Events & Opportunities
December 9, 2021
Conversation Project: Are You Safer Outside?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, outdoor spaces have taken on new significance as we struggle to address the need for connection without the health risk that now comes with enclosed places. While some of us may be rediscovering parks and trails that we once took for granted, others may be feeling the stressors of unwelcoming or inaccessible outdoor areas more than ever before. Join facilitator Mareshah “MJ” Jackson to discuss what makes an outdoor space a “safe” space. How does one’s identity intersect with security in a park, on a trail, or on a patio? In what ways have our perceptions of these spaces changed since the pandemic and recent protests, and how may they change in the years to come? This conversation is a chance to reflect on the role open spaces play in our lives and how our perceptions may differ from each other’s.
4:00 p.m. Pacific, Virtual Event, statewide
December 9, 2021
Loneliness & Aging During COVID-19: Making Space for Our Elders
Most people are finding ways to remain connected to their loved ones during COVID-19. Some are even reaching new levels of intimacy in relationships. But for isolated elderly people who are not computer literate, loneliness has only become more intense over the past year. What beliefs do we hold about loneliness and aging? If we have elderly neighbors and loved ones, what might they need at this time? This conversation, led by Pamela Slaughter, is for 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 during this time of heightened isolation.
RSVP at https://josephinelibrary.org/calendar/
5:00 p.m., Virtual Event, statewide
December 12, 2021
To Bear Witness: Extraordinary Lives - Opening Reception
The Immigrant Story and the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education invite you to visit “To Bear Witness – Extraordinary Lives,” a multimedia exhibition that celebrates the lives of men and women who endured unthinkable cruelty elsewhere in the world, only to resume productive lives in Oregon.
“To Bear Witness” takes its name from the words of the late Nobel Prize–winning writer, activist, and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who emphatically proclaimed, “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” The exhibition features profiles of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust; genocides in Europe, Africa, and Asia; and unimaginable atrocities of war. The profiles are united by the troubling truth that human despotism sometimes knows no bounds, but each is also a portrait of courage and human resilience. We present these stories in hopes that they will inspire, inform, and possibly instruct.
This multimedia exhibition opens on December 12, 2021, at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. The exhibit will run through May 15, 2022.
Noon Pacific, Oregon Jewish Museum & Center for Holocaust Education, Portland
December 12, 2021
Hidden Histories: Pendleton's Early Chinese Community
The ninth and final program in the Portland Chinatown Museum's series Hidden Histories: Oregon's Early Chinatowns and Chinese Worker Settlements looks at the history of Pendleton. Since at least the 1980s, tourism, media depictions, and even well-known works of fiction have promoted the idea that nineteenth-century Chinese immigrants built and occupied an extensive tunnel network under the city of Pendleton and in many other locations throughout the American West. In this program, Priscilla Wegars, PhD, and Renae Campbell, MA, will explore these "Chinese tunnel" rumors and compare those in Pendleton with the historical record of Pendleton’s Chinese community.
10:30 a.m. Pacific, Virtual Event, statewide
January 11, 2022
Consider This with Omar El Akkad
Join us for an onstage conversation with Omar El Akkad, author of American War and What Strange Paradise. This event is part of our 2022 Consider This series, American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes.
7:00 p.m. Pacific; doors open at 6:00 p.m., Alberta Rose Theatre, Portland
January 18, 2022
Conversation Project: Relationships for Resilience
In a time of intensifying social and ecological crises, in a cultural context of individualism, the pressure to practice "self-care," build "personal resilience," and "transform oneself" is pervasive. While "doing your own work" is important, we overemphasize the individual to the detriment of our human communities and the rest of the living world. The deep transformations we need will be cocreated, and the deep resilience we must develop will be relational. In this conversation, we will explore the dynamics of our strongest relationships, seeking to name the qualities and practices that underpin resilience. How can we bring our insights more intentionally and broadly to bear in our human relationships and in our relationships with our home—lands, waters, and ecosystems?
Learn more about this event at crooklib.org.
6:00 p.m., Virtual Event, statewide
January 20, 2022
Conversation Project: The Meaning of Climate Change
We live in a time of tremendous transformation as the reality of climate change and its effects on our communities become more apparent with every passing year. While there is still much that can and must be done to mitigate the range of impacts climate change might have, we are confronting the certainty of a crisis that will continue to unfold no matter what we do. What is the meaning of this extraordinary moment in human history? The meanings we construct about climate change affect how we think about it, our feelings about it, and our willingness to take action. Portland State University instructor David Osborn leads a discussion exploring different meanings of climate change and how our understanding of meaning relates to action.
7:00 p.m. Pacific, Virtual Event, statewide
January 20, 2022
Facilitation Training (virtual)
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.
10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Pacific, Virtual Event, statewide
February 15, 2022
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. This Program is presented with Multnomah County Library as part of Everybody Reads 2022. Learn more at multcolib.org.
6:00 p.m., Virtual Event, statewide
March 10, 2022
Consider This with Robin Wall Kimmerer
Join us for an online conversation with Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss. Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. This event will be streamed live as part of our series American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes.
5:00 p.m. to 6:40 p.m., Virtual Event, statewide