Looking for farm-fresh food in your neighborhood?  The King Farmers Market features 30 vendors bringing locally-grown fruits and vegetables, berries, baked goods, seafood, meat, eggs, cheese, prepared foods and flowers right to the heart of Northeast Portland.

The market is open Sundays, May through November from 10am-2pm, and is located in the parking lot adjacent to King Elementary School and King School Park at NE 7th and Wygant.  The market a family-centric destination for the neighborhood to enjoy breakfast or lunch, listen to live music by local musicians and fill up market baskets with fresh local food.

Each week, we invite families to enjoy the Market Play Zone, which offers new interactive activities for kids of all ages.  Inspired by seasonal food, healthy eating and exercise, activities include seed planting, food-themed art projects, drop-in cooking activities and recess-style games to get kids moving.

If you or someone you know has an Oregon Trail card, come to the market information booth to find out how you can double your food dollars at the market—up to $5 each week!  The market’s Fresh Exchange program helps to get more farm-direct produce into the hands of our low-income neighbors while supporting our region’s small farms and food producers.

Fresh Exchange can be found at the King Farmers Market, among others.

Come to the King Farmers Market to meet the faces behind your food, visit with your community and celebrate the bounty of our region.  For more details, visit www.portlandfarmersmarket.org.

Here’s all the details on the clean-up this weekend – we’d love to have you swing by and drop off your junk! If you have questions, email info@ kingneighborhood.org. Thanks!

The King Neighborhood Association (KNA), World Arts Foundation, Inc. (WAFI), and the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods (NECN) will hold a celebration on Saturday, April 26th to honor the 25th anniversary renaming of Union Avenue to Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Portland. The celebration, open to the public, will be held at the Boys and Girls Club at the Blazers location, 5250 NE MLK, from 3 – 4:30 pm. A new United States flag will be raised at the Boys and Girls Club during the event.

KNA, WAFI, and NECN join together to invite the community in celebrating the naming of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. Twenty-five years ago, after years of work by citizens who sought to bring Dr. King’s vision of peace, justice, and truth closer to reality in our community, Portland’s City Council voted to change Union Avenue’s name to Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard on April 20, 1989.

The public is invited to join the celebration, hosted by the Boys and Girls Club at the Blazers location. We will honor past, present, and future – those who have led the way in seeking truth and justice, and in particular the community members who worked to honor Dr. King with a street naming; those among us who work for justice and reconciliation today, and the youth in our community who will lead us into the future.

Photo taken in the offices of the Skanner newspaper; credit: Teressa Raiford.

Speakers at the celebration will include Donny Adair (of WAFI); Teressa Raiford; Alan Silver (of King NA); Jules Garza; organizers of the Oregon Black Museum;  and Imani Muhammad.

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Pictured: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walks between seven-year-old Eva Gracelemon, left, and 10-year-old Aritha Willis as he escorts black school children to formerly all-white schools in Grenada, Miss., Tuesday morning, Sept. 20, 1966. Violence erupted at the school when the schools were integrated. (AP Photo)

Last year, King Neighborhood Association took a look at ICE detentions, and wrote a letter to the Multnomah County Sheriff asking him to not participate in ICE detentions for minor offenses and violations. We haven’t gotten back to the topic yet, but here are some upcoming events hosted by the Center for Intercultural Organizing that speak to the topic, and are near our neighborhood.

Book Event: Border Patrol Nation

CIO welcomes author and immigrant rights activist Todd Miller to Portland to discuss his recently published book, Border Patrol Nation. Miller’s work documents increasing militarization in the US and how the border patrol and immigration enforcement has dramatically expanded inward in the country, having devastating effects on our communities. Miller, who is based in Tucson, AZ, has spent the past fifteen years researching and writing about immigration issues from both sides of the U.S. Mexico border.

The author will be available for Q&A and book signing after the presentation. Snacks and simultaneous interpretation to Spanish will be available. Hope you can join us for this important event!

• Date: Saturday, April 19th
• Time: 7:00 PM
• Where: Portland Office, 700 N Killingsworth St.
• Tri Met:  Lines 72, 4, 44

Multnomah County Chair Candidate Forum   

• Date: Monday, April 28th  
• Time:  6 pm – 8 pm
• Where:  Portland Office, 700 N. Killingsworth, 97217
• Tri Met:  Lines 72, 4, 44
  

Community Forum on the Impact of ICE Detainers

Come to this open community forum hosted by the ACT Network in partnership with CIO. You will hear testimonies from people who have been detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and be able to participate the discussion. This forum will give voice from many perspectives on how families are affected, what people see and experience in detention, and how public safety and trust in law enforcement is altered.

• Date: Thursday, April 24
• Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
• Where: PCC Cascade Campus, Terrell Hall – Room 122

          Film Screening – Becoming Ourselves          

How Immigrant Women Transformed Their World

CIO is happy to host a screening of the film “Becoming Ourselves: How Immigrant Women Transformed Their World,” produced by Asian Immigrant Women Advocates (AIWA), based in Oakland, California. For more than 25 years, AIWA has supported successful direct action and education in immigrant communities.

“Becoming Ourselves” explores the journey of immigrant women as they become powerful leaders, and how their actions shaped important changes in their workplaces and schools. 

To see a short trailer of the film go to:  http://www.aiwa.org/index.php

• Date: Tuesday, April 29th 
• Time: 6:30 pm 
• Where: Portland Office, 700 N Killingsworth St.
• Tri Met:  Lines 72, 4, 44

There are four Northeast Coalition of Neighborhood committee meetings next week – and they should all be great discussions. Anyone is welcome to attend any of these, and they’re all held in King neighborhood, in NECN’s office, where King NA meets – at 4815 NE 7th Avenue, the King Facility building.

Safety & Livability Team (SALT): meets Monday, April 21st, 6:30 – 8:30. Last Thursday on Alberta Street will begin again in May ~~ come learn from City and Portland Police Bureau representatives about this year’s plans to support the event. Chad Stover from the mayor’s office and N. Precinct commander Mike Leloff will be among those in attendance.

Land Use and Transportation Committee (LUTC): meets Wednesday, April 23rd, at 7 pm. Metro Councilor Sam Chase will share the Climate Smart Communities Scenarios Project, which looks looks at how our current land use and transportation choices will effect greenhouse gas emissions and future livability standards in the region.

Schools Committee: meets Thursday, April 24th, at 7 pm. Agenda still being worked on.

Contact NECN for more info on any of these committees: necoalition.org or 503-388-5004.