Oregon Humanities

Oregon Humanities Authors Read at Broadway Books

Four writers will read their essays recently published in the summer 2010 issue of Oregon Humanities magazine.

09 September 2010 | Permalink

Oregon authors Barry Johnson, Bette Lynch Husted, M. Allen Cunningham, and Dave Weich will read from their essays published in the summer 2010 issue of Oregon Humanities magazine on the theme of “Work.” Oregon Humanities magazine, a triannual publication, is published by Oregon Humanities (formerly Oregon Council for the Humanities).

The reading, which is free and open to the public, will be held on Thursday, September 23, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. at Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, Portland. A question-and-answer period will follow.

Barry Johnson will read from “Please Don’t Consume the Art,” in which he argues that fall arts guides act like shopping catalogs, turning audiences into consumers. Johnson has written about the arts since 1978. He has edited arts sections at Willamette Week and The Oregonian, where he recently finished a twenty-six-year stint.

Bette Lynch Husted will read from “The Working Class,” which looks at how attitudes toward working people have changed over the last few decades and asks us to reconsider the fungibility of workers, the ongoing waste of human creativity and skill, and the vast disparity of wealth in the U.S. Husted is the author of Above the Clearwater: Living on Stolen Land and At This Distance: Poems. She is a 2004 Oregon Book Award and WILLA finalist and won a 2007 Oregon Arts Commission fellowship.

M. Allen Cunningham will read from “The Artist as Worker,” in which he examines what the poet Rainer Maria Rilke might think about the current desire to merge money with art. Cunningham is the author of Lost Son, a novel about the life of Rilke. His first novel, The Green Age of Asher Witherow, was a #1 Booksense Pick and was shortlisted for the Booksense Book of the Year. He’s the recipient of an artist fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission and a Yaddo residency.

Dave Weich will read from “Blank Slate,” an essay about what comes next for this forty-year-old man who, in a single day, finds himself unmarried and unemployed. Weich is the president of Sheepscot Creative. The Portland-based company fosters engaging and profitable communication among businesses, consumers, colleagues, and fans.

Oregon Humanities magazine examines topics of broad public interest from a variety of perspectives and approaches. Recent issues of this publication have focused on stuff, nostalgia, and civility. Through good and thoughtful writing, Oregon Humanities magazine enriches our understanding of important subjects and stimulates conversation and reflection among readers, their friends, families, colleagues, and neighbors.

Oregon Humanities connects Oregonians to ideas that change lives and transform communities. More information about our programs and publications, which include the Conversation Project: A New Chautauqua, Think & Drink, Humanity in Perspective, Teacher Institutes, Happy Camp, Public Program Grants, Responsive Program Grants, and Oregon Humanities magazine, can be found at oregonhumanities.org. Oregon Humanities is an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and a partner of the Oregon Cultural Trust.