October 17, 2026

Conversation Project: Are You Doing Community Wrong?

We all belong to many communities—that is, groups of people with common interests—depending on where we live, the work we do, how we spend our leisure time, political and religious beliefs, and so on. In some communities, finding agreement is easy; in others, especially those that represent many different experiences and points of view, members must work harder to find commonality. It may be easier to find a location for your next book-club meeting than to achieve consensus about a road project at your neighborhood association. In such contexts, are we “doing” community wrong? Are we celebrating diverse points of view and our common effort to find solutions together? If not, why not? What stops us from engaging in more diverse communities?

Register for this free event.

1:00 p.m., Willamette Heritage Center, Salem

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 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

November 19, 2026

Ellen Waterston Reading

A reading by Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston

2:00 p.m., Miracle Theatre Group Office, 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

April 6, 2027

Consider This with Christian Wiman

Join us for a conversation about trust, faith, and beauty with Christian Wiman. In his poems and essays, Wiman explores religious and secular belief, hope and despair, sickness and memory. In all that he writes and does, Wiman asks what we can count on or believe in as we aim to live lives full of meaning and connection. 

The conversation will take place at the Alberta Rose Theatre in Portland (3000 SE Alberta St.) at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6, 2027. The event is part of our 2026–27 Consider This series, What Do We Trust?

Tickets are $15 at albertarosetheatre.com.

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