HEROIC JOURNEYS

BY TRACY SCHLAPP

In the next few weeks, we present family legends as part of Issue No. 1’s deep dive into ancestry. For some writers, the theme evoked wide circles of belonging to the ancient world; to others it drew circles to family members one or two generations past. In some cases, our writers have spent years researching their family histories to fine tune that information. From this evidence, two writers at OSP RashidAbur Al-Waded “Child of the Diaspora” and Scott Bitter “I Am Sorry: Land Acknowledgement” draw poignant connections to their own life stories and their relationship to the world. Ahead, we will consider how memories about family are constructed and stories retold; we will read examples of how legendary ancestors inspire future generations; and, we will encounter the ways boundaries are crossed.

The next pieces are written by the spinners of yarns, people who take the names and origins as a starting place. R. Miranda (one of our original Ground Beneath Us writers at Oregon State Penitentiary) and Jacob William Harper at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution needed to dig deeply into their imaginations to construct the story of how their ancestors made the leap to cross oceans, leaving everything behind. Here we have honor and family, love and adventure as the driving forces for constructing lives in the new world. From Kith and Kin, Jacob writes: “North, we traveled, plying our courage to the sea. Diminished to three brothers, we fought to survive. The rumors of hope and of prosperity wafted through the stench of whale blubber and tar. America held riches for those with the courage to take them. And Courage we had.”

Turning a theme around and looking at it from multiple angles has sparked many conversations among our prisoner-led reading group. They have identified the deep engagement and pride the writers bring to the topic, and writers and readers alike appreciate sharing these stories — knowing that some are based in research, and some simply start with names written in the family Bible. When I think of legends, Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox Babe come to mind, I imagine big characters that have been animated, or made into monuments. I think of hyperbolic stories of giant fish, or superhuman accomplishments. I think of bragging. The next couple of stories do not come from an impulse to best one another, instead they are generous windows into how a person might pay respect, honor those people who are woven into the fiber of their being.

This acrylic by Chin Yeyin was a gift presented to us from the Asian Pacific Family Club. In 2019, Bridgeworks Oregon started to work with the clubs at Oregon State Penitentiary to help them fulfill the dream of building a Healing Garden inside the prison yard. The garden is an honored and sacred space for the people who are living at Oregon State Penitentiary. The garden has settled deep into the earth, rooted in the prison yard — a harbinger of transformation made evident through the cycle of seasons. From the budding of leaves, winter snow fall, to the summer kiss of koi at the water’s surface the quietest details create space for people at OSP to find comfort and connection in a world otherwise dictated by concrete and razor wire. | TDS