Oregon Humanities

About twenty-five people gathered in the lobby of the Gerding Theater at the Armory in Portland during the lunch hour on Friday for the fourth and last Shop Talk, a special program sponsored by Oregon Humanities and Portland Center Stage. Bust playwright and actress Lauren Weedman and Back Fence PDX coproducer B. Frayn Masters talked about memoir, truth, and fame. Emcee Kelsey Tyler, PCS education and community programs director, asked questions that elicited laughter and... More

09 May 2011 | Posted in Community New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

TEDxPortland—an independent spin-off of big TED, “Ideas Worth Spreading” TED—happened on one of the first dry, sunny days of spring, so it would have been natural to see more than a few empty seats in the Gerding Theater at the Armory, especially as the day went on. That’s not what happened. Sure, there were a few more seats in the theater by day’s end, but only a few.

What was the pull to stay in a dark theater on a clear day listening to thirteen speakers talk... More

03 May 2011 | Posted in Events Community New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

I was sitting in my office last week reading a final report that one of our recent Responsive Program Grant recipients submitted when I realized how much I don’t know about war, especially how the notion of “home” changes so drastically. The Southern Oregon Goodwill Industries, in partnership with a number of other local organizations, recently hosted a conference focused on returning veterans. The conference responded to the social, emotional, and economic challenges... More

26 August 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

Last night, my husband, Amos, and I were cruising around on Netflix when we settled on an instant-play movie called Boys Don’t Cry. When it came out in 1999, I meant to go see it in the theater but missed it. Even though I didn’t catch it on the big screen, it garnered enough media attention that I remembered generally what it was about. I knew it was a fairly popular indie film that had been nominated for several Academy Awards, I knew who it starred (Peter Sarsgaard,... More

13 August 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (2 so far)

Hmm. The moments that most changed the way I think about the world, o dear sweet jesus yes I can tell you those moments, with glee and gaping, still. There were three of them, actually. One was at about three in the afternoon, and the others, I remember vividly, were 1:14 and 1:15 p.m. Those were the moments when people I had never seen before came swimming, literally, their arms milling and their tiny trout mouths gasping for breath, out of the woman who had married me some... More

05 August 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

If developments in science could extend your life by five or more healthy, vital years, would you opt in? Probably, right?

Ten weeks ago, my company took on a project for a New York publisher. A Pulitzer Prize winner had written a book about “the strange science of immortality.” The publisher knew that his resume would attract critical attention. They suspected, however—rightly, I thought—that the book would appeal to a much wider audience, not just readers of Bookforum... More

02 July 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

After bicycling to Oregon Humanities to lead a weekly staff yoga session, our fearless yoga leader Maggie admitted that she was wearing borrowed pants. Not from her sister or her best friend, but loaners that were given to her by a woman in the class she was leading after a tragically wet bike ride. We laughed about what the world offers up to us when we are down. In this case, Maggie is pretty used to getting caught riding her bike in the rain; she gets around Portland by... More

23 June 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

There are some days that roll out like a promise. Other days you turn the corner to unexpected joys. And still others where the people you meet along the way surprise you into believing in humanity again.

Last summer, the time I spent in Eastern Oregon re-awakened my belief that preserving where we came from, charting where we’re going, and creating innovative ways to see the journey along the way are the essence of our humanity.

I witnessed volunteers who wear more hats... More

26 April 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

I’m reading Bill Bishop’s The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart. I’d been meaning to pick this book up for about a year now and, as soon as I did, it felt immediately “familiar.”

Bishop starts by recounting his experience of choosing Austin, Texas, as his home. He explains that this was not an overtly political decision. He and his wife just wanted to live where they “fit in.” They wanted a “high-quality” life. These... More

15 April 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

I recently completed the Humanity in Perspective (HIP) course and am proud of the accomplishment. It isn’t merely that I completed the course, received the certificate or the credit. It was an achievement that changed my perspective, and a change in one’s point of view can be profound. Often in life our point of view is altered due to conditions outside our control. It seems sometimes that we are but the affected spectator. When we seek and welcome change and it... More

08 April 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (2 so far)

I was halfway through my shift on a quiet night at the bar. To be fair, they were all quiet nights at that bar. I might as well have been tending in a dry county. You’d think a free hotel bar would be full 365, but this bar was silent. Perhaps it was the Merlot?
When I realized my tips were going to be under $10 I started putting the lemons back in the fridge. Then an Inuit man walked in.

I’d love to tell you there were cinematic strings played upon his entry... More

01 April 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

I’m sure most of you have heard of Annie Leonard—creator and host of the insanely popular short animated film The Story of Stuff (now at more than 10 million views worldwide). Leonard has written a book of the same name and is currently on national tour. This last Monday she presented at Powell’s, and I went to go hear what she had to say.

