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August 9, 2019
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
After the mass shootings last weekend, I had moments when I wanted to sit down, throw my hands in the air, and give up. Sometimes I feel like it's never going to get better.
In an excerpt from Matthew Legge's book Are We Done Fighting recently printed in Yes Magazine, he outlines the many ways in which we get stuck and are unable to fight the good fight.
- Believing we humans are too small to know what’s right and so shouldn’t try to change things. (Uncertainty leading to faith in the status quo.)
- Faith that nature or the divine will help solve society’s problems without us having to engage. (Faith-based determinism/fatalism.)
- Believing that trying to change things is impossible or too difficult and will ultimately fail, so isn’t worth our efforts. (Fatalism/ pessimism/defeatism.)
- Believing that everything is all right or is going to be all right. (Pure optimism/denial.)
- Believing that there are many problems but others should change them because it’s not up to us or we don’t have the knowledge/resources/expertise/energy. (This is along the lines of what’s called social loafing.)
- Fear that our enjoyment of life and our peace of mind may be lost if we try to change things. (Self-preservation/denial.)
- Wanting to live some way, but simply not doing it (Inconsistency/ denial.)
I've succumbed to all of these at some point in my life--especially fatalism, optimism, denial, and especially since the 2016 election. The only thing that keeps me going is the power I find in community. We need to encourage each other to "keep on keeping on." I shudder to think that it might get worse before it gets better, but each day seems worse than the last and the election seems a long way off. We can't become complacent and act as if this way of being American is normal. Let's continue to challenge each other to do better, regardless of how tired we are becoming, how many times we are triggered by the violence around us, and how much pain the xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, and racism might be bringing up.
The Clinton Street Resistance Project is starting back after Labor Day, so remember that when you need a break, join us to relax, meet your neighbors, make new friends, watch a fun film, and if you've got it, throw a few bucks in the pot for a worthy, local nonprofit.
If You Get There Before I Do
Dick Allen - 1939-2017
Air out the linens, unlatch the shutters on the eastern side,
and maybe find that deck of Bicycle cards
lost near the sofa. Or maybe walk around
and look out the back windows first.
I hear the view's magnificent: old silent pines
leading down to the lakeside, layer upon layer
of magnificent light. Should you be hungry,
I'm sorry but there's no Chinese takeout,
only a General Store. You passed it coming in,
but you probably didn't notice its one weary gas pump
along with all those Esso cans from decades ago.
If you're somewhat confused, think Vermont,
that state where people are folded into the mountains
like berries in batter. . . . What I'd like when I get there
is a few hundred years to sit around and concentrate
on one thing at a time. I'd start with radiators
and work my way up to Meister Eckhart,
or why do so few people turn their lives around, so many
take small steps into what they never do,
the first weeks, the first lessons,
until they choose something other,
beginning and beginning their lives,
so never knowing what it's like to risk
last minute failure. . . .I'd save blue for last. Klein blue,
or the blue of Crater Lake on an early June morning.
That would take decades. . . .Don't forget
to sway the fence gate back and forth a few times
just for its creaky sound. When you swing in the tire swing
make sure your socks are off. You've forgotten, I expect,
the feeling of feet brushing the tops of sunflowers:
In Vermont, I once met a ski bum on a summer break
who had followed the snows for seven years and planned
on at least seven more. We're here for the enjoyment of it, he said,
to salaam into joy. . . .I expect you'll find
Bibles scattered everywhere, or Talmuds, or Qur'ans,
as well as little snippets of gospel music, chants,
old Advent calendars with their paper doors still open.
You might pay them some heed. Don't be alarmed
when what's familiar starts fading, as gradually
you lose your bearings,
your body seems to turn opaque and then transparent,
until finally it's invisible—what old age rehearses us for
and vacations in the limbo of the Middle West.
Take it easy, take it slow. When you think I'm on my way,
the long middle passage done,
fill the pantry with cereal, curry, and blue and white boxes of macaroni, place the
checkerboard set, or chess if you insist,
out on the flat-topped stump beneath the porch's shadow,
pour some lemonade into the tallest glass you can find in the cupboard,
then drum your fingers, practice lifting your eyebrows,
until you tell them all—the skeptics, the bigots, blind neighbors,
those damn-with-faint-praise critics on their hobbyhorses—
that I'm allowed,
and if there's a place for me that love has kept protected,
I'll be coming, I'll be coming too.
