Stick to your dreams

Chris Bucci believed in his heart and now it’s seen from border to border

By Nicole Morales
The Portland Upside
January 2010

After years of moving, Chris Bucci finds his home and heart in Oregon and creates the green Heart In Oregon design that’s now seen everywhere.

What’s black and white and seen all over? No, it’s not the latest issue of The Portland Upside. Here’s a hint: there’s a green heart in the middle. You’re right! It’s The Heart In Oregon sticker-turned-emblem that has popped up everywhere on auto bumpers, community news boards and skin. Yes, skin. Seeing the emblem as a freshly inked tattoo one wonders what it means for the bearer: homegrown pride, Oregon’s natural beauty, love for community and place, or perhaps a dreamer’s dream?

How did a simple image come to carry such emotion for so many people? Heart In Oregon designer and dreamer Chris Bucci shared with me how a dream and an idea are now his reality.
Chris moved around a lot during childhood. As he puts it, he was a corporate brat. With every new job his father took, there was a mandatory family move. All over the country. Seventeen times. The one tangible thing that followed Chris was his desk, covered with stickers.

Years later as a business-savvy computer tech, Chris sought job prospects in Seattle. It was the summer of ’92. Chris packed up his car, wished his parents well, and pioneered his way from Chicago to the Northwest. The desk stayed behind.

“When I first crossed the Oregon-Idaho boarder I felt something. It went away when I crossed into Washington. I felt a feeling of home.”

This was new to Chris.

“I’d never had a home before because I always moved.”

Chris made his way back to Portland a few years later, but things on the employment front had turned sour and he got laid off. With few job prospects, Chris knew the inevitable was creeping up on him.

“I was at a low point and a revelation point when the idea for a sticker came to mind.”
Chris recalled the day he sat outside of a Portland café pondering his predicament.

“But my heart is here, my heart is in Oregon.”

That was in 2003.

Many months later Chris was still without a job. He spent much of his time thinking of where he would go. Having had no real sense of home anywhere else made it all the more difficult. That’s when his idea materialized and his dream stuck. Chris put all his energy into the Heart In Oregon sticker.

Today his dream is well over 250,000 stickers strong through retail purchases, freebies, and gifts in kind. Last year Chris mailed 300 Heart In Oregon stickers to the Oregon National Guard to be given to its troops serving all over the world.

“It’s the least I can do.”

Chris explained that the Heart In Oregon image is formally called the Dreamer’s Emblem. And it means, “I’m living a dream, I’m seeking a dream, or I’m supporting someone in their dream.”

That’s not to say that Chris’ dream was an instant success. The original sticker featured a red heart that people just didn’t respond to. It was also rectangular in shape.

Chris didn’t give up on his idea. Rather he welcomed feedback on it.

“Friends suggested I make the heart green because it’s Oregon and that I cut it out in the shape of the state.”

Out of necessity, Chris heeded their advice.

“I created the sticker to help make ends meet.”

Forging ahead with the Heart In Oregon emblem was not an easy feat. Other people were starting to emulate Chris’ design.

“I was afraid to move forward.”

He knew that if he wasn’t going to continue with the Dreamer’s Emblem others undoubtedly would.

“I have to do this and why not bring more business to my home, because my mission is to help make the best Oregon I can.”

2009 was a great year for Chris. Other local businesses and communities have also benefited from Heart In Oregon success. And this success stems from the dream Chris shared with others. He made it a point to share his idea and he persisted.

“An idea is just an idea.” And it will stay an idea until one “gets it outside of their head.” Simply put, “I’m a guy who supports his family off of a sticker.”

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Chris Bucci’s Heart In Oregon stickers have evolved into T-shirts, pins, hoodies, and the window cling for people with “sticker commitment issues.” Visit http://heartsticker.com to check out the online store and to see Chris’ emblem designs for other states.

Nicole strives to connect people via multicultural education and writing. She teaches ESL at a private university outside of Portland and welcomes your inquiries at nmorales.writes@gmail.com


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Israel Bayer grows roots in Portland

Street Roots’ executive director talks about his non-traditional path to journalism

Story and photo by Nikki Jardin

The Portland Upside
January 2010

Israel Bayer “wandered aimlessly” as a young adult, eventually finding his passion and calling in poetry and journalism.

The Street Roots office on Northwest 2nd and Couch is surprisingly quiet. Outside, the skies are clear but the wind is bitter cold. Israel Bayer pokes his head up and waves from behind his desk where he is finishing a phone call. After a moment he comes out and offers a chair at the large table laden with snacks for the 70 vendors who make up the distribution team for the paper. Street Roots is celebrating its tenth year as a nonprofit newspaper, no small feat for any organization that relies on donations and hard-working volunteers.

Israel, imposing in stature, offers me coffee and a smile. He has a kind and welcoming face. He has been with the organization for the majority of its ten years, leaving only briefly a few years ago to head up the Seattle street paper, Real Change. Starting as the poetry editor back when Street Roots was a small collective, he is now the executive director and the bi-monthly has a circulation of nearly 25,000.

Israel didn’t take the traditional track into journalism. Raised in a working class family in an industrial river town “where factories meet the farmland,” he saw economic devastation firsthand. In the nineties, all along the Mississippi River, job loss escalated as work moved overseas. His hometown, a vibrant city built on munitions factories, glass works and a shipping lane for corn and soybeans, withered.

“Unions were being busted, jobs were leaving, and it was becoming an economically depressed area. There was a lot of hopelessness.”

Quitting high school, Israel took up life on the road, traveling the country, living in a biker compound, following the Grateful Dead and experiencing “different unique situations. Some good, some not so good. I was wandering aimlessly, working here and there, mostly as a convenience store clerk.”

During many mini-mart graveyard shifts Israel got a different kind of education.

“I was witnessing urban poverty during those shifts and felt that was my first taste of social work. You see a lot of despair during those hours.”

His travels brought him to Denver, Colorado, where he began to write poetry, inspired by what he was seeing at work. He began reading works from other poets, as well.

“I was into Hunter S. Thompson, Bukowski, basically all the beat poets. I was also reading travel literature and it occurred to me somewhere along the line that I was living a unique life and that I could actually write this stuff down.”

Israel began attending poetry readings and working more diligently on his craft.

Traveling with a group of “artists and freaks,” he set out west, arriving in Portland in 1996. He went back to work in the convenience store trade but eventually got a job at the William Temple House Thrift store, where he was promoted and began learning the administration skills that would become valuable in his current position.

In 1998 while walking downtown Israel passed by the Street Roots office, then located on Southwest 12th and Morrison. He walked in and immediately felt at home.
“I felt like these people were cut from my cloth.”

He entered a poem for publication and soon began volunteering and working with other street poets. They began what Israel calls, “a collective atmosphere,” and he began to feel a sense of community.

“I wasn’t hearing anything until I started going out with these drunkards and these homeless guys. I hadn’t heard anything with that kind of grit before. This was different.

“And then the WTO [World Trade Organization protest in Seattle] happened and I went through my own personal revolution. I hadn’t been a part of political activism, nothing to speak of. I had never connected the poverty I had seen throughout my life with politics. I mean, I knew about class dynamics, I lived it, but I didn’t understand the interconnectedness of it all. And then I was accidentally arrested and spent about a week in jail with these union guys and hard-core activists and my eyes just popped wide open. Then I got pissed.”

Israel became active in the anarchist scene and found his way to journalism when he realized that writing poetry wasn’t doing enough to describe what he was witnessing and learning.

“I just started putting two and two together and I wanted it to be my job to write these people’s stories. And so I started learning. I read everything I could get my hands on, just to learn how writers were putting things together. I mean, I dropped out of high school. I had ninth grade English skills. I didn’t know how to write. I started learning from everyone around me at Street Roots and through other organizations. I just started soaking them up like a sponge.”