It was standing room only, and even though I got there early, I was one of the people crammed against the bookshelves in the... More

25 March 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

We live in a noisy and intrusive society. Cell phones and electronic devices summon us non-stop. They are addictive. They must be obeyed. But no electronic device I know of can teach us how to think nor can it help us find peace in the only venue that really counts: our own heads.

Be honest here. When was the last time you sat on a hillside, a park bench, or even in your own back yard and just listened—let your mind roll on—waited for whatever popped into your head for... More

18 March 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (2 so far)

My freshman year in college, I stumbled into a class on the Holocaust, and four months later, I stepped off a bus in Auschwitz with a dozen classmates, my professor, and a living, breathing survivor of the Nazi camp. This might seem like an incredible journey, but really until I was standing in Auschwitz, the journey had been fairly easy. I read books, I watched films, I cried, and I had found myself hurt and angry at a history that wasn’t mine. But angry and hurt weren’t... More

11 March 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

Any regular moviegoer or fan of cult TV favorite Freaks and Geeks knows the name James Franco. He delivered a subtly stellar performance in Milk, stumbled his way as a hysterical stoner in Pineapple Express, and will soon play Allen Ginsburg in Howl. But there’s a less-well-known side to this actor moonlighting as a grad student (he’s in not one but two MFA programs, film-making at NYU and creative writing at Columbia) and that side is James Franco: Performance Artist.

Last... More

18 February 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

In 1992, the film The Crying Game opened in Colorado Springs, my hometown. The film played in a cozy, fifty-seat theater tucked behind a café called Poor Richard’s. Next to the café was a restaurant and a bookstore, all bearing the same name. As a child, I had eaten in the restaurant with my family. In junior high, a friend and I entered a talent competition held there and won third for our impression of dancing like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to New Order’s Bizarre... More

09 February 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

I’ve been thinking about design—its merits and its effect. I know nothing can escape it since, in its natural expression, design is everywhere—the rock, the potato, the wisps of cloud formation. But what changes a thing from being whole unto itself into what we might rather it become? More specifically, I wonder when it is honest and when it serves to betray?

Let me step back to the source of my inquiry. I was driving in a car with a friend who spoke about the need to... More

28 January 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

Perhaps I had never truly contemplated the struggle of drug addiction until I read Beautiful Boy by David Sheff. You may have heard of this book—the author garnered praise, but also a fair amount of criticism for publishing what some called an exploitive account of his son’s struggle with addiction to methamphetamines and other drugs. It’s a heart-wrenching read, following a roller coaster of emotions as Sheff discovers his son’s drug abuse, makes grave missteps in his... More

11 January 2010 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

If you read my last post, you know that I’m interested in gender. And, by the way, for those of you who did read that last post, I remain unsettled by Betty Draper’s character development in Mad Men last season. I’m proud of her. I’m mad at her. I’m impressed by her. And I’m disappointed in her.

That said, I have what I think are two more unnerving stories about gender:

1. Last month, at an informal dinner with some female colleagues, one woman referred to... More

01 December 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

The pairing of women and war brings so many other words, other ideas, to my mind. Like most who share my age, class, and nationality, my knowledge of war comes mainly through language. Newspaper or magazine articles, novels, history books, lectures. It just is not a duo I have seen in real life, but it captures my attention nonetheless. I feel a responsibility to at least bear some brief witness to world’s more brutal realities. Shortly after it was published in 2008, I... More

23 November 2009 | Posted in Events Community New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

The word philanthropy first surfaced 2,500 years ago in the Greek play Prometheus Bound, the Greek word being a combination of caring for humans and promoting human potential. It has come to mean a private initiative for the common good. As such, it is rooted in community.

Philanthropy is also closely tied to democracy so that Alexander Hamilton, in the first paragraph of the first Federalist Paper, promoted the new Constitution as a document benefiting all mankind. He said... More

18 November 2009 | Posted in Advocacy Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

Has a job ever changed your life completely by accident? I started tending bar on the day shift at a locally owned Italian restaurant in Fort Collins, Colorado, famous for its $4.95 all-you-can-eat homemade spaghetti and bread. Our lunch rush typically petered out by one o’clock. By one-thirty, on a good day, the bar was empty. My writer friend Erik, a recovering alcoholic, would drive down, and we’d watch the Cubs on WGN. On a really good day—no, there were no really good... More

13 November 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

I saw them leaving the gallery with oranges. She was holding hers, smiling and picking at the produce sticker. He was tossing his in the air, laughing out loud. They seemed to be absolutely enthralled by their produce. “Huh,” I thought to myself and continued to make my way across the small grassy park to the entrance of the gallery.

