Willamette Week, June 3, 2020 - Volume 46, Issue 32 - "No Justice. No Peace."

“THERE IS NO FAITH OUR SYSTEM WILL WORK, FOR ALL PEOPLE.” P. 12 WWEEK.COM

VOL 46/32 06.03.2020

WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

NO JUSTICE. NO PEACE. Protests and riots fill the streets of Portland. Four black leaders are trying to bring meaning to the anguish.

Page 10

DEALS AND DRINKS 30oz cups are 79¢ all summer long

www.plaidpantry.com

#keepportlandplaid

@plaidpantryofficial

YOU NEED WILLAMETTE WEEK, AND WW NEEDS YOU 2.5 Million Monthly Readers, in print and online 4.8 Million Raised for local nonprofits in 2019 46 Years of News, Politics, and Culture 1 City Portland’s independent journalism wouldn’t survive without help from readers like you.

Become a Friend of Willamette Week, visit wweek.com/support

Willamette Week JUNE 2, 2012 wweek.com

2

FINDINGS

DIALOGUE

SAM GEHRKE

Last weekend, Portland erupted in protests against police brutality, joining demonstrations across the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

After a peaceful vigil in Peninsula Park, protestors marched downtown, and some members of the crowd looted downtown stores and set fires in the Multnomah County Justice Center. The protests continued through the weekend. Starting on Saturday, May 29, Mayor Ted Wheeler imposed a citywide 8 pm curfew and condemned the “blatant lawlessness and selfish violence” of “rioters and looters.” WW reported the news on wweek.com.

Here’s what our readers had to say:

KAYELAJ, PAGE 20

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 46, ISSUE 32.

Ron Wyden got Oregon’s employment director fired. 6 Nike on racism: “For once, Don’t Do It.” 7 Oregon health officials didn’t disclose that 51 workers at a berry processor had contracted COVID19. 8 A homeless man was sent to prison by 11 jurors for striking a woman in the face with a metal thermos. 9 Rioters set fires inside the Multnomah County Justice Center. 11 When the riots started, the first black woman on the City Council

hitched a ride with the first black woman to run Portland Fire & Rescue. 12

Finally, Portland has a place to get macarons and fireworks 24 hours a day. 19

Rapper KayelaJ once wrote a song called “Look Out for Chicken Pox.” 20

A Portland Trail Blazer hit the second-ever 25-point shot in basketball history. 21 A local Japanese restaurant will deliver Jell-O shots to your doorstep. 23 A cinema in Tigard sells more popcorn now than it did when the theater was open. 24 In the market for weed that smells like “fetid teenage-boy socks” ?

There is a strain. 25 Local actor Elizabeth Jackson lives with at least 42 houseplants. 27 Church of Film programmer Muriel Lucas’ latest project translated a recipe containing two partridges, a bottle of white wine, sirloin steak and a cup of gelatin. 28

OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:

ON THE COVER: Mariah Taylor seeks peace in Peninsula Park, photo by Alex Wittwer.

Multnomah County looks to reopen June 12, even as COVID19 breaks out at a Portland-area business.

MASTHEAD EDITOR & PUBLISHER

Mark Zusman

EDITORIAL

News Editor Aaron Mesh Arts & Culture Editor Matthew Singer Assistant A&C Editor Andi Prewitt Music & Visual Arts Editor Shannon Gormley Staff Writers Nigel Jaquiss, Latisha Jensen, Rachel Monahan, Tess Riski Copy Editor Matt Buckingham

WILLAMETTE WEEK IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY CITY OF ROSES MEDIA COMPANY

ART DEPARTMENT

Creative Director Joy Bogdan Designer Rosie Struve Illustration Intern Paola De La Cruz Photography Intern Mick Hangland-Skill ADVERTISING

Director of Sales Anna Zusman Display Account Executives Michael Donhowe, Justin Thomas Promotions Manager Candace Tillery

2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210.

Main line phone: (503) 243-2122 fax: (503) 296-2874 Classifieds phone: (503) 243-2122 fax: (503) 296-2874

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

TechfestNW Director Shelley Midthun Cultivation Classic Director Steph Barnhart Oregon Beer Awards Director Rachel Coddington Friends of Willamette Week Director Anya Rehon DISTRIBUTION

Circulation Director Spencer Winans Entrepreneur in Residence Jack Phan

OPERATIONS

Accounting Manager Kim Engelke Staff Accountant Shawn Wolf Manager of Information Services Brian Panganiban OUR MISSION

To provide Portlanders with an independent and irreverent understanding of how their worlds work so they can make a difference.

Though Willamette Week is free, please take just one copy.

Anyone removing papers in bulk from our distribution points will be prosecuted, as they say, to the full extent of the law.

Willamette Week welcomes freelance submissions.

Send material to either News Editor or Arts Editor.

Manuscripts will be returned if you include a selfaddressed, stamped envelope. To be considered for calendar listings, notice of events must be received in writing by noon Wednesday, two weeks before publication.

Questions concerning circulation or subscription inquiries should be directed to Spencer Winans at Willamette Week.

Postmaster: Send all address changes to Willamette Week, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210.

Subscription rates: One year $130, six months $70. Back issues $5 for walk-ins, $8 for mailed requests when available.

Willamette Week is mailed at third-class rates.

Association of Alternative Newsmedia.

This newspaper is published on recycled newsprint using soy-based ink.

Robyn Hood, via Facebook: “‘Blatant lawlessness and selfish violence’ describes the Portland police perfectly.” @AmyaMcCl via Twitter: “The curfew is highly annoying. Just saying. It doesn’t make me feel any safer. It just feels like it gives our police a license to harass anyone they want.”

Yendis Anon, via wweek.com: “We can’t just have anarchy in the streets. There’s people who live down there, not just businesses. Someone’s apartment building could catch on fire and they could lose their place to live while the city is amidst a housing crisis, a first responder/firefighter could die having to put out a fire that gets out of control. It’s chaotic and not safe for anyone involved. I think we should just stick to daytime protests; they always seem to be safer and more about the message than the violence. I think people and peaceful protestors should just stay home after 8 pm and let the law enforcement get the violent rioters out so we can continue protesting peacefully.”

Dr. Know

Jodi Skylar via Facebook: “And like these other cities across the nation as well, the curfews only piss people off even more. These mayors are handling this the entire wrong way.”

Jessica Birdsong via Facebook: “The curfew is bullshit. Its only purpose is to give cops a pretext to escalate and attack.” @noclockdude via Twitter: “The leaders of the protest asked protesters to leave. What happens next is a riot. Stop equating the two groups.

Respect the efforts of protest leaders to separate themselves from the troublemakers.”

Sarah Craft via Facebook: “Reform the police state. Then maybe this would stop. Cause and effect.”

KEVIN MANNIX PROFILE MISSED THE JOKE Well, a blast from the past can be interesting. I refer to your republication of your January 1996 story about me [“State Rep. Kevin Mannix Has Big Plans for Fighting Crime in Oregon. So Why Does the Governor Want to Cut Him Down to Size?” wweek.com, May 24, 2020].

I have one observation as to your characterization of two signs in my office.

One sign reads: “Reports of my brilliance are highly understated.” This was a joke gift from staff.

The other sign reads: “Once I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken.” This is actually a hand-embroidered sign given to me by a close family member, again, as a whimsical joke.

Your reporter for the January 1996 article apparently has no sense of humor.

Kevin L. Mannix, Attorney at Law, Salem LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification.

Letters must be 250 or fewer words.

Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210.

Email: mzusman@wweek.com

BY MART Y SMITH @martysmithxxx

I rarely see people wearing masks while walking their dogs. Do the animals provide protection from contracting the virus? Or are the owners worried that the mask might frighten or confuse the dog to the point it could not do its business? —Curious It’s unfortunate that the decision whether to cover one’s face in the middle of a pandemic has become a flashpoint in the culture wars, but the battle lines have been drawn. Even as I write this, some redneck in Alabama is cutting the face out of his Klan hood so nobody will think he’s wearing a mask.

That said, Curious, just because a lot of irresponsible right-wingers refuse to wear masks doesn’t mean anybody not wearing a mask must be an irresponsible right-winger. COVID-19 patients aren’t Medusa, where if you see their uncovered face from any distance you turn to stone. There are lots of situations where skipping the mask is perfectly fine.

Let’s review: As has been noted elsewhere, you don’t wear a mask so other people won’t give you coronavirus; you wear it so you won’t give it to other people. (It is probably this fact, with its implication of a duty to show consideration for one’s fellow human beings, that so vexes the MAGA crowd, but I digress.)

Masks work by providing a mechanical barrier against the various fluids that normally spew unchecked from a person’s mouth and nose— droplets of water when they exhale, mucus when they sneeze, flecks of spittle when they demand to speak to the manager of your Costco.

Public health experts believe this spewing is one of the easiest ways for the virus to spread, which is why mask-wearing is important any time you’re going to be in close quarters with other people.

That said, if you’re not close enough to someone to sneeze, cough or spit on them, you’re unlikely to infect them whether you’re wearing a mask or not.

Thus, the question of whether your dogwalkers are dicks turns on the density of the neighborhood they’re walking in. If it’s one where they can reasonably expect to keep 6 feet between themselves and others—and they carry a mask in case of unexpected crowds—they’re in the clear.

QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

3

ALEX WITTWER

MURMURS

CAPTION TK TKT KTTKTKTKTKTKTKTKT

GET DAILY UPDATES ON HOW CORONAVIRUS IS AFFECTING PORTLAND

SUBSCRIBE NOW WWEEK.COM/NEWSLETTERS 4

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

LOTTERY TO OFFER VIRTUAL SPORTS: The Oregon Lottery announced plans May 29 to soon offer imaginary sports on its mobile sports betting app. Gamblers who signed up for the Scoreboard app can bet on “virtual sporting events, including virtual horse racing, greyhound racing and soccer.”

Kitty Martz, an anti-gambling activist, wants lawmakers to block the move, saying such games are “highly addictive.” But lottery spokesman Matt Shelby says the agency will move forward under temporary rules, without Lottery Commission or legislative approval.

The state’s second-biggest source of revenue after personal income taxes, the lottery has been hammered by the closure of bars and restaurants, as well as the cancellation of live sports, and is struggling to restart. “The key word is balance; public health, responsible gambling, employee and retailer safety, and of course revenue,” Shelby says.

FEDS NIX SECOND COQUILLE CASINO: Eight years after the Coquille Tribe applied to build a casino in Medford, 170 miles from its casino in North Bend, federal officials denied the tribe’s application May 27. The Coquille faced heavy opposition from local, state and federal officials, including Gov. Kate Brown, U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, as well as the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, which operates the tribal casino closest to Medford. John Tahsuda, the U.S. Department of Interior official who penned the rejection, cited those factors, a desire to maintain the balance of tribal and state gambling interests in Oregon, and the distance from the Coquille’s headquarters. Coquille tribal chairwoman Brenda Meade blasted the decision and said the Coquille will continue to seek to build on properties it owns in Medford.

“Instead of a fair and open process,” she said, “this agency has turned to the hidden backroom process that is the hallmark of an overtly political process—a process federal law has tried to prevent.”

HEALTH OFFICIALS FEAR MIXING TEAR GAS WITH COVID: Multnomah County health officials called on protesters to take extra health precautions when attending protests,

which could become major spreading events for COVID-19. “Mass gatherings, like the kind we’re seeing, were one of the first things that public health asked people to refrain from knowing that people mixing closely in large groups is a very effective way of spreading this virus, especially if there’s coughing,” tri-county public health officer Dr. Jennifer Vines said during a Monday night press conference, adding that tear gas-induced coughing could increase the risk of spreading the virus. “Anything that irritates the upper airway is not going to be helpful. I’m definitely concerned at anybody coughing in close proximity to others.” Multnomah County public health director Rachael Banks urged protesters to carry hand sanitizer, always wear a face covering, and maintain 6 feet of social distance from others. “While we’re in a moment right now where we’re fighting a respiratory pandemic, one in which shortness of breath and the inability to breath is a signature symptom, we’re also in a moment where we horrifically watched the video of George Floyd yelling out, ‘I can’t breathe.’”

POLICE UNION COULD GET CONTRACT EXTENSION: Portland and its police union are discussing extending the police contract by a year. That’s an approach supported by City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, a champion of police reform. In a June 1 press conference, she explained her approach was driven by a desire to have community involvement in contract negotiations. “We were only able to have one meeting before COVID-19 hit,” said Hardesty. “And because of the commitment the City Council has made to make sure the union contracts talk would be held in public, they have been on hold. We believe now our best approach is just to extend the contract by one year.” Meanwhile, the council is expected to ratify pay cuts June 3 agreed to by three civilian city unions, including Laborers’ Local 483 and the District Council of Trade Unions.

The agreements include an unusual clause that puts pressure on the Portland Police Association. It immunizes the civilian unions from further cuts should the police union balk at accepting similar pay cuts.

Speed, flexibility, streaming.

Options, options, options.

Everyone uses their Internet a little differently, so when it’s time to find a plan that fits you, it’s good to know you have options. And Xfinity gives you the ones you need. If you’re on a budget, there’s a speed for that. If you’re not ready to commit, you can get a plan without an annual contract. And if you want entertainment, an Xfinity Flex 4K streaming device is included no matter what option you choose. You also get access to Peacock — NBCUniversal’s new streaming service — at no extra cost, so you can watch tons of iconic movies, shows, sports and more. It’s Internet with the power of options. And that’s simple, easy, awesome.

Get started with Xfinity Internet

$2999

a month/ 1 year

with 1-year agreement

Equipment, taxes and other charges extra, and subject to change. See details below.

30-day money-back guarantee

Add a Flex 4K streaming device at no extra cost — with Peacock Premium included

Go to xfinity.com, call 1-800-xfinity or visit an Xfinity Store today.

Offer ends 6/22/20. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas. New residential customers only. Limited to Performance Starter+ Internet. Early termination fee applies. Equipment, installation, taxes and fees extra, and subject to change during and after agreement term. After agreement term, regular rates apply. Service limited to a single outlet. May not be combined with other offers. Subscriptions required to access Peacock, Hulu, Prime Video and Netflix. Peacock Premium is a $4.99/ mo. value. Internet: Actual speeds vary and are not guaranteed. Flex: Not available to current Xfinity TV customers. Requires post-paid subscription to Xfinity Internet, excluding Internet Essentials. Pricing subject to change. Taxes, fees and other applicable charges extra, and subject to change. Limited to 3 devices. 1 device included, additional devices $5/mo. per device. All devices must be returned when service ends. Viewing will count against any Comcast data plan. Call for restrictions and complete details. © 2020 Comcast. All rights reserved. Individual programs and marks are the property of their respective owners. NPA231665-0004

137373_NPA231665-0004 Flex 9.639x12.25 Willamette.indd 1

5/28/20 12:35 PM

NEWS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

Unemployable

TIMELINE

Members of Congress forced Gov. Kate Brown to change leadership at the Oregon Employment Department.

