Editor's Note: Currents
Ben Waterhouse on the complexity of telling stories about water in Oregon
From the Director: The Undertow
Adam Davis writes about what it takes to overcome the forces that pull us under.
Poem: Luck of the Divide
A poem by Ellen Waterston, Oregon's eleventh Poet Laureate
Artículos y videos en español
Oregon Humanities publica ensayos, comentarios y memorias que exponen las ideas y experiencias de personas que residen en Oregon.
From the Director: West of Boardman
Adam Davis on John Dewey, democracy, and public restrooms
Pride Reading
Join Oregon Humanities and Incite: Queer Writers Read at Bishop & Wilde on Wednesday, June 26, from 7:00–9:00 p.m. for a celebration of queer and trans pride. This reading will feature writers Bobby Jo Valentine, Emily Moon, Zoe Gamell Brown, Aakash Kishore, Rowan Bay, and Jordan Marzka.
From the Director: What Awaits
Adam Davis writes about Locke, Hobbes, and the inevitability of death.
Editor's Note: Fear
Ben Waterhouse on telephobia and growing out of old fears and into new ones
our farm
A poem by ramona hilaria
The Still Point at Sanger Lake
Maud Macrory Powell writes about a violent event, a secret kept for fifty years, and how we react to traumatic experiences
Speaking in Tongues
Aleksandr Chernousov writes about the experience of hearing his first language turned to violent authoritarian ends and finding it anew in Oregon
The Devil, You Know
In an excerpt from Night Mother: A Personal and Cultural History of “The Exorcist”, Marlena Williams writes about satanic panics from Geraldo to QAnon
Life after Running
Astra Lincoln writes about the psychology of illness and injury among athletes.
Light Beam
A comic by Eleanor Klock about creative work, fulfillment, and despair
Broken Glass, Broken Trust
A sermon by Robert Leo Heilman first read at the Umpqua Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Roseburg in spring 2022
In the Company of Cougars
Carrie Walker writes about navigating fear and awe in the outdoors.
Posts: Fear
Short essays from readers on the topic of fear.
People, Places, Things: BLK&GLD
Portraits of family members by Oregon photographer John Adair
Oregon Humanities Live
Join the editors of Oregon Humanities magazine to celebrate the release of our Spring 2024 issue with an evening featuring recent contributors Aleksandr Chernousov, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, Astra Lincoln, Jordan Marzka, and Rosanna Nafziger. This is a free, all-ages event. No tickets or advance registration required.
Call for Submissions
We're currently accepting features for our Spring 2025 issue on the theme "Bloom."
Editor's Note: Joy and Pain
Ben Waterhouse on how this issue came to be
Oregon Humanities Live
Join the editors of Oregon Humanities magazine for an evening featuring Laura Gibson, Stacey Rice, Bruce Poinsette, Eric Tran, Eleanor Klock, and Sabra Boyd reading work from recent issues of the magazine and Beyond the Margins.
This program is 21+.
From the Director: Grounding
Adam Davis on not knowing where we will be buried
Oregon Humanities Live
Join the editors of Oregon Humanities magazine for an evening featuring Sallie Tisdale, Daniela Molnar, Paul Susi, and Laura Gibson, and other recent contributors reading essays and poems.
This copresented with Literary Arts as part of the Cover to Cover series and sponsored by Lyceum Agency.
Discussion Questions & Further Reading: Beyond
Prompts for conversation about this issue and links to learn more about the stories and ideas explored herein.
Discussion Questions and Further Reading
Questions for discussing the articles in the Climate issue with friends, plus links to learn more about the topics covered.
Climate
Editor Ben Waterhouse writes about choosing the theme "Climate" amid a summer of heat waves and fires.
Subscribe to Oregon Humanities Magazine
Oregon Humanities is a magazine about the experiences, ideas, and beliefs of Oregonians. The magazine is published three times each year, in spring, summer, and fall, and is offered free of charge to Oregon residents. In each issue, Oregon writers, artists, and readers explore diverse perspectives and challenging questions relating to the place we live and the people who live here.
Discussion Questions and Further Reading
Questions to prompt conversation after reading and ways to learn more about or get involved with the ideas and issues explored in this issue
From the Director: Waiting for the Break
Adam Davis writes about waiting and wondering amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our Most-read Stories of 2019
Our readers' favorite articles and videos from the past year explore housing and exclusion, hidden histories, race, gender, and poverty.
Ask a Magazine Anything: A Lit Crawl Mixer
We’re bringing together the editorial teams at Oregon Humanities, The Nib, and Vortex Music Magazine, as well as Catapult’s marketing team for you to ask them anything!
Our Most-read Stories of 2018
Our readers' favorite articles and videos from the past year explore stories of identity, place, and belonging.
Our Most-Read Stories of 2017
Our readers' favorite articles and videos from the past year explore stories of place, belonging, and identity both personal and historical.
Magazine Subscriber Survey
We want to know more about the readers of Oregon Humanities to ensure that the magazine is meeting the interests and needs of our subscribers and give us an idea of how to improve the publication.
What Is Mine
Editor Kathleen Holt on looking for identity in the post-colonial welter of midcentury Hawaii.
When to Carry
Editor's note
Making Peace with Chaos
Author Zahir Janmohamed and photographer Tojo Andrianarivo profile student refugees living and thriving in Portland despite uncertainty.