WHAT'S HAPPENING THIS WEEK
48 Hour Film Project
The Portland 48 Hour Film Project is bringing its creativity and chaos to the legendary Clinton St. Theater on August 9 and 10. You won't want to miss this party!
This year's event features four big screenings with different films in each block. Each screening will feature a dozen short films, all created between August 2-4 -and will include such genres as COMEDY, HORROR, THRILLER, FISH OUT OF WATER...and more!
You, the audience, will choose the Audience Fave for each screening, and the films will also go onto a panel of judges. The winners will be announced at the Best of the PDX48 Screening & Awards Ceremony in September, and "Portland's Best Film" will compete against other cities from around the world for the year's best film.
We all know that the PDX48HFP is as much about community as it is about competition, and everyone who makes a film or comes out and supports our filmmakers are the real winners.
So come join the party, support your local filmmaking community, and help us create magic. You'll be thrilled and amazed by what Portland's most daring and creative filmmakers can pull off in a mere 48 hours!!
Friday night: Group A @ 8pm; Group B @ 10pm
Saturday night: Group C @ 6pm; Group D @ 8pm
For a list of the teams in each group, they are listed on our website.
Tickets are $10 for a single screening; $35 for the All Night Every Night Pass.
Liminal Mind
Presented by Portland Psychedelic Society
Tuesday, Aug 13 @ 7:00pm. Don't miss the chance to join two of psychedelic culture's most adventurous thinkers to learn how to unlock the potential of your LIMINAL MIND.
Jennifer Dumpert (Liminal Dreaming: Exploring Consciousness at the Edges of Sleep) and Erik Davis (Tech Gnosis, High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies) discuss and explore what they call LIMINAL MIND. Between dream and waking, between fact and fiction, between sacred and the ordinary, liminal mind blooms in in the in-between spaces of twilight, ambiguity, weird possibility, and creative encounter. Discussing and exploring practices of dreaming, meditation, psychogeography, and psychedelic consciousness, Dumpert and Davis will show how easy it can be to access the fantastic edges of the everyday.
All events are designed to promote education and harm reduction - no illegal activity will be tolerated.
Tickets are $10 - $20 suggested, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Lessons of a dream
(Der ganz grosse Traum)
Presented by PORTLAND GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL – Monthly Film Series
Wednesday, Aug 14 @ 7:00pm. It's 1874 and the young teacher Konrad Koch is hired to teach English at a strictly-run German school for boys. The reform-minded headmaster von Merfeld has hired Koch as one of the very first English teachers in all of Germany in order to let a fresh new wind into his musty institution. Koch sees how badly this is needed in his very first class. Everything that the boys know about England is common prejudices handed down from one generation to the next. In order to stir up some enthusiasm for the foreign language, Oxford graduate Koch resorts to unusual means and introduces his students to a curious sport that comes from Britain: football. Unfortunately, Koch’s unconventional ways soon make him many enemies: influential parents, local dignitaries and, above all, his colleagues, who only believe in Prussian drills and discipline. They all want to get rid of Koch at any price. But then his students take the initiative…based on the true story of the teacher and football pioneer Konrad Koch.
Hash House Harriers Annual
ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW Run
Thursday, Aug 15 @ 6:00pm. This annual RHPS run for charity is stopping at the theater to hang out, drink some beer, and sing and dance the Time Warp.
Folks will start arriving at 6pm, and we'll play The Time Warp right around 7pm.
Want to see 50-70 runners, all dressed in RHPS regalia, drink, sing & dance? Here's your chance!
The Hash House Harriers (the "Hash"), is an international group of runners (hashers) whose primary goal is to have "fun." After all, the hash motto is, "If you've got half a mind ... that's all it takes."
COMING SOON
The Clinton Street Resistance Series has started booking a great line-up of films for your viewing pleasure. ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, September 9; 16 CANDLES, September 16; SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD, September 23; DAY OF THE JACKAL, October 7; BRAZIL, October 14; KUNG FU HUSTLE, November 11; TREMORS, November 25; HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS, December 9; THE DARK CRYSTAL, December 16.
Do your parents *know* that you're Ramones?
