It takes just seconds to leave behind this muted Harlem side street and enter the parlor of Maya Angelou's brownstone, a step as bright and quick as a black and white film dissolving into Technicolor.
Plump sofas and armchairs in bursts of green and blue and red and yellow form a ring on spotless hardwood floors. Toward the rear, like a shy, well-dressed prodigy, a baby grand piano looks shined to stage perfection. By the piano, stained glass doors open to a red dining area centered by a mahogany table as big and round as the voice of Angelou herself.
Still close to her youthful height of 6 feet,

A spokesman for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign says former President Bill Clinton's weekend visit to Southern Oregon is a prelude to an appearance from the candidate herself.
"She will be campaigning aggressively all over Oregon, including campaigning aggressively in Southern Oregon," said Isaac Baker, the spokesman.
But first things first. Bill Clinton will rally Democrats Sunday afternoon at Hedrick Middle School in Medford and then head to Central Oregon for a visit Monday.
Baker said Bill Clinton likely will hold a town hall meeting in which he will take questions from the audience. The event in Bend is expected to have a similar format. Bill Clinton continued his Oregon visit Monday with appearances Monday, March 31 at 9:30 a.m. at OHSU, Old Library Auditorium, 3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Road; at 11 a.m.. at the Cherry Blossom Center, 740 S.E. 106^th Ave.; and in Salem from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Chemeketa Community College, building 50, 4000 Lancaster Drive N.E.; and in Bend from 5 to 7 p.m. at Bend Senior High School, 230 N.E. Sixth St....

On May 21st, 2008, 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. at Olea Restaurant, 1338 NW Hoyt, Portland OR 97209
Job seeking has never been so much fun.

Sen. Barack Obama receives an endorsement from New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson during his visit to Portland on March 21. Thousands packed into Memorial Coliseum to see the presidential hopeful speak.

Ailey School choreographer and teaching artist Astrid von Ussar teaches dance to 5th grade students Monday as part of the Revelations Residency at the African American Academy. She also taught at Zion Preparatory Academy earlier in the day. The week-long residency includes learning original choreography, writing, dance history and literature. Students were given tickets to Sunday's matinee performances of the Alvin Ailey dancers.

Civil rights groups in Seattle are launching a last-ditch campaign against a bill they say would encourage racial profiling. The anti-gang bill passed through both houses in the Washington state legislature without drawing serious public attention, and has now reached Gov. Gregoire's desk, awaiting her signature to become law.
But opposition to the bill, led by civil rights activists and community leaders, has rapidly grown. Opponents say the bill would justify racial profiling and they have asked Gov. Gregoire veto it.
"We want the governor to just veto the whole bill," said KKNW radio host Keith Tucker, who has publicized the campaign against the bill on his show, The Keith Tucker Show (1150 AM). "It definitely is mostly people of color who will be impacted by this bill. White kids could be unfairly targeted too, but we know for sure that people of color will be impacted the most, because they already are anyway."
In Portland, the drug-free exclusion zones ordinance was dropped because of concerns about racial disparities in enforcement. Yet the prevalence of racial profiling is still under debate.
Introduced to the Washington House of Representatives by a bipartisan group of legislators including, Rep. Christopher Hurst, a Democrat representing parts of King and Pierce counties; ...

America imprisons more of its citizens than any other country in the world. That statement holds true if you're talking about percentage of the population or looking at sheer numbers. We've known this for a while. We knew it when the Pew Center for the States released its latest report on the issue, Feb. 28.

When Paul Knauls booked his stay at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Wash., he asked for a nonsmoking room. Knauls, the owner of Geneva's Shear Perfection salon and barbershop in Portland, is allergic to cigarette smoke and finds it difficult to breathe freely in smoky places.
But when he arrived in his room, his eyes started to water. "I said honey, this is not a nonsmoking room. So I got on the phone and called down to reception. I asked for another room, but she said 'I'm sorry sir, but we're all sold out for this weekend.' ...

Bus riders in Seattle will enjoy more frequent service on major bus routes thanks to a partnership agreement between Metro Transit and the city of Seattle, approved today by the Metropolitan King County Council. The agreements are implemented as part of the voter-approved "Transit Now" initiative.
"Transit Now" set aside 90,000 hours of bus service for service partnerships with businesses and local cities throughout King County, with the goal of increasing transit service on major urban corridors. ...

The African American Healthy Marriage Initiative held a "Strengthening the Family Summit" Tuesday to talk about what makes a healthy marriage, how to be a good father, and how to raise happy, confident children. These are not exactly the simple little problems of life, so what lay behind the event?
"We wanted to start to have a national public conversation about healthy relationships and marriage within the Black community," said Diann Dawson, Director of Regional Operations for U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services.
"We felt a need to have an initiative where we could begin to have conversations about the sensitive issues that we need to deal with and that we wanted to make sure that marriage education, as it was beginning to unveil on the federal level ... would be culturally competent,"...