Collaborating for the Soul Food Dinner

On Janurary 30th, I attended the 5th Annual Soul Food Dinner at Portland State University in the Smith Ball Room. The Soul Food Dinner is a celebration of African American history, culture, and accomplishments. Coinciding with African American History Month, the Soul Food Dinner features traditional African American food, prominent African American Oregonians, and African American art. While attendees try traditional food found in black homes around the holidays, artists perform and presenters showcase achievements of African Americans.

When the program began, it was solely put on by the Department of Residence Life. The program was created by Dementro “Debo” Powell, an Area Coordinator in the department, as a way to share the traditional food he grow up with students at Portland State. During the first year, the program had an estimated 100 people attend, and this year it fed, educated, and entertained over 800 individuals.

During its five year history, the Soul Food Dinner has grown into a massive collaborative process. It has grown from only having Residence Life to including multiple other departments from the Division of Student Affairs including PSU Ambassadors, Student Legal & Mediation Services, the Dean of Student Affairs, and more. The program is such a premier event at PSU that even the Attorney General for the state of Oregon helped out. He secured this year’s keynote speaker: Terry Porter.

In addition to the various departments, the Soul Food dinner includes multiple student groups including Black Cultural Affairs, fraternities, Residence Housing Association, and more. In a large university, this level of collaboration is quite stunning because due to scarce resources departments are usually more prone to isolation. It would not be possible without the incredible vision and devotion of Debo. He is emotionally invested in this program, and people are drawn to work with him on this successful endeavor.

Of course, the program involves more than just people at the university. Additionally, Debo works closely with the African American artist, Mo. Mo was the first African American to receive a scholarship in the visual arts at PSU and has remained connected with the school through the Soul Dinner.

Mo’s involvement brings in another level of collaboration on her part. By being actively involved in the Portland African American Arts community, Mo brings in several other artists as well. While she is primarily a visual artist, Mo invites several spoken word performers to exhibit at the Soul Food Dinner. These individuals discuss issues relevant to African American men and women in an attempt to educate all races about the struggles of these people in the United States. The works are powerful, emotional, angry, and occasionally humorous as demonstrated by Good Sista/Bad Sista.

In addition to the professional artists, the Soul Food Dinner showcases student performers. One of the African American fraternities demonstrated stepping. While a university dance group performed a piece, and there were students singers.

With Debo actively job searching and planning on leaving the Portland area, it will be interesting to see how successful this program will be without. Although he has included so many people in the process, so much of the work and relationships depend simply on his charisma and personality. I sincerely hope this program continues to succeed in the future because it always an incredibly powerful event.

Saving Democracy Through Journalism

During their discussion about the book The Death and Life of American Journalism, Robert McChesney and John Nichols report on the rapid decline of journalism in 21st Century America. To them, this decline is an increasingly important crisis for American democracy. Without credible, informative journalism, our nation will become corrupted by biased information from governments and large organizations.

This collapse of journalism in media has been coming for some time now and is the result of multiple causes. The most commonly discussed reasons are the advent of the internet and the current economy. However, McChesney and Nichols claim that this decline has been coming for much longer, and these two situations have only quickened the collapse, not caused it. To McChesney and Nichols, old media and journalism have been more threated by corporate conglomerates domination and decreasing quality of media, specifically journalism.

In McChesney's views, this collapse of journalism is detrimental to our society. He views media, specifically its journalistic duties, almost as a fourth branch of government. It supplies a source of checks and balances to our elected officials that should be independent of the political system. He believes the press was practically a planned branch of government because the United States history, from the founding of the nation to about the Civil War, is filled with actions by the government to support a free press both legally and financially.

Since the middle of the 19th Century, the press and journalism in America has grown to become dependent upon advertising for revenue and developed a commercial model. This metamorphosis gradually forced the press to become more business oriented and evolve into the mass media of the 20th Century. During the last century, media monopolies and conglomerates grew by swallowing up independently owned papers and broadcasting stations. They then forced competitors out of business. In doing so, these companies began to abandon the communities their media served in order to reduce costs and increase profits for shareholders by reducing staff and using on more one-size-fits-all material.

Without a doubt, I agree with almost all of McChesney and Nichols opinions regarding the fall of journalism. For some time, I have been convinced of the devastating effects the Telecommunication Act of 1996 has had on our society. In my opinion, this act is one of the most damaging pieces of legislation in the history of this republic. It allowed companies such as Clear Channel to acquire countless stations across the country. In doing so, the integrity of our media was damaged and unimaginable harm was done to local communities. Organizations would reduce staff and operate stations in clusters. As opposed to having seven radio stations with seven staffs, there would be seven stations with one staff. Thus, less jobs were created and less creativity was demonstrated. More and more companies would try to apply one approach to every community. What works in New York City does not necessarily work in Nameless, TN.