BY N IGEL JAQU ISS

njaquiss@wweek.com

The good and bad news for Kay Erickson: She can now apply for unemployment benefits.

On May 30, Gov. Kate Brown fired Erickson, director of the embattled Oregon Employment Department. Agency directors come and go in state government, but what made this decision unusual was both the context—more than 445,000 Oregonians have filed for unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic—and the impetus.

Brown’s firing came after a fusillade of angry communications from senior Democratic members of Oregon’s congressional delegation. That’s unusual, because although much of the money the state is (slowly) handing out comes from the feds, the Employment Department is a state agency, and Erickson reported to Brown, who hired her in 2016.

Pacific University political science professor Jim Moore says he can’t recall members of the congressional delegation ever demanding the head of a state agency director.

“It is very, very rare,” Moore says. “I don’t recall another instance in which this has happened.”

Here’s a timeline of key events: FIRING LINE: Kay Erickson disappointed powerful members of Congress.

SOLUTIONS

Oregon Police Reforms ALEX WITTWER

Three concrete proposals to change how the state is policed.

6

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

On June 2, as protests surged through the nation, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called for Congress to immediately pass “a down payment on what is long overdue”—that is, specific legislation to reform policing—and get it to the president’s desk. He lent his support to bills that outlaw choke holds by police officers, end the transfer of military equipment to police departments, and set up a model standard for officers’ use of force.

That’s about as likely to happen within the next month as landing a man on Venus.

But Oregon is a state where Democrats hold the governor’s mansion and both branches of the Legislature, so the chances here are much improved. Gov. Kate Brown issued a remarkably guilt-inflected admission June 1 as she announced her decision to mobilize the Oregon National Guard to help support Portland police during the protests: “I count myself as one of the many white politicians whose good intentions haven’t done enough to tackle the scourge of systemic racism.”

That may not be the end. State Sen. Lew Frederick (D-Portland) said he could bring up to 15 bills to future sessions.

“I will be introducing a series of bills to deal with arbitration, to deal with use of force, vetting what kind of training takes place,” he said, speaking June 1 at the governor’s press conference where she announced her decision to call up the National Guard. “I’ve been introducing some of these bills for quite a while.”

The Oregon Legislature’s People of Color Caucus, which

March 27: President Donald Trump signs the $2 trillion CARES Act, a COVID-19 relief bill, much of which U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden negotiated, including greatly augmented and expanded unemployment benefits.

May 20: Wyden and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer put Erickson on notice they are unhappy: “The lack of communication and transparency surrounding their benefits is what makes Oregonians overwhelmed and frightened,” they write in a letter.

May 27: In a video interview with WW, Wyden reiterates he’s hearing a lot of complaints from unemployed Oregonians. “Ron, you were the guy who put together these extra benefits, but I can’t get them,” he says a constituent told him.

May 27: After maintaining near-complete silence, Erickson makes a much anticipated appearance before the Oregon House Business and Labor Committee. She discloses a much bigger backlog than previously known but does not take questions.

May 29: U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley joins the chorus. “There are thousands of Oregonians waiting for answers about the cause for this delay [in paying benefits],” Merkley writes to Erickson. “OED’s lack of proactive communication with the public has rightly created intense frustration.”

May 30: Wyden has seen enough and demands Erickson’s resignation about an hour before she’s due to finally answer state lawmakers’ questions. “This litany of incompetence and unresponsiveness has hit the breaking point,” Wyden says.

May 30: After the legislative hearing, Brown calls Erickson and verbally requests her resignation from her $185,676-a-year job. “Problems at the department demand an urgent response,” Brown explains in a statement the next day.

includes nine lawmakers, said it wants three specific proposals to come before a special session dedicated to the state’s COVID-19 response. The plan has the backing of House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland): “I firmly support the action plan put forth by the POC Caucus and will do everything I can to get this work done.” Gov. Brown’s office says she supports the first of the three proposals, but did not address the question of a special session.

Here are three bills she is likely to see: Prohibit an arbitrator from reducing penalties for misconduct findings against police officers. Right now, an independent arbitrator can rule on an officer’s appeal of disciplinary action and on findings of misconduct. The bill would limit the authority of arbitrators to ease disciplinary action if they agree with a misconduct finding.

Make the Oregon attorney general responsible for investigating injuries and deaths when officers deploy force—and prosecuting them as appropriate. Currently, local jurisdictions are responsible for their own investigations of police, and the county district attorney prosecutes as appropriate. The proposal would set up a more independent review.

Begin strengthening Oregon’s standard for police use of force. The details of this proposal remain unclear.

But lawmakers argue the state needs to set more defined boundaries on when force may be used by officers. They propose convening a bipartisan work group in the special

ONE QUESTION

Should Portland Have a Curfew?

Former Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith and onetime All Hands Raised executive director Dan Ryan finished in the top two in the May 19 primary for the City Council vacancy created by Commissioner Nick Fish’s death Jan. 2.

Because it’s a special election to fill that vacancy, Smith and Ryan will be on the ballot Aug. 11 rather than in November. To help voters make a choice, we ask them questions each week for the next month. This week, we asked about the citywide curfew set after the May 28 riots downtown. —Nigel Jaquiss and Rachel Monahan Mayor Ted Wheeler imposed an 8 pm curfew on Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights. Was it a good idea? Why or why not?

MEMO

Do’s and Dont’s Nike’s CEO tells employees why Oregon’s sportswear giant took another political stand.

As protests against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis broke out across the country, Nike released a stark ad May 28 encouraging consumers to confront racial injustice in America.

In the ad, created by Portland firm Wieden+Kennedy, a series of phrases appear against a black background, inverting the sportswear giant’s famous slogan: “For once, Don’t Do It. Don’t pretend there’s not a problem in America. Don’t turn your back on racism. Don’t accept innocent lives being taken from us.”

The morning Nike released the ad, its CEO sent a memo to all employees explaining the company’s decision to take a political position.

In the memo, obtained by WW, CEO John Donahoe affirmed the company’s position on the recent rash of highly publicized killings of black Americans.

Here are several of the memo’s central paragraphs.

MATTHEW SINGER.

Loretta Smith: No. “I don’t believe a mandatory curfew was the right answer.

If we’re going to deal with looting and crime associated with a riot, then let’s have that conversation. But to call for a broad suppression of a people’s constitutional rights to gather and voice their grievances isn’t the answer. It hasn’t worked in other cities across the country, and from the thousands of people who protested last night, it’s clear that it’s not working in Portland either.

“We need to acknowledge the anger people are feeling and then turn our attention to getting some real work done. As a black mother who has raised a black son in this city, I fully understand why people are upset. As a black woman who has served in elected leadership in this city, I understand why the lack of significant policy change is frustrating and exhausting to advocates who have asked for change for decades.

“Let’s focus our efforts on that piece of this tragedy. Let’s not let another loss of life, and the strong rebuke from the community, pass without actually changing things for black and brown men and women in our community and across the nation.”

D a n R y a n : N o. “ T h i s weekend we saw property destruction and life-threatening actions when a small group of individuals used this moment of national pain and reckoning to feed their own appetite for destruction. Their attempt to burn down the Multnomah County Justice Center could have resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives.

“But this weekend was mostly dominated by passionate, purposeful and peaceful protests. That’s how Portland was truly sharing our grief, anger and demand for change.

Curfews don’t help that—curfews get in the way of us sharing our grief and anger. We need to be able to engage in peaceful, nonviolent protest without the risk of arrest. In this case, curfews made things worse.

“Leaders must lean into what is possible and what is going to help our communities channel their righteous anger and pain over the continued murder of Black Americans by law enforcement. We need to build bridges with the community and rally leaders who are working to help.

Don’t shut them down; lift them up.”

I know these have been a difficult few months.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought additional fear and tragedy into our lives, with striking disparities in how certain populations have experienced this crisis, particularly in the United States.

With its devastating impact on communities of color—including Black, Latinx, Asian and Native American populations—COVID-19 has further exposed deep-seated inequities that are sadly systemic in our society.

Let me be as clear as I can: Nike is opposed to bigotry. We are opposed to hatred and inequality in all its forms, indirect and overt. While Nike cannot solve injustice, I believe we have a responsibility to work toward addressing it to the best of our ability. What we can do is inspire and empower ourselves and others to action—and try to help shape a better society by serving as a beacon of hope and resilience.

I encourage all of us to not be daunted by the enormity of what we face today. The tragedies we face, we face together. We choose to act in a way that is authentic and true to our values. We are compelled by our purpose: Until We All Win. And we will never ever quit until that becomes a reality.

Team, As we’ve watched racial tragedies expose prejudice and injustice in our cities over these past few weeks, I can’t stop thinking about the individuals impacted: Ahmaud Arbery. Christian Cooper. Breonna Taylor. George Floyd. The horrible killings and racist actions serve as a sickening reminder of what too many people live through every day in America. It is absolutely wrong what’s happening in our communities, to our friends and family members.

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

7

WESLEY LAPOINTE

NEWS

Fruit Spread It took an advocate for farmworkers to do what Gov. Kate Brown wouldn’t— reveal the state’s largest workplace outbreak.

BY NIG E L JAQ U I SS

njaquiss@wweek.com

Late in the evening of May 28, the Oregon Health Authority announced a new state policy—that it would now disclose the names and locations of all businesses with significant workplace outbreaks of COVID-19.

The agency made the sudden change one day after it announced an outbreak of 44 cases but, in keeping with its policy at the time, did not divulge the location.

Between the two announcements, WW broke the news that the outbreak was at Townsend Farms, a 114-yearold fruit processor headquartered in Fairview. WW also revealed that Townsend had, several weeks earlier, experienced another large outbreak affecting 51 workers that had never been publicly disclosed by the state.

After WW reported both outbreaks, Gov. Kate Brown and OHA announced a reversal in policy. Moving forward, the agency would “publicly report all past and future outbreaks that involve five or more COVID-19 cases in a workplace setting, no matter where the outbreak is located.” In so doing, Brown brought Oregon’s policy of disclosure in line with other jurisdictions across the nation. Since April 30, for instance, Los Angeles County has identified all workplaces with five or more cases.

This reversal, in the opinion of Adriana Ryder, 47, a Gresham resident who advocates for migrant farm workers, is a tacit admission that Oregon’s prior policy hurt those most victimized by COVID-19.

Latinx workers, like the ones Ryder advocates for and Townsend Farms depends on, have disproportionately suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic: They constitute 13.3 percent of Oregon’s population but 33 percent of the diagnosed cases.

Ryder says the lack of disclosure about workplace outbreaks was particularly unfair to Latinx farmworkers.

“They work in places that are very susceptible to contamination, and they have to go to work even if they are sick, because many of them aren’t edible for public assistance,” she says. “I would like immigrant workers to have rights like everybody else—to be treated like humans.”

That’s more than just an opinion—Ryder has a history with Townsend. She says she’s been in touch with company workers for years.

In early May, Ryder, who works for the Latino Network but was doing advocacy on her own time, got a phone call from a young man who worked at Townsend Farms’ Fairview packing plant. He said was an undocumented immigrant who had tested positive for COVID-19 and was too sick to work.

He told Ryder that he and others who had contracted the virus were informed by their supervisors it was up to them whether they continued working. (Townsend Farms’ attorney, Bill Gaar, says the company never said that.)

Ryder says she called the company on the man’s behalf May 11 and was routed to someone in human resources.

“I expressed concerns that they were letting people work who were sick” Ryder says. “It’s bad for the workers and bad for the community.”

Ryder’s claims are corroborated by a reading of complaints filed with Oregon Occupational Safety and 8

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

GROWING DIFFICULTIES: Townsend Farms, headquartered in Fairview, has had two large COVID-19 outbreaks.

Health, obtained under a public records request.

On March 26, OSHA Oregon, which regulates workplace safety, received the first of nine complaints that Townsend Farms was not making sure workers keep at least 6 feet apart. By late April, the tenor had changed.

“People are sick, working seven days a week,” says an April 27 complaint. “Afraid they are going to catch virus.”

“Employees tested positive for COVID -19 and are back at work four days after testing positive,” a May 12 complaint says.

Townsend Farms did not return WW’s phone calls but told Oregon Public Broadcasting the company disputed the OSHA complaints and any assertion the company neglected employees’ welfare. Townsend told OPB it did not want workers coming in if they had the virus, and gave them two weeks’ pay to stay away. Ryder says she doesn’t

know whether her client received such an offer.

On May 11, Ryder filed her own complaint with OSHA on behalf of the ill Townsend worker. The agency has been overwhelmed by the COVID -19 pandemic, which has generated far more complaints in the past 10 weeks than the agency typically gets in a year. (OSHA records show that prior to COVID-19, the agency inspected Townsend Farms five times since 2015 and cited the company for applying pesticide close to workers and for a minor housing violation.)

WW subsequently reported that the Multnomah County Health Department had investigated an earlier

Townsend Farms outbreak that began April 29. That outbreak infected 51 Townsend workers and exposed at least 16 other people identified through the contact tracing process.

Information about the outbreak was never shared with the public. It only came to light because it was mentioned in the OSHA complaints, which WW had obtained.

With OSHA overwhelmed and workers arriving for the summer, the secrecy about COVID-19 outbreaks only added to the public health hazard. Advocates say the lack of transparency endangered workers and put agricultural and packing plant workers in particular at risk.

“From a worker’s perspective, I feel like knowledge is power,” says Reyna Lopez, executive director of PCUN, the union that represents farmworkers.

Lopez says farmworkers earn about $21,000 a year.

That can disappear if workers get sick because they take a job where there’s an outbreak. Workers may also be blamed or ostracized, Lopez adds, because they worked at a business where an outbreak occurred.

“If you have knowledge about what’s happening, you can make a decision about where you work,” Lopez says.

“It’s a bad situation, where workers are going to a farm and they don’t know it’s had an outbreak.”

Ryder says the young man who called her attention to Townsend Farms has gone back to Mexico, but his is not an unusual story. “There are thousands just like him,” Ryder says. “Most of the people who come here to work don’t have much education. If they come here and work on a farm where there’s a problem, they should be made aware of that situation.”

OHA spokesman Rob Cowie says agency director Pat Allen decided to change the agency’s workplace disclosure policy with Brown’s “full support” and aimed to provide consistent, transparent information.

“Some counties have shared information about large COVID-19 outbreaks in work settings, while others have not,” Cowie says.

As for the timing of the policy shift: “The main reason is the interplay between county reopening and sources of new infections,” Cowie says. “The Townsend Farms outbreak produced a significant increase in cases compared to prior days. It was important for people to understand that this workplace outbreak was driving the increased number of cases we were seeing.”

NEWS

Reversed

Waste Less & Save More in your Home Projects!

The Oregon Supreme Court vacated 19 sentences this week. These three men could walk free.

BY TE SS R I SK I

tess@wweek.com

Hours before protests of police killings began in Portland’s streets, Oregon saw another watershed moment in its criminal justice system: The state’s top court began reversing convictions handed down by divided juries.

On May 28, the Oregon Supreme Court announced it had vacated the sentences of 19 defendants convicted by non-unanimous juries.

