Putting Down Roots
Denise Chin writes about nurturing cultural heritage in the garden.
Movement
An interview about community storytelling with Joon Ae Haworth-Kaufka
Landlocked
Andrea Camacho writes about home, migration, and places of refuge.
This Place
Each week on This Place, we ask one Oregonian to tell us about the places that matter to them. What is it like to be where you are?
Rural Places
Stacey Rice talks to three older LGBTQ+ adults about living and building community in rural Oregon.
Pantoum for an Uncertain Future
Poem by Alyssa Ogi
Merciful Debt
Rosanna Nafziger on the implications of generosity, aid, and what we owe.
Refuge
One family's experience with migration, border detention, and finding safety in Oregon. By Ana Maria Rodriguez with Nella Mae Parks
A Haven, A Refuge
Jaton Rash on the fine line between being sheltered and unsheltered.
A Reluctant Receiver: Summer, Love, and a Bicycle
Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt writes about experiencing youthful freedom on a hand-me-down bike.
Turkeys
Aileen Hymas writes about struggling to raise poultry and live her sustainable farming ideals.
Housing and Belonging
Bringing Oregonians together to talk about home and housing in our communities
We Will Be Here
Lana Jack writes about the mourning, resilience, and resistance of the Celilo Wy-am.
Unapologetically Afghan American
Yalda Asmatey writes about straddling two worlds: Afghanistan, the country of her birth, and the United States.
So Much Together: Me, Myself, and Us
As a multimedia artist, MOsley WOtta uses personal, lived experiences to drive his explorations into identity, place, race, and care. Through examples from his recent work, which incorporates musical, visual, and immersive performance with discussion and dialogue practices, WOtta will guide participants in exploring how identity labels both inform our relationship to our communities—and how it can transform them.
“My Heart Belongs Where the Trees Are”
Community Storytelling Fellow Bruce Poinsette explores Black placemaking in Eastern Oregon.
Stretching Toward the Sun
T. Nguyen writes about moving from Vietnam to Eastern Oregon
Mëshatàm Lënapehòkink: I remember the land of the Lenape
A photoessay by Joe Whittle about finding joy and mourning on four journeys home.
We're Here for Each Other
Jennifer Perrine writes about how Oregonians of color are building relationships in the outdoors.
The Father I Remember
Hoang Samuelson writes about her family's story and the quiet care of her father.
Land Conservation: Roots, Realities, and Reimaginings
Join Katie Voelke, executive director of North Coast Land Conservancy, as she discusses NCLC’s work to protect Oregon's coastal lands. In this two-part workshop, Katie will walk participants through the organization’s own path of relearning the racist history of land conservation in the US and the ways that conservation, through the land trust’s tools of ownership, has perpetuated Indigenous land loss.
Posts
Readers write about Possession.
Flowers for Block 14
Holly Hisamoto on reckoning with race, erasure, grief, and belonging at Portland's Lone Fir Cemetery.
Essential but Excluded
Carolina Gómez-Montoya writes about the precarious and disempowered place adjunct instructors occupy in institutions that have come to depend on their labor.
My Parents’ Exes
Cartoonist Kane Lynch interviews his parents’ former partners about how their lives intersected.
The Struggles That Unite Us
Eric K. Ward reflects on how the idea of the urban-rural divide only serves to separate us.
The Privilege to Raise Our Voices
Melissa Hart writes about her mother, her daughter, and finding meaning in protest across generations.
One Country Again
Astrid Melton reflects on her East German identity after the fall of the wall and reunification.
People, Places, Things
Berenice Chavez photographs her mother.
The Air I Breathe—2014
Ifanyi Bell writes about growing up tolerated and underestimated in Portland in the 2014 “Quandary” issue.
Our Most-read Stories of 2019
Our readers' favorite articles and videos from the past year explore housing and exclusion, hidden histories, race, gender, and poverty.
Challenging Questions for Oregonians
At the 2019 Portland Book Festival, we asked attendees to share some challenging questions for fellow Oregonians.
The Summer Games
Jennie Hartsock shares her search for community in Corvallis and how a game helped her find her friends.
Neither Here nor There
Kiki Nakamura-Koyama writes about her struggle to fit in across continents and how she is empowered to change that experience for her students.
Across the Divide
Andie Madsen interviews three Oregonians who grew up in rural areas and moved to Portland about their relationships to their rural identities.
Black Mark, Black Legend
Intisar Abioto writes about uncovering the lineage of Black artists in Portland.
Relearning Home
Mark Putney writes about finding belonging in a Willamette Valley hazelnut orchard after leaving the wilds of Kodiak, Alaska.
Letters from Home
Letters from four Oregonians about the places where they live, from our 2018 Dear Stranger project.
Looking Forward, Looking Past
An excerpt from Emilly Prado's upcoming story about undocumented and mixed-status families living in Oregon.
Acceptance
Shilo Niziolek writes about the impact of Marylhurst University's closure on its students.
Deep Roots
Samantha Bakall writes about how Mudbone Grown, an urban farm in North Portland, offers celebration and community in the face of Oregon's white-dominated agriculture industry.
White Man's Territory
Kenneth R. Coleman writes about the exclusionary intent behind the 1850 Donation Land Act in this excerpt from his book, Dangerous Subjects: James D. Saules and the Rise of Black Exclusion in Oregon.
Unclaiming the Land
Melissa Madenski writes about leaving her home of forty years and what binds us to the places in our lives.
Field Work: People in Motion
The University of Oregon’s Wayne Morse Center explores borders, migration, and belonging.