Hearing McChesney and Nichols talk has only reaffirmed my beliefs. Although my opinions have been formulated based on research of radio mergers, their critiques of newspapers echoes my opinions regarding radio station consolidations. All three of us seem to agree that media conglomerates are bad for local communities across the United States.

In order to rectify this crisis, McChesney and Nichols strongly advocate for government intervention. They believe the government should subsidize local media outlets by creating community oriented organizations and help young journalist gain experience. In doing so, they believe the press will get back to its true calling of supporting communities and aiding our democracy.

To judge the success of some of these changes, we would need to consider several factors. First of all, one would want to examine data regarding the number of newspapers, broadcasting stations, and journalism jobs available after the legislation. Do more communities have more than one print publication? Competing radio or television stations? Additionally, one would want to examine if people are able to make a living being a professional journalist. Are there more jobs for journalists? Are they paid adequately? This information would help to determine some of the success of the proposed changes. Of course, this evaluation would only examine of part of the puzzle.

In addition, we would need to see if the increased help for media actually aides our communities. Would the increased journalism increase the civics of the individuals in the communities? This information could be judged by gathering voting data and more importantly community involvement. Many people believe that Americans are increasingly becoming disconnected from those that live around them. If government support of increasing community media showed that individuals were more involved in their local communities by being better informed, then these people may be considered better citizens, and thus, McChesney and Nichols ideas could be considered successful.

Loving "Graceland"

"The Mississippi Delta was shining like a national guitar," is the opening line to Paul Simon's "Graceland" from the album of the same name. The song details the journey of a man to the legendary home of Elvis Presley. The protagonist of the song is searching for redemption, a mystical understanding, or perhaps some sort of personal knowledge at Graceland similar to a religious pilgrim. In the narrative, the man is on this quest to help recover from the recent end of a relationship.

This song has always had a special place in my heart. To me, "Losing love is like a window in your heart; everybody sees you're blown apart" is one of the most beautiful truths I have ever heard in a song. When ever I have suffered from a broken heart, I have thought of this line. It seems to perfectly explain how I feel so well.

"Graceland" also hits me on another level. For as long as I can remember, I have believed in the "myth" of America. I am a staunch lover of our popular culture and the reality it creates such as the "American Dream." The notion a man or woman may change from pauper to prince almost overnight.

Simon invokes this belief by making Graceland a holy place for secular America. To Simon, the protagonist will be "received in Graceland" along with other pilgrims. They will find answers they are seeking at the home of a poor truck driver from Tupelo, Mississippi who became a king. To millions of Americans, Graceland is proof of what is possible in America, and Simon recognizes the power of this location.

Since I am a male, the song has extra meaning for me. It is fairly clear that the protagonist is a man. More than likely it is an auto-biographical song by Simon, but the thoughts expressed could be applied to anyone of either sex. However, it seems to be more applicable to men. Additionally, the song appeals to me due to its regional topics. I grew up in the South and recognize the same history Simon does as the character drives down the Mississippi river to the "cradle of the Civil War." The lyrics are simply beautiful. The opening line is one of the most incredible descriptions of the Mississippi River Delta. Simon simultaneously reflects its beauty and cultural significance. Much of America's music has come from this region including the blues and rock 'n roll.

Without a doubt, I believe this song hits me personally. It was released two years after I was born, so most people of my age are not intimately familiar with it. While they listened to contemporary pop acts like Justin Timberlake, I was enjoying the wisdom and artistry of Paul Simon. It sets me a part from others of my age.

An early memory of mine is hearing "You Can Call Me Al," another song from the same album, with my father. It was also a favorite of mine, but then again, Graceland, the album, is my favorite album. My father and I were returning from an outing when I first heard "Al." I loved it, and over the years, I became obsessed with the song. Eventually, I began listening to the entire recording. It did not take long for me to fall in love with every song on the album. As I grew older, "Graceland", the title song became my favorite. In fact, the first time I went to Memphis with my dad, we played this song.

As time goes by, "Graceland" continues to be a part of my life. It is a song that I listen to in any mood. When I am happy, I find joy in the lyrics, and when I am sad, it comforts me. When I go out to do karaoke, I often sing this song, and it makes me enjoy the moment. Many of my friends are not very familiar with it... except for the fact, it is my staple song selection.

More Blogs Coming

This term I am taking two classes: Arts Administration and Empirical Theories of Mass Media. In both of them, I am required to right relatively short papers based primarily on personal reflection. I have decided I am going to post them on my blog for fun.

