October 24, 2026

Grieving in Nature: Can connecting with nature help us heal?

Most of us know about the physical and emotional benefits of spending time outdoors. But did you know that getting outside can assist in grieving and processing loss? In this conversation, we’ll discuss how our connections to nature provide context and understanding around grieving. Can a deeper connection with nature and the outdoors provide additional value and perspective?

Register for this free program.

Adam Sawyer is an outdoor and travel writer, photographer, published author, guide, and public speaker based in the Northwest. In addition to authoring numerous guidebooks, his work has appeared in several local and national outlets. Nature has been a critical component in helping him process the grief from the sudden and tragic loss of his partner and home in 2022. His weekly Substack newsletter, Collecting Sunsets, covers a broad set of topics including grief, addiction and recovery, travel, life, love, and the healing powers of nature.

10:00 a.m., Neskowin Valley School, Neskowin

October 24, 2026

Saturday Scoundrels

Why is ritual important?

Birthdays. Funerals. Holidays. Handshakes. Morning coffee. Religious observance. Stadium chants. Humans keep inventing things to do again and again in really specific ways.

What does ritual accomplish that an ordinary action does not? Does repetition change us? Can ritual connect people, preserve memory, mark change, or outlive its usefulness?

Join Scoundrels for a conversation about why humans keep returning to ritual.

10:00 a.m., The Catalyst, Astoria

October 29, 2026

Community Led Harm Reduction Conversation

Join Rahab's Sisters for a community conversation about harm reduction, drug use and overdose response! Participants are invited to sit together in dialogue over a light dinner to help deepen compassion and care for people who use drugs and to better understand how to participate in community care. This event is intended to bring people with lived experience and people who want to learn more together in dialogue toward the goal of deepened community connection and understanding.

Each participant will also receive overdose prevention training rooted in compassion, designed and led by those with lived experience.

This event is supported by a Public Programs Grant from Oregon Humanities.

6:00 p.m., Montavilla United Methodist Church, Portland

November 4, 2026

Literary Show and Tell with Constellation Reading Series

Inspired by Oregon Humanities magazine’s Works Cited section—where authors unpack the foundational texts that shaped their lives—we’re gathering a stacked lineup of OH contributors and Constellation alums at the new P.A.LS. (Portland Arts & Literary Society) Building for a night of literary show-and-tell. Featuring flash readings from Lydia Kiseling, Eric Tran, Aleksandr Chernosov, Jae Nichelle, Christopher Rose, Tim Lane, and more, plus a lightning-round open mic where you can step up to share the book that started your literary origin story.

7:00 p.m., P.A.L.S Building, Portland

November 5, 2026

Writing Around Harney County

A public reading at the Harney County Library featuring Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston.

6:00 p.m., Harney County Library, Burns

November 7, 2026

Are We Created Equal?

This conversation will explore equality. It is a core national value of the United States, even if we have not always lived up to that value. What does it mean to say, as the writers of the Declaration of Independence did, that “all men are created equal” and to declare that this is a self-evident truth? In what ways are or should we be equal? How does this ideal of equality show up in our daily lives, our communities, and our politics? How, finally, has this ideal of equality changed over the past 250 years—and how might it change further over the next 250?

11:00 a.m., Grants Pass Library, Grants Pass

November 10, 2026

To What Do We Pledge?

While the opening of the Declaration of Independence gets the fanfare and the fireworks—“When in the course of human events” and all that—the closing clause contains a quiet promise: “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” When we talk about the founding, we often think of it as a severing from a distant power and a proclamation of individual rights. And yet, buried in that big individualistic origin story, there is a pledge of support, solidarity, and mutual aid. Today, as we witness political violence, hostility, and polarization, this conversation invites us to explore what it means for us to be bound to one another and to ask ourselves: Is there any idea, any value, any dream for the future that we care about enough to tie ourselves to one another to protect or pursue it? What would it mean to “mutually pledge” ourselves to one another today? What would it look like? Feel like? Is it even possible?

Facilitator Wendy Willis is the founding director of Oregon's Kitchen Table, a statewide community engagement program housed at Portland State University. She is also a poet, an essayist, a stitcher, and a self-proclaimed democracy geek. Wendy was raised in Springfield, but now lives with her family in Portland.

6:00 p.m., Eugene Public Library, Eugene

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