Occupier of the Day: Iris Stevenson

Our daily visit with the people at Occupy Portland

Name: Iris Stevenson---

Age: 40

Occupation: Writer, producer, musician and designer

Tenure at Occupy Portland: Camping on and off since day one

Otherwise she lives in: Southwest Portland

Her favorite theologian: Stevenson says trying to single out her favorite theologian would be as difficult as describing her race, and refused talk to WW if we didn't promise to list all her influences—so here they are: Native American philosophies and practices, African elders, Maya Angelou, Octavia Butler, Noam Chomsky, Rainer Maria Rilke, James Baldwin, Josephine Baker, ancient societies such as the Egyptians and Norse, Asian and Jamaican cultures; Kurt Vonnegut, John Callahan, her parents, various genres of music including punk, metal, blues, jazz and classical and musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Tina Turner.

Her contribution to the camp: Stevenson has been conducting on-camera interviews with Occupiers for public access television in the U.S., and says she is dubbing the recordings into her native language, German, for broadcast in Germany.

Why she's Occupying Portland: Because as an adult artist, she has often lived on the brink of poverty in the U.S.

WWeek 2015

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