Sarah Hansell | Street Roots

Guns and domestic violence: Oregon's loophole

by Sarah Hansell | 12 Apr 2017

State lawmakers will consider tightening a law that gives some abusers access to firearms

Carsen thought she was going to visit an old friend she hadn’t seen in 25 years, then leave for home in a couple of weeks. She arrived in the small town where he lived in April, but it wasn’t until August that she finally managed to escape.

The first show of violence was a slap in the middle of an argument. Carsen said she planned to leave after that.

Only he wouldn’t let her leave. He wouldn’t allow her to go to the bathroom alone, much less leave the house without him. He starved her, beat her at the slightest provocation.
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In their defense of self-defense

by Sarah Hansell | 5 Oct 2016

The film ‘Out in the Night’ tells the stories of four young, LGBTQ women of color who protected themselves from violence only to be prosecuted, maligned and imprisoned

Ten years ago, Patreese Johnson, a black 19-year-old from New Jersey, was a self-described homebody and a lesbian who was not yet out to her family. On a hot night in August, she and a group of six friends, all lesbians, decided to have a night out in the West Village, a New York neighborhood known then to be a safe haven for LGBTQ people.

As a group of young women out at night, it was not surprising that a man called out to them and harassed them in the street, making sexual remarks.
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'Twilight' director Catherine Hardwicke advocates for women in film

by Sarah Hansell | 25 Feb 2016

Guest of honor at POWfest in Portland is concerned about gender disparity in Hollywood

Catherine Hardwicke doesn’t call her first movie, “Thirteen,” a “job.” It was a labor of love between her and then-14-year-old Nikki Reed, who wrote the script with Hardwicke and starred in the film.

It was a labor of love built with “blood, sweat and tears,” she said. She pulled together the money and did everything she could to get it off the ground. And get it off the ground she did.

After its 2003 Sundance premiere, it won six awards and was nominated for almost a dozen more.
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Author Patricia Kullberg draws from tragedies she’s seen on Portland’s streets

by Sarah Hansell | 8 Dec 2015

Truth is often stranger than fiction, and that’s certainly the case on Portland’s streets. Drawing from experience, Patricia Kullberg blends the two in ‘Girl in the River.’

For 20 years, Dr. Patricia Kullberg was the medical director for the Multnomah County Health Department. She worked directly with those living on Portland’s utmost margins: undocumented people, people dealing with abuse, living with mental illness and experiencing homelessness.
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Proud and prominent

by Sarah Hansell | 12 Jun 2015

Organizers of Portland’s second Trans Pride March aim to bring visibility to a group whose ‘acceptance is life or death’

Last year, Portland’s first large-scale Trans* Pride March rallied 400 trans and queer people and allies to parade the streets downtown with signs declaring “Trans Solidarity Unity Community,” “Deaf Trans Pride” and “Gender is a universe and we are all stars.”

This year, Portland Trans Unity, the all-volunteer group organizing the event, expects around 1,100 marchers.
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Walker’s his name. Shaft’s his game.

by Sarah Hansell | 24 Apr 2015

In an effort to increase black representation in comic books, Portland writer David F. Walker has recreated the 1970s character Shaft in a series released by Dynamite Comics.

Portland comic writer and author David F. Walker wanted to make comics since he was a little kid watching movie trailers featuring blaxploitation-era heroes. With the end of the blaxploitation era, comics and film have seen a gaping hole where black representation used to be — a hole that Walker wants to help fill. And after over 20 years of working to break into the mainstream comic scene, he is bringing the iconic character of ’70s black fighter, Vietnam vet and hero Shaft back to life.
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Curious Comedy Theater: Colorful language

by Sarah Hansell | 19 Mar 2015

The Curious Comedy Theater’s Minority Retort is drawing a diverse new audience to laugh —and learn

It was nearing 9:30 p.m. on a Friday and Jeremy Eli’s brainchild, monthly comedy show Minority Retort, was about to debut at Curious Comedy Theater on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Eli and co-founder Jason Lamb were afraid to steal a glance from backstage and find a sea of empty seats.

Or a sea of exclusively white faces.
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Growing up black in the increasingly white neighborhoods of Northeast Portland

by Sarah Hansell | 4 Mar 2015

Portland-raised author Renee Watson talks about her new young adult book, "This Side of Home"

Author Renée Watson grew up in Portland and lived through the gentrification of her Northeast neighborhood. In 1990, more than 30 percent of Portland’s black population lived in North and Northeast Portland.

By the time Watson was a senior at Jefferson High School in 1996, change was moving in, and by 2010, that percentage was halved.
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Melissa Lowery on the impact of her movie, “Black Girl in Suburbia”

by Sarah Hansell | 18 Feb 2015

Film could help her daughters navigate growing up as some of the few people of color in their community in Hillsboro

In 2010, Melissa Lowery set out to create a film — her first feature-length film — that could serve as a guidebook for her two daughters. Her documentary, “Black Girl in Suburbia,” shares the experiences of race and identity of black girls growing up in mostly white communities. Oregon, it seemed, was the ideal place to film. With only 2 percent of the population identifying as black in 2013, according to the U.S.
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Hopes of housing for the new year

by Sarah Hansell | 31 Dec 2014

Allison Strange came to Portland to leave behind the old memories of her son, whom she lost to cancer, and to be with her boyfriend. She came looking for a fresh start in a new place. And that’s exactly what she found at Street Roots.

“A better one than I actually expected,” she said.

Allison’s boyfriend, who was already a Street Roots vendor, tried to tell her how much people cared about the newspaper and the vendors who sell it.
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