An old black-and-white photograph showing a few small buildings and a road crossing a river, with trees scattered in the distance
close-up of a fire, the flames sending sparks up against the night sky
A faded photo of three people—a mother, father, and child—standing in front of a yellow shingled house fades from left to right into a contemporary photo of a family of four seated on the steps of the same house many years later, now a different color.
An illustration by Yanely Rivas of a Mexican woman cooking over an open fire. Above her, the face of an ancestor appears in the steam from the meal. Title reads: Corazon de Fuego or Heart of Fire.

Beyond the Margins

Beyond the Margins is Oregon Humanities' twice-monthly online and email publication. We publish essays, book excerpts, reporting, interviews, videos, photo essays, and other media that engage, connect, and challenge Oregonians. Subscribe to receive Beyond the Margins in your inbox.

Rainwater Soup

March 14, 2024

Fertile Ground

February 23, 2024

Ponderosas and Junipers

February 16, 2024

Rural Places

February 9, 2024

Séma

January 19, 2024

Treasures

January 12, 2024

Corazón de Fuego / Heart of Fire

January 5, 2024

Reclaiming Our Language

December 14, 2023

Mushrooms as Medicine

December 11, 2023

Entrevista: Rafael Romero Vejar habla de la vida del campo y sus sueños por su familia

December 7, 2023

Interview: Rafael Romero Vejar on Field Work and Family

December 7, 2023

Room 5

November 24, 2023

History and Presence

November 9, 2023

Who Determines Shelter?

November 3, 2023

How to Build a Snow Cave

October 20, 2023

Safety Search

October 13, 2023

Some People Eat Fish

September 26, 2023

Vanishing Words

September 20, 2023

Sacred Instructions

September 8, 2023

Entrevista: Carlos habla de migración, peligro, y su sueño americano

August 25, 2023

Interview: Carlos on Migration, Danger, and His American Dream

August 25, 2023

A Reluctant Receiver: Summer, Love, and a Bicycle

August 24, 2023

Collecting Sunrises

August 11, 2023

The Pains and Joys of Aging

July 26, 2023

Turkeys

July 20, 2023

Notes from Peace Shelter

July 6, 2023

Full Catastrophe Eating, from Soil to Soul

June 23, 2023

The Distance Between Us

June 16, 2023

The Beautiful Underground

June 2, 2023

Drop Out and Disappear

May 18, 2023

A Portland Gospel

May 5, 2023

Unapologetically Afghan American

April 17, 2023

Trip to Richland

April 3, 2023

In Praise of No Other Options

March 17, 2023

Cascadian Gothic

March 10, 2023

Pack Matters

February 17, 2023

Boarding School Inheritance

February 3, 2023

Blood Money

January 10, 2023

Girlish

December 23, 2022

Cars: A Love Language

November 22, 2022

Gray Matters

November 9, 2022

Día de los Muertos

November 1, 2022

Woksemi

October 13, 2022

The Middle of Nowhere

October 6, 2022

The Not-So-Simple Past

September 30, 2022

Adventures on the Turtle's Back

September 23, 2022

"Just Go Do It"

September 9, 2022

Lines for the Dead

August 26, 2022

We Know What We've Experienced

August 19, 2022

Here Lies

August 9, 2022

A Bridge Between

July 29, 2022

Proper Care

July 14, 2022

We're Here for Each Other

July 8, 2022

To Be Loved

June 30, 2022

Finding a Voice as an Advocate for Others

June 10, 2022

The Father I Remember

May 27, 2022

A Monstrosity Beyond Reason

May 20, 2022

The Caregiver Strain Index

April 1, 2022

Three Proposals, Two Weddings, and One Cow

March 25, 2022

Oregon in the Machine Age

March 4, 2022

Beyond Horses

February 25, 2022

Re-Beavering a Monument

January 28, 2022

Preserving the Future

January 21, 2022

“We Have to Create Alternative Habitats for Writers”

December 23, 2021

Climate and Fire

November 19, 2021

“Let’s Give Oregonians a Chance to Shape the Future of the State”​

November 4, 2021

Who Gets to Fight Climate Change?

