“The flower’s stem [wrapping around the subject] represents an African violet, which symbolizes growth and renewal in the Black community. In addition, African violets symbolize strength, courage, and devotion, and in folklore, are considered a source of protection. I tried to incorporate an afrofuturism feel through the flower blooming this portal to space, a place of infinite possibilities.”
CREATIVE DIRECTION
Corianton Hale
THE TRASH REPORT
BY ELINOR JONES LOVE IS TRASH!
Hello my little lovebirds! Welcome to this very special Valentine’s Day edition of the Trash Report. Love is a wonderful feeling, and although this is a very stupid holiday, this column will be extremely layered and complex. I hope you’re ready to access the darkest corners of your heart you’d forgotten even existed. Just kidding! Hearts don’t have corners; they are not an angular shape. Let’s just gossip, okay?
Love Report!
The most seemingly in-love famous couple on the scene these days is no doubt A$AP Rocky and Rihanna . When appearing on a podcast recently, Rocky was asked how they keep the spark alive, and he talked about making time for each other, and dating and being friends. This is an overly complicated answer as far as I’m concerned. I think the main way to stay interested in one’s relationship with Rihanna is to be in a relationship with Rihanna . Just look at her. That’s the spark…. Speaking of keeping the love alive, Chrissy Teigen shared that as far as her husband John Legend knows, she has never farted or pooped. That’s pretty impressive since rich people seem to travel
a lot and that always gets the downstairs systems all messed up. Did fancy hotels never get hit with the stupid barn door bathroom trend that left giant gaps everywhere, doing nothing for sound insulation? That must be nice. Some of us have to wait until our partners go to the lobby for coffee to do anything gross. In other couples news, it delights me to no end to remind people that Chilli of TLC is dating Matthew Lawrence of Lawrence Brothers It’s like two random pages of a 1995 Sevenmagazine got stuck together. Also, did you know that Dakota Johnson and Role Model are dating now? This isn’t particularly interesting, except that I was doing a little bit of digging to see if there was a joke there, like if she would call him Role or Model or whatever, and that’s when I learned that his real name is Tucker Pillsbury
Then I wondered, was he mocked for a last name like Pillsbury because of the dough connotations, and that became Roll, so that became Role Model? Did he make lemonade out of lemons? Am… I a bully?!?
Sports Love!
The Winter Olympics are kicking off this month and the stars of HBO’s soft core pornography/gay hockey romance Heated Rivalry , Connor Storie and Hudson Williams were tapped to carry the torch. I think there are only like two media
companies anymore, so I’m assuming that their participation is a cynical marketing ploy, and sign me the fuck up because I love those darling men and will watch them do anything! I wonder, if when they were carrying it, one of them reached for it and gently caressed the other’s fingers? Speaking of gay sports (and when am I not anymore?), Ben Affleck and Matt Damon said that they too had also once considered adapting a gay baseball romance. This is giving “Sure, Jan,”
is it not? The only way they can make us believe that they were ever serious about this is if they make it happen now and kiss. On screen. With tongue. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.
Love is in the Air—Literally!
A couple recently went viral for having gotten married on a Southwest flight out of Indianapolis to Fort Lauderdale with a stop in Kansas City. I’m going to say that again.
Southwest flight out of Indianapolis to Fort Lauderdale with a stop in Kansas City. Can you imagine a less romantic set of words? And yet, they did it. They made it romantic. I love them for it. Any flight on a no-frills airline can be romantic if you make time for romance on it. And I don’t know if this next couple was inspired by them or not, but THEN a guy proposed to his gal on a Spirit Airlines flight from Newark to Myrtle Beach. You guys, I am beginning to think that if you want to take your relationship to the next level, you’ve got to get on a discount airline to a midsize city and pronto
Lovebirds
(You would think this thing about bird sex would be in the part about love being in the air, but I’m about to write about a flightless bird… so no, it is decidedly *not* in the air. Read on. ) The New Zealand Kakapo, the fattest parrot ever, has been brought back from the brink of extinction after a banner year for the berry they like to eat. They ate so much that now they have energy for mating, causing their numbers to start turning around. Every article about these birds mentions how heavy they are, and I’m just like, “did these birds get negged to death?” No wonder they’re almost extinct with all this body shaming. Birds can’t turn off a light, nor should they have to. Let the fat birds get laid.
Speaking of getting laid, it’s time to sign off for now. I hate to bring up politics when we have been having such a good time, but I want to remind you that some of the worst people in America are having babies this year, which means that they’ve been having sex, and if they’re doing it, then by God so should you.
Cupidly,
ARNOLD JEROCKI - GETTY
MICHAEL LOCCISANO-GETTY
SLOWMOTIONGLI - GETTY
HAROLD FENG - GETTY
“We’re Investing for the
Long Term”:
How the Future of Portland’s Historic Albina District is Coming Together
The 1803 Fund is dedicating $70 million to Albina redevelopment amid a broader period of investment in Portland’s historically Black district.
BY TAYLOR GRIGGS
It’s been decades since a series of construction projects transformed Portland’s historic Albina district, dismantling the thriving enclave that was once the beating heart of the city’s Black community. Now, years of planning to revitalize the inner North and Northeast Portland district are coming to fruition, bringing hope for Albina’s rebirth—even as questions linger over plans to alter the freeway that runs through the neighborhood.
The city, private businesses, and local community members have poured their efforts into a massive plan to overhaul the neighborhood, centering the people who were displaced by decades of racist zoning policies. That includes new housing and
business developments, a massive freeway project, and education investments through partnerships with Portland Public Schools.
In December, the 1803 Fund—formed in 2023 to support Albina revitalization —announced it would invest $70 million to kick off major development projects in North Portland. One project, dubbed “Albina Riverside,” is planned as a recreational and community space along the Willamette River, at the site of the former Louis Dreyfus Co. grain silos terminal just north of the Steel Bridge. The 1803 Fund is also acquiring property for mixed-use development in a neighborhood known as “The Low End,” located west of I-5 and south of the Fremont Bridge.
“What we are doing is investing here.
This is not charity. It’s clarity about where we’re going,” 1803 Fund CEO Rukaiyah Adams said at a December 2 press confer-
“What we are doing is investing here. This is not charity. It’s clarity about where we’re going.”
ence about both projects. “Our communities have never been short of talent, but we’ve been short of investment capital at scale, and that is what the 1803 Fund brings.”
The 1803 Fund’s investment announcement comes amid broad enthusiasm for Albina’s future. In September, Albina Vision Trust (AVT)—an organization that launched in 2020 to advocate for and oversee the district’s revitalization efforts— cut the ribbon on Albina One, a 94-unit affordable housing complex located in North Portland just east of the Broadway Bridge. Through Portland’s North/ Northeast Preference Policy—which aims to give former residents of the area and their descendants priority when applying to rent homes there—Albina One prioritizes housing for residents who have generational ties to the area, many of whom were displaced during a period of “urban renewal” in the 1960s and ‘70s.
Previewing Albina’s future
AVT has been dedicated to facilitating the construction of a cover over I-5 in lower Albina, which would effectively tunnel a stretch of the freeway to reconnect divided surface streets and, ideally, create more land for housing and commercial development. In 2024, the organization helped the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) secure nearly half a billion federal dollars for the freeway cover, as part of the I-5 Rose Quarter expansion. But the money was rescinded by the Trump administration, and ODOT is now in a financial bind that puts the whole project at risk.
Still, AVT has other projects in the works, including a major transformation of the current Portland Public Schools headquarters site located adjacent to Albina One. The city of Portland is still working with the organization to plan for a reconnected Albina district. And the 1803 Fund’s investment announcement makes it clear that Albina’s redevelopment is happening despite the I-5 cover setbacks.
The 1803 Fund’s project renderings depict the Albina Riverside project as a waterfront site with amenities including basketball courts and green space. The fund has invested $5 million in the riverfront site, and plans for the area are still underway. The organization envisions the space as a “gateway to 1803 Fund’s vision, providing a physical and spiritual reconnection to the river,” describing it as “a place where Black children and families can feel safe, move freely and breathe without fear, giving them new perspectives on themselves and their city.”
The 1803 Fund invested $30 million in The Low End district, which is planned as a “vibrant mixed-use district,” cultivating “Black culture and economic opportunity through new forms of industry, entertainment, entrepreneurship, amenities, and housing.”
The organization says it will put the remaining $35 million of the initial $70 million investment toward other Albina properties, to be announced this year. The 1803 Fund’s 2023 launch came with a $400 million pledge from Phil and Penny Knight, though the donors didn’t share detailed plans for their investment.
“The next generation of Black Portland will not inherit my wounds”
At the December 2 press conference, Black community leaders and elected officials emphasized the importance of the Albina investments.
“There were many of us who thought we would never get a moment like today,” Ed Washington, a community elder who served as the first Black member of the Metro Council and recently retired from leading diversity and inclusion programs at Portland State University, said. “Today is about an amazing investment, but for me, it’s acknowledgment, it’s restoration. This is a promise that the next generation of Black Portland will not inherit my wounds. They will inherit opportunities we could only imagine.”
Washington and his family moved to the former city of Vanport, Oregon, in the 1940s, shortly before a flood decimated the North Portland community thousands of Black residents called home. Many of the Black residents who lost their homes in the
Vanport Flood moved to the Albina district.
Albina became the site of a thriving cultural scene in the 1950s and ‘60s, with jazz clubs boasting musical guests including Louis Armstrong. Bustling, Black-owned businesses lined North Williams Avenue, Albina’s central commercial corridor.
The district was also a hub for civil rights organizing in the 1960s and ‘70s, with the NAACP and the Black Panthers both setting up their local chapter headquarters in the neighborhood. By the 1960s, the vast majority of Portland’s Black residents lived in Albina.
Then came the so-called “urban renewal” projects of the mid-century, which targeted the area, destroying homes and physically splitting the district. In the late ‘50s, construction on the Memorial Coliseum—the first building in the Rose Quarter complex—
“We inherited disinvestment. We inherited displacement. We inherited questions like, ‘Do I belong here? Is there space for me?’”
began, destroying hundreds of homes in the process. The construction of I-5 and the Emanuel Hospital expansion followed in the 1960s and ‘70s, both of which furthered the decimation of the Albina area. Many of those whose homes were not destroyed by construction were priced out by gentrification.
Portlander Martae Brown said generations of people in and connected to Albina have “been carrying the weight of decisions they didn’t make.”
“We inherited disinvestment. We inherited displacement. We inherited questions like, ‘Do I belong here? Is there space for me?’ Brown said at the press conference.
“The 1803 Fund’s response to those questions is loud and clear: Yes, you belong. Yes, your future will be prosperous.”
It’s not lost on those involved in Albina’s redevelopment that the work being done in the district comes amid a period of relative hardship for Portland as a whole. Adams, whose family has lived in Portland for generations, acknowledged that much has been made about Portland’s “doom loop.”
But she indicated she and the 1803 Fund are operating on a different level.
“As the city and state reckon with economic and demographic forecasts that are not good, to say the least, we’re committed to Portland. We’re investing for the very long-term here,” Adams said. “While other people are shit-talking Portland and leaving Portland and moving to Texas, we are here. We’ll be here for the long term.”
Brown emphasized that the 1803 Fund is doing more than simply “reimagining Albina.”
“It’s reimagining the possibilities for generations to come,” he said. “And for those who are confused, our community is the center. But all of Portland will win because of what we’re doing.” ■
THE MAJESTY OF THE SPIRITUAL
Renowned baritone Robert Sims gathers well-known vocalists for a powerful program highlighting the history of the Spiritual and its influence over American musical genres of all types.
February 14 & 15 World Trade Center Theatre
For two seasons, this Portlander has been in the director’s seat of BET’s number one digital series, Churchy, starring comedian KevOnStage. And now, he’s released a short film executive produced by Jordan Peele himself, titled Spilled Milk and starring Kid Cudi (who also scores the film) under Peele’s imprint MonkeyPaw Productions. Also stay tuned for Leaf’s new series, Taste Black Portland, exploring the depth of the city’s culinary scene.
INNOVATORS CHANGEMAKERS
PORTLAND BLACK AND YOU SHOULD KNOW
These people are helping reshape the very fabric of the Rose City.
