Landlocked
Andrea Camacho writes about home, migration, and places of refuge.
We Contain Multitudes
Joon Ae Haworth-Kaufka on how BIPOC adoptees are rewriting the mainstream adoption narrative
People, Places, Things: BLK&GLD
Portraits of family members by Oregon photographer John Adair
So Much Together: Unpacking Our Past
Oregon has a particularly unique history of racial injustice that in some ways mirrors and in other ways is distinct from the larger history of racial oppression that exists in our nation as a whole. As Oregonians, we’ve inherited these histories, and their legacies connect to present-day injustices. But what does it look like to confront them, as individuals and communities? And beyond that, how might we come together to shape those histories being written today?
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.
“My Heart Belongs Where the Trees Are”
Community Storytelling Fellow Bruce Poinsette explores Black placemaking in Eastern Oregon.
“We Are the Original Conservationists”
Jennifer Perrine writes about Oregonians of color working in the environmental justice movement.
"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 1889.
We Know What We've Experienced
Jennifer Perrine writes about how Wild Diversity is making outdoor spaces safer for BIPOC & LGBTQ+ communities.
Here Lies
Paul Susi writes about Chee Gong, a Chinese migrant laborer who was wrongfully convicted and executed in Portland on August 9, 1889.
We're Here for Each Other
Jennifer Perrine writes about how Oregonians of color are building relationships in the outdoors.
Beyond Pigmentocracy
Chance White Eyes and Rachel L. Cushman write about how racism, representation, and internalized oppression affect their family
Who Gets to Fight Climate Change?
JL Jiang on navigating climate activism as a second-generation Asian American
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.
Beyond Capacity
Paul Susi writes about racism, the pandemic, and rage at a severe-weather homeless shelter.
People, Places, Things
Tabitha Espina remixes the Oregon Department of Energy’s 2020 statement on climate change and energy in Oregon.
The New Americans
Brian Liu on David Chang's Ugly Delicious, honesty, and what it means to be Asian American.
Flowers for Block 14
Holly Hisamoto on reckoning with race, erasure, grief, and belonging at Portland's Lone Fir Cemetery.
“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.
Fermenting My Asian American Identity
Jen Shin writes about how a summer in Vietnam helped her embrace her Korean heritage.
Tutoring the Kingpin
May Maylisa Cat writes about how helping a friend apply for the citizenship exam revived memories of her own experiences of educational discrimination and marginalization.
I Dream an Oregon
Trying to get Oregonians to invest in antiracism left me frustrated and disillusioned. But I’m still pushing. An essay by Bruce Poinsette
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.
Taking Up Space
Mareshah “MJ” Jackson writes about how the story of Blackness in the outdoors is more than a narrative of tragedy.
People, Places, Things
Gwen Trice in Maxville, Oregon
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.
Black Opera: Singing over Ourselves
Singer Onry writes about making a place for himself as a Black man in the white world of opera.
The Struggles That Unite Us
Eric K. Ward reflects on how the idea of the urban-rural divide only serves to separate us.
Indian Enough
Emma Hodges writes about how the "enduring colonialist notion" of blood quantum fails to encompass the complexity of Native identity.
The Air I Breathe—2014
Ifanyi Bell writes about growing up tolerated and underestimated in Portland in the 2014 “Quandary” issue.
Good Hair—2017
Kimberly Melton writes about the meaning of hair and going natural despite family and society expectations in the 2017 “Carry” issue.
Our Most-read Stories of 2019
Our readers' favorite articles and videos from the past year explore housing and exclusion, hidden histories, race, gender, and poverty.
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.
Intisar Abioto and Kimberly A. C. Wilson on the Stories of Black Artists in Oregon
A conversation with 2018 Emerging Journalists, Community Stories fellow Intisar Abioto and Kimberly A. C. Wilson, her mentor for the fellowship, on celebrating Black presence and creativity in Oregon.
Talking about Place, Race, and Family
An interview with Ezra Marcos Ayala, a photographer and father of three living in Ashland.
Civil Discourse and Civil Resistance
Oregon Humanities’ 2018–19 Think & Drink series examines themes of journalism and justice.
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.
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.
Our Most-read Stories of 2018
Our readers' favorite articles and videos from the past year explore stories of identity, place, and belonging.
Croppings: Enrique Chagoya, Reverse Anthropology
Through January 27, 2019, at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art
Croppings: The Casta Paintings
Multimedia works by Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez at the Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland
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.
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.
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.
Becoming Asian
Scot Nakagawa explores the roots of race and the model minority myth
Field Work: People in Motion
The University of Oregon’s Wayne Morse Center explores borders, migration, and belonging.
Protecting Inequality
Anoop Mirpuri on the economic causes of racist policing
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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”
Within Makeshift Walls
Author Eric Gold on the Portland Expo Center’s era as a prison for Japanese Americans during World War II.
The Farmers of Tanner Creek
Writer Putsata Reang on the little-known history of Chinese farmers and vegetable peddlers in Portland
"I'm Not Staying Here Another Day"
A conversation about the Great Migration with Isabel Wilkerson and Rukaiyah Adams
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
In the Land of the New
Mexican immigrants find home in el nuevo South. An excerpt from Translation Nation by Héctor Tobar
Community in Flux
The long-persecuted Roma people begin to speak out. By Lisa Loving
My North Star
How Mumia Abu-Jamal Led Me to Activism. An essay by Walidah Imarisha
Posts
Readers write about Safe
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.
Magazine Podcast: Quandary
Talking about Ferguson, feminism, and filling out forms with Oregon Humanities magazine contributors
The Late Show
Journalist Nigel Duara on the media becoming part of the story in the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri.
Boxed In
Writer Wendy Willis ponders which race to check and which people to leave behind when asked about her racial and ethnic background.
The Air I Breathe
Filmmaker Ifanyi Bell writes about growing up underestimated in Portland
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 It Means to Say Portland
Mitchell S. Jackson on the experience of growing up Black in North and Northeast Portland.
A Hidden History
Walidah Imarisha on revealing the stories and struggles of Oregon’s African American communities.
Dangerous Subjects
An excerpt from R. Gregory Nokes's book Breaking Chains looks back at Oregon's history of exclusionary laws.
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.
Picture Their Hearts
Dionisia Morales looks back at her parents interracial marriage before the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
Being Brown
Bobbie Willis Soeby on when skin lies and when skin tells the truth
My Brother, the Keeper
A woman tries to understand her brother's need to hoard. An essay by Dmae Roberts
Uprockin' the Rose City
The community that hip hop built in Portland. An article by Walidah Imarisha
Legally White
Muslim immigrants vie for citizenship in the early twentieth century. By Kambiz Ghaneabassiri
What Remains
A search for the site of a notorious massacre in Hells Canyon