The cases are the first batch out of 269 cases that may be reversed in coming months because of an April 20 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

That ruling, Ramos v. Louisiana, overturned a provision of the Oregon Constitution that allowed just 10 or 11 jurors out of 12 to convict for all crimes except murder.

Each of the 19 cases reversed in Oregon now go back to the trial court, where the local district attorney will decide whether to retry the case or drop the charges altogether.

Given the timing of the reversals, during a week when the nation has been roiled by protests of police treatment of black people, one statistic stands out: Only two of the 19 defendants whose sentences have been vacated are black. That runs counter to a previous analysis by WW that found black defendants were overrepresented among those convicted by non-unanimous juries.

Juan Chavez, director of the civil rights project at the Oregon Justice Resource Center, said he wasn’t surprised by the low number of black defendants whose cases have been vacated.

“I’m sure there’s a procedural reason,” Chavez said of the methodology for choosing the 19 cases. “[But] I think that the law is still working as designed, which is supposed to be racist and support a white supremacist agenda.”

The convictions ranged widely, from theft to assault to sexual abuse, with several cases involving minors.

The cases are just the start of what is likely to be years of legal review to determine who has been unconstitutionally convicted of crimes, according to the highest court in the country.

We looked through the 19 cases. Here are three that were noteworthy.

State of Oregon v. Kevin Ray Eggleston Lane County In September 2016, Kevin Ray Eggleston, a 56-year-old homeless black man, got into a public argument. A bystander attempted to intervene, and as she did, court records say, Eggleston hit her in the face with a metal thermos. The woman lost consciousness and suffered severe nerve and tissue damage.

The next night, Eggleston told an employee of the homeless shelter where he was staying that the woman’s boyfriend had thrown the thermos, accidentally hitting her, and that Eggleston had only punched her. He maintained this argument during testimony at his trial.

The jury voted 11-1 to convict Eggleston on the assault charge. He was sentenced to 12 years

in prison. He is currently incarcerated at Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem. His scheduled release date is September 2028.

State of Oregon v. Myron Lee Newell Crook County In November 2013, Crook County prosecutors charged Myron Lee Newell, a 91-year-old white man, with three counts of sexually abusing a child under the age of 14. During two of the alleged incidents, Newell assaulted the child while she was asleep.

The victim disclosed the abuse on multiple occasions to her grandmother and a family friend. She also gave a forensic interview to a victim’s specialist.

“After [victim] told this to her grandmother, her grandmother told her about a time, when she herself was a child, when she was sleeping on a couch and someone touched her inappropriately,” court records say.

The grandmother then reported the child’s allegations to the Crook County Sheriff’s Office.

At trial, Newell requested that the judge require a unanimous verdict, but the request was denied. The jury acquitted Newell of two counts and voted 11-1 to convict him on the third.

Newell was sentenced to 75 months, more than six years, in prison. He is currently incarcerated at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla. His scheduled release date is August 2023, when Newell will be 94 years old.

State of Oregon v. James Lin Browning Multnomah County Multnomah County prosecutors charged James Lin Browning, a 49-year-old white man, with sexual abuse and sodomy after a teenager reported to Portland police that Browning had sexually abused her at least once a month for several years, when she was between the ages of 7 and 14.

Portland police investigated the crime, and one of their strongest pieces of evidence was a “pretext call” between Browning and the victim. Pretext calls are often used in rape cases.

Police listen in as the accuser calls the alleged perpetrator and tries to get him or her to admit to the crime. The call can then be admitted as evidence.

During the pretext call, the victim confronted Browning about the abuse. When she asked Browning why he abused her, he replied: “Probably because I was intoxicated, not in my mind,” court records say. “It’s sick. I know it’s sick,” Browning said. He insisted during the call that he was not a pedophile, but that his actions would probably categorize him “as that.”

The jury found Browning guilty on seven counts of sexual abuse. The verdicts in all seven were non-unanimous: six by 11-1 and one by 10-2.

Browning was sentenced to 150 months, or 12½ years, in prison. He is currently incarcerated at Snake River Correctional Institution in Eastern Oregon. His scheduled release date is May 2029.

REDUCE House projects often result in a bunch of excess reusable stuff. Our team picks up qualifying materials for FREE in the Portland Metro area.

REUSE The ReBuilding Center sells affordable reclaimed lumber, doors, windows, appliances, cabinets, and more. We are open for shopping by appointment.

REPAIR We empower people to grow their confidence with tools and DIY repair and building skills.

We offer online seminars and hands-on “carry-out” classes.

ReBuilding Center Reuse, Repair, Resilience 3625 North Mississippi Avenue rebuildingcenter.org | 503-331-9291 Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

9

AARON WESSLING

MAY 30: Protesters held a “die-in” on Southwest 3rd Avenue in front of the Multnomah County Justice Center to honor George Floyd, killed May 26 by Minneapolis police.

10

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

NO JUSTICE. NO PEACE. Protests and riots fill the streets of Portland. Four black leaders are trying to bring meaning to the anguish.

BY R AC H E L M O N A H A N , TE SS RI S K I

and

LATI S H A JENSEN

A

WESLEY LAPOINTE

t 8 pm on May 29, a throng of Portlanders started marching out of Peninsula Park and south along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. For the next four days, civic leaders would plead with them to go home.

There’s no telling when they will.

As in many other cities across the nation, Portlanders were protesting the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after Minneapolis police knelt on his neck, back and legs. And, as in other cities, the protests spiraled into riots and vandalism.

After two months of fear and isolation created by the COVID19 pandemic, Floyd’s killing felt like the breaching of a dam of frustration at the scores of other black Americans who have died at the hands of police.

Demonstrators demanded Portland police recite the names of the black citizens they have killed over the past 17 years: Quanice Hayes, Patrick Kimmons, Keaton Otis, Kendra James, Terrell Johnson, Andre Gladen. They chanted the familiar rallying cry “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” and at times taunted the police with the jeer “All cops are bastards!”

Many were peaceful. But others set fires inside the Multnomah County Justice Center. Rioters looted shops—corporate giants and mom-andpop storefronts. Teenagers ran up and down the escalators of an empty Target and cleaned out the Apple Store. On May 31, vandals tagged the federal courthouse until the building looked like an anguished Picasso.

Police, too, based on reporting on the ground by WW’s reporters and photographers, ranged from permissive to militant. They allowed some protests to continue for hours. At other moments, they lobbed stun grenades and sprayed crowds seemingly indiscriminately with tear gas.

Such scenes are not new in Portland. This is: Black people are in charge of both the protests and the government response to them.

City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty asked to set the first curfew.

Pastor Roy Tate preached in the park before the initial march set out for the Justice Center.

State Rep. Janelle Bynum sat beside Gov. Kate Brown as she mobilized the Oregon National Guard.

And Lilith Sinclair is leading the marches that defy Hardesty’s order to stay home.

These are not the largest protests Portland has witnessed, even in the past decade. (The 2011 Occupy marches drew 10,000 people.) They are not the longest. (Protesters of President Trump’s election in 2016 blocked freeways for six consecutive nights.)

They are not the most violent. (Proud Boys and antifascists beat each other bloody with batons and flag poles during scheduled brawls the past three summers.)

But the rioting that has followed each protest may have inflicted the most property damage in Portland history, at least in terms of storefronts shattered and looted.

And the chaos is part of a wave of similar protests and riots across the United States—creating the unsettling sense that American society teeters on the edge of collapse.

The destruction could be the result of cooped-up young people unloading frustration pent up over two months of quarantine. But it also seems to emerge from a place of despair, a recognition that black and brown people are dying at a greater rate from COVID-19 for the same reason they die at the hands of police: because white America has made them disposable.

A reporter asked one young Portlander, Jordan Simacre, whether he felt safe joining the protests.

“Being black in America, you’re already born dead,” he said. “Do I feel safe? No, not really. Part of that not feeling safe is why a lot of us are coming out and doing this reckless stuff, endangering our lives and protesting. We’re already not safe. We’re gonna make some noise with it.”

For all Portlanders, the tension of this moment is that no one knows how much more destruction will be wrought in downtown Portland. But we also don’t know what meaning will be assigned to it in the months and years to come.

Will this be the moment that brings about new accountability for police? Will the leaders who have been elected in Portland on platforms of police reform deliver on their high-minded promises to ensure that no more unarmed black men and women are killed by Portland cops?

Or will public sentiment turn against the demands of protesters? Will the president send in the military for a show of force—in Portland, or elsewhere?

What makes this moment so perilous and important is, we simply don’t know how long it will last or what it will mean. So we asked four black leaders at the center of the struggle—Hardesty, Tate, Bynum and Sinclair—to say what they thought it meant.

In the following pages, you will find interviews with each of them, conducted in the midst of one of the most chaotic and raw periods this city has experienced. You’ll also find vivid moments—captured in words and photos—from a city on the brink of history.

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

11

SAM GERHRKE

“I’m watching all this chaos happening and I went, ‘Why aren’t we just closing this down?’”

At what point did you start to prepare for a curfew?

It was around 12:30 or quarter to 1, when we woke the city attorney up and asked her to start developing the document that would allow for a curfew. I’m sitting there and I’m watching all this chaos happening and I went, “Why aren’t we just closing this down?”

I was walked through the process and said, “Let’s do that.” And the first response I got was, well, the mayor has to sign it. And my answer was, “I am the mayor. He’s not here and let’s do it.” And within a half-hour we had it.

City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty

T

he person who asked to set a curfew across Portland last weekend was Jo Ann Hardesty—the first black woman elected to the City Council and a three-decade advocate for police reform.

With Mayor Ted Wheeler out of town May 29, Hardesty was acting mayor, giving her executive authority over the city. At around 11 on Friday night, she was preparing for bed at her East Portland home when she heard Portland Fire & Rescue—her bureau—sending fire engines downtown. She’d been up since 7 am and wouldn’t sleep that night. She hitched a ride to the command station with Fire Chief Sara Boone, the first black woman to run the fire bureau.

Over the next three hours, Hardesty made the choice to, in her words, “shut this down.” At about 12:30 am, she called Wheeler: “I said to him, ‘It looks like you and I talk,’ because he and I made pretty much the same statement.”

Setting a curfew was a remarkable decision by the former president of the NAACP of Portland, who spent 30 years watchdogging police and sometimes marching through the streets herself, bullhorn in hand. (She says she wasn’t consulted on policing decisions this weekend and is waiting to review reports of arrests and police conduct before talking about what happened in the streets.) By June 1, after the curfew failed to persuade protesters to stay home over three nights that were by turns peaceful, tense and occasionally violent, she reversed herself and said the curfew should be lifted. But Wheeler, who had by then returned to town, kept it in place.

WW spoke to Hardesty about what this moment means to her. RACHEL MONAHAN. What was your reaction Friday night to what you were seeing downtown?

Devastation, anger, sadness—all of those combined.

As I was looking at the people who were participating in the destruction, I didn’t see any familiar faces. I came to a conclusion early on that these folks were not part of any peaceful protest concerned about the death and life of black people. It was clear to me that there were a group of folks that came just to be able to tear stuff up. And they were just having a grand old time.

12

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

Why did you want a curfew?

We have never had the kind of destruction that we had on Friday night in Portland ever, even when Trump first got elected, which is why my firm belief is that the provocateurs were not from Portland, did not care about black lives.

[Also,] we have not lifted our stay-at-home order.

So if we allow people to continue to gather in these high numbers when the county hasn’t even been OK’d for opening yet, then we are putting people’s health in danger. And that was at the top of my mind when I first recommended it. As you know, I am not a law-and-order kind of person. I’m not someone that thinks that police is the answer to every community problem. [But] we’re nowhere near out of this pandemic yet. And I have the responsibility to keep people safe.

Maybe people saw it as a challenge because Mayor Wheeler said it. [Wheeler announced the curfew upon his return to Portland on May 29.] And anything Mayor Wheeler says about the police they can’t trust. If he says it, then people want to go the opposite way. But my experience in working with him is, he’s trying also to help make the Police Bureau a more just bureau.

[By June 1, Hardesty reversed her position on the curfew, and wanted it lifted. On June 2, Wheeler did.]

What changed your mind?

I made the initial call for curfew based on what I witnessed Friday evening and early Saturday morning, but we are seeing that it has had the opposite impact. I do not believe a continued curfew is the path to move forward.

Why did you support the governor calling in the Oregon National Guard?

We know the chances of officers making bad decisions when they’re fatigued increase exponentially, and we’re hearing loud and clear right now that already they are fatigued. Sometimes we make decisions that we never would have made if not for a crisis. While I am in no way supportive of the National Guard coming to police the streets, I do believe we need to find ways to provide relief for frontline officers, and in this instance, it means having unarmed National Guard officers support back-end functions for Portland Police.

What’s the significance of this moment for police accountability? Is it different from past moments of protest?

I think we are in a moment that’s radically different. I’ve participated in protests in Portland for well over 25 years.

But it’s been a cumulative pain and suffering that has been ignored for my lifetime around police and how they engage and interact with black people.

How many times can community members really trust a system that constantly exonerates police officers for a brutality against community members?

What we’re seeing all across the country is, people have just come to the end of their rope. There is no faith that our system will ever work as it was intended, as it should be intended, for all people. It’s never worked for black folks. And it’s not working for black people today.

But let me be clear. I do not think what we’re seeing around the country has been stoked specifically by black people’s pain. I think we’re seeing people taking advantage of black people’s pain to create disruption and destroy communities.

And what are you hearing from black Portlanders right now?

Black Portland is all over the board right now, which is not surprising, since we’re not monolithic, right?

Some people are just sad. I’m hearing that people want real action now.

Because even though this death of George Floyd did not happen in Portland, Oregon, I could name off Kendra James, I could name off Aaron Campbell, I can name off a whole host of folks who should have never lost their life.

I think every time a new police killing happens of a black person, all the other killings come back.

Do you have a message that you’d want to send to the citizens of Portland who are thinking about going out into the streets this week?

I would just beg them to please stay home.

We are on the cusp of really reforming our criminal justice system in the Portland metro area. There is hope here now because of the people we’ve elected.

It’s not by accident I got elected. It’s not by accident.

[Latino Network executive director] Carmen [Rubio] got elected [to the City Council], and it’s not by accident Mike Schmidt just demolished his competition [in the Multnomah County district attorney’s race].

Mike Schmidt said exactly what I have been saying for 30 years and what other activists have been saying for decades, and guess what? The voters voted for him.

The mayor and I are already about to look at every single specialty unit within the Portland Police Bureau. By February, we’re going to be presenting to the City Council all the units that should not exist.

And so that’s why destruction of businesses and property and people is just so devastating, because we’re just on the cusp of actually being able to do the kind of things I’ve been fighting for for 25 years in this community.

What else will you take away from this weekend?

Policing is what got us into this mess, and we have to acknowledge that policing is not what’s going to get us out of this mess. We need to minimize as much as possible any use of force by people who are sworn to protect and serve.

And when they step out of line, they should be fired.

