VOLUME 76 • ISSUE 38 • MARCH 2, 2022
INTERNATIONAL Kazakhstan protests beget bloodshed P. 4
ARTS & CULTURE 5th Ave presents a '70s indie classic P. 9
OPINION Portland’s Black musical mecca: a brief history P. 10-11
CONTENTS
COVER DESIGN BY WHITNEY GRIFFITH COVER PHOTO BY ERIC SHELBY
INTERNATIONAL A TIMELINE OF KAZAKHSTAN’S YEAR OF PROTESTS
P. 4
FIND IT AT 5TH AVE.: GIRLFRIENDS
P. 9
RUSSIA LAUNCHES FULL-SCALE INVASION OF UKRAINE
P. 5
SPORTS VIKS BEAT IDAHO STATE IN OVERTIME ON SENIOR NIGHT
OPINION A HOP AND A SKIP INTO JUMPTOWN
P. 10-11
P. 6-7
ARTS & CULTURE CHANGING THE NARRATIVE OF HOUSELESSNESS THROUGH COMICS
SCIENCE & TECH THE ETHICS OF COMPUTATIONAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING
P. 12
P. 8
STAFF EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Béla Kurzenhauser
OPINION EDITOR Justin Cory
MANAGING EDITOR Karisa Yuasa
ONLINE EDITOR Lily Hennings
PHOTO EDITOR Sofie Brandt
COPY CHIEF Mackenzie Streissguth
SPORTS EDITOR Eric Shelby
DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Tanner Todd
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Ryan McConnell
MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Olivia Lee
ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Tanner Todd
CONTRIBUTORS Whitney Griffith Nova Johnson Kat Leon Milo Loza Jesse Ropers
INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Alberto Alonso Pujazon Bogani
PRODUCTION & DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Shannon Steed
ADVISING & ACCOUNTING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood
DESIGNERS Leo Clark Whitney Griffith Fiona Hays Mia Levy Astrid Luong
STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Maria Dominguez
TECHNOLOGY & WEBSITE TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Kahela Fickle George Olson Kwanmanus Thardomrong
To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com
STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Vacant
MISSION STATEMENT Vanguard ’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.
ABOUT Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Wednesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.
WE’RE HIRING Contributors & News Editors EMAIL RESUME AND COVER LETTER TO EDITOR@PSUVANGUARD.COM PSU Vanguard • MARCH 2, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
A TIMELINE OF KAZAKHSTAN’S YEAR OF PROTESTS AN UPDATED ACCOUNT OF VIOLENT RECENT EVENTS
JESSE ROPERS Widespread protests at the beginning of 2022 have rocked Kazakhstan. In 2019, former Soviet party leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, who became the country’s first president, stepped down from the presidency and handed leadership over to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. However, since 1991— when Kazakhstan gained its independence amidst the Soviet Union’s collapse—Nazarbayev had been president. His authoritarian power resulted from decades of supposedly near-unanimous elections, and any opposition to his regime was either repressed, sidelined or co-opted. Nazarbayev implemented reforms that privatized many elements of the economy and sold the rights to much of the country’s abundant oil reserves to transnational companies. Unemployment skyrocketed while quality of life plummeted. Since Nazarbayev resigned, he has remained the head of the country’s security council as well as political party. Tokayev directly continued Nazarbayev’s policies with little change, though around the beginning of his tenure, the price of fuel began to rise. When Tokayev entered office, the price per liter of gas was priced at 30 tenge (approximately seven cents). On Dec. 31, 2021, the price rose to a staggering 120 tenge (approximately 26 cents). In all this change, some argue the western part of the country has been ignored. “The West of the country is a region of solid unemployment,” wrote Co-chairman of the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan, Aynur Kurmanov. “In the course of neoliberal reforms and privatization, most of the business there shut down. The only sector that still works here are the oil producers, and for the most part those are owned by foreign companies who get all the profits. It is an area of total poverty.” On Jan. 2, 2022, hundreds of residents of Zhanaozen, a city in the Mangystau region of western Kazakhstan, blocked traffic in protest against the gas price hike. Previously, in 2011, police killed at least 14 citizens in the city while they were conducting a workers’ strike—and many more injured. In the present day, numbers of those protesting in the streets grew, and with
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INTERNATIONAL
them demands. “It all started with the increase in gas prices but the real cause of the protest is poor living conditions of people, high prices, joblessness, corruption,” said Zauresh Shekenova, a protester present on the first day of activity, to The Guardian. “Nazarbayev and his family have monopolized all sectors, from banking to roads to gas.” This sentiment was echoed by Darkhan Sharipov, the leader of activist group Wake Up, Kazakhstan. “People are sick of corruption and nepotism and the authorities don’t listen to people,” Sharipov said. “We want President Tokayev to carry out real political reform or to go away and hold fair elections.” On Jan. 3, protests had spread throughout the country. Thousands of people gathered throughout the day in Almaty, the country’s largest city. Crowds chanted, “Shaldar, Ketinder!” meaning “Old people, go away!”