BY DONOVAN SCRIBES
Black History Month is equally about reaching into the stories of our past, as well as carving our futures with possibilities. It’s not simply a time to post nice quotes from the same historical figures. It presents us with an opportunity to recognize that history is, in fact, being made in the present day.
That history finds a strong heartbeat in the Northwest jewel that is Portland, Oregon. Across the board—from arts, sports, comedy, and activism—Black Portlanders continue to reshape the very fabric of the Rose City. Here are 10 Black innovators and changemakers in Portland (in no particular order) that you should know.
LaQuisha Minnieweather
One of the best organizers to ever hit the scene. A co-conspirator in my initiative
The Kidz Outside (TKO), she single-handedly sourced nearly 1,000 backpacks, thousands of pounds of food, more than 200 bikes, and more resources than I can count over the last four years of our annual festival.
Pre-TKO, Minnieweather helped source tens-of-thousands of dollars in mutual-aid resources for houseless folks during the apocalyptic Alameda Fires that ripped through Oregon in 2020.
Javonnie Shearn
As founder and executive director of Up and Over and Glenda’s Garden, for years Shearn has been quietly getting dozens of people off the streets and into housing. A dedicated advocate for those on the margins of the margins, her servant heart was born from life experience: Her son, who lived with schizophrenia, was released from the Oregon State Hospital onto the streets more than a decade ago.
After relentlessly searching for him, the two finally reconnected and shared life together until his passing in 2023. Late last year she published a book about their journey, Someone’s Someone.
She loved and supported the women who are often discarded by our society. The founder of WomenFirst Transitional and Resource Center, Olive helped people transitioning out of prison find housing and jobs, all while providing a network of peer support. A fierce justice advocate, she was a champion of Measure 110, and was able to expand WomenFirst’s impact through its funding.
Olive served on Home Forward’s board of commissioners, and was dedicated to keeping people housed. She left us with these words: “I was a trailblazer. I left my footprint. And most of all, I kept the faith.”
MATT HAYWARD/GETTY IMAGES
Damian Lillard
He’s back! I don’t even watch sports any more and I felt some type of way follow ing his 2025 return to the Blazers. Dame, who of course traded his Blazer jersey for the Milwaukee Bucks, had become a town fixture beyond the court, and has been an overflowing fountain poured into the youth, lending his star power to the local hip-hop scene, all while putting points on the board.
To leave the city, and then return to put the “0” back in the 503, is exactly the type of light we need in these very dark times. Again, I don’t watch sports, but he got a standing ovation from the Milwaukee Bucks after his first game back to his former team’s court in a Blazer jersey, so it’s obvious we’re not the only ones who appre-
(looking at you Drake). Hometown jazz extraordinaire esperanza spalding is staying rooted in the Rose City, and quite literally inviting others to do so as well with the launch of her artist community, Prismid Sanctuary.
Located in St. Johns, the building sits on nearly an acre with a farmhouse, intended to center “cultural, ecological and wellness programs.” This includes using the space for artist residencies, workshops, and other creative practices that help you become one with yourself.
itykeon) is like Portlandia for those who know the difference between Portland and P-town. He knows the hotspots. He knows the notspots. And his Instagram and TikTok posts that commonly conflate the two are single-handedly changing the way we look at and laugh about our city.
From what he calls the “midnight ballerinas” of 82nd Avenue, the people-watching at Dawson Park, to the unique sights and sounds of Union Station, Keon’s got the inside scoop on all things Rose City underground.
A staunch advocate for tenant rights, Ames helped stop an illegal rent increase for an entire apartment complex in Molalla, Oregon. The occupants were a mix of working class Oregonians, some without English as their first language, and if she hadn’t reached out to those needing help, they would have been stuck in that nightmare. During her career, she has stood up multiple tenant unions while supporting dozens of renters to have their voices heard in the Oregon Legislature. While technically living in Vancouver, Washington, she’s put it down for the soil with so many Oregon accomplishments that we’ll ignore the little river that divides us.
Grice (posthumous)
Truly a lifelong teacher, Chappie, who co-founded the illustrious arts organization, World Arts Foundation, never stopped serving our youth. Between San Francisco and Portland public schools, Chappie was always thinking about the next generation. Inspired by the Tuskegee Airmen, he also launched an entrepreneurial program to foster interest in aviation for middle- and high schoolers (even bringing one of the last living Tuskegee Airmen to Portland during the 2010s).
His passing in September at age 77 leaves a void in the city, currently being filled by a trail of mentees and the large network of lives he touched and improved during his lifetime.
Portland city council she now sits on. Representing East County, Avalos takes an unabashedly millennial approach to governing in the 21st century, and continues to be a consistent voice for keeping people housed, not allowing police to pounce on every corner of poverty to inflate their budgets, and helping Portland live up to its green values.
CITY OF PORTLAND
COURTESYOFALEXIS
COURTESY OF KEON
STEPHCHAMBERS/GETTYIMAGES
MICHAEL CAMPANELLA/GETTYIMAGES
COURTESY OF THE GRICE FAMILY
Ronin Roc on Why He Sees
Black Art as “More Than February”
The prolific digital painter, and soon-to-be gallery owner, explains his approach to spotlighting icons through art.
BY JUMA SEI
Sometimes celebrating Black History Month feels fraught. It’s a blessing to carve out 28 days of remembrance in February, but why isn’t it 30 or 31? Why does March 1 feel like a return to business as usual? Why–for most–isn’t celebrating Black history more usual?
These are the questions that underpin More Than February (MTF), an emerging art gallery near the heart of Old Town/ Chinatown. Ronin Roc is the gallery’s chief curator. He’s also an artist whose experience navigating Portland’s creative landscape has made accessibility a primary mission.
Ronin is most widely known for his vibrant digital portraits, featuring a host of Black icons with global, national, and local significance. Much like the MTF brick and mortar itself, his charge is to create a sustained, shared platform to elevate Black creativity in full dimension. At present, these portraits adorn the walls of MTF in Old Town. They’re a fitting background to imagine what the space will become.
MERCURY: What was the initial idea behind More Than February?
RONIN ROC: I had the idea while watching Black Panther with my son. I drew
Chadwick Boseman while watching, and people were excited by the piece. So, I challenged myself to draw a different Black figure every day in February. I also saw an episode of Black-ish and heard this line: “We’re more than just February.” It stuck with me. Even if I drew a new figure every day of the year, I’m not gonna get even close to all of our civil rights leaders, let alone the other influential Black people. It’s really hard to choose who I do next.
How do you choose?
Usually I get inspired by something. Now, I do take commissions and stuff–like the one of Nina Simone. I got commissioned by, actually–not Black people.
Does that happen often?
Yeah, it’s surprising how many people from other nationalities are into my art. There’s way less people who own one piece of my art, rather than multiple pieces. And I didn’t realize how well it all looks together. Each one, by the time I get done with it, I’m like, “This is the best piece I’ve ever done.”
How do you learn about the people in your portraits?
While making the piece, I’ll watch or listen to any media that correspond to the person. I learned a lot from doing Angela Davis. I knew who she was, but I didn’t truly know her story. I knew “Power to the People,” but I didn’t know what it really meant.
What does it mean to you?
That the system puts us against each other, when the enemy is something much larger than us. Like, white people who are poor and disenfranchised are being taught that all their plights in life are due to Black people. But if we work together, these multi-millionaires can’t use us to fight each other.
I see a portrait of Mr. Paul Knauls, a local hero. How did you decide on him?
There are so many local civil rights leaders in Portland, but I couldn’t name 10 of them. Not only that, my kids can tell you parts of the “I Have a Dream” speech and the history of Malcolm X, but they can’t tell who stopped segregation in our own city. They
can’t tell you that the original home for the Black community in Portland was Chinatown. It made me want to paint the influential Black people of our community. Also, our new guard. Like Ian Williams who owns Deadstock Coffee. He’s been a very supportive friend; between the art, the morning show, and other things.
Morning show?
We did a morning show called “Your Morning Drip” and it was the hugest labor of love in my life. But Ian and I were like, “We’re going through this Black renaissance in Portland, and we have very few outlets that are sharing our point of view.”
I guess that wraps into Mr. Knauls perfectly. I used to go to Geneva’s as a kid–I got my prom haircut there. I learned so much when making his portrait. He helped fundraise for the Martin Luther King Jr. statue in front of the Oregon Convention Center. He also helped fundraise for the military housing we have in the city. I knew he owned the Cotton Club, but didn’t know that it was a home base for all these different genres of music. Eventually, I want to make a coloring book to educate kids about our local heroes.
You said that Portland is in a Black renaissance. Say more.
I think it is. Even with us opening this art gallery. We can house Black joy, we can show Black art, we can nurture new Black creators. I don’t want to be a gatekeeper, so one of the walls is dedicated to first-time Black artists.
Ronin Roc leads a crowd during the uprising of 2020.
CAMERON BROWNE
Muhammad Ali
Baseball great, Jackie Robinson.
It excites me that more spaces are concretizing Black culture in Portland’s built environment.
And it’s more than just us. Cyrus and Wale are making their own Black gallery down the street. Just up the block, there’s The BLACK Gallery from Don’t Shoot PDX. I want all Black people to win.
Who has inspired you over the years?
The greatest teacher that I’ve had is adversity. Like the people who have stood in the way of this gallery–this is our third evolution. We’ve been promised gallery space before, then gotten it taken away and given to a white group–told that they know more about art and culture.
There’s a certain type of Black person that Portland is good with. I don’t have a
Nike badge. I don’t work at Wieden + Kennedy. I don’t have a day job at Intel. I’ve done art my entire life. That’s not to speak bad about any of those people–again, I want all Black people to win–but when you’re not the cool kid in the city, you doing something dope doesn’t matter as much as someone else trying to create it.
There’s a lot of imposter syndrome that comes into being an artist. But I do have people who push me–like my mother, my children’s mother. My biggest inspiration of all is my son. Without him, the series would have never started.
Other inspiring co-conspirators are Donovan Scribes and Mac Smiff. They were utterly supportive through the protests. We didn’t always have to agree on things, but we always had space to listen.
(L)“Mayor” Paul Knauls. (R) Black Panther Party co-founder, Huey P. Newton.
HEATHER MOON
(Left to right) Ronin Moon Wright, Ronin Roc, and Francesca Moon Gordon.
Who got you into art?
When I was a kid, my big cousin Hassan was drawing and was way better than I was. I wanted to be just like him. Since then, I’ve always drawn and done pictures. I also had an amazing art teacher in college–Dave Anderson. He taught me so much about style. Being technically great at art is fine, but the most important thing in art is your style.
How did you develop yours?
The reason why I do digital art and not physical painting–even though I’m classically trained as a painter–is that I would have to make unaffordable art. But the way I do my work now, there’s no original.
I appreciate how core accessibility is to your philosophy. Especially if we think about your most sold piece, Angela Davis. That’s one of the most sold. Two of the most sold pieces are in front of you [in the gallery] right now. I’d love to hear your guesses.
Malcolm X and Tupac? Nah.
Damn. Nipsey Hussle and Sade?
Yeah, Damian Lillard is also up there. I did that after he left Portland. It was my effort at some good juju to make him come back. And it worked! I made an eight-foot print of him, and there’s one hanging up in the Moda Center. I like to say that I willed
Dame back to the city.
It must be meaningful to have your work visible to so many. Are there any other series you want to explore next?
There’s a few that we have coming out. I just did Jackie Robinson. But doing the Portland civil rights leaders is something that I really want to do.
I’m also working on Richard Pryor. I want to do a whole series of Black comedians, because they’re our modern-day storytellers. Dave Chappelle talked about that: there are these Black storytellers in African culture and every time one of them died, it was like burning down a library.
Another one that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time–aside from Ali–is a series solely featuring Black women and mothers. There’s a lot of amazing civil rights leaders who were mothers, not only to our culture, but in general.
I look forward to that work. What’s up next for the gallery?
We’re gonna have our grand opening in February. It’s so funny how everything comes back to February. ■
More Than February (322 NW 6th) is set for its grand opening on February 13 from 6 pm to 9 pm. Visit morethanfebruary.net and @morethanfebruary on Instagram to learn more.
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Bass Reeves: deputy U.S. Marshal, gunfighter, farmer.
