From the Director: The Undertow
Adam Davis writes about what it takes to overcome the forces that pull us under.
This Is the Moment
Andrew DeVigal on how civic dialogue helps build healthier communities.
Reflective Conversation Training (virtual)
During our virtual facilitation training, participants will:
- learn about facilitation and reflective conversation
- have an opportunity to practice new skills and techniques
- reflect on and share your own beliefs and assumptions and listen to beliefs, backgrounds, and experiences different than your own
- design and participate in reflective conversations and debriefs that analyze facilitation tools and choices.
This virtual training will take place online via Zoom over the following sessions:
- Day 1: Thursday, January 9, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- Day 2: Friday, January 10, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- Day 3: Friday, January 17, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Programas al aire libre
Oregon Humanities presenta excursiones al aire libre que incluyen oportunidades para conversar y aprender.
Interpretando Nuestro Territorio
A hike and conversation in Spanish presented in partnership with Deschutes Land Trust and Vámonos Outside
Te invitamos a una caminata con tiempos destinados a conversar al aire libre, donde exploraremos nuestra conexión con el territorio y aprenderemos nuevas formas de explorarlo. Descubre los esfuerzos de conservación en Oregon Central del Deschutes Land Trust y conéctate con otros participantes a través de nuestra cultura y experiencias compartidas.
Facilitation Training for Libraries
Oregon Humanities will present three trainings in 2024 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.
This training will take place at the Grants Pass Library over the following days:
- Day 1: Thursday, September 5, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Day 2: Friday, September 6, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Conversation Project: Can We Get Along?
Rodney King’s iconic question still resonates today. Despite decades of social justice movements, police brutality and divisions persist in the United States. COVID-19 has only added more challenges. How can we connect to each other during these times? What holds us back from connecting with each other? How do our personal experiences contribute to barriers, or and have the potential to break them down? Join facilitator Chisao Hata as she holds space to examine individual questions on race, cultural values, and what brings us together and what separates us.
Conversation Project: Loneliness and Aging
Loneliness and isolation are common experiences for elderly people, especially for those who do not have nearby family members or who are not computer literate. What do you know about the elders in your life or in your neighborhood? Are they connected to their families in an enriching way? Do they belong to a caring community of some kind? This conversation is for elderly people and people who live near elders or have elderly people in their lives to explore questions, experiences, and obstacles to showing up for elderly people and to generate ideas for connection.
Conversation Project: Loneliness and Aging
Loneliness and isolation are common experiences for elderly people, especially for those who do not have nearby family members or who are not computer literate. What do you know about the elders in your life or in your neighborhood? Are they connected to their families in an enriching way? Do they belong to a caring community of some kind? This conversation is for elderly people and people who live near elders or have elderly people in their lives to explore questions, experiences, and obstacles to showing up for elderly people and to generate ideas for connection.
Reflective Conversation Training (in-person)
This training will take place in the Oregon Humanities office in Portland over the following days:
- Day 1: Thursday, August 15, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Day 2: Friday, August 16, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Tips for Facilitating Reflective Conversations
Four facilitators share tips on leading reflective conversations.
Tertulias de Película: Lorena, la de pies ligeros / Lorena, Light-Footed Woman
Qué mejor plan para un viernes que ver una película en compañía y quedarse a charlar?
Aprende sobre Lorena, una atleta mexicana que ha hecho historia por derribar estereotipos llevando orgullosa su cultura al resto del mundo, y quédate a comer y charlar al final de la peli.
Loneliness and Aging: Making Space for Our Elders
Loneliness and isolation are common experiences for elderly people, especially for those who do not have nearby family members or who are not computer literate. What do you know about the elders in your life or in your neighborhood? Are they connected to their families in an enriching way? Do they belong to a caring community of some kind? This conversation is for elderly people and people who live near elders or have elderly people in their lives to explore questions, experiences, and obstacles to showing up for elderly people and to generate ideas for connection.
In-person Facilitation Training
Oregon Humanities' facilitation training prepares people to plan and facilitate conversations about vital issues and questions across differences, beliefs, and backgrounds. These conversations help build strong relationships within organizations and among communities. Read more about these trainings.