I am a child of the civil rights movement. My parents promised me it was going to be better when I was an adult, and it’s not. In fact, it’s a lot worse. We have permission to be as racist and vile as possible.

I hope we come out of this insanity of 45’s [President Trump’s] administration as people who are more loving, more caring and really committed to making sure that we are living in an equitable society. That’s my hope.

ALEX WITTWER

State Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Happy Valley)

Pastor Roy Tate

T

ate, 65, is a pastor at Portland’s Christ Memorial Community Church on North Killingsworth Street. He has served as a religious leader of Portland’s black community for nearly 40 years. Tate spoke at a vigil in North Portland’s Peninsula Park on May 29 in honor of Floyd, where he described watching the events in Minneapolis and feeling as if it were “a knife in an already existing wound.” Hours after he spoke, a crowd marched from the park into downtown, where rioters set fire inside the Multnomah County Justice Center. That development horrified him. TESS RISKI. What is your perspective on the protests these past few days?

We have a right to protest. We have a right to speak. We’re angry, we’re upset, we’re not happy with what the police officers did to George Floyd. This is another black man’s life that was taken by the hands of police who are sworn to protect and to serve.

But we do not have a right to riot, to vandalize businesses and burn cars and do all of this type of behavior. This is not going to help the cause at all. If they think they’re doing us a favor, well: You’re not.

I’m saddened because I live in this city, I love this city. Portland is a beautiful city. And we do not want it destroyed.

What’s the message that you want to send to the broader Portland community about police brutality?

If you want to be a police officer in this city, you’ve got to be willing to not be an individual who wants to take somebody’s life unnecessarily. You’ve got to be willing to get yourself trained and get yourself in a position where you know how

“Portland is a beautiful city.

And we do not want it destroyed.” to handle a mentally ill person as well as a person of color. And I think that that’s an issue that’s been long going on—that many of these police officers are just not trained to be able to deal with that area.

What aspects of criminal justice reform do you think need to happen in Portland?

When they’re making the arrest of a person of color, it always looks like it’s a violent arrest. And when they arrest a white person, it’s a different story. I’ve seen white persons with weapons not get killed, not get shot, or arrested. And I’ve seen black people with no weapons end up getting hurt or killed. There’s definitely a problem somewhere that lies in the police department. I don’t know if it’s the training, the accountability. I think that some of these police officers, they need to be taken off the force.

Any final thoughts?

We really want to make it clear, coming from the black community, coming from the faith leaders, that violence is not something we want.

B

ynum serves a legislative district that includes East Portland neighborhoods where many black people moved when they were priced out of their longtime homes. She also campaigned for reelection in 2018 in suburbs where one resident thought a black woman walking door to door was suspicious enough to call the police. And she owns several McDonald’s restaurants in Oregon City—the kind of small businesses targeted by looters that weekend. That’s a lot of perspectives to weigh. Which may help explain why she appeared June 1 beside Gov. Kate Brown, who was performing a balancing act, too: decrying racist policing while calling in the Oregon National Guard to assist with handling Portland’s protests. Bynum talked to WW about what white Portlanders need to learn. LATISHA JENSEN. What’s your reaction to what has happened in the streets of Portland over the past three nights?

Oppression and violence against black people was the original pandemic of the community.

To have people come out and raise voices about that is reassuring. Humanity still exists.

You’re the owner of several McDonald’s restaurants. How do you react to seeing small businesses damaged and looted?

It angers me, because I can feel the faces of the people who put the heart and souls into their businesses. And to have them damaged, it really hurts. It’s sad to think that you have to think about ways in which you have to protect your business from people who don’t mean any good. What they were doing was not related to the death of George Floyd.

What are your thoughts on the governor deploying the National Guard?

I think the governor’s values—she’s not a tanks type of person, that’s not who she is.

She’s keenly aware of the optics of the government cracking down on people and suppressing speech and the right to protest. The Portland police had reached a capacity issue and they need their officers to rest. Providing rest for them, I support.

What do white Portlanders not understand

about what is happening right now? What do you wish they understood?

There are at least two sets of white Portlanders. Those who believe in their progressivism and that they could not possibly perpetrate any of this violence on the black community.

And then there are those who believe that the violence that we speak of is a long time ago and they have no responsibly to the collective to help fix it. There may be a third group of people who are kind of in the middle and are trying to figure it out. I would put forth that this year, they’re trying to figure it out.

How do you think people of color can encourage their white peers to learn and understand without exhausting themselves?

I’ve had no less than 10 conversations with white friends, and they pretty much said the same thing: “I don’t know where to start or what to do.” It reminded me of asking my 9-year-old son to clean his room. They can start by reading, engaging and talking to their children. It is not the work of black people to fix the mindsets of white people. That’s not our job. That’s too heavy and it’s not fair.

Do you feel this weekend’s protests will create outcomes different from previous ones?

Every one of my rural legislative colleagues, they’re telling me what they saw was horrible and no one should be treated like that. That’s really the first time I’ve heard them personalize the issue of racism.

I had a conversation with my oldest daughter’s principal. Some months back, they had issued this directive to their students that, if they wanted to protest or kneel at their games, football players or basketball players needed to have a conversation with their coach and go through some convoluted procedure. That felt wrong. Talking with your coach first before kneeling amounted to asking white people for permission to feel and permission to say that our lives are not disposable. I followed up with him this weekend and had a conversation with him this morning. I think he finally understood. He finally had the lens to get it.

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

13

ALEX WITTWER

May 29: Fire After a vigil in North Portland’s Peninsula Park, protesters of George Floyd’s death began marching. In Portland, some 1,000 people walked across the Burnside Bridge, carrying signs and lighting flares.

A crowd gathered along Southwest 3rd Avenue in front of the Justice Center.

Some of the protesters smashed in the courthouse’s windows and set fires in the cubicles. Portland police used flashbang grenades and tear gas to scatter the crowd. What followed for the next five hours was a wave of property destruction and looting unrivaled in Portland since 2016 protests of President Donald Trump’s election. Rioters smashed the windows of dozens of stores. They raided the shelves of a CVS Pharmacy and a locally owned cigarette shop. Some people set bonfires in the streets.

S

inclair, 25, is an activist who works with with the workers’ rights group Portland Jobs With Justice.

(That group is not directly connected to organizing the past week’s protests.) Sinclair, who wishes to be referred to by the plural pronouns they and them, has been involved in activism for years, including volunteering at the Portland Occupy ICE Camp in 2018. Sinclair was an organizer of a march May 31 that drew thousands of demonstrators. During Sunday’s rally, they led the group of over 1,000 demonstrators from Laurelhurst Park in Northeast Portland to downtown at the Justice Center. “We’re not here for apologies,” Sinclair said into a megaphone Sunday. “We’re here to dismantle, defund and completely destroy the police.” WW asked them about defying the pleas from city officials to stay off the streets.

TESS RISKI. What is a moment that you will remember most from the protests this weekend?

The flashes of moments where I got to connect with people. Every single black person that I locked eyes with, that was a moment of joy for me personally.

Local leaders have criticized protesters for destroying property. What is your response?

Both forms of protest—both the most militant and destructive, and the other [non-destructive] approach— are valid. I think that it’s inappropriate for us to criticize the way that people grieve and heal from their trauma.

There’s no way to easily sum up how intergenerational trauma is directly related to the uprisings, and the public grieving and the public anger and frustration, and the critical level of need that people are experiencing. It’s nonsensical to tell a grieving community that you hear them and then ask for the literal military to stop them from publicly grieving.

For me, I cannot look at and will not look at these moments and these movements that are happening right now—we’re living through history—as riots. Instead, what they actually are, are the uprisings that the U.S. and every other imperialist and capitalist, racist and oppressive system has seen across history. There only comes a certain 14

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

“It’s nonsensical to tell a grieving community that you hear them and then ask for the literal military to stop them from publicly grieving.” level to which you can ask large and vast numbers of people to sacrifice their literal health, lives and sanity for the capitalist system that will not provide for them and will also exploit their labor for the protection of the continual padding of the pockets of the 1 percent.

What was your response to seeing Portland police officers kneel with protesters this weekend?

I think it’s important to recognize that as soon as that photo opportunity apparently ended, they turned around and immediately started escalating the situation. Shaking hands with and taking pictures with the police will never be the answer.

Mayor Ted Wheeler called on the governor to deploy the Oregon National Guard to Portland. Did you think this was the right decision?

The response from Ted Wheeler is unsurprising. A lot of Democratic, or allegedly Democratic, privileged white leaders across the country are calling for the National Guard. They’re telling residents that they are hearing us and our demands for justice and accountability and demilitarization requests, and then turning around and literally asking for the military. It is the most obviously hypocritical and self-damning thing that you could do, to tell that to a group of grieving people who have been experiencing generations of trauma that has gone unhealed. We have continuously not been able to politely request small changes to protect our literal lives.

ALEX WITTWER

Lilith Sinclair

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

15

WESLEY LAPOINTE

ALEX WITTWER

ALEX WITTWER

ALEX WITTWER

ALEX WITTWER

ALEX WITTWER

ALEX WITTWER

ALEX WITTWER

WESLEY LAPOINTE

ALEX WITTWER

May 30: Gas

WESLEY LAPOINTE ALEX WITTWER

WESLEY LAPOINTE AARON WESSLING

ALEX WITTWER

AARON WESSLING AARON WESSLING

A second night of protests in Portland did not grow as large or destructive as the first, in part because police forcefully broke up crowds early and often. For much of the evening, police and protesters played a high-stakes game of cat-andmouse along the Willamette riverfront, as police enforced a curfew intended to prevent a second night of rioting. Police used flash-bangs and tear gas to disperse a crowd of 1,000 people around 7 pm.

16

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

AARON WESSLING

May 31: Water

AARON WESSLING AARON WESSLING

AARON WESSLING

AARON WESSLING

WESLEY LAPOINTE

AARON WESSLING

More than 2,000 people—young, masked and ethnically diverse— gathered in Laurelhurst Park around 5:30 pm, then marched east on East Burnside Street, taking up the full width of the road. It was a surreal sight: protesters marching through one of the city’s most upscale neighborhoods, past Starbucks takeout windows and homes where neighbors left bottles of water on the front stoops for refreshment. At Northeast 47th Avenue, the protesters were met by riot police. “Walk with us!” they chanted at the cops.

Some police officers took a knee and protesters cheered. But the officers were kneeling to don gas masks.

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

17

ALEX WITTWER

June 1: Air

ALEX WITTWER

18

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

ALEX WITTWER

MICK HANGLAND-SKILL

MICK HANGLAND-SKILL

ALEX WITTWER

ALEX WITTWER

For a moment, Portland could pause for breath. The weekend of protests showed no signs of flagging, as marchers took to the streets by the thousands for the fourth consecutive night. But as the nation seemingly careened toward a showdown between the police and the policed, this city enjoyed an evening of peace.

As night fell, protesters of police violence crossed the Burnside Bridge into downtown. But Portland police allowed them passage, and the marchers did not try to breach a chain-link fence erected by the city, cordoning off 16 blocks around the downtown courthouses.

STARTERS

T H E M OST I M PO RTA N T T H I N G S T HAT H A P P E N E D I N P O R T L A N D C U LT U R E T H I S WE E K , FR O M BE ST TO WO RST.

Take out.

Stay home.

Support Local.

Dining rooms across the city are shut down right now—but in a culinary capital like Portland, there’s always a way to get great food and drink, while supporting local businesses. Stay safe and enjoy an

awesome meal by ordering pick up or delivery from these restaurants, wineries, and breweries. See more of our recommendations at wweek.com/take-out-stay-home/

sponsored content

THE PIX-O-MATIC

AIRBNBOO: If you need any assistance getting over your desire to visit the coast, an upcoming Oregonfilmed horror movie about a murder in a coastal Airbnb might be able to help. Last week, IFC released a clip from The Rental, a vacation-gone-wrong thriller about a pair of couples on a beach getaway. The movie marks Dave Franco’s directorial debut and stars his wife, GLOW’s Alison Brie. The movie was filmed in Bandon, Ore., last year. In the quiet, eerie clip, there’s a dark shot of a rocky coastline and a tense conversation between Brie and Stevens about a recently committed murder. The Rental is slated for release July 24 online and in theaters—if, of course, movie theaters have reopened by then.

VEND DIAGRAM: The pandemic has already helped the resurgence of the drive-in. But could it also help revive another mid-20th century staple: the automat?

Pix Pâtisserie is willing to give it a shot. Part vending machine, part rotating pie case, the “Pix-O-Matic” has just popped up outside the dessert haven on 2225 E Burnside St. The refrigerated unit allows anyone with a hankering for something sweet to grab macarons or a box of chocolate 24 hours a day without needing to interact with another person. If round-the-clock dessert access weren’t great enough, the kiosk also contains everything from sparklers to cocktail mixers, because pretty cakes are best enjoyed with fireworks and a good buzz.

BEACH CLOSED: The coronavirus pandemic has claimed another business in the Pearl District. Popina Swimwear announced it would not reopen its boutique on Northwest 11th Avenue near Everett Street, and will instead consolidate operations at its flagship location in the Hollywood District. The Hollywood store reopened May 28, with health and safety measures in place for both customers and employees. Online sales are ongoing, as well. Initially, founder-designer Lulu Levenson and her husband will run the boutique, but they hope to bring more employees back on as business picks up. To encourage customers, everything is 25 percent off for the entire summer.

WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS: On Friday, the Portland Bureau of Transportation was forced to walk back an email sent to restaurants and bar owners announcing it was revoking permits allowing establishments to serve customers seated on sidewalks outside their storefronts. Around 800 businesses received notice their sidewalk cafe permits would be suspended through October 2020, citing concerns about social distancing on crowded sidewalks. The email then encouraged those businesses to apply for the recently announced Healthy Businesses program, a plan to convert neighborhood streets into temporary outdoor plazas. Following an online uproar from restaurateurs, the bureau said the message was a “mistake,” and that any business with a sidewalk cafe permit would be automatically enrolled in the new plaza program without having to submit an application. In a tweet, Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, who has championed the Healthy Businesses initiative, apologized for what she deemed a “miscommunication.”

MISSIONARY CHOCOLATES Looking for vegan and gluten-free options? Check out Missionary Chocolates— offering handmade vegan chocolate truffles, and other delicious gluten, nut & soy-free snacks! Order today at MissionaryChocolates.com.

LAUGHING PLANET Don’t sacrifice taste in order to eat healthy. Enjoy bowls, burritos, salads, soups, pressed juices, and smoothies made with fresh local ingredients from your favorite vegetarian, glutenfree, low-carb, and paleo restaurant.

Order today at laughingplanet.com.

ROLLIN’ FRESH Order pick up or delivery from the freshest spot for sushi burritos, poke’ bowls, and poke’ salads. Order today at rollinfreshnw.com.

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

19

GET INSIDE

WHAT TO DO— AND WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING— WHILE STUCK INSIDE.

