Story and photos by Pete Shaw October 10, 2025 Dear Dad, I have a movie idea. The setting is Père Lachaise, Paris’s famed necropolis where many artists are buried. In many ways this vast burial ground resembles a city of the living. Its buildings are mostly permanent residences: tombstones, vaults, mausoleums. Some are remarkably elaborate,…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw October 6, 2025 Dear Dad, Our numbers have dwindled. We arrived at Paris Gare de Lyon early on Friday afternoon. And then it was time to bid farewell to Howard. He will spend two nights here in Paris before heading Home. He has been a fine traveling companion, and…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw October 2, 2025 Dear Dad, Marc has solved the issue. The other night, having dinner with him and his partner, Zahia, and their Friends, Edoard and Oliver, I jabbered on about how amazing I found Marseille, how it struck me as so different from Paris, or really anywhere. Since…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw September 29, 2025 Dear Dad, How do I describe Marseille? It hit me a bit like New York City. The greeting was not so flagrant and aggressive as The City’s, but similar contours were discernible. Or at least at this early morning hour, I seem to believe that. But…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw The monthly vigils for Keaton Otis, Fred Bryant, and all victims of police violence have always had a tension to them. There is the grim reality of why people have gathered on the corner of Northeast 6th and Halsey for over 15 years, recalling Otis, Bryant, and the many…
Story and photo by Pete Shaw History, it is said, is written by the victors. Their perspective and their stories are presented as unimpeachable. From this favored perch, the present is interpreted and the path to the future is mapped. A new book, Memory & Place in Black Portland, adds its voice to the long…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Workers at the Arbor Lodge New Seasons’s grocery store at 6400 North Interstate Avenue walked off the job for the second day in a row on Wednesday January 29. According to the New Seasons Labor Union (NSLU), the Unfair Labor Practice strike was again called because Randy Foster, who…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Over 1,100 New Seasons Market workers from 11 Portland area stores went on a one day strike on Wednesday November 28. The New Seasons Labor Union (NSLU) called the strike in response to the company’s “numerous ongoing unfair labor practices.” Would-be shoppers were met by picketing union members and…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Last year I began this annual piece at the Portland Occupier with: “Another year with Covid in the air, and so another year where I was largely grounded due to health concerns. As well, as comes with age, there were health issues with which I had to deal. But…
Story and photos by Pete Shaw Hope is the seed that gives rise to justice. On May 12, a sizable crowd of 35 people showed up at the corner of NE 6th and Halsey, where people have been gathering for nearly 14 years now, month by month, to mark the anniversary of Keaton Otis’s murder…