In-Person trainings are limited to the first sixteen people to sign up. Be ready to show proof of vaccination. Masks are not required, though we imagine that some people might opt to wear them. We will continue to follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Oregon Health Authority about in-person gatherings, and we’ll be ready to make changes and adapt. We will spend our time together talking in large and small groups, in small to mid-sized rooms at the office of Oregon Humanities in Portland. We will provide a light breakfast and lunch on both days. The training will take place over two days on Thursday, September 28, and Friday, September 29.
Custom Trainings and Conversations
Oregon Humanities can lead onsite trainings and conversations to help meet the needs and goals of your organization or community.
Conversation Project: Understanding Urban/Rural Divides
We live in a time of increasing polarization that often correlates to divides between urban and rural regions in our state. This polarization is so extreme that it often seems like the two sides may have completely different experiences of the world. Join facilitator Nick Nash in a conversation that asks, How does the urban/rural divide affect the ways we relate to each other as Oregonians? What is the urban/rural divide, and how do we understand it? How does this divide affect our day-to-day lives, our experiences of being governed, and of the COVID-19 pandemic? This conversation is a chance to reflect on the beliefs we have about our urban or rural neighbors with a focus on discovering and abandoning misbeliefs, investigating and learning about the real differences between the urban and the rural, and trying to find things that we all share as Oregonians.
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
Death is a universal event that transcends many of the differences between us. While we focus most on the quality of our lives and well-being, we rarely talk about the quality of our dying and deaths. Now in its sixth year, Oregon Humanities’ Talking about Dying program offers an opportunity to reflect on the stories and cultural influences that shape our thinking about this theme and to share perspectives and ideas with fellow community members. During the program, participants explore such questions as, How might our family, traditions, rituals, religion, and beliefs shape how we think about death? What would a “good death” look like for us? What do we want—and not want—at the end of our life? What are the essential considerations?
In Praise of No Other Options
Jessica E. Johnson writes about the benefit of having a captive audience.
Consider This Reading Group: How to Stay Open and Curious in Hard Conversations
Which do you value more: the truth or your own beliefs? Oregon Humanities invites you to a discussion of Mónica Guzmán's essay "How to Stay Open and Curious in Hard Conversations" (originally published in Greater Good Magazine). Together we'll explore Guzmán strategies for fostering curiosity and understanding across divides, including sharing "snapshot" opinions, acknowledging agreement, and admitting uncertainty. We will also discuss takeaways from our April 18 Consider This conversation with Guzmán at the Alberta Rose Theatre in Portland. Rozzell Medina will facilitate the reading group discussion.
Tell Me About That
A physician reflects on pain, attention, and the ethics of caregiving.
Consider This with Mónica Guzmán - La Grande Screening
Join Oregon Humanities staff in La Grande for a live screening of our Consider This conversation with Mónica Guzmán, author of I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. Guzmán is a bridge builder, journalist, and author who works to get people to talk across thier perceived divides.
Discussion Questions & Further Reading: Beyond
Prompts for conversation about this issue and links to learn more about the stories and ideas explored herein.
Conspiracy Theories
Why do we gravitate toward conspiracy theories to make sense of the world? What human need do these stories fill? In this program, we’ll explore some conspiracy theories old and new, famous and obscure. What common themes do they share? How do they operate as stories and how do they evolve? What’s the difference between a conspiracy theory and myth, folklore, and “fake news”? We’ll talk about the mechanics of conspiracy theories as we explore how to determine what’s true, what’s false, and whom to trust.
Democracy in America: Who? - FULL
This five-part discussion series facilitated by David Gutterman invites participants to gather together for conversations about the essential elements of what it means to be a democratic citizen in the United States today.
Democracy in America: What? - FULL
This five-part discussion series facilitated by David Gutterman invites participants to gather together for conversations about the essential elements of what it means to be a democratic citizen in the United States today.
Democracy in America: Where? - FULL
This five-part discussion series facilitated by David Gutterman invites participants to gather together for conversations about the essential elements of what it means to be a democratic citizen in the United States today.