While Israel grew as a journalist, Street Roots grew as well. The circulation increased and the stories became more political and hard-hitting. The grass-roots publication began reporting the stories, both local and national, that were affecting people experiencing poverty, homelessness and drug addiction.

For Israel, talking about Street Roots and the stories it covers is a point of pride and passion. The organization, started as a collective, has had to adjust and learn to straddle the fine line between being a direct service nonprofit and a news source that sometimes bites the hands that feeds it.

“The better our journalism gets, the more serious our topics get and sometimes we get a little pushback from it. That just shows me we’re doing our jobs,” Israel says with a wry smile. “We don’t run in the usual journalism cliques and sometimes that gets tricky. We’re a nonprofit, and sometimes we pay for that.”

“But, it’s important that we cover issues that are affecting people’s lives. We’re going to take difficult topics around homelessness and poverty and politics and we’re going to go deeper. We want to allow people to tell their stories, in laymen’s terms, so that everyone can understand them. We take our job seriously. I think sometimes people expect less from a street paper. We expect more. There’s this stereotype, even in the messaging around homelessness that people are used to hearing and we try to shatter that with the type of news we’re publishing.”

Talking about the circuitous route his life has taken, Israel shakes his head and smiles, his voice softening.

“There are a lot of peaks and valleys in the day in and day out. I’m learning how to pace myself and sometimes I feel jaded. I’ve watched waves of people come and go. And it gets harder for me to buy into the bullshit around the effects of the streets and homelessness and then bounce back into an administrative role of running a nonprofit and then do my investigative journalism. But I knew, back after the WTO that I wanted to tell these stories. It was a calling. You know, back then, I had been whiskey-bent and hell-bound for so long that when I started this type of work, I finally felt like I had some meaning in my life. To tell these stories and to help other people find their voice. I love it, even when it’s hard.”

_____

Visit Street Roots online at http://streetroots.org or call 503-228-5657.

Nikki Jardin has written for The Oregonian, Street Roots and the recently launched id Magazine. She lives in Southeast Portland and is continually impressed and inspired by the creativity and gumption of her neighbors and friends.

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Libraries, kids, books ... and dogs?

Dogs lend nonjudgmental ears to developing readers

By Deb Stone
The Portland Upside
January 2010

Photo by Robert Holcomb

The Read to the Dogs Program provides a relaxed atmosphere where students like 11-year-old Lili Morrisey can develop their reading skills.

If a dog went to the library for story time, what kind of book would he likely hear? We asked to tag along as Alan Mitchell, a volunteer with the DoveLewis Animal Assisted Therapy and Education Program and his dog Wally partnered up for a day at Belmont Library. Alan is an attorney specializing in construction law. Wally is a 7-year-old Golden Retriever. Every three to four weeks the dog-and-handler team listens to children read aloud.

Although Wally was one of 14 pups in his litter bred and trained for Guide Dogs for the Blind, the standards demand a rigorous combination of health, skill, and behavioral qualities. After two years of training, only three dogs in Wally’s litter qualified. The other 11, including Wally, entered the guide dog Career Change Program. When Alan and his wife Lynn Davis adopted Wally at age two, they made a commitment to keep him involved in some type of community service. Alan thought he would like to volunteer at the children’s hospital, but the requirements for the program were incompatible with his and Lynn’s work schedules. Then he heard about DoveLewis’ Read to the Dogs Program. He loved the idea.

“I’m a library geek,” says Alan. “I love to read, and the Belmont Library is close enough for Wally and I to walk.”

The pair attended training at DoveLewis to certify Wally as a therapy dog. He was tested on his ability to sit quietly, engage gently with a variety of ages and personalities of people, and tolerate occasional rough handling in a chaotic environment. Wally passed with flying colors.

The award-winning Read to the Dogs Program provides a relaxed environment and nonjudgmental listeners for children learning to read aloud. Research shows that being in the presence of a dog decreases physiological stress. The mere presence of a dog can moderate cardiovascular responses such as blood pressure and rate of respiration. The ability of dogs to use facial cues in human attention creates a sense of social support. Sociological studies in the late seventies showed that therapy dogs acted as catalysts to smooth social encounters by providing support and nurturance with eye contact, friendly licks, and a willingness to be held and petted.

Other studies have shown that reading aloud to peers increases stress in early readers because children fear being judged by their peers and evaluated aloud by adults. In such cases, children may become avoidant readers. But unlike peers, dogs never tease or belittle readers. The child always knows more than the dog about the book being read. This provides an opportunity for the child to be the one who knows most. It is an opportunity, says program director Heather Toland, for children to “be a star.”

According to Heather, DoveLewis has about 40 active Read to the Dog teams in the Portland area, serving 12 library branches and a handful of elementary schools. The teams operate through the generosity of donations to provide training, printed materials, screening and certification testing of dogs. Multnomah County Library covers the cost of T-shirts, bandanas, bookmarks, appointment cards, and reading certificates. The program started in June 2001, based on a model from the Salt Lake City area.

In 2009, Literary Arts awarded DoveLewis’ Read to the Dogs Program the Walt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award for their encouragement to emerging readers.
For reluctant readers, the experience can provide the confidence they need to overcome their fear of reading aloud. Alan enjoys seeing readers return with their improving skills. They will often be shy during a first reading, but by the second or third, Alan says, they are showing Wally pictures or whispering in his ear.

The Belmont Public Library provides a comfortable corner in the children’s room with two beanbag chairs—one for Alan and one for the child—and a space for Wally to curl up and listen. Students sign up beforehand for a 25 minute reading session. They receive appointment cards with a photo of Wally to help them remember their special time.

Lili Morrisey is an 11-year-old student at Childpeace Montessori in Portland. She has read to Wally several times. For this Saturday, she chose three favorite books from home.

“Lili is such an expressive reader,” according to Alan.

Wally seemed most attentive when Lili read Martha and Skits by Susan Meddagh, a story about a talking dog whose baby brother yearns to emulate her older sister’s talent for human speech. The best thing about reading to Wally, says Lili, is that “he always listens.”

Eight-year-old Lupita Englander selected books in the library for her Wally time. One of the books she chose to read was a Lemony Snicket tale: The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story. Alan was impressed at Lupita’s ability to read this complex story about a potato pancake that takes its fate into its own hands.

“This was a challenging book,” says Alan, who intermittently stopped to help Lupita sound out a difficult word.

Asked how it feels to read to Wally, Lupita responds, “It feels nice and calm.”

When Alan is not listening with Wally at the Belmont Library, he volunteers as a hearings officer for the Multnomah County Animal Services agency. His favorite books to read are science fiction. Wally doesn’t have a favorite genre. He spends his non-library days at Alan’s office and occasionally at doggy day care where he romps with friends. One afternoon on a walk, Wally met Lupita’s dog Rosie. The dogs sniffed a bit, but did not talk books. It was Wally’s day off.

_____

Children can read to a dog at Multnomah County Libraries by registering for an appointment in advance. Dates, times, and locations are available at http://multcolib.org/events/readdogs.html or call your local branch.

For info about participating in the Read to the Dogs Program, contact Heather Toland at 971-255-5910 or visit them online at http://dovelewis.org/programs/Read_To_Dogs.aspx
To find out more about adopting a career change guide dog, go to http:/guidedogs.com/site/PageServer?pagename=programs_dog_adoption or call 800-295-4050.

Deb Stone is a freelance writer from Beavercreek, Oregon, whose work has appeared in The Oregonian, The Portland Tribune, Asylum, Oregon Gourmet Foods, Poetic Voices, Kid-Bits and Willamette Writers.

