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wildelydawn · 5 days

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Can I get some book recommendations, please and thank you!🫂♥️

It has been so long since anyone's asked me for book recs! I haven't read anything recent, tbh. My job entails a lot of reading, so unless I get a break, I rarely have time to read anything new or anything that isn't theory/nonfiction. But for you, Venus, I will dig through my Goodreads account and give you five in no order <3.

The Interpreter by Suki Kim

"Suzy Park is a twenty-nine-year-old Korean American interpreter for the New York City court system who makes a startling and ominous discovery about her family history that will send her on a chilling quest. Five years prior, her parents--hardworking greengrocers who forfeited personal happiness for their children's gain--were brutally murdered in an apparent robbery of their store. But the glint of a new lead entices Suzy into the dangerous Korean underworld, and ultimately reveals the mystery of her parents' homicide."

The Tattooed Soldier: a Novel by Hector Tobar

Set in Los Angeles in 1992 on the eve of the infamous riots, and written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, "The Tattooed Soldier" tells the story of two haunted man and the tragic intersection of their lives.

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

Greenville County, South Carolina, is a wild, lush place that is home to the Boatwright family—a tight-knit clan of rough-hewn, hard-drinking men who shoot up each other's trucks, and indomitable women who get married young and age too quickly. At the heart of this story is Ruth Anne Boatwright, known simply as Bone, a bastard child who observes the world around her with a mercilessly keen perspective. When her stepfather Daddy Glen, "cold as death, mean as a snake," becomes increasingly more vicious toward her, Bone finds herself caught in a family triangle that tests the loyalty of her mother, Anney—and leads to a final, harrowing encounter from which there can be no turning back.

Sula by Toni Morrison

Sula and Nel are two young black girls: clever and poor. They grow up together sharing their secrets, dreams and happiness. Then Sula breaks free from their small-town community in the uplands of Ohio to roam the cities of America. When she returns ten years later much has changed. Including Nel, who now has a husband and three children. The friendship between the two women becomes strained and the whole town grows wary as Sula continues in her wayward, vagabond and uncompromising ways.

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

Off the easternmost corner of India, in the Bay of Bengal, lies the immense labyrinth of tiny islands known as the Sundarbans, where settlers live in fear of drowning tides and man-eating tigers. Piya Roy, a young American marine biologist of Indian descent, arrives in this lush, treacherous landscape in search of a rare species of river dolphin and enlists the aid of a local fisherman and a translator. Together the three of them launch into the elaborate backwaters, drawn unawares into the powerful political undercurrents of this isolated corner of the world that exact a personal toll as fierce as the tides.

Enjoy ^^

Tumblr sleepover, send me weird things.

#ask #answered #ask game #FawndlyVenus #Venus #Dawn Reads #I literally read all of these a year ago I am so sorry friend :(#my TBR list is insane #and that's excluding fic #Sula my beloved

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 1 year

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Tennessee’s newest lawmaker was sworn in Thursday. Democratic Rep. Justin J. Pearson is filling a vacancy left in House District 86 in Memphis. But people were more focused on what Pearson was wearing.

Pearson, a Black man, wore his hair in a combed-out afro as he walked onto the House floor wearing a black dashiki. The loose-fitting pullover is associated with West African culture and a symbol of Black Pride.

“This dress is resistance. This afro is resistance. What we are doing here is subversive to the status quo, and I think that’s going to continue to make people uncomfortable,” said Pearson.

And Pearson’s attire did make Rep. David Hawk, R-Greenville, uncomfortable. Hawk, in remarks on the floor, made a dig at Pearson, as he recounted a time he wasn’t allowed on the floor by former Tennessee House Speaker Lois DeBerry.

“I showed up one Monday night on two wheels trying to get in here, and I did not have a tie on. And she reminded me that ‘Rep. Hawk, if you don’t have a tie on, you don’t get to walk in that door,'” said Hawk.

But there’s no written rules on attire. According to the 113th General Assembly Permanent Rules of Order, decorum or attire is left up to the House Speaker. The House Clerk’s office said it’s been a longstanding practice for men to wear a suit and tie, and women to wear formal business attire.