Democracy in America: When? - FULL
This five-part discussion series facilitated by David Gutterman invites participants to gather together for conversations about the essential elements of what it means to be a democratic citizen in the United States today.
Democracy in America: How? - FULL
This five-part discussion series facilitated by David Gutterman invites participants to gather together for conversations about the essential elements of what it means to be a democratic citizen in the United States today.
From the Director: The Great Divide
Adam Davis on communicating and connecting across divides.
Connect in Place: What are we learning from the COVID-19 pandemic, and how will we remember it?
How can we put our energy, intention, and creativity into nurturing deep individual and collective learning that will outlive the pandemic? How do we shape a better “new normal,” wherein even the concept of normal itself is liberated from various constraints? We can start by talking about it.
The Conversation Project
The Conversation Project is an opportunity for organizations to partner with Oregon Humanities and host a conversation for your community.
Community Conversations
Oregon Humanities' community conversation programs provide opportunities for participants to reflect on their own experiences and beliefs, learn about the experiences and beliefs of others, and cultivate a stronger sense of agency in their communities.
Consider This Archive
Did you miss one of our Consider This conversations? You can find audio and video from past events here.
Growing Old in a Time of Uncertainty
No matter our age, we all hear and tell stories about growing older that reflect our own ideals and fears and the ideals and fears of our communities. As we live in this time of uncertainty, what stories of aging are we revising? Are there new roles we are creating? How does the power of these stories affect us and communities during this time?
Housing and Belonging with Paul Susi
This Connect in Place conversation will explore common assumptions and perspectives about the experience of houselessness/homelessness and seek to answer the question, How do we decide who “belongs” in our community?
Connect in Place: This Place Now
These are uncertain and undetermined times which call for, as Rebecca Solnit has written, “an imagination adequate to the possibilities and the strangeness and dangers on this earth in this moment.” How has where you are affected your experience of the pandemic? How have you seen yourself and your community adapt? What can you imagine recovery might look like? This virtual community conversation will connect Oregonians to reflect on our resilience, to compare notes about our experiences during this pandemic, to share and learn about the places we live, and to imagine what healing is needed for the places we share. This week’s conversations are for people living in the Central Oregon, Southern Oregon, and the Willamette Valley.
Connect in Place: This Place Now
These are uncertain and undetermined times which call for, as Rebecca Solnit has written, “an imagination adequate to the possibilities and the strangeness and dangers on this earth in this moment.” How has where you are affected your experience of the pandemic? How have you seen yourself and your community adapt? What can you imagine recovery might look like? This virtual community conversation will connect Oregonians to reflect on our resilience, to compare notes about our experiences during this pandemic, to share and learn about the places we live, and to imagine what healing is needed for the places we share. This week’s conversations are for people living in the Columbia River Gorge, in Eastern Oregon, and on the Oregon Coast.
Connect in Place
Each Tuesday evening, we’re hosting virtual conversations with communities around the state. Our aim is to create spaces, in this physically separated moment, for Oregonians to gather, connect, reflect, and talk with one another. This week's conversation themes will be announced soon.
Connect in Place: This Place Now
Each Tuesday evening, we’re hosting virtual conversations with communities around the state. Our aim is to create spaces, in this physically separated moment, for Oregonians to gather, connect, reflect, and talk with one another. This week's online conversation will explore what COVID-19 means for us and our local communities with people living on the Oregon Coast, in Eastern Oregon, and around the Columbia River Gorge. This online conversation will explore what COVID-19 means for us and our local communities with people living on the Oregon Coast, in Eastern Oregon, and around the Columbia River Gorge.
Connect in Place: This Place Now
Each Tuesday evening, we’re hosting virtual conversations with communities around the state. Our aim is to create spaces, in this physically separated moment, for Oregonians to gather, connect, reflect, and talk with one another. This conversation will explore what COVID-19 means for us and our local communities with people living on the Oregon Coast, in Eastern Oregon, and around the Columbia River Gorge.
Facilitation Training
This two-day training will help you strengthen your skills in planning and facilitating conversations on issues you care about within your organization or in the broader community.