—a reference to Nazarbayev’s grasp on political power. The Kazakhstan state responded with strict curfews and disabling all wifi within two kilometers of the protestors’ gathering. On Jan. 4, numbers grew in the streets throughout the country. In an effort to appease the protestors, Tokayev signed a declaration capping fuel prices to 50 tenge (approximately 11 cents) for six months in Mangystau, the province where it all began. However, by the time of his announcement, demands of the demonstrators had grown beyond the issue of gas to criticism of the government as a whole. Later that night, clashes broke out between police and protestors. Police threw tear gas and stun grenades into crowds, wounding several and escalating the chaos, according to The Guardian. In response, activists occupied government buildings, damaged a variety of property and set several police vehicles on fire. That night, Tokayev declared a national state of emergency. On Jan. 5, Tokayev made a formal address in which he blamed the activity in Almaty on foreign agitators sent in to disrupt the state, and called the people in the street terrorists. His state-
ment appeared to further outrage, as more clashes with police left several on both sides wounded. Seeing the writing on the wall, Nazarbayev announced that he would be stepping down from his role on the Security Council and as chairman of the Nur Otan political party, replaced by Tokayev. Not long after the announcement, police in Almaty opened fire on the crowds of demonstrators. Despite the violent oppression, protestors managed to keep hold of key buildings. On Jan. 6, Tokayev requested military aid from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to put down the uprising. The Russian-led group is also composed of the former Soviet entities of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Russia agreed to aid Kazakhstan provided they recognize the annexation of Crimea, re-establish Russian as the country’s second official language, provision military bases to Russia and allow full autonomy for Russian minorities. Tokayev agreed to all terms, and later that day, thousands of Russian paratroopers touched down in Kazakhstan. On Jan. 7, the military pushed back against any dissidents. Tokayev gave a shoot-to-kill order for all military and police officers. Frequent gunfire was heard for days. On Jan. 11, Tokayev declared that order had been fully restored to Kazakhstan and that the protests were over. He thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin directly for his help in ending the protests. In the end, more than 160 people were killed with the estimated number suspected to be far higher. 5,000 protestors were rounded up and arrested, being held with questionable prospects of release. Over 400 buildings were damaged, and an estimated €150 million in repairs needed ($167 million USD). Many leaders within Nur Otan, the nation’s Security Council and presidential administration were removed from power, though they were replaced by those close to the current president. It is still unclear what all the lasting ramifications of the major protest will be. However, there is worry that the consolidation of Tokayev’s power will be heavily influenced by the country’s absorption back under Russian control.
PSU Vanguard • MARCH 2, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
RUSSIA LAUNCHES FULL-SCALE INVASION OF UKRAINE EUROPEAN STABILITY ROCKED BY RUSSIAN VIOLENCE IN UKRAINE
WHITNEY GRIFFITH
ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a televised address, on Tuesday, Feb. 22, detailing a warped account of history which painted Ukraine as an illegitimate nation without a tradition of statehood, according to Reuters. Putin claimed both NATO and the Ukrainian government were threats to freedom, and portrayed them in a light similar to Hitler’s Nazi Germany. “The leading NATO countries are supporting the far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis in Ukraine, those who will never forgive the people of Crimea and Sevastopol for freely making a choice to reunite with Russia,” said Putin, according to The New York Times. “They will undoubtedly try to bring war to Crimea just as they have done in Donbass, to kill innocent people just as members of the punitive units of Ukrainian nationalists and Hitler’s accomplices did during the Great Patriotic War. They have also openly laid claim to several other Russian regions.” Over the course of the past week, Ukraine has been victim to an array of missile and artillery attacks spread across the country. Gunfire between Russian and Ukrainian military has been scattered, particularly erupting in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, near government buildings, according to Reuters. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
has taken a bold stance against Russia. “We will not put down our weapons, we will defend our state,” Zelensky said. Despite being the prime target for Russian aggression, according to U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price and Zelensky himself, the Ukrainian President has denied offers of evacuation from Ukraine. “The fight is here,” Zelensky said to the U.S. in response to the offer of evacuation. “I need ammunition, not a ride.” This defiance is shared with Ukraine’s fighters. One Russian ship invaded Snake Island and led with the announcement, “I am a Russian warship. I ask you to lay down your arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary deaths. Otherwise you will be bombed.” One Ukranian solider replied, “Russian warship, go fuck yourself.” Initially, all 13 soldiers were believed to have been killed in open fire from the warship. Over the weekend, however, there were unconfirmed reports that the soldiers were still alive, stemming from the fact that the death report was made before they had lost contact. On Feb. 28, the Ukrainian Navy announced that the soldiers were confirmed to be “alive and well.”