So, in other words, it’s more of a norm than a rule. Pearson says he’s trying to change that.

“What’s happening here is you have discriminatory practices and policies to help homogenize this community to look like a cis white older man — which is westernized European culture, which is in and of itself its own expression,” Pearson said. “And we have to realize there are other expressions too, and to say there’s only one that need to be seen here is really saying there’s only one type of person that needs to be here.”

The clash over clothes boiled over to Twitter after Pearson posted a selfie in his dashiki. The Tennessee House Republicans responded saying maybe Pearson should explore a different career.

Pearson says he isn’t backing down — even if that means wearing his dashiki over his suit and tie.

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foreverlogical · 1 year

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“This dress is resistance. This afro is resistance. What we are doing here is subversive to the status quo, and I think that’s going to continue to make people uncomfortable,” said Pearson.

So, in other words, it’s more of a norm than a rule. Pearson says he’s trying to change that.

The clash over clothes boiled over to Twitter after Pearson posted a selfie in his dashiki. The Tennessee House Republicans responded saying maybe Pearson should explore a different career.

Pearson says he isn’t backing down — even if that means wearing his dashiki over his suit and tie.

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sacredjake · 1 year

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greta keeps playing and mal and i can’t take it. i’m so sad it’s over. i wanna cry.

#gvf #jake gvf #josh gvf #danny gvf #sam gvf #dig greenville #dig raleigh

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curseoftheeel · 1 year

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I hadn't thought of it like that. Hello everyone, I hope you're having a good weekend. My week was full of car trouble and stress, but hey, here's another page and an update on my convention next weekend!

I will be tabling at SCComicon in Greenville, SC from April 15-16th! This is one of my favorite cons to present at, and I'll be at table AA-921! Come find me and grab copies of Curse of the Eel, as well as some new books I'm excited to share! The one featured above is a short comic that sets up some of the backstory for my comic Illarys, which the first chapter will run in the StarTales anthology! Illarys is a young half-elven girl in a frigid land where the religious order is turning despotic. She and her family are attempting to flee this oppression, but it doesn't go as planned. I hope you'll check it out if you dig fantasy comics! I'll also be drawing commissions on site, so if you'd like me to draw something for you, stop by and see what's what!

Thank you everyone for reading! We actually smashed through the 92K likes goal this week, which is awesome! Please keep up the support, I think we can hit more and more goals this year, I'd like to take this comic as far as it can go, especially as we approach the ending. Please like, comment, and share the comic if you're enjoying it, and I hope you'll enjoy this brief respite from the horror. We'll go back to it soon =3

#curse of the eel #horror #sccomicon #webcomics #fantasy #horror comics #art #comic convention #Goth Girl #goth kid #The Seventh Seal #date #movie night #dreams #convention #comicon #dungeons and dragons #dnd #half elf

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eric-the-bmo · 7 months

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The Neighborhood Watch S2 ep7: Towing the Soil

Note: my notes for this session were Abysmal, so I apologize in advance! We're on a bit of a short hiatus, so it'll be a bit before the next one!

[Summary: The Main Cast head to the woods to take care of the giant plant.] @gr3y-heron

Previously, Emmet said whatever the plant is seems to be alien; none of the AI's system recognize it. More tests will need to be run, and he tells John to come back later- he'll send a text.

John heads to Markus's house to tell them about the plant monster. the spray paint Markus bought a few episodes ago has been put to use; their place looks like a pride flag. John informs Markus about the clearing, and says he'll go get the others to help formulate a plan.

Song, not really having anywhere to go since her house is still ruined, heads back over to Louis' house. As she approaches there's the faint sound of ABBA music, and Phil, one of the neighbors, asks Song if Louis's okay. She says she'll check in on him, and when Phil asks what happened to her house/if she's okay, she tells him it was a gas canister mishap. They bid farewell and she enters the house. ABBA music can be faintly heard from the basement, along with the singing of a drunken Southern gentleman. Song settles down on the couch and starts reading the book Fatima gave her- absolutely not checking in on him.

