Branch & Bone Medicine Show

Renée Lopez, of Miss Lopez Media, is a photographer and lifestyle bruja. A brown woman of color, originally from Yakima in Central Washington, Renée moved to Portland in 2006 for a fresh start, but after a few years she began recognizing the long-standing racial divide within the city. In 2015, she became involved in the Black Lives Matter movement, becoming good friends with Portland rapper Glenn Waco. This marked a shift from taking photographs as a hobby to using her camera as a tool of resistance, documenting injustices, the Black Lives Matter movement, and Portland’s hip hop scene. In her recent work, Women of Color in PDX, she focuses on Portland-based women of color, promoting self-love and unity while pushing back on internalized misogyny through portraiture and story sharing. In this episode: Oregon's shameful history of racism Photography as activism Healing internalized misogyny Colonialism breeding distrust among POC Photographs as healing talismans Finding what you want in a partner within yours