TAMIR COLLIER
TAMIR COLLIER
PSU BLACK STUDIES, WINTER 2024
LOCATION: SELF ENHANCEMENT INC
Smell of the hot coffee in the car
Sade playing on my first day of school
Cold wet day
Comforted by the warmth of a mother’s hug
Children chanting —
“S-E-I What time is it?!
It’s time to get loud, it’s time to represent!”
Hearing the scraping sounds of backpacks hanging from a child’s back
As they rush in the doors as if there was free money inside
Through the doors, behind the dark tint
Lies the future of the community!
Lies the future of the world!
LOCATION: JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL
Sauntering towards the gym
Tasting the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Sour Patch candy
From KC’s Market
Doors open hearing faint noises of basketballs
Dribbling over the sounds of teens laughing
Smelling the weed from the car driving by
Music playing loud as stadium speakers
In the latest retros
As if Jordan was there to sign them
Feeling the ashy hands of the homies
As we greet each other
Like we were kings of comedy
Girls staring
Nose turned up
Smacking on bubblegum
Like it’s their last meal on earth
I can only smile
I feel right at home
Home of the demos!
ROSE FROM CONCRETE
LOCATION: PENINSULA PARK
This place was a place for gathering. As a child I recall festive birthday parties, smoky bbqs in the sun and loving wedding photos taken on these, now tarnished, brick stairs. Also met girls here thinking I was grown. I would walk my dog past, pulling him from climbing the brick stairs because he’d pee on them leaving them smelling like sour milk.
People may see this area and might not know its purpose but that’s the beauty of the black culture, black spaces are fluid and multi purposeful. Just behind the camera there is the most bright red beautiful rose garden during the summers. This area makes me think of blossoming love from the amount of times I’ve seen people connect here and families that still exist due to this space. Trees around it that have been rooted long before my time, with the sweet faint smells of roses. No matter how many roses you pick to give to someone they’ll always regrow as if they were freshly planted. Just as the black folks that lived in this area, everlasting. We gather, we love, we play and we grow no matter what. And they wonder how a rose can grow so beautiful through the concrete reality of black culture.
HOME OF THE DEMOS
LOCATION: JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL
My home comes from the Demos! This school has run through my bloodline for generations. The men played basketball here just through those blue doors. The blue doors that represent the love and comfort within a black space that help grow a generation. Everything still looking the same, except the new cameras and a sign prohibiting firearms. So I wonder is there still love here? Could the sign be the representation of a bigger problem in the Albina community? Just as the street cracks, displacement from this community causes a divide amongst black spaces.
It is the gym that has open bigger doors in life. A small gym with stands on both sides of the court. Players jumping out the gym with spectacular dunks making it to the NBA. Coaches directing and calling plays through the loud sounds of spectators in the stands. But nowadays, the coaches direct in stadiums.
Without the black culture, this school would be average. The way we chant…”DEMOS! ... You know!”, the way we express art through music and design. Most people couldn’t tell you what a democrat is in relation to the design on the gym building but represent it like a diehard football fan. Home of the Demos, also known as, Home of the Culture.
YEAR ROUND
LOCATION: SELF ENHANCEMENT INC
This place brings back memories of me as a child attending middle school here, after school programs and even summer programs. I feel good looking at this photo remembering all of the good times and bad times. The time I met my brother here who also attended, the moment my mother informed me she was moving away, my first fist fights, and friends that have passed away that I've grown with here. This building, inside and out, was a safe place for black people in Portland. Majority of those attending or working here were black and can relate to black issues. In this space, families and those in the Community knew S.E.I. was a place for children of color to have fun and be themselves. Something very meaningful in this photo is the person in their car in the pick-up/ drop off area in front because this was the visual of my first day being dropped off here. Looking at this photo, who’s to tell the time of day, noticing the light on the side of the building? It could be very early or later in the day speaking to the openness of the facility to the Community. Any day, every day this black Space was year round. | TC