To Heart Mountain
Alice Hardesty travels to see the site of a World War II prison camp that her father designed.
Finding Home at the Mims
From the 1940s to '60s, the Mims House was a safe place to stay for African Americans traveling through Oregon. Now it’s a gathering place for the Black community in Eugene. Video by Nisha Burton.
People Aren’t Illegal
Photographer Ezra Marcos Ayala reflects on the making of “To Live More Free”
Reaching Back for Truth
Gwen Trice has spent the last fifteen years uncovering her father’s legacy and the history of Oregon’s Black loggers, who lived and worked in Wallowa County at a time when Oregon law excluded Blacks from the state.
A City's Lifeblood
As efforts to clean up Portland Harbor begin, the communities most affected by pollution see a chance to reconnect to the Willamette River. By Julia Rosen
Your Cultural Attire
Conversations about appropriation sometimes miss the complexity of culture. An article by Zahir Janmohamed
Who is Not at the Table?
Filmmaker Ifanyi Bell reflects on the making of “Future: Portland 2”
Walk On
An innovative program connects physical activity and memory to improve the health of Portland communities affected by change. An article by Marty Hughley with photos by Tojo Andrianarivo
What They Carried
The things four refugees brought with them when they came to Oregon. Story by Caitlin Dwyer, photos by Kim Oanh Nguyen
Making Peace with Chaos
Author Zahir Janmohamed and photographer Tojo Andrianarivo profile student refugees living and thriving in Portland despite uncertainty.
Sunday, Laundry Day
Every quarter counts in subsidized senior housing. An essay by Josephine Cooper
Slow Ascent
A Chinese American woman searches for belonging in the country of her grandparents. An essay by Jessica Yen
"I'm Not Staying Here Another Day"
A conversation about the Great Migration with Isabel Wilkerson and Rukaiyah Adams
The Gift of a Known World
Oregon Humanities magazine editor Kathleen Holt on the power--and privilege--of rooting oneself to places
Just People Like Us
Writer Guy Maynard on a little-known history of a Southern Oregon community during World War II where prisoners of war were more welcome than US military of color
A Tremendous Force of Will
A conversation about the Great Migration's and the civil right movement with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson
Not Built for Ghosts
Writer Helen Hill on consequences she faced after leaving her beloved home in the hands of others
You'll See Me Tomorrow Because
A prose poem by Anis Mojgani
Rootedness
An essay by Brian Doyle
Whose State Is This?
Journalist Brent Walth on how legal measures targeting Latino Oregonians reflect fears of change.
Community in Flux
The long-persecuted Roma people begin to speak out. By Lisa Loving
David and Goliath
Remembering a friend from a hospice house. An excerpt from What the Dying Have Taught Me about Living: The Awful Amazing Grace of God by Fred Grewe, an Oregon Humanities Talking about Dying community discussion leader.
Group Therapy
Copping out at an uptown slumber party. An essay by Dionisia Morales
This Is Not Just a Cloud
Embracing grief in the wilderness. An essay by Michael Heald
Posts
Readers write about Safe
Perhaps, Perhaps
Bobby Arellano on waiting for an alcoholic father to stand up
Future: Portland
Civic leaders describe the loss of Portland's strong black communities and the hope of restoring them in the future in a video by Ifanyi Bell.
A Temporary Insanity
Torn between the pull of family and the pull of home. An essay by Gail Wells
The Air I Breathe
Filmmaker Ifanyi Bell writes about growing up underestimated in Portland
Small Man in a Big Country
Native language is just the first thing an immigrant family abandons in order to become American. An excerpt from Little Big Man: In Search of My Asian Self by Alex Tizon
Clowns for Christ
Norina Beck writes about losing her faith and finding her nose.
On the Bench
Not starting and starting again. An essay by Brian Doyle
Who's Minding Your Business?
A conversation with writer William T. Vollmann on privacy, surveillance, and hope
Mark My Words
Linguist Edwin Battistella on pronouns and the myth of a "me generation"
The Thing with Feathers
Joanna Rose on a writer's road trip gone wrong
You Remind Me of Me
Parent and child, strange and baffling creatures that are part, yet no part, of each other. An essay by Daniel Rivas
Posts
Readers write about "Me"
Belonging and Connection
Bette Lynch Husted on imperfect small-town life in Pendleton.
On the River
Debra Gwartney on learning to love the isolation of her adopted home on the McKenzie River.
Why We Stay
Monica Drake on raising a family in an urban neighborhood instead of a more serene but less vibrant rural place.
A Hidden History
Walidah Imarisha on revealing the stories and struggles of Oregon’s African American communities.
One America?
A conversation between Gregory Rodriguez and Tomas Jimenez about American identity, race, immigration, and ideology.
Being Brown
Bobbie Willis Soeby on when skin lies and when skin tells the truth
Soldiers' Stories
Photographer Jim Lommasson collaborates with war veterans on a gallery exhibit and book project that look at life for soldiers after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Where Are You From?
Connecting to the places where we live. An essay by Wendy Willis
The Newcomers
The boundaries between "what was" and "what is." An essay by Dionisia Morales
The Olde Towne Team
For sports fans, it's more than just a game. An essay by Guy Maynard
The Image and Act of Communion
Editor's note
Legally White
Muslim immigrants vie for citizenship in the early twentieth century. By Kambiz Ghaneabassiri
Second-Chance Family
Rajneeshpuram has come and gone: what keep believers bound to one another? By Marion Goldman
Neverland
The striking difference between travel and escape. An essay by Apricot Irving
Far from Home
The history and future of Slavic refugees in Oregon. By Susan W. Hardwick