Special Projects

Four Questions: Virtue, Community, Love, and Justice in the Theater, Gerding Theater at the Armory, Portland, April 2008

A series of lively conversations about questions that have inspired and confounded great thinkers and writers through the ages, presented in cooperation with Portland Center Stage.

Over the course of four weeks, registered participants, led by facilitators, discussed four questions using scenes from four plays: Spinning into Butter by Rebecca Gilman, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel, and Radio Golf by August Wilson.

Four Questions is based on OCH's Humanity in Perspective, a free public course in the humanities for low-income adults.

Four Questions: Virtue, Community, Love, and Justice in the Theater, Gerding Theater at the Armory, Portland, April 2007

A series of lively conversations about questions that have inspired and confounded great thinkers and writers through the ages, presented in cooperation with Portland Center Stage and Reed College.

Over the course of four weeks, registered participants, led by Reed College professors, discussed four questions using scenes from four plays: Oedipus Rex, Antigone, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Crucible.

Four Questions is based on OCH's Humanity in Perspective, a free public course in the humanities for low-income adults.

On Principle, 2006-07

In 2006-07, OCH worked with Oregonians in Astoria, Lincoln City, and Eastern Oregon on a reading and discussion series called On Principle, which focused on five core principles of democracy: individual freedom, equality, economic opportunity, justice, and civic engagement. The program offered citizens the chance to explore important hallmarks of American democracy in a forum where everyone is welcome to participate. On Principle was designed to encourage a variety of viewpoints, active participation, and careful listening. The fall 2006 issue of Oregon Humanities was also address the program's five core principles.

View On Principle microsite



Four Questions for Humanity, Pendleton, October 2005

This four-part reading and discussion series explored questions of fundamental importance to the citizens of a democracy: What is the relationship between an individual and his or her community? What is the nature of love and desire? What is the relationship between power and justice? What is the role of knowledge in virtuous actions? Guided by faculty from Reed College in Portland, participants looked at the ways in which these questions have been explored in ancient Athens and modern America, and discussed how we, as reflective citizens, can answer these questions in our own time.

Four Questions for Humanity is based on Humanity in Perspective, a course OCH has offered for the last four years to adults living in poverty in Portland. OCH is partnering with the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton to bring a HIP course to inmates. In addition, OCH offered this condensed lecture series to interested members of the Pendleton community.

"A Voice in the Crowd: The Art Exhibit and the Citizen," Whitsell Auditorium of the Portland Art Museum, October 21, 2005

OCH offered this free, public lecture on the public art exhibit and civic life by William Ray, Reed College professor of French and humanities.

"Allegiances: A Public Conversation," Portland, September 11, 2005

In commemoration of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Multnomah County Library, City Club of Portland, and Oregon Council for the Humanities held a town meeting to discuss the values and ideas that define Americans. "Allegiances: A Public Conversation" was facilitated by poet and essayist Kim Stafford and State Senator Margaret Carter.

"Belonging to the Rest of the World: Shakespeare's Message of Hope," Medford and Ashland, May 12 and 13, 2005

OCH offered this free, public lecture by Agnes Wilcox, artistic director of Prison Performing Arts in St. Louis, Missouri, on the power of theater to change people's lives.

"The Truth of the Barnacles: Rachel Carson and the Moral Significance of Wonder," Newport, March 4, 2005

In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of Rachel Carson's The Edge of the Sea, OCH presented this free, public lecture by Oregon State University professor of philosophy Kathleen Dean Moore.