Twenty-Eight Moments in (Recent) Black Oregon History
History isn’t just in the black and white photos. It’s living and breathing, forever informed by the decisions we each make every sunrise. In the last ten years, there has been an incredible amount of activity to transform Oregon by its Black residents. Here are 28 moments, one for each day of Black History Month, that have shaped the state in the past decade.
1. Sneaker-Themed Coffee Shop Opens (2016)
Former Nike shoe developer Ian Williams grows from a mobile coffee cart to a fullfledged sneaker-themed coffee shop— Deadstock Coffee—in Old Town.
2. SummerWorks Program Sees Historic Growth (2016) SummerWorks is a program that pairs local youth with paid intern opportunities at local businesses during the summer. Launched by Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith, the program, which began with 11 young people, grows to 1,000+ participants.
3. Teaching With Purpose Conference Hosts Nipsey Hussle (2017) NE Portland native Karanja Crews hosts his 8th annual Teaching with Purpose Conference. Rapper Nipsey Hussle keynotes, less than two years before he was murdered.
4. Co-Operator of Portland’s First Black Owned Cab Company Dies (2017)
Willie Mae Young, who helped operate Beacon Cab, the first Black-owned cab company in Portland, dies. She was also the first Black nurse at a prominent hospital on the city’s westside.
5. Williams and Russell Property Returned to Community Control (2017)
Two acres, seized in the heart of Portland’s Black community for an expansion of Legacy Emmanuel Hospital that never happened, laid bare for decades. The City of Portland, in cooperation with the hospital, return the land at N. Williams and Russell to Black community members to determine the future of the site’s development.
6. “Yes, There Are Black People in Portland” Billboards (2018)
Benson High graduate Aminé releases his first studio album Good for You on the
heels of his platinum-selling single “Caroline.” To promote the album, he launches viral billboards poking fun at the perception of his hometown.
7. Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center Begins Work to Transform Black Arts Facility (2018)
Commissioned by Charles Jordan, the first Black city councilor in Portland, this firehouse-turned-performing arts facility becomes a treasured hub of Black arts in the ‘80s. After a series of financial hits leaves the building vacant, Commissioner Amanda Fritz stands up an advisory committee to restore it to its rightful legacy.
8. Green Hop Opens as Nation’s First Hip-Hop Dispensary (2018) Karanja Crews and Nicole Kennedy launch this green and yellow business which becomes Portland’s first hip-hop themed dispensary, later renamed Green Muse.
9. First Juneteenth Celebrated in Gresham (2019)
Beyond Black hosts the first Juneteenth celebration in Gresham, Oregon. The celebration brings thousands of people to Vance Park with music, art, food, and an official proclamation.
10. Jo Ann Hardesty Becomes First Black Woman Elected to Portland City Council (2019)
Dedicated police reform advocate Jo Ann Hardesty elected as the first Black woman on Portland’s city council. The historic race sees her face off against Loretta Smith, who is also Black.
11. Portland Street Response Launches (2019)
This unarmed, trauma-informed first response program changed the 911 infrastructure. Championed by Commissioner Hardesty, this program offers a real alternative to calling police for disturbances and emergencies.
12. “1619 Project” Debuts (2019) This multimedia project crash-lands into the world’s consciousness, transforming how we talk about the legacy of slavery in America. Released by the New York Times, locals can be proud knowing its creator Nikole Hannah-Jones spent many years writing here for The Oregonian on its education beat.
13. George Floyd Protests Ignite Portland (2020)
George Floyd’s murder ignites the largest global protests for Black lives in history. Portland’s protests continue for more than 100 days, becoming a focal point in the movement amongst various calls to defund the police.
14. Geneva’s Shear Perfection Closes (2020)
This was the premier spot for Black Portlanders (and visiting celebrities) to get a shape up. During COVID, after more than 30 years in business, it was announced that “The Mayor of NE Portland” Paul Knauls was closing the shop’s doors.
15. Gresham Elects First Black Mayor (2021)
The decision came down to 13 votes: Travis Stovall goes on to defeat Eddie Morales in a highly competitive race—becoming the first Black mayor of Gresham.
16. Albina Descendants Secure $8.5M in Restitution (2021)
Following Albina residents seeing their family homes and businesses destroyed through eminent domain, and after a multi-year legal battle, the City of Portland allocates $8.5 million to a group of 26 descendants.
17. City of Portland Endorses Reparations (2021)
As part of the city’s federal legislative strategy, they endorse lobbying for reparations for Black and Indigenous communities. Every year since the late ‘80s, HR 40, a bill to commission a federal reparations study, is introduced in Congress but never advances to the full House for a vote.
18. 8 Seconds Rodeo Debuts (2023)
Thousands pack out this Black rodeo donning cowboy boots, hats, and other festive getups. This sold-out event becomes the first Black rodeo, which is birthed in part, during the first Juneteenth in Gresham.
19. 1803 Fund Launches (2023)
Rukaiyah Adams unveils the 1803 Fund, along with a $400 million investment from Phil Knight. Supporting the economic vitality of Black Portlanders, the fund stands as the largest Black-woman owned investment fund in the United States.
20. Intisar Abioto Curates Largest Black Takeover of PAM (2023)
Born out of her deep research, Intisar Abioto launches the largest curation of Black artists from the Pacific Northwest at Portland Art Museum. The mega-curation features 69 Black artists, dead and alive, in a prolific multimedia experience.
21. Ten Year Anniversary of Natural Hair Care Act (2023) After learning that anyone who wanted to do someone’s natural hair had to do the same amount of training as a licensed barber or beautician, Amber Starks worked to change this law in Oregon. Her work leads to a series of natural hair care businesses being stood up throughout the state.
22. Janelle Bynum Becomes First Black Person Elected to US Congress in Oregon (2024)
During 2020 she was the only Black woman in the Oregon Legislature. In 2024, the centrist business owner mounts a winning campaign for a U.S. Senate seat, flipping the district from red to blue.
23. Racist Geography Names Replaced to Honor Black Pioneers (2024)
The US Board on Geographic Names renames Negro Jack Creek in Tillamook to Jack Creek, and Negro Creek in Douglas County to Triple Nickles Creek. The effort, led by Oregon Black Pioneers, respectively honors the life of a man named Jack (likely Black) who lived in the area during the late 1800s, and an all-Black army unit from WWII stationed in Oregon.
24. Albina One Opens (2025)
Albina Vision Trust, the largest restorative redevelopment effort in the nation, opens its first affordable housing development, Albina One. The 94-unit, family-centered housing is the first building erected to restore Lower Albina’s legacy as a hub of social and artistic innovation.
25. Portland Hip-Hop Week Turns 10 (2025)
Founded by Portland hip-hop pioneer Starchile and Portland Trail Blazers’ DJ O.G. One, this event, which kicks off with hip-hop performers in front of City Hall, was created to bridge tensions between local government and rappers. While Starchile passed in 2017 from cancer, the event grows from a single day to an entire week of events, including rap, dance, professional development, and an award ceremony.
26. “BlackOut: A 5-Year Retrospective of Portland’s Racial Justice Protests” Publishes (2025) Featuring 12 essays and interviews, this special magazine created by Donovan Scribes and published by the Portland Mercury recounts the five-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder through the lens of Black Portlanders. 40,000 copies are circulated, inspiring art, a public forum, book clubs, and school curriculum.
27. The Skanner Shutters (2026) After a celebrating a half-century of publishing, Oregon’s largest Black news outlet announces its closure. The paper, which went fully digital in 2020, released a special print edition with essays, archival photos, and celebratory notes to commemorate their 50th anniversary last summer. Owned by Bernie and Bobbie Foster, the paper’s closure leaves a void in the media ecosystem and the soul of Black Portlanders.
28. Portland Mercury Publishes its First Black History Month Issue (2026)
Traditionally, February has been the month we at the Mercury focus on sex and love. This year marks the first year we dedicate these pages to Black History Month.
THE BLACK BYLINE
Kamala Harris, and Why the History of “First Blacks” Is Complicated
BY DONOVAN SCRIBES
Domino. Domino.
Only spot a few Blacks the higher I go.”
—Jay-Z, “Murder to Excellence,” 2011
The Inauguration
I almost went to Kamala Harris’ inauguration. “Almost,” of course, is doing a lot of work in that sentence. The former Vice President came up short against Donald Trump’s Third Reich… I mean, third run at the Oval Office. Harris, who would have been the first woman to ascend to the country’s top office, is admittedly many stone throws away from my politics. But in a land of constant dreams deferred, I was struck that, maybe this time, the top-of-the-top may be finally cracked by a Black woman.
Could she be the First Black woman to be President?
Kamala, or rather her platform, was hardly inventive. When engaged on its fundamentals, it was largely conservative. Not conservative like Charlie Kirk… conservative meaning, it preserved many pieces of America as is—just as a conservationist preserves the trees of a forest. It was a platform that largely fit hand-inglove with Bidenomics: protect corporate global interests, overfund all military and law enforcement, and yes—promote electric cars, along with a dash of maternal health reform, abortion protections, and a short-lived national rent cap promise.
So while racists and right-wing extremists predictably (and laughably) labeled her a “communist” and “Comrade Kamala,” it’s noteworthy that the former San Francisco district attorney—while certainly more left than any Dixiecrat— was hardly the face of The Revolution™.
I mean, she campaigned with Liz Cheney, guys.
Like, Dick’s daughter.
Dick’s daughter, guys.
I was a senior in high school when Barack Obama first blazed the presidential campaign trail. When he made his stop in Portland to shore up liberal votes, my mom forced me to attend, talking about “history” or something. I did not want to go. By the time I left the coliseum, that had changed. When Election Day ‘08 came around, I was as swept up in Obama-mania as anyone. And in many ways, I’m unsure if I would’ve become the man I am today—with abolitionist critiques of Obama, while also maintaining a level of admiration—without the eight years he gave me a mirror as the
So too, I considered Kamala for my two girls.
Identity
Politics
Charlie Kirk was not a Klansman. He was a podcaster.
And as his millions of fans said after he was killed last year, “he just talked to people.”
Except he didn’t just talk. He was a prevailing force of erecting and fortifying permission and policy structures around the country.
In addition to claiming Black people were “better under Jim Crow,” he also had an amazing habit of attacking people who just happened to be Black.
His greatest hits include stating that Ketanji Brown, Michelle Obama, Joy Reid, and the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee “didn’t have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a White person’s slot to be taken somewhat seriously.”
And of course, when he called MLK “awful” and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a
“great mistake.”
RIP Charlie—he loved a good “talk.”
“Identity Politics” certainly do not replace my need for good policy. However, race and gender continue to be handed down as heavy heirlooms bestowed down to each generation of Americans.
First Blacks are important to the American story. They show, at the very least, possibility.
This means, for many Black citizens, the prospect of shared experience in a candidate, often carries a hope that representation will also result in some level of transformation.
Last fall, Harris did what all presidential hopefuls do when their dreams are deferred—she published a book. During her nationwide book tour she made a stop
in Portland. On stage, she was engaged by one of the quintessential changemakers of our time, Rukaiyah Adams, of the 1803 Fund. Their hourlong dialogue found the pair exchanging fewer theories on policy, and more on what it means to be a Black woman carrying the weight of the country’s expectations right now.
Just hours after Harris announced her candidacy, Win With Black Women sent an invitation to its 4,000 members to support her ticket and organize through a Zoom call. By the end of the call, more than 44,000 people had joined in—raising $1.5 million for the campaign in three hours.
“I was one of those women,” Adams submitted to the Vice President from the stage.
Pain. Pride. Sisterhood. All nuzzled in those few words.
First Blacks
In America, much emphasis is put on “First Blacks.” First Blacks are important to the American story. They show, at the very least, possibility—in this so-called promised land of opportunity. This pos -
First Black President.
ROB DOBI
Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, and Shirley Chisholm get the stamp of disapproval from Charlie Kirk.
sibility is often maximized in the country’s mythmaking as a beacon—proof of pathways to collective prosperity. For if they could do it, so could you (even if untrue). So too, First Blacks often bear the weight of history as they maneuver their present. First Blacks are rarely the first qualified— they are just the first to crack the ceiling.
And so, low and high, First Blacks often provide us unique insight on the State of the Union.
Case in point: Few names in Portland politics ring as many bells and sirens as Jo Ann Hardesty, the First Black woman elected to Portland City Council. During her four years in office, Hardesty, a Baltimore-bred Marine veteran, often found herself in the crosshairs of the city’s centrist and business class.