SAM GEHRKE

Q( UARANTINE ) & A

KayelaJ, Rapper WW: You had your first tour scheduled for April. What is it like to have to take a break at such a crucial point in your career?

At first I was kind of sad, but I’m a strong believer in not stressing about things that I can’t control.

What direction are you going in with the new music you’re working on?

I really love my album D.Y.K.E., and I loved that it was my introductory project. It really gave people a feel for who I am as a person and an artist.

But there were a lot of dark moments in that project. My mom was very depressed after my album release, because she couldn’t protect me or shield me from certain things. I had three sections to it—depression, rage and love—and I didn’t get to expand on the love part as much as depression and rage. You can’t have healthy relationships with people until you have a healthy relationship with yourself. All that’s to say, I’m doing an EP just focused on love. I’m hoping it can be uplifting for me and uplifting for who’s listening.

You did release a verse on Instagram, a COVID-themed cover of Kendrick Lamar’s “Look Out for Detox.”

Kendrick Lamar is one of my favorite artists, and I’ve always loved that beat. When I was younger, I did a cover—it was so corny—called “Look Out for Chicken Pox.” Do you remember any lines from “Look Out for Chicken Pox”?

All I remember is the first line: “Cough, cough, cough, cough, you better look out for chicken pox.”

What do you see as the path forward for Portland artists if you can’t play shows until next year?

We might have to take it to back in the day. In Portland, before these big venues started booking these hip-hop shows, we were doing these underground house party kind of things. If it’s safe, people might start doing these small, intimate house parties, and maybe livestream those as well.

But if I don’t perform until 2021, that’s all right. I remember a time when I was doing four or five shows a month, and I remember thinking, “This is amazing, and I’m so grateful,” but at the same time, it was exhausting. I know when I do that first show, the energy is gonna be so amazing, it’ll all be worth it.

See a video interview with KayelaJ at wweek.com/distant-voices

BUS IN E SS D EV E LO P ME N TS

Pix PDX A British expat brings her neighbors a spot of tea, and a little conversation.

When Nell was trying to come up with a small kindness for her neighbors during the pandemic, her mind went to an obvious place for someone from the U.K.: tea.

“The kettle is always on in Britain,” says the London expat, who prefers to divulge her first name only, for privacy reasons and the “old-timey” charm. “It’s both high art and basic survival for us. It’s a panacea for anything.”

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, and pay homage to her great-grandfather, an infantryman at the Battle of Dunkirk, Nell launched Pix PDX on May 8. It’s a simple service: For customers who live in the Ladd’s Addition area, Nell—suited up in a mod-style tea dress and blasting a historically appropriate song from the 1940s from a portable speaker—will bike up to your stoop on her classic Schwinn, draw a chalk heart on your driveway and leave a single rose, a handwritten note and a Smith tea bag on your doorstep.

If the recipient could use a friendly face, she can stay for a socially distanced conversation, or she can bike away like an antique benefactress in the night—your choice. For those over age 75, the service is free. For everyone else, Nell requests a small donation to cover the cost of the items.

The goal is to offer a small window of light in the day, particularly for those who have been kept in self-isolation and find it difficult to interact with others during quarantine.

“I think we’ve realized that a lot of the random interactions with strangers are some of the things that we miss as much as seeing the people that we’re close to,” Nell says. “Just having a chat with someone at Trader Joe’s is a nice thing. These are things that we can’t do anymore that easily. It’s these little gestures that are the key to keeping going.” SCOUT BROBST. 20

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

JUNE 3-9 MY Q UARANT I NE P R OJ ECT

SPO RTS- I SH

Third Annual MTV Rock N’ Jock B-Ball Jam (1993) In the 80-something days since a live professional basketball game was last played on American soil, the NBA has tried all sorts of gimmicks to keep fans entertained. As The Last Dance proved, though, digging up vintage footage is the way to go. So it’s a wonder the league hasn’t yet pulled the ultimate classic content out of the mothballs: MTV’s annual Rock N’ Jock charity games, in which active pros played while D-list celebs. It was a great Saturday afternoon time waster back in the ’90s. We watched the 1993 iteration on YouTube, and here were some of the highlights: 1:25 In case you missed which year this was from, the broadcast opens with the crowd at the Bren Events Center at UC Irvine waving its hands to Naughty by Nature’s “Hip-Hop Hooray.” Your announcer team for the evening is Marv Albert’s nonunion equivalent, his younger brother Steve Albert, and a freshly bar mitzvahed Jon Stewart.

14:01 The 25-point basket (later worth 50) makes its first-ever appearance, lowering from the ceiling with two minutes left in the first quarter.

23:16 Bill Bellamy goes iso against Dan Cortese, sparking a bench-clearing brawl that sees Rick Mahorn getting sent to the “penalty box,” where he’s interviewed by

Bryan Hall, M.S. Owner, Rose City Ropes LLC

Daisy Fuentes, because this sentence just wasn’t quite 1993 enough.

48:35 Phoenix Suns center Oliver Miller sinks the first-ever 25-point basket in history, perhaps his most notable contribution to the sport other than later getting kicked off the Harlem Globetrotters for being out of shape.

49:00 Tag Team performs its hit single “Whoomp! (There It Is).” Many whoomps are spotted.

1:00:39 Uncle Cliffy tosses in the game’s second 25-pointer with a minute left. The Bricklayers three-peat and, somewhere, Michael Jordan is almost certainly taking it personally. MATTHEW SINGER.

I’ve been trying to spread the positivity as much as possible since it’s been so challenging during quarantine times. As a carpenter I’ve been inspired by Japanese woodworking for a long time and picked up woodworking as an actual hobby during the pandemic. In the last few months, I’ve made countless cutting boards, bird houses, mason bee houses, and end tables on my journey to learn enough to make my own dining table.

This project was inspired by a few different things. The look of Japanese woodworking, the desire to build something that has no screws or nails holding it together, the interest of working with mahogany for the first time, and the challenge of freehanding the cuts and circles. Most importantly, my puppy has been quite confused as to why she isn’t getting her normal 90-minute run/swim at 1,000-Acre Dog Park. Somehow, I doubt she understands this is a feel-better gift, but I really appreciate seeing her eating off it without straining her neck to reach the floor.

ABBY GORDON

2:43 The Bricklayers are two-time winners at this point, so the producers appear to have stacked the deck in favor of their opponents. While the reigning champs have a Big Three of Rick Mahorn, Mark Jackson and Blazers legend Cliff Robinson, the underdog Violators have Vlade Divac, Gary Payton and Dan Majerle, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as their coach! Even the celebrity players seem out of proportion: The Violators have known baller Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, while the Bricklayers get Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman. “I’ve got nothing else to do,” Gorman mumbles in his intro video. You sure don’t.

Mahogany Dog Table Finished with Tung Oil for Nixie

TWEET OF THE WEEK

R EA D T HI S

Sea Monsters by Chloe Aridjis “What a seamless, cohesive, verging on sweetly claustrophobic voice this is. I really admired the flow. There's a passage, for instance, that is amazing, traveling from a night watching lucha libre to listening to the Smiths to a classmate’s account of meeting Morrissey on an escalator and framing the resultant autograph, then a reminder of an earlier trip to the apartment where [William S.] Burroughs shot his wife.

There’s also a paragraph about running out into a storm that contains the sentence, ‘A giant hand of wind grabbed our house and rattled it,’ that is the finest paragraph I’ve read in a very long time.” —Peter Rock, author of The Night Swimmers.

See more book recommendations on page 27.

“I just saw the photos of the Apple store in downtown Portland with the doors and the glass smashed. I worked there for two years when I lived in Portland, so it hurts my heart to see that someone did that and that someone wasn’t me.” —Mohanad Elshieky (@MohanadElshieky)

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

21

V O T IN G N O W

O P EN

#W W B O P 20 20

FOOD & DRINK

Editor: Matthew Singer / Contact: msinger@wweek.com

TOP 5

TAKE ME OUT

Yakuza’s bento boxes are satisfyingly organized and deeply delicious.

BY AN D I P R E W I T T

aprewitt@wweek.com

If there’s one thing the coronavirus pandemic has taught us, it’s that humans will scramble to grab hold of the one small slice of the world they can control. It’s why our closets and garages have been picked clean of their clutter and gardening aisles are regularly wiped out of merchandise. As the weeks in isolation wear on, we attempt to add beauty to spaces that may begin to feel monotonous.

There are few dishes that match this moment’s craving for organization and artful arrangement more than the bento box. The Japanese-inspired meals are not only orderly, with different foods of eye-popping colors neatly compartmentalized, they’re also downright adorable.

Yakuza’s bento boxes ($17) may be neat and attractive, but the long-running izakaya’s new item wasn’t necessarily added to the menu as a way of bringing culinary zen to customers during a global health crisis. It was simply one way to quickly shift to easily transportable orders following the statewide shutdown of dine-in service in midMarch.

“This is something that our chef thought could be a good addition to the menu given the current

state of affairs,” says owner Dayna McErlean. “I think it’s also a nice sampling of the variety of things that we offer.”

That assortment of delights—fried and raw, meaty and light—fulfills another criterion of the bento box: balance. The main component is a sushified take on one of summer’s greatest grilling pairs: salmon and asparagus. Here, they are firmly spooled into a stout roll with creamy chunks of avocado and refreshing blades of cucumber.

The sides then zigzag across the spectrums of both flavor and texture. A pile of bite-sized karaage—chicken thighs in a puffy, tawny-colored crust—are fleshy and indulgent. The vibrantly green tangle of seaweed swings sharply away from the bird’s fried bliss, yet its refreshing crunch doesn’t make it feel like you’re practicing self-discipline by eating a vitamin-dense salad.

Beyond all that, there is still a cup of miso soup with a hefty beef flavor to consume, which really makes this bento box more of a two-meal job or a shared effort. The spread is more than enough to fuel both you and whomever you’re quarantined with through several rounds of Sapporo, and at that point you won’t care that you’ve just plowed through what’s maybe the cutest meal around.

ORDER: Yakuza, 5411 NE 30th Ave., 503-450-0893, yakuzalounge.com.

Takeout and delivery 4-9 pm daily.

THE SEAWEED SALAD Yakuza uses wakame, an edible seaweed cultivated in Japan and Korea for centuries. Think of it as the superfood of the ocean: The green strands are packed with minerals, like calcium, iodine and iron, and are essentially a little library of vitamins: A, C, E, K and the family of B vitamins.

BUZZ LIST

Five awesome wines to drink this summer.

1. Permanent Piece (Monument Wines) As we get into the barbecue months, this should be everyone’s warm weather red wine of the summer—herbaceous and gripping and calling out for the grill.

Buy it at: damerestaurant.com.

2. Sorta Summer (Fossil & Fawn) Jenny Mossbacher and Jim Fisher’s label continues to impress.

Sorta Summer is a sparkling wine built on niagara, Concord and golden muscat grapes, with a little pinot thrown in. In the glass, it’s like liquid SweeTarts: puckery, refreshing sparkling candy.

Buy it at: Market of Choice, 1090 SE Belmont St., marketofchoice.com.

THE MISO Yakuza’s red miso means the bean paste has gone through a longer fermentation, yielding a robust flavor. It’s incorporated in a vegetable dashi, or stock, along with tofu and green onions.

THE KARAAGE Firm hunks of chicken thigh are marinated in garlic, ginger and mirin—a Japanese sweet cooking rice wine—and then dredged in a mixture of potato and corn flour. The poultry comes resting on a bed of Calrose rice.

THE SUSHI The crux of the roll is buttery Skuna Bay salmon, raised in the natural ocean environment off the coast of Vancouver Island and, not unlike a pre-owned car, must go through a vigorous 14-point inspection to ensure quality before they’re sent to market. Slices of fish are wrapped in soft Calrose rice along with grilled asparagus, diced green onion and chopped cucumber, which are then topped with chile oil.

C O U R T E S Y O F YA K U Z A

Everything in Its Right Place

3. P Chill (Swick Wines) A chillable, natural pinot noir with zonked-out crisp cherry acidity, a lovely, macerated ruby red color and a pool-ready vibe. If you really want to impress at your next ’cue, stash this bottle in the fridge or cooler and serve it nice and cold. Buy it at: ardornaturalwines.com.

4. Giovanni (Cameron Winery) An apertif wine for a hot, hot day from the paterfamilias of Oregon natural wine, John Paul. Lemon zest, ham with melon, herb bunch from the market—it happily evokes cocktail hour, like a vineyard full of Harvey Wallbangers.

Buy it at: World Foods, 830 NW Everett St., 503-802-0755, worldfoodsportland.com.

5. Chardonnay Pet Nat (Statera Cellars) More good Oregon sparkling for summer from Statera Cellars winemakers Meredith Bell and Luke Wylde. Their latest release is a dreamy, creamy, undisgorged sparkling chardonnay, profoundly drinkable and versatile, welcome at both the backyard fire pit or at 4 pm on the hottest day of August.

Buy it at: stateracellars.com.

JORDAN MICHELMAN.

JELL-O SHOTS! If you need further proof that times are truly bizarre, order some Jell-O shots to show up at your front door.

That’s right—the alcohol-infused snack best associated with frat parties and brain-splitting hangovers is also on the menu at Yakuza ($4).

“It’s a response,” McErlean says. “I thought, ‘Why not try it?’ Because people will think it’s fun, and we also don’t serve dessert. So this kind of covers both bases.”

Whether eaten at the end of your meal or slurped down before you dig in, the wobbly treats are only 0.37 percent alcohol, so it’ll take you quite a few to feel anything. The low ABV also allows Yakuza to sell them as a “food item,” McErlean says.

The shots aren’t actually made by the restaurant’s staffers. Instead, Yakuza has partnered with Portland cart Hell-O Jello. Do not order them expecting the kind of boozy lumps popped out of ice trays and frequently inhaled off a stranger’s chest. These shots are classier than that, dammit, and you actually need to eat them with a spoon.

Most recently, Yakuza was selling a raspberry mochi vodka shot, which was a condiment cup of ruby-hued gelatin bombed with red glitter that scooped more like a sorbet. The Jell-O shot may have grown up, but don’t worry. Think of it as the Kesha of “drinks”—still down to party and best enjoyed on special occasions. ANDI PREWITT. Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

23

FOOD & DRINK TOP 5

SNACK

HOT PLATES

Movie theaters are closed, but at a few Portland cinemas, the concession stands are doing big business.

BY AN DI P R E W I T T

CHRISTINE DONG

WESLEY LAPOINTE

Let’s All Go to the Lobby

Five black-owned restaurants to order takeout or delivery from this week.

KEE’S LOADED KITCHEN

1. Po’Shines Cafe De La Soul

aprewitt@wweek.com

Before you even see the line, you can smell the popcorn.

At first glance, one might assume Jeff Martin, owner of Joy Cinema in Tigard, is defying the statewide ban of large gatherings and running a bootleg movie house in plain sight. Why else would a half-dozen patrons be queued up if not to catch one of the oddball B films the theater is known for screening?

Watch the scene for more than a moment, though, and you’ll notice people rotating quickly through the theater’s entrance on Highway 99W—coming in empty-handed, and reemerging with armfuls of bagged popcorn, candy and, occasionally, a full growler of beer.

