Two young women, one in a hijab, were threatened by a knife-wielding white supremacist during Friday afternoon rush hour on a Portland commuter train May 26, 2017. When three bystanders attempted to intervene and de-escalate, the white supremacist murdered two of them and seriously wounded the third. The city responded with shock, grief, outrage, and…art.
Almost immediately after the news broke, people began flooding the 42nd Street MAX station, a transportation hub near the Hollywood district of Portland, with flowers, hearts, candles, love letters, and signs.
The day after the murders, a vigil was arranged at the MAX station, and several thousand people showed up to pay their respects to families of the girls who had been threatened and to the parents, siblings, and friends of the murder victims, several of whom sat dazed and grieving in a grassy area at the center of the crowd.
As the vigil tapered off into darkness, a woman chalked “Black Lives Matter” on the wall of the multi-level ramp from the Max to the street. She offered chalk to her friends, who left messages of love and respect. According to an eye-witness to the murders, the last words of Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche were, “Tell everyone on this train I love them.” Someone chalked those words on the wall, and a collage of words began to grow.Over the next few days, many returned to leave messages in chalk. A woman named Rita Bhatia started #Hearts4PDX so that knitters could contribute give-away hearts to the spontaneously-constructed altar. One month after the murders, the MAX station had become a living altar.
In July, part of the local Black community held a gospel concert in honor of the girls who had been threatened on the MAX. At Maranatha Church people lifted their voices in shared grief, in compassion, in prayer and praise.
People went home singing, families continued grieving, and Don’t Shoot Portland, a local activist group, worked in partnership with Pacific Northwest College of Art to create lino-cuts and screen-prints, handbills and posters, as education, self-expression, and action for the community. By November most of the messages had washed off the MAX station ramp walls in the course of Portland’s winter rains. On so-called Black Friday, America’s biggest shopping day, Don’t Shoot Portland offered the community an opportunity to do something other than shop. They sponsored an art day at the MAX station: #NotBlackFriday #BlackLivesMatter #NotOneDime. Bring your own chalk.
