POSTCARDS TO HOME
PSU BLACK STUDIES, WINTER 2024
“We have arrived to the heart of Portland.” I hear my father saying, "We have arrived to the heart of Portland." The sign was there, "Portland Oregon" it read, so imposing with its magnificent reindeer in the middle, the sign of the city. It's so different, I remember the nine year old me thinking; I never seen a reindeer in real life, are these animals a regular sight here? I want to pet one up close.
- from “Portland Oregon It Read” by Manny Cid
This week we redirect your attention back to the deep portfolio of writing produced by OSP students enrolled in a course taught by Portland State University’s Director of the Center for Black Studies, Professor Walidah Imarisha, and Professor Lisa Bates from PSU’s Toulon School of Urban Studies and Planning. We published sixteen writers at one time — so we ask you to continue to read these pieces and the photos.
This location is one of supreme importance and high value, it’s a place that has given me much. But has taken far more in return. This intersection on Kerby and Skidmore is where I learned to have heart and that being a man and standing on my own two feet really counted for something, especially here.
- from “Give and Take” by Wallace Simpson
The geopoems and narratives written by these students are postcards to home. They are love letters. Do you recognize these places? What is your relationship to these neighborhoods?
Consider the perspective of the writers and imagine being 60 miles away from your home, but unable to visit for 20 years. The photos act as time capsules for the writers. They can be ghostly images — what they remember, what happened on the streets, what was lost, learned, taken away… Photographs by students in PSU’s Project Rebound, a program that supports students returning to the community from incarceration, accompany the work by the following writers:
MEDERO MOON
MANNY CID
STRESSLA LYNN JOHNSON
EARL DOUGLAS WILKINS
DWAYNE MCCLINTON
DEANGELO LEROY TURNER
WALLACE SIMPSON
JEFFREY SANDERS
ELIJAH M CRAIG
KEVIN FORD
XAVIER BOLDEN
RONDRAE JEFFERSON
TAMIR COLLIER
THERON HALL
ROBERT RICHARDSON
DARIUS BROWN
We were thrilled to be included in this meaningful work. To members of our growing community, this is an invitation to respond. Your notes of encouragement and appreciation will be passed along to our writers. | TDS