More than 100 African American youth got together at the second annual youth summit at Mallory Avenue Church last Saturday. The summit entitled "It's Bigger than Hip Hop" included a youth panel which discussed everything from how Black youth are depicted in the media to the future of hip hop. Here Ashleigh Paschal, 17; Myesha Abdulrahman, 18; and Kenny James, 16, take part in the discussion. After the panel, Public Enemy's Professor Griff joined local artists Libretto, Octavia Harris, Madgesdiq, Blacque Butterfly and others to perform that evening. 

Arizona Sen. John McCain and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama both made a clean sweep in the "Potomac Primary" Tuesday. Each won primaries in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. U. S. Sen. Barack Obama now leads the race for the Democratic presidential nomination....
The Clinton campaign appears to be moving forward after its string of defeats, anticipating comebacks in big primaries such as Texas with 193 delegates and Ohio with 141, both on March 4. After that primaries in Pennsylvania, on April 22, and North Carolina, on May 6, also offer the big prizes. However, Sen. Clinton has made changes in her campaign staff over the weekend, replacing chief of staff Patti Solis Doyle with former chief of staff Maggie Williams. Currently Clinton is campaigning in Wisconsin, where she is scheduled to attend a Democratic Dinner in Milwaukee on Saturday.

"Let's talk about sex." Salt-N-Pepa told us this in the late 80s, urging African Americans to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. Yet 20 years on, African American youth in Multnomah County don't seem to be talking about sex — or its consequences. At least not enough to keep themselves safe.
That's why Multnomah County last week launched a new Web site called www.knowsexpdx.com ...

Black children are doing better than ever, but still have a long way to go before closing the racial-ethnic gap in quality of life, according to a report released last month, by the Foundation for Child Development.
According to the report, all children experienced overall improvements in quality of life between 1985 and 2004. ...

Poor children and people of color would be just as healthy, and grow up, graduate, and get jobs at the same rate as other children as part of the vision of a major King County initiative announced today. 
"It is unacceptable that the color of your skin or your home address are now good predictors of whether you will have a low birth weight baby, die from diabetes or your children will graduate from high school or end up in jail," said King County Executive Ron Sims. "Even in a progressive, generally affluent area like ours,

Umema Upesi recites a Langston Hughes poem accompanied on drums by Steve Sneed at the 2008 Illuminating Langston event, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center's annual gala fundraiser, on Feb. 9. This year's event featured performances from past Langston Hughes productions, readings of Langston Hughes poetry and a history of the summer musical.

Hoping to encourage minority youth to pursue careers in technology, this year's 17th annual Minority Student Day was held Friday, Feb.8 at the Microsoft campus in Redmond and was Webcast to eight different cities throughout the country from California to New York.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, addressed the high school students and talked about Microsoft's future, their new products and the company's commitment to diversity. The theme this year's event was "The Wow Starts Now… The Future Starts with You!"
The goal of the event is to promote broader access to technology and encourage underrepresented minority youth to pursue careers in high technology by providing ...

District Council meeting….TEEN LATE NIGHT free swim …FESTIVAL SUNDIATA ….Young Harriet Tubman Theatre....BLACK HISTORY PROJECT …FREE TUTORING …WHAT'S COOKING CLASS …classes in warehouse training….BREAD-BAKING CLASS. …COFFEE HOUR for senior citizens …WOMEN'S HEALTH AND WELLNESS Fair…The Practice of Writing Memoir…. film showing of "The Other America…ADULT CPR CLASS. ….MONTHLY PRAISEFEST …CALL TO CONSCIENCE…

They've been featured on a hit show on MTV, they have one of the 50 most requested songs on KUBE 93 in 2007, and have produced tracks for West Coast rap legends like E-40 & Mac Mall. If you haven't heard of The Hit Collective, or T.H.C., as they prefer to be called, you've been given notice.
Born and raised in Seattle, the trio is a music production team that writes, produces, and performs their own material ...

The future of the Children's Investment Fund is on the line this year. The program's funding will need voter approval simply in order to survive.
The first hurdle will be the Portland City Council meeting of Feb 20, when city commissioners will vote on whether to put the Children's Investment Fund on the November ballot.
Portland voters approved funding for the Children's Investment Fund in 2002, with a five-year property tax levy that raises about $10 million a year for 66 programs. Among them are: Albina Early Head Start, which receives $424,000 and Self Enhancement Inc., which receives $339,000. Together these two programs serve about 200 African American children. In addition, the fund supports: health screenings for 800 children, substance abuse counseling for homeless teens, respite care for children at-risk of abuse or neglect and mentoring for students in Portland Public Schools....