Events & Opportunities
January 9, 2025
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.
To register for this virtual training, click here.
9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Virtual Event, statewide
January 16, 2025
The Detour Live: Poetry and Politics, or not, with Anis Mojgani
Oregon Humanities and the Tomorrow Theater present a live recording of The Detour podcast with poet and visual artist Anis Mojgani. Anis and host Adam Davis will dig into what it means to be an artist, fulfill a Governor-appointed, public role, and be a politically engaged individual, too. We’ll explore the relationship between art, art-making, and politics, maybe especially when one’s art is not overtly political.
Ticket for this event are available at tomorrowtheater.org.
7:00 p.m., Tomorrow Theater, Portland
January 16, 2025
Salem Poetry Project Featuring Ellen Waterston
Each week, the Salem Poetry Project presents a featured reader followed by the Infamous Open Mic: three poems or five minutes, whichever is first. The featured reader begins at 7:00 p.m. and the open mic will follow.
Parking for the Bush Barn and Bush House is located off of High Street.
7:00 p.m., Bush Barn Annex, Salem
January 29, 2025
Consider This: Our Place in the World with Ben Rhodes
A conversation about geopolitics, American power, and public service with Ben Rhodes, a former national security and diplomacy advisor to President Barack Obama and host of the Pod Save the World podcast. How much should the general public know or understand about global affairs and foreign policy? How do the US government’s actions on the world stage respond to public interest? How do people who work on those policies respond when their understanding of the public interest differs from the majority of public opinion? Ben Rhodes is a writer, political commentator, and national security analyst. He is the author of After the Fall: The Rise of Authoritarianism in the World We've Made and The World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House. From 2009–17, he served as a speechwriter and Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama. Rhodes is currently cohost of the podcast Pod Save the World; a contributor for MSNBC; and chair of National Security Action.
7:00 p.m., Alberta Rose Theatre, Portland
February 5, 2025
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 and our experiences of being governed? 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.
6:00 p.m., Virtual Event, statewide
February 6, 2025
Reflective Conversation Training (in-person)
During this in-person 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 training will take place in the Oregon Humanities office in Portland (610 SW Alder St., Suite 1111) over the following days:
- Day 1: Thursday, February 6, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Day 2: Friday, February 7, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
To register for the February in-person training, click here.
In-person trainings are limited to the first twelve to sixteen people to sign up. Over the course of two days, we’ll spend our time together talking in large and small groups, in small to mid-sized rooms. We’ll provide a light breakfast and lunch on both days.
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Oregon Humanities, Portland
February 8, 2025
Conversation Project: Preservación de nuestra cultura y tradiciones
Reflexionemos sobre la Importancia de la identidad cultural latina, el uso de la lengua nativa y la preservación de las tradiciones y costumbres. Esta conversación es para personas que han emigrado de países hispanohablantes, o descendientes de inmigrantes (hasta la 3ra generación) que están interesados en reconectarse con su cultura. Aquí compartiremos historias y vivencias sobre el nivel de conexión que aún tenemos con nuestras raíces, y finalmente reflexionaremos sobre qué podemos hacer para reconectarnos en caso de que exista tal añoranza.
11:00 a.m., Salem Public Library, Salem
February 8, 2025
Conversation Project: Preserving Our Culture and Traditions
This conversation explores the importance of cultural heritage and preserving the languages, customs, and traditions while living in places where they may not be present. This conversation is for people who have emigrated from another county or people who are descendants of immigrants (up to the third generation) and are interested in reconnecting with their culture. We'll share stories about our experiences and explore the connections participants have—or may not have—with their roots. And we will reflect on how we might reconnect with our heritage when we feel the desire to do so.
2:00 p.m., Salem Public Library, Salem
February 16, 2025
Conversation Project: Preservación de nuestra cultura y tradiciones
Reflexionemos sobre la Importancia de la identidad cultural latina, el uso de la lengua nativa y la preservación de las tradiciones y costumbres. Esta conversación es para personas que han emigrado de países hispanohablantes, o descendientes de inmigrantes (hasta la 3ra generación) que están interesados en reconectarse con su cultura. Aquí compartiremos historias y vivencias sobre el nivel de conexión que aún tenemos con nuestras raíces, y finalmente reflexionaremos sobre qué podemos hacer para reconectarnos en caso de que exista tal añoranza.
11:00 a.m., Downtown Bend Library, Bend
March 18, 2025
Reading with Ellen Waterston
Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston presents her work at Cook Memorial Library.
5:30 p.m., Cook Memorial Library, La Grande