PSU Vanguard • MARCH 2, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
Several governing bodies including the United States, the European Union and the UK have imposed economic sanctions on Russia. All three announced plans to target Russia’s banks and elites, according to Reuters. “This is going to impose severe costs on the Russian economy both immediately and over time,” said U.S. President Joe Biden about the sanctions in a statement on Feb. 23. “We have purposefully designed these sanctions to maximize a long-term impact on Russia, and to minimize the impact on the United States and its allies. To put it simply, Russia just announced that it is carving out a big chunk of Ukraine. This is the beginning of a Russian invasion.” The U.S. has also placed a sanction on the company building a massive gas pipeline connecting Russia to Germany. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the country would impose travel bans and financial penalties on eight members of Russia’s National Security Council. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada would be enacting prohibitions dealing with Russian sovereign debt as well as impose economic sanctions on two Russian banks. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
said the country would impose similar sanctions, enacting one that would prohibit Russia from issuing new sovereign bonds in Japanese markets. Russia claimed to be unphased by the sanctions. Russian ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov claimed that Russia was used to such impositions from the West and that they would only hurt the global financial and energy markets. “It is hard to imagine that there is a person in Washington who expects Russia to revise its foreign policy under a threat of restrictions,” Antonov said, according to The New York Times. However, many have criticized the efficacy of these sanctions. Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Putin might not be thinking logically, and that sanctions may not deter what he called an irrational actor. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte described Putin as totally paranoid. These statements are somewhat supported by Antonov’s statements, which suggest that Russia is proceeding with their invasion, regardless of placed sanctions. Editor’s Note: This story covers an active conflict and all pieces of information are subject to change.
INTERNATIONAL
5
VIKS BEAT IDAHO STATE IN OVERTIME ON SENIOR NIGHT CAMARENA BREAKS 800 METERS SCHOOL RECORD ERIC SHELBY
MEN’S BASKETBALL
The Vikings took on #2 in the conference, Weber State, at the Pavillion for their second-to-last home game of the season. In honor of the late Deante Strickland, the Viks dedicated their game to Strickcity. The Viks maintained the lead throughout most of the game, even with a 13-point lead over the Wildcats with nine minutes left in the second half. Five Vikings scored double digits this game with 19 points coming from Michael Carter III. Going 5-7 on three-pointers, Khalid Thomas scored 17 points for the Viks with eight rebounds. Six rebounds, two steals and 14 points came from Ezekiel Alley. Damion Squire stayed consistent with 12 points and two steals. Marlon Ruffin got a three-pointer and 11 points. Jacob Eyeman had two blocks and three rebounds. The team made 11 three-pointers to secure the win over Weber State, 81-75. The last home game of the regular season ended in an overtime thriller with the Viks’ win. The Viks celebrated Senior Night and recognised their
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SPORTS
departing seniors. One of the seniors, Thomas, became a walking highlight reel after dunking over the Bengals and scoring 27 points. Four steals came from Thomas, as well, leading the team. Ezekiel Alley had a game with 17 points and three three-pointers. Squire put up nine points with five rebounds. The Viks were down by 10 at the half, but slowly worked their way up back in the conversation. The Viks didn’t get the lead in the second half until a layup by Thomas gave them the 52-51 lead—with 4:02 left. This game went to overtime tied at 60. It was a back-and-forth affair until there were 17 seconds left, with Jacob Eyeman making the most important block of the game, holding onto a one-point lead. Free throws from Alley secured the Viks’ win against the Bengals, 73-69.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
The Viks, in search of a conference win this season, traveled to Ogden, Utah to play the Weber State Wildcats. Jada Lewis led the team with
PSU Vanguard • MARCH 2, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
six three-pointers and 22 points. Savannah Dhaliwal shot 7-10 with 17 points and 11 rebounds. 10 points came from Esmeralda Morales who had five assists and five turnovers. Mia ‘Uhila went a perfect 3-3 on the free throw line, and helped give the Viks eight points.The Viks couldn’t hold the Wildcats off with seven ties and five lead changes. The Wildcats won 73-65. The Viks traveled to Idaho to play the 14-4 Bengals. The Viks kept it close throughout the whole game and even took 58-52, a six-point lead late in the fourth quarter. A couple layups and three-pointers gave the lead back to the Bengals with fewer than two minutes left. The Bengals won the game by three points, stopping the potential upset, 67-64. Morales put up 19 points leading the team with three steals—and a perfect 3-3 on the line. Two three-pointers came from ‘Uhila, with four rebounds and 12 points. Nine points came from Rhema Ogele, with two steals and one block. Dhaliwal had a three-pointer and seven points. The game had 10 lead changes throughout the game.
WOMEN’S TENNIS
The Viks dropped their first conference game last Friday against the Idaho State Bengals 1-6. Portland State was solid in doubles, winning two of the three matches. Capu Sanoner and Nike Beukers won in doubles 7-6. Emily Rees and Makoto Ohara also won their doubles match 7-6. Jacinta Milenkoski and Majo Hernandez fell 4-6 to their Idaho State opponents. Sanoner fell in singles 6-4, 0-6, 4-6. Milenkoski fell 6-7, 3-6. Beukers fell 2-6, 3-6. Rees fell 4-6, 1-6. Ohara fell 3-6, 4-6. Hernandez fell 6-2, 4-6, 8-10. For the second week, Capu Sanoner was awarded Big Sky Women’s Tennis Player of the Week.
