Does place retain trauma?
Can it heal?
When I was a student at Grant High School, Kendra James and James Jahar Perez were killed after being stopped by Portland police. Their deaths were formative to my racial justice consciousness that had been initiated by growing up in Northeast Portland. It was during this time that I realized their deaths were a part of something larger. Something that was beyond the individual officers involved in the incidents, the Portland Police Bureau or the city. Rather, something deeper was at work. Something that impacted people’s outcomes in life. It could be the difference between life and death. It was historical and systemic.
The deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner prompted me to examine locations in Portland where race and police force intersect. Many people remember the names and places. Many more likely don’t. These photos are the locations where some of the better known cases of when fatal police force was used on African Americans in Portland. The photos were made for reflection on historical memory, shared trauma and place. Who sees the scars? Who doesn’t? What is lost if the scars are not seen?
Kendra James
North Skidmore I-5 overpass
May 5, 2003
Does space retain trauma?
Does it heal?
Who sees the scars?
Who relives the trauma?
Who gets to access space?
Who belongs?
Who remains?
James Jahar Perez
North Fessenden City Food Market
March 28, 2004
There have been formative events in my life when my racial justice consciousness was created. In high school, two incidents made it abundantly clear that racialized experiences weren’t just unfortunate circumstances of the old guard holding on to dated power structures. Rather, there was something deeper than that going on. Something that impacted people’s outcomes in life. It could be the difference between life and death. It was deeper than the surface; it was systemic.
Keaton Otis
Northeast 6th Avenue and Halsey Street
May 12, 2010
When you spend your whole life in one place, you see the scars.
Lloyd Stevenson
Northeast Wiedler 7-Eleven
April 20, 1985
Kyle Weisman-Yee is a lifelong Portland resident, photographer and program coordinator for Oregon Humanities.