Join us on Thursday, June 18 for a conversation with the extraordinary poet and novelist Naomi Shihab Nye about nations and communities. What makes this nation, the United States, what it is? How do nations change over time, and what moves those changes? How do communities become what we hope them to be? How should we strive to live together in community?
Naomi Shihab Nye was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Palestinian father and an American mother. During her high school years, she lived in Ramallah in Palestine and the Old City in Jerusalem. She is the author of several collections of poetry as well as the young-adult novel Habibi. She currently lives in San Antonio, Texas.
This conversation is part of our 2025–26 Consider This series, Beyond 250. 2026 will be the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and we’re looking at what this milestone means: How do we think about and experience equality, freedom, independence, tyranny, justice, union, and other ideas central to the Declaration and to our nation’s understanding of itself? How has the Declaration shaped the country we live in today, and how might we shape its future?
Tickets
General admission tickets are $15. Tickets are available from the Alberta Rose Theatre website and box office.
To ensure that everyone who wants to attend is able to, a limited number of tickets are available for free. Use this form to request a free ticket.
Other ways to participate
Can't make it in person? Tune in from anywhere! The conversation will be streamed live, for free, on our YouTube channel, and will remain available for viewing after the program.
About our guest
Naomi Shihab Nye is the author of numerous poetry collections, including Grace Notes: Poems about Family (Greenwillow Bookss, 2024); Cast Away: Poems for Our Time (Greenwillow Books, 2020); The Tiny Journalist (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2019); Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (Greenwillow Books, 2018); Transfer (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2011); You and Yours (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2005), which received the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award; and 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (Greenwillow Books, 2002), a collection of new and selected poems. She is also the author of several books of poetry and fiction for children, including Habibi (Simon Pulse, 1997), for which she received the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award in 1998.
Nye’s poems and short stories have appeared in various journals and reviews throughout North America, Europe, and the Middle and Far East. She has traveled to the Middle East and Asia for the United States Information Agency (USIA) three times, promoting international goodwill through the arts. Nye’s other honors include awards from the International Poetry Forum and the Texas Institute of Letters, the Charity Randall Citation from the International Poetry Forum, the National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award, and four Pushcart Prizes.
About the venue
Mobility access: The Alberta Rose Theatre is a wheelchair-accessible venue. Anyone who uses a wheelchair or other mobility device can reserve an accessible seat at the venue by emailing house@albertarosetheatre.com in advance of the event. Accessible bathrooms are to the right of the theater entrance.
Parking: Free parking is available in the neighborhood around the theater. Parking spaces often fill up quickly. There is one disabled person parking space less than one block away on NE 30th Ave., in front of Emmanuel Church of God in Christ United, but the space does not have a curb cut or ramp. The closest disabled person parking space with curb cuts is four blocks west, at the southwest corner of Northeast 26th Avenue and Northeast Alberta Street. A map of disabled person parking spaces is available from the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
Public transit: The TriMet Line 72 bus stops in front of the theater. Lines 70 and 17 have stops within four blocks of the venue.
Food and drink: Beverages and limited food are available for purchase and may be consumed anywhere in the theater during the event. Outside food and beverages are not permitted.
Lighting: The venue has appropriate overhead lighting before and after the conversation. During the conversation, lights are dimmed with staged lighting facing the stage. Lights in the lobby/bar remain on during the program. The auditorium does not have floor lighting in the aisles.
Sound: There will be music at a moderate volume before and after the event.
Read more about the Alberta Rose Theatre.
If you need accommodations to participate in this event, please email programs@oregonhumanities.org by January 22.
Thanks to our funders
Consider This is made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Oregon Cultural Trust, The Standard, and Susan Hammer Fund of Oregon Community Foundation
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