Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley
Oregon Indigenous historian David G. Lewis combines years of researching historical documents and collecting oral stories, highlighting Native perspectives about the history of the Willamette Valley as they experienced it.
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.
Earthly Delights
Katherine Cusumano writes about the unexpected abundance of urban plant life.
Imagine a City
Over seventy years after the historic Vanport flood, a new community takes root through memory and storytelling. An essay by Kelly Bosworth.
Flavors of Being
Minal Mistry on reconnecting with the spices of his ancestors.
A Clean Drop of Water
Jose Abrego Melendez writes about how water contamination in Northeast Oregon has affected his community.
This Place
Each week on This Place, we ask one Oregonian to tell us about the places that matter to them. What is it like to be where you are?
The Long View
An excerpt from Stephen Most's book River of Renewal explores myth and restoration in the Klamath Basin.
The Flow Below
Josephine Woolington writes about learning to see the hidden springs and streams that shape Portland.
Becoming Water Wise
Natalie Olsen explores how residents of the Deschutes River Basin are adapting a century-old water management system for a drought-persistent era.
Channeling the Stories of the Local Watershed
Taking inspiration from an unlikely source, a new production by Sarah Fox spotlights the interconnected narratives of the Columbia River Gorge.
Editor's Note: Currents
Ben Waterhouse on the complexity of telling stories about water in Oregon
The Power of Community Spaces
Joni Kabana writes about how the Spray General Store is bridging divides.
People, Places, Things: Paul Knauls, Portland
A photo of Paul Knauls, the unofficial mayor of Northeast Portland, by Emily Fitzgerald
Every September in Pendleton
Olivia Wolf writes about people for whom the Pendleton Round-Up and Happy Canyon show are about more than spectacle—they’re a family legacy.
Our Encampments
An excerpt from Jessica E. Johnson's memoir, "Mettlework: A Mining Daughter on Making Home"
In the Company of Cougars
Carrie Walker writes about navigating fear and awe in the outdoors.
Unwritten
Jessica Yen on the anxieties and frustrations of parenting in multiple languages.
Ponderosas and Junipers
George James Kenagy writes about the trees that defined his childhood and his family ties to Central Oregon.
Rural Places
Stacey Rice talks to three older LGBTQ+ adults about living and building community in rural Oregon.
Treasures
Sam Mowe on Buddhism, heritage, and his family home
Losing the Forest for the Trees
Juliet Grable writes about how a massive die-off of white fir has unsettled the mountain community in Southern Oregon where she lives.
Room 5
Adam Sawyer writes about finding hope and healing in a hundred-year-old hotel on the Oregon Coast
For the People
Jordan Hernandez writes about how Oregon libraries are responding to the evolving needs of their communities.
Creation Stories
Melissa Bennett writes about the bittersweet search for her Indigenous roots as a transracial adoptee.
We Will Be Here
Lana Jack writes about the mourning, resilience, and resistance of the Celilo Wy-am.
So Much Together: Staged Frights
What happens when a community bands together around a playful, creative cause? In this workshop, Haunt Camp program director JR Rymut will share how a rural community can be a perfect and unexpected incubator of avant-garde art.
Cascadian Gothic
Sabra Boyd writes about experiencing a timely kindness as a homeless teenager in Portland.
From the Director: Grounding
Adam Davis on not knowing where we will be buried
“My Heart Belongs Where the Trees Are”
Community Storytelling Fellow Bruce Poinsette explores Black placemaking in Eastern Oregon.
Purple Prairie
Josephine Woolington on how tribal members and conservationists are trying, camas patch by camas patch, to create a patchwork of native prairie in the Willamette Valley. An excerpt from Where We Call Home: Lands, Seas, and Skies of the Pacific Northwest
Stretching Toward the Sun
T. Nguyen writes about moving from Vietnam to Eastern Oregon
Gray Matters
Ryan Pfeil on how the challenges of 2020 affected his work, family, and memory
Woksemi
In this video—the first in a series of stories about life in Oregon called Yamatala—filmmaker Ke-As Ne-Asht Sheshatko follows a family on the Klamath Tribes' reservation during Woksemi, or Wokas harvest season.
