November 12, 2026

Community-in-Action Series with Living Opportunities CEO Amber Myre

The Jacksonville Community Center is proud to partner with Living Opportunities  for a meaningful community gathering.

Living Opportunities is a non-profit organization that serves as one of the largest service providers for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities—such as autism, cerebral palsy, and seizure disorders—in Southern Oregon. They empower adults and children to live independently and actively participate in their local communities through 24-hour residential care, supported living assistance, tailored job coaching for local business employment, creative arts programs, and specialized behavioral consulting.

The current CEO, Amber Myre will highlight the experiences, perspectives, creativity, and advocacy of people living with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

This program is funded in part by a grant from Oregon Humanities.

4:00 p.m., Jacksonville Community Center, Jacksonville

November 16, 2026

Consider This: Trust and Political Institutions

Join us in Portland on November 16—two weeks after election day—for a conversation about trust, elections, and our political systems and culture with Paul Gronke, director of the Elections & Voting Information Center at Reed College, and Susheela Jayapal, a former Multnomah County Commissioner and current fellow with the North Star Civic Foundation.

Polling of voters in the US shows that confidence in elections and political institutions has fallen over the past two years. In this onstage conversation, moderated by Adam Davis, we'll dig into the factors that affect the public's faith in our democracy and how that declining trust shapes how we vote and how we govern ourselves. 

Tickets are $15 and available from The Old Church. 

7:00 p.m., The Old Church, Portland

November 18, 2026

At a Loss for Words

Join Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston for a free and public event in the Lincoln City Cultural Center. The event will include a presentation and time for audience Q&A.

6:30 p.m., Lincoln City Cultural Center, Lincoln City

December 2, 2026

Cheers to Community

Join us for an evening filled with conversation and curated wines while supporting Oregon Humanities' winter fundraising campaign. We are delighted to partner with our friends Ora et Labora Wine Shop to gather neighbors and supporters at the Vinum Lounge to celebrate the many ways our community is coming together to support greater connection.

5:00 to 7:00 p.m., Ora et Labora Wine Shop and Vinum Lounge, Portland

December 3, 2026

Poetry Night: Ellen Waterston and Jeff Fearnside

Cozy up for a night of poetry as acclaimed writers Ellen Waterston and Jeff Fearnside share their latest collections. Completed while travelling the state during her first year as Oregon’s Poet Laureate, the poems in Waterston’s As Far as I Can Anthem enlist the people and places across Oregon to inform, challenge and inspire readers in vital and unexpected ways. Fearnside’s most recent book, Lake: Love Poems, is focused on the concept of place, specifically Central Asia, where he lived for four years, and Oregon, his home for the past 13 years. The poems are connected by the thread of his courtship with and marriage to the woman who has experienced these places with him, his life partner Valentina.​

Free tickets are available here.

5:30 p.m., PRAx, Corvallis

January 14, 2027

Film Screening and Discussion: "Your Attention Please"

Oregon Humanities and PAMCUT's Tomorrow Theater present a screening of Sara Robin's documentary Your Attention Please followed by a facilitated conversation. 

A new generation of parents, teens, and reformers are fighting back against Big Tech’s agenda to define the future of human connection. From Kristin, a mother pursuing legislative reform after losing her son, to Trisha, a young programmer building technology to stop cyberbullying, the film reveals how deeply the attention economy is shaping childhood, mental health, and human connection. Blending intimate human stories with insights from leading experts in tech reform and digital wellbeing, Your Attention Please asks some of the most urgent questions of our time: Can we reclaim our autonomy? Can technology be redesigned to serve humanity? And what does a healthier relationship with the digital world look like for us and our kids?

Tickets for this free event are available at tomorrowtheater.org.

7:00 p.m., Tomorrow Theater, Portland

January 24, 2027

Does Nature Have a Purpose in Our Lives? Exploring Our Relationships to the Land

Oregonians have long struggled to balance cultural, political, and values-based differences tied to our use of land and resources. As we enter an age of accelerating environmental change and scarcity, it is important to understand what drives these differences. In this conversation we will explore our attitudes and assumptions about the purpose of the environment in our lives and how those attitudes and assumptions shape our perception of environmental issues and policies.

2:00 p.m., Beaverton City Library, Beaverton

February 10, 2027

Consider This: Housing and Homelessness in Rural Communities

Discussions about housing and homelessness tend to focus on a few key cities such as San Francisco, Austin, and Seattle. Can studies from those places explain what we experience in college towns, small cities, and rural areas? With an issue so intimately connected to place, shouldn’t we focus on the nuances of location? Sociologist Leontina Hormel, in conversation with Oregon Humanities’ Adam Davis, will explore the challenges of housing and the experience of homelessness outside urban areas.

7:30 p.m. Pacific, PRAx, Corvallis

February 16, 2027

Consider This with Rukaiyah Adams

for an onstage conversation with Rukaiyah Adams, president and CEO of the 1803 Fund. As the leader of this ambitious new foundation, which seeks to rebuild Portland’s Albina neighborhood and advance the wealth and wellbeing of Black Portland, Adams requires a lot of trust: both trust from supporters that she will responsibly oversee a major investment in urban infrastructure, and trust from the community that her efforts to reshape a central part of the city will benefit the public. As former chief investment officer at Meyer Memorial trust, Adams also oversaw a different kind of trust, managing approximately $1 billion in assets for one of the state’s largest charitable foundations.

Tickets are $15 and are available at albertarosetheatre.com.

7:00 p.m., Alberta Rose Theatre, Portland

February 24, 2027

Can We Get Along? Examining Our Personal Experiences of Connection and Community

Rodney King’s iconic question, "Can we all get along?", still resonates today. Despite decades of social justice movements, police brutality and divisions persist in the United States. How can we connect with each other during these times? What holds us back from connecting with each other? How do our personal experiences contribute to barriers or 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.

Chisao Hata is a performing artist, educator, and arts integration specialist. She has been called a “community weaver” through facilitation, community engagement and creating artistic collaborations. She has been a protector of imagination and personal discovery and a champion for individual expression. Creating engaged learning is her life’s work. She has had the honor of serving hundreds of Portland’s children, youth, and adults across many communities. Chisao believes we are all inextricably linked, and the power of gathering is a conduit to build and heal our understandings between our communities.

6:00 p.m., Belmont Library, Portland