Story and photos by Pete Shaw Last year I began this annual piece at the Portland Occupier with: “Another year with Covid in the air, and so another year where I was largely grounded due to health concerns. As well, as comes with age, there were health issues with which I had to deal. But…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Hope is the seed that gives rise to justice. On May 12, a sizable crowd of 35 people showed up at the corner of NE 6th and Halsey, where people have been gathering for nearly 14 years now, month by month, to mark the anniversary of Keaton Otis’s murder…
Story by Pete Shaw The faded spray paint on the corner of Northeast 6th and Halsey reads, “We will always remember you.” The “you” most directly refers to Keaton Otis, the young Black man was murdered there by the Portland police on May 12, 2010. Since his death, that corner has on the 12th of…
Story by Pete Shaw It is a little early in the Summer for such things, but the lilies are blooming. In the front of my house, there are about 30 of them, some reaching over 12 feet tall. The trumpet varieties reach toward the sky, their flowers blaring unheard but not unnoticed. I am not…
Story by Pete Shaw The corner of Northeast 6th and Halsey is hallowed ground. It is not the site of a mosque or a temple or a church or any other house of worship. There have been no reports of visits by the Blessed Virgin Mary or other religiously affiliated revelations, whether out of thin…
Story by Pete Shaw Photos by K. Kendall This Summer, Portland kicked off a nationwide series of protests against Republican Donald Trump’s orders that tore apart families at the Mexico-US border. Responding to the horrific sight of children being separated from their relatives and incarcerated, large numbers of people around the country followed Portland’s lead…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw National Cheeseburger Day, while not an official holiday, is doubtless an important one to the restaurant industry. Anything to get customers to spend their money on your product, and it is fair to assume that most restaurants serving burgers had Tuesday September 19 circled on their calendars. But as…
Story by Pete Shaw When considering how to spend a Friday night, particularly a sultry one in late July, likely not high on most folks’ list is attending a talk on Pan-African organizing. But even if my Friend Ahjamu Umi of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) was not the featured speaker, the title…
Story and photos by Bette Lee Patriot Prayer can’t seem to get enough of Portland. Even though the Vancouver, Washington white supremacist group led by Joey Gibson claims it hates Portland because it is a “liberal” city which coddles “pinkos, anarchists, leftists, liberals, homosexuals,” and other unsavory “anti-American” groups, its members seem hell-bent on holding…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw On the surface, New York and Portland have little in common. New Yorkers are direct in speech and they move fast. Portlanders are not sarcastic. New York is huge both in geographical size and population. Portland is quaint and over 80% white. New York has great pizza and bagels,…
