Events & Opportunities
January 24, 2022
Conversation Project: Conspiracy Theories
The Flat Earth Society. The Illuminati. QAnon. Sometimes it seems like conspiracy theories have been multiplying exponentially, especially in this time of global pandemic. Why do we gravitate toward conspiracy theories to make sense of the world? What human need do these stories fill? In this program, we’ll explore some conspiracy theories old and new, famous and obscure. What common themes do they share? How do they operate as stories and how do they evolve? What’s the difference between a conspiracy theory and myth, folklore, and “fake news”? We’ll talk about the mechanics of conspiracy theories as we explore how to determine what’s true, what’s false, and whom to trust.
This program will be held in a hybrid format, both live in person and online via Zoom. Click here to join online.
4:00 p.m., Coos Bay City Hall, Coos Bay
February 15, 2022
Conversation Project: Can We Get Along?
Rodney King’s iconic question still resonates today. Despite decades of social justice movements, police brutality and divisions persist in the United States. COVID-19 has only added more challenges. How can we connect to each other during these times? What holds us back from connecting with each other? How do our personal experiences contribute to barriers, or and have the potential to break them down? Join facilitator Chisao Hata as she holds space to examine individual questions on race, cultural values, and what brings us together and what separates us. This Program is presented with Multnomah County Library as part of Everybody Reads 2022. Learn more at multcolib.org.
6:00 p.m., Virtual Event, statewide
February 23, 2022
The Link Between Us: How Technology Can Create (and Impede) Opportunity
Join Caroline Gao for this So Much Together workshop, in which Caroline will share insights from her technological equity research; her journey building digital-first, youth-led organizations; and her lived experiences coming of age in a reality where access to technology means access to the world. As we consider the ways that technology serves as both a barrier to and a source of opportunity, especially for historically marginalized communities, we will look at how we might maximize technology's potential as a driver of equity and social good.
06:00-08:30 Pacific, Virtual Event, statewide
March 1, 2022
Conversation Project: Housing and Belonging
Housing and homelessness is a visible and divisive issue in local media, in politics, and across different communities within our state. Many of us were experiencing housing instability and economic uncertainty even during the “boom” times before the current crisis. This conversation will explore common assumptions and perspectives about the experience of houselessness/homelessness and seek to answer the question, How do we decide who “belongs” in our community?
Housing and homelessness is a visible and divisive issue in local media, in politics, and across different communities within our state. Many of us were experiencing housing instability and economic uncertainty even during the “boom” times before the current crisis. This conversation will explore common assumptions and perspectives about the experience of houselessness/homelessness and seek to answer the question, How do we decide who “belongs” in our community?
Learn more and register for this event at cocc.edu/seasonofnonviolence.
4:00 p.m. Pacific, Virtual Event, statewide
March 2, 2022
Conversation Project: Housing and Belonging
Housing and homelessness is a visible and divisive issue in local media, in politics, and across different communities within our state. Many of us were experiencing housing instability and economic uncertainty even during the “boom” times before the current crisis. This conversation will explore common assumptions and perspectives about the experience of houselessness/homelessness and seek to answer the question, How do we decide who “belongs” in our community?
Learn more and register for this event at cocc.edu/seasonofnonviolence.
6:00 p.m. Pacific, Virtual Event, statewide
March 3, 2022
Conversation Project: Relationships for Resilience
In a time of intensifying social and ecological crises, in a cultural context of individualism, the pressure to practice "self-care," build "personal resilience," and "transform oneself" is pervasive. While "doing your own work" is important, we overemphasize the individual to the detriment of our human communities and the rest of the living world. The deep transformations we need will be cocreated, and the deep resilience we must develop will be relational. In this conversation, we will explore the dynamics of our strongest relationships, seeking to name the qualities and practices that underpin resilience. How can we bring our insights more intentionally and broadly to bear in our human relationships and in our relationships with our home—lands, waters, and ecosystems?
6:30 p.m., Virtual Event, statewide
March 4, 2022
Conversation Project: The Meaning of Climate Change
We live in a time of tremendous transformation as the reality of climate change and its effects on our communities become more apparent with every passing year. While there is still much that can and must be done to mitigate the range of impacts climate change might have, we are confronting the certainty of a crisis that will continue to unfold no matter what we do. What is the meaning of this extraordinary moment in human history? The meanings we construct about climate change affect how we think about it, our feelings about it, and our willingness to take action. Portland State University instructor David Osborn leads a discussion exploring different meanings of climate change and how our understanding of meaning relates to action.
4:00 p.m. Pacific, Virtual Event, statewide
March 8, 2022
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
Death is a universal event that transcends many of the differences between us. While we focus most on the quality of our lives and well-being, we rarely talk about the quality of our dying and deaths. Now in its sixth year, Oregon Humanities’ Talking about Dying program offers an opportunity to reflect on the stories and cultural influences that shape our thinking about this theme and to share perspectives and ideas with fellow community members. During the program, participants explore such questions as, How might our family, traditions, rituals, religion, and beliefs shape how we think about death? What would a “good death” look like for us? What do we want—and not want—at the end of our life? What are the essential considerations?
Register for this free event here.
6:00 p.m., Virtual Event, statewide
March 10, 2022
Consider This with Robin Wall Kimmerer
Join us for an online conversation with Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss. Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. This event will be streamed live as part of our series American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes.
5:00 p.m. to 6:40 p.m., Virtual Event, statewide
March 16, 2022
Consider This with David F. Walker and Douglas Wolk
Our 2022 Consider This series, American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes, continues on March 16 with a conversation about comics. Comic books, and especially the superhero comics of Marvel and DC, have embodied the hopes and fantasies of many Americans for nearly a century, and the myriad media arising from them have come to comprise a uniquely American mythology.
Our guests for this conversation are David F. Walker, a comic book writer, filmmaker, journalist, and educator whose work includes Bitter Root, Naomi, and The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History, and Douglas Wolk, a pop culture critic and author of Reading Comics and All the Marvels, for which he read some 27,000 Marvel comic books. Writer Courtenay Hameister will moderate the program.
7:00 p.m. Pacific, Alberta Rose Theatre, Portland