ABOVE: VIKINGS CELEBRATE A THREE-POINTER. OPPOSITE PAGE: JACOB EYEMAN CELEBRATING AFTER WEBER STATE WIN. ERIC SHELBY/PSU VANGUARD
SOFTBALL
Just three runs in the fourth inning was enough to give Southeastern Louisiana the shutout win over the Vikings last friday. Olivia Dean, Emily Johansen and Logan Riggenbach were the only Viks to get a hit off of the 4-0 Lions pitcher. The Viks left seven on base that game. Olivia Grey pitched six innings and got five hits. The Viks turned it around hours later in their next game against Louisiana Tech. With bases loaded in the second inning, Shea Garcia walked and Johansen scored. Mariah Rodriguez also walked, resulting in Paetynn Lopez—who was on third—coming home. The third run in the inning came from Riggenbach coming home from an error. The last run came in the sixth inning, with Grace Johnson singling to first base and Nevaeh Smith coming home. Allicitie Frost got her second win of the season, pitching six innings and allowing seven hits—but only one run. Six runs in the first two innings came from the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, ranked #20 in the nation. They scored the next five runs in two innings. Kiara McCrea walked in the third, and Natalia Martinez scored. All the action from the Viks came in the fifth inning—bases loaded again, Johansen walked and Johnson came home. Riggenbach doubled and got three RBIs. Johansen, Dean and McCrea all scored, making the score 11-5. Rodriguez singled in the middle and Riggenbach scored, making it 11-6. Even though this game was a loss, it was promising because of the six runs the Viks scored on a top-25 school. Hours later, the Viks shutout Nicholls State 1-0, giving the Viks their eighth win of the season. McCrea singled and Maddie Thompson scored the only run of the game. Olivia Grey allowed only one hit the whole game, and almost pitched a no-hitter. She got her sixth win of the season so far. McCrea, Dean and Johansen all got a hit off of Nicholls. Grey, like last week, was awarded Big Sky Player of the Week. The Vikings come home to play their first home series against Robert Morris University on Friday, Mar. 4.
TRACK WOMEN’S RESULTS:
MEN'S RESULTS:
800M (PRELIMS): 1. KATIE CAMARENA, 2:12.07
MILE: 18. KELLY SHEDD, 4:44.67
800M (FINALS): 2. KATIE CAMARENA, 2:11.65
3,000M: 10. JORDAN MACINTOSH, 8:26.20 25. KEYNAN ABDI, 8:42.81 35. CAM MCCHESNEY, 9:03.75 36. DREW SEIDEL, 9:03.76
3,000M: 24. HUNTER STORM, 10:29.08 26. ABI SWAIN, 10:34.64 28. TATUM MILLER, 10:38.60 31. JALEN MARCIL, 11:14.24 DISTANCE MEDLEY RELAY: 9. PORTLAND STATE ‘A’ (IRVING, MILLER, SWAIN, STORM), 12:28.04
5,000M: 20. DOM MORGANTI, 15:39.81 24. ZACH GRAMS, 16:04.97 60H (PRELIMS): 9. JORDAN GLODEN, 8.18 DISTANCE MEDLEY RELAY: 6. PORTLAND STATE ‘A’ (RAMIREZ, MONTGOMERY, LOVERCHECK, MACINTOSH), 10:18.24
TRACK: BIG SKY CONFERENCE MONTANA
Katie Camarena broke yet another school record during conference this week. She ran a time of 2:12.07 in the Women’s 800 meters.
PSU Vanguard • MARCH 2, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
SPORTS
7
CHANGING THE NARRATIVE OF HOUSELESSNESS THROUGH COMICS PSU COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT CHANGES VIEW OF HOUSELESS INDIVIDUALS A DISPLAY FOR THE CHANGING THE NARRATIVE PROJECT AT PSU’S NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENT & COMMUNITY CENTER. KAT LEON/PSU VANGUARD KAT LEON Changing the Narrative is a research project with a purpose. The program seeks to change the way the general public views the houseless population by creating graphic novels based on the lived experience of people who have experienced houselessness. Dr. Kacy McKinney—a Portland State professor and lead researcher for Changing the Narrative—said the project is “[a] collaborative, community and arts-based research project that seeks to change the ways that we talk, think and teach about houselessness and poverty.” McKinney saw houselessness and housing insecurity firsthand in her classrooms at PSU, where several of her students struggled with these issues. A Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (HRAC) study conducted in 2019 revealed that 44.6% of students that participated in the HRAC study experienced housing insecurity within 12 months of taking the survey—and 16.1% were or had been houseless. The study outlined the need for an urgent response since housing insecurity can be a significant barrier to education for many students. Changing the Narrative seeks to transform perspectives on housing, and make research profound through more accessible presentation in comic form. “I think it is really important to start a conversation about redefining what research is and what is considered valid and what is considered valuable research,” said research assistant Kimberléa Reffu during the PSU panel presentation. “Because often research is inaccessible to the public.” The project attempts to correct the current public discourse around homelessness, which McKinney believes are incredibly harmful to individuals and communities. “[These discourses are] stigmatizing, stereotyping, denying dignity and respect,” McKinney said. “[They are] influencing policy and how we treat one another.” The idea to make Changing the Narrative a comic came from a similar project called El Viaje Más Caro, or The Most Costly Journey, which is a comic that tells the story of migrant farmworkers in Vermont. Comics provide a unique and digestible way of telling and understanding the stories of others. They also allow greater reader identification with the characters, given their immersive nature. Scott McCloud—author of Understanding Comics: The Invisible
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ARTS & CULTURE
