Black Voices United

10/14/2020

Black Portland, join us in collaboration with PAALF Action Fund for their first-ever mayoral debate!

Incumbent Mayor Ted Wheeler and candidate Sarah Iannarone questions will answer questions that focus on one central theme: ‘Why should Black people vote for you?’

You can watch the debate on Sunday, Oct, 18 at 5pm!

Let us know you’ll be watching by registering here (link in bio)

Produced by Open Signal: Portland Community Media Center.

Tune in and be a part of this moment to hold our elected officials accountable!

ASL interpretation available.

Debate will also be available to watch in Arabic, Amharic, Swahili, and Somali.

More information can be found at the registration page

*This debate is not an endorsement of any candidate. All candidates who are running for Portland Mayor, on and off the ballot, were invited to participate in the debate.

01/24/2020

This morning Akasha Lawrence Spence was sworn into the Oregon House of Representatives by Oregon Supreme Court Justice Adrienne Nelson.

Representative Lawrence Spence joins Representative Janelle Sojourner Bynum in the chamber!

Representative Lawrence Spence will serve as a replacement to Representative Jennifer Williamson who is now running for Oregon’s Secretary of State.

Representative Lawrence Spence, thank you for serving us. We’re rooting for you. Always!
@ Salem, Oregon

05/22/2019

Congratulations to all the incoming School Board Directors across Oregon!

Specifically, a huge kudos to Andrew Scott (Andrew for PPS) for securing 53,915 votes for Zone 1, Michelle DePass (Michelle DePass) for securing 40,846 votes for Zone 2, Amy Kohnstamm (Friends of Amy Kohnstamm) for securing 38,411 votes for Zone 3 and Eilidh Lowery (Eilidh Lowery for Board of Education) for securing 47,649 votes for Zone 7.

Thank you for your leadership and willingness to serve the students, families, teachers and staff of Portland Public Schools. We are excited for the new perspectives you will bring to our district.

A special shoutout to: Shanice Clarke for Portland Public School Board, Deb Mayer and Robert Schultz for stepping up and running incredible campaigns. Thank you for your courage! We hope you realize how much your presence in this Special Election challenged and inspired us all to be better for the students and families we are privileged to serve.

04/03/2019

Got a question for the candidates running for the PPS School Board election?

Click the Ask Form:

Welcome to the official space to submit questions for the 2019 Black Voices Candidates Forum! This May 2019 Special Election will be an exciting one for school districts across Oregon! This year, we're focused on the Portland Public School District, School Board election. Here are the candidates for...

03/14/2019

Planning Meeting Alert!

Evening all! BVU, partnering organizations and community organizers are meeting to begin planning the logistics of our upcoming candidates forum!

If you (or your organization) would like to join in on the planning -- we would love to have you! There's definitely room at the table!

Join us TONIGHT at 6:30pm at the PCRI Annex (6601 NE MLK)

You can also message us with your email address and we can add you to all further communications!

Ps: It's Pi Day -- so there'll be plenty of PIE to go around!

03/11/2019

Have you checked out the candidate filings for the upcoming special election on May 21, 2019?

See the candidates who have filed to run in your district here: https://multco.us/elections/may-2019-special-election-candidate-filings

There are currently FIVE candidates who have declared for the PPS School Board and Black Voices has reached out, via email, to learn more about who they are and how best to inform our community about their offerings as candidates! We can't wait to share more with you in the coming days/weeks!

In the meantime, check out this link and see who has declared that they're running!

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02/13/2019

....aaannnnnnd we’re BACK!

Thank you so much for your patience, well wishes, consistent messages of care and affirmations of the space that Black Voices has filled in our community!

This past summer, key BVU leadership endured devastating life events that prevented us from being as visible and present as we would normally be.

A good friend reminded us that “Life happens on Life’s terms!”

The amount of care that the community has provided, our key leadership, proves and is evidence of the power of our Black village!

From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU!

As we get into position, we are excited for what’s to come as we continue to rest in our initial pillars to be: Conscious, Proximate and Empowering!

Our conscious means to build and sustain structures that enable local voter awareness.

Our Proximation means to enable involvement and relationships between public officials and Black community members.

Our Empowerment is to provide accessible entry points into the political process.

This means that Black Voices is not a Political Action Committee (PAC) that seeks to endorse any candidate or measure. Our goal, from inception, is to INFORM.

Knowledge is power. We believe that! Period.

We are gearing up for the May 2019 Special District Election on May 21, 2019!

So, we said all that to say, LET’S GET IT! Who wants in?

________

08/23/2018

Greetings BVU Community! As we get ready to kick-off the 2018-2019 school year at PPS next week--we need your voice.

WEB DuBois asked Blacks, "What does it feel like to be the problem?". We need the PPS Board members, and newly selected Board Chair Rita Moore, to know WE (our families, our students) are NOT the problem.

Kairos, is serving Portland students and families, as a public charter school. They have emerged out of a history of racism in the Albina neighborhood and carry with them a tradition of a community’s collective resistance and efforts to elevate excellence, preserve their culture, their wholeness, their humanity. This school exists as an institution that has been birthed out of choices, motions, decisions of this communities' past.

We hope to see you out on Tuesday to elevate our VOICE. Help the PPS elected board members know who they are accountable to. The Board needs to know ---"We are not the problem."

03/26/2018

Happy Monday!!

Thank you so much for attending, participating, engaging and supporting Black Voices United at our Saturday, March 24th candidates forum!

As our team prepares to meet and debrief the event, it would be awesome to capture your perspective of your experience.

BVU Feedback Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6du7cFJ6sSIaz5ohNWy8zj3HIUBdWL__xzkJ8vDdSzDYZHA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Our organization is small and new but we are fierce and eager to LISTEN, LEARN and SERVICE. These principles are borrowed from the awesome Portland Teachers Program that models these tenets with fidelity.

Listening is hard because we often listen to defend and/or respond. We are doing our best to actively listen to understand!

Learning happens all around us. However, it is our goal to learn on purpose so that we may be purposeful in how we lead the effort.

Service isn't glorious. It comes with much responsibility and sometimes we hit the nail on the head and other times we miss the mark. In order to serve you better, we hope you will provide feedback with love, compassion and understanding.

Again, thank you for your honesty and courage. We look forward to hearing from you and working together to bridge the divide!

Yours in the movement,
Nichole

Thank you for participating (physically or online) in the Black Voices Candidates Forum on Saturday, March 24, 2018. We hope you had as much fun attending (or viewing) as we did organizing it. We hope you left more informed about each candidate and encouraged to dig deeper into the issues impacting....