Join us at 7:00 p.m. on May 22 at Pendleton Center for the Arts for a conversation with Bobby Fossek, Erica Berry, and Wendy Bingham about living in community with animals and plants. Some animals and plants are welcomed by people, and others we reject or try to eradicate. How do we decide which living things belong, and what do these decisions show about our place on the land?

This live, onstage conversation is part of Oregon Humanities’ 2023–24 Consider This series, Fear and Belonging. To participate, please register here. The program will also be streamed live on YouTube (see below).

About our guests

Bobby Fossek is a leader of Naknuwithlama Tíichamna (Caretakers of the Land) in Cove, Oregon. Caretakers of the Land aims to steward and strengthen the symbiotic life ways of the Columbia River Basin and the Blue Mountain bioregion through seasonal round immersion camps, cultural revitalization projects, ecosystem restoration, and regenerative life skills education.

Erica Berry is a writer from Portland. Her nonfiction debut, Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear, was published in spring 2023 by Flatiron/Macmillan, and is a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and a semifinalist for the Pacific Northwest Book Award. Her essays, which are often about the intersection of emotion and the natural environment, appear in the New York Times, Orion, Outside Magazine, the Guardian, and the Atlantic, among other publications.

Wendy Bingham is a cattle rancher from North Powder, Oregon. She discovered her passion for horses and cattle as a child while helping out with her family’s herd. In 2002, Wendy and her husband, Jake, started Bingham Beef, a family owned and operated cattle ranch. Wendy believes that food is an important part of life and takes pleasure in providing beef that has been pasture raised with care.

About the venue

• Mobility access: Pendleton Center for the Arts is wheelchair accessible via a ramp and elevator to the right of the main entrance. This video shows a mobility tour of the space. There is a curb cut at the crosswalk in front of the building. If you would like to reserve a parking space in front of the venue for mobility reasons, please call Portland Center for the Arts at 541-278-9201
• Parking: There are free parking lots available within two blocks of the venue to the west on Bailey Ave., to the north on Main Street., and across the river at 1st and Byers and 1st and Court.
• Food and drink: No food or drink will be provided at the event. Outside food and drink are permitted.
• Lighting: The venue has appropriate overhead lighting.
• Read more about Pendleton Center for the Arts

Please contact Roberta Lavadour with questions about the venue at 541-278-9201 or director@pendletonarts.org. If you would like to participate in this event and need accomodations such as ASL interpretation to do so, please contact Ben Waterhouse at b.waterhouse@oregonhumanities.org by May 13.

This series is made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture initiative, as well as support from the Oregon Cultural Trust, the Susan Hammer Fund of Oregon Community Foundation, The Standard, Tonkon Torp LLP, and the City of Portland’s We Are Better Together program.