Art—said, “When you look at a photo or realistic drawing of a face, you see it as the face of another. But when you enter the world of the cartoon, you see yourself.” Researchers chose ten PSU students that had faced housing insecurity, houselessness and poverty to participate in three interviews. After the interviews were completed, the participants’ stories were given to the artists. According to McKinney, nearly all of the interviewees gave multiple iterations of feedback to different drafts. Trauma-informed interviews were of utmost importance to the researchers. Shawn Hardy, a research assistant on the project, explained the importance of sensitivity during the PSU panel. “It is up to the interviewee to give their stories to us,” Hardy said. “We can’t force them to disclose anything that they would be uncomfortable with or find triggering… so their narrative is very much their narrative.” The artists on the project were intentional with their work, doing their best to create something that would be relatable to the reader. Marin Jurgens, artist for the comic Toward Light, stated in an interview with Street Roots that it is the beauty of comics that can achieve this. “You can really speak about issues that are very serious, but in a way that people may be more susceptible to learning about,” Jurgens said. “In the end, I definitely realized how powerful comics and graphic novels can be in that way.” In Jurgens’ art, we follow the story of a woman named Star as she becomes houseless after leaving an abusive relationship in order to protect her baby daughter Light. Light is the only aspect that creates any color on the panels in the foremost part of Star’s story. Jurgens said that the portrayal of Star’s daughter was meant to serve as the source of not just happiness, but strength, throughout the comic. Some of the comics in the project chose to acknowledge and focus on the inevitable tragedy, as Jurgens did in Light’s story. McKinney said that some of these themes repeated themselves throughout the project. “We saw in [the stories] common threads of injustice and oppression, [a] lack of support system and services, and the overwhelm-
ing lack of affordable housing in the area for students,” she said. Other artists chose to take a more tragicomic approach, often as a way to represent the student’s personality. Christina Tran—artist of Caldo pa’la Cruda, a comic about a woman named Daniela—said in her interview with Street Roots that the character’s energy and outlook are purposefully vibrant. “The way she tells her story included bits of humor, so I really wanted to incorporate that into the comic and show her personality,” Tran said. The story follows Daniela as she grows up experiencing poverty, housing insecurity and houselessness. A few memories detailed include a time when cockroaches crawled out of her household’s toilet paper rolls, or when a knife fell on her leg when she was nine because her parents used it to mud a wall. While these are challenging experiences, the comical illustrations capture the view of Daniela in these memories, and support how she chose to tell them. Tran said she owed this ability to the medium of comics in general. “[Comics] allow for a kind of intimacy with the storytelling that’s also really accessible,” she said. To get the comics out to the general public, the team from PSU partnered with Street Roots, who printed and distributed the comic through their vendors. Editorial Producer Kanani Cortez noted their popularity at the PSU panel. “[The comics] sold like hot cakes,” Cortez said. “They sold like fried chicken.” The PSU and the Street Roots team are currently looking for more ways to make the comic books accessible to the public. The stories told in the project’s comics demand that some readers interact with worlds outside their current comprehension, while other readers can see pieces of themselves portrayed in art—maybe for the first time. In addition, the stories insist that people stop seeing the houseless as an inconvenience or as an annoyance and start seeing them as real people deserving of respect and dignity. Tran Cortez said that this is one of her goals with her work on the project: “I hope these stories keep helping people turn towards the real people behind the stories.”
PSU Vanguard • MARCH 2, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
FIND IT AT 5TH AVE.
Girlfriends PSU’S ON-CAMPUS THEATER BRINGS BACK A ‘70S CLASSIC MILO LOZA Find It At 5th Ave. is a recurring column that reviews, previews and explores upcoming films at Portland State’s on-campus student theater, 5th Avenue Cinema. If you haven’t caught a film there already, 5th Avenue Cinema is Portland State University’s very own on-campus, student-run theater. The cozy, indie-focused venue has been run by the PSU Film Committee since 1989, dutifully presenting films for fellow PSU students to watch for free—each term and every weekend. The Cinema’s website describes its curation as “a mix of obscure, critically acclaimed, and modern independent and mainstream films on a variety of mediums such as 35mm, 16mm, and DCP [Digital Cinema Package].” Starting on Friday, March 4, 5th Avenue Cinema will be showing a critically acclaimed film in glorious 35mm: Claudia Weill’s Girlfriends. Girlfriends is a low-budget film from 1978—and while it’s one of Weill’s first films, it has stood the test of time, and earned its place in the famous Criterion Collection. With a budget of $500,000, Girlfriends’ production value was low, even for a ‘70s flick. The film was selected and programmed for screening by 5th
PSU Vanguard • MARCH 2, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
CLOCKWISE, FROM LEFT: MELANIE MAYRON (SUSAN) WITH HER CAMERA IN GIRLFRIENDS. ANITA SKINNER (ANNE) IN A SCENE FROM GIRLFRIENDS. MAYRON (SUSAN) TAKING A PHOTOGRAPH. COURTESY OF WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.