Elected in 2016, Councilor Hardesty led the transformation of the city’s 911 infrastructure with the launch of Portland Street Response, an unarmed, trauma-informed, first-response program that provided a real-life alternative to police. She championed the Portland Clean Energy Fund, a tax which buoyed environmental efforts across the city and has been looked to as a national model.
Despite such accomplishments, Hardesty, like Harris, discovered the claws of racism firmly entrenched in her almost every move.
Former Portland Police union president Brian Hunzeker leaked a false claim to the media that Hardesty was involved in a hitand-run during the heat of her re-election bid. While the claim was debunked, it likely
played a role in ushering her law-and-order, Republican-lite successor, Rene Gonzalez, into the seat. In the end, Hardesty sued the City, was paid a $650,000 settlement, and has since stepped away from the spotlight.
Today, however, sprouting from the family tree of Hardesty is a solid bloc of progressives on the newly expanded and reformed 12-person Portland City Council. The so-called Progressive Caucus (the mul-
“The slave went free, stood a brief moment in the sun, then moved back again toward slavery.”
—W.E.B. Du Bois
ticultural group of folks colloquially known as “Peacock”), were elected during the same cycle Harris lost her bid for President.
Much like Hardesty, Peacock has been crawling up the asses of centrists and extremists aplenty. The Mercury’s recent report, “Racist, Dehumanizing”: Chat Images Show Portland Power Players Disparaging Councilors of Color,” outlined this dynamic in depth, detailing text exchanges including powerful developer Brian Owendoff and some colleagues who notably, during the vote for council president, referred to Peacock members using racist and homophobic language.
Owendoff and his colleagues’ mes -
sages provide insight to an uncomfortable truth—not all systemic barriers are erected (or fortified) by card-carrying Segregationists. Sometimes they are—as Owendoff said while defending himself against the Mercury’s article—“volunteering 4 hours of their time, helping African and middle eastern refugees with affordable housing.”
Reconstruction Era
In the decade following the Emancipation Proclamation, this era welcomed the largest wave in American history of Black officials serving at local, state, and federal levels. From 1865 to 1877, about 2,000 Black people held elected office—marking the first time America’s democracy became anything beyond White powered. Black women, of course could not vote (nor run) then, because they were women, and America was and is ruled by the patriarchy. But this time—the Reconstruction Era—represented the potential of transformation beyond the surface. As formerly enslaved people rose to the ranks of power, their lives improved.
This came to a halt as Republicans and Democrats soured on the prospect of shared representation, power, and democracy as the country took on a series of economic hits. White supremacist groups then saw an uptick in activity, particularly in the Ku Klux Klan.
And with this rise, everymen and electeds (hooded or not) effectively Deconstructed a prospect of shared democracy, through a series of racist physical and legislative attacks on Black officials and voters.
Famed scholar, W.E.B. Du Bois, who was
the First Black man to graduate from Harvard, penned a book titled Black Reconstruction. In it he recounts the end of this era saying, “The slave went free, stood a brief moment in the sun, then moved back again toward slavery.”
This Deconstruction lingers today, in our multicultural democracy where most Americans are now eligible to vote. Harris, elected in 2016, was just the tenth Black person to ever serve in the U.S. Senate. She was only the second Black woman to hold a federal Senate seat. She was the first woman to become Vice President.
She was then, in her attempt at the Oval, the First Black woman to fall from so high.
The Inauguration (Reprise) I was going to go to Kamala’s inauguration. I would have gone guarded, knowing I would have been witnessing—as she put it during her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention—her becoming the head of the “strongest and most lethal fighting force in the world.”
Not a Revolution. Not even a Reconstruction.
Simply a reframing of the forest.
However the fact of the matter remains— the majority of the voting public will still take the unwieldy hand of a maniacal White male conquistador over the steady hand of a Black female conservationist.
Because for them, Symbols Matter. How much would have actually transformed for the 99 percent of us under President Harris?
I guess we’ll never know. ■
Mercury Reader Valentines
ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARY RUTH BUTTERWORTH
♥ You don’t take, you give breathing room My flame, I don’t care if I breathe in fumes I’m a fool if you’re not my Valentine, my everything, my anytime!
♥ COWGIRL We drifted along through time and space on our own cosmic tributaries, never knowing the river ahead. Now it’s you and me, bb, all the way to the sea.
♥ SHANNON You are a naughty little man-child but I still love you after 30 years. You drive me nuts. Here’s to red wine & a good nights sleep!
♥ FLAMING FART Sure do love you! Thanks for being the best human, friend, husband and dentist this periomenopausal grad student could ever dream of-I Smell Lucky XO
♥ SARA You are my best friend and the love of my life. Let’s go on some more wonderful adventures. See you at Hungry Tiger.
♥ CHOO CHOO CHARLIE I boarded that love train and never looked back. You’re my best friend, my boo, my home. Love you!
♥ CORA I know you adore this holiday so I figured I’d make my love for you as public as possible <3 I love you a lot and idk what I’d do w/o you ur hot n sxy
♥ JULIE Though it seems like our boat is drifting further from the island of sanity, I’m confident the wind is about to change and sail us back! I love!!
♥ CHIGGLES I love you so much. I cannot believe we’ve spent half our lives together :) I am so grateful for such a wonderful partner through this life.
♥ HEDY Thank you for taking such good care of me and for all you do for our family. I love you and hope you have the best Valentine’s Day. I do you too.
♥ BEX The worlds a shitstorm, but I’ve never been happier than I am with you. I love you so much darling, happy second married Valentine’s Day!
♥ X_HPC_X We will not fall for the gay hockey situationship propaganda. Not this year, not ever. I only ship us.
♥ M + S You are the two best things in my life. I am so lucky to have you both in my life, even if one of you wake me up every night.
♥ DEAREST ONE LYDIA My forever Valentine. So blessed you picked me, to be your Mom. Will always be cheering you for you and your fantastic adventures. Stay Cute.
♥ JENNEL I love you more — always. Thank you for being my favorite sweaty tryhard.
♥ BIG SIGH NAT I love you, and I hope you continue to take your deep breaths in my general vicinity. -Chucky
♥ WOOMIE NESSA You were always the feet but now I can celebrate your wonder, too... I love you for as long as you’ll tolerate me!
♥ LAMBY Some Bunny luvz you! My heart thumps for u! Dreaming of us together again!
U R MY SOULMATE! missing my Carrot. Luv U! Your Pink Bunny
♥ #1SHAWTY VIRGO VIXEN Mi hermana mi amore SO HONORED to spend the rest of my days sharing this life w/ you & witnessing you glow as you step into your power BESITOS SIEMPRE
♥ LYNN I am so glad you answered my ad 34 years ago. Best decision EVER. Love JJ
♥ JACKY B I’ve been singing songs since we met. Some say it’s a musical seizure. It’s not my fault that your instrument of choice is my heart. So keep playin.
♥ TY B I thank whatever gods may be For your unconquerable soul. You are the master of my fate. You are the captain of my soul.
♥ ANNE Glad I met you, sorry it was too short, thanks for trying to help. I wish all the best for you & your family. A.
♥ DARRIN Thank you for being the best dad and husband ever. We love you!!! Sarah, Avery & Moose
♥ CHRISTIE You are the most unexpected and beautiful thing that has ever happened. You got me and I’ve got you. I fucking love you.
♥ STEVEN third year in a row, love forever it will grow, can’t wait for Vegas
♥ HOTWIFE B Marrying you was the best decision of my life. Exploring our wild side together and getting to watch you be a sex goddess has only brought us closer.
♥ NOVA Such a Kool Kitty makes this Alley Cat’s heart thump
♥ ROSALIND Happy 5th anniversary to the love of my life. I wouldn’t be able to do it without you. I love you more than all the cheese curds in Tillamook.
♥ JELLY Erica my love, my light, my night, my day You ground me when I lose my way I love you so my darling beautiful wife I’m blessed Jelly Have a sweet day
♥ KEV You are the partner of my dreams. You’ve been taking SUCH good care of me and sweet pea this year. I can’t wait to be silly, loving parents together.
♥ TIM Your steadiness is a blissful calm to my soul. The laughter and tickles are a legendary currency. I want to learn all the ways to love you!
Stephanie
♥ JACATTACK My dear sweet princess Jaydubbaroo. The sound of your laughter is like an angel’s squirt tinkling down the champagne tower of our love.
♥ PAMMY I love you with all my heart, Sweetums. Let’s go for the gold!
♥ BEB We’ve got it pretty good I love us and what we’ve built here together, and weekends and time under the lights downstairs especially Luvst, Beb
♥ MAGGIE The biggest warmest wrap-around hug and all the peonies of spring (minus the ants) are just for you. And the moon, too, if you’d like -- I love you!
♥ HOTTEST NURSE IN PNW What a joy it is to build this BEAUTIFUL life with you everyday!
Happy valentines day to the most gorgeous, silliest goose with the best dance moves!
♥ AZ You’re a good egg. Thank you for letting me cook. Your sweetness means the world.
♥ TEODORO, MI AMOR You shine We rhyme I’m thine Anytime Day or night Sweet find We learn How we burn Sigh and yearn
♥ MOONBEAMS i love you in all your phases: waxing or waning, in your fullest state, and your darkness too no matter how many times you must be new again, still you are unchanging, the gravity to my waves, push, pull— i am your devoted tides
♥ MY VALENTINE GOOB as we go beyond our world & share remarkable adventures, i fall in love with our moments in time. but you will always be my favorite moment in time.
♥ BOOTIE So lucky to be able to close the door to our home each day and know that Im safe in our nest. Love you endlessly.
♥ SAM Life with you is bliss. Thank you for always pushing us to explore the beauty of the PNW and making me ugly laugh, if that’s a thing. Love you!
♥ ERIN E You’re lovely, and I so appreciate your bright mind, kind heart and all the beautiful rest of you (hopefully ;).
♥ PATRICK 12 years together. Almost 9 married. 33 years of friendship. How lucky I am. How lucky we are. Nothing but good fortune ahead of us. I love you.
♥ NATASHA Boris loves his spy gal. More secret missions for us this year. No time to chase moose and squirrel, only time to chase and kiss you.
♥ BRADLEY I’m from Ohio, so let me be corny, You’re so hot, It kinda makes me... Happy valentine’s day! Love, your wife
♥ THRUST MASTER We’ve been playing with each other’s bits for over 35 years and you still get me SO HOT. I love and lust you forever...xo
♥ ALEXA Never would I have thought that growth could feel so comfortable. Thank you for teaching me how to love and how to change.
♥ L I’m glad you’re ”Happier,” let’s hope the same for me. Maybe this is the last one, thank you, A
♥ COTY! AKA WINSTON You are my favorite person’s favorite person: our son! Building our love has been the journey-est journey that ever journeyed. I love you PapaCheeks!
♥ FIG TREE I hope you are safe right now and bearing your fruit; ripe as ever. I think of you lots, I miss you with all my heart. Hope to hear from you again.
♥ SORTIS Falling for you like your share holdings. Keep it in the red you venture bad boy
♥ TATA AND SHASHA Happy Valentine’s Day to the V.I.Ps of my heart! XOXO
♥ STACEY, who are you, that you have me sending valentines through the portland mercury?! i’m so grateful for all the growth, fun, and adventure. love, katrin
♥ BIG HAM I love you to the Rockell Trough and back
♥ BECKY 10 years later, still in love... And now we are married! Wouldn’t want to rush things, maybe we should move in together?
♥ TAYLOR In a world that moves fast, you make time feel steady. I don’t need grand gestures, just more days like the one’s we’ve had.
♥ SARA, MY DARLING Every year, every day, every moment is more special than the last. You are my heart, my joy, my sleepy bear. I will always make weekend breakfast.
♥ ROGER If you do the dishes I will do that thing you like!
♥ CASEY I’m so grateful to know you. I cherish you and appreciate all your love and support these past few months. Xoxo, Aims
♥ MY CANADIAN HUSBAND I am obsessed with your sweet maple syrup and long, strong hockey stick. I adore being your wife. Forever and Always-PP
♥ K-DAWGG I carry your heart with me I carry it in my heart I am never without it Anywhere I go you go, my dear
♥ RAWRNIE Roses are red Violets are blue You’re doing an amazing job filling that shoe And uhh at the end of the...eh day... we’re all family... Xoxo
♥ FREAKY SWEETS I feel sweet and happy… I don’t know what to do! Let’s start with the crossword and a kiss today.
