WE TELL OUR STORIES.   WE HEAL OUR HEARTS.   WE INSPIRE OTHERS TO DO THE SAME.

This is an original poem Renee wrote after coming back from New York and receiving an award for her tireless work as a woman's advocate

Many people in Portland, Ore., knew her from her Oregonian newspaper column, but Renee Mitchell is also a poet and performer. Renee believes we as a society don't talk about verbal and emotional abuse enough. She is on a mission to educate women, using music, poetry and performance to spread the word. First Broadcast: 2007 Producer: KC Cowan http://www.opb.org/programs/artbeat/segment/writer-and-performance-artist-renee-mitchell/

This video was created by Design Week Portland to highlight S. Renee Mitchell and Spit/WRITE, whose signature project is the Portland Youth Poet Laureate competition. You can find out more information about the youth voice organization at www.SpitWrite.com

This is a heartfelt poem recited by Renee Mitchell after receiving the Ida B. Wells Award in New York City from Women's eNews global online magazine. She was also selected as one of 2006's 21 Leaders of the 21st Century.

This song and video, created by award-winning writer S. Renee Mitchell (www.ReneeMitchellSpeaks.com) is part of her Strong Black Women initiative inspired by a Portland, Ore.-based research project, titled Interconnections, a research partnership between Oregon Health & Science University and the Healing Roots Center, a culturally specific, domestic violence resource center. Interconnections looked at the overlapping issues that cause depression in Black Women in order to create a culturally specific intervention for women who fall prey to the myth of the Strong Black Woman. This empowerment project includes: * This Song (performed by Brenda Phillips of Atlanta) * This Video (created by S. Renee Mitchell) * Booklet with words/illustrations by Kofi Myler (created by S. Renee Mitchell) * Affirmation Cards (with illustrations by Leslie Mathies)

This was an interview between S. Renee Mitchell and Part Time Playhouse founder Archie Washington after the filming of the short play "Sacrificing Justice," a free black box theater recording service in the Portland area.

This is just a little taste of the collaborative performance that Portland's 12 Poet Laureates are preparing for their Monday, Sept. 28th performance at Artists Repertory Theater, 1515 SW Morrison. By the end of the night, one of them will be chosen as the city-sanctioned, inaugural 2015-16 Portland Youth Poet Laureate and will receive a national book deal and distribution out of New York City. Please come out and support youth voice, leadership and activism. We will be live-streaming the event, as well. Our theme is "My Voice Matters." Our theme song: "My voice matters...Listen to me...Just because I'm young doesn't mean you ignore me. Give me the pen, I'll write my own story!" Learn more about the poets at www.SpitWRITE.com

This community based art project, based in Portland, Ore., celebrates the worthiness of black children. It encourages parents to write poems from a template, which then were published onto souvenir posters. The performance included music, singing, drumming and performance of a select group of poems. It was sponsored by the Regional Arts & Culture Council and the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication. Please spread the word because: #blacklivesmatter #blackchildrenareworthy Black lives matter! Honor my sons! Black lives matter! Honor my daughters! Black lives matter! Honor my community And when I honor you, I honor me!