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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.”
Billboards aim to expose racism’s violent impact on Black people in Portland
Updated May 10, 2021;
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“Destroy white supremacy, not each other.”
That’s the message plastered on several new billboards across the Portland area. The provocative message is displayed between a large gold-colored bullet that includes a superimposed image of a slave ship.
At a Monday unveiling of one of the new billboards, the artist behind the image Portland native Elijah Hasan said the bullet, like a slave ship, is a vessel of trauma for Black people.
“It is my intention to remind the Black minds inside these Black bodies that they may think that these bullets fly because someone snitched or even killed a loved one,” said Hasan. “But I am suggesting that this is not the reason you’re shooting. But instead, it’s a symptom of the environment you find yourself in.”
ArtsWatch welcomes Dmae Roberts
The veteran Portland broadcaster, theater artist, and writer will bring her interview podcast Stage & Studio to ArtsWatch starting February 23
Dmae Roberts, one of Oregon’s leading arts and cultural voices, is joining Oregon ArtsWatch. Roberts, a writer, theater artist, and two-time Peabody Award-winning radio producer, will move her biweekly podcast
Stage & Studio to ArtsWatch beginning February 23.
“We are so honored to become the new home for Dmae Roberts and her
Stage & Studio audio show,” Barry Johnson, ArtsWatch’s executive editor, said. “Her journalism around theater and social justice issues has changed the culture of Portland in significant and enduring ways, and we have been inspired by her energy, creativity, intelligence, and commitment. I welcome her and her listeners to ArtsWatch. I’m sure we will do some amazing things together.”