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING on August 16 is an investigative look and analysis of gender disparity in Hollywood, featuring accounts from well-known actors, executives and artists in the Industry.
Planned Parenthood Fundraiser, Friday, August 16 @ 7:00pm. Two documentaries, A GIRL LIKE HER and JANE: AN ABORTION SERVICE with conversations afterward with Judith Arcana and Lani Jo Leigh.
This summer, JACK G FILM SCHOOL brings the Clinton Street Theater a series of film screenings, discussions and musical guests. Come out for triple-feature on Sunday, August 18. The school leads up to the making of the feature film COWBOY NEMO, filming in Portland, Oregon August 26-31st. $5.
Francis Ford Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now: Final Cut has a full week run beginning Monday, August 19th.
The rich inner world of the renowned Georgian screenwriter, artist and puppeteer Rezo Gabriadze is as fantastic as the animation into which he has poured this story of his life. Rezo’s director son, Leo Gabriadze, who previously made the hit horror film Unfriended(2014), leaves it to his father to talk about a life suffused with magical thinking. Coming August 22 through 28, times vary.
Indie Feature BECOMING BURLESQUE is screening one night only--Tuesday, August 27. This is the story of Fatima, a young Muslim college student, who, despite the encouragement from her uncle to adopt a more traditional lifestyle, secretly joins a Toronto burlesque troupe.
Project Fest 2019 is a gathering of Artistic Projects on 8/30 at the Clinton Street Theater for the Clinton Street Theater. Lineup includes Commodius, Tenen, Snake Dance, Breakfast Boys Leisure League, Pulling it Off, Fire Nuns, Sea Moss, the Fabulous Downey Brothers, with special DF Sets by Cam XXX & Sol.
On Sunday, September 1, Todd Baize Productions presents PDX Short Docs, a 2-hour program of Portland-related short documentaries by local filmmakers. Between 6 & 7pm, VR headsets will be available to check out several 360-degree short documentaries. Stay for a Q&A with the filmmakers after the screening. If you love Portland, you won't want to miss it! Details at: www.toddbaize.com.
Portland Jobs with Justice and Oregon AFL-CIO is hosting a Community Picket TOMORROW at the Frey Meyer on 39th & Hawthorne in solidarity with workers.
East PDX Community Conversations w/ Jo Ann Hardesty & APANO, August 13 at the Orchards on 82nd Street. Free event, but you must RSVP to attend.
Since its inception in 2004, the Portland Underground Film Festival has been part of the fabric of the Clinton Street Theater. SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN NOW, and the true PUFF is coming the weekend of October 17 to 20.
One of the highlights of every year!! Adult Soapbox Derby on August 17th at Mount Tabor Park. It's FREE!!!
Pop Up Flea “Gathering of Thee Lucky Bastards PDX” is Saturday, August 17th. Lots of good stuff.
Open House at Voz Workers' Rights Education Project on Labor Day, Monday, September 2nd. Learn about the services they offer for the community, including Spanish and English classes, and a Legal Clinic. There'll be music and food!
The Portlanders are at Artichoke Music on September 7. Mighty music, intimate space. Join the love band for an evening in Portland's biggest little listening room with Portland's own.
The next Thawing ICE: A Walking Meditation is Thursday, September 12th. Walk to show support for all beings detained, all beings seeking asylum, all who are refugees, all who flee violence and seek to migrate and are met with violence, with walls, with cages. Whether or not the walking meditation changes the balance of power, it changes those who walk: it gives us one hour every month in which we think deeply and quietly about migration, about longing, about separation from the places we were born, and about those who prohibit entry to others. There is power in walking together, in meditating together. Come be part of that power.
My memoir UNFIT: A Cautionary Tale of One Pregnant Teen and What Became of Her will be released in November. If you would like to be on a list for presale announcements, please contact me directly at ljleigh@northcountry.com.
Our past is bleak. Our future dim. But I am not reasonable. A reasonable man adjusts to his environment. An unreasonable man does not. All progress, therefore, depends on the unreasonable man. I prefer not to adjust to my environment. I refuse the prison of ‘I’ and choose the open spaces of ‘we’.
— Toni Morrison
Don't be a stranger. Come see us soon.
Kind regards,
Lani Jo
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