BlackOut: A Five-Year Retrospective on Portland’s Racial Justice Movement is a joint production from Donovan Scribes and the Portland Mercury, written exclusively by Black Portlanders, to remember and reflect on the May 25, 2020 murder of George Floyd at the hands of police, and the 100+ days of protests in Portland that same year. You can currently find BlackOut in print at more than 500 locales citywide, inserted inside the Mercury's Food Issue—and in conjunction with this historic issue, The BLACK Gallery powered by Don’t Shoot Portland is presenting a month-long art show, featuring the art, photography, and words of BlackOut.

Running Thursday, June 5 through Saturday, July 5—with a special public showing during this week’s First Thursday gallery walk— this powerful exhibit curated by BlackOut creator Donovan Scribes includes the following artists and writers:

• Sai Stone (who shot the stirring image featured on the cover of BlackOut) will be displaying 12 images taken during the 2020 protests, paired with 12 quotes from BlackOut.

• Lakayana Drury will display art made in conjunction with young Black Portlanders based on his powerful and lyrical BlackOut essay, “Dreams in A Vase With No Water,” which amplifies the need to let Black kids dream uninterrupted.

• Based on Scribes’ game-changing essay “Symbols Matter,” he teamed up with artist Savina Monet to create a series of coins celebrating local Black pioneers across the decades, including Portland NAACP co-founder Beatrice Cannady, hip-hop personality StarChile, and Portland State University professor Walidah Imarisha.

Sai Stone's photo, accompanied by words from Donovan Scribes.

• The gallery will also feature a reflection corner featuring a short film directed by Devin Boss, Dear Young Black Portland, starring former Portland NAACP president Sharon Gary-Smith, whose words were also featured in BlackOut. This film, written by her mentee Scribes, is a visual letter shot from Ms. Sharon’s perspective, and will be stationed next to postcards where attendees will be invited to write their own reflections on the 2020 protests, as well as the future of our city, state, and country.

• Also presented at BlackOut: Graphic designer Ronin Roc will display pieces from his “More Than February” collection featuring icons of the Black-freedom movement, including Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Angela Davis and more. Plus, attendees can expect a retrospective dedicated to Donovan Scribes’ work as a young journalist and artist while covering the Black Lives Matter Movement. 

Find all this and more at the BlackOut exhibition, running June 5-July 5 at The BLACK Gallery (located at 916 NW Flanders) with a special First Thursday public showing on Thursday, June 5, starting at 5 pm. Other showings are by appointment only, and can be reserved at theblackgallerypdx.com.

Don’t miss BlackOut—the Exhibition, a living and powerful reflection on the murder of George Floyd and the 100+ nights of protests in Portland that followed. The time to remember is now.