Kenton Park is a rolling, twelve acre, green-space in this tightly-packed city. People from the neighborhood had begun quietly assembling on Sunday, August 9 2020, in socially-distanced and masked groups at the north end of the park since around 6 PM. Unlike the visually packed spaces in the city center so famous from national and international headlines, this scene is more reminiscent of pastoral, little “a” anarchists on holiday during the plague times. Another stark contrast to what national news shows and talking heads discuss, this crowd is noticeably diverse. Portland is a majority white city in the whitest state in the country. The larger number of BIPOC activists present here is indicative of both the neighborhood and the continuing dedication of activists of color to not only control the narrative but to create it.

On the heels of a night wherein the Portland Police Bureau beat, flashbanged, and gassed a crowd through the streets of outer Southeast Portland, the teenage-led activist group Youth Liberation Front posted a follow up call to action in the East Portland neighborhood. The announcement, of course, was not unnoticed by the Portland Police Bureau, whose official Twitter account stated unequivocally that “this call for direct action… will not go unanswered,” and that it “[meant] there [was] intent to engage in violent actions.” The interaction would prove to influence both fear in protesters’ minds and anger in the actions of the PPB officers later in the evening.

‘TRANS RIGHTS’ is, in my opinion, a brilliant alias. That’s what my interviewee chose to call herself for this article.

Before I even asked a question, there were a few things TRANS RIGHTS wanted to make clear: She’s white. She’s trans. She lives in Portland. Portland is stolen Chinook land. Oregon was founded as a literal ethnostate. While it was founded as a ‘free state’–meaning no slavery–black people couldn’t live there by law. The 14th Amendment wasn’t ratified until 1973.

At one point during our conversation, Rosa cleared her throat.

“Excuse me,” she said. “It’s the teargas, not COVID.”

Rosa is a lead organizer with The Witches PDX. She spoke to LCRW about the group’s mutual aid work, the brutality of the state and federal law enforcement’s response to the now over 50 days of continuous in Portland and the shared experiences both of trauma and kinship during the daily assault by police.