Alicia Jackson re-occupies her home

Today Alicia Jackson reclaimed her home. Here is one of her neighbors, surrounded by the polyglot crowd, which included masked anarchists who call themselves the Black Bloc as well as people of many ages and backgrounds. You can read the whole story on the websites of We Are Oregon and the Portland Liberation Organizing Council.  

I took about four hundred pictures, about a hundred of which I posted to Flickr. The fifty that I like best are a set I'm calling May Day Faces.  I think the faces tell the story of the day, a day in which Alicia's community did the following:

--organized a rally for about four hundred people in Woodlawn Park
--marched from Woodlawn to Alicia's home
--made a key to the door of her home and presented it to her
--helped her cut the tape and enter her home
--provided a moving van with all her possessions
--moved her belongings back into her home
--cleared the front and back gardens and planted trees and a variety of fruits and vegetables
--cleaned out the house and collected rubbish which had been left in the yard
--provided food and water for the crowd and the block party
--and even had a portable toilet on the scene.

There were seven or eight actions all around Portland today, but this is the only one I went to, and I was glad to be there. This was by far the most beautifully-organized political action I've ever attended. Elsewhere in Portland there were violent clashes between demonstrators and police. But Alicia's re-occupation of her home was peaceful and was pure joy.