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Helping people help themselves

Program provides opportunities for the low-income to climb the economic ladder

Story and photo by Aaron Lundstrom
The Portland Upside
January 2010

Over 1500 people in various professions and small businesses have benefited from the EOI program, raising their incomes an average of 25%.

Just as one may feel the gnaw of a cold rain lasting for days and the need to vent about it, it’s just as easy to feel the weight of taxes and bewail them.

Taxes are potent enough to start wars and to inspire political bumper stickers with multiple exclamation points. So if you’re not fully assuaged by tax money going towards road maintenance, police protection and other public services, or if you’re concerned about taxes being taken from your hard-earned wages only to be recklessly spent, there is good news.

By paying your taxes you could be making a charitable contribution—one that empowers individuals to better themselves and their families in a challenging economy.

The Economic Opportunity Initiative (EOI), spawned in 2004 in part from taxpayer funding, focuses on helping the economically disadvantaged while adapting to the diverse needs of the individual.

Lynn Knox, program manager for the EOI, mentions seven microenterprise projects and 25 workforce projects now running, with more to come once the funding is available.

Weaving through every project is the goal to keep low-income individuals in the program for three years, with an end to increase their income and assets by at least 25 percent. The EOI is openly accountable, so anyone can look at the statistics to see whether the efforts are paying off.

As results for the August 2009 graduating class show, enrolled microenterprise start-up businesses—after three years and starting with nothing—averaged $65,515 in sales. Existing businesses in the program more than tripled their sales.

For the workforce program graduates, most participants entered the program unemployed. EOI prepared them for work, helped them find a job and provided advancement assistance until their three-year graduation. From EOI job placement until graduation, adults increased their wages by an average of 33%, and youth saw a post placement increase of 23%.

This kind of success comes from the EOI’s philosophy of “people not places,” which aims to build up the individuals before building up the glitter-glassed structures and streetlights they walk past in their neighborhoods.

EOI “helps people to walk so that they can run,” Knox asserts.

Karina Potestio, a clothes-crafting wife and mother of three girls, has experienced the success of this dynamic. She graduated from Trillium Artisans, one of the EOI’s microenterprise projects that is committed to ecological and individual respect in economic development. In a world economy where jobs and wages often keep families apart, Karina’s experience is all the more remarkable because it enables her family to spend more time together. You can see Karina’s husband and children accompanying her to craft shows, helping her to set up, sell and then pack up her work once the day is finished.

Karina’s girls have even begun their own microenterprise project. In the spirit of Luna, their mother’s craft business, they offer handmade, cloth birds from a miniature wooden tree.
With 40 low-income artisans now working in Trillium’s nonprofit program, a driven community now dances within, around and away from the tangled web of poverty in Portland.

Each artisan, having committed to the three-year challenge to grow a sustainable craft business, stands upon a foundation of three principles: people, planet and profit, symbolized by Trillium’s three-pointed flower namesake. Fifty percent of everything made is from recycled or reclaimed materials and is priced to provide a fair wage to the maker, thereby honoring the person and planet with profit going to each.

Because of the EOI and programs like Trillium, artisans and crafters possess a means to have “more than a hobby,” says Knox. “They can pay the rent.”

Dave Sage is a Trillium artisan who transforms reclaimed and found wood into pragmatic art. In appreciation of the support and service offered by Trillium he says, “Trillium helps keep me connected to the rest of the world.”

While not offering a complete solution to the cause of poverty, the EOI program and Trillium offer impoverished individuals a means to climb the economic ladder. But viewing the person and their family as a dynamic structure deserving integrity and opportunity takes more than a program. It also requires an understanding that we are all only as respected as the opportunities we are given.

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For more information about the Economic Opportunity Initiative see http://pdc.us/eoi or call 503-823-3200. Visit Trillium Artisans at http://trilliumartisans.org or call 503-775-7993.

Aaron Lundstrom is a freelance writer and craft maker with a focus on truth, concept and bicycles. You can contact him at poveranews@grovestream.com or see his cooperative chess work and jewelry made from bicycle parts at http://poveranews.com

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From the editors

By Rob & Sara Bednark
The Portland Upside
January 2010

While moving from the Midwest to Portland in 1996, we crossed over the Marquam Bridge with all of our belongings packed into the back of a rental truck. With the Willamette River below us and the Portland skyline nearby, we exclaimed, “Isn’t it beautiful!” Today we still feel that same sense of appreciation and belonging.

In her article “Stick to your dreams,” Nicole Morale quotes Chris Bucci, “My heart is here, my heart is in Oregon.” That exactly describes our feelings every time we cross those beloved bridges. Chris took his feelings and found a way to make them tangible, and thanks to him we can now proudly display our love of Oregon with the Heart in Oregon emblem.

We met Israel Bayer last June. He was telling his story to the youth in The Pangaea Project and we were moved by his journey, his honesty, and his heart. In “Israel Bayer grows roots in Portland,” Nikki Jardin tells the story of the circuitous route Israel took to reach Portland, and how he is using his rich life experiences to connect with the homeless whose lives he champions.

We feel a commonality with Chris and Israel. They each searched to find their place, and then found ways to connect others to that shared sense of home.

After 13 years living in Portland, we are honored to be able to give something back to the place that we call home.

Sara & Rob

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All issues can be viewed on our website, http://PortlandUpside.com Contact us by email, editors@PortlandUpside.com, or by phone, 503-663-1526.

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Out of the textbooks and into the community

PSU department puts anthropology to use to benefit Portland

By Faye Powell
The Portland Upside
January 2010

From the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas to Brazilian rain forests, from the humid villages of Southeast Asia to our very own streets here in Portland, Oregon—these places, as well as every other corner of the earth—are the domain of anthropologists at work. Anthropologists study culture in its myriad forms, and all members of the human species and their predecessors fall within the scope of the discipline.

As applied anthropologist Jeremy Spoon states, “Our world is now more aware of cultural diversity than ever. There’s a unique role for anthropologists to be involved to better understand the human element from all facets, both past and present, and into the future.”

While most of us know Margaret Mead’s work on the South Pacific and Southeast Asian cultures, Jane Goodall’s studies of chimpanzees, and the Leakeys’ work in Africa on the origin of our species, we are less familiar with anthropologists’ contributions to the issues and problems right here at home.

I recently interviewed five faculty members of Portland State University’s (PSU) Department of Anthropology to learn how the discipline serves the communities of the Portland metro area.

According to Professor Kenneth Ames, archaeologist and chair of PSU’s anthropology department, one goal is to “conduct engaged and community-based research across local, regional and global scales. By this we mean, research that feeds back into the communities within which it is conducted and which, in some instances, instigated the research.”

When Professor Ames came to PSU, he was asked to develop a locally-based archaeology field school so students would be able to work closer to the university. The field school evolved into a community-based research program that has trained students to work with agencies such as the Corps of Engineers, Forest Service, and National Park Service.

PSU students, in collaboration with Native Americans and other community residents, helped excavate an important 15th-century Chinook site 40 miles from Portland near Ridgefield, Washington. In 1991, based on the excavation, the community erected a Chinook-style plank house that is now used for ceremonial and ritual purposes.

Indeed, the entire anthropology faculty is engaged in projects of one type or another that benefit our local community. And as students learn to use the tools of anthropology, they work on projects to solve problems that local organizations have identified.

One such project helped the Dougie Center for Grieving Children and Families identify barriers the Hispanic population faces in utilizing the center’s services. In another, a student worked with former Portland Mayor Potter’s office to do outreach in the Hispanic community.