John knocks on the door; Song waits for a moment before rolling her eyes, getting up from the couch and answering it. John's surprised to see her there, but explains to her the plant in the woods. She says they should go get Louis from the basement ("Chiquitita" by ABBA starts playing). The two of them knock on the door, but get no response. Song rolls her eyes at John- who briefly wonders if they're friends again because of this interaction- and the two of them make their way down.

Louis is sitting against one of the wine shelves; he's been silently crying, shown by eyeliner running down his face. He's on his third bottle, and fumbles to turn the CD player off when he sees the duo. They tell him what's up with the plant in the woods, and he asks if Markus knows about it too- His voice wavers when he comments of "Markus's friend Bob probably knows too."

John's brow furrows as he tries to figure out why Markus and Bob would be friends, since don't they hate each other? Louis states they had coffee earlier- so they must be friends, right?

Song heads upstairs to make some coffee for Louis, enchanting it to help sober him up. Louis heads up the stairs with John behind him, using the stair railing to support himself, and accepts the drink when he gets up there. He sobers up immediately, but the hangover hits him like a truck ["I can hear the plants outside making noise."]. Song gets him some ice and a towel for his headache, and helps wipe the eyeliner off his face. Louis looks at her with an expression only a recently-sobered man can have (AN: that's verbatim from my notes. What does that mean)

Louis says his house is always open to her, and said she didn't think she would come back since he thought she hated him. He says he knows how to deal with vampires, leading to a sarcasting comment from Song ["Yeah, sure." "Ah, I'm in a great condition to be bullied as you can tell."] Louis changes the subject to the broader subject of monsters, once again going on a rant about Greenville. [“This is the weirdest town I've lived in, and I've been in New Orleans for ten years.”]

The trio tries to come up with plans to kill the plant (hatchet? fire?), until John realizes suddenly that he's very warm, and Song and Louis ask if he's okay- he looks feverish, with an odd tint to his skin. John realizes the thorn from earlier is still stuck in his face, and rushes over to the washroom. He tries to dig it out of his skin, and eventually manages to get it out.

Louis tries to call Markus. Song's noticed John's been in there for a while, and goes to knock on the door to check on him. He's washing the blood off his face and says he'll be just a moment; when he opens the door he apologizes, and explains the situation.

["You got a thorn stuck in your face?"] John, still believing Song hates him, interprets this comment negatively until: ["Are you okay?"] She helps him tend to the wound.

Markus is at the park- they've snuck off by themself. They step over the overgrown flowers until they see a figure walking into the park, and hide. It's the town's florist Ms Green, dressed in gardening gear with a belt of weed killer canisters and an axe in her hands. Markus pops up and asks where she's going, and she unsuccessfully tries to hide her axe, saying she was hired to take care of the plant infestation. She introduces herself to them, since these two have never met before, and Markus tells her to go home and that they can take care of it; as far as they know, she's a normal woman. Ms Green admires their confidence and suggests they wear some protective gear as Markus summons a bug to paralyze her- they don't want her getting hurt trying to fight the monster. They grab some cans of weedkiller from her and run off, spraying the flowers as they trek deeper into the forest.

Back at the house- Song's changed into a new outfit for this, with holsters for weapons, and pulls out her duffle bag armory. John says he can grab an axe from his garage, and Louis has weed repellent in his garage leftover from the landscapers he hired for his lawn two weeks ago. Louis kind of notices his outfit is crumpled and changes into a cooler one, with fencing shirt and leather gloves. He turns red when Song telepathically tells him he looks good, and offers to drive. John heads off to grab the axe. He runs into Phil on the way home, who asks what's going on, and also casually mentions he saw that small person with the hoodie head off somewhere. John connects the dots that Markus went to the park alone, thanking Phil and jogging the rest of the way home.

At the house, Shelby is still at the kitchen table working on the Lego set. John takes the axe out of the garage, setting it by the door, and quickly takes one of the Lego set bags from the table. He bolts out of the house, grabbing his weapon on the way out, and hears Shelby's delayed reaction to the stolen bag as he hops into the back of Louis' car and tells him to drive.

