Oregon Humanities

Wendy Willis, author of Blood Sisters of the Republic, has an ambitious winter reading list: “On my nightstand are the beautiful books of two friends—Kim Stafford’s 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do: A Memoir and Jim Heynen’s The Fall of Alice K.. Plus, I am nibbling my way through Kevin Young’s The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food and Drink and A.E. Stallings’ Olives. And, I am nothing short of desperate to start in on Jon Meacham’s new biography of Jefferson (Thomas... More

13 December 2012 | Posted in Events Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

Jewel Lansing, coauthor with Fred Leeson of Multnomah: The Tumultuous Story of Oregon’s Most Populous County, says, “My favorite place to read is an overstuffed chair overlooking green lawn and trees where squirrels and birds frolic during daylight hours. A small table on my right holds bookmarks, pens, post-its, and half a dozen books in-waiting. I prop up my feet on a slanting footstool, ready to begin.”

Jewel and Fred will be featured authors at our Holiday Party... More

11 December 2012 | Posted in Events Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

James Bernard Frost, author of A Very Minor Prophet, confesses: “My current man crush is on Dan DeWeese, whose short story collection Disorder recently hit bookstores. No one writes about males and conflict avoidance better. Hints of Cheever and Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants. You need a straight-backed chair and a bourbon to read it.”

Both James and Dan will be at the Oregon Humanities Holiday Party and Book Sale on December 18. Stop in and tell us: Who do... More

10 December 2012 | Posted in Events Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

Lois Leveen, author of TThe Secrets of Mary Bowser, says this of her winter reading plans:

“During dark December I’ll be curling up with Alice Munro’s new book, Dear Life: Stories. I don’t write like her. I never will. Which means flipping open those pages is pure pleasure and not at all work-related, as most of my reading is, especially now, when I’m researching and drafting a new novel.”

Lois will be at the Oregon Humanities Holiday Party and Book Sale later this... More

07 December 2012 | Posted in Events Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

After participating in Oregon Humanities’ Idea Lab Summer Institute, high school senior Lauren Babcock wondered how people in her community would measure their own happiness.

Inspired by artist Jonathan Harris’s Balloons of Bhutan project, she and a group of friends, including fellow Idea Lab alumni Brian Bump and Cassiton Adelbai, created Balloons of La Grande: A Portrait of Happiness. This October, they began interviews, asking students at La Grande High School to... More

06 December 2012 | Posted in Community Idea Lab | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

We asked Kim Stafford, author of several books including 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do (Trinity University Press) and this recent essay in Oregon Humanities magazine, which book he read this year that he suggests people go out and devour right away:

“Michael Chabon’s Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son (P.S.) made me laugh at my foolishness as a man, and begin to think in new ways about my chance as a human.”

Kim will be at... More

05 December 2012 | Posted in Events Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

The act of gathering together to worship is nothing new. Sometimes that worship takes the form of praising a higher power. Sometimes it takes the form of humans role-playing the lives of other humans. Portland Playhouse in northeast Portland is melding the ideas of worship, community, and shared humanity into an energizing and intimate experience.

Housed in a former church, the Portland Playhouse just wrapped up a forty-show run of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s... More

03 June 2011 | Posted in Community Grants | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

In Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, desire path is defined as “the route people have chosen to take across an open place, marking a human pattern upon a landscape.” Desire paths are everywhere—diagonal shortcuts from sidewalk to sidewalk, trails blazed through waist-high bramble, impromptu breaks in shrubbery on parking strips. Humans, like other animals, have their own sense of how to traverse the landscape regardless of what city planners and... More

27 May 2011 | Posted in Special Projects | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

In Roald Dahl’s short story “The Hitch-Hiker,” the title character is coy about his line of work, initially telling the narrator only that he is in a skilled trade. “The secret of life,” the Londoner says, “is to become very, very good at something that is very, very ‘ard to do.”

To reveal the hitchhiker’s occupation would spoil the story, but his motto can be applied to just about any activity, profession, or calling. Tomorrow, from 10 a.m, to 2... More

23 May 2011 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

Paulann Petersen, Oregon’s poet laureate, has been on the road for nearly two weeks, traversing the state in an effort to visit as many communities during her tenure as possible.

Petersen was appointed to a two-year term by Governor Kulongoski in April 2010. Oregon Humanities coordinates this program as part of a unique collaboration with the Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Heritage Commission, Oregon Historical Society, and the State Historic Preservation Office,... More

19 May 2011 | Posted in Community | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)