Cultural anthropologist Sharon Carstens currently teaches an Asian-American class in which half of her students are Asian-American. Through class readings the students learn for the first time about the hardships their parents and earlier generations have endured. Films about the old country open the eyes of this young generation to their own history, allowing them to renew their empathy with older generations. This new window into their own history was so emotionally moving to some of the students that they borrowed the films to show within their home communities.

Michele Gamburd, also a cultural anthropologist, takes her research to Sri Lanka where she studies the effects of labor migration, globalization, and disasters on people and their culture. Bringing the knowledge and insights from her work in Sri Lanka home, she supervises students who study the impacts of immigration in the United States.

One student, for instance, researched the problem of limited health care among migrant laborers with asthma caused by their exposure to toxic chemicals. Another researched the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and its residual effect on undocumented Oregon Hispanics.

A third student studied the use of health care among workers at Portland’s day labor center. He found that they often go untreated for illnesses either because they cannot afford to take time off work or because they do not want to be perceived as weak, and thus less masculine. The City of Portland found the research valuable for providing a better understanding of the culture of these workers.

In another example of PSU’s impact on the community, archaeologist Virginia Butler’s current research work with archaeological records of ancient animal bones has significant implications for fish conservation and dam removal. She works in the Klamath Basin where water issues are a huge concern to ranchers, fishermen and environmentalists.

Excavation of these ancient bones has shown that salmon, previously thought to have been absent from the Klamath River, did once exist. In October, four major dams on the upper Klamath were ordered to be removed over the next ten years in order to reestablish salmon there. The Department of Interior is also interested in the research for its potential implications elsewhere.

While we usually assume that anthropologists only teach in colleges and universities, most actually work outside academia. In the medical field, one PSU graduate is employed by Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) to study the effects of race on doctor-patient relationships. Another works at Intel to help the company understand the use of technology in second homes in Russia, Australia, France and the United States.

A windmill company has also hired an anthropologist to study the environmental and cultural impacts of wind farms on Native American archaeological and religious sites. In such situations, anthropologists help to mitigate environmental and cultural impacts before wind farms are built.

Here in Portland, as in many places around the globe, PSU anthropologists apply their insights and tools to a wide variety of problems in medicine, business, technology, and the environment, as well as in social and public services. Clearly, Portland State University’s community-based research provides tangible results to many diverse local populations and proves just how practical anthropology can be.
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For more information about anthropology at PSU, go to http://anthropology.pdx.edu, call 503-725-3081 or contact Kenneth Ames at amesk@pdx.edu

Faye Powell is a retired university librarian with an M.A. in anthropology. Contact her at phaysee1@gmail.com

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The next challenge for The Portland Upside

By Rob & Sara Bednark
The Portland Upside
January 2010

The Portland Upside has come a long way in 2009. What started as a dream has become a living breathing reality, thanks to the help of volunteers who write, edit, photograph, and distribute the paper every month. From the enthusiastic feedback we’ve received, we know that The Portland Upside has established a reputation for quality content, providing a valuable service to the Portland metro area. With such strong community backing from day one, we’re confident that with your help, we can continue to publish The Portland Upside.

This past year has been a learning process for us. With nine issues under our belts, the monthly creation process has become straightforward. It’s now time to learn new strategies for generating revenue so that The Upside can stay in circulation. Thus far we’ve focused on advertising revenue to underwrite production and distribution costs. While we’ve gotten lots of help, we have a long way to go to meet expenses.

We learn as we go, letting The Upside have a life and community of its own, following that life, one step at a time, trying, making mistakes, letting it evolve. We are now ready to learn new ways to make The Portland Upside a continued financial, as well as literary, success. It’s now time to learn how to make this dream-come-true financially viable.

We need ideas on how to finance our answer to Portland’s growing appetite for positive news. Do you have a penchant for positive news and making a difference in your community, along with skills or ideas to create more revenue for The Portland Upside? We’d like to hear from you!
We invite you to join us in making The Upside a staple in our beloved, quirky, positive and caring city. Together we will make The Upside a sustainable venture that continues to uplift the people of Portland.

Thank you to all who have generously supported us in 2009 with contributions, ideas and advertising. Please help us keep The Upside going by contributing your ideas and material assistance.

Call or email us with your help. We’re relying on you in 2010!

Sara and Rob
Publishers, The Portland Upside

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Contact us by email at editors@PortlandUpside.com, or by phone, 503-663-1526. Information about advertising or making a donation can be found online at http://PortlandUpside.com

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Submission of the month

Misty firs

By Mike Aspros
The Portland Upside
January 2010

Photo by Sandra Milner

In winter, fir trees sing dappling droplets
their pointed needles combed them from fog.
You must only listen as a hundred notes
drop and echo, hitting the paper leaves.
Songs of forgotten words,
you know that they are prayers
that only trees remember
and they tell it to you again.

Mike Aspros is a native of Portland. In addition to writing poetry, he enjoys co-facilitating events within Linnton’s environmental group, and preserving Forest Park while building a community of forest stewardship.

Sandra Milner is a novelist, poet, aspiring photographer, and also a freelance journalist and food advocate.

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frozen pond, december eleventh

By Larissa Pham
The Portland Upside
January 2010

Photo by Andrew Bishop

we slid out onto the ice and stomped our feet,
watching our reflections clear as glass
grin back at us.
we could fall through at any moment, we both knew,
that was the hazardous joy of walking on water,
and i remembered the simple strokes
i practiced over the summer,
but there was no need—

we danced. marvelous, to imagine yourself
suspended over a habitat
of fish and worms and quiet creeping things
all sleeping at the bottom of the water;
to remember this lake wobbly and dilute,
to realize: i have conquered nature
or perhaps she has let me into her arms…

we lay on our backs staring up at the sky,
nothing but ice below us,
nothing but the molecules of the world around us,
and watched the clouds race the birds.

Larissa Pham is young and foolish and very excited about a great number of things. She is a senior in high school at Oregon Episcopal School and writes poetry, makes artwork, and frolics round the Portland metro area upon many an occasion.

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Wintertime in Oregon

By Bruce Mock
The Portland Upside
January 2010

Photo by Julie Kelly

I like the Wintertime in Oregon

her gopher holes
and short, green wheat,
and seagulls in the breeze;

her frosty grass
her frosted glass

and chipping ice from windo’ panes
and haze.

and skiers tracks
thru’ mountain trails
and rabbit tracks
on downy dales
and hail

and rain

and

crashing tides that
suck the sand
and
wear the cliffs
and
rocks that stand
and
waves that
break the jetties down

and
spray that streaks
the crests that foam,
driving wetness
through my bones.

and quiet nights
of crystal calm
that guard the gates
of Winter’s Home.

Bruce Mock is a lifetime Oregonian and lives in Southeast Portland. He is the founder of Seven Years of Plenty, a charity dedicated to feeding the hungry and rooting out the causes of poverty. He writes poetry about what he loves.

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In The Garden

Poem and photo by Julianna Waters
The Portland Upside
January 2010

Winter calls even the angels,
first to the dark
then the light,
gently,
preparing the soil,
inciting buried
seed, bulb and root
to head up.

Let’s head up.
Let’s wriggle and push our newness
through the dark pages of
December,
of January, then
into the transparent light of February,
March.

Let’s reach, pale green,
out of all that is moist and
necessary
for that sweet smell of a
lilac spring day,
and meet the angels there.
in the garden.
laughing.


Julianna Waters is a therapist and writer who lives in Portland with her husband, terrier and two cats. She’s an award winning songwriter, co-founder of Heart and Hammer Music, and lives for long, slow walks in wild places. She can be reached through: http://heartandhammer.com


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Voices around town

What positive changes have happened in your life this past year?