In truth, the Joy’s screen has been dark for months now.

But one aspect of the weekend movie night ritual survives: the purchase of fatty, salty and sweet concessions, likely to fuel a Netflix bender at home.

“Sales have been very good. They’ve been better than they would for just a day of movies—more popcorn than that!” Martin says with a laugh. “I said to my wife, ‘Why are we even showing movies?’”

Until the Joy can get back its primary purpose— although Washington County has been approved to reopen June 1, movie theaters remain closed—its front-ofhouse operations will have to do.

“It’s not a very original idea on our part,” Martin says of selling snacks to go, which he started in late April after seeing other local theaters having success with it, “but it seemed like a great idea somebody else had, so we’re happy to jump on it.”

So far, it’s proving to be a good gamble. On a recent Friday, the procession of customers, separated by sidewalk chalk markings while queued up out front, never slowed.

Most left with what looked like an entire Lord of the Rings marathon’s worth of large $5 sacks of fluffy, golden kernels. One man ordered with the fervor of a kid in a candy store for the first time, requesting four bags of popcorn, two sodas, one of each flavor of Charleston Chew, Reese’s Pieces and a Twix. Perhaps realizing the size of his purchase, he announced there were six children waiting for the haul at home.

Even though Martin couldn’t provide the actual entertainment, he’s happy to supply them with that evening’s sugar high.

“For us, as a business, it reminds me just how great our guests are and how much they mean to us,” he says. “They don’t just mean a lot to us financially—they’re friends of the business, too.”

PICKUP: Joy Cinema, 11959 SW Pacific Highway, 971-2456467, thejoycinema.com. 5-7 pm Friday-Saturday. Cash only.

8139 N Denver Ave., 503-978-9000, poshines.com.

A longtime purveyor of some of Portland’s best Cajun-inspired soul food—including chicken and waffles, red beans and rice, and hush puppies, as well as breakfast enchiladas—Po’Shines is open for takeout and offers free food to seniors Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 6 pm. Take a look at the menu and give them a call.

2. Jamaican Homestyle Cuisine 441 N Killingsworth St., 503-289-1423, jamaicanhomestylepdx.com.

Goat curry, jerk chicken and oxtail are all on the menu, as well as fried plantains and classic rice and peas. Call in an order for takeout, or order delivery through GrubHub, Caviar or Postmates.

3. Deadstock Coffee 408 NW Couch St., 971-220-8727, deadstockcoffee.com.

Pre-quarantine, Deadstock was an Old Town destination. Run by former Nike designer Ian Williams, it was a gallery and sneaker boutique that also poured a damn fine cup of coffee. You can order beans through the website or get a growler of cold brew and a pastry to go, along with merch at Deadstock’s website.

4. Kee’s Loaded Kitchen 4709 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-5162078, instagram.com/keesloadedkitchen.

Kee’s was named WW’s 2018 Cart of the Year for its overflowing takeaway containers of collards, ribs, wings and mac salad, and it’s still open for takeout, with offerings running $18 to $22 a plate.

5. Reo’s Ribs 4211 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-310-3600, reosribsbbq.com.

Reo Varnado’s famous and frequently relocated rib joint reopened at the end of 2018 after being shuttered by a fire that knocked it out of business for more than a year. It’s open for takeout and offers delivery through Postmates, Grubhub and Doordash.

Other Portland-Area Theaters Selling Concessions to Go

24

ST. JOHNS TWIN CINEMA 8704 N Lombard St., 503-286-1768, stjohnscinema.com.

WHAT’S AVAILABLE: Popcorn, beer and cider from Double Mountain, Narragansett tallboys and six-packs, soda, candy, movie posters. Also, four-packs of one large tub of popcorn, two boxes of candy, and a choice of beer, wine or champagne for $20.

HOW TO GET IT: Order through the website for contactless pickup at an available time.

WHAT’S AVAILABLE: Pizza and “movie kits” containing a jumbo popcorn, two large sodas or “adult beverages,” and two candies for $20.

HOW TO GET IT: Open for walk-ups 4-8 pm Friday-Sunday.

BEER

C J M O N S E R R AT

HOLLYWOOD THEATRE 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-493-1128, hollywoodtheatre.org.

JAMAICAN HOMESTYLE CUISINE Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

W W S TA F F

POTLANDER

The Stank Smell of Social Distance Six funky strains to keep the public away during this socially distant summer.

BY BRIA N N A W H E E L E R

Restrictions are lifting, temperatures are rising, and simmering exasperations are bubbling over from coast to coast. It begs us to ask the question: How can we protect our personal space, safely organize and possibly get a modicum of enjoyment during the summer of social distancing and upheaval?

As a humble cannabis columnist, my contribution is this. Let’s all refamiliarize ourselves with the Stank—an elite collection of mentally and physically fortifying cannabis strains so funky that regardless of how you mobilize for summer, your compatriots will give you a wide berth.

Whether you’re spending the first moments of the season protesting in the streets or reveling in another golden Portland summer—or, ideally, both—these outrageously pungent strains can help you maintain both a 6-foot safety sphere and a positive outlook.

❋ For Telepathically Connecting With Every Stoner in Your Stink Radius ❋ SKUNK #1

❋ For Summer Organizers ❋

❋ For an Eruption of Creativity ❋

GARLIC BUD

FRANKENCAKES

An activist’s work is never really finished, which is why taking time for yourself is key to successful organizing.

Garlic Bud’s cringe-inducing name describes a layered bouquet of roasted garlic cloves spattered with chemical runoff and finished with a cacophony of weird herbs, but thankfully the high is far less frenetic and aggressive than its fragrance. Garlic breath has its roots in the indica family, with a terpene profile featuring limonene and beta-caryophyllene. The result is a borderline incapacitating relaxation that effortlessly fuels the restorative sleep necessary for community engagement—at a distance.

At the intersection of fetid teenage-boy socks and simmering Camembert cheese is the heady cologne of Frankencakes, an indica-forward hybrid with a bold, focused energetic streak that balances out a silken body high.

In a certain state of mind, this strain can be powerfully creative, making it a top choice for daytime use. First, however, you must overcome the odor. If you can get past the belligerence of the funk, though, the high is well worth it.

G E T IT FR O M: The People’s Dispensary, 6714 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-477-5083, mytpd.com.

❋ For Dubious Social Navigators ❋ MEAT BREATH This captivating cultivar, the child of Meatloaf and Mendo Breath, is a “classic indica,” which is to say it has a more nuanced balance of physical relaxation and mental clarity than either of its similarly mellow parents. The powerful aroma, led by beta-caryophyllene and limonene, is indeed meaty—it’s reminiscent of both a rotting carcass and freshly spilled gasoline. The body high may be low-key couchlock material, but the head high is a breezy and uplifting panacea.

G E T I T F R O M : Growing Releaf, 4160 SW 109th Ave.,

GET IT FROM: Oregrown, 111 NE 12th Ave., oregrown.com.

The originator of the lineage, Skunk #1 has been permeating bedroom walls with its putrid reek since the 1970s.

Skunk has since begotten a number of phenotypes—UK Cheese included—but its signature rank perfume remains indistinguishable from actual skunk spray. The smell is an expression of the three dominant terpenes: myrcene, a terpene typically associated with relaxation, as well as alpha-pinene and limonene, which are both exuberantly anti-anxiety. The result is a buzzy sativaleaning hybrid with an electric body high and a warmly euphoric head high. If any strain could simultaneously alert nearby cannabis enthusiasts to your presence while repelling uppity squares from your eye line, Skunk #1 is that strain.

G E T I T F R O M: Pacific Gold West, 1010 S Gibbs St., 503477-5202, pacificgoldcannabis.com.

❋ For the Overwhelmed and Increasingly Anxious ❋

❋ For Celebrations of Life ❋

UK CHEESE

DEATHSTAR

UK Cheese is relaxing without being sedative, energetic without being obnoxious, and also elegantly euphoric.

But you may not glean that from its intrusively Gorgonzola-esque nose. Though the musty odor may overshadow its balanced hybrid effects, UK Cheese is a master at squelching anxiety and supporting pain relief. In an era marked by uncertainty, fear and PTSD on a global scale, this uniquely appropriate strain could serve us well in our recovery.

Heralded among industry insiders as possibly the stankiest strain known to mankind, Deathstar has the kind of loyal following only a truly exceptional strain can boast.

The high is a slow burn, smoldering until it ignites in a bright, reactive euphoria that magnifies even the tiniest of joys. It is a therapeutic high masquerading as a party buzz. The intense onset may be an exhilarating rush, but the relief from pain, nausea and anxiety is what keeps users revisiting this storied strain. The fragrance might motivate a slight retch, but the notes of diesel and rotting fruit foretell a swooning, body buzz matched by a sugary sweet head high.

G E T I T F R O M : Today’s Herbal Choice, 9220 S Barbur Blvd., No. 107, 503-208-3042, todaysherbalchoice.com.

GET IT FROM: Botanica, 4124 SE 60th Ave., 503-388-7663, botanicapdx.com.

Beaverton, 971-319-2939, growingreleaf.com.

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

25

DISTANT VOICES Watch our daily interviews with Portland favorites during quarantine wweek.com/distant-voices

KayelaJ

Carrie Brownstein

Bill Oakley

Bill Walton

Ron Wyden

Emily Menges

PERFORMANCE

Editor: Andi Prewitt / Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com

HOTSEAT

My Essential Seven:

Elizabeth Jackson

From baths to water bottles, Defunkt Theatre’s co-artistic director discusses her indispensable pleasures.

BY BE N N E T T C A M P B E LL FE RGUS O N

There is a vexing sticker on the red Nalgene water bottle that belongs to actress Elizabeth Jackson, who is also co-artistic director of Defunkt Theatre.

“I got this one sticker from Powell’s right before quarantine, and it just says, ‘Go outside,’ which I find hilarious,” Jackson says. “I feel like it’s now mocking me.”

Mocking Jackson isn’t a good idea—she’s one of the toughest theater artists in Portland. When she played a mixed martial arts fighter in Defunkt’s 2018 production of Girl in the Red Corner, it wasn’t all acting. She worked out for a year, and her commitment paid off with a performance that triumphantly embodied her character’s dexterity, discipline and rage.

Jackson is also the owner of a pet-sitting business, a lover of cheese plates and oysters, and the partner of actor Matt Smith (no, not the one from Doctor Who). Those topics and more came up as she revealed seven things that she considers essential in her life—and luckily, many of them don’t involve going outside.

1. My family (partner, cat, bonus kids) “I have an apartment in Southeast Portland, where I live with my cat, and my partner lives out in Raleigh Hills, almost Beaverton, with three kids from a previous relationship. We’re kind of quarantining together. We’re calling our houses one household, which is such a relief as a person who lives alone.”

2. Houseplants “I really didn’t start getting into house plants until I moved to Portland from Texas about five years ago. I brought with me a pothos plant that I had saved from an old office that I had worked at. I have probably a dozen plants that I propagated from that one plant, and the last time I counted, I had 42 houseplants total. I really like taking care of them and seeing them grow and being surrounded by life and greenery. That’s the way I like to decorate.”

3. Tea (a multidrawer tea box) “It’s a pretty simple oak box. It’s probably 18 inches across, maybe 10 inches tall, 4 inches deep. My ex-fatherin-law built it—years ago, he was a carpenter. My ex and I got it from a storage unit after he passed away, and I just started filling it with tea. It’s actually meant to be a tool drawer where you would keep different screws, nails, things like that. I just love tea—any sort of herbal tea is my jam.”

4. Preparing multicourse meals “I prepare a menu in my head and normally there’s an hors d’oeuvre, a salad, an entree, a dessert. I do that for just me, whenever I’m home by myself. And then, for Thanksgiving, Matt and I do a huge thing. We cook for seven, eight, nine hours, and I just think, ‘OK, when are the potatoes going to be done? When should I pop the asparagus in? When should I wrap the prosciutto?’ It’s like a play.”

5. Hot baths paired with cold fizzy water “About a couple of years ago, I did a series on social media about everything I do while I’m taking a bath. I’ll do my taxes or answer emails. I have fibromyalgia, so taking an Epsom salt bath provides a lot of relief. And then really, really cold fizzy water from a SodaStream is just refreshing and hydrating while I’m in the bathtub.”

6. My Nalgene bottle “It’s like a safety blanket for me. I’m kind of obsessed with hydration. The one that I had previously I had since 2015, but on a trip that Matt and I took to Laguna Beach and Joshua Tree, we got stuck in Orange County traffic and we were so late to the airport. I tried to go through security, but I had water in my Nalgene and they were like, ‘You have to go back through the line and dump this out,’ and I was like, ‘No, I’ll just throw it away!’ and it was like throwing away one of my children.”

7. Marco Polo (the app) “My sister is maybe my best friend. I get to talk to her all the time on Marco Polo, so it’s pretty important to me. [We] both have a subscription to Ipsy, which offers a beauty product bag that you get each month. So we’ll do our Ipsy bag unveiling for each other, but no one else can see it.”

BOOKS

Written by: Scout Brobst / Contact: sbrobst@wweek.com

FIVE BOOKS THAT’LL REMIND YOU OF BETTER TIMES The Club King, Peter Gatien (2020) Nightclubs and their ongoing assault against the tyranny of personal space are a cesspool of viral activity, and the odds of getting a tequila shot spilled on you at Holocene this year are slim. A pseudo-alternative is The Club King, the new memoir by the kingpin of Manhattan nightlife in the 1980s, Peter Gatien. Gatien is either hero or villain depending on what mood you’re in, but his story is undeniably an account of psychedelic excess, which is in short supply these days.

Come for the platinum anecdotes, stay for the tirade against Rudy Giuliani.

Swamplandia!, Karen Russell (2011) Swamplandia occupies a space between reality and holography, a strange sort of reality-plus not unlike the times we are living in right now. Tragically, what we don’t have access to at the moment are gator-wrestling theme parks, which is exactly what Karen Russell takes on in her heady, outlandish fiction debut. Swamplandia! is about the show business of creatures—snakes, mosquitoes, Florida men and “swamp centaurs”—as well as the 13-year-old girl at the apex of it all. It’s bizarre and dreamy in all the ways that quarantine is bizarre and sad.

If I Had Your Face, Frances Cha (2020) In many ways, Frances Cha’s buzzy debut is an unpacking of female wish-fulfillment— the aesthetic ideals we find it too difficult to question, the fantasies we fall in love with, and the markers of happiness we learn to accept.

In a less philosophical, purely coincidental way, If I Had Your Face is an ode to pre-pandemic life. The book is about what goes on behind closed doors, but for most of us, those doors haven’t been opened in some time, at least not enough to shelter any illicit activity.

The plastic surgery operations, salon appointments and late-night bar conversations that Cha describes are now squarely within the fantasy genre.