Civic Life-Sponsored Facilitation Training
This free two-day training will help you strengthen your skills in planning and facilitating conversations on issues you care about within your organization or in the broader community.
CANCELED Facilitation Training
This two-day training will help you strengthen your skills in planning and facilitating conversations on issues you care about within your organization or in the broader community. The training on April 30 and May 1 is canceled. We are offering the remaining spots in the June training to those participants first.
Challenging Questions for Oregonians
At the 2019 Portland Book Festival, we asked attendees to share some challenging questions for fellow Oregonians.
OH Grant Event: Stories My Mother and Father Told Me: Diana Lo Mei Hing
Diana Lo Mei Hing shares stories about growing up in China on the eve of the Cultural Revolution and in Italy. She was born in Hong Kong and spent her childhood in Canton City, China in the years leading up to the Cultural Revolution. When she was eleven, the family fled to Milan, Italy where she received a fine arts education. She is a well known artist in Italy where she continues to exhibit. Since 2015, she and her American husband, a fine art photographer, have made their home in Portland. This event is part of the Portland Chinatown History Museum's ongoing series, Stories My Mother and Father Told Me, a series exploring the experiences of immigrants in Oregon featuring artists, writers, and community elders.
Facilitation Training
This two-day training will help you strengthen your skills in planning and facilitating conversations on issues you care about within your organization or in the broader community.
OH Grant Event: Oregon Experience: “The Modoc War”
Oregon Experience: The Modoc War examines one of the most dramatic American Indian wars in US history—and one that happened in and near Klamath. The Modoc War of 1872 to 1873 was one of the costliest American Indian wars in US history, considering the number of people involved. For nearly seven months, a handful of Modoc Indian warriors and their families held off hundreds of US Army soldiers. The documentary revisits the battle scenes, and uses rare historical images and original wood cut drawings from the period. Interviews with Modoc descendants, national historians and written first-hand accounts, bring the Modoc War to life. There will be a Q & A after the showing, as well as a reception with the Klamath County Museum.
Facilitation Training
This two-day training will help you strengthen your skills in planning and facilitating conversations on issues you care about within your organization or in the broader community.
Facilitation Training
This two-day training will help you strengthen your skills in planning and facilitating conversations on issues you care about within your organization or in the broader community.
From the Director: Paying Attention
Adam Davis on the odd activity that is listening.
Listening over Litigation
The High Desert Partnership provides a collaborative vision for Harney County.
Engagement and Environment
OPAL seeks to bring more voices into conversations about environmental justice.
Supporting Urgent Conversations
Responsive Program Grants help communities across Oregon respond to pressing issues and events.
What Can Bridge the Divide?
Yoko Ikeda shares her experience with Bridging Oregon, a monthly conversation series that explores the idea that we're divided as a state and asks how we can come together to create stronger, more resilient communities.
Talking about Sex
A conversation with Conversation Project facilitator Emily Squires on how we talk about sex in our school system.
Facilitation Training
This two-day training will help you strengthen your skills in planning and facilitating conversations on issues you care about within your organization or in the broader community.
Facilitation Training
This two-day training will help you strengthen your skills in planning and facilitating conversations on issues you care about within your organization or in the broader community.
Think & Drink with Eli Saslow
Join journalist Eli Saslow, author of Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist for a conversation about how white supremacist movements are born and how they gain power.
Engaging as Fellow Humans
Tyler White creates conversations for social change.
From the Director: Word Problems
Executive Director Adam Davis on the provocations of language and the search for the right words in a flawed world
Spreading the Conversation
Facilitators trained in Oregon are starting conversations around the country.
Exchange and Change
Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities, on people listening to one another in Lake County, Oregon
Bridging Oregon Participant Application Deadline (EXTENDED)
Oregon Humanities is looking for people in Central Oregon to participate in this monthly conversation series.
Facilitation Training
This training will strengthen your skills to plan and facilitate conversations about the big questions that drive your work in the world both at work and within the broader community.