The Whitechapel Gallery in east London is a very modern space with white walls, wood floors, and lots of right angles: more or less your... More

10 November 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

My organization, Ecotrust, recently conducted a survey. We asked thousands of people, “Has the world entered a new era?” More than 80 percent of respondents said yes. When we asked people to describe the era, two related themes emerged: connectedness and interdependence.

The way people perceive the world is changing. Once, the world seemed to be divided into clear sectors: For-profit, nonprofit, local, national, global, sustainable, and so on. Now, all of those sectors... More

05 November 2009 | Posted in Events New Ideas Special Projects | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

In late summer of 1979 Dale Eldred created a series of interconnected sculptures of refractive light panels sited at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, across expansive lawns and along the median of Volker Boulevard. The refractive tape created prisms that changed with every movement of the viewer, the sun, the moon, and the earth’s rotation. I was a new freshman at the Kansas City Art Institute, and the playfulness and gentle thoughtfulness of the sculpture quickened my... More

02 November 2009 | Posted in Community Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (2 so far)

Before I turn forty I feel destined to complete an odyssey that began when I was five and my parents drove the kids from Ohio to Florida. I’d like to spend time in all fifty states. I’m currently forty-nine down with just one final state to go. Maybe you can guess which? Alaska, get ready for a visit from me and it’s going to be a blow-out.

I’ve spent time on other continents, and I’m a voracious reader of everything including travel writing. Still, there’s... More

29 October 2009 | Posted in New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

I spent a weekend earlier in October at a place called Smoke Farm north of Seattle. It’s a beautiful spot—360 acres along the Stillaguamish River that is home to an old dairy barn, a tractor shed turned print studio, and a milking parlor turned communal kitchen. Smoke Farm describes itself as a place for artists and free thinkers, people inclined to experiment, collaborate, and experience new aspects of art and culture.

My reason for coming was the Smoke Farm Forum,... More

26 October 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

I had an O. Hm moment during the Live Wire! Wordstock Extravaganza earlier this month. As a producer for Live Wire, I frequently work with people who are famous. Sherman Alexie is arguably one of the most widely known and hottest guests we’ve had to date (hot in the cultural sense of the word though I could argue for both meanings). I’ve been excited to meet Sherman for some time so having our mutual friend Wesley Stace on the show gave me a chance to chat him up without... More

20 October 2009 | Posted in New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

I am bad at something. It is called the violin. If you know me, or if you’ve read my bio on this website, then you probably know this. I talk about it a lot (and I put that self-deprecating line in my bio) for a reason: the accountability pushes me to keep practicing.

Before I took up the violin, I imagined what practicing might look like: an elegant cup of tea steaming on the table, the muted afternoon light streaming in through the windows of the study, the cat curled... More

14 October 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (7 so far)

Do you remember the first time you discovered something outside of the mainstream, outside of what your parents or teachers or the television told you about? I’m not talking about the first time you listened to Bob Dylan or when your cool older friend told you about Led Zeppelin. I mean the first time you truly understood the existence of a counter culture, and your eyes opened up to those roads not often taken where that culture has always existed.

I was a junior in high... More

06 October 2009 | Posted in New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

Sohrab Vossoughi is founder and president of Portland-based ZIBA Design—an award-winning firm that designs everything from workaday stuff (KitchenAid, Black and Decker) to “user experiences” (Umpqua Bank and Gerding Edlen Development). Born in Tehran, Vossoughi immigrated to San Jose in 1970 at age 14. He founded Ziba (a word that means “beautiful” in Farsi) in 1984 and is the recipient of more than thirty patents and two hundred design awards. Vossoughi recently sat... More

02 October 2009 | Posted in New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

My wife and I have been involved in a construction project for what seems like forever, but in reality, is only about eight months. As it nears completion, but is never quite ready for move in, I am reminded of the statement attributed to French Premier Clemenceau about Brazil: “the country of the future and always to remain so.”

I have appreciated the fine craftsmanship of some workers, and endured the less than stellar performance of others—only out of square by... More

29 September 2009 | Posted in New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

I am no musician. I don’t play an instrument beyond a one-fingered version of “Yankee Doodle Dandy” on the piano and the first few bars of “When the Saints Come Marching In” on my harmonica. I sing enthusiastically but rarely on key.

But I do listen.

I remember quite vividly hearing Wynton Marsalis compare democracy and jazz. I have never listened to music or thought about politics quite the same.

Marsalis says that democracy, like jazz, “works best when... More

24 September 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (2 so far)

Welcome to Oregon Humanities’ new website! Oregon Humanities has gone through a lot of changes this last year—our programs are more interactive, accessible, and provide deeper context—and we have new name, materials, and website to reflect these changes. But I hope this website does more than this. Adam McIsaac, one of our fabulous web designers from the equally fabulous Pinch, tells me that the website should be more than a virtual pamphlet. He says it’s meant to be... More

17 September 2009 | Posted in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (7 so far)