Adventures on the Turtle's Back
Joe Whittle writes about hiking canyons in the Wallowa Mountains with people whose ancestors traveled those lands since time immemorial.
"Just Go Do It"
Bruce Poinsette explores the stories of three Black Muslim community leaders in Oregon.
Editor's Note
In this issue, we explore how we remember and forget, as individuals and communities. Who and what do we remember? How are memories made and lost? And what, if anything, do they mean?
Mëshatàm Lënapehòkink: I remember the land of the Lenape
A photoessay by Joe Whittle about finding joy and mourning on four journeys home.
A Winner Every Time
Sallie Tisdale on a memorable night at the fair and the untrustworthy nature of remembering.
So Much Together: Writing on the Landscape
The public statues and markers we build are meant to tell stories and mark place. We know that their meaning goes far deeper than the surface. As debates over controversial monuments and memorials have occurred in the past number of years, statues have come down, sparking discussion about what should go up in their place and laying the groundwork for us to consider how we might go about that in new ways. Join David Harrelson and Jess Perlitz in this workshop, where they will share thoughts and considerations about the contemporary monument and memorial discussion. Using two proposals submitted by Grand Ronde as test cases, they will discuss some of the ideas and issues at stake. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in smaller group conversation to talk about what is being debated, how we go about reimagining, and what examples we already have that we can turn to for guidance and inspiration.
Not a Circle, Not a Line
Susan DeFreitas writes about Ursula K. Le Guin's long view of the American West
People, Places, Things
Mike Vos offers a glimpse beyond our world into an alternate timeline, where nature reclaims the industrial landscape.
Five Cemeteries
Bija Gutoff writes about seeking serenity among old headstones after the sudden death of her father.
So Much Together - The People’s Park
Lauren Everett is a Portland-based artist, community activist, and researcher. In 2020, Lauren led the creation of the People’s Park, a temporary community space created on a vacant lot in the St. Johns neighborhood. In this two-part workshop, she will share the story of how the park came about, framed by a discussion about the ideology of property in the United States. Participants will collaborate to design their own community spaces and learn some of the basic practical aspects of doing this kind of project.
So Much Together - The People’s Park
Lauren Everett is a Portland-based artist, community activist, and researcher. In 2020, Lauren led the creation of the People’s Park, a temporary community space created on a vacant lot in the St. Johns neighborhood. In this two-part workshop, she will share the story of how the park came about, framed by a discussion about the ideology of property in the United States. Participants will collaborate to design their own community spaces and learn some of the basic practical aspects of doing this kind of project.
People, Places, Things
Chava Florendo's photo of her brother, Justice Florendo.
Flowers for Block 14
Holly Hisamoto on reckoning with race, erasure, grief, and belonging at Portland's Lone Fir Cemetery.
Glassed In
Wendy Wagner on seeing, being seen, and choosing not to see.
People, Places, Things
A photo of the Wood River by Paul Robert Wolf Wilson
Into the Woods
Dionisia Morales writes about what happened when she dragged her her father, a life-long New Yorker, to see the California Redwoods for the first time.
Solace
Stacey Rice writes about finding peace in the mountains of North Carolina.
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
Editors' Note: Outside
In this issue, we’ve taken an expansive view of what it means to be outside. In addition to stories about outdoor recreation and who gets to enjoy it, you’ll find stories of living outside, on city streets and amid the woods; stories about leaving the places we feel safe for work and about making new spaces outside the mainstream.
Steelhead
An excerpt from Tina Ontiveros's memoir, rough house.
People, Places, Things
Gwen Trice in Maxville, Oregon
Black Opera: Singing over Ourselves
Singer Onry writes about making a place for himself as a Black man in the white world of opera.
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.
The View from Council Crest
Ruby McConnell writes about revisiting the landscape of her sister's fatal overdose.
Indian Enough
Emma Hodges writes about how the "enduring colonialist notion" of blood quantum fails to encompass the complexity of Native identity.