Bridging Our Divide Community Dialogue
Bridging Our Divide community events are focused on fostering conversation and understanding across political and ideological divides. This event will feature speakers from the local community and group activities to promote dialogue and empathy. This event is made possible in part by a Public Program Grant from Oregon Humanities.
From the Director: Guns, Tools, and Talk
Adam Davis on the difficulty of talking about guns
Field Work: Bridging Divides over Dinner
In Bend, residents come together to share meals and conversation.
Facilitation Training
Oregon Humanities trains facilitators to lead conversations about vital issues and ideas across differences, beliefs, and backgrounds. This two-day training will help you strengthen your skills in planning and facilitating conversations on issues you care about within your organization or in the broader community.
Facilitation Training
Oregon Humanities trains facilitators to lead conversations about vital issues and ideas across differences, beliefs, and backgrounds. This two-day training will help you strengthen your skills in planning and facilitating conversations on issues you care about within your organization or in the broader community.
Race and Domestic Violence
Join Adelante Mujeres, Bradley Angle, YWCA of Greater Portland, and Micronesian Islander Community for an evening of poetry, education, and discussion to foster a greater understanding of the significance of race and ethnicity in relationship to domestic violence.
Facilitation Training
Oregon Humanities trains facilitators to lead conversations about vital issues and ideas across differences, beliefs, and backgrounds. This two-day training will help you strengthen your skills in planning and facilitating conversations on issues you care about within your organization or in the broader community.
CANCELED: History in the News
Discuss current events in historical context at a monthly roundtable with Mid-Valley historians, political scientists, and other experts. The topic of each discussion will be pulled straight from the headlines ten days in advance.
History in the News: Oregon's Own History of Sexual Harassment, Abuse, and Assault
Discuss current events in historical context at a monthly roundtable with Mid-Valley historians, political scientists, and other experts. The topic of each discussion will be pulled straight from the headlines ten days in advance.
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Talking about Dying
This conversation provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on what stories and influences shape their thinking about death and dying and to hear perspectives and ideas from fellow community members.
Who is Not at the Table?
Filmmaker Ifanyi Bell reflects on the making of “Future: Portland 2”
History in the News: Citizenship and Civil Liberties on the World War I Home Front
Discuss current events in historical context at a monthly roundtable. This is an Oregon Humanities grant-funded event.
Confluence Story Gathering
Oregon Humanities is a cosponsor of this event.
Vanport Mosaic Festival
Theater, documentaries, historic exhibits, lectures, and tours will explore will explore the history and legacy of Vanport. Oregon Humanities is a cosponsor of this event.
"Priced Out" Screening and Dialogue
Watch an excerpt from the film and then join the discussion about how rising housing prices are displacing Portland's black community. Oregon Humanities is a cosponsor of this event.
Arts & Cultural Equity: Current Examples and Relevant Strategies
Arts and cultural workers, managers, educators, and students share current insights, experiences, and practices around equity and leadership within arts and culture organizations. Oregon Humanities is a cosponsor of this event.
"Spiritrials" Post-Show Discussion on Faith and Religion
A conversation reflecting on the show with Conversation Project leader Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo of Interfaith Muse. This is an Oregon Humanities grant-funded event.
Confluence Story Gathering
Oregon Humanities is a cosponsor of this event.
When to Carry
Editor's note
What We Share
From the Director
Gaining Ground Film Screening and Discussion
This is an Oregon Humanities grant-funded event.
Think & Drink on the Future of Urban Development in Portland
A conversation about the future of housing and urban development in Portland with civic leaders and developers poised to make it happen.
Taking the Lead
We partnered with Catlin-Gabel’s PLACE program to train high school students to lead community conversations. Filmmaker Sika Stanton asks these emerging leaders from North Portland about how they hope to use their new skills.
Objects in Motion
Editor Kathleen Holt on inertia
The Rim of the Wound
Writer Wendy Willis's open letter to the students of Columbia University Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board, with a special note to her daughters.
Who's Minding Your Business?
A conversation with writer William T. Vollmann on privacy, surveillance, and hope
Firing a Friend
It's hard to be a good citizen during an election year. An essay by Jennifer Ruth