♥ WILL Can’t believe we’ve hit 1 year and have so many more ahead! Love you to the moon and back <3
♥ KUBA my OAO, my hama hama world tour partner, my sweet billy bob thornton crazy daisy love, everyday with you is like dancing on the moon. i’m yours.
♥ EARTHWORM My love for you is endless. Shall we have another, for the toad?
♥ AARON My beautiful Marxist lover. Thank you for starting a Plex server for us. Can’t wait for all our romantic anti-capitalist movie nights <3
♥ CHESH Your horse girl loves you!!!!
♥ ALICIA A tuck, a hug, a smooch and a big hug! XOXO Douglas
♥ JAKE I want to see you. I’m in the barnyard. Oink oink.
♥ BELLA, This last year has been crazy. You’re crazy. But I somehow love you more!
♥ DEANA Across timelines, I only want to live in the ones where we are together. Thank you for loving every part of me and helping me to embrace my queerness
♥ BABYSIZE Loves my sweetheart Babysize more than the Beatles and Ween and that’s a lot
♥ KEVIN To my Valentine, I wanna shake you down, and drag you like a cigarette… Love you always- Your Silly Girl
♥ SHMAVEYRIKMAN Your kind eyes, generous heart, strong arms, curious mind, & luscious butt are all I need. Get over here and get smooched, fool. I lub joo my bb bean.
♥ BOWLER SUPREME You make my heart flutter, my dreams sweet, and my days full of laughter and joy. I love you more than dino chicken nuggets and cat snuggles.
♥ TEDDY Thank you for being loving, best friend and supportive of Frankie. You are truly very special to me. Your curious, calm eyes are captivating. Elena
♥ FERN From my heart to yours today, You make the world brighter in your own sweet way Happy 1st birthday lil’ one.
♥ TY Olive Juice
♥ BECKEY I love you Honey B
♥ MARY W Give me your eyes, I need sunshine. My dove, you are my sunshine always!!
I could not love you more, I adore you, and you’ll always be my Valentine
♥ SMOOTHIE You’re my favorite part of this life. Never would have imagined I could be so happy. I love you so much. Love, Smoothie
♥ TRO Work hard...play harder and I got you more than you ever know! To many more... even if you wear the pants backwards ;) Love you! April
♥ BOWEN You’ve been saying for awhile that you’re looking for a husband. Here I am! Now that you’ve ditched SNL, hunker down with me in SE Portland!
♥ GIRLS, Happy V-day to some of the best girls in the world! Tiny, Annie, Mathilde, and Bernadette! Extra treats for you today! Wheek!!! Wheek!!! Wheek!!!
♥ JEREMY Waiting for the beyond! Happy Valentine’s
♥ GOLDENBEET you are my warm fuzzy nourishing sleeping bag/cocoon when the world is crazy and depressing. I love you for who you are!
♥ BEE You are kind, brilliant, talented, hot & funny. We’re confusing, but we laugh SO much & have a LOT of orgasms. Thank you for being in my life. <3 Rose
♥ PFJ A casual meet turned into 6 years of music, biking, beach adventures, good sushi, and more. What you and I enjoy together is legit!! CAW! Love you.
♥ LUKE You just somehow keep getting older *and* hotter?! I’m so glad I get to circle the sun with you. Happy Valentine’s Day!
♥ NIL Wherever we go, whatever we do, know that my heart lies with you. From the bottom of my soul, down to my hole; I’ll always be your 6 if you be my 9.
♥ CADI To my bfff and platonic life partner, happy valentine’s day. Hopefully I got us reservation at a creepy cool restaurant ✨
♥ BIRDIE I find new reasons to love you every morning. Through the hard times and good you are a true blessing. It’s such a gift to be part of Team Brullen <3
♥ HONEY, You’re probably at the kitchen bar with our baked bean & bear, reading cute notes. Well, this one’s for you: I SAY Oo WE LOVE YOU! <3 Keebah, RB, & H
♥ MCKAYLA Roses are red, violets are blue, I bet you never thought you’d get a valentine in a magazine, did you? Happy Valentines Day Sugar <3 Wes
♥ H I’m so glad we met. Eight years later, we just keep getting better! I <3 U -B
♥ COTY! AKA WINSTON You are my favorite person’s favorite person: our son! Building our love has been the journey-est journey that ever journeyed. I love you PapaCheeks!
♥ FAVORITE HUMAN You give me treats and help me feel better. Your massages are amazing. Thank you for taking good care of me. You’re my favorite and I love you. - Tiny
♥ CLAYTON Roses are red, violets are blue. I would never remember to brush my teeth without you! AwoooOooo!
♥ DUSTEN to my best friend and favorite person, here’s to nearly 3 and many more years - I love you!
♥ BBKF You were the best thing about last year. I still LOL at the thought of our shenanigans. I meow you forever and ever. Meow x5 Binky x 2 and Ruff x1
♥ LAKAYANA AND NYGEL Have a beautiful Valentine’s Day! I love you and can’t wait to see you again. <3
♥ LUCIA I love you. Thanks for building a little life here in Portland with me.
♥ ERIN AND ZOE You’re the best babies. Please be my moms forever <3
♥ KIP, You’re beautiful in dreams. Where words pour from my mouth in streams. Rivers I could never recreate. I dreamed you traced worlds against my back <3 S
♥ RAYMUNDO You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I love you so much. There’s no one I’d rather be around on a lazy Sunday. Te amo
♥ S I’d say Happy [number] Valentines but then I’d be going against Aunt Ida’s advice. You’re sick but never boring. I wanna eat you like a meatball sub.
♥ REBECCA I love you, bab.
♥ JACOB Redhead from Medford: should have given you my #. I’m at the garden where we met every Monday at 1. Let’s meet again! Paul
♥ KYLE Be my valentine? Walk with me through the decans and through the physical realm? Xo
♥ JARED H. No one gets under my skin like you do… it’s a good thing you’ve got big biceps and a great ass ;) I love you.
♥ RICARDO I appreciate your hard working and your constant love, thank you for being an amazing partner, I love you
♥ HANNAH My bb. Thank you for all the love you let me swim in and belly laughs of course. Let’s try to avoid talking capitalism before bed. More softness in 26
♥ NEIL THE REAL DEAL Cheers to 20 years together. Wow 2 decades! UR a true man w/ unlimited strength to put up w/ me for that long. What’s R next adventure? I luv U lots!-T
♥ BELLE DU CAMP ~ Not a day gone, plus 729, I thought I saw you. But no, that wouldn’t be you. There are other Bees, other Jays, and you’d know what the Sea was for. ~
♥ LORD GOLDENLOIN Excited for 52 more years (minimum) of knee hickies, koala bearing and eyelid sucks. I love you in every lifetime. Love, Lady Goldenloin
♥ CHAN, I’m so glad I ended up with the leader of Antifa, even if it was an accident. Can’t wait to show the kids our FBI files (if we live that long).
♥ BEBELET Thank you for the last five and a half years. I feel like I can be completely myself around you. You mean the world to me.
♥ MIKE J I like my man how I like my food - hot and well seasoned, you’re my favorite valentine
♥ CHUGAR Roses are red, violets are blue... Has anyone ever told you I have beautiful eyes? ITS A JOKE...GET IT?? Thought that counts- xoxo
♥ SWEET LAURA Your smile refreshes me every day, like an iced Kombucha on a hot summer day. Con amor, Lore.
♥ ARTIE I knew you were someone special on our first zoom. Now here we are! You are my soulmate and I would travel any distance for you.
♥ JENNI My dearest Snookums, this year being so far apart from you only ignites my love for you and your dark obsidian eyes that still keep me loving you.
♥ MOOGZ I am as excited to continue adventuring with you as the pig is to make a ham and cheese. I love you and everything you are. BSO4LYFE
♥ K-HEY! hey sweets, hows’bout we do this ‘ol valentines thing again? you n’ me, celebrating our 13th anniversary, might as well be valentiney-folk, first, no?
♥ AVOCADO CHRIS Thanks for being the dip for my chip.
♥ PATRICK Another year of being hopelessly devoted to you, and I’ll never get enough. Love you with my whole heart. Thanks for laughing at all my dumb jokes. <3
♥ LINDA MY LOVE You have done more for me than any one on this earth. I am so embarrassed that I do not always appreciate. I hope to see the best of times from now on
♥ LORCHONA Roses are red, Dodgers are blue. We made a cute baby and we both love you. Happy Valentine’s Day to our cool,hot, papa Dad. Couldn’t do it w/out you
♥ LAURA Love you like Spaghetti loves her special brown blanket. Love, cb
♥ BEBE Looking forward to spending time with you in the new year! Love Cajun Tot.
♥ BRANDON Watching you suck at Karoke is something I miss more than anything, and you idgaf attitude until it included me, do you ever miss us,I do every day-J
♥ MEGATRON Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, I love myself More than I love you. Remember this and love yourself today girl.
♥ EDDY I’m so lucky to be your girl, thank you for bringing so much love & joy & fun to my life bae :) cheers to our first valentine’s day together <3 ily
♥ CORINNE I am so grateful to have spent the last decade with you. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Thank you for everything that you do <3 R
♥ QUETZAL I Love You!!! I am so grateful to have met you and to call you mine. You are so special to me. I feel so seen and I love how we care for each other.
♥ TY B I thank whatever gods may be For your unconquerable soul. You are the master of my fate. You are the captain of my soul.
♥ MILES I love you more! Butt touches for 90 more years, pls. <3, R
♥ COURTNEY D. I love you. Even in the hard times. Always. <3
♥ DJ PINBALL So glad this year brought us miles of advantures & hours of laughter. Cheers to more dirty garden times, backyard soaks & moments that don’t suck!
♥ ESACH 10 years later and here we are, still here by
each other’s side. Thank you for being you. Here’s to 100 more my love. Luhu today until forever.
♥ ASH I wanna smash! You can charm my pants off anytime.
♥ SARAH My sweetie! Every day I’m thrilled that we’ve built a life together and that we’re raising an kid. There’s no one I’d rather do it with. I love you!
♥ TANNA BANANA 20 Years, how time flys! Seems just yesterday we met! Turns out this is NOT arbitrary! There had better be 20 of these in the scrapbook! I Love You!!!
♥ KL I couldn’t love you more baby. I say it all the time knowing that tomorrow will prove me wrong. What a woman you are. Lucky me, lucky us.
♥ CONNER You’re a total dork and I love you so much for it
♥ STEPHEN A new year with my love. Your support and snuggles are delightful. looking forward to high seas adventures with my pirate. Me Hearties go to you.
♥ R. I love you. I miss you. I cannot wait to see you. your M.
♥ OCEAN WAVES, I will be your anchor. Love, Dreamboat.
♥ CHRIS I fell in love with you the first time I met you. You make me laugh every day. You are in my heart deeply.
♥ ELP Flores para ti! <3 amor y besos ya lil weirdo! ~ ENK
♥ HAM I feel so lucky to get to spend my life with you. I love you
♥ LIL’ BEE You turn me on and RIP THE KNOB OFF!!! Loveeeeeeee - Kurt
♥ BAY LEAF After Four O’Clock Return to the canyon’s rim Where one journey ends Another will begin As before, words once presaged The Spring Azure will bring...
♥ SARA, MY DARLING Every year, every day, every moment is more special than the last. You are my heart, my joy, my sleepy bear. I will always make weekend breakfast.
♥ JESSIE 20 years breh! Now lemme hop up on that thang.
♥ ALEX I’m beginning to forget what you sound like, and I know we hurt each other, but there is an Alex-shaped hole in my life. I miss you. I still love you.
♥ WILL I love you and the life that we’re building together! Your heart is so big and your love is so patient. It’s you, me and Mac against the world! <3
♥ HEY, YOU! I LOVE YOU FOR ADOPTING US FROM THAT SCARY PLACE LAST YEAR.
THANKS FOR ALL THE FUN AND TREATS. WHEEK!Bernadette (and Mathilde)
♥ JESSICA, Every moment with you is Magic, each moment better than the last. After all this time you remain my Blue Sky and my Waterloo Sunset. I LOVE YOU!!!!!