Avenue’s very own projectionist, Cadie Godula, who is a film studies junior at PSU. Godula said she was drawn to Girlfriends for its reliability, which stood out to her even on her first watch-through. She compared the main character’s transition into loneliness to similar feelings she’d had at the time—a common experience among college students, albeit told in its own unique way. The film stars Melanie Mayron as a young photographer named Susan, who has lived with her best friend in their shared New York apartment for years. When Susan’s best friend gets engaged and decides to move out, Susan is left to deal with her sudden desolation. Her overwhelming loneliness and cheap photography gigs lead her down a path of despair, and the audience is left to watch as she tries to get her life together and figure out what she truly wants for herself. “There’s something about watching a character try to get this thing, and then they get it and are like ‘actually, I didn’t want that,’” Godula said. Godula said that the film, which is Weill’s second, “has an independent and lo-fi feeling to it,” which aligns with many of the films that 5th Avenue Cinema frequently screens. Godula also noted her appreciation for the display and representation of female friendships—a topic that is not uncommon, but is refresh-
ingly presented in a positive light. Girlfriends will be shown on 35mm film—a beautiful, dying format. “Some people would probably be like, ‘there’s the specks and dust, it’s very distracting,’” Godula said. “But sometimes, it’s much richer and more colorful and sharper, so—as a viewer— that’s fun.” She also called the process of projecting 35mm film a special one, noting how strange and awesome it is to put a long piece of celluloid, made up of tiny frames, into a machine and project it as one moving picture. Godula said that this upcoming spring term will be a pleasure for anyone who cares about the 35mm format, as the Cinema will have as many as five other movies on 35mm film—almost half of the term’s film lineup. These types of films are common for 5th Avenue Cinema, and old school formats are what sets it apart from big-screen multiplexes such as Regal and Cinemark. Showing movies that many audience members have previously never heard of, in a wide range of styles, languages and genres, the staff of 5th Avenue Cinema make it their mission to expand the cultural horizons of their audiences and the PSU community, one movie at a time. Curious movie-lovers can see Girlfriends at 5th Avenue Cinema, March 4–6.
ARTS & CULTURE
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A HOP AND A SKIP INTO JUMPTOWN THE HIDDEN BLACK MUSICAL HISTORY OF PORTLAND
JUSTIN CORY Many Portlanders do not realize that there were vibrant Black cultural and artistic movements here not too long ago. Part of the shameful and barbaric historical legacy of settlercolonialism and white supremacy in Portland—and Oregon at large—has been this erasure. We are regaled in the contemporary musical richness of iconic indie-rock and punk music from the region from artists such as Elliott Smith, The Wipers, Sleater-Kinney, Dead Moon and an impressive array of others, begging a question—why don’t we know about the seminal jazz and soul music that once reigned supreme in North and Northeast Portland? Why are contemporary hip-hop artists and Black artists across the board left out of the conversation by the wider Portland artistic community? For some background, Black people were initially reluctant to migrate to the Territory of Oregon as the white provisional government of the territory had passed a law—the 1849 Black exclusion law—which candidly emphasized that Oregon was to be “a white man’s territory,” with penalties ranging from public lashings to outright expulsion from the territory. The impact of the law in banning any Black or multiracial person from living in, working in or “making any contacts in” the state was explicit and profound—Oregon was intended to be a white utopian settlement. Our conceptions of Oregon as this progressive abolitionist state in opposition to slavery are shattered when we consider that, when Oregon officially entered the union in 1859, the Oregon Constitution explicitly forbade Black people from living anywhere in the state—the only state that did this. In spite of all of this, some braved the risks, hatred and violence systematically and individually directed at them, and moved to Oregon anyway—Portland in particular. Portland was and still is an important shipping port at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, and here Black workers could
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OPINION
find employment in the railroad and shipping industries—and were later hired to build ships at the Kaiser shipyards in the World War II war effort. In the 1920s, a Black-owned hotel called the Golden West was one of the only prominent businesses that catered to Black workers and their families in the highly segregated city. It was downtown near the train station and rail yards, and hosted performances of the thriving national ragtime, blues and swing jazz acts of the day. The Golden West didn’t survive the Great Depression and closed its doors in 1931, but Black Portlanders carried these sounds across the river to their segregated Albina neighborhood in the 1940s, establishing what would come to be called Jumptown, a remarkably vibrant entertainment district. The area boasted hundreds of flourishing Black-owned businesses and a high rate of Black homeownership compared to the rest of Portland and Oregon—then or today. Prominent venues like Cotton Club, the Dude Ranch, Paul’s Paradise, Savoy, McClendon’s Rhythm Room, Lil’ Sandy’s and Madrona Records became the center of a 24-hour entertainment zone, featuring not only jazz musicians but also tap dancers, strippers and comedians. In his book Jumptown: the Golden Years of Portland Jazz, Robert Dietsche described the area. “Racially mixed party people who couldn’t care less that what they were doing [and we were] on the cutting edge of integration in the city that had been called the most segregated north of the Mason-Dixon line.” A taste of the scope of talent and brilliance that Jumptown boasted in its heyday can be gleaned from recognizing some of the artists who regularly performed and hung out there with giants such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Cab Calloway, Cass Elliot, Sammy Davis Jr. and many other no-