The Portland Upside
January 2010

Every day I try to emulate my Mom, who died two years ago at age 86. She always had a smile on her face, people liked her, she was a painter, she made dolls, always had something going on.

–Michael Cosentino
Downtown Portland
Portland, OR

I am proud of my efforts to bring attention to the importance of healthcare for everyone. Also, my only child Martha just turned 18, moved out on her own, and recently celebrated her year anniversary on-the-job. I am so proud of her!

–Martha Perez
Pearl District
Portland, Oregon

Through the very helpful advice of friends, my husband and I have been discovering how meditation can not only bring more peace to our life, but that it’s also vital for our health. We are definitely planning to continue our meditation practice through 2010 and beyond.

–Angela Valdes
Nob Hill neighborhood
Portland, Oregon

By being creative and flexible and by expanding my business to include landscape maintenance as well as design work, it has grown substantially this past year!

–Karla Kramer
Cedar Hills neighborhood
Beaverton, Oregon

My wife and I have gotten to spend more time together this past year.

–Robert
Pearl District
Portland, Oregon

I learned to listen to my gut and keep believing in people’s goodness. I now listen past the words and keep watching for the good to come out of people instead of being turned off by difficult events.

–Rebecca Whetstine
West Portland Park neighborhood
Portland, Oregon

A really great positive change for me this year was learning and working with a holistic process for support of well-being on all levels.

–Barbara Gerke
Sellwood neighborhood
Portland, OR

I completed the habitat restoration grant and project that I started a couple of years ago and am enjoying watching the 1100 plants and trees growing all over our little woodland and oak savannah area.

–Cindy
Sauvie Island
Portland, Oregon

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Encouraging mistakes to find the creativity within

Art teacher creates a safe place for budding artists to develop their talents

By Nancy Turner
The Portland Upside
January 2010

Students in Deanne Belinoff’s art classes move through their fears of creating by leaving room for accidents, delighting in surprises and learning how to use the unexpected.

Most of us go through life wanting to do things right. Right? Practice makes perfect? Fake it ‘til you make it? If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again?

Imagine a teacher who says, “Do it wrong! Make the ugliest picture you can possibly make. No, make something uglier, more ugly!”

For over thirty years, Deanne Belinoff has taught art in many settings, including Pratt Art Center, Dale Chihuly’s Seniors Making Art Program, and her own Creative Process Workshops. For the past two years she has been teaching groups of five or six students in her studio on an unassuming residential corner in Northeast Portland where she transformed a garage into a sky-lit art studio for herself, and space for others to express their inherent creativity. The sign on the studio wall says, “Be open to accidents!”

I recently attended an art show of Deanne’s students’ work. She is a wizard at moving people through their fears of creating, and I wanted to learn how she does it.

Long, waist-high tables are lined with white paper. Shelves crammed with tubes of paints, brushes, glue, scissors, and scraps, fill the spaces below. Beginning students as well as those with years of experience in visual art get involved in projects that honor their individual propensities and pace. Lessons include everything from acrylic portrait painting to a bit of art history. Everyone gets the chance to observe his or her own art process.

Deanne believes the best art, like the best science, leaves room for accidents. Even discovering the polio vaccine was not a planned project. The trick is to delight in surprises and know how to use the unexpected. One student, a 45-year-old mother with a baby at home went from tedious work on her PhD in Medieval Literature to drawing huge scribbles, reminiscent of Jackson Pollack’s paintings, on two-by-six-foot paper. Eleanor Gallay, a social worker, focused on printmaking. Andrea Vargo, a petite psychotherapist, created sensitive, detailed drawings of flowers and gourds. A professional gardener, Stephanie Turner, explored new territory through acrylic painting of landscapes. One of her paintings sold at the student exhibition.

Some art is created to make social and political statements. Stacked on a side table I spy a pile of white “bones.” Deanne’s students constructed larger-than-life papier-mâché replicas of human skeletal pieces to send, each with a five dollar donation, to the One Million Bones fundraiser in Albuquerque, New Mexico. One Million Bones is an art installation designed to raise awareness and funds for the millions of victims killed or displaced by ongoing genocide around the world.

In the safe environment of a class where there is no reprimand for making a mistake, success comes early and easily. Students become more aware of their opportunities for exploration. Ragan Lusk, a CPA-turned-carpenter, became a quick learner in drawing figures. Rex Brasard, an engineer accustomed to detailed, precise work, jumped into a series of abstract paintings.

When a person goes beyond their fear of making mistakes they have the freedom to take a blank piece of paper and transform it into art. When this happens, who knows what else in their life might change? Deanne and her intrepid students stay open to any possibility.

_____

Deanne Belinoff may be reached at Deanne@xprt.net or by calling her at 503-281-9521. Visit her website at http://DeanneBelinoff.com

Nancy Turner lives in Happy Valley but her heart dwells in Portland. She writes non-fiction and teaches story telling and dream interpretation. She can be contacted at nturner@easystreet.net

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Small group, small seeds, large impact

By CJ Mead
The Portland Upside
January 2010

Frank Rodzwic (left) and Frankie Leigh (middle) in the ACS bus used for the “Garden Stimulus Tour” in 2009 to distribute over 60,000 plant starts to community gardens around Oregon.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

–Margaret Mead

Last month a U.S. Department of Agriculture study reported Oregon second on the list of hungriest states in the nation, claiming that 13 per cent of its families struggle to put food on the table. Certainly there is work to be done to help feed the state’s hungry, and we are in need of more than a band-aid on this problem.

The American Center for Sustainability (ACS), led by Ken Burrow and Frankie Leigh, has an answer.

ACS believes in developing a more sustainable local food web across Oregon by mobilizing communities to produce local and healthy food. In 2007 ACS began its Plant Project, a garden plant distribution program that donates edible plant starts to help battle hunger in communities from Portland to Pendleton.

Katherine Loeck of Utopia Community Garden says about ACS, “because the majority of our gardeners are low-income community members, this project allowed them to access plant starts that they would not have been able to afford otherwise.”

ACS distributes traditional edible starts such as lettuce, tomatoes, onions, melons, and peppers; fruits like watermelon and strawberry; as well as herbs such as oregano, basil, and sage. ACS also donates starts that serve as beneficial insect attractants to promote successful fruition.

Sheryl Casteen from Planting Seeds of Change in Lebanon, Oregon, celebrates the locally-based humanitarian mission.

“[ACS] gave us the opportunity to offer plants to people that would not have otherwise been able to afford them, feed their families, and teach the children in several schools about vegetables,” she says.

Since its inception ACS has distributed over 115,000 plant starts, helping community gardens, food pantries, and demonstration gardens overcome obstacles and dwindling resources to start thriving garden spaces. By collaborating with local nonprofit educational garden projects, ACS is able to spur local food webs rooted in volunteerism.

ACS meets its altruistic goals entirely by volunteer hands. In the spring of 2009, 12 volunteers sowed over 75,000 seeds and produced an estimated 60,000 plants to be donated to feed local communities. Those 12 individuals benefited more than 35 different plant recipients all over Oregon, including the Oregon Food Bank Learning Gardens in Portland, Dalles Imagination Garden and Utopia Community Garden in The Dalles, Bunker Hill School in Coos Bay, Plant a Row for the Hungry in Benton County, and Planting Seeds of Change in Lebanon.

By engaging in annual planting projects or helping distribute plants, this people-powered agency gives local citizens a chance to become involved in moving Oregon from the top of the list of hungriest states.

Recently members of the Portland community came out to support ACS at the Abundant Harvest Celebration held at the EastBurn restaurant, where members of the community learned about ACS plant projects and sustainable practices, and enjoyed music from the local bands Tapwater and Cow Paddy Stompers. The fundraiser enabled ACS to begin propagating thousands more plants for this coming spring in order to continue providing Oregonians access to their own local food web.