♥ GUSSIE I love ya & I’m excited for all our future shenanigans together!! <3 P.S. The kitties love ya too! xoxo, your peanut
♥ ABRA NIGHTSHADE Here’s to you my little miracle.....Loving You Till the End. Yours Truly, The Crow.
♥ PWISTOPHER C KITI Your support & patience with me over the last (awful) year will stay w/ me the rest of my life. You’re my MVP teammmate. I love you! Now gimme kissie!
♥ CUTECUMBER Happy Valentines Day and anniversary. I have had a blast shredding with you this past year. Can’t wait for your BIG graduation party. Love, Neel
♥ BOOBEE Happy Valentine’s Day BooBee. Let’s get fondue again.
♥ SEAN(Y) Thank you for complimenting my Nirvana shirt 22 years ago, leading to my life-long crush on you. Can’t wait for another 22 years <3 xoxo
♥ HANNAH J Nine Valentines, love’s a hoot - kittens and cuddles in constant pursuit. We snuggle, we purr, we flop, we play; I love you more every single day.
♥ JACKIED Tell Pus I say hi <3 -The Shire
♥ TONY Our love continues to melt me. May we slowly just become the sea. Beyond, beyond. Love, Your dreamboat captain of your h&c
♥ COHOTTY Oh Baby. There ain’t no maybe. I know. You’re a smoke show
♥ JAMES I love you more than our chickens love ripe tomatoes in the summertime - Lily xoxo
♥ CAITLIN Thank you for saying yes! I love you so much.
♥ CORNDOG MAUI WOWIE AM I THANKFUL FOR YOU. YOU ARE A BEAUTIFUL SPECIMEN MAKING ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL SPECIMEN. LOVE YOU FOREVER, MI MUNDO
♥ DR. MUNKY, Happy Valentine’s Day to the best doctor in the world and best assistant! I see you there Peaches! I some day hope to be as brilliant. - Dr. BeMine
♥ MERLE I’m so happy to be on this journey with you! Lucky to be with such a fun, supportive partner. So many more adventures to come! Team Brullen! I luv u.
♥ SILAS Through drunken debauchery to finding ourselves-every iteration has been more fun with you!
♥ TYLER Since the day we met, you have made every day an adventure. You are my sun, moon, and stars. I’m so lucky to have your goofy ginger face in my life.
Nonbinary Girlfriend Evolves on Sophomore Album IM NOT PRETTY
The angry indie outfit refuses easy categorization.
BY NOLAN PARKER
PHOTO BY NIC KIELBASA
s a teenager, your biggest concerns may include embarrassment in front of peers, family structural stability, and romantic relationships. As an adult, your biggest concerns are likely similar. Another teenage fear might be someone finding your journal, reading your deepest joys and terrors of personhood. The second album from Portland’s Nonbinary Girlfriend realizes that fear, listening like an evolutionary confessional of what it is to be a human in the 21st century.
IM NOT PRETTY’s lyrics could be journal entries by anyone who has woken up next to a partner not knowing why, felt detached from their lives and bodies due to circumstances out of their control, experienced assault, or heard a part of themselves incessantly say, “You’re not enough.” Anyone with trauma—processed or otherwise— will hear themselves in IM NOT PRETTY, and gain insight into how others deal with the weight of existence.
A military kid hailing most recently from Illinois, Nonbinary Girlfriend lead singer and songwriter James Binkowski ended up in Portland, subsequently writing music and starting Nonbinary Girlfriend because the energy of the city and its DIY scenes were calling. James, initially coming to Portland to trim weed, saw Mt. Hood peering over the town and said, “Let me grab my bags.”
Starting the band as a solo project in 2021, James chose the Nonbinary Girlfriend moniker as a reflection of how he identified gender-wise at the time. “My gender has evolved since then,” James explains. “It’s kinda funny having this ‘girlfriend’ still in there.” Time and evolution never stop, and neither are linear. Transition happens, and detransition can happen. Pain happens, and healing can happen. Nonbinary Girlfriend are after evolution and psychic healing, even as the girlfriend layer is shed in the process.
Eric Diamond and Sei Harris joined Nonbinary Girlfriend as it evolved from a solo project into a band. Though Sei isn’t in the band anymore, Eric continues holding it down on drums, and—as of last April—Pete Bensen plays guitar in the project. Both are involved in other Portland bands including Mega Pacific, Simple Shapes, and Bug Séance. When asked about the lineup, Eric quips, “It’s pretty fluid, just like our gender.” An easy laughter ensues, one manifesting only between friends and creative partners that have been through the trenches together, coming out on the other side of tours, recording, and songwriting with
an almost intrinsic sense of connection between them.
Such bonds are needed when writing, recording, and playing an album like IM NOT PRETTY . As the sole songwriter, some of James’ most personal experiences are the brightest points of relatability and catharsis on the album. With the title IM NOT PRETTY, before a single note is heard, James rejects society putting him in a
“I hope people get what I got out of IM NOT PRETTY. The time and space to process what they’ve been through and feel not alone.”
“pretty” box. As with the title, the album art evokes a queer taking-back of self through local artist Eilish Gore’s powerful portrait, a reimagining of James as Joan of Arc. The battle icon has haunted James for years. Nonbinary Girlfriend copped their chainmail aesthetic from the queer ancestor, who James channels as a medieval T-Boy (trans-masc boy).
On self-sabotaging breakup anthem “Oh God,” James displays his PJ Harvey vocal range and control, asserting he’s fucked
up for not missing his ex, a deeply nuanced grief rubbing up against the joy of freedom and autonomy. The song’s breakdown is pure catharsis when James, dropping deep down in his vocals, asks “When will I figure it out?” before admitting he doesn’t like what’s good for him. Like most of us, James is figuring life out as it happens.
The album’s title track and first single make clear what the band thinks of frameworks still used by the male gaze to size up trans people, women, and queers: “I’m not pretty / I am fucking scary / I’m not pretty / You are fucking scared of me.” Processing events that happened to him, James confronts the concept of consent—or lack thereof, how AFAB (assigned female at birth) teenagers are expected to give their bodies to those who want it, and how those bodies are sometimes taken without consent. The song is profoundly angry, holding space for those who have experienced something similar and a knife to the throat of assailants worldwide.
When asked what the band hopes people get out of the album, James says he wants listeners to experience what he did: “The time and space to process what they’ve been through and feel not alone.” Pete adds, “When you write music that’s relatable to a lot of people, once you put that music out, it doesn’t belong to you anymore.” Each person comes to the table with their entire life in tow, informing how they relate to the music and its messages and stories.
Clocking in just shy of 27 minutes, IM NOT PRETTY ’s track listing is lean and mean. “Bully” reckons with the waking nightmare that can be step-parents, the visceral breakdown in “Stranger” walks us through the valley of the shadow of death that is a drawn-out breakup, “Shame Spiral” simulates a spin-out in all directions, and the slow churn bass of “Secret Song” grapples with not being the “woman” someone needs. Over and over, the tracks drive home that James’ most potent form of processing is songwriting.
IM NOT PRETTY’s final track, “Do What You Want,” features the hardest shredding intro of the album, leaving the listener wanting more and inevitably starting the whole album over again. It also feels like the final nail in the coffin of the relationships that have been dogging James for years. Lovers, partners, friends, and family all have the capacity to manipulate, and Nonbinary Girlfriend is done with that. James tells those who have wronged him to do what they want—because that’s exactly what he plans to do.
Nonbinary Girlfriend releases their sophomore album, IM NOT PRETTY, on Friday, February 13 via prolific Portland label Pleasure Tapes. Pick up a tape or digital download on Bandcamp. Nonbinary Girlfriend also celebrates the release of IM NOT PRETTY at Coffin Club on February 13 with openers Myriads and Femme Cell.
Don’t call Nonbinary Girlfriend pretty.
Palindrome Play
Portland-raised playwright Kallan Dana on her Lynchian thriller Racecar Racecar Racecar.
BY TJ ACENA
For playwright Kallan Dana, having Racecar Racecar Racecar produced at Artists
Repertory Theatre is a special homecoming. “I feel so lucky to get to come back and do a show there,” she says. “The Portland theater scene was such a huge part of my childhood and adolescence.” Now living in Brooklyn, Dana grew up in Multnomah Village. Theater was a huge part of her childhood, her parents often took her to Artists Rep shows, and she cut her teeth at both Northwest Children’s Theater and Oregon Children’s Theatre.
Interim artistic director Luan Schooler heard about a production of Racecar Racecar Racecar in New York and reached out to Dana when she found out she was from Portland. The company wanted to produce a lineup of women playwrights with ties to the Pacific Northwest for their 2025-2026 season. “It’s a truly original and startlingly funny play that explores complicated choices and relationships in a unique way,” says Schooler.
Billed as a Lynchian thriller, Racecar hops in the car with an unnamed father and daughter on a cross country road trip. As with anything described as Lynchian, something uneasy bubbles under the surface and things get weird. The duo picks up hitchhikers with inscrutable agendas, meets living memories from their past, and Jo March from Little Women makes a cameo. Dana cites Lynch’s masterpiece Mulholland Drive and Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things as major influences on the piece.
Despite these influences, Racecar has simple origins. Dana challenged herself to write a symmetrical play that revolved around a central event. “Restrictions are helpful for writing,” she says, “because it’s really overwhelming when you’re looking at a blank page and are like, ‘I could do anything.’ That, in fact, makes me feel like I can’t do anything.”
Racecar’s symmetrical structure mirrors a palindrome—a word or phrase that reads the same forwards and backwards—which becomes central to the narrative and gives the play its title.
The play’s road trip fits the structure perfectly, set up in two parts of equal length that revolve around a destination. Family road trips were also a part of Dana’s life
growing up. “I had extremely positive memories on those road trips that are still great sources of comfort to me,” she says. “I also
work, “capital ‘W’ weird.” But as she’s developed as an artist, she says she sees form and content as intertwined. “In every
“The foggy nature of childhood memories lends Racecar Racecar Racecar its weirdness.”
have memories that are the source of my nightmares. They’re all kind of intertwined.”
Like many theater college students, first at Skidmore and later at Northwestern, where she completed her MFA, Dana describes her driving force to make her
project you have to invent what the style is, of each play, each time. I have another play that’s set in Portland that also has surreal moments, but it’s much more grounded in naturalistic scenes.”
It’s the foggy nature of childhood memo-
ries that lends Racecar its weirdness. “Childhood is full of super confusing, upsetting moments that don’t quite make sense and that are out of their control,“ Dana says. “I was interested in writing something that dealt with the oscillating nature of nostalgia.”
Similarly, within the work itself, father and daughter have travelled this road before, so past and present easily bleed together. Each remembers their shared past differently, and neither sees the other as a reliable narrator, so as they try to make sense of what they mean to each other, they sort through beautiful and painful memories alike.
The production’s director Melory Mirashrafi says that memory has become central to how she understands the show. “Think of a memory from your childhood,” says Mirashrafi. “What’s in focus? What feels blurry? When I think of moments from my childhood, sometimes I discover that my memories are a story someone told me, or something I’ve slowly (and maybe deliberately) warped over time. Memory is slippery. So is family. Kallan explores the two with deep creativity and surprising abandon.”
Surrealism can be a difficult needle to thread as a playwright, but Dana uses surreal and tense aspects to peel back her characters and expose the parts of them they’d rather keep hidden from each other and themselves. “As an audience, I’m frustrated when I feel like things are happening for no reason. I always want it to be connected to something emotional or a character’s psychology,” Dana explains. “In Mulholland Drive it feels like so many moments were just pure dream logic, but then it culminates in emotional realization for the main character. It feels like, actually, all of the places it goes to are connected to her.”
That was particularly exciting to Mirashrafi. “This play is unafraid of complexity,” she explains, “and full of opportunities for our cast and designers to, for lack of better words, pop the fuck off. In short, come for the spectacle, stay for the brutal sting of reality.”
Racecar Racecar Racecar runs at Artists Repertory Theatre through Sun March 1, $5-$60, tickets, showtimes, and content warnings at artistsrep.org
PHILIP J. HATTON
Jerilyn Armstrong and Anthony Green Caloca star in Artists Rep’s Racecar Racecar Racecar
Putting the Gory in Allegory
Sarah G. Pierce’s irreverent debut imagines societal collapse caused by corpses and dating apps.