October 15, 2021

A Remedy for Disruption

October 1, 2021

"Farming Is So Much More than Food"

September 24, 2021

Dear Pepe Siesta

September 15, 2021

Earth and Motherhood

September 10, 2021

The Rebirth of Wonder

August 20, 2021

They Belong to Themself

August 13, 2021

The Eternal Fire: Standing Rock and the (re)Awaking of Dreams

August 5, 2021

Bringing Otters Back to Otter Rock

July 29, 2021

The Value of Your Story

July 22, 2021

Art and Activism in Modoc Point

July 15, 2021

Creating Joy, Art, and Social Change

July 9, 2021

"We Are All Existing in an Opportunity Gap"

July 2, 2021

Mad

June 18, 2021

Five Cemeteries

May 20, 2021

The New Americans

April 30, 2021

Putting in the Work

April 29, 2021

Charter Review

April 29, 2021

“We All Have to Be Committed and Help Each Other”​

April 12, 2021

Flowers for Block 14

March 31, 2021

Saved by the Bell

March 24, 2021

Pandemic Flowers

March 18, 2021

Love and Noodles

March 3, 2021

"Children Are Born Curious"

February 18, 2021

“We Know Who’s Got Our Six Now”

February 5, 2021

Fermenting My Asian American Identity

January 19, 2021

Glassed In

December 17, 2020

Into the Woods

December 10, 2020

Solace

November 25, 2020

Without a Towel

November 13, 2020

Heavy and Hiking

October 27, 2020

Tutoring the Kingpin

October 22, 2020

Heavy

October 16, 2020

I Dream an Oregon

September 30, 2020

The Family You Choose

August 25, 2020

The Other Side of What We Know

August 21, 2020

Black Opera: Singing over Ourselves

July 24, 2020

A Community of Recovery

June 29, 2020

My Left Thumb

June 18, 2020

The Case for Group Living

May 15, 2020

Full Membership

April 27, 2020

The View from Council Crest

April 20, 2020

Talking about Independent Labor and Systemic Inequality

April 10, 2020

Mask Makers

April 1, 2020

Indian Enough

February 28, 2020

Talking about Retirement

February 21, 2020

Talking about Wages and Pay Equity

January 22, 2020

Stories from the Diaspora: The World is Full of Lessons

January 17, 2020

Stories from the Diaspora: “Art is My Freedom”

January 17, 2020

Stories from the Diaspora: A Sense of Home

January 17, 2020

Our Most-read Stories of 2019

December 18, 2019

Challenging Questions for Oregonians

November 22, 2019

If You've Made It This Far

October 17, 2019

The Summer Games

September 30, 2019

This Place Is Beautiful, This Place Is Gross

September 16, 2019

Neither Here nor There

August 30, 2019

Bridge City

July 29, 2019

A Body in Motion

July 19, 2019

Across the Divide

June 27, 2019

Cover Songs of Myself

June 14, 2019

Black Mark, Black Legend

April 25, 2019

Les Zaitz and Caitlyn May on Journalism in Rural Communities

April 25, 2019

Emilly Prado and Inara Verzemnieks on Journalism and Representation

April 25, 2019

Intisar Abioto and Kimberly A. C. Wilson on the Stories of Black Artists in Oregon

April 25, 2019

What I Do

March 28, 2019

What You Make of It

March 22, 2019

More Similar than Different

February 28, 2019

The Quiet and In-between Moments

February 15, 2019

Returned

January 31, 2019

Talking about Place, Race, and Family

January 14, 2019

Our Most-read Stories of 2018

December 13, 2018

Letters from Home

December 10, 2018

My Name

November 29, 2018

Talking about Sex

November 19, 2018

Looking Forward, Looking Past

October 30, 2018

Acceptance

September 25, 2018

What Work Does a Street Sign Do?

July 2, 2018

On Tinnitus

June 15, 2018

Black. Muslim. Woman.

May 29, 2018

Making Good

March 22, 2018

Unclaiming the Land

February 26, 2018

Sixteen in America

February 1, 2018

Our Most-Read Stories of 2017

December 18, 2017

On Bearing Bad News

November 21, 2017

Remembering Peter Sears

July 25, 2017

Portland Expo Center: A Hidden History

February 9, 2017

An Oregon Canyon

January 10, 2017

Taking the Lead

November 2, 2016

Also Fire

October 26, 2016

Bum Count

July 25, 2016

"I'm Not Staying Here Another Day"

June 28, 2016

In the Land of the New

March 29, 2016

Mothers to Daughters

March 7, 2016

You'll See Me Tomorrow Because

February 20, 2016

Rootedness

January 28, 2016

Subscribe to Beyond the Margins

January 19, 2016

The Long Boat

December 2, 2015

My North Star

November 24, 2015

Finding Land

October 29, 2015

David and Goliath

September 23, 2015

Magazine Podcast: Fix

August 6, 2015

A Return Passage

August 5, 2015

Life's Winter

July 27, 2015

Stepping Backward

June 30, 2015

Wild Blue Sea

May 27, 2015

Starting Over

March 24, 2015

Future: Portland

March 9, 2015

Damaged

February 26, 2015

A Temporary Insanity

January 22, 2015

Magazine Podcast: Quandary

December 17, 2014

Another Life

November 18, 2014

Magazine Podcast: Start

November 5, 2014

What's the Use?

October 16, 2014

Epigenetics and Equity

October 7, 2014

The Bamboo Ceiling

September 15, 2014