KEVIN FORD
KEVIN FORD
PSU BLACK STUDIES, WINTER 2024
NIGHTMARES AND DREAMS NARRATIVE
My home, black, love, hope and prosperity through the struggle. Joy, happiness, sorrow and sadness, yet still a sense of belonging, the smell of douglas firs blowing in the wind, the Sight of sunshine glowing down multiplying the contrast of the natural landscape. Before the vicissitude effects of gentrification ensued this street was the ghetto wakanda for real! Surreal in nature, all the exotic vessels flying up and down the street. There wasn't an unlimited amount of vibranium, but due to the explosion of the crack cocaine era of the 1980's, 240 and unquantifiable amounts of the disastrous substance around. That false sense of economic opportunity created the nightmare & the dream in One notion. This black community was very private, and outsiders were not welcome. Law enforcement was always a clear n’ present threat, and police patrolling was everyday. Now that I'm in my adulthood, the damage that was done is now understood. The external overview looked like a dream. This tight knit community wasn't really what it seemed. Gentrification superseded crack by far, displacing blacks far and wide. Ironically the neighborhood looked more livable pre gentrification, from what this photo entails, overall I see a healing process taking place on this street. When I return to the one home my family has left, we will revitalize and start back reconstructing 24th prosperity through black struggle is testament the dream can be revived once the blueprint is revised.
NIGHTMARES AND DREAMS NARRATIVE
GEO POEM
Nightmares and dreams I protest are the opposites nightmares and dreams
I regress, they are synonymous
Nightmares, are bittersweet on 24th Street
nightmares, we're steady living while we snore sleep.
Nightmares I see, even when I open my eyes.
Why are we dying to live, if we're just living to die.
Am I... am I a sheer product of environment my propensity for genocidal tendencies, I deeply inspire in
adminirin’, the sound of the steel click on the fire pen
expirin', rounds spit until sirens
am I a tyrant ? … or just the gatekeeper of this urban asgard
if I truly knew the answer to this question, why bother to ask yall
is it all... societally constructed by design.
its long been gentrified, yet we still die for this street sign
Senseless "Vie", can be transformed into a sense of pride
When stars align and black love, what once was, can be revived
but not without dreams... in reverence to ?
dreams…endeavors of what can be,
The Dreams of a new wakanda
the dreams where poverty, racism, and ignorance upsconds US
the dreams of kings and queens prospering in their true essence no police presence, oppression, disguised under the lies of protection
The dreams that exist in the abyss without no weapons
my suggestion, I insist in deep reflection
nightmares and dreams coincide but collide to form as one
confliction from inside has improvised and left me numb
Now as I speak, the Dream perseveres,
Dreams of a better future, I am seeing clear
NARRATIVE #2
PAST PROSPERITY
In the 90's. MLK & Fremont was the epitome of black resistance, black business, and black community. A place to come and see unity. A place where black place making, made the very place thrive. MLK & Fremont was lined with black businesses on both sides of the street before gentrification of course. Was gentrification even a word then? If so, black folks were oblivious to the notion. Sitting right in the middle of this strip was the MLK shoe store. What other way would you solidify a thriving black community? With black fashion! The MLK shoe store. Peering in from the outside window, you would see all the latest footwear lining the walls with urban artwork displayed on the background walls. This was a popular post of the past that symbolizes success of that time and my uncle was one of many proud owners of these endeavors, paying homage to our ancestors that paid the ultimate price so that we can prosper. I can still feel the essence of the times from the smell of burritos from quickies mart right next door, to the sounds of 90's golden era Hip-Hop booming from the passing car systems. All you saw were black folks. If someone was to time travel from now and inform us then, of what was to come. No one would have ever seen, nor believed this...the historical footprint still remains. The few black businesses that still reside in this circumference are testaments to the
resiliency and perseverance that black Portlanders have. This history should be preserved to tell the history of Portland in totality.
PAST PROSPERITY
Past …
What is the past?
Is the past simply just a conceptualization
Of time that has passed?
Sort of like aerial vessel flying by …
Leaving behind a kem trail as evidence of its existence
Or is the past like the root, deeply embedded in the soil
Giving life to the tree, to be…prosperity
Should the past symbolize posterity?
Since the past is behind us
Or should it symbolize prosperity?
For the past to remind us …
Of the severities of conditions that seemed to find us
But clearly didn’t define us
The past could be e
Equated to, the passing of the baton
Assuming that the past
And the pass, are even synonymous
NARRATIVE #3
THE HEART OF THE HOOD
The heart of the hood. Quick Trip. Small, tight knit black community. Quick Trip is thee equivalent to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) a small cease fire zone between North and South Korea. The tainted orange color of this fairly modern building represented something omnipresent in all urban neighborhoods. A unique safe space in the middle of this black community where, despite the contrary, is a place where little and often no harm is afflicted amongst peers. This is a place where black folks innately come to connect. Where everyone acknowledges one another even if it was non-verbal, while others negotiated and displayed communalism to the highest degree. I still recall times when you would see folks that lived in north, and southeast Portland meeting at the quick trip. These simple, but yet monumental stops frequently consisted of orange juice, backwoods, and newports...the smell of newports and urban herbal essence them backwoods were filled with combined with sight of black independent artist standing in front of the storefront selling and promoting their music. I would give a head nod in acknowledgement as I walked by, a symbolism of mutual respect that is universally known in most, if not all African American communities across this country, while the street entrepreneurs comb the block with their car trunks open, serving as portable swap meets providing DVD's, clothes, electronics, and appliances. Defining the true essence of a quick trip for real! The overbearing aroma of Popeye's chicken in the air was quintessential to the thriving pulsation of this heart. The pulsation of the heart of the hood .... | KF
PHOTOS BY KAY JOHNSON