Events & Opportunities
October 1, 2025
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?
6:00 p.m., Cedar Mill Community Library, Portland
October 18, 2025
Our People, Our Stories
Join tina ontiveros, author of the memoir Rough House, to discuss growing up in Oregon logging camps and how writing this memoir affected her connection with the region, the people, and herself.
This program is supported by a Mini Grant for Rural Libraries from Oregon Humanities.
3:00 p.m., Mt. Angel Public Library, Mt. Angel
October 18, 2025
Astoria Creative Writing Festival
Oregon Poet Laureate Ellent Waterston will appear alongside other writers at a weekend of readings, workshops, and literary happenings all centered in Oregon's oldest coastal town. Learn more about this event.
All day, Barbey Center, Astoria
October 19, 2025
Author Reading with Ellen Waterson, Oregon Poet Laureate
Join the Hoffman Center for the Arts for an afternoon of poetry by Ellen Waterston. Connect with community and poetry on the North Coast of Oregon.
3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Hoffman Center for the Arts, Manzanita
October 22, 2025
Facilitation Training for Libraries
Oregon Humanities will present three trainings in 2025 for staff, board members, volunteers, and program partners of Oregon libraries of all types (public, academic, school, and tribal). These trainings will help people involved with libraries strengthen their skills in leading conversations about vital issues and ideas across differences, beliefs, and backgrounds. With the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence as a jumping off point, participants will learn about facilitation and reflective conversation, practice new skills and techniques, and learn to design and facilitate conversations that allow people and groups to learn more about themselves and each other.
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, Corvallis
October 24, 2025
The Magic Barrel: A Reading to Fight Hunger
Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston headlines a lively mix of writers, including award-winning poets John Daniel and Bobby Elliott; fiction writers Virginia Black, Madeline McDonnell, and Charlie J. Stephens; OSU faculty playwright Cleavon Smith; and nonfiction authors Zoë Bossiere and Oregon Book Award winner Jaclyn Moyer. Kate Carroll de Gutes will emcee.
7:00 p.m., Majestic Theatre, Corvallis
October 27, 2025
Consider This with Akhil Reed Amar: Salem Live-screening
Join Willamette College of Law for a live screening of our Consider This conversation with Akhil Reed Amar, one of the nation's leading thinkers on constitutional law and history.
7:00 p.m., Willamette College of Law: John C. Paulus Lecture Hall (201), Salem
October 27, 2025
Consider This with Akhil Reed Amar
Join us for a conversation with one of the country’s leading thinkers on constitutional law. We’ll explore how equality has been a core part of our laws, history, and self-understanding, and consider how we strive toward this ideal today. We’ll also dig into the arguments and assumptions that informed the US Constitution, how it has evolved over the past 238 years, and what the future may hold for our nation’s most basic laws.
7:00 p.m., Alberta Rose Theatre, Portland
October 27, 2025
Consider This with Akhil Reed Amar: La Grande live stream
Join Oregon Humanities staff for a live screening of our Consider This conversation with Akhil Reed Amar, one of the nation's leading thinkers on constitutional law and history.
7:00 p.m., HQ, La Grande
October 27, 2025
Consider This with Akhil Reed Amar: Clatskanie live stream
Join Clatskanie Library District for a live screening of our Consider This conversation with Akhil Reed Amar, one of the nation's leading thinkers on constitutional law and history.
6:30 p.m., Birkenfeld Theatre, Clatskanie