Beyond 250: Conversations About Democracy and Community
Throughout 2026, Oregon Humanities will get Oregonians together to talk about democracy, freedom, and what it means to be an American—today and into the future.
Consider This: The Stories We Tell About Our Nations with Colum McCann
Join us for a conversation with Colum McCann, award-winning writer and founder of Narrative 4. February 3, 2026, at the Alberta Rose Theatre in Portland and online.
Consider This with Akhil Reed Amar: La Grande live stream
Join Oregon Humanities staff for a live screening of our Consider This conversation with Akhil Reed Amar, one of the nation's leading thinkers on constitutional law and history.
Blood Money
Vanessa Veselka writes about poverty, precarity, and plasma.
Finding a Voice as an Advocate for Others
Sosan Amiri and Rozzell Medina speak about power, justice, education, and community.
People, Places, Things
Lana Jack (Celilo Wy-am) performs a dance in honor of her ancestors, photographed by Josué Rivas.
From the Director: The Great Divide
Adam Davis on communicating and connecting across divides.
Neither Here nor There
Kiki Nakamura-Koyama writes about her struggle to fit in across continents and how she is empowered to change that experience for her students.
To Heart Mountain
Alice Hardesty travels to see the site of a World War II prison camp that her father designed.
People Aren’t Illegal
Photographer Ezra Marcos Ayala reflects on the making of “To Live More Free”
Making Peace with Chaos
Author Zahir Janmohamed and photographer Tojo Andrianarivo profile student refugees living and thriving in Portland despite uncertainty.
Within Makeshift Walls
Author Eric Gold on the Portland Expo Center’s era as a prison for Japanese Americans during World War II.
Civil Rights with Guns
Are there alternatives to police that could keep communities safe? Author Kristian Williams discusses lessons from the Black Freedom Movement.
The Problem with the Immigration Problem
Elliot Young writes about the origins of the belief that immigrants harm our society
Damaged
When disaster strikes, sanity is a matter of degree. An essay by Evelyn Sharenov
Boxed In
Writer Wendy Willis ponders which race to check and which people to leave behind when asked about her racial and ethnic background.
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
Who's Minding Your Business?
A conversation with writer William T. Vollmann on privacy, surveillance, and hope
A Hidden History
Walidah Imarisha on revealing the stories and struggles of Oregon’s African American communities.
One America?
A conversation between Gregory Rodriguez and Tomas Jimenez about American identity, race, immigration, and ideology.
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
Legally White
Muslim immigrants vie for citizenship in the early twentieth century. By Kambiz Ghaneabassiri
A Nation of Can-Do Optimists
A brief history of American cheerfulness by Ariel Gore
The Working Class
Bette Lynch Husted argues that hard times are good times to rethink our attitudes about the fungibility of workers.