The State That Timber Built—2012
Tara Rae Miner considers what Oregon owes to the struggling timber communities that helped shape the state’s identity in this essay from the 2012 “Here” issue.
The Air I Breathe—2014
Ifanyi Bell writes about growing up tolerated and underestimated in Portland in the 2014 “Quandary” issue.
If You've Made It This Far
An excerpt from Don Waters' memoir These Boys and Their Fathers
This Place Is Beautiful, This Place Is Gross
Sarah Cook writes about learning to see beauty and perseverance while living in The Dalles.
“Our Story on Our Territory”
Leslie Ann McMillan, an enrolled Chinook member, writes about how her people's lands were stolen and how they are starting to reclaim them.
Bridge City
Anna Vo writes on the dark side of local pride and the changes in our attitude toward place required to make Portland a welcoming home for all.
Process and Privilege
Cynthia Carmina Gómez writes about how efforts to rename a Portland street for César Chávez faced intense opposition, despite following a process that other petitions were allowed to circumvent.
Black Mark, Black Legend
Intisar Abioto writes about uncovering the lineage of Black artists in Portland.
Les Zaitz and Caitlyn May on Journalism in Rural Communities
A conversation with 2018 Emerging Journalists, Community Stories fellow Caitlyn May and Les Zaitz, her mentor for the fellowship, on the challenges and rewards of working as a journalist in rural communities in Oregon.
Emilly Prado and Inara Verzemnieks on Journalism and Representation
A conversation with 2018 Emerging Journalists, Community Stories fellow Emilly Prado and Inara Verzemnieks, her mentor for the fellowship, on questions of representation and responsibility in writing about immigration.
What I Do
Between writing, housekeeping, and mothering, my life is full. But I still feel pressure to make my mark, to show I was here. An essay by Jamie Passaro.
The Quiet and In-between Moments
Joni Renee Whitworth writes about finding closeness and queerness through touch.
Talking about Place, Race, and Family
An interview with Ezra Marcos Ayala, a photographer and father of three living in Ashland.
Editor's Note: Finite and Unpredictable
Editor Kathleen Holt writes about the settling and unsettling of an aging parent.
Family Ties
Emilly Prado writes about how changes to immigration legislation shape the lives of undocumented families in an excerpt from "More than Words," her project for Oregon Humanities' Emerging Journalists, Community Stories project.
Relearning Home
Mark Putney writes about finding belonging in a Willamette Valley hazelnut orchard after leaving the wilds of Kodiak, Alaska.
Letters from Home
Letters from four Oregonians about the places where they live, from our 2018 Dear Stranger project.
Looking Forward, Looking Past
An excerpt from Emilly Prado's upcoming story about undocumented and mixed-status families living in Oregon.
Creating Connection Across Oregon
Bridging Oregon and Dear Stranger are starting conversations about the places we call home.
A Lot to Ask of a Name
Natchee Blu Barnd on how Native American names are used as symbols in white spaces
Out of the Woods
Ruby McConnell on meeting a lost boy in a Cascades forest
What Work Does a Street Sign Do?
A conversation with geographer Natchee Blu Barnd on how place-naming shapes perspectives of history related to Indigenous peoples in the US.
Unclaiming the Land
Melissa Madenski writes about leaving her home of forty years and what binds us to the places in our lives.
To Heart Mountain
Alice Hardesty travels to see the site of a World War II prison camp that her father designed.
Cuts and Blows
Tashia Harris on living without expectation of safety
Posts
Readers write about Harm
Read. Talk. Think.
Things that make you say O. Hm.
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.
What Is Mine
Editor Kathleen Holt on looking for identity in the post-colonial welter of midcentury Hawaii.
A City's Lifeblood
As efforts to clean up Portland Harbor begin, the communities most affected by pollution see a chance to reconnect to the Willamette River. By Julia Rosen
S'so's Tamales
Sal Sahme writes about finding his spiritual path as a boy on First Mesa.
The Orphan and the Oxbow
Matthew Minicucci writes about searching for the origin of a tiny sliver of public land in Marion County.