Meanwhile, Markus has found the clearing John had told them about (there's an odor in the air here so bad it's like a fog), and they observe the People slightly swaying as they stand around the plant; their skin has a green tinge, and it's all veiny like roots are growing underneath them. Markus knows they can be saved, since they'd dealt with one of them last season, but is unaware where any of the people got stung. There's a rustling behind them; Ms Green is back, relatively unharmed but shocked at what she's seeing. Markus then panicks almost, and runs out to the plant monster- yelling how they won't be chased out from another home, they release a swarm of locusts at it. The plant screams and Markus looks back at a terrified Ms Green and tells her to go the fuck home. She gives a scared nod and runs away, dropping her axe on the way out. Meanwhile, the ride to the park, to Louis at least, is awkward. John interprets the silence as serious, and tells them that Markus went to the park by themself. He hands Song the bag of Legos and asks her to take a look at them later.

The Main Cast makes it to the park; John sees a path of dead plants leading into the trees and rushes in. The cast runs into a scared Ms Green on the way out, and Louis asks if she's seen Markus- she says there was a whole group of people and there's monsters in that forest, plants and bug people! She says we seem prepared and rushes away. We head down the path, and eventually hear the plant.

The Main Cast runs over to the sound of the plant screaming; We all see Markus with their hood down, attacking the plant monster with a swarm of locusts. Louis yells about this [“Of course it was too good to be true, god DAMMIT” ]. Markus shouts that the plant people can still be saved- the seeds need to be removed. Louis says hopefully his plan will kill the seeds and sprays weedkiller and the crowd, aiming to make a path so John and Song can closer to the plant. Steam rises from the People as they're sprayed with the chemicals.

John bolts over to the plant and swings his axe, cutting off one of the roots; it writhes until it goes limp, a gross smell in the air. Song uses magic to try to find the core of the plant, and discovers its main source of power are the roots, all curled and warped underground. She tries to cut the root off from the rest of the plant- it screams as a pillar of fire rises out from its mouth, petals catching fire as it wilts and peels back.

The plant people try to defend their plant; Some head over to Louis, and he feels something wrap his leg and pull him to the ground. He looks at what grabbed him and sees it's actually someone's fingers, elongated into vines that are crawling upwards. Two plant people rush towards Markus, and two of them rush over to defend their plant; one of the people trying to restrain John is Clara. Others go to Song as well.

Markus sees this and swears loudly, and redirects their locusts away from the plant and towards the People; the locusts branch off into swarms, going to find where the People have been infected to try to remove the seeds inside. They scream as the bugs do this, and when the seeds get removed they collapse, the plant-like parts of them withering away. John drops his axe to catch Clara so she doesn't get hurt, gently setting her down to the ground.

Intricate roots and branches writhe out from the core or the plant as it tries to rebuild itself in a hurry. John picks up his axe and rushes over to hit it, but a mass of roots flare out and grab the axe, and he can't get it out. Louis dumps the rest of the weedkiller onto the roots, and Song sets off a rot spell within it. It works wonderfully.

The plant frantically tries to recreate itself as it rots away, but crumbles into ash and earth- soft soil is all that remains. From behind the Main Cast, further down the path, there's a harmony of tiny screams as rest of plants connected to the bulb start to die. Plant parts shrivel and disconnect from the People; their skin starts to look a bit better.

The locusts all burrow back into Markus. Louis turns to them and asks why they went off by themself, and they said they thought they had been left behind again. Louis says he won't ever leave them behind- not like last time. The two hug, and Louis comforts Markus as they cry.

Markus pulls away, revealing their bug holes (Louis is grossed out for a moment), and they explain that they had made a wish for everyone to forget about their bugs. John quietly asks how long they've been like this, and they say they've been like this as long as they can remember. Markus then explains the plan they made with Bob, and how if Bob focuses on the vampire, then that means he won't focus on the Main Cast. Louis compliments this plan and Markus responds that they're good at misdirection; they've had years of practice, they say, with a smile that pretty much goes “it's the trauma.”

