Black History Month spotlight: Black Voices in Bend

NewsChannel 21 recognizes, honors trailblazers; first, Jason Graham

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- As we celebrate Black History Month, NewsChannel 21 is recognizing and honoring Black figures in our community who are trailblazers, effecting change.

Bend resident Jason Graham is an artist who uses art as a form of activism. Through the mediums of music, painting and spoken word, Graham bridges the relationship between activism and art.

His work pushes his audience to have uncomfortable conversations about race, inequalities and their personal experiences here in Central Oregon.

“Art can become the object of the debate, in the disagreement, in the discourse, the denial and divinity and all these other things," Graham explained. “You can direct all you are feeling, as an opinion, at the artwork.”

Graham, who moved from Chicago to Bend in 1992, told NewsChannel 21 he noticed a shift in the Central Oregon community after the death of George Floyd, the protests and civil unrest, and the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“This community has increased its ability to acknowledge that it's happening. For a long time, we’ve known or wanted to admit to it -- the admitting to it is relatively new," Graham said.

“They are forced to reconcile their humanity with someone else’s humanity, and say, "Let me see how different are we, really?'” he added.

You can find some of Graham's art work at the Scalehouse Gallery in downtown Bend.

He described his piece of art created with paint, charcoal and other mediums as an exploration of being confrontational and inclusive, and an expression of figuring out how to hide in plain sight, something he says Black people are all too familiar with.

Under the Breezeway is another art piece created by Graham that he says represents our ancestors and those who came before us.

Though art can be interpreted broadly, Graham's goal is to encourage you to effect change.

“I'm trying to get people to see just how accessible something like revolution is — constructive and creative it can be," Graham said.

“But to have a life without revolution, is to be dead before you’re dead. I think it is very important for folks to find what in their own personal lives are acts of revolution.”