While ACS is indubitably a small group of thoughtful committed citizens, its work is changing the lives of hungry Oregonians.

Charlotte Link of Dalles Imagination Garden sums it up, “because of ACS, more Oregonians had food on the table for themselves and their family.”

_____

For more info, visit http://sustainableshift.org, call 503-460-7136 or email plants@sustainableshift.org


CJ Mead believes when surrounded by positive people amazing things happen, seeing this firsthand in his youth-development work for Portland nonprofits. He is currently working on a Masters in Education at Lewis and Clark College.



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Freedom for dogs, one fence at a time

New Portland organization builds fences to increase happiness for owners and their dogs

By Nikki Jardin
The Portland Upside
December 2009

Photo by David Childs

Noah, a beagle mix, proudly surveys his newly fenced-in backyard domain.

The beagle mix is all tongue, tail and paws as he pivots and jumps, greeting the volunteers who arrive at the sedate Gladstone neighborhood on a Saturday morning. The dog stands on two back legs and happily licks the face of anyone who gets within range. Today Noah’s reach is hampered by a tether attached to a clothesline, his restriction highlighted by the well worn path beneath him.

People arrive to participate in a recently formed volunteer group called Fences For Fido (FFF), a nonprofit dedicated to relieving chained dogs of an isolating and unhappy existence. The group provides the materials and labor to erect perimeter fences around an owner’s property so that a dog may run freely.

This morning Noah is getting a fence, a doghouse and plenty of tender loving care from volunteers willing to sit nearby while activity buzzes around him.

One group pounds slender metal bars while others unroll and cut fencing wire. Three of the organizers discuss whether Noah is a “digger” and whether ground fencing might prevent him from escaping. Since many of the volunteers have been to a number of “builds” already, the operation moves smoothly, and the workers easily make themselves useful. First-timers are greeted warmly and immediately put to work.

Michelle Rouse, who drove from Beaverton this morning, heard about the organization from a local news broadcast. She called the group to report a dog she had seen chained in an unsuitable environment.

“This dog had no shade, no shelter, nothing. I called FFF and they went over that night to talk to the owner. I was floored that they would care that much. I helped build that fence and was hooked. It’s fabulous, some of these dogs have never been off chains and you can see their pure joy when they are let go. I feel like we are the voice for those who can’t speak.”

FFF began last May when a friend spoke to Andrea Kozil about a chained dog she passed daily. She felt the dog’s suffering but didn’t know what she could do. Kozil, who works for the Humane Society of the United States, approached the owner of the house and asked if he would allow her to build a fence so that his dog could be let off the chain. Fences For Fido was born.

Andrea, along with colleague Kelly Peterson, began recruiting friends and asking for donations from local companies. They estimated building about one fence a month. Twelve fences later they have a waiting list and weekly projects stretching from St. Helens to Salem.

The original inspiration came from a group in North Carolina, The Coalition to Unchain Dogs, which builds several fences a week for dogs in that state. A group from the coalition came to help FFF on their first build and to offer tips on how to get the job done most efficiently.

As more regular volunteers show up for the weekly fence builds, the work has become faster and more manageable. Andrea’s friend, Vince Baker, became hooked after building the first fence and hasn’t missed one since. Vince has become the de facto crew leader, a claim he shirks off with a humble smile. But he becomes animated and sincere when talking about his first experience.

“That first build was the ideal situation. Here’s this dog, six years on a chain and we go in and build this fence. After that, the owner cleaned up the backyard, set up his barbecue and starting spending time back there with his dog. And that’s what we hope for, that the fence improves the lives of the entire family. That was a perfect example of how people can see that there is a different way of interacting with their pets.”

Dogs are pack animals by nature and are normally friendly and gregarious. Years on a chain can wear a dog down psychologically, making them unhappy, anxious or aggressive. FFF gently educates owners on the importance of interacting with their animal by visiting with them, walking them and taking care of basic health needs.

Michelle Blake, FFF coordinator in Salem, says, “We really try to educate people about their dog’s need for companionship. When chained, they are so desperate for attention that they are obnoxious and it becomes hard to spend time with them. The fences do seem to make a difference in people’s relationship with their dogs.”

The fence is nearly complete, just a gate left to be installed. People have begun to clean up the yard and organize the tools. Noah happily engages the volunteers, who hang out with him in tether-range while he checks out his new doghouse, a custom-made insulated model with straw bedding and a covered deck.

Noah’s owners come into the yard and quietly observe the hustle and bustle with a mixture of awe and satisfaction. In many cases, dog owners want to do right by their pets but can’t afford to offer a better solution than a chain. Indeed, this couple is grateful for the assistance.

“I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” says Angela, Noah’s owner. “We’ve been wanting to do this but couldn’t pull it off financially. It pulled at our heartstrings this past year, having him like this. We actually thought about giving him up to a better home.”

The moment has arrived for Noah to be released from his tether. As the smiling volunteers line the perimeter of the yard, they are eager for the best part of the day.

Andrea bends down and calls Noah to her. He trots over and she deftly releases the tether from his collar. It takes him just a moment to feel his freedom and he bursts into a run, spurred on by the cheering group. He makes three lightening speed laps around the yard and then stands, tongue lolling, to admire his new domain. In a moment that seems scripted, he leaps onto the top of his doghouse and stands proud and happy, even posing for a few pictures.

While the crew clears out, the family’s children come into the yard. Along with their parents, they begin running and playing with Noah. Andrea looks on, pleased by the success of this build.

“It’s great when you see the family really get inspired about their dog. They see a side of Noah now that they’ve never seen before. This is a way to bridge a gap and help nourish the relationship between dog and family. That’s why we’re here.”

_____

For more info about Fences For Fido, visit their website, http://fencesforfido.org Contact them at info@FencesForFido.org

Nikki Jardin has written for The Oregonian, Street Roots and the recently launched id Magazine. She lives in Southeast Portland and is continually impressed and inspired by the creativity and gumption of her neighbors and friends.

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From caring hands to children’s shelves

Volunteers at the Children’s Book Bank distribute books to kids in need

Story and photo by Rebecca Ok
The Portland Upside
December 2009

Portland Head Start students take delight in exploring their bags full of community-donated books which they now proudly own.

A bell rings to announce the beginning of the lunch break. The once-quiet school halls erupt with the excited sounds of young children. In the gym, staff and volunteers from the Children’s Book Bank wait for the afternoon Head Start preschool classes to emerge from the blissful chaos in the halls. A few teachers arrive, their students following them in lines, for the special assembly. The students sit down in front of an impressive row of tote bags full of new and gently-used children’s books.

After a brief talk, the adults divide 60 bright-eyed students into four groups for story time with volunteer readers. Two of the volunteers, Tony McManus and George Josten of the Portland Timbers soccer team, read such children’s classics as If You Give a Moose a Muffin and If You Give a Pig a Pancake to the rapt preschoolers.

When story time is over, each student receives a tote bag filled with 15 community-donated books to take home. The children are given time to explore the contents of their tote bags. They pull out alphabet books and counting books. They flip through animal books and look in awe at complexly constructed pop-up books. They show their books to their friends, pointing out gorillas and princesses. They laugh at dogs wearing hats and cows in pajamas. Occasionally, a triumphant squeal can be heard, announcing the discovery of a hoped-for book.

The book delivery at the Clark Head Start site at the Creative Science School on Southeast 92nd Avenue was one of several the Children’s Book Bank made on October 20. On that day, this new and growing organization distributed 780 tote bags filled with 11,700 community-donated books to all eight Portland Public Schools Head Start pre-schools. More than just children’s books, the bags contained promises of a better future.

