PORTLAND – In Sahro Atoor’s neighborhood, it’s easy to feel like an outsider.

One day, a car drove by Atoor’s friend and the white men inside yelled racial epithets. “Go back to your country,” one of them shouted.

In Kennedy Park, the housing complex where Atoor lives, kids hang around in cliques and talk trash about one another, criticizing how this one looks or that one acts.

“I see it a lot,” said Atoor, 15, a freshman at Portland High School. “I don’t think people understand what’s going on, so I wrote about it.”

Atoor wrote an essay about her experiences as part of a youth writing and photography project leading up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is Monday. Selected essays and photos are published online today.

The project was sponsored by the Portland Housing Authority, The Telling Room, the NAACP Portland Branch, the Maine Commission for Community Service, the University of Southern Maine, AmeriCorps, Quirk Chevrolet of Portland, the Maine Red Claws and MaineToday Media, publisher of The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.

Atoor and other participants in the project are scheduled to read their essays at the start of tonight’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration dinner at Holiday Inn by the Bay.

“They will be the first voices at the dinner,” said Rachel Talbot Ross, president of the Portland branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Ross said her group is holding the 6 p.m. dinner instead of the usual breakfast celebration this year to mark the event’s 30th anniversary.

The federal and state holiday marks the birthday of the civil rights leader, who was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn.

The writing and photography project was conducted during workshops at study centers operated by the housing authority at Kennedy Park, Riverton Park and Sagamore Village. The study centers were recently renovated with support from Quirk, the Red Claws and MaineToday Media.

Ross said the project provides an opportunity for young people to express themselves and shows that their concerns are valued in the community.

“It’s important at an early age that we encourage young people to give voice to their experiences, thoughts and concerns,” Ross said. “It’s one way of teaching them the rights they have as human beings and what they can do to improve things. It helps them understand that the way forward requires them to be engaged and to take responsibility.”

The essays and photos will be displayed during open houses at each study center from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday.

Participants were given several essay topics to consider. Some chose to identify positive and negative aspects of their community and ways to improve the situation. Others wrote about their goals and how to reach them. Others described how discrimination and prejudice affect their community, or wrote about a time when they chose a peaceful resolution to a possibly violent situation.

“The main theme was struggle and overcoming barriers,” said Kathy Yang, the authority’s resident program and volunteer coordinator. “We wanted them to understand Dr. King’s legacy and be able to share information about their communities.”

The project involved about 35 young people of various ages.

“The best thing about my community is there is a playground, amazing people and neighbors, and most of all we have the best police that can keep us safe,” wrote Naimo Ukash, 11, of Riverton Park. “I like Riverton, but people say that it’s a place full of crime. I thought that too the first time I came here, but after some time here, I realized it’s not a bad place.”

Bilal Abdi, 12, of Sagamore Village, wrote that he wants to be a firefighter, teacher or NBA basketball player when he grows up.

“I’m so good at basketball,” Abdi wrote, “but I need more training to be faster. If I want to be better I would put a big rock in my backpack and start running around the block. If I want to be a teacher I have to listen in class and have good grades. I will need to go to a good college and don’t do drugs. If I want to be in the NBA, they’re going to check my grades, too.”

In her essay, Sahro Atoor offered suggestions to improve the sense of community in Kennedy Park.

“Community is a place where people live, do things together, work, play, eat, have fun and talk about their problems and come up with a solution,” Atoor wrote. “What is holding back the people from uniting? You need to stop staying in your house and get up and know your neighbors, know their problems, organize a meeting and do something that shows you care.”

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:

kbouchard@pressherald.com

 

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