Celina Flores
Celina Flores is a media maker specializing in photography and video editing. She’s trained in equity-informed mediation and values clear and concise communication in all forms. One of the co-hosts of the It Did Happen Here podcast, Celina also conducted research and interviews for the project. In her downtime, you can find Celina petting her kitties, baking, or playing drums in the band Viral Load.
Mic Crenshaw
Mic Crenshaw was born on the Southside of Chicago, and raised both there and in Minneapolis. Mic is a world class MC and poet who has emerged on the national and international stage. As a teen in the late 80’s, Mic was embroiled in the violent streets of Minneapolis, leading groups to physically confront white supremacist gangs that were enforcing their will at local parks and social scenes. After beating back the neo-nazis, the violence remained, both in the streets and from authorities. Crenshaw decided it was time to escape it all and moved west to Portland, OR. Crenshaw says, “I wanted something new. [At the time] my ties with the streets were still pretty strong, and my social life involved drinking and fighting. I was ready for a change.”
In Portland, he quickly became one of the most respected artists in the Northwest. Beginning in ’94, Crenshaw was the front man for the beloved Portland live Hip Hop band, Hungry Mob. In 2001, Crenshaw won The Portland Poetry Slam Championship and went on to finish as a national finalist. In Portland, Mic’s community efforts expanded from the local to the global. At the close of a Human Rights conference he attended in Rwanda, Crenshaw was confronted by local activists. They said that in America there are computers and they need his help to get them computers. As a result, upon returning to Portland, he enlisted help from an educational colleague, Morgan Delaney. As a result, Globalfam was born. Globalfam is now a full entertainment company, record label and lifestyle company in one. It houses and produces Crenshaw’s music. As well as partners with the non-profit Education WithOut Borders (EWOB) to manage the community projects that Crensahw and Globalfam are involved in. Crenshaw now serves as EWOB’s President. Seven years later, the request for computers has blossomed into a full computer education center in Burundi, Central Africa. EWOB helps education, music and art initiatives in Portland and their work in Africa, as well serving as an umbrella for the Portland Books For Prisoners Chapter. Crenshaw is currently the Political Director of Hip Hop Congress and the Lead U.S. Organizer for the Afrikan Hip Hop Caravan.
Erin Yanke
Erin Yanke is a documentarian. She works in the mediums of audio, print, and video. Her work focuses on themes of the unheard story, how place can shape a life, comparative experience across identities, and the importance of the clean and sharp edit. Her many projects include 20+ years of radio production, audio zines, self published magazines, audio books, quite a few demo tapes, and a few pieces of vinyl. She was the executive producer of the It Did Happen Here podcast.
Icky A.
Icky A. is Alec Dunn and grew up in Portland, OR. He is a nurse who works in critical care, street medicine, and harm reduction. He is an artist and illustrator and is a member of the Justseeds Artist Cooperative. He co-produced Bright Spark: A Podcast About Harm Reduction along with Erin Yanke and he co-edits Signal: A Journal of International Political Graphics & Culture along with Josh MacPhee. In his Portland youth, he had his nose broken (twice), had a bottle broken over his head (which didn’t hurt), and a brick clock him on the side of the head (which did hurt), all by neo nazi skinheads.
Moe Bowstern
Moe Bowstern contributes to underground literary cultural traditions as a reader, writer, and editor, best known for the award-winning commercial fishing zine Xtra Tuf, which shares her life in the Alaska salmon, halibut, herring, cod, and crab fisheries. In the early 90s Moe helped launch and staff the Autonomous Zone infoshop in Chicago, and planned actions with the Women’s Action Coalition. After moving to Portland, from 1997 to 2007 Moe gave her time to DIY social practice projects, co-creating space for citizens to protest within the queer, fun-centered, anarchist Amalgamated Everlasting Union Chorus, and making ceremony outside of mainstream capitalism with an annual mega-collaboration, the Winter Solstice Puppet Show, among other projects. Moe reads and emcees annually at the Fisher Poets Gathering. Her writing has appeared in various books, broadsides, magazines, films, and zines. With Erin Yanke, she comprises half of B3 Newsroom, a production team uplifting intersections of public life in everyday resistance to the Man. She earns wages and healthcare at a warehouse. Find Moe’s work at Substack.com.
Julie Perini
Julie Perini is a filmmaker living in Portland, OR. Her documentary films include Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon (2015, co-directed with Erin Yanke and Jodi Darby) and The Gentleman Bank Robber: The Life Story of Butch Lesbian Freedom Fighter rita bo brown (2017). Both films bring historical Pacific Northwest liberation struggles to contemporary audiences. Julie researched institutional and personal archives to find images to illustrate the stories contained in the It Happened Here Podcast.