by Jenni Moore
![Amenta Abioto]( "Amenta Abioto")
TREND ALERT: Portland’s collection of hip-hop and (sometimes) soul-focused monthlies is having a domino effect! First there was the Thesis at Kelly’s Olympian, now there’s Mic Check at White Eagle, the semi-monthly YGB, and I just heard the Fixin’ To in St. Johns has added its Northward rap and hip-hop showcase on every third Saturday. But Andrew Stout and Jonny Sanders (AKA Jonny Cool of TYuS’ Rose Tribe) are bringing a weekly installment to the scene’s table: the Love Movement, a party/show that aims to serve as a “home away from home for the woke.” And it’s no coincidence that it’s kicking off on January 20. In fact, the Love Movement will provide a fun-loving safe space as a clapback to the evils being sworn into power on Inauguration Day. It’s not so we can fiddle while Rome burns (er, twerk while Amerikkka self-implodes?), it’s because this resistance is taxing, and it needs joy to be successful.
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TREND ALERT: Portland’s collection of hip-hop and (sometimes) soul-focused monthlies is having a domino effect! First there was the Thesis at Kelly’s Olympian, now there’s Mic Check at White Eagle, the semi-monthly YGB, and I just heard the Fixin’ To in St. Johns has added its Northward rap and hip-hop showcase on every third Saturday. But Andrew Stout and Jonny Sanders (AKA Jonny Cool of TYuS’ Rose Tribe) are bringing a weekly installment to the scene’s table: the Love Movement, a party/show that aims to serve as a “home away from home for the woke.” And it’s no coincidence that it’s kicking off on January 20. In fact, the Love Movement will provide a fun-loving safe space as a clapback to the evils being sworn into power on Inauguration Day. It’s not so we can fiddle while Rome burns (er, twerk while Amerikkka self-implodes?), it’s because this resistance is taxing, and it needs joy to be successful.
In a press release, Stout explained the “series was conceived as a way to strengthen our friends and each other as we enter a time in which many forces will try to weaken and ultimately break us.”