Events & Opportunities
October 11, 2023
Consider This with Casey Parks - La Grande screening
Join Oregon Humanities staff in La Grande for a live screening of Consider This with Casey Parks, journalist and author of Diary of a Misfit, about gender, family, and belonging.
7:00–8:30 p.m., HQ, La Grande
October 11, 2023
Consider This with Casey Parks
Join us for a conversation about family, belonging, and gender with Casey Parks. A longtime reporter for the Oregonian, Parks now covers gender and family issues for the Washington Post, where she has written about abortion access, Texas’ investigation of parents of trans kids, and the long tail of the US military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. In her 2022 book, Diary of a Misfit, Parks relates her own story of coming out in a rural Louisiana town in 2002 and her efforts to uncover the story of Roy Hudgins, a small-town singer who, like Parks, didn’t conform to the expectations of his community. This conversation—the first in our 2023–2024 Consider This series about fear and belonging—will explore how attitudes about gender affect where people seem to fit in. We'll also discuss where these attitudes come from and how they might change. This event will be ASL interpreted. Read more about this event.
7:00 p.m., Alberta Rose Theatre, Portland
October 12, 2023
Conversation Project: Can We Get Along?
Rodney King’s iconic question still resonates today. Despite decades of social justice movements, police brutality and divisions persist in the United States. COVID-19 has only added more challenges. How can we connect to each other during these times? What holds us back from connecting with each other? How do our personal experiences contribute to barriers, or and have the potential to break them down? Join facilitator Chisao Hata as she holds space to examine individual questions on race, cultural values, and what brings us together and what separates us.
6:30 p.m. Pacific, Monmouth Public Library, Monmouth
October 15, 2023
Conversation Project: Housing and Belonging
Housing and homelessness is a visible and divisive issue in local media, in politics, and across different communities within our state. Many of us were experiencing housing instability and economic uncertainty even during the “boom” times before the current crisis. This conversation will explore common assumptions and perspectives about the experience of houselessness/homelessness and seek to answer the question, How do we decide who “belongs” in our community?
RSVP for this free event here.
11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Downtown Bend Library, Bend
October 18, 2023
Consider This Reading and Discussion Group: Casey Parks
Oregon Humanities invites you to a discussion of Casey Park's story, "Transgender or devoutly Christian? An Iowa teen refuses to choose" (originally published in The Washington Post). We will also discuss takeaways from our October 11 Consider This event with Casey Parks at the Alberta Rose Theater in Portland. Rozzell Medina, program manager, will facilitate the reading group discussion in English. Click here to register.
11:00 a.m., Virtual Event, statewide
October 19, 2023
Loneliness and Aging: Making Space for Our Elders
Loneliness and isolation are common experiences for elderly people, especially for those who do not have nearby family members or who are not computer literate. What do you know about the elders in your life or in your neighborhood? Are they connected to their families in an enriching way? Do they belong to a caring community of some kind? This conversation is for elderly people and people who live near elders or have elderly people in their lives to explore questions, experiences, and obstacles to showing up for elderly people and to generate ideas for connection.
6:00 p.m., Ashland Community Health Foundation, Ashland
October 19, 2023
Loneliness and Aging: Making Space for Our Elders
Loneliness and isolation are common experiences for elderly people, especially for those who do not have nearby family members or who are not computer literate. What do you know about the elders in your life or in your neighborhood? Are they connected to their families in an enriching way? Do they belong to a caring community of some kind? This conversation is for elderly people and people who live near elders or have elderly people in their lives to explore questions, experiences, and obstacles to showing up for elderly people and to generate ideas for connection.
3:00 p.m., Talent Branch Library, Talent
October 20, 2023
Loneliness and Aging: Making Space for Our Elders
Loneliness and isolation are common experiences for elderly people, especially for those who do not have nearby family members or who are not computer literate. What do you know about the elders in your life or in your neighborhood? Are they connected to their families in an enriching way? Do they belong to a caring community of some kind? This conversation is for elderly people and people who live near elders or have elderly people in their lives to explore questions, experiences, and obstacles to showing up for elderly people and to generate ideas for connection.
10:00 a.m., Phoenix Branch Library, Phoenix
October 25, 2023
Conversation Project: Talking about Dying
Death is a universal event that transcends many of the differences between us. While we focus most on the quality of our lives and well-being, we rarely talk about the quality of our dying and deaths. Now in its sixth year, Oregon Humanities’ Talking about Dying program offers an opportunity to reflect on the stories and cultural influences that shape our thinking about this theme and to share perspectives and ideas with fellow community members. During the program, participants explore such questions as, How might our family, traditions, rituals, religion, and beliefs shape how we think about death? What would a “good death” look like for us? What do we want—and not want—at the end of our life? What are the essential considerations?
Click here to register for this free conversation.
10:30 a.m. to noon, Cedar Mill Community Library, Portland
November 1, 2023
Oregon Humanities Live
Join the editors of Oregon Humanities magazine for an evening featuring recent contributors Saeeda Wright, Leanne Grabel, Brian Benson, Jennifer Perrine, and Judy Jiang reading essays and poems.
7:00 p.m., Honey Latte Cafe, Portland