ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="content-type" CONTENT="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="resource-type" content="document"> <meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache"> <meta name="classification" content="Education"> <meta name="description" content="The Voice is the student newspaper at Multnomah Bible College and Biblical Seminary."> <meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="TRUE"> <meta name="keywords" content="bible, newspaper, multnomah, seminary, college, journalism, christian, news, portland, biblical"> <meta name="robots" content="ALL"> <meta name="distribution" content="Global"> <meta name="rating" content="Safe For Kids"> <meta name="copyright" content="2005 The Voice"> <meta name="author" content="Multnomah Bible College"> <meta http-equiv="reply-to" content="voice@multnomah.edu"> <meta name="language" content="english"> <meta name="doc-type" content="Journal"> <meta name="doc-class" content="Published"> <meta name="doc-rights" content="Copywritten Work"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../stories.css"> <!--Change the date here--> <TITLE>Cover Story--December 2006</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <A NAME="top"></A> <TABLE BORDER="0"> <TR> <TD WIDTH="100" VALIGN="TOP"> <IMG SRC="../graphics/smalllogo.gif" BORDER="0" ALT="The VOICE ONLINE"> <H3>Cover Story</H3> <!--Insert the writer's name here--> <H4>by Benjamin Tertin</H4> <P>&nbsp;</P><P>&nbsp;</P> <!--Insert pull out quote here--> <P class="pullout"></P> </TD> <TD WIDTH="20" VALIGN="top"> <IMG SRC="../graphics/spacer.gif" ALT="[Spacer]" WIDTH="20" BORDER="0"> </TD> <TD WIDTH="400" VALIGN="TOP"> <P class="links"> <A HREF="toc.html">Back to Table of Contents</A> | <A HREF="http://www.multnomah.edu/voice/index.html">Back to Main Index</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.multnomah.edu/voice/a-cover1.html">Previous Cover Stories</A> | <A HREF="mailto:voice@multnomah.edu">Send mail to The Voice</A></P> <!--Insert story title here--> <P class="title">New Born Tribe Mingles Culture With Chill Vibes</P> <!--Insert photo name, height, and width here--> <P class="center"> <IMG SRC="photos/cover2.gif" ALT="[Cover Photo]"HEIGHT=300 BORDER=0> </P> <!--Insert photo caption here--> <P class="caption">Brother Ali, Brooklyn; Jah Wisdom, Ivory Coast, West Africa; Sawif, Portland; and Tye Tye, Los Angeles; volunteer at New Born Tribe, along with the staff, their "brothers and sisters." --Benjamin Tertin, photo</P> <HR WIDTH="250"> <!--Insert story here--> <P> No Bible college student could see the words "New Born Tribe" on the red, yellow and green storefront and pass by without a piqued curiosity. "Whoa, dude, stop the truck!" I yelled at my buddy Kevin Rich. <BR><BR> He wheeled around and parked in the back lot. When I cracked the back door to enter, an echoing "pat ta bum, pat ta bum bum" drum beat seeped through and received Kevin and me into a dark chamber. Four African men sitting in a circle pounded djembes, "praising Jah."<BR><BR> Brother Ali, 37 (neither he nor any of the interviewees provided their full names), greeted us and briefly described weekly happenings there at 3525 N.E. Martin Luther King Blvd.: Thursday and Friday dancehall, weekend live music, Wednesday spoken word, etc.<BR><BR> He pointed out the small "African goods shop" in one corner and said they offer African food in the back kitchen on occasion. Even knowing that, several return visits were required for me to truly understand New Born Tribe.<BR><BR> Ousman, the man in charge, said friends and family provided the vibrant artwork adorning each wall of the 5,000-square-foot space. On the walls, they had painted more than 50 national flags surrounding an African continent, a pride of lions, a blue-mooned desertscape and a 10-foot elephant. Murals of Rastaman Bob Marley, a distant highway labeled, "Street to Zion" and shrine-like banners of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I suggested a Rastafari following.<BR><BR> Comprised solely of volunteers, New Born Tribe's diverse staff fluctuates. During the day, Ali works in the Sun Program at Vernon Elementary school, mentoring K-2 kids and assisting international immigrants as they get oriented to new homes.<BR><BR> "All these brothers and sisters at New Born are artists, you know: They're musicians, they're M.C.s, I'm a jazz musician," Ali said, "and we have all these cats with so many other talents."<BR><BR> Sawif, 29, said he grew up in Portland, is a stack-metal worker and plays in his band, Rebel Souls. Ibrahim, 33, said he emigrated from Ivory Coast and works as a security guard for Allied Barton. <BR><BR> Woodcarver Jah Wisdom, 35, grew up in Ghana and said he traveled through Europe with his hip-hop reggae group, Zion Children, before moving to Portland. Tye Tye, 23, said she grew up in Los Angeles and, aside from giving time to New Born Tribe, works as an in-home health care provider. <BR><BR> Hailing from Gambia, West Africa, Ousman founded New Born Tribe in Seattle during the early '90s. Later, he owned African goods shops in Brooklyn and The Bronx; he came to Portland in 2001. <BR><BR> "Our name," Ousman said, "started as 'Nubian tribe,' but it evolved into 'New Born.'"<BR><BR> Shaking his head and pointing to a tavern across from New Born Tribe, Ousman said, "You see, here, we want to be a good place, a positive influence for everyone here." New Born Tribe serves no alcohol.<BR><BR> "This isn't the worst neighborhood," Tye Tye said, "but there's a lot of destruction around us; we're working to provide a positive influence, a shining light."<BR><BR> "We're a place for Portland to come and just chill to a blues-Miles Davis kinda vibe," Ali said. "And it's not just that; here, you learn different languages and see so many different beautiful people and how they participate within their cultures and how they react with us." <BR><BR> He did not exaggerate. At New Born Tribe on Nov. 18, I experienced the reggae roots "riddims" of Grammy winner Yami Bolo along with Itawe"both from Jamaica.<BR><BR> Children bounced around the dance floor. Dreadlocks flipped and flopped, wafting trails through a heavy cloud of ganja smoke, and smiling faces joined foreign languages to greet me from every direction. As a white Minnesotan, I felt like the oddball, but everyone welcomed me with kind hugs and handshakes.<BR><BR> "This place is not just for Africans," Tye Tye said. "It's not for Americans, it's not for any one people or one religion; together, we're a community trying to create something good."<BR><BR> New Born Tribe is North Portland's self-proclaimed African cultural center and requires no membership. Kids stop by after school to shoot pool or get help on their homework, and people meet for informal yoga groups or African dancing and drumming gatherings. <BR><BR> I sensed strong Rasta influence from the staff, but they said, "The New Born community has Hindu, Islam and many religions...including Orthodox Christian." <BR><BR> I asked, "Is there anything unwelcome here?"<BR><BR> They paused, glanced back and forth at each other and together said, "Negativity!"<BR><BR> </P> <!--Do NOT edit below this line--> <HR WIDTH="250"> <P class="links"> <A HREF="toc.html">Back to Table of Contents</A> | <A HREF="http://www.multnomah.edu/voice/index.html">Back to Main Index</A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.multnomah.edu/voice/a-cover1.html">Previous Cover Stories</A> | <A HREF="mailto:voice@multnomah.edu">Send mail to The Voice</A> </P> <script type="text/javascript" src="../footer.js"></script> </TD> </TR> </TABLE> </BODY> </HTML>