Posts
Readers write about Might
"I'm Not Staying Here Another Day"
A conversation about the Great Migration with Isabel Wilkerson and Rukaiyah Adams
The Gift of a Known World
Oregon Humanities magazine editor Kathleen Holt on the power--and privilege--of rooting oneself to places
A Tremendous Force of Will
A conversation about the Great Migration's and the civil right movement with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson
Housekeeping
In the face of loss, cleaning hotel rooms and a lifelong friend offer solace. An essay by Meryl Williams
Not Built for Ghosts
Writer Helen Hill on consequences she faced after leaving her beloved home in the hands of others
Stolen Land and Borrowed Dollars
Creative resistance bloomed in the lead up to the Vancouver Olympics. An excerpt from Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics by Jules Boykoff
Between Ribbon and Root
Hope and a history of tragedy live together in a Cowlitz woman's son. An essay by Christine Dupres
Posts
Readers write about Root
Objects in Motion
Editor Kathleen Holt on inertia
What We Pass On
Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities, writes about cultural inheritance.
Whose State Is This?
Journalist Brent Walth on how legal measures targeting Latino Oregonians reflect fears of change.
Community in Flux
The long-persecuted Roma people begin to speak out. By Lisa Loving
This Way through Oregon
Illustrating the systems that move salmon, waste, traffic, and legislation
So to Speak
Novelist Laila Lalami on moving between languages to find her voice
Getting Out
Loretta Stinson on deciding to leave an abusive marriage for good
All the Same Ocean
Finding the horizon in a life rocked with waves. An essay by Jason Arias
Posts
Readers write about Move
Safely and Bravely
Editor Kathleen Holt on keeping her daughter safe in a place filled with threats of violence, disappointment, and despair
Plague Fears
Eula Biss writes about how a threat becomes a plague in this excerpt from her book On Immunity.
Trademark Offense
Bandleader Simon Tam explains his fight to trademark his band’s name, “The Slants.” Tam recently argued his case before the US Supreme Court. He won.
Civil Rights with Guns
Are there alternatives to police that could keep communities safe? Author Kristian Williams discusses lessons from the Black Freedom Movement.
Group Therapy
Copping out at an uptown slumber party. An essay by Dionisia Morales
This Is Not Just a Cloud
Embracing grief in the wilderness. An essay by Michael Heald
The Rim of the Wound
Writer Wendy Willis's open letter to the students of Columbia University Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board, with a special note to her daughters.
Beyond Repair
Editor Kathleen Holt on the aftermath of a traumatizing fire
Full Circle
Two journalists return to their native countries to help other journalists express dissent.
The Problem with the Immigration Problem
Elliot Young writes about the origins of the belief that immigrants harm our society
The River Fix
Journalist Valerie Rapp on the complexities of dam removal
Perhaps, Perhaps
Bobby Arellano on waiting for an alcoholic father to stand up
Kansas in Technicolor
After a mastectomy, finding beauty in loss. An essay by Gretchen Icenogle
Resume Usual Activity
Jamie Passaro writes about parenting—and being parented—through mental illness.
Future: Portland
Civic leaders describe the loss of Portland's strong black communities and the hope of restoring them in the future in a video by Ifanyi Bell.
Magazine Podcast: Quandary
Talking about Ferguson, feminism, and filling out forms with Oregon Humanities magazine contributors
Messy Business
Editor Kathleen Holt on parenting as performance
The Late Show
Journalist Nigel Duara on the media becoming part of the story in the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri.
Feel-Good Feminism
Bitch Media cofounder Andi Zeisler wonders if feminism's pop-culture cachet has doomed the movement.
Boxed In
Writer Wendy Willis ponders which race to check and which people to leave behind when asked about her racial and ethnic background.
Are You My Mother?
When a new medication makes the Lois Ruskai Melina's mother more outgoing and impulsive, she must face a choice: Should she have her taken off the drug, even though she likes her better on it?
Gone Astray
A humanitarian aid worker in Sri Lanka finds herself caught up in a race to harvest the tusks of a dead elephant.
The Air I Breathe
Filmmaker Ifanyi Bell writes about growing up underestimated in Portland
Posts
Readers Write about Quandary
Magazine Podcast: Start
Talking about epigenetics, adoption, faith, and clowns with Oregon Humanities magazine contributors
Will, Work, and Imagination
Beginnings are appealing. They beguile with promise and possibility.
What's Mine Is Yours
Editor Kathleen Holt on developing a capacity for solitude and a habit of self-reflection in her children
Mark My Words
Linguist Edwin Battistella on pronouns and the myth of a "me generation"
In Defense of Navel-Gazing
To understand the world, we must first understand ourselves. An essay by Jay Ponteri
Trapped in the Spotlight
What happens when quitting your job means quitting yourself? An essay by Courtenay Hameister
The Thing with Feathers
Joanna Rose on a writer's road trip gone wrong
You Remind Me of Me
Parent and child, strange and baffling creatures that are part, yet no part, of each other. An essay by Daniel Rivas
Posts
Readers write about "Me"
Into the Welter
Editor Kathleen Holt on cities as more than just places
This Land Planned for You and Me
J. David Santen Jr. on what Oregon's communities look like forty years after the passage of Senate Bill 100
Imaginary Metropolis
What do the cities of science fiction books and films say about the way we perceive the cities we live in? An essay by Dan DeWeese
In Search of the New
Editor Kathleen Holt on desire for the novel, the riveting, and the spectacular
Posts
Readers write about "Skin"
In Medias Res
Editor Kathleen Holt on anticipation
Warp and Weft
Editor Kathleen Holt on conflict in sports and politics
Here Now
Editor Kathleen Holt on the many meanings of place
A Closer Look
Editor Kathleen Holt on the effort of looking.