Art & Power: Centering the Voices of Black Artists

Black and African American communities have always created and contributed to thriving arts and culture landscapes. Despite racist laws and oppressive systems’ attempt to erase and co-opt these contributions, the resiliency, advocacy, and creativity of Black artists continues to challenge the paradigm. Black artists are bringing art to life across the region, redefining art spaces, creating new systems, and reimagining new futures.

Join us for the last Art & Power of 2019 and listen, learn and reflect with local artists Bethlehem Daniel, Carlos the Rollerblader, Christine Miller, and Mic Crenshaw as they discuss their experience as Black artists in Portland’s arts ecosystem, with moderation by S. Renee Mitchell.

We strive to host inclusive and accessible events that enable all individuals to engage fully. There will be ADA seating reserved and ASL interpretation will be provided. All gender restrooms will also be available. To be respectful of those with allergies and environmental sensitivities, we ask that you please refrain from wearing strong fragrances. To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact Humberto Marquez Mendez at hmarquezmendez@racc.org.

Art & Power is a conversation series focused on the experiences of artists historically left out of the dominant narrative to engage in safe and intentional dialogue. These conversations are free and open to the public.

About the Artists:
Bethlehem Daniel is a Portland native, student, aspiring organizer, and a curator with Deep Underground, an open mic project centralizing black and brown space making. Passionate about unraveling true black history through deciphering language and experiencing music.Crenshaw is an independent Hip Hop artist, respected emcee, poet, educator and activist. Crenshaw is the Lead U.S. Organizer for the African Hip Hop Caravan and uses Cultural Activism as a means to develop international solidarity related to Human Rights and Justice through Hip Hop and Popular Education.

Carlos the Rollerblader is a queer, non-binary event producer in the city of Portland, OR. They utilize a unique blend of MCing, DJing & Stand-Up comedy in their organizing efforts, mostly centering around entertainment and/or leisure spaces for marginalized communities. All the while, usually on rollerblades, or old-school quads if the occasion called. Carlos prioritizes being leisurely as self-care & community care as refuge from the often crushing outside world. If you aren’t seeing them race the Portland streets, you can find them as Carlos the Rollerblader on Instagram or SoundCloud.

Christine Miller (she/her) is a visual mixed media artist and curator born and raised in New York, NY – currently living in Portland, OR. Her personal work Alligator Bait Black Babies Free Lunch in the Jungle and Blackphoria focuses on internalized oppression with black Americana memorabilia objects (Alligator Bait) while using color and design to redefine the visual narratives of the word black (Blackphoria).
As a curator, Christine is focused on promoting under represented talent and creates themes based on the artists she chooses to highlight. Her first and most recent show Brown Sugar Where We At was in collaboration with nine other Portland based black women/femme visual artist that had 150+ attendees opening night and received powerful reviews.

She was recently part of the curation team for the event “Art Social” and in the works to curate her next show at Alberta Abbey and “Trouve” a new thrift shop in the Pearl.

Mic Crenshaw was born and raised in Chicago and Minneapolis and currently resides in Portland Oregon.

In his teenage years, Crenshaw actively confronted white supremacist gangs that were a growing part of the hard-core music scene. Mic eventually moved to Portland, where he quickly became one of the most respected artists in the Northwest, and his community efforts have had both local and international impact.

In addition to his highly acclaimed work in spoken work and Hip Hop, Mic co-founded GlobalFam, a non-profit (EducationWithOut Borders 501c3) project to create and maintain a computer center for disadvantaged youth in Burundi, Central Africa. Over 400 people have received free training, and it is now expanding, generating revenue and creating jobs. Mic also partnered with Education WithOut Borders (EWOB), which supports education, music and art initiatives in Portland and beyond and serves as an umbrella for the local Books For Prisoners chapter and GlobalFam itself. Mic Crenshaw is a Teaching Artist in Residence for Portland Public Schools, Young Audiences and Caldera Arts.
Crenshaw was voted Portland’s Best Hip Hop Artist in 2016 by Willamette Week. Crenshaw is a Fields Fellow and was the recent recipient of the $100K Fields Fellowship Artists Award.
www.miccrenshaw.com

Moderator:
Award-winning former journalist, S. Renee Mitchell, MBA, is best described as a Creative Revolutionist, who expresses herself through poetry, storytelling, grant writing, teaching and creating multimedia experiences. She considers creative expression, in all forms, as her heARTwork. Renee spent 25 years as a newspaper journalist in Seattle, Orlando and Detroit, among other cities, and is most known locally for her years as a Metro columnist for The Oregonian, where she was nominated twice for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. As a Clinical Professor of Practice at the University of Oregon, she is developing a transformational youth development project called I Am M.O.R.E. (Making Other Resiliency Experiences) – http://www.IAmMOREresilient.com – that helps youth move past their trauma and embrace a new sense of purpose. Renee is also currently pursuing a doctorate in trauma-Informed practices at UofO.