Dropping In
Skating is more diverse and inclusive than ever, but body shaming, bathroom conditions, and the boy’s club still make the sport less accessible, and less fun, for women.
Out of the Woods
In a protected old-growth forest, a hiker finds a lost child, but she can’t protect him from the outside world he inhabits.
“It’s Just a Beer”
Too frequently, unfamiliar men’s gifts come with the expectation of physical intimacy and the threat of violence. For many women, this transactional dynamic has ruined the promise of platonic male-female relationships.
A City’s Lifeblood
Before Portland Harbor was declared a superfund site, First Nations and people of color used to fish Portland, Oregon’s main waerfront for food. A 13-year, billion dollar plan promises to clean the water, but will it provide jobs and other economic benefits to communities impacted by environmental injustice?
Good Hair
A young woman with revolving hairstyles shucks the sense of obligation she feels to her grandmother, and finally determines who she wants to be.
The Farmers of Tanner Creek
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Chinese farmers in Southwest Portland sold their fruits and vegetables to white Portland residents, until real estate conditions shifted and drove them out. These are the same forces currently at work on Northeast Portland’s black community.
Picture Their Hearts
The writer on her parents’ interracial marriage during the Civil Rights movement:
“She remembered only a time when a taxi driver refused to pick them up. They were with her parents, and my grandfather was outraged by the slight. A Jewish Ukrainian immigrant, my grandfather held high ideals of justice in his adopted land. He took down the taxi’s medallion number and found a police officer to stand with them until they could hail another cab. A few months later, he took the offending driver to court. My mother couldn’t recall what had come of the charge.
“‘That’s it?’ I said.
“My mother’s eyes narrowed. She looked surprised by my disappointment.
“‘I mean, it must have been hard dealing with what people thought,’ I said.
“She didn’t hesitate in replying: ‘If we’d cared what other people thought, we wouldn’t have gotten married.'”
Unforgiven, Unforgotten
Phil Busse stole McCain lawn signs in Minnesota during the 2008 presidential campaign. The prank made him infamous:
“Within hours, I received several hundred angry emails and phone calls, including three death threats. A man in Michigan yelled at me over the phone, calling me ‘sick’ and ‘demented,’ and informing me that he was going to go steal ten times as many Obama signs in retaliation. A man from Texas, who described himself as ‘a 29-year-old, 250-pound Republican,’ called me ‘little Phillip’ and offered to whoop my ass. A man in California told me to go play a long game of ‘go hide and fuck yourself,’ and warned that he was planning to exercise his Second Amendment right. Another man from Springfield, Oregon, left a voicemail message calling me ‘despicable’ and informing me that he would hunt me down if I returned to Oregon. Clearly, whatever message I had intended about visceral participation in politics was completely eclipsed by the messenger. In hindsight, this would be the third principle of public spectacle—and one that I was long overdue to have learned.”