Events & Opportunities
April 5, 2025
The Circle is Expanding, Still: The Gift of Climate Grief
Climate grief is a psychological response to ecological loss driven by our unfolding climate crisis. This workshop will help you understand what climate grief is, why it’s important, and how it might become a creative, transformative force in your life that can bring joy, community, creativity, and greater self-awareness.
Optional community-building and snacks: 12:00–12:30 p.m. & 3:30-4:00 p.m. | Workshop: 12:30-3:30 p.m., Leaven Community Center, Portland
May 7, 2025
Consider This: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century with Danielle Allen
A conversation about the failings and challenges of democracy in the United States and what we can do about them with Danielle Allen, director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center. How can we find common purpose to build a stronger democratic society amid today’s complex political climate?
7:00 p.m., Tomorrow Theater, Portland
May 8, 2025
Softening Sharp Teeth: Getting Curious about Conflict
Interpersonal conflict and disagreement are part of being in relationship with others, but many of us fear conflict. Motivated by many factors, including cultural norms, concern for social consequences, and personal safety, many of us avoid it. What might we learn and how might we grow by making more room for conflict? What skills do we need to responsibly engage in conflict? How can shifting our relationship to conflict offer us new perspectives about ourselves and the groups we belong to? This community conversation is an opportunity to reflect on our relationships to interpersonal conflict outside of where we might most often encounter it, like the heated context of an argument at the dinner table or online. Facilitator Emily Squires will lead a judgement- and jargon-free discussion of what we mean when we say conflict, considering how interpersonal conflict shapes our lives and tools to use when experiencing it.
6:00 p.m., Cedar Mill Community Library, Portland
June 7, 2025
Peace, Dreams, and Love Supreme: Embodying Turtle Wisdom with Betty LaDuke
Join Betty LaDuke for a So Much Together workshop that will expand possibilities for how we experience and imagine the personal, playful, and political in our own lives and communities.
Optional community-building and snacks: 12:00–12:30 p.m. & 3:30-4:00 p.m. | Workshop: 12:30-3:30 p.m., Leaven Community Center, Portland
July 13, 2025
Studio Series Poetry Reading and Open Mic with Ellen Waterston
Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston will be featured at the July 13, 2025 Studio Series Poetry Reading and Open Mic hosted by Leah Stenson at the Ross Island Grocery & Cafe. The event is free and open to the public, and attendees are welcome to read at the open mic after Ellen Waterston's reading.
7:00 p.m., Ross Island Grocery and Cafe, Portland