Friday Night Lights, Buzz Bissinger (1990) Yes, like the TV show. Whether or not you have a passing interest in the inner workings of high school football, Friday Night Lights is a rare piece of narrative nonfiction that works for any audience. Thirty years ago, journalist Buzz Bissinger moved to the small town of Odessa, Texas, to report on the outsized importance of high school football in places where local celebrity peaks at 18. What he produced was an honest, compelling account of young power in the South. It’ll be some time before anyone will stand shoulder to shoulder on metal bleachers again, so this is your consolatory literary stand-in.

Names for the Sea, Sarah Moss (2013) Ah, to abandon the continental United States and take up a new life in Reykjavik, living among the volcanic craters and Icelandic cod—or to travel anywhere at all. Author and academic Sarah Moss, in her signature visual prose, describes what it was like to move to a cold new place on a whim, adapting to a temporary homeland that is at once strikingly beautiful and economically fragile. “The northern sky, dark over the sea, is mottled with green that spreads like spilt paint, disappears and spreads again,” Moss writes. “I tread water, and watch.”

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

27

MOVIES While local rep theaters are out of commission, we’ll put together weekly watchlists of films readily available to stream.

This week’s theme celebrates the launch of HBO Max, which, admittedly, offers an impressively large selection of critically acclaimed classic films. Not an ad, just an observation!

Klute (1971) In this neo-noir crime romance, detective John Klute (Donald Sutherland) enlists wily sex worker Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda) to help solve a missing person case, which quickly escalates when they start tracking down a serial killer. Featuring an unforgettable, layered, all-time best performance by Fonda, who won her welldeserved Oscar for Best Actress. Amazon Prime, Google Play, HBO Max, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.

The Philadelphia Story (1940) Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Cary Grant round out the all-star cast of this essential romcom, which centers on a socialite (Hepburn) whose marriage plans are upended by the arrival of her dashing ex-husband (Grant) and a tabloid reporter (Stewart). High jinks, soul-searching and a complicated love rectangle ensue. Amazon Prime, Google Play, HBO Max, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.

True Stories (1986) Talking Heads frontman David Byrne’s directorial debut is a whimsical musical comedy consisting of a series of vignettes chronicling the inhabitants of Virgil, Texas, as they prepare for their annual celebration of specialness. Byrne himself stars as our Stetson-wearing idiosyncratic narrator, and John Goodman co-stars in one of his first film roles. Amazon Prime, Google Play, HBO Max, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.

A Woman Under the Influence (1974) When a frayed housewife (Gena Rowlands) suffers a mental breakdown, her husband (Peter Falk) is left to care for their children.

Auteur dreamboat John Cassavetes’ beautifully raw writing, direction and collaboration with real-life wife Rowlands makes for one of the most heartbreakingly authentic dramas of all time. Amazon Prime, HBO Go, HBO Max, Hulu, iTunes, Vudu.

An American in Paris (1951) A major inspiration for La La Land (also streaming on HBO Go and Max), this musical romance centers on an American painter (Gene Kelly, also serving as choreographer) and his Parisian love affair with a perfume girl (Leslie Caron in her film debut). Highlights include Kelly’s delightful performance of “I Got Rhythm” and the luscious 17-minute climactic dance number.

Amazon Prime, Google Play, HBO Max, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.

28

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

SCREENER

IMDB

G ET YOUR REP S I N

Editor: Andi Prewitt / Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com

Not Lost in Translation Church of Film’s Muriel Lucas has added English subtitles to works by pioneering director Sarah Maldoror, who died from COVID-19 complications.

UN DESSERT POUR CONSTANCE

BY S H ANNO N GOR MLEY sgormley@wweek.com

The first time Muriel Lucas, the mastermind behind Portland pop-up screening series Church of Film, saw Sambizanga, it left them shook.

“It was so different than every political film I’ve ever seen,” says Lucas. “I love radical cinema, and I watch a lot of that big, legendary, guerrilla-inspired cinema, but a lot of it just frustrates me, bores me. Some of it’s terrifying in its patriarchal, authoritarian bent.”

Released in 1972, Sambizanga was written and directed by French filmmaker Sarah Maldoror, who died from COVID-19 complications in April. Set in colonial Angola, Sambizanga follows a wife searching for her husband, a liberation fighter who is imprisoned and tortured by the Portuguese secret police.

Even though it is by far her most famous work, the drama has never been distributed in the U.S. In fact, much of the pioneering director’s oeuvre remains largely unknown, but Lucas is hoping to change that by translating a handful of Maldoror’s films for the Church of Film’s streaming service, Church of Film TV. “I didn’t have a complete picture of her as an artist,” says Lucas. “I thought of her as this militant, great political filmmaker.

You don’t often get—unless you get to see a person’s whole body of work—what they’re actually fascinated in, what they really want to say as an artist.”

The daughter of a Guadeloupean father and French mother, Maldoror was born in 1929. She co-founded France’s first black theater company, Les Griots, and got her start in film working as an assistant on the 1966 anti-colonial classic The Battle of Algiers.

She went on to become one of the first women to direct a featurelength film in Africa, and developed a collection of more than 40 shorts and full-length films during her lifetime.

According to Lucas, the reason Maldoror’s work is often overlooked is clear.

“The answer’s pretty obvious: She was a black woman making political cinema,” says Lucas. “This is not a market that capitalist markets are interested in. Obviously, she had a hard time getting production money.”

Despite Lucas’ love of Sambizanga and talent for digging up obscure movies, it took them years to find good-quality versions of any of Maldoror’s other projects. Last month, however, Lucas was able to add new English subtitles to three of Maldoror’s lesser-known works, all of which are streaming for free on Church of Film’s Vimeo page.

The trio stand out for their lightheartedness and realism.

There’s Miró, peintre, a 1980 documentary short about an exhibit

by Spanish painter Joan Miró. In Scala Milan A.C. (2003), a group of French teenagers make a film about their neighborhood in order to win a trip to Milan—and end up enlisting jazz legend Archie Shepp for help. The 1981 made-for-TV feature Un dessert pour Constance follows Bokolo (Sidiki Bakaba) and Mamadou (Cheik Doukouré), two Paris street sweepers who enter a cooking

quiz show in an attempt to win money so their terminally ill friend Bruno (Elias Sherif ) can fly home to Senegal.

Translating those works required what Lucas calls “internet archaeology,” or digging through film forums, which eventually led to a Vimeo page that featured Un dessert pour Constance with Spanish subtitles. They weren’t well synced, but close enough to work. After securing that transcript, Lucas could start translating the dialogue to English.

“This is a French film, they translated it to Spanish, I translated it to English,” says Lucas. “It’s a game of telephone sometimes.”

A former Latin teacher who took French in college, Lucas often retools subtitles for Church of Film screenings, but the Maldoror translations were a substantial undertaking. For instance, in Scala Milan A.C., the actors often use slang. And the cooking vocabulary for Un dessert pour Constance posed an extra challenge given the deliberate absurdity of the dishes: a recipe for “squabs” that Mamadou memorizes for the quiz show requires two partridges, a bottle of white wine, sirloin steak and a whole cup of gelatin. Lucas consulted native French speakers at times, but most of the effort consisted of Lucas sitting in front of a computer screen, sifting through each word.

“One of the weirdest, most intimate ways you can know an artist is just by picking apart a work line by line,” says Lucas.

“That’s what you have to do with subtitles.”

Watching the three works, Maldoror’s fixations begin to emerge: how lives are influenced by chance, how the working class shapes culture, and the optimism of mutual aid. There are uniquely humanist moments, like when Maldoror zooms in on the smiling faces of children in Miró, peintre as they enjoy some truly bizarre performance art. Scenes scattered throughout Un dessert pour Constance show Mamadou and Bokolo joking aimlessly together during breaks, slyly giggling at their boss, who treats street cleaning like a patriotic calling, while laughing off the white Parisians who respond to the duo’s frivolity with unwelcoming glances.

But even that humor has a radical bent. At one point in Un dessert pour Constance, after they’ve paid for Bruno to return to his family, Mamadou and Bokolo share a moment of reflection. Bokolo says what’s important is that Bruno is gone.

“No, brother,” replies Mamadou. “The important thing is never laboring in the midst of loneliness and contempt.”

A film this layered yet watchable, and so kind to its characters, should never be lost to the mass grave of made-forTV movies. Fortunately, Lucas believes there will always be fans eager to unearth these treasures.

“It really is up to scrappy film enthusiasts to often track these down and do the work,” says Lucas. “Because the capital channels are not going to work for this cinema. It doesn’t work for a lot of cinema.”

SEE IT: Miró, peintre, Scala Milan A.C. and Un dessert pour Constance stream for free on Church of Film’s Vimeo page.

June 3-9 IMDB

MOVIES OUR KEY

: T H I S M O V I E I S E XC E L L E N T, O N E O F T H E B E S T O F T H E Y E A R. : T H I S M O V I E I S G O O D. W E R E C O M M E N D YO U WATC H I T. : T H I S M O V I E I S E N T E R TA I N I N G B U T F L AW E D. : T H I S M O V I E I S A P I E C E O F S H I T.

TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

The Vast of Night Much as the pandemic has wrought havoc on distribution schemes, few films have ever been so perfectly pitched for both drive-in showings and isolated streamings as The Vast of Night. It opens on a Friday night in 1950s Cayuga, New Mexico, where seemingly everyone in the small fictional town is headed to the high school gym to cheer on the basketball team. Except for sciencey bobby soxer Fay (Sierra McCormick), who discovers an odd electronic burbling on the local telephone switchboard and enlists radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz’s take on a swaggering A/V club alpha) to hunt down its origins. This is a period piece, but for all the painstakingly curated Cold War-era trappings, there’s more than a whiff of the ’80s indie auteur heyday.

The heightened strangeness of a pulsing insularity veers decidedly Lynchian while the restless camerawork and supra-distinct regionalismstuffed dialogue smacks of early Coen brothers. Alas, though Andrew Patterson’s cinematic debut remains uniformly gorgeous, a wispy narrative can’t quite sustain that initial tone of white-knuckled suspense as a genre-busting rabbit hole that turns into a Cloverfield-ish mystery box. But the lingering dread of the unseen and unknowable perseveres nonetheless. For a feature effectively premiering via the Amazon age of ubiquity, The Vast of Night thrusts suspicions squarely upon our supposed mastery of instantaneous communication and wrings fear from a moment of static. PG-13. JAY HORTON. Amazon Prime.

ALSO PLAYING Driveways Gentle and touching, the second feature from Korean American director Andrew Ahn is a warm embrace of a movie when we need it most. This low-key drama works as an examination of how small acts of kindness can result in great rewards, and provides a coda to Brian Dennehy’s rich career following the actor’s death last month. He plays Del, a Korean War veteran and widower perfectly content to spend his final days on the front porch watching shadows dance on his driveway as life passes by, until a single mother, Kathy (Hong Chau), and her 8-year-old son, Cody (Lucas Jaye), arrive next door. Kathy is there to clean out her dead sister’s home and get it ready to place on the market.

That leads her son to form an unlikely yet touching bond with the old man, since he desperately needs both a friend and father figure. While mismatched buddies are a common trope in indie pictures, Driveways gives Cody and Del texture, and the actors flesh out their roles with stellar, subdued depictions. “I wish I took the time to take a good look at stuff,” Del explains in a tear-jerking monologue in which he shares life advice with the boy. He’s talking about relishing what’s in front of you before it’s gone, a kernel of wisdom for those watching Dennehy’s final, deeply moving performance.

NR. ASHER LUBERTO. Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube.

Arkansas If you know Clark Duke only as the bespectacled fourth wheel of the Hot Tub Time Machine movies, you might not assume he has a Southern noir in his bag, much less one with the crime-movie literacy of Donnie

Brasco and a Flaming Lips soundtrack.

Duke’s directorial debut, a Lionsgate release redirected to VOD this month, fields a stacked cast of Arkansas drug runners: Liam Hemsworth and Duke as our two flunky protagonists, and Vince Vaughn, John Malkovich, Vivica A. Fox and Michael K. Williams as compelling higher-ups. And what this adaptation of John Brandon’s 2009 novel lacks in production value—shot with the overly digital flimsiness of so many streaming originals—it more than makes up for with well-tuned dialogue and acting that embraces a Southern gentility right up until it’s bashing those good manners over the head. Replacing the near-gothic seriousness of a True Detective is the loony banality of drug-smuggler movie nights, sweaty man buns, fireworks emporiums and Vaughn spending probably half the movie’s budget on flamboyant Western button-downs.

Despite an epic structure that jumps through time, Arkansas remains light on its feet and successfully normalizes criminal life by presenting the same unreliable co-workers, thankless chores, and finite shelf lives of any other profession. R. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Amazon Prime, iTunes, On Demand.

Blood Quantum For as long as one side’s been the horde and the other survivors, the zombie narrative has been ripe for moral and political bite, critiquing slavery, consumerism, global warming and more. Now, for an urgent indigenous people’s take on the genre, writer-director Jeff Barnaby (Rhymes for Young Ghouls) brings the zombie outbreak to a fictionalized version of his place of origin: the Mi’gmaq reserve in Quebec. On its face, Blood Quantum is a capably directed smalltown bloodbath, and a fitting entry in the horror film library. There’s a katana

THE VAST OF NIGHT in the mix and an upstanding police officer, and the acting ranges from serviceable to apocalyptically ominous on the parts of Kiowa Gordon (The Red Road) and Gary Farmer (Dead Man). Mostly, it’s the point of view that elevates Blood Quantum, bringing something new to the reanimatedcorpse thriller. Without much explicit commentary, Barnaby’s film asks how a community under centuries of duress can confront a new threat that resembles old perils: diseased blankets, broken bargains and poisoned natural resources. “I’m not leaving this land again,” proclaims a Mi’gmaq defender during a pivotal stand. You won’t know whether to pump your fist or dry your eyes. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Amazon Prime, Shudder.

Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics Most people agree you don’t have to take acid to find out what it’s like—countless song lyrics, at least one adventurous friend, or even Google will tell you all you need to know. Donick Cary’s Netflix doc uses a treasure trove of celebrities to go into more detail, allowing the subjects to spin funny anecdotes about how cool, singular and harmless LSD trips really are.

Although Have a Good Trip aims for lighthearted entertainment rather than presenting a scientific thesis, you walk away feeling like it might be safe to give it a try—or give it a second go. As stars like A$AP Rocky, David Cross and Ben Stiller describe themselves tripping balls, revue-style reenactments and ’60s album cover-inspired animation play on the screen. The now-deceased Carrie Fisher and Anthony Bourdain have some of the more memorable stories, the latter’s involving a road trip, shrooms and an almost-dead stripper. Nick Offerman serves as host, wearing a lab coat while explaining, “Don’t get me wrong, drugs can be dangerous. But they can also be hilarious.” A couple slow sections aside, Cary’s directorial debut passes the acid test with flying colors. TV-MA. ASHER LUBERTO. Netflix.

The High Note Maggie Sherwood (Dakota Johnson) has hit a wall in her job as a personal assistant. After several years of mindless errands for her boss/ hero, superstar Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross, daughter of Motown singer Diana Ross), Maggie can no longer repress her aspirations to become a music producer. But backlash from Davis’ manager (Ice Cube) and the intimidating statistic that just 2.1 percent of music producers are women threaten to dash her dreams.

