Events & Opportunities
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
February 18, 2025
Conversation Project: Talking About Values Across Political Divides
“How can I be me without making it difficult for you to be you?” This question gets at the fundamental challenge of being in society together. We live in a contentious political world, and it’s difficult to talk about our deepest values and beliefs in safe, civil, and respectful ways. In 2021, the Pew Research Center found that nearly six in ten Americans felt that political conversations with those you disagree with are generally stressful and frustrating, as opposed to being interesting and informative. If we avoid such conversations, we lose opportunities to form a community with others that reflects our best selves. How can we learn to share our values in ways that bring us together rather than push us further apart?
Noon, Portland Community College - Rock Creek, Portland
March 7, 2025
Poetry Workshop and Reading with Ellen Waterston
Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston will lead a poetry workshop for adults and teens from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Space is limited; preregister at the library. A poetry reading will follow at 6:30 p.m. in the Grace Scatterday room.
workshop 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.; reading 6:30 p.m., Dallas Public Library, Dallas
March 11, 2025
Ditch Rider: Reflecting on the First Six Months as Oregon’s Poet Laureate
Six months into her two-year term as Oregon’s eleventh Poet Laureate, Ellen Waterston will share anecdotes, examples of writings that have emerged from workshops by youth and elders across the state, and a sampling of recent commissions for official functions. She will also invite those present to participate in her poet laureate project.
1:00 p.m., Downtown Bend Library, Bend
March 15, 2025
Down to the Studs: The Essentials
Supplemented with handouts and using a variety of in-class approaches, this three-hour intensive will explore what’s essential in landing a poem, from inside out and outside in. Limited to 20 participants. Register here.
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Downtown Bend Library, Bend
March 15, 2025
Migración: cambios y tansformación—lo que cambia y lo que permanece
Los cambios son parte natural de la vida, pero si además añadimos un estado migratorio, los cambios pueden ser más profundos y complejos y acarrear matices que transformarán de manera más radical la vida del que deja atrás su país, su gente y parte de su historia.
Esta conversación es para inmigrantes que quieran explorar los efectos que la migración ha traído a sus vidas. Queremos ofrecer un espacio en donde podamos compartir nuestras experiencias y reflexionar juntos acerca de los cambios que hemos tenido desde que dejamos nuestro pueblo o ciudad natal, qué nos trajo al lugar que habitamos y cuáles con las transformaciones por las que hemos pasado en el proceso migratorio.
¿Qué sucede con nuestras raíces, costumbres y cultura una vez migramos? Hablemos de ello y compartamos nuestros pensamientos y necesidades.
10:30 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
March 22, 2025
Bridging Time: An Exploration to and from Ourselves with Jacque Hammond and Marquishia Winters
Each day we go about our lives in search of something better. Some reminisce about the past while others dream about the future, where “better,” seems to always be just beyond our reach. But what if the present moment allowed for ingress to “better” on either side? This brings forth the question, “Whose imagination are you living in?” In this workshop, Jacque Hammond and Marquishia Winters will share their work, engage in conversations, and guide participants into the collective imagination work of world building.
12:30 to 3:30 p.m., Leaven Community Center, Portland
April 5, 2025
The Circle is Expanding, Still: The Gift of Climate Grief
Climate grief is a psychological response to ecological loss driven by our unfolding climate crisis. This workshop will help you understand what climate grief is, why it’s important, and how it might become a creative, transformative force in your life that can bring joy, community, creativity, and greater self-awareness.
12:30 to 3:30 p.m., Leaven Community Center, Portland
April 9, 2025
Consider This: The Lands We Live On with Chuck Sams
Join us at 7:00 p.m. on April 9 at Pendleton Center for the Arts for a conversation about the relationship between people and public lands with Chuck Sams, who was until very recently the director of the National Parks Service. Charles F. "Chuck" Sams III is Cayuse and Walla Walla and an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Northeast Oregon, where he grew up. He also has blood ties to the Cocopah Tribe and Yankton Sioux of Fort Peck.
Tickets are available for $15 (General Admission) and $30 (Conversation Starter). To purchase tickets, please use this form.
7:00 p.m., Pendleton Center for the Arts, Pendleton