After Fire
Brett Zimmerman on the impossible problems first responders are asked to solve.
We Contain Multitudes
Joon Ae Haworth-Kaufka on how BIPOC adoptees are rewriting the mainstream adoption narrative
Writing on the Wall
Enrique Bautista writes about graffiti, belonging, and finding new ways to leave a mark on the world.
That's Group Living
An excerpt from "Group Living and Other Recipes" by Lola Milholland
Mount Doom
Rowan Bay writes about feeling out of place as a gay teenager in a religious community
Life after Running
Astra Lincoln writes about the psychology of illness and injury among athletes.
Unwritten
Jessica Yen on the anxieties and frustrations of parenting in multiple languages.
Portrait of My Mother in Mint Green
She lived most of her life in the United States. Why didn’t she become a citizen?
Unapologetically Afghan American
Yalda Asmatey writes about straddling two worlds: Afghanistan, the country of her birth, and the United States.
So Much Together: Me, Myself, and Us
As a multimedia artist, MOsley WOtta uses personal, lived experiences to drive his explorations into identity, place, race, and care. Through examples from his recent work, which incorporates musical, visual, and immersive performance with discussion and dialogue practices, WOtta will guide participants in exploring how identity labels both inform our relationship to our communities—and how it can transform them.
Telling Our Story
May Saechao writes about how the Iu Mien community connects to history and traditions across time and distance.
Building a Bridge for Mental Health
A youth-led organization is addressing mental health in AAPI communities and offering cross-generational care.
Three Proposals, Two Weddings, and One Cow
Jordan Marzka writes about farming, flirting, and failure in farm simulator games.
Beyond Pigmentocracy
Chance White Eyes and Rachel L. Cushman write about how racism, representation, and internalized oppression affect their family
Dear Pepe Siesta
Javier Cervantes writes a letter to Pepe Siesta—an iconic image of a man napping under a sombrero—after a surprise encounter in Central Oregon.
The New Americans
Brian Liu on David Chang's Ugly Delicious, honesty, and what it means to be Asian American.
Fermenting My Asian American Identity
Jen Shin writes about how a summer in Vietnam helped her embrace her Korean heritage.
Heavy and Hiking
Being big and hiking has its challenges, not least the judgement and impatience of others. But Oregon’s trails were made for me too. An essay by Karina L. Agbisit
The Other Side of What We Know
Caitlyn May writes about searching for the identity lost when her mother was adopted by a white family in New York.
Reciprocity of Tradition
Photographer Joe Whittle explores how traditional practices of Native Americans of the Columbia Plateau strengthen communities and preserve connections to the land.
Organizing from the Outside
Jyothi Natarajan talks with Oregonians finding connection while protesting oppression in Kashmir from afar.
The Struggles That Unite Us
Eric K. Ward reflects on how the idea of the urban-rural divide only serves to separate us.
One Country Again
Astrid Melton reflects on her East German identity after the fall of the wall and reunification.
Indian Enough
Emma Hodges writes about how the "enduring colonialist notion" of blood quantum fails to encompass the complexity of Native identity.
Across the Divide
Andie Madsen interviews three Oregonians who grew up in rural areas and moved to Portland about their relationships to their rural identities.
Black Mark, Black Legend
Intisar Abioto explores the legacy of Black artists in Portland and the meaning of that history for current creators in the community, as part of Oregon Humanities' Emerging Journalists, Community Stories fellowship program.
More than Words
Emilly Prado explores the stories of three families in the small rural border town of Nyssa, Oregon, and how immigration policy changes have affected their lives.
Peace and Dignity
Mohamed Asem writes about finding community in shared stories of unjust detention in an excerpt from his memoir, Stranger in the Pen.
Croppings: Enrique Chagoya, Reverse Anthropology
Through January 27, 2019, at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art
My Name
Sravya Tadepalli writes about her experiences with people mispronouncing her name.
People, Not Pundits
Catherine Johnson writes about attending a conservative convention in an effort to understand her mother's politics.
Black. Muslim. Woman.
Tiara Darnell talks to Fatmah Worfeley, a nineteen-year-old Portland activist and student, about racism within the Muslim community, her parents’ interracial marriage, reconciling her Palestinian and Libyan heritage, and coming to terms with her Blackness.
Becoming Asian
Scot Nakagawa explores the roots of race and the model minority myth
What Is Mine
Editor Kathleen Holt on looking for identity in the post-colonial welter of midcentury Hawaii.
Your Cultural Attire
Conversations about appropriation sometimes miss the complexity of culture. An article by Zahir Janmohamed
S'so's Tamales
Sal Sahme writes about finding his spiritual path as a boy on First Mesa.
Posts
Readers write about Claim
Who is Not at the Table?