Somehow there's a mention of the raffle and a proposal that it was potentially rigged, as none of the Main Cast remembers ever actually entering; John had assumed Shelby was the one who entered it, and Song assumed her father was the one who did it. Song uses telepathy to figure out what Louis meant when he told Markus he wasn't "going to leave like last time": When on a trip to Romania, Louis met Markus, who was trying to leave some kind of bad scenario; he had helped them leave to America with enough money to get on their feet. It was the first and only selfless thing Louis did.

An alarm goes off on Louis' phone- the HOA meeting is starting. The Main Cast rushes over to Lestat's home.

Notes:

Louis's player actually did provide vocals for Louis's drunk singing and it was wonderful

I'd like to state that John canonically falls in love (in a platonic sense) super easily so I'm very normal about the fact Song is being nice to him

JOHN WITH AN AXE JOHN WITH AN AXE /pos

All of us started yelling when the DM revealed Markus had decided to head to the woods alone, oh my god

What's with my characters and getting attacked/almost possessed by plants? First Theodore, now John... I'm sensing a theme, can we make it happen a third time? /lh /hj

oh my god markus lore? :eyes:

I'm still gunning for ClaraJohn to happen- I don't know how it'll work since I made John to not be into romance, but I'll find a way to make it work. I just want him to kiss someone somehow

We've got a running theory that Greenville is akin to some kinda SCP containment place /hj

One more episode till the Season Two finale!! aaa!!!

#eric finally speaks #motw oc #motw campaign #motw #the neighborhood watch #the neighborhood watch recap #monster of the week #motw ttrpg #john doe vibes

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ausetkmt · 2 years

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The Lincoln Heights community endured for decades, despite segregation, economic hardship and a pandemic. Then came the Mill fire.

When the Mill fire ripped through Weed, Calif., just before Labor Day weekend, the hardest-hit area was a historically Black neighborhood that dates back nearly a century.Credit...Brian L. Frank for The New York Times

Oct. 7, 2022

WEED, Calif. — The gray rubble appears suddenly on both sides of the highway winding through this small Northern California town, as houses give way to a landscape of charred wreckage and the remains of homes, bleached white by wildfire.

The devastation stretches for blocks. Metal skeletons of cars and blackened trees indicate where properties once stood in the shadow of Mount Shasta.

This neighborhood, Lincoln Heights, was once the thriving and vibrant home of a Black community — a rare sight in predominantly white, rural Siskiyou County, which hugs the Oregon border. Black laborers moved here from Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas to work at a lumber mill in the 1920s, and their descendants continued to live in houses on the outskirts of town, passed down through generations.

For decades, the mill next to Lincoln Heights offered opportunity and hope for those seeking a job and a better life. Now, residents see it as a symbol of the neighborhood’s destruction. Roseburg Forest Products, the mill’s owner, has said it is investigating whether hot ash in its facility started the Mill fire, which ripped through Lincoln Heights before exploding to 4,000 acres in early September.

In Weed, the Mill fire consumed most of Lincoln Heights, killing two people and destroying nearly 60 homes. The park that served as a gathering place is all that remains of the eastern side of the neighborhood.

“You can build that house back. But that home is a most special place,” said Andrew Greene, 84, who raised his children in Lincoln Heights. “It’s a place of culture, it’s a place of growth, it’s a place of remembrance and most of all it’s a place of love.”

The rapid blaze was the latest in a series of fires in California that, as the climate warms, have leveled neighborhoods like Coffey Park in Santa Rosa, or towns like Paradise and Greenville. That devastation has forced wildfire victims to choose between rebuilding or starting life anew elsewhere.

The hints of life from before the fire are few in Lincoln Heights. A child’s bicycle abandoned on the side of the road. A pocket watch peeking through debris. At one property, atop porch steps that lead nowhere, sits a vase of fresh flowers as a memorial.