Both of these seem relevant to stuff I'd like to blog about as well. The Arts class is about us getting out in to the Portland arts community and checking out shows. We are then asked to write about the experience and talk in terms of the class discussions. I like this idea and believe it will provide insight into my life and Portland.

As for the Media class, I love to talk about the media. This class is encouraging me to write about it more as well. The questions asked really help to frame my writing and give me some direction. Typically, I lack prompts and fail to write. However, I hope these will encourage me to get back in the habit of writing.

So far, I have written three pieces. I believe I will start posting them this week or early next week. My goal will be to post about one piece a week to spread it out over a period of time. This way there is a steady stream of updates to my blog as opposed to one large clump all at once.

If you are curious, the topics so far include "Graceland" by Paul Simon, the death and life of American journalism, and the play Willow Jade which just had its world premiere in Portland. Look for these updates soon.

Embracing My Board Game Geekiness

For the past few years, I have been getting into the board game hobby. I love playing these hobby games like Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Chicago Express, Dominion, and more. They have become one of my biggest passions and time consumers, but it was not until today that I truly reached the level of board game geek. I have been edging closer and closer to this level of devotion to the hobby, but today I crossed over.

Today, I pre-ordered a board game, called American Rails, that is being designed by a small independent publisher. It is this gentleman's first game, and it is limited to 60 copies. I have never bought a game that has been published in such a small quantity. Usually, I buy games made by the well respected and established companies like Rio Grande Games, Fantasy Flight, and Z Man Games. However, I have been following the development of this game for about a month now, and I am really excited by it! When I found out pre-orders were today, I made sure to get my copy. Now I will own the first edition of what I hope and believe is going to be a very exciting and popular game.

By buying from what is basically a one man operation, I am supporting this man's devotion to a dream of his. It is my support of this small independent game that makes me feel like I have crossed into the realm of true board game geekery. Normally, I would just buy a game from a store either in person or online, but this time I am supporting a brand new publisher and developer. It makes me feel even more part of the community.

Of course this purchase was only part of my push over the edge. As for my second move, well I am seriously contemplating desiging my own board games.

For the past couple of months, I have been fiddling with the idea of this one game, but I have not done much with it. On Sunday, I brainstormed an idea for a second game, and this one I have actually started writing notes down about it. I have almost two pages of material, and I am going to start creating a prototype copy to play sometime early next year. I am really excited by the idea. As my creative wheels were turning for this game, I began developing ideas for a third game. Before long, I will probably be creating a list of game ideas. Who knows where this will lead, but it excites me.

After helping one man follow his dreams by buying his game, I began to think about my own ideas for games. I doubt I will ever create a true classic, but maybe I will one day publish my own game. Hopefully, some people besides me will get enjoyment out of it. Following this path makes no doubt about it, I am a board game geek.

Some Geeky Obersvations

While watching some tv shows lately, I have been making some incredibly geeky observations. Stuff like references to other elements of geek culture and attention to detail. Here are a few of them.

• While watching an episode of The X-Files, I noticed that Mulder resides at apartment number 42. How appropripate. The man who seeks the truth resides at the address which happens to be the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.
• With the series finale behind me, I began watching Battlestar Galactica with Liza. Now I knew the ship got dirtier as the series went on, but I did not realize how much until this viewing of the miniseries. The ship and its interior such as the CIC is immaculate at the start of the series. Talk about an attention to detail. It is just further testament to the pain staking level of continuity the staff was prepared for.
• Recently, I have become hooked on the show The IT Crowd. One of my favorite elements of the show is the geeky clutter in the background of the office. Particularly, I love the board games which include Ticket to Ride. My girlfriend laughed at me because I was disappointed that they are missing from the first series. I'll try to pinpoint the exact episode they appear and try to identify the exact games.

As I watch more TV this fall, expect more geeky observations. It may become a new hobby of mine.

The Problem With Being In a Relationship...

One of my biggest issues of being in a healthy, loving relationship is that sad country songs just are not as much fun to listen to. I don't know how many times I have listened to a song about a broken hearted man while drinking and mending my own broken heart. I have always found some comfort in these songs, but now, they just do not touch me the same way. I do still feel sympathy for the character in the songs, but I am too busy being happy for my relationship and not wanting to think sad thoughts. As much as I miss connecting to these songs, in no way, would I change my relationship. I am way too happy right now, and I hope I never go back to connecting with these songs. Unfortunately, happy country music is no where as good as listening to a man lament about his loss love while drinking beer, but I guess it will have to do to satisfy my love of twang.