ACROSS THE STREET

BY TRACY SCHLAPP

Stressla Lynn Johnson’s ambitious CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES & DRAWING ANCESTRAL LINES takes us through his childhood memory; travels the timeline of human creation; documents his DNA makeup; and delivers us with a contemplation of ancestry in relationship to his first college-level Black History course. He unpacks all of this, while the smell of Gramma Jo Berta’s famous chocolate cake (with coconut mixed in the frosting) torments our senses.

Stressla grew up in Portland’s historic Albina District — a neighborhood confined by Oregon’s racist redlining practice that centralized Black Portlanders. The Vanport Floods displaced more people, making Albina home to four out of five Black Portlanders by 1960. Despite racist political, economic, and social restrictions, these citizens went on to build a thriving community;  the district held a rich cultural mix of music, civil rights organizations, and Black-owned businesses. The Albina of Stressla’s childhood was composed of sturdy wooden homes filled with watchful parental eyes ensuring that children safely crossed streets. As young Stressla gained parental permission to travel more of the neighborhood, “urban renewal” projects, such as the construction of the Fremont Bridge bisected Albina and undermined community stability. By the 1970s, the land grab to construct Emmanuel Hospital and Memorial Coliseum displaced Black families: it gutted the community’s center and undermined the economic and social vitality of the neighborhood. Somewhere within all these shifting borders are the stories of the many people who are incarcerated in Oregon, including those who serve time with him at Oregon State Penitentiary.

This writing reminds me that even the uneven concentric circles around our identity warp and shift, as deeper understanding and new knowledge helps us contextualize and gain understanding of who we are in relationship to our ancient past, our lived past, and our future possibilities. Sixty years later, we know that a maximum-security prison defines the physical boundaries of his body. Adventuring Stressla expands his territory through the books he reads, the words he writes, the care he takes of himself and his fellow prisoners, and his willingness to jump into a college education.

Hugh Crow II and Chris Ainsworth serve together at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. They collaborated PRESENT DAY DNA in the style of the Exquisite Corpse, a literary or visual “game” that Surrealists played in the 1920s. A person writes on a sheet of paper, folds it to conceal part of the writing (or image), and then passes it to the next player for a further contribution. At the end, it is unfolded, and the collaboration is revealed. The laboratory mix of the creation as DNA from two people combines and reveals itself each generation in new and astonishing ways is a theme well played.

We close our first Issue of PonyXpress with DNA, the very borders of our existence. Each time these codes cross and combine, we have a new set of living possibilities. For Issue No. 2, we have asked writers to consider future generations, presenting their hopes and dreams — their better selves. Issue No. 2 will begin to publish in November 2023. During the month of October, we will be posting the complete digest Roots Meet Under the Crossroads. We published this slim volume with our writing group at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. The work was developed over the nine months. A special reading of the book took place in the medium side of Coffee Creek for the women. It was recorded and will in an upcoming audio mini-series. | TDS