What anchors the film is the romance between Maggie and her client David (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). Johnson expertly blurs the line between confident and terrified, while Harrison’s smoothtalking musician harbors a sweetly nervous side, alchemizing some lovely chemistry. Though bogged down by clichéd dialogue and a wonky twist, Flora Greeson’s script deserves credit for being one of the few stories about the music industry told from a strictly female perspective. This is familiar territory for director Nisha Ganatra, who also helmed 2019’s Late Night, a comedy about being the sole woman of color in a writers’ room. The High Note follows in those footsteps: It’s harmless and well-intentioned, and relies on the talent of its leads to carry the plot. PG-13. MIA VICINO. On Demand.

The Lovebirds

law and a mysterious killer played by Paul Sparks (Waco, House of Cards).

While the desire to sit back and let Nanjiani and Rae shine is perfectly understandable, The Lovebirds consists of little more than throwing its highly talented stars into increasingly ridiculous situations and letting them riff upon said ridiculousness.

This results in some funny moments, but overall The Lovebirds is another average—if somewhat charming—entry in the ever-growing content receptacle that is the Netflix library. R. DONOVAN FARLEY. Netflix.

Spaceship Earth Somewhere around the time eight kinda-sorta scientists run out of oxygen in their own biosphere, you’re likely to get frustrated that this Neon-Hulu documentary doesn’t allow its utterly unique story to be more interesting. The petri dish certainly swims with fascinating variables, as a caravan of Bay Area thespians turns into mechanical geniuses, sailing entrepreneurs and ’90s news staples as they seal themselves in an Arizona biome for two years. They were after something grand but confused: scientific breakthrough without proper data, radical environmentalism funded by an oil fortune, and a sense of community without any realworld outreach. The troupe’s 16 mm footage spanning the ’60s through the ’90s is certainly a marvel in its own right, but the great sin of Matt Wolf’s documentary is that it puts no effort into clearing up a story obfuscated by ideals with no names and missions with no goals. It’s not as though the doc needs to find the biospherists guilty of cultish behavior to be worthwhile, but the amount of pseudo-scientific or vaguely inspirational hooey the film lets slide without clarification or exploration flatly defeats the purpose. “There’s all this stuff, and what’s gonna happen?”

Biosphere 2 botanist Linda Leigh defines the group’s “alternative” approach to science. That pretty much sums up Spaceship Earth’s approach, too. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Amazon Prime, Google Play, Hulu, YouTube.

At one point in The Lovebirds, Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani) comments on the dramatic misadventures he’s suddenly found himself in with soonto-be-ex-girlfriend Leilani (Issa Rae): “This is like The Amazing Race, but with dead people.” And that’s essentially what you get from this film. Nanjiani and director Michael Showalter last paired up in the awardwinning The Big Sick, and though the talented Showalter has two dream leads in Rae and Nanjiani, The Lovebirds never elevates itself beyond “this is fine” territory. The plot involves Jibran and Leilani getting thrown into a convoluted conspiracy mere moments after agreeing to break up, sending them on the run from both the Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

29

Featured artist: Paola De La Cruz

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

SPOTLIGHT

Paola De La Cruz is a DominicanAmerican illustrator residing in Portland, OR. She interweaves digital and analog media, patterns, stitching and shape-based illustrations to evoke intimacy while challenging the themes of cultural identity, sexuality and coming of age.

Be a Willamette Week featured artist!

Contact us at art@wweek.com.

30

Willamette Week JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

JONESIN’

Week of JUNE 3

©2020 Rob Brezsny

by Matt Jones

"Take Two"--one of each to connect.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

fantasy of a desirable scenario.

Aries poet Paul Verlaine wrote "Autumn Song" in 1866.

It became a well-known French poem, and eventually played a role in a historical turning point. In June 1944, a top-secret British spy organization used the poem as a code to communicate crucial information to the French Resistance, via BBC radio, about the allies' upcoming D-Day invasion of Normandy. In the spirit of poetry being used to accomplish practical actions, I'm now sending out a burst of code to you, Aries. It's adapted from another poem by Verlaine: "Delight in good-omened fortune, baptized by the bristling scents of mint, thyme, and clover on the wind of dawn."

Regard this as a signal for you to acquire a necessary resource, strengthen connections with key allies, and intensify your current quest.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Taurus philosopher Bertrand Russell observed, "The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest." That is always an important principle for everyone to embrace, in my opinion. But it will be anespecially essential truth for you in the coming weeks. Your creative powers will thrive, even soar and generate blessings, to the degree that you downplay and outwit your possessive inclinations.

"What use is this howling tenderness?" wrote eighthcentury Tamil mystic poet Andal. My research on Google reveals that no one has answered her question until now. I decided you would benefit from hearing my response, since you are in a chapter of your life story when howling tenderness could work to your benefit. So here's my counsel: Howling tenderness is useful because it has the power to shatter mysterious barriers that have been at least partially obstructing you from exploring the frontiers of sacred intimacy.

GEMINI (May 21-June20)

ACROSS

about tattooists

1 "Interstate Love Song" band, briefly

65 Candle material

4 "Fiddler on the Roof" dance

67 Bequeaths

8 Frenzied 14 Some old Chryslers 16 Former Georgian president Shevardnadze 17 *Pioneering video game company founded in 1972 18 Egyptian goddess of love 19 Like almost all restaurant orders these days

66 "Go easy on me" 68 Show that moved from Fox to ABC, familiarly 69 "I just finished the puzzle!" exclamation DOWN 1 "Get a move on, Mittens!"

2 "The Wizard of Oz" dog 3 Down-to-earth

20 Plate

4 _ _ _ polloi

22 Lennon's second wife

5 Sash for a kimono

23 *Japanese variation on a frozen dessert

6 "Amazing" magician famous for debunking

28 Like old wristwatches 30 "I know! Pick me!"

31 Turn bad 32 "Where _ _ _" (song by Beck) 35 "Wow, cool!"

39 *Redundant-sounding title for an "X-Files" agent 42 "I'm Gonna Git You _ _ _" (Keenen Ivory Wayans film) 43 "Clueless" actress Donovan 44 Powerful sphere 45 "_ _ _ a Kick Out of You" (Cole Porter song) 47 First name in the 2020 campaign 49 *Home of Indira Gandhi International Airport 54 Prefix meaning "egg" 55 Nickname of a '50s-'60s sitcom kid

7 PC character system used for some "art" 8 Laugh from Beavis 9 "When Your Child Drives You Crazy" author LeShan 10 Partner of paste 11 Lake between two states 12 Richie Rich's metallic, robotic maid 13 Format for Myst, back then

34 Comm. from some translators 36 Characteristic of Schonberg's music 37 "Boys for Pele" singer Amos 38 "It's either hunt _ _ _ hunted" 40 "Just joking around" 41 Publisher's multi-digit ID 46 Macaroni shapes 48 "Mr. Mojo _ _ _" (repeated words in The Doors' "L.A. Woman") 49 Nick of "Cape Fear" 50 Dasani rival 51 Handle with skill 52 Fancy way of saying "feet"?

53 Covered with green creepers 57 "Lost _ _ _ Mancha" (2002 documentary) 58 It's seen near the hyphen 60 Traffic sign warning 61 Pull along 63 It may come after long

24 Invention of new words 25 "House Hunters" cable channel

28 Kennel noises

56 Freudian error

29 Chef Matsuhisa who co-owns a restaurant with Robert De Niro

59 Is untruthful with

33 Be really mad

62 *Former TLC reality show ©2020 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #JNZ990.

last week’s answers

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield articulates the spiritual medicine I think you should seek in the coming weeks. You especially need it, and by happy coincidence, it's likely to be available. Kornfield writes: "When we have for so long been judged by everyone we meet, just to look into the eyes of another who does not judge us can be extraordinarily healing." I urge you to identify the people who can perform this service for you, then ask them pointblank to perform this service, even if it has to happen over FaceTime or via Zoom. To generate the good karma that will ensure this happens in just the right way, offer to perform the same service for others.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

I'm one of the lucky people who has never been addicted to alcohol or drugs. What's the source of my great fortune? Two kinds of grace are key: I suffered no abuse and trauma when I was growing up, and my genetic make-up doesn't predispose me to self-medicate with intoxicants. But I am indeed a bit addicted to other things, like fearful fantasies, sexual feelings, and the urge to win arguments. So I'm blessed in some ways, cursed in others—just like all of us! In honor of our season of introspection, my fellow Cancerian, I invite you to do what I just did: Count your blessings and curses. Doing so will bring you just the right kind of healing.

"The changes we dread most may contain our salvation," writes author Barbara Kingsolver.

Although I mostly agree with her conclusion, I'll also suggest that we could come up with less melodramatic versions of it. For example, we might say, "The adjustments we're resisting may actually be healthy." Or "The uncomfortable transitions we're avoiding might ultimately lead to a better version of comfort." Or "The revelations we're attempting to ignore and deny could eventually be the source of relief and release." Do any of these work for you right now, Capricorn? I bet at least one does.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

"Jacquemus Mini Le Chiquito" is the name of a tiny purse you can buy for $522. It fits into the palm of your hand, and won't hold much—maybe a single-use strand of dental floss, a shoe from a Barbie doll, a snippet of a loved one's hair, an aspirin, maybe a few crumbs from a potato chip. In any case, I don't recommend it for you. You should be surrounding yourself with symbols of capaciousness and roominess. You need influences that inspire you to be a spacious container. It's time for you to welcome and receive an abundance of blessings, inquiries, and invitations.

Some people seem to think of sacredness as being pristine and pious—an immaculate and orderly transcendence of earthly concerns. Author and minister Marilyn Sewell has a different perspective.

"Who can order the Holy?" she asks. "It is like a rain forest, dripping, lush, fecund, wild. We enter its abundance at our peril, for here we are called to the wholeness for which we long, but which requires all we are and can hope to be." I recommend Sewell's version of holiness to you in the coming weeks, Aquarius. You're primed to upgrade and deepen your sacred lust for life.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

21 _ _ _ Brothers Records (longtime label for "Weird Al" Yankovic)

27 Cassowary's cousin

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

64 Blanc behind Bugs

15 Emulate Pavlov's dogs

26 Did a Cuban ballroom dance

"OK to live a life others don't understand," writes author Jenna Woginrich. That's a healthy attitude for an eccentric person like her, who taught herself by trial and error how to run a small farm with a meager budget while all alone in the middle of nowhere. But does her advice apply to everyone? I say yes, it does.

All of us have quirky behaviors and idiosyncratic ideas and odd feelings that other people find hard to understand, let alone appreciate. I bring this to your attention, Gemini, because the coming weeks will be a time when it's best for you to emancipate yourself as much as possible from the need to be perfectly understood as you express your raw, pure, unique self.

Nobel Prize-winning Libran author William Faulkner was asked by a cousin if he was drunk when he dreamed up the imaginative stories and characters in his novels. The truth was that on occasion Faulkner did indeed consume alcohol in excessive amounts.

However, he rarely indulged while actually writing.

His creative ideas mostly came from his fertile imagination, not an unhinged spirit. In the coming weeks, I hope you will be like Faulkner during the inventive phases he enjoyed while sober and disciplined and driven by focused intention. The astrological omens suggest that's the best recipe for generating original ideas and productive visions.

"Worry is a way to pretend that you have knowledge or control over what you don’t," writes author Rebecca Solnit. "And it surprises me, even in myself, how much we prefer ugly scenarios to the pure unknown." Your assignment in the coming weeks is to thoroughly incorporate Solni's wisdom—and then wield it with tender ferocity as you reshape your relationship with the future. See if you can manage, if only for ten days, to fight off and dissolve the reflex to worry. Here's a tip: Any time the agitated fantasy of an ugly scenario rises up in your imagination, remind yourself that it's not objectively true and immediately replace it with a

When Europeans arrived in the New World, the Iroquois Confederacy in what's now northeastern North American had been practicing participatory democracy for 350 years. The visionary principles of these native people ultimately influenced the formation of the United States and its Constitution.

Now would be a good time for you to be inspired by these facts. How? You could draw teachings from the past and use them to create your future. You could study the perspectives of indigenous people and incorporate their wisdom into the way you live your life. You could tune in to and explore the traditions of people you respect and adopt them for your own use.

HOMEWORK: What's your favorite thing to do when you're alone?

Testify: FreeWillAstrology.com Check out Rob Brezsny’s Expanded Weekly Audio Horoscopes & Daily Text Message Horoscopes

freewillastrology.com The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at

1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700 Willamette Week Classifieds JUNE 3, 2020 wweek.com

31

CLASSIFIEDS TO PLACE AN AD, CONTACT:

MICHAEL DONHOWE

503-243-2122 mdonhowe@wweek.com CASH for INSTRUMENTS

Tradeupmusic.com, SW 503-452-8800 SE - 503-236-8800 NE - 503-335-8800

Steve Greenberg Tree Service Pruning and removals, stump grinding. 24-hour emergency service.

Licensed/Insured. CCB#67024. Free estimates. 503-284-2077

Complete Yard Service Senior Discounts We do it all! Trimming, hedges & shrubs, 5/31/2020 pruning, bark dust, gutter cleaning, leaf cleanup & weeding, blackberries and ivy removal, staining, pressure washing & water sealing 503-235-0491 or 503-853-0480

Divorce & Family Law Mediation

Sunlan Lighting For all your lightbulb fixtures & parts Visit the Star Wars Windows.jpg

3901 N Mississippi Ave 503.281.0453

Essential Business Hours

9:00 to 5:30 Monday thru Friday, 11:00 to 4:00 Saturday

Save Money & Determine Your Own Fair Results david@mediate.com 503-517-813

Need Patrol and stationary security officers now Hiring bonus. Start $14/hour, one week vacation, sick leave, paid training Harbor Security 503-262-5538 EOE

TRADEUPMUSIC.COM Buying, selling, instruments of every shape and size.

Open 11am-7pm every day.

4701 SE Division & 1834 NE Alberta.

Sunlan cartoons by Kay Newell "The Lightbulb Lady" Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Google

www.sunlanlighting.com

Great Deals. Every Day.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#label/Apple+Mail+To+Do%2FSunlan+Art/FMfcgxwHNVxDvNpmDsZsTzcDbGkTZMXx?projector=1&m…

1/1

All 4 Floyd’s Locations!

9240 N. Whitaker | 801 NE Broadway | 5944 NE Sandy | 5217 SE 28th

Is It Open?

WW's list of local business openings, updated daily.

Get on the list at : wweek.isitopen

5 8

$ $ .33 GRAMS 1/8THS CONCENTRATE of

Open Daily 9am- 9:55pm 21+ Recreational

| 18+ Medical

FloydsFineCannabis.com While supplies last. Some restrictions may apply. Tax not included.

Keep marijuana out of the reach of children. Do not operate a vehicle or machine under the influence of marijuana.