BY SUZETTE SMITH
For Human Use , the debut novel by Sarah G. Pierce, is both about and not about a dating app for dead bodies. The story itself follows the rollout of a new “swiping app” (dubbed Liv) that allows users to scroll through profiles of corpses, which they can then have delivered to their home.
Pierce immediately unpacks this idea in a chaotic text conversation between the story’s anxious antihero Tom Williamson and the other senior partner at the equity firm where he works. “Your autocorrect keeps typing ‘dead bodies,’” Tom writes, incredulously.
But it isn’t a typo. The service’s slimy founder Auden White is pitching Tom’s boss for investment. Wearing a black t-shirt and charcoal washed jeans, Auden spouts platitudes, like “spending time alone with a person who’s dead is a profound emotional event.” And even more patronizingly, “it’s okay if Liv makes you uncomfortable.”
Auden brings to mind several tech entrepreneurs willing to sacrifice society for their megalomaniacal visions. His business plans are boilerplate allegories for subsidized
start-ups—who cares if the thing makes profit as long as it occupies headlines?
Tom functions as a vehicle for reader outrage. While morally gray enough to work at an equity firm in the first place, he has the foresight to worry that a dating app for corpses could not only bring down the firm but get them all “dragged in front of Congress.”
In an interview, Pierce told the Mercury she based Tom on her husband, joking: “For a lot of people on their first book, it’s helpful to be living with your protagonist.” She fondly remembers that on their first date, he came straight from work and immediately launched into a scathing rant about his dysfunctional office. Fiery monologues bonded the pair, and although Pierce had never considered writing a novel before this one—she’s a photographer and has spent much of her career in the art world—her husband encouraged her to try a writing class. “Because he really enjoyed my rants,” she said.
If Pierce’s husband is Tom, does that make her the story’s female lead, Auden White’s stepsister Mara Reed? “Definitely not,” Pierce replied, before questioning if Mara is even a main character in the book. “This book is about Tom and Auden,” she said. Readers who want science fiction concepts to be practical won’t find that here. It’s a satire of start-up culture, but it’s much closer to a work of horror than speculation. On the periphery of the action, the book is full of delivery people trying to fit human-sized boxes into elevators. For Human Use is very plainly about dating, with a side of social norm collapse. Pierce is cleverly commenting on onesided relationships where you want someone around, but don’t want to treat them like a person. This novel is 448 pages of marvelous satire on the ways humans try to rationalize that. ■
CAPPY HOTCHKISS
For Human Use is Sarah G. Pierce’s debut novel.
The Secret Is in the Sauce
Portland’s Sunday Sauce Is an Homage to Old-School Italian Eateries
BY BEN COLEMAN
Judson and I met in Hoboken, New Jersey, working at this place called The Brass Rail,” Normandie co-founder Amanda Winquist tells me. “I was in grad school, he was in a band.”
One thing led to another and 2,436 miles west of Hoboken we’re sitting in the couple’s second restaurant, Sunday Sauce, on North Killingsworth. “I tell people, ‘if I could do anything else I would.’ This isn’t the easiest industry,” she observes, “but we just fell in love with what we do.”
On first glance Sunday Sauce is very much an old school East Coast Italian joint: Chianti-red vinyl booths, checkered placemats, and of course the omnipresent perfume of olives and garlic. But a closer inspection reveals some distinctly millennial touches: the neon sign in the window reads “Saucy AF,” the stained-glass chandeliers are giving vintage Pizza Hut, and the portrait of a beatific saint behind the bar is none other than Danny DeVito.
were all the rage back in the day. “The things that people wanted back then,” Judson says, “that’s what I want too.”
Sunday Sauce began as a pop-up in the couple’s first restaurant, Normandie. Amanda says she was dealing with the recent passing of her own mother, Marianne, and wanted to share a sense of the home cooking she grew up on.
The titular “Sunday Sauce” at Sunday Sauce. BEN COLEMAN
“This kind of place, when I was a kid, would always be playing Frank Sinatra… there were murals of Italy, there were white columns,” Amanda says. Pop bangers of yore, tokens of the old country on the wall, eggplant parm. Transplanted to Portland, that means it’s the Strokes coming out of the speakers and the “old country” is Hoboken.
The food is also a mix of Old School and Y2K. There are pasta joint classics like orecchiette and pesto, plus fun remixes like the giardiniera misto, kind of a deconstructed hero topped with fried pepperoni. The titular Sunday sauce is an East Coast Italian American staple, more commonly found burbling away on a nonna’s stovetop all afternoon. There’s also a couple of Jersey-specific specialties like disco fries—a sort of Garden State poutine which Winquest describes as “quintessential Jersey.” And of course there’s a selection of parms (chicken or eggplant), if you need something deep fried under layers of sauce and cheese. “Covered and smothered,” is how Amanda describes the Jersey approach to plating.
The bar program is also equal parts irreverent and indulgent. That’s Judson’s department, and he says his guiding star was an abiding love of dirty martinis (there’s four of them on the menu—from tomato and dill, to sour cream and onion) and a refusal to feel shame over the sugary Sex and the City-era concoctions that
“I didn’t have much time to grieve,” she says, “I lost my mom, and then I had a baby right? I couldn’t drink. I couldn’t work out. And… I don’t know, grief is hard to process.” What she settled on was adapting the home cooking she grew up with for a Portland audience. Head chef Issaah Brown, a Normandie line cook at at the time, took on the role of culinary consiglieri: “I would bring in food and we would collaborate on how to make it ‘restaurant,’” Amanda recalls, “It [was] my first holiday without my mom, which is a big deal, and I wanted to do a tribute.”
Because the menu was based on unfussy home cooking, the first pop-up felt like a dicey proposition. “With family cooking, you don’t always see the value in it,” she notes, “it’s not duck confit. It’s not high end French food.” Restaurant pop-ups can be a risky endeavor, largely dependent on word of mouth and industry buzz. “I thought just my friends were gonna show up,” Amanda admits, but the recipes translated well and Portland’s love affair with mid-price Italian restaurants was in bloom. When a corner restaurant space opened up on N Killingsworth, the couple decided to take it brick and mortar.
What’s most rewarding, Amanda says, is getting the nod from fellow east coast expats. “One night this lady with frizzy hair grabs me, real hard, and says ‘I’m a Jersey girl too, and I’m going to leave you the best fucking Yelp review of my life.”
“We knew the food would be good. We knew it would be fun,” Amanda says, “But holy shit… Jersey shows up for Jersey.” ■
DO THIS, DO THAT
FEBRUARY 2026
The City’s Coolest Art and Cultural Events This Month
BY JULIANNE BELL, LINDSAY
COSTELLO, NOLAN PARKER, AND SUZETTE SMITH
Palimpsests: Layered Surfaces
THROUGH MARCH 1
(VISUAL ART) Waterstone Gallery’s annual invitational provides a lot of Oregon art for the eyes. The contemporary co-op curated seven artists from an eclectic allotment of practices, resulting in Palimpsests, a show about the layers within artworks and the art makers themselves. Everyone involved is a local powerhouse, but we guarantee you’ve seen murals around town by the prolific and profound Kyra Watkins—whether or not you clocked her signature. If the names James Alby, Paul Gadsden, Leonard Harmon, Yuji Hiratsuka, Marcel M. Johansen, and Kanani Miyamoto are not known to you, this is the show to catch up on what you’ve been missing.
(Waterstone Gallery, 124 NW 9th, times vary Wed-Sun, artist talk Sat Feb 15, FREE, waterstonegallery.com, all ages) SUZETTE SMITH
The Off Beat Grand Opening
FEBRUARY 13
(MUSIC) Andre Middleton and the expansive community around the Friends of Noise nonprofit have finally done it—after having the keys to the old Dancin’ Bare strip club space in Kenton for almost a year, the Off Beat venue is officially opening its doors! The shows at TOB will always be all ages, continuing FoN’s mission of youth education through experience. Opening night features a mixed bill with queer punk royalty Team Dresch, beat-makers Brown Calculus, noisy shoegazers Spiderling, and the young grunge rockers Adnauseum. This opening represents a new, beautifully accessible mountain in Portland’s music topography. Let’s hike the summit together! (The Off Beat, 8440 N Interstate, 7 pm, $15-$25, instagram. com/theoffbeatpdx, all ages) NOLAN PARKER
Paprika
FEBRUARY 14
(FILM) In surreal director and manga auteur Satoshi Kon’s Paprika, a freaky new piece of technology enables morally questionable therapists to observe their patients’ dreams. The gadget’s creator moonlights as a “dream detective” named Paprika—cool job alert— but when the device is stolen, nightmares and reality merge. The film’s postmodern polish shines, employing a nonlinear structure, time distortions, and cinematic meta-commentary. (Blink and you’ll miss the detective dressed as Akira Kurosawa.) Susumu Hirasawa’s cacophonous bleep-bloop soundtrack is “like an apple full of Trolli worms,” according to my partner; the film’s crazed parade of roaming toys is also the most accurate visual depiction of a nightmare I’ve witnessed. (PAM CUT @ The Whitsell, 1219 SW Park, 2 pm, $15, portlandartmuseum.org, R) LINDSAY COSTELLO
Willamette Sauna Festivaali
FEBRUARY 14-15
(COMMUNITY) Portland needs this. We’re so seasonally depressed. Popping up for its first year at Milwaukie Bay Park, the Willamette Sauna Festivaali offers pass holders a survey of over 12 saunas—
mobile, floating, mortared, and more! The pass rates of 3-hour, day, or weekend might feel a little steep, but ONE OF THE SAUNAS IS IN A SAILBOAT. Ahem, I mean, passholders also have access to a vendor village of sauna accessories, Nordic food, and a pFriem beer tent. (Milwaukie Bay Park, 11211 SE McLoughlin, Milwaukie, Sat Feb 14 10 am-10 pm, Sun Feb 15 8 am-2 pm, $85-$160, saunafestivaali.org, all ages) SS
Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous
FEBRUARY 14-MARCH 15
(THEATER & PERFORMANCE) To explore ideas of legacy, jealousy, and intergenerational conflict, playwright Pearl Cleage positions her drama around a farce: a fake collection of radical monologues taken from August Wilson’s plays and performed in the buff. Anna Campbell (Faith Lavon) returns from a self-imposed European exile, after being invited to revive her controversial work, only to discover that the festival producer intends for a much younger Precious “Pete” Watson (Ashlee Radney) to perform Naked Wilson in her place. Hilarity ensues. Fair warning, this performance will have onstage nudity. (Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott, times vary Weds-Sun, $59.95, Arts for All and CARE tickets available, portlandplayhouse.org, 13+ recommended) SS
Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore
FEBRUARY 18
(MUSIC) Julianna Barwick’s choral ambiance pairs perfectly with the work of harpist-composer Mary Lattimore, whose twinkly album Silver Ladders sends me (and my cat) into a dreamy reverie on a near-nightly basis. It’s fitting, then, that the two came together in Tragic Magic, a cosmic-baroque album
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
COURTESY SAUNA FESTIVAALI
COURTESY OF MADHOUSE
they recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris. (It includes a Vangelis cover and a piece composed for the pair by Roger Eno.) If you dig gorgeous, homespun compositions à la Joanna Newsom and Colleen, you probably already know and love Barwick and Lattimore. Newer dreamers should expect a varied, mystical trip, both medieval and synth-driven. (Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, 8 pm, SOLD OUT, mississippistudios.com, 21+) LC
Lunar New Year at Lan Su Chinese Garden
FEBRUARY 18-MARCH 8
(COMMUNITY) Giddy up, it’s the Year of the Horse! Lan Su’s Lunar New Year celebration (inspired by the Lantern Festival, or Yuan Xian Jie) pulls out all the stops with its glowy red lanterns—the garden’s sweeping rooflines cast warm shadows, and floating lanterns glide across Lake Zither. This year, Lan Su is offering two ways to celebrate in the evening, with a “magical zodiac animals light show” and dragon dance procession on select nights and more tranquil experiences set to live Chinese music. The garden also has daytime activities planned, like meet-andgreets with mini horses(!!!), lion dances, and Chinese calligraphy demonstrations. (Lan Su Chinese Garden, 239 NW Everett, times vary, daytime activities free with admission, lantern evenings $0-$32.95, lansugarden.org, all ages) LC
Cardi B
FEBRUARY 19