table musicians. The first major blow to Jumptown came with the construction of the Memorial Coliseum from 1958–60. The Portland Development Commission declared eminent domain in Lower Albina, and demolished hundreds of Black-owned homes and businesses to build the Coliseum. An ironic aside—the area has been supposedly revitalized several times throughout the decades as an entertainment district, and nevertheless remains an under-utilized part of the city, when there is not an event at the Moda Center or Coliseum itself, in spite of the vibrant history on which it sits. The next wound inflicted upon Jumptown and the Black community of Albina was the construction of Interstate 5 in 1963. The national interstate infrastructure projects of the 1960s and 1970s often targeted Black neighborhoods, and Portland did the same. The freeway bisected through the heart of Albina and decimated hundreds of homes—even as similar freeway proposals were shot down in affluent white neighborhoods, including in Portland, where the proposed expansion of Route 26 and Southeast Powell Boulevard into a larger freeway were successfully thwarted by white homeowners in the same time period. After learning about Jumptown, I have not been able to drive on I-5 by Moda Center, or to bike along NE Broadway or N Williams without thinking about what ghosts are waiting to be excavated in those neighborhoods. Systemic racism and displacement are unfortunately very much still with us here in Portland—and across the United States—today. Speaking of which, an empty lot that sits at the corner of N Russel and N Williams represents the final blow that ultimately destroyed Jumptown. The whole block—and many around it— was demolished in the 1970s for an expansion of Legacy Emanuel Medical Center. That empty lot was once the Hill Block where the legend-
PSU Vanguard • MARCH 2, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
LEO CLARK
ary club Paul’s Paradise was, along with a plethora of thriving Black-owned businesses that served the community around it. This area was heavily impacted by redlining—the systematic denial of loans by lenders to Black borrowers in areas deemed undesirable using maps with red outlined areas, intended to keep Black folks from living anywhere else in the city. Local Black historian Andrew Oliver has said that “the Hill Block was the heart of the Albina neighborhood, the busiest corner in NE Portland.” To add insult to injury, that expansion of Legacy Emanuel was never built, and the demolished blocks are still sitting empty almost 50 years later—and neither the hospital nor the city have ever made amends to the community they displaced. It is important to emphasize here that Black Portlanders protested these abuses. And while they were largely unsuccessful in stopping the freeway that cut through their neighborhoods, the Coliseum that destroyed vibrant Lower Albina or the displacement in Upper Albina caused by the Emanuel Hospital debacle, there have recently been efforts to move the dialogue toward restitution. Albina Vision Trust is developing a dynamic and forwardthinking plan to bring Black-owned businesses and the Black community back to a reimagined Albina neighborhood in the current Rose Quarter. Setbacks abound, however, not the least of which are questions around the Department of Transportation’s continued efforts to expand I-5 in the area, exacerbating the environmental and social harms of its original construction. The Black community has been resilient in spite of it all. The Portland chapter of the Black Panthers organized the community to resist these measures throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Many other members of the community rallied to resist and create self-sufficiency in Albina as the city targeted the area for urban renewal throughout the 1980s and into the present. Today, the Albina Soul Walk raises awareness of this history,
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and is hosted by former Jumptown club owner Paul Knauls, who has been proclaimed the Mayor of Northeast Portland alongside legendary local musicians Calvin Walker and Norman Sylvester. The Albina Soul Walk is a one mile self-guided audio tour hosted on the ECHOES mobile application and presented by the Albina Music Trust. It takes participants on a tour of the sites where there were once venues, with music paired to each of the national and local performers who were a part of making them shine. Paul Knauls is now in his 90s, and sadly anti-Blackness and systemic racism are still major forces in Portland and the U.S. at large. During the 1980s and 1990s, the City of Portland continued its disinvestment in the Black neighborhoods of Albina. According to Alana Semuels, the Portland Development Commission deemed the area “a blighted slum in need of repair,” after it had ripped out the heart of the neighborhood with its massive infrastructure projects. The aggressive gentrification we have seen in North Portland and Albina in particular is the contemporary iteration of those same policies. The neighborhood went from 80% Black in the 1960s to under 30% today. Gentrification is yet another form of settler-colonialism. Further, local law enforcement continue to target Black musical art forms like hip-hop in Portland. There is a direct thread between the harassment and destruction that Black musicians faced in Portland’s Jumptown and the harassment and closure of venues that Black hip-hop artists in this city face today. Jenni Moore wrote in Travel Portland of a hip-hop show in 2014 featuring local artists Luck One (now known as Hanif ), Mikey Vegaz and battle rap champion Illmaculate that was shut down by more than a dozen police and gang enforcement officers. The police closed the street and blocked access to the Blue Monk venue on grounds that there was overcrowding in the basement.
