Lauren Johnson
"Hands up, don't shoot!" / "Black trans lives matter!" / "Feds go home!" / "Say his name: Patrick Kimmons!" / "AC-A-B all cops are bastards!" / "Out of your homes and into the streets!" / "Whose streets? Chinook Streets!" / "What's his name? Quanice Hayes! Who killed him? PPB!" / We ran through the sharp choked night, vision blurred with condensation inside my safety goggles--my own breath--and these were the things I heard. They echoed through shots and peppered beats, through throws-to-ground, the chanting, again and again. The drums, boiling and boiling. This is how the protests felt, the rumble, the anticipation, the shaking adrenaline, a hushed silent prayer like a gut punch, and begging the hope to be true. / Summer 2020 in Portland Oregon, Black Lives Matter protests. / Any profits I make on these works will be donated to pdx mutual aid or direct reparations to black and indigenous people.