Filmmaker Ifanyi Bell reflects on the making of “Future: Portland 2”
Good Hair
Going natural despite family and societal expectations. An essay by Kimberly Melton
Also Fire
Writer Brook Shelley on everyday life as an act of rebellion.
Slow Ascent
A Chinese American woman searches for belonging in the country of her grandparents. An essay by Jessica Yen
A Tremendous Force of Will
A conversation about the Great Migration's and the civil right movement with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson
Between Ribbon and Root
Hope and a history of tragedy live together in a Cowlitz woman's son. An essay by Christine Dupres
Mothers to Daughters
Mothers give advice to their daughters about living bravely in an unsafe world in this film produced by Sika Stanton for Oregon Humanities.
Objects in Motion
Editor Kathleen Holt on inertia
What We Pass On
Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities, writes about cultural inheritance.
This Way through Oregon
Illustrating the systems that move salmon, waste, traffic, and legislation
So to Speak
Novelist Laila Lalami on moving between languages to find her voice
All the Same Ocean
Finding the horizon in a life rocked with waves. An essay by Jason Arias
Trademark Offense
Bandleader Simon Tam explains his fight to trademark his band’s name, “The Slants.” Tam recently argued his case before the US Supreme Court. He won.
Group Therapy
Copping out at an uptown slumber party. An essay by Dionisia Morales
The Rim of the Wound
Writer Wendy Willis's open letter to the students of Columbia University Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board, with a special note to her daughters.
Perhaps, Perhaps
Bobby Arellano on waiting for an alcoholic father to stand up
Kansas in Technicolor
After a mastectomy, finding beauty in loss. An essay by Gretchen Icenogle
Resume Usual Activity
Jamie Passaro writes about parenting—and being parented—through mental illness.
Starting Over
The bumpy repair of a family after a sudden loss. An essay by Melissa Madenski
A Temporary Insanity
Torn between the pull of family and the pull of home. An essay by Gail Wells
Magazine Podcast: Quandary
Talking about Ferguson, feminism, and filling out forms with Oregon Humanities magazine contributors
Messy Business
Editor Kathleen Holt on parenting as performance
Feel-Good Feminism
Bitch Media cofounder Andi Zeisler wonders if feminism's pop-culture cachet has doomed the movement.
Boxed In
Writer Wendy Willis ponders which race to check and which people to leave behind when asked about her racial and ethnic background.
Posts
Readers Write about Quandary
Another Life
I think often of the taste of my grandfather's grapes and of the meat from my father's knife. An essay by Hanna Neuschwander
What's the Use?
Why bother with history? Why bother at all? An essay by Robert Leo Heilman
The Bamboo Ceiling
Alex Tizon on how "Orientals" became "Asians." An excerpt from Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self
Origin Stories
The surprising beginnings of six of Oregons claims to fame
Small Man in a Big Country
Native language is just the first thing an immigrant family abandons in order to become American. An excerpt from Little Big Man: In Search of My Asian Self by Alex Tizon
What's Mine Is Yours
Editor Kathleen Holt on developing a capacity for solitude and a habit of self-reflection in her children
Mark My Words
Linguist Edwin Battistella on pronouns and the myth of a "me generation"
In Defense of Navel-Gazing
To understand the world, we must first understand ourselves. An essay by Jay Ponteri
Trapped in the Spotlight
What happens when quitting your job means quitting yourself? An essay by Courtenay Hameister
The Thing with Feathers
Joanna Rose on a writer's road trip gone wrong
You Remind Me of Me
Parent and child, strange and baffling creatures that are part, yet no part, of each other. An essay by Daniel Rivas
Posts
Readers write about "Me"
More Than Skin Deep
Scholar Naomi Zack on the science and social construction of race in America
One America?
A conversation between Gregory Rodriguez and Tomas Jimenez about American identity, race, immigration, and ideology.
Being Brown
Bobbie Willis Soeby on when skin lies and when skin tells the truth
Rodeo City
Pendleton has built its identity around a dogged loyalty to tradition. An essay by Sarah Mirk
A Region by Any Name
From Ecotopia to Cascadia Megaregion, visions of the Pacific Northwest have been secessionist in nature. An essay by Carl Abbott
Where Are You From?
Connecting to the places where we live. An essay by Wendy Willis
Clinging to the Dream
Why do Americans have such a hard time talking about class? An essay by Leigh van der Werff
Under God
Frances Bellamy and the origins of the Pledge of Allegiance. By Richard Ellis
Immobile Dreams
How did the trailer come to be a symbol of failure? An essay by Rebecca Hartman
The Image and Act of Communion
Editor's note
Unimaginable Riches
The unfamiliar offers its own rewards. An essay by Joanne Mulcahey
Laughing Into the Abyss
The existential howl of Jewish American humor. By Scott Nadelson
Seen Though Not Heard
In the designs on a Klikitat basket, a woman finds an unspoken link to her past. An essay by Christine Dupres