The October distribution culminates two years of work by the Children’s Book Bank. Founder Danielle Swope first became interested in improving literacy among low-income children while serving with Teach for America as a high school math teacher in the early ‘90s.
Danielle says she “was surprised to find that the most significant obstacle to teaching math was that my students’ reading skills were so limited.”

This experience, in addition to startling statistics regarding the barriers to education faced by low-income children, motivated Danielle to create the Children’s Book Bank in Portland.

Book distributions are the final step in the process of closing the book gap. The term “book gap” refers to the astonishing fact that in middle and upper-income neighborhoods, the ratio of books to children is 13 books for every child. In low-income neighborhoods, on the other hand, the ratio is one book for every 300 children.

Kindergarten teacher Melanie Reaves affirms, “the most important thing to do to ensure a child will be a life-long reader is to read aloud to them.”

The lack of age-appropriate reading material robs low-income children of the opportunity to develop pre-reading skills before entering kindergarten. The result, Danielle says, is that low-income children “arrive in kindergarten lacking the foundational literacy skills on which to build their future educations” and have to play catch-up with their middle- and upper-income peers.

In order to eliminate the book gap and its adverse effects, the Children’s Book Bank facilitates the collection of books that children have outgrown and the subsequent distribution to children in need.

In addition to containing promises of a better future, each tote bag of books represents the dedication of many community members. Book distributions are only one part of the process of getting books into the hands of low-income children. As a nonprofit organization, the Children’s Book Bank relies on the participation of a large network of volunteers to achieve its goal.

Volunteers are essential to every part of the process. They organize book drives in their schools, congregations, businesses, and other organizations. Individuals from the community donate the books their own children have outgrown. Groups of volunteers come to the book bank several times a week to clean, sort and bundle the donated books. By the time of distribution, each book has been touched by many caring hands from the Portland community.

According to Danielle, the Children’s Book Bank began with a small mission and a big dream.

“I only thought we’d be able to help a few children,” she says.

The October 20 distribution shows, however, how dramatically this young organization has exceeded even its own expectations. Community response has been so overwhelming that the Children’s Book Bank was able to help a few children and then some.

Allyson Yoshiwara, Portland Public School Head Start Educational Supervisor, reports, “the children are absolutely thrilled to have books they can keep.”

Such response has enabled the Children’s Book Bank to dream bigger. The organization hopes to expand distribution to other sites in the near future. Each book donated, each volunteer, and each child who goes home with a bag of books under his arm, realizes a part of the dream of greater educational success for low-income children in the Portland community.

_____


The Children’s Book Bank is located at 1728 NE Glisan Street, Portland, and online at http://childrensbookbank.org Contact them by email at info@childrensbookbank.org or by phone at 503-753-4809.

Rebecca Ok is a recent Reed College graduate seeking to make sense of post-college life through children’s literature. She can be contacted via email at rebeccao@childrensbookbank.org

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Winter sunshine

Portlander finds warmth by following the story of a former Oregonian now living in Mexico

By Karen Munro
The Portland Upside
December 2009

Juanita Benedicto (center) with two of the madres from the Buen Pastor mission, where she volunteers offering massage therapy, education and encouragement.

Every weekday, like many other Portlanders, I sheathe myself in layers of Gore-tex and nylon and ride my bike to work. In winter my ride is cold and wet, grey and windy. I thread my way around puddles and try not to mind the icy rivulets running down my collar and into my shoes. Oregon in winter is a soggy place, and here in Portland we can go days or weeks without seeing the sun.

But there’s a little bit of sunshine waiting in my office. When I get in I towel off, fire up my computer, and point it to my blog reader, where El Sur Experiment tops my most-read list. There I might see a whimsical picture of a row of ceramic alligators in cowboy hats, a panoramic shot of the rooftops of a sun-drenched colonial city, or a portrait of a young girl walking alone through a courtyard, solemnly reading a picture book. Either way, I feel like my office just got a new window and a little more daylight.

El Sur Experiment is the photojournal of Juanita Benedicto, a former Oregonian who started remaking her life in 2004. While working full-time as an academic librarian and raising two daughters solo, Juanita began training for a new career as a massage therapist. During her summer breaks she traveled to Guanajuato, Mexico, to volunteer at Buen Pastor, a convent that assists poor, exploited, and marginalized women and children. Juanita started offering compassion, encouragement, education, and massage therapy to Buen Pastor’s clients. In 2008 she moved from Oregon to Mexico to volunteer at the convent full-time. She started El Sur Experiment to record the results of the experiment she was making of her life. In her own words, she wanted to find out what happens when “you follow your inner compass, enjoy where you’re at, don’t fret about the future, and remember that every day is another opportunity to practice grace.”

Buen Pastor offers a wide range of social services, including a shelter for victims of abuse, foster care for girls, and a middle school. Some girls come to Buen Pastor because of an abusive relative. Others come because their families can’t afford to feed or educate them. Many of the women at Buen Pastor have been beaten or sexually assaulted. Even the madres (nuns) themselves are growing old and feeling the pains of arthritis, rheumatism, and a lifetime of hard work. Juanita works with all of them, building trust and helping to release trauma through physical touch and attention.

For all that Juanita and the madres do, they’re ambitious to do more. They want to make the convent more sustainable, and are seeking grants to build an organic community garden and install solar panels. They’ve started a Spanish-language library and reading programs to encourage the girls’ literacy. (Olivia the Pig books are very popular.)

Juanita has set up a Buen Pastor website, where she invites readers to sponsor a girl’s education—so far every girl who finds a sponsor has improved her grades, without fail. There are dreams of a bigger, better computer lab and maybe, someday, a paid position for Juanita.
Juanita’s photojournal reflects all of this hard work and goal-setting. She documents the silly, joyful, and somber moments of life at Buen Pastor. In one post, Juanita writes about teaching Madre Patricia to pronounce “kiss my ass” in English. In another she quotes World Bank president Robert Zoellick:

“Investing in adolescent girls is precisely the catalyst poor countries need to break intergenerational poverty and to create a better distribution of income. Investing in them is not only fair, it is a smart economic move.”

And then there’s the rest of life in Guanajuato, filtered through Juanita’s camera lens: shots of incredible, vibrant street art, drawings, painted murals, a classic car show packed with gleaming, iridescent Volkswagens. There are photos of the bluffs and buttes above the city, massive red rocks floating against a blue sky.
Guanajuato is an old, European-style city replete with architectural flourishes, and Juanita’s camera finds every molded lion and scalloped ledge. She captures the brilliant colors of the houses—hot pink, teal, saffron, olive—as well as the crumbling edges of urban decay.

Juanita’s posts sometimes wax sublime, sometimes ridiculous. She has a sly sense of humor and a talent for skewering the absurd. “Tell her how you feel in paint,” she subtitles a photograph of street graffiti that reads, “Hey Alma Te Amo” (“Hey Alma I love you.”) Sometimes the full meaning of a photo only emerges from its accompanying text. A picture of a snowy egret in an alley mystifies until you mouse over it, and read the pop-up explanation. Increasingly egrets sojourn in urban areas like the nearby city of San Miguel de Allende, displaced from their native habitats.

From the posts that make up El Sur Experiment, a world emerges. Vibrant, complex, and fragile, Juanita’s world includes birthday parties, ancient ruins, fiestas and fireworks, sewing machines and saints. It’s a world where a garbage collector can win a muscle man competition, bulking up by eating out of the bins he empties; where a stub-eared guard dog peers down from a rooftop, surrounded by clouds; where rich and poor live next door to each other. In some ways, Juanita’s world is not unlike Portland.