Illmaculate left the venue in protest before even beginning his set. “I will not perform in this city as long as the blatant targeting of Black culture and minorities congregating is acceptable common practice,” he later tweeted. The Blue Monk, one of the very few hip-hop venues in all of Portland, subsequently closed down. Portland is still home to a small but thriving Black music community featuring hip-hop artists like Mic Crenshaw, Jordan Fletcher, Aminé, Vursatyl (of the late Portland group Lifesavas), Danny Sky, in addition to jazz and neo-soul from the singer Blossom and legendary jazz pianist and composer Dave Frishberg—still gigging in his 80s! There are also a few venues and showcases left for Black music and arts in Portland from the jazz and soul-focused Wilfs, Jack London Revue, Tony Starlight, the 1905 and festivals, such as the PDX Jazz Fest, Vanport Jazz Fest and Cathedral Park Jazz Fest on to hip-hop spaces like Compound Gallery, Upper Playground and Deadstock Coffee. There are also excellent local hip-hop showcases and festivals like the Thesis every first Thursday of the month at Kelly’s Olympian, Mic Check emcee showcase at White Eagle every last Thursday and the Young Gifted & Brown dance party. Regardless of Black History Month, we should all learn the Black history of our country, states, cities and neighborhoods, because that history is all of our history—a history that informs the material conditions of today and impacts us all in different and unequal ways. Look up the artists and spaces in this article and support their art and music. More importantly, support all of the people in these communities. History only repeats when we allow the same forces to continue guiding us. Break the wheel and join your community in demanding that we all flourish—and long live Jumptown PDX!
OPINION
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THE ETHICS OF COMPUTATIONAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING DR. AMEETA AGRAWAL, PROFESSOR AT PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY. COURTESY OF AMEETA AGRAWAL.
ETHICAL RESEARCH IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER RYAN MCCONNELL Ethical considerations in language processing—and in machine learning—are becoming more important, as technology increases in scope and skill. The Association of Computational Linguistics (ACL) is an organization which handles and reviews ongoing research and development that utilizes language processing models, languagerelated machine learning and any kind of research that combines the aspects of computer science and machine learning. Most academic fields require an ethics statement to be posted alongside an article before it can be published. However, many fields in academia are siloed through their respective associations, so these ethics statements are often regulated and handled independently of each other. While fields like computational linguistics and linguistics proper might share some overlap between the similar disciplines, each association or organization gives strict requirements on what should be included in academic journal submissions—and there may be different guidelines and requirements for ethics in each peer-reviewed journal. The ACL does have a code of ethics, the most recent of which was adopted June 22, 2018. Computational linguistics is a fairly new field, as the ACL only consolidated during the ‘70s and ‘80s. However, we have a growing dependence on systems built by computational linguists, and on machine learning as a whole. Computational linguistics is the understanding and implementation of written and spoken language from a computational perspective. The ultimate goal of this field is to combine knowledge of language with that of computers, so we can better understand how language works—with the hope of creating
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mutual understanding between speakers of different languages. In the modern era, computational linguistics often becomes a synonym to Natural Language Processing, or NLP. Natural Language Processing involves the use of machine learning (or AI) to understand text and speech in the same way human beings do. Natural Language Generation—another process that involves computational linguistics—is the use of similar models to have computers develop and produce language like human beings. Siri and Alexa are examples of the consumer commodities that these fields have contributed to. Google Translate and other AIbased translators are prime examples of the field’s applications. However, language processing models can stretch beyond high-tech products—or use as the secret savior in a foreign language class—to powerful applications in forensic linguistics. For example, on Feb. 19, 2022, forensic linguists in France used computational linguistics to determine the authorship of Q, an anonymous poster responsible for the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. According to the detectives, tech journalist Paul Furber bears the same linguistic fingerprint as the Q messages—along with none other than internet conspiracy theory forum poster Ron Watkins. The advancements in this field are increasing as fast as artificial intelligence itself is expanding, forcing the ACL to adapt rapidly to accommodate the ethical pitfalls that can occur if computational linguistics advances for the people’s benefit instead of their detriment. Dr. Ameeta Agrawal, member of the ACL and professor of NLP at Portland State University, discusses the role—and the importance— of how ethics should be handled within her field and the association. “Some of the most important questions we should be asking
are, ‘what should I be aware of if I have a new dataset?’” Agrawal said. “What is the extended use of this?” As Agrawal points out, the ACL gives a detailed guide on its Ethics FAQ page about what constitutes ethical concerns, how papers are reviewed and flagged for these concerns and what the researcher should be thinking about, more broadly, with respect to their research. As of Dec. 2020, the ACL has allotted an extra page to its usual seven-page guidelines, strictly for an ethics statement. However, unlike its peers at NeurIPS (Neural Information Processing Systems) which handle a broader usage of machine-learning applications, contributors to papers published through the ACL are not required to provide an ethics statement, but only highly recommended to include them. The difference is key—because papers can still be submitted without formally requiring one, and others have been published without them. While there is a consensus about the benefit of having these ethical guidelines, Agrawal also acknowledged that these sections are not easy to write, and can be particularly challenging for individuals with a heavier computer science background. “You must think in a critical lens [when writing about these sections],” Agrawal said. “For example, [you should be] acknowledging limitations in computing power and its effects on the environment.” Indeed, the ACL cites not only the importance of environmental concerns, but also restricts researchers in how they approach identity characteristics—gender, race, nationality—so that any research done or applications developed can minimize the negative impacts on a broader scale. “I really like the fact we have this [ethical commitment],” Agrawal said. “It really does make your research more real.”
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