“The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

Rosa Parks, who would have been 107 yesterday.

Let’s just look at the BRIGHT side. That’s what the views suggest – there are so many spots lit up. That was true for the landscape as photographed 2 days ago, which had this weird partial lighting when the sun peeked through the clouds.

But it is also present in what is on offer this week in the cultural landscape – I will post longer essays in days to come on two of the three things I urge you to visit, and photographs for the third. Each one in its own right is a testament to resilience, finding joy in hard places, fashioning the world with new perspectives and refusing to give in. In other words, they help us look at the bright side.

For now I recommend, highly, a visit to OJMCHE to see their new exhibition Southern Rites. The expressive photographs of Gillian Laub, thoughtfully and confidently curated by Maya Benton and The Center for International Photography, introduce us to a new generation of young Black people living in the American South, their losses, challenges and perseverance. The exhibition also offers welcome education on some of the legal issues involved with inter-racial relations.

February 5, 2020 – May 24, 2020 724 NW Davis Street
Portland OR 97209 Opening on First Thursday.

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Also of interest, starting First Thursday as well, is an exhibition at Gallery 114 that will communicate joy. Ebullience, initiated by Gallery 114 member Joanne Krug and her husband, displays both 2D and 3D art created by artists living with intellectual or developmental disability. The artists have found a place to be creative at the Portland Art and Learning Studio, part of Albertina Kerr, under the caring and smartly involved directorship of Chandra Glaeseman. I can’t wait to report in detail on the work that is done there, and the art that will be on display at 114.

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The third recommendation regards two 50 minute-long performances this weekend of How to Have Fun in A Civil War, created and performed by Ifrah Mansour (Somalia/U.S.). Offered by Boom Arts in conjunction with the 30th Annual Cascade Festival of African Film, the multimedia performance event will make your heart softer.

Mansour revisits her childhood memories during the 1991 Somali civil war to confront violent history with humor, and provide a voice for the global refugee stories of children. How to Have Fun in a Civil War, is a one-act multimedia play, which explores war from an idyllic viewpoint of a seven-year-old Somali refugee girl. The play weaves puppetry, poetry, videos and multiple oral stories taken from community interviews to tell a captivating story about resilience while pushing the audience to engage in a healing process that is still raw for survivors of the war.

Here is a more detailed review. And here is a video of her explaining her project.

February 8th at 1:00pm & 9th at 5:00pm – PCC Cascade, Moriarity Hall Theatre, on the corner of N. Killingsworth and Albina ( enter on Albina)

And if you can’t make it to any of these, here is something uplifting to listen to from your armchair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc3iX7x73JY

There is always a path forward…