Most amazingly the brightness and power fill me with optimism, even in the face of poverty and injustice. Juanita’s pictures of life in Guanajuato record her worthy work and refract light and energy all the way from Mexico to Portland. After a rainy morning commute to my office, the posts stream sunshine from her southern clime, reminding me that good works tend to send out ripples in all directions, like raindrops falling into a Portland puddle.

_____

Visit Juanita Benedicto’s El Sur Experiment at http://jblibrarian.wordpress.com Buen Pastor’s website, with more details about ongoing projects and ways to get involved, is at http://buenpastor.weebly.com

Karen Munro is a librarian who lives and works in Portland. Contact her at karenlibrarian@gmail.com

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Mother, comedian Jacki Kane gives parents TIME OUT

By Jillian Starr
The Portland Upside
December 2009

Photo by Deke Black

At the recent TIME OUT comedy show “Guess Who’s Messing Up Dinner,” Jacki Kane (top) worries her kids won’t know the meaning of a wildly dysfunctional holiday.

If Ellen DeGeneres’ and Steven Wright’s comedy had a baby, and the baby grew up to be a mother of two, it would be Jacki Kane. With self-deprecating humor and a big heart, she manages, produces and emcees “TIME OUT: The Mother of All Comedies,” a local show that invites others to take the stage and share in the grand comedy that is parenthood.

Last month at Northeast Portland’s Curious Comedy Theatre, Jacki joked about being a mom, a cougar, and growing up Catholic. Her comedy presence creates a comfortable, familiar atmosphere, like proudly watching your best friend perform. Welcoming six other mothers to the stage, it’s obvious she loves to share the spotlight with parents who see the laughter in their own lives.

Women like Nicole McKinney clearly agree that parenting requires humor. She joked about insurance policies for kids’ cell phones, asking the hilariously simple question “Did our moms ever call up State Farm to insure bikes and roller skates?”

Wendy Bax spoke of turning the food pyramid into a ranch-style house and Betsy Kauffman explained why Jewish people never see Bigfoot—“they would if he went to the half-yearly sale at Nordstrom’s!”

Looking at the theatre’s full house, it’s hard to believe TIME OUT started as scribbles on scraps of paper tucked absentmindedly throughout Jacki’s home. When the jokes outnumbered toddler crumbs, she debuted her new material during open mic at the family-friendly Airplay Cafe. A group of moms fell off the couch laughing, and at that moment she knew her honest comedy about child rearing resonated strongly with other parents. She immediately set up a meeting with the owner of the cafe and created her first TIME OUT show.

In January 2009, a crowd of about 80 parents buzzed with anticipation, wanting to laugh about the horrors of the holidays. The energized atmosphere—support group meets mom’s night out—allowed for regular moms to take the stage and speak comically about Thanksgiving Day childbirth, projectile turkey vomit and other holiday plans gone awry.

Since that first show, Jacki has performed monthly in Portland, Beaverton and Vancouver.

Shows feature monthly themes such as “Extreme Makeover Mom Edition” and “Honey I Shrunk My Libido.” Parent-comics joke freely about everything from diet plans to vasectomies. Local parenting businesses have lent support and performances have drawn standing-room-only audiences.

TIME OUT has attracted a diversity of performers including single moms, lesbian moms, moms with eight children, stay-at-home moms, entrepreneurs, dads and grandparents. Many performers are brand new to the stage while others have been professionally trained in acting, writing or stand-up. They go on stage because it’s a supportive way to joke about parenthood, because they’re trying to step back into a world of creativity and humor after having children, or because they welcome any excuse to get out of the house.

Kristina Martin, mother of three and former high school teacher, does the show to keep her sanity. She loves finding humor in all the nutty things that go hand-in-hand with parenting and she reports that surrounding herself with laughter makes her kids laugh, too.

Beren deMotier, mother of three and author of The Brides of March, finds the applause from the audience highly rewarding because her work as a writer is spent isolated, “hiding out in the basement trying to be funny.”

Debby Dodds, a professionally trained actress and improv artist, found TIME OUT to be the perfect way to step back into performing after her daughter was born.

Jacki herself logged three years of stand up comedy in Atlanta as well as writing comedy for television, advertising and radio before moving to Portland and slowing it all down to become a mother.

“After spending way too many hours wiping things, it’s really all about claiming something for yourself,” she says.

And what better way to self-nurture than to find the humor in life and make others happy?

Audience members find relief in laughing about the reality of parenthood. There are no airbrushed Hollywood parenting stories here, no nerve-wracking news reports, but rather a comical back-fence atmosphere of neighbor relating to neighbor, mama to mama.

One woman touched Jacki’s arm after the show and said, “Thank you for showing me there’s something more.”

In the isolation of homes, parents may not realize the bond they share with others, how common their own stories are. Fatigue, toddler tantrums, and the challenge of balancing roles within work, family and the home can throw anyone off kilter. No wonder straightforward parenting sitcoms like Roseanne, Everybody Loves Raymond and Modern Family are so popular. Many relate to the humor in everyday family situations and laughing is a great stress release.

Jacki might be a bit sadistic tackling two of the hardest jobs: mother and female stand-up comic. Yet she good-naturedly acknowledges the challenges. She laughs about the time she was introduced at a comedy club as “that middle-aged lady” by a man who was older and in desperate need of a man bra. And she readily admits that if there were a job application for parents, she definitely wouldn’t get hired.

Still, her two professions complement each other well. Her life is fodder for her comedy and her comedy is the creative outlet essential to her success as a mom. Hell-bent on turning TIME OUT into a show that continually fosters camaraderie among parents while not relying on thoughtless “blue” comedy, she’s determined to guide the show toward continued success.

Long term, Jacki wants to use the shows to assist moms in need as well as to establish a foundation for mothers who are struggling writers. Given all that Jacki can accomplish in a year, it will be exciting to watch TIME OUT prosper.

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For event schedules and more info about TIME OUT, see http://jackikane.wordpress.com or contact Jacki at 503-704-5737 or kane.jacki@gmail.com

Jillian Starr writes screenplays, poems and personal essays and is a proud member of TIME OUT’s board of directors. You can learn more about her at http://jillianstarr.com

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From the editors

By Sara & Rob Bednark
The Portland Upside
December 2009

They say “a picture’s worth a thousand words,” and while that’s true, one can never replace the other. Photos complement stories as much as stories complement photos.

Rebecca Ok’s article about Children’s Book Bank, (From Caring Hands to Children’s S helves, p. 1) and their Oct. 20 distribution of 780 book bags takes us to the school gym where eager pre-schoolers explore the wonders of books they now own. Rebecca’s accompanying photos let us see some of the curious faces that will benefit from the organization’s caring volunteers.

Nicole Morales (Coming Soon: Kids, Coffee & Community at Café au Play, p. 4) follows the years of planning and hard work put in by Kristin Heying and other community volunteers to bring life to Café au Play. The before and after photos help us appreciate how much change has taken place on the Tabor Commons site.

Building a fence never sounded so fun and rewarding until we read Nikki Jardin’s article (Freedom for Dogs, One Fence at a Time, p. 1). The photos by David Childs of Noah running along the fence, reveling in his new untethered freedom, captures the spirit of why the Fences For Fido volunteers do what they do.

Perhaps when looking at the photos from past issues (A Look Back at Our First Seven Issues, p. 5) you’ll be inspired to go to our website and read some of the articles that you’ve missed. If you’ve already read them all, we hope the photos will remind you that Portland is full of people doing wonderful things to help others in the community.

Happy holidays!

Sara & Rob

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All issues can be viewed on our website, http://PortlandUpside.com Contact us by email, editors@PortlandUpside.com, or by phone, 503-663-1526.

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