Culture
Ursula K. Le Guin’s radicalism of imagination
In your spare time, what do you do?” That question on a survey elicited this response from writer Ursula K. Le Guin at age 81: “I … don’t know what spare time is because all my time is occupied. … It’s occupied by living.” Le Guin died earlier this year at the age of 88.…
The El Paso Chronicles: Three essays from the Mexican border
The nonprofit Border Network of Human Rights, dedicated to educating and organizing El Paso, Texas, residents and migrants, holds one of the most emotional events that can be held, each time they are allowed to. It happens on the border of the U.S. and Mexico, and is called “Abrazos no muros” (“Hugs not walls”). The…
News
Ursula K. Le Guin’s radicalism of imagination
In your spare time, what do you do?” That question on a survey elicited this response from writer Ursula K. Le Guin at age 81: “I … don’t know what spare time is because all my time is occupied. … It’s occupied by living.” Le Guin died earlier this year at the age of 88.…
The El Paso Chronicles: Three essays from the Mexican border
The nonprofit Border Network of Human Rights, dedicated to educating and organizing El Paso, Texas, residents and migrants, holds one of the most emotional events that can be held, each time they are allowed to. It happens on the border of the U.S. and Mexico, and is called “Abrazos no muros” (“Hugs not walls”). The…
Vendor voices: What would you do to improve police relations?
As part of Street Roots continuing effort to shed light on the relationship between the Portland Police and those who live on the streets, we recently asked our vendors to tell us their thoughts on how they would improve relations with the police force. Our vendors on the whole were sympathetic to the difficulties of…
Fighting hate with a message for the entire world
She woke up with her hair cut off and her body covered in Nazi symbols. She was 14 years old. In the white, rich and apparently peaceful area of Kullavik, south of Gothenburg, Sweden, Mina Dennert had become a girl who posed a threat to the white race. “Not being Swedish had never even occurred…
Opinion
Family planning is a basic human right
It has been five decades since the international community affirmed the right to family planning, but many women still remain unable to enjoy this right, which is increasingly under attack around the world. For World Population Day, held annually on July 11, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) focused its attention on “Family Planning is…
Director’s Desk: A rich story lies behind every bean of Street Roast
There are many beginnings to the story of Street Roast coffee, but one story starts on a Central Valley, Calif. farm in the 1980s where the Gleason sisters, Joey and Cassy, would pile in with seven cousins every summer. “This is where the story gets deep,” said Cassy, laughing. “It was a rite of passage…
Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: Gung-ho at selling newspapers and working to improve her life
Melissa moves through life with willpower and a positive outlook. “I’m very open to everything,” she said. “I don’t judge. I think if you’re happy, that’s all that matters.” She was born in Coos Bay. Straight out of high school, she said she began working for a subcontractor that assembled dental equipment in Newberg. She…
