Portland Grassroots Media Camp

Yesterday, I attended a class as part of the Portland Grassroots Media Camp classes that went on this weekend. The class was entitled Poetry as Gateway and Meaning and Expression in Homelessness, facilitated by Jay Thiemeyer of KBOO 90.7 radio here in Portland. Jay experienced homelessness for awhile, but now has a place. Now I took part in this, in part, on account that my friend Chris 'CJ' White encouraged me, and that I myself have- on occasion- experienced homelessness.

We also did some practice interviews in this class, and to my surprise, I was a pretty good interviewer, so the lessons I came away with was that I could put folks at ease, and I'm a pretty damn interviewer. Just set my mind to anything I want to do, and hold to it.

Afterward, CJ and myself, took a tour of KBOO-FM, which is a community, listener-supported station here in Portland. All the production work, and preparation for programs, I've watched firsthand, and what respect I already had for folks who work in the media, got even greater after taking this tour.

Then, it was on to Musicians' Hall, Local 99, not far from the KBOO studios. There, we were served with chicken pollos, enchiladas; and other delicious Latin dishes. This meal was prepared by some of the ladies who represent this group named Las Mujeres del Brazelete (Women of the bracelets). Now, this group of ladies was among the over 160 workers at the Fresh Del Monte plant (in north Portland), who were detained in a ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raid on June 12 (I have a dog in this fight. That night, I was among the 150-170 people called by the temp agency I work for to replace them). One of the women, in Spanish, told of the story of how their livelihoods were lost in the raid, and that some of them chose to be voluntarily detained back to Mexico. Now, I felt bad for them at this point, asking myself how I could benefit from some one's misfortune. Sure, I'm for tighter controls of the borders and strongly against illegal alien workers. But now that I saw the faces of those affected, I'm heartened to, at least, give some compassion and consideration for them. My prayers do go out to them, and hope that some solution can be worked out.

Copyright 2007, by Darren W. Alexander.
All Rights Reserved.