Posts
Readers write about Claim
Stake Your Place
The Cully neighborhood of Portland offers a glimpse at the complex racial, ethnic, and economic factors at play in a community trying to resist the forces of gentrification, displacement, and change.
Who is Not at the Table?
Filmmaker Ifanyi Bell reflects on the making of “Future: Portland 2”
The Numbers
As Portland's urban core has gentrified, thousands of residents have been displaced to neighborhoods east of 82nd Avenue, an area that locals call "The Numbers." In this video, young people living in The Numbers talk about their hopes for their community.
The Opposite of What We Know
Writer Putsata Reang reflects on the project "Bitter Harvest"
Bitter Harvest
Writer Putsata Reang and filmmaker Ivy Lin explore the stories of Chinese laborers in the 1900s who helped establish the state's reputation as an international beer capital, despite exclusion laws that kept them from owning the hop farms where they worked.
Walk On
An innovative program connects physical activity and memory to improve the health of Portland communities affected by change. An article by Marty Hughley with photos by Tojo Andrianarivo
Split
Lessons about men’s and women’s work divide a boy from his community. An essay by Ryan Stroud
Portland Expo Center: A Hidden History
This film produced by Jodi Darby for Oregon Humanities shares the experiences of Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in the Portland Expo Center during World War II.
Words Have Life
Filmmaker Sika Stanton reflects on the making of “An Oregon Canyon”
Facing the N-Word
Writer Donnell Alexander reflects on the making of “An Oregon Canyon”
An Oregon Canyon
In 2014, a canyon in Jefferson County was renamed for John A. Brown, one of the first Black homesteaders in Oregon. By Sika Stanton and Donnell Alexander
Sunday, Laundry Day
Every quarter counts in subsidized senior housing. An essay by Josephine Cooper
Bum Count
An excerpt about searching for lost sheep in the wilderness of Hells Canyon from Joseph author Pamela Royes’ book, Temperance Creek
"I'm Not Staying Here Another Day"
A conversation about the Great Migration with Isabel Wilkerson and Rukaiyah Adams
The Gift of a Known World
Oregon Humanities magazine editor Kathleen Holt on the power--and privilege--of rooting oneself to places
Just People Like Us
Writer Guy Maynard on a little-known history of a Southern Oregon community during World War II where prisoners of war were more welcome than US military of color
A Tremendous Force of Will
A conversation about the Great Migration's and the civil right movement with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson
Not Built for Ghosts
Writer Helen Hill on consequences she faced after leaving her beloved home in the hands of others
Stolen Land and Borrowed Dollars
Creative resistance bloomed in the lead up to the Vancouver Olympics. An excerpt from Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics by Jules Boykoff
Between Ribbon and Root
Hope and a history of tragedy live together in a Cowlitz woman's son. An essay by Christine Dupres
Posts
Readers write about Root
Rootedness
An essay by Brian Doyle
Whose State Is This?
Journalist Brent Walth on how legal measures targeting Latino Oregonians reflect fears of change.
Community in Flux
The long-persecuted Roma people begin to speak out. By Lisa Loving
Posts
Readers write about Move
A Temporary Insanity
Torn between the pull of family and the pull of home. An essay by Gail Wells
The Air I Breathe
Filmmaker Ifanyi Bell writes about growing up underestimated in Portland
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
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
Paradise
Tragedy on a hot summer day. An essay by Monica Drake
Where We Live Now
Abandoning the tragedy of the city for a new way of thinking and talking about place. An essay by Matthew Stadler
Designing the Good Life
Beauty is a desirable bonus when design improves our lives. An essay by Lisa Radon
What Remains
A search for the site of a notorious massacre in Hells Canyon
The Guilty Traveler
The complexities of being an American tourist in an inequitable world. An essay by Lucy Burningham
Neverland
The striking difference between travel and escape. An essay by Apricot Irving
The Crossing
A two-week journey toward hope and home. By Vicente Martinez.
Distance as an Illusion
John Yeon and the landscape arts of China and Japan. An essay by Kevin Nute