Many residents have pledged to rebuild. But they worry that enough of their neighbors will flee to other cities for the spirit of the old neighborhood to be lost for good.

In the 1920s, hundreds of Black Southerners made the journey to rural Northern California, lured by the promise of employment, for $3.60 a day, at the sawmill owned by the Long-Bell Lumber Company, which had just closed two mills in Louisiana as it searched for untouched forests out west.

The company lent workers the train fare and provided them with wooden houses amid the aspens and pines in a small place called Weed. It was a company-owned, segregated town, and Black mill workers and their families were required to live on the northern outskirts. That neighborhood was known as the Quarters and, later, Lincoln Heights.

For decades, Black residents of Weed had their own church, barbershops and nightclubs, according to residents and a 2011 documentary about the neighborhood’s history produced by Mark Oliver, a filmmaker. They were prohibited from being buried in the white-only graveyard, so they had to dig their own. Black people could shop in some white-owned stores and cafes, but they couldn’t linger.

“Your parents would buy you an ice cream cone, you had to go outside to eat it — you couldn’t use the counter,” recalled Al Bearden, a retired probation officer who grew up in Weed.

At the sawmill, white workers were given safer, more lucrative jobs indoors. The only integration came at school — where white and Black children learned together before returning to their cloistered communities — and on the Weed Sons, the town’s baseball team.

That began to change in the 1950s and 1960s, when the civil rights movement slowly arrived in Siskiyou County. In Weed, Black residents arranged sit-ins at restaurants that wouldn’t serve them and boycotted businesses until they agreed to hire them.

Black residents said they still faced discrimination in subsequent years. At school, they said, white children would use racial slurs and make fun of those who had less money.

Lincoln Heights residents said theirs was the kind of neighborhood where children who were spotted misbehaving by a local elder could expect a call to their family home that evening. On Sundays, the Mt. Shasta Baptist Church was full.

The center of social life was 13-acre Charlie Byrd Park, named after the first elected Black sheriff in California, who grew up in Weed and led Siskiyou County’s law enforcement agency for 16 years.

“On the weekends, that was always packed,” said Lawrence Robison, 39, who grew up in the neighborhood. “Family gatherings, barbecues — just a place to go and relax at the end of the day.”

At work, times were getting tougher.

In 1982, the International Paper Company, which had succeeded Long-Bell, sold the sawmill to Roseburg Forest Products, a transaction that residents mark as the beginning of the decline of the local logging business. Around that time, advances in automation and a growing environmental movement curtailed lumber jobs.

Some found other lines of work, at the local community college, the water bottling plant and restaurants, or in nearby towns. But others left the region entirely. In 2020, nearly a third of Weed households lived below the poverty line, according to census data.

As longtime Lincoln Heights residents moved to bigger cities, Mexican, Laotian, Filipino and white families took their place. Members of the younger generations said it is now much more common to see people with different racial and economic backgrounds mingling than it was when their parents were children.

“It was a change, but it was a good change,” said Angel Whatley, 24, who grew up in Lincoln Heights.

Weed likes to present its diversity as a success story. Mayor Kim Greene, who is white, calls the city “the melting pot for all the nationalities.”

The city accounts for 6 percent of the population in Siskiyou County, but has 36 percent of the county’s Black residents, based on 2020 census data. It also has a higher share of Hispanic and Asian American residents than the county as a whole.

Still, Black residents say the decades-old struggle for fair treatment continues. Mayor Pro Tem Stacey Green, who is Black, said racism in Weed is “sneaky.”

“It’s behind your back,” he said.

Mr. Green said the city didn’t repave a road in Lincoln Heights until he threatened to call the National Urban League, a civil rights group, while a new street sweeper never made an appearance in the neighborhood until he complained.

The city manager, Tim Rundel, said he understood how Mr. Green and some residents might feel. But, he said, narrow streets in the old neighborhood have made it challenging for street sweepers and snowplows to navigate around parked cars. “It’s been a struggle in Lincoln Heights and other neighborhoods throughout Weed,” he said.