(MUSIC) If you’ve ordered free wood chips to be delivered to your home from ChipDrop and need something intensely witty, queer, and socialist to listen to, pop Cardi B’s new album Am I The Drama? in and get to spreading. Y’all already know who Cardi is, so here are a few choice lyrics from the record: “I tell hoes to suck my dick / They put they hair up in a bun,” “If you get money and you cute / Then bae you basically my twin,” “If you not my bitch / You just a bitch,” “It be me looking like a snack / Bon appétit,” “It’s not my fault me and broke hoes don’t get along,” “Gloryhole / Bitches don’t know who they fuckin’ with.” (Moda Center, 1 N Center, 7:30 pm, $71.80+, rosequarter.com, all ages) NP
Black Mystery Month Concert featuring Out of the Infinite Darkness
FEBRUARY 20
(MUSIC) Now in its third year, the annual Black Mystery Month is a celebration of Black ancestors past, present, and future. Facilitated by Roman Norfleet & Be Present Art Group (BPAG), this year’s concert features a “cosmic sono-drama” performed by Norfleet & BPAG. Written by Norfleet, the drama explores darkness as an originating lifeforce outside of racial constructs. Opening the mystery are Woseiko Ensemble and Jacque Hammond, also a member of BPAG. Presented by Albina Music Trust, Be Present Art
HUMP! Film Festival
FEBRUARY 20-28
(FILM) So I was on the selection committee for HUMP! this year… Y’ALL NASTY! And while I know which submissions made the cut, I don’t know which will screen in the spring run and which will appear in the fall. Troll dolls getting absolutely used and abused, cum on rye, and a freaky fae sucking off a log up the Washougal are a few that really stood out during the nine-plus-hour committee screening. Portland pulled up (pulled out?) strong with a bunch of horny submissions—no surprise—as did Seattle and Berlin. Special shout to the one submission coming from Redmond, Oregon. It’s feral out there in Central Oregon, keep up the good work! (Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark, times vary, $20-$25, revolutionhall.com, 18+) NOLAN PARKER
Group, and KMHD Jazz Radio, the night—on top of the exceptional music and performance—will also feature a fashion market by Amen, Amen. Studios and visuals by the Spoiler Room boys. (The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th, 7:30 pm, $22, tocportland.org, all ages) NP
Fuyu Fest
FEBRUARY 22
(FOOD) Much has been made of the Scandinavian concept of hygge, but don’t let that distract you from the fact that Japanese culture also has plenty of coziness and elegance to offer. The fourth edition of this annual winter-themed festival, which is dedicated to the intersection of Japanese and Pacific Northwest culture, will offer nearly 100 types of craft Japanese sake as well as hearty offerings from local amazake and miso makers. Explore a lineup of libations from Tokyo okan (warm sake) restaurant Takasaki no Okan, relax with Sid Samberg’s improvisational music and
sake pairings, and soak up knowledge of sake culture and history from experts. (The Redd on Salmon, 831 SE Salmon, 1-5 pm, $89, fuyufest.org, 21+) JULIANNE BELL
The Sun Ra Arkestra
FEBRUARY 25-27
(MUSIC) If you have not seen the Sun Ra Arkestra on one of their Portland sojourns—the city they call their “West Coast home”—it is time, the spaceways are calling. Formed by and around galactic jazz giant Sun Ra, the Arkestra continues putting the stellar in interstellar under the direction of Marshall Allen. At 101 years old, Allen is the last remaining Arkestra member to have played with Ra before his transition away from this temporal plane in 1993. Though Ra is most often pegged as an Afrofuturist, his and the Arkestra’s music runs the gamut of jazz music, sometimes dipping into pop and show tunes. It’s a privilege to see
this music live; a deep well of gratitude to Portland’s Lonely God for facilitating the ceremony. (Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy, 8 pm, $40, hollywoodtheatre.org, all ages) NP
Lauren Groff in Conversation with Lydia Kiesling
MARCH 2
(READINGS/TALKS) Something I often think about is the New York Times’ 2023 interview with Lauren Groff, in which the author explained her editing process. After completing the first draft of a novel, she places it in a banker’s box, and never reads it again. Then, she starts from scratch, with the goal that only the most vital and potent aspects of her story will remain. Seems kind of extreme. But then again, extremity can be good for the creative process. Clearly it’s working for Groff, whose novels (Fates and Furies, Florida, Matrix) have snagged three National Book Award nominations. She’ll chat about Brawler her new short story collection, with local writer Lydia Kiesling, author of Mobility (Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 7 pm, $41.95, powells.com, all ages) LC
Staples March 14,
Portland Jazz Festival
MARCH 5-14
(MUSIC) Recently I’ve had several friends and people in prominent Portland bands say they’re keen to check out more jazz in 2026. If not at the Portland Jazz Festival, then where? This year, as with all years, the festival’s cup runneth over with local and international talent by jazzists and jazz-adjacent artists. 2026 festival highlights include Portland’s own Shirley Nanette—this year’s “Portland Jazz Master”—opening for the incomparable Mavis Staples; the big little brother energy of Roger Eno; Pickathon favorites SML; Portland’s first all-femme big band, Stumptown Sirens Jazz Orchestra; Rose City rising jazz luminary, Charlie Brown III; and the forever homies in Dreckig. Read our full festival breakdown at portlandmercury.com. (Various locations, times, and prices, pdxjazz.org) NP
Fellow Travellers
MARCH 7-15
(MUSIC) You loved the Showtime miniseries. Why not try it as an opera? Adapted from the novel by Thomas Mallon, the opera version of Fellow Travellers tells the story of two politico paramours, eking out an affair under the oppressive gavel of ’50s McCarthyism politics. Somewhat ironically, the wizened and well-connected Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller (Joseph Lattanzi) gets his bright-eyed, younger lover Timothy Laughlin (Andy Acosta) an aide position in Senator Joseph McCarthy’s office as a way to gather information on the emerging Lavender Scare. (Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, select dates, times vary, $31-$106, portlandopera.org) SS
AARON J. THORNTON/GETTY IMAGES
BEN HOUDIJK
COLIN BOYLE COURTESY RIVERHEAD BOOKS
The Sun Ra Arkestra Feb 25–27, Hollywood Theatre
Mavis
Revolution Hall
Savage Love
BY DAN SAVAGE
Quickies!
I’m an 81-year-old heterosexual woman whose husband died last May. I have found that my 56-year-old gardener of fifteen years can make me sexually happy. But now after four months he says he’s not respecting his wife by having sex with me. He relates this to going to a Catholic priest for confession. He seems to enjoy our sex. What should I tell him?
“You’re fired.”
P.S. Kidding, kidding—don’t fire your gardener. Tell him you’re grateful for the sexual happiness, you don’t want him to do anything that makes him feel uncomfortable, and then give him a raise.
P.P.S. Will no one free us from these meddlesome priests?
Why do guys who wanna get pegged refuse to douche/prepare? What to do in those cases?
Peg a guy who doesn’t prepare once, shame on him. Peg a guy who doesn’t prepare twice, shame on you.
P.S. In fairness, some straight guys don’t know how to prepare; their girlfriends/ wives/Dommes can and should direct them to one of the five million douching tutorials on YouTube. In cases where a guy has been directed to online douching tutorials and he still isn’t cleaning out properly… that guy doesn’t deserve to be pegged.
What amount of jealousy/insecurity in a poly relationship is okay?
“What matters most is not so much the amount of jealousy/insecurity, but the way it’s handled,” said Dr. Marie Thouin. “If someone grapples with jealousy but they’re staying on the same team with their partner(s), that’s okay; but if someone feels so disempowered that they start seeing their partner as an enemy, something needs to change.” Dr. Marie Thouin is a dating and relationship coach who has extensively researched and written about compersion. Follow her on Instagram @drmariethouin.
I have a boyfriend who never asks for anything. He also never says “I love you.” Do you think this is a red flag?
It depends on how long you’ve been seeing this guy. If you’ve only been seeing him for a few weeks—especially if you haven’t had a DTR convo and your use of “boyfriend” is the relationship equivalent of grade inflation—the fact that he isn’t asking you to pick up his dry cleaning (just this once) or peg his ass (on the regular) could be seen as a green flag, e.g. he doesn’t expect you to do girlfriend grunt work before you’re BF/GF official. Same goes for saying “I love you”: if you’re still in the early stages, he may be feeling it, he may be thinking about saying
it, but waiting until he’s sure before he says it? Another green flag… if the relationship is still relatively new.
But if it’s been a year and he doesn’t ask you for anything (and doesn’t offer anything) and he doesn’t say “I love you” (or stopped saying “I love you”), then we’re in red flag territory.
Can lesbians please stop being so mad at me for being bi? I just want to have sex with a woman and not lie about my sexuality on my dating profile. I promise I don’t make being bi my whole personality.
You encounter two types of people on dating/hookup apps: people who are there to fuck people who wanna fuck them and people who are there to bitch about (and bitch at) people they don’t wanna fuck and/or people who don’t wanna fuck them. Yes, it sucks when a stranger goes out of their way to say something shitty to you on a hookup app; there are lots of shitty people everywhere, and some of them are lesbians. But your best move is to block shitty people and then refrain—as hard as it might be—from blaming all lesbians everywhere for the shitty behavior of a few lesbians on the apps.
P.S. You know who’s never mad at bisexual women for being bisexual women? Other bisexual women! You have options!
There are a million think pieces on how and why people—men and women—are obsessed with Heated Rivalry but no one has really touched on the power of a long-term, soft Dom/sub dynamic, like the one Ilya and Shane have. We need your analysis!
My analysis: it’s fucking hot when Ilya orders Shane around (“Get on your knees”) and Heated Rivalry shows us that a natural-
ly skilled Dom like Ilya can give orders and still check in (“This okay?”) without ruining the D/s vibe.
Are there “woman-friendly” glory holes in places that aren’t porn shops? And what is the glory hole etiquette?
Glory holes in porn shops and truck stops and men’s toilets in university libraries are not “woman-friendly.” And one could argue that, as no one would ever expect a woman to be kneeling on the other side of a glory hole in any space that had one, a woman who knelt on the other side of a glory hole in a porn shop or a truck stop toilet would be guilty of a consent violation—I mean, guys who stick their cocks through holes aren’t exactly choosy about who sucks their cocks, but it’s not unreasonable for them to assume that men will be sucking their cocks.
The only place you’re going to find a “woman-friendly” glory hole—one where the guy sticking his cock through the hole is hoping there’s a woman on the other side—is at a sex club that caters to straight swingers.
I’m a 66-year-old heterosexual woman who was married for 33 years and had only had sex with three men until last year when I racked up seven. All casual and it is so much fucking (literally) fun. Here’s my question. I have been having fantasies about a man in my social circle. I am not interested in him romantically, but I find him hot and want to make him a fuck buddy. My reservation is that if it goes sideways, it will be awkward for the friend group. Advice on navigating this?
You’re in your late sixties—or you’re in your early late mid-sixties—and even if this goes sideways (which it might not!), how long would you have to live with the awkwardness? Ten years? Twenty? Thirty
tops? Meanwhile, I’m walking around out here feeling awkward about something I did during a dress rehearsal for Oklahoma nearly forty years ago. I learned to live with it, you can too!
A new partner is not well-endowed. My other partner is. How do I gracefully decline a romantic relationship knowing it will be unsatisfying when I like the person, but I just don’t want sex from him.
You can tell a guy you don’t wanna keep fucking him without telling him precisely why you don’t wanna keep fucking. If this guy insists on knowing the real and actual and true reason you don’t wanna keep fucking him, make something up
P.S. The Golden Rule applies here: If a guy didn’t want to keep having sex with you because your pussy was too loose or too tight or too wet or too dry or too busy or too bedazzling… would you want that man to tell you the truth or would you rather he tell you a face-saving, ego-sparing white lie? Do unto others.
Are we going to be okay?
Depends on your time horizon. Will we make it to the weekend? I don’t want to jinx things, but I think we will. Not placing any bets on 2027, though.
GOT PROBLEMS?
YES, YOU DO!
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