Throwing Rocks at Kesey's Big, White Moon
Daniel Dietz on reading the works of Eugene's most famous author sixty years after his heyday.
A Place to Be
Geneva Gano explores the stories of families with transgender children moving to Oregon in search of safety and belonging.
"Just Go Do It"
Bruce Poinsette explores the stories of three Black Muslim community leaders in Oregon.
Here Lies
Paul Susi writes about Chee Gong, a Chinese migrant laborer who was wrongfully convicted and executed in Portland on August 9, 1889.
"Farming Is So Much More than Food"
An interview with Megan Horst of Portland State University on the future of Oregon's food systems. By Dylan Jefferies
"Children Are Born Curious"
Olivia Wolf talks with Kali Ladd, director of the educational nonprofit KairosPDX, about the future of school in Oregon.
“We Know Who’s Got Our Six Now”
Bruce Poinsette considers the Father's Group, an intergenerational community group in Central Oregon, as an example for the future of Black-led organizing in Oregon.
People, Places, Things
Gwen Trice in Maxville, Oregon
Listening over Litigation
The High Desert Partnership provides a collaborative vision for Harney County.
Supporting Urgent Conversations
Responsive Program Grants help communities across Oregon respond to pressing issues and events.
What Can Bridge the Divide?
Yoko Ikeda shares her experience with Bridging Oregon, a monthly conversation series that explores the idea that we're divided as a state and asks how we can come together to create stronger, more resilient communities.
"Poetry Builds Community"
Kim Stafford is Oregon’s ninth Poet Laureate.
White Man's Territory
Kenneth R. Coleman writes about the exclusionary intent behind the 1850 Donation Land Act in this excerpt from his book, Dangerous Subjects: James D. Saules and the Rise of Black Exclusion in Oregon.
Finding Home at the Mims
From the 1940s to '60s, the Mims House was a safe place to stay for African Americans traveling through Oregon. Now it’s a gathering place for the Black community in Eugene. Video by Nisha Burton.
Reaching Back for Truth
Gwen Trice has spent the last fifteen years uncovering her father’s legacy and the history of Oregon’s Black loggers, who lived and worked in Wallowa County at a time when Oregon law excluded Blacks from the state.
Making Woodburn History
Gustavo Gutierrez-Gomez makes it his mission to get people together.
More to the Story
A grade-school musical offers educators and students a chance to reexamine history. An article by Marty Hughley with photos by Fred Joe
To Live More Free
Southern Oregonians describe the challenges and fears of working while being undocumented. With photos by Ezra Marcos Ayala and audio by Luis Rodriguez
The Opposite of What We Know
Writer Putsata Reang reflects on the project "Bitter Harvest"
Past Public Program Grant Recipients
Programs that have received Public Program Grants support since 2017
Feeling It All
Oregon Humanities magazine editor Kathleen Holt on the complicated and blurry lines between private rights and public good
The Farmers of Tanner Creek
Writer Putsata Reang on the little-known history of Chinese farmers and vegetable peddlers in Portland
Uncovered
Writer Donnell Alexander and photographer Kim Nguyen on one undocumented family's long wait for adequate health care
"I'm Not Staying Here Another Day"
A conversation about the Great Migration with Isabel Wilkerson and Rukaiyah Adams
Whose State Is This?
Journalist Brent Walth on how legal measures targeting Latino Oregonians reflect fears of change.
This Way through Oregon
Illustrating the systems that move salmon, waste, traffic, and legislation
My North Star
How Mumia Abu-Jamal Led Me to Activism. An essay by Walidah Imarisha
The River Fix
Journalist Valerie Rapp on the complexities of dam removal
Future: Portland
Civic leaders describe the loss of Portland's strong black communities and the hope of restoring them in the future in a video by Ifanyi Bell.
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
Origin Stories
The surprising beginnings of six of Oregons claims to fame
The Thing with Feathers
Joanna Rose on a writer's road trip gone wrong
Posts
Readers write about "Me"
Into the Welter
Editor Kathleen Holt on cities as more than just places
This Land Planned for You and Me
J. David Santen Jr. on what Oregon's communities look like forty years after the passage of Senate Bill 100
Belonging and Connection
Bette Lynch Husted on imperfect small-town life in Pendleton.
On the River
Debra Gwartney on learning to love the isolation of her adopted home on the McKenzie River.
A Hidden History
Walidah Imarisha on revealing the stories and struggles of Oregon’s African American communities.
Rodeo City
Pendleton has built its identity around a dogged loyalty to tradition. An essay by Sarah Mirk
Water Wars
Journalist J. David Santen Jr. on how battles, compromises, and resolutions abound in a state flush with water.
Here Now
Editor Kathleen Holt on the many meanings of place
The State That Timber Built
Tara Rae Miner on what Oregon owes the struggling timber communities that helped shape the state’s identity
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
The Newcomers
The boundaries between "what was" and "what is." An essay by Dionisia Morales
Uprockin' the Rose City
The community that hip hop built in Portland. An article by Walidah Imarisha
Second-Chance Family
Rajneeshpuram has come and gone: what keep believers bound to one another? By Marion Goldman
Shooting the Lions
Two cousins try to revive the family circus with tragic results. By Susan Meyers
Drown
Two rivers; two Western tales of hubris
Second Opinions
Camela Raymond asks economists, activists, public officials, and financiers for advice for Oregon's ailing economy.
Continual Watching
Historian Bob Bussel on Oregon's long history of protecting workers
What Remains
A search for the site of a notorious massacre in Hells Canyon