More than 250 miles north of San Francisco, Siskiyou County is still a place where residents scorn the state’s Democratic leadership. Though Weed is more liberal than Siskiyou County as a whole, some Lincoln Heights residents say the presidency of Donald J. Trump deepened political and racial tensions in town.

On the surface, people in Weed “still get along quite well,” Andrew Greene said. But he takes pains to avoid topics that could cause tempers to flare.

“The two rules of the bar — two things you don’t discuss or you shouldn’t discuss: One is politics, the other is religion,” Mr. Greene said.

In the early afternoon of Sept. 2, Weed was sweltering as California braced for the beginning of a record heat wave. Fierce wind gusts brought some relief, but also threatened to send flames and embers flying.

Just before 1 p.m., Pastor Alonzo Greene, Andrew’s son, was standing on the front porch of his childhood home in Lincoln Heights with his wife, smiling proudly because his adult children had just finished moving into the old wooden house his grandparents had built.

Down the block, his father was sitting down for lunch. Suddenly, he heard frantic knocking on his door. “Fire,” his neighbor gasped out.

Then they heard a boom.

In what felt like an instant, the neighborhood was engulfed in smoke, and the billowing winds sent flames from the direction of the mill into the neighborhood.

The younger Mr. Greene plunged into the smoke, kicking in neighbors’ doors and hauling children, pets and seniors into his pickup truck. His father rushed a neighbor and the child she was babysitting into his own truck and started driving blindly through the haze, trusting his memory of the road to guide them to safety.

A few blocks away, Patricia Mitchell’s phone was ringing. It was her sister, asking about the smoke nearby.

“So I got up and went, ‘Well, I don’t see nothing,’” recalled Ms. Mitchell, 68. “The next thing I know, there’s black smoke everywhere.”

She escaped, but her house and all of her possessions — including her wedding ring and coin collection — were gone.

“Every time I think about this fire, it brings me down, because so much was lost,” she said.

Mr. Green, the mayor pro tem, was also in trouble. He rushed out of his house without shoes, into the thick smoke.

“I couldn’t see any skies, and it started getting into my lungs,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘I’m going to die right now.’”

Finally, he saw a glimmer of blue above him and made it to safety.

“My life started there: My first tricycle ride was down my driveway, my first birthday party. And everything I knew was all there — pictures of my parents on the wall. I don’t have none of that left,” Mr. Green said, choking up.

Not everyone in Lincoln Heights survived. Two women, Marilyn Hilliard, 73, and Lorenza Glover, 65, died in the fire. Three others, including Ms. Hilliard’s husband, were injured.

At least three lawsuits have been filed against Roseburg, including a wrongful-death suit by Ms. Glover’s son that says she died as she tried to escape the flames. Ms. Hilliard died of a heart attack during the fire, residents said.

Roseburg officials said the company will provide $50 million for a “community restoration fund,” but that the money is not an admission of liability.

“We’re committed to doing the right thing for Weed, for Lake Shastina, for the long haul,” said Pete Hillan, a Roseburg spokesman.

Mr. Green wasn’t satisfied. “You’re trying to give $50 million to shut our mouths,” he said.

In the weeks since the fire, Lincoln Heights residents have scattered to nearby towns, staying with relatives, filling motels and finding temporary housing. Not everyone plans to return. Many lack the money or insurance to rebuild.

“I’ll move on — I’ll move to L.A.,” said R.T. Smith, who lost his house and all his possessions in the fire. “I’m about tired of this little town,” he added.

Others hope to restore the community. In mid-September, several dozen displaced residents were staying at the Hi-Lo Motel in Weed, where Alonzo Greene led them in a brief prayer twice a day.

“If I broke down and started crying, it really shook all of these people,” he said. “So I had to get to a point where I just take a drive by myself if I want to cry, because I couldn’t let them see it.”

He paused for a moment, gathering himself. “It’s been tough.”

#Wildfire Destroys a Piece of Black History in Rural California #Mill Fire #Weed Fire #Black California #Fires #Climate Change #climate refugees #Mt.Shasta #Lincoln Heights

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