violence. Reject the oppression.” The group also implored members of the Black community to “destroy white supremacy, not each other.”
AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus
It’s not getting much attention outside of local media, but violent crime in Portland, Oregon has been soaring upwards for months now, with no sign of any improvement in the number of shootings and homicides in the city. Even so, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is proposing several million dollars be cut from the Portland Police Bureau’s budget, and other city officials are touting unarmed park rangers and other non-law enforcement strategies in an attempt to address violent crime without necessarily putting violent criminals behind bars.
One of the latest efforts? A billboard campaign that seeks to tie-in the more than 370 shooting incidents in the city this year to “white supremacy.”