Editor's Note: Green

For most of this magazine’s thirty-five-year history, each issue has been organized around a single-word theme. These themes have ranged from general (“Me”; “Stuff”) to specific (“Citizenship”; “Marriage”). We’ve featured many nouns, a few verbs and adjectives, and one exclamation (“Ha!”). This issue is the first to take its theme from a color.

Green is a word overburdened with meaning. It connotes life and abundance, but also jealousy (“the green-eyed monster”), wealth (“greenbacks”), illness (“green around the gills”), inexperience (“greenhorn”), and safety (“green means go”). It has national, political, and religious associations.

When we published the call for submissions for this issue, I had little sense of what to expect. I assumed we’d see many pitches about environmentalism, and I hoped we’d get a good number exploring other shades of meaning. And so we did: in this issue, you’ll find the greens of field and forest, as well as stories about green cards, capital, and debt. Choosing a color was an experiment, but the results, I hope you will agree, are bountiful.

I lead all of Oregon Humanities’ communications and publications efforts, including the magazine, the Beyond the Margins essay series, The Detour podcast and radio show, and overall marketing strategy. I’ve worked at Oregon Humanities since 2012. 

Ask me about: submitting work to Oregon Humanities’ publications, story pitches, the Community Storytelling Fellowship, partnering with Oregon Humanities to share stories or promote events, or the Portland area’s performing arts ecosystem. Hablo Español. 

I grew up on Kalapuyan land in Scio, Oregon, near the confluence of the North and South forks of the Santiam River, and I now live in the shadow of an extinct volcano in Southeast Portland. I serve on the board of the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition and occasionally write about theater in the Pacific Northwest for Oregon ArtsWatch.