Trip to Richland
Laura Feldman writes about trying to make sense of a secret history.
Girlish
Diana Abu-Jaber reflects on her experience as an ambivalent beauty queen.
From the Director: Old Jokes
Adam Davis on the personal and cultural legacy of cruel jokes
Lies of Discovery
Sal Sahme explores the doctrine that enabled European colonization and argues for it to be revoked.
Can the Land Make Us One People?
An excerpt from Jacqueline Keeler's book Standoff contrasts the standoffs at Malheur and Standing Rock.
Stand
A student reckons with an inappropriate teacher’s power and her own powerlessness. An excerpt from Reema Zaman's memoir, I Am Yours.
My Name
Sravya Tadepalli writes about her experiences with people mispronouncing her name.
What Work Does a Street Sign Do?
A conversation with geographer Natchee Blu Barnd on how place-naming shapes perspectives of history related to Indigenous peoples in the US.
"It's Just a Beer"
Kira Smith on the unspoken contracts between men and women
Protecting Inequality
Anoop Mirpuri on the economic causes of racist policing
A City's Lifeblood
As efforts to clean up Portland Harbor begin, the communities most affected by pollution see a chance to reconnect to the Willamette River. By Julia Rosen
You Are Being Watched
The United States’ long history of turning citizens against one another. An excerpt from Joshua Reeves' Citizen Spies: The Long Rise of America’s Surveillance Society, reprinted with permission from New York University Press.
Your Cultural Attire
Conversations about appropriation sometimes miss the complexity of culture. An article by Zahir Janmohamed
Who is Not at the Table?
Filmmaker Ifanyi Bell reflects on the making of “Future: Portland 2”
The Opposite of What We Know
Writer Putsata Reang reflects on the project "Bitter Harvest"
Portland Expo Center: A Hidden History
This film produced by Jodi Darby for Oregon Humanities shares the experiences of Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in the Portland Expo Center during World War II.
Facing the N-Word
Writer Donnell Alexander reflects on the making of “An Oregon Canyon”
Words Have Life
Filmmaker Sika Stanton reflects on the making of “An Oregon Canyon”
Sometimes Break Apart
Oregon Humanities magazine editor Kathleen Holt on sexism, power, and exclusion on her son's co-ed soccer team
Within Makeshift Walls
Author Eric Gold on the Portland Expo Center’s era as a prison for Japanese Americans during World War II.
King Tide
An excerpt from Micah White's book, The End of Protest: A New Playbook for the Revolution
The Longest of Long Shots
A Sanders delegate's brush with national party politics. An essay by Valdez Bravo
Making Men
Writer Bobbie Willis Soeby on raising her sons to not rape
"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
Just People Like Us
Writer Guy Maynard on a little-known history of a Southern Oregon community during World War II where prisoners of war were more welcome than US military of color
A Tremendous Force of Will
A conversation about the Great Migration's and the civil right movement with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson
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
Mothers to Daughters
Mothers give advice to their daughters about living bravely in an unsafe world in this film produced by Sika Stanton for Oregon Humanities.
Community in Flux
The long-persecuted Roma people begin to speak out. By Lisa Loving
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
My North Star
How Mumia Abu-Jamal Led Me to Activism. An essay by Walidah Imarisha
Civil Rights with Guns
Are there alternatives to police that could keep communities safe? Author Kristian Williams discusses lessons from the Black Freedom Movement.
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.
A Return Passage
Reporter Putsata Reang and photographer Kim Nguyen share their stories of leaving their home countries as refugees, meeting as students at the University of Oregon, and returning to Southeast Asia as journalists. A film produced by Dawn Jones for Oregon Humanities.
Full Circle
Two journalists return to their native countries to help other journalists express dissent.
Magazine Podcast: Quandary
Talking about Ferguson, feminism, and filling out forms with Oregon Humanities magazine contributors
Boxed In
Writer Wendy Willis ponders which race to check and which people to leave behind when asked about her racial and ethnic background.
The Air I Breathe
Filmmaker Ifanyi Bell writes about growing up underestimated in Portland
A Hidden History
Walidah Imarisha on revealing the stories and struggles of Oregon’s African American communities.
Fearful Beauty
Embracing both the wonder and terror of awe. An essay by Courtney Campbell
Warp and Weft
Editor Kathleen Holt on conflict in sports and politics
Soldiers' Stories
Photographer Jim Lommasson collaborates with war veterans on a gallery exhibit and book project that look at life for soldiers after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
A Century of War
Writer and historian Andrew Bacevich on changing the way Americans think about war
Water Wars
Journalist J. David Santen Jr. on how battles, compromises, and resolutions abound in a state flush with water.