A Chronology of OCHC Events
2006- 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 – 7 pm
Mississippi Mud’s Designer-Editor Joel Weinstein
His inspiring roles in NW and international creative culture
with Lynn Darroch, Susan Gustafson, John Laursen, et al
Sunday, February 1 - 2:30 pm, 2009 (rescheduled from an earlier date)
Artist-Designer Doug Lynch – Bridging Graphic and Fine Art –
Oregon’s oldest living WPA artist’s rich career
with Sarah Munro, Spence Gill, Don Condit, et al
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 – 7 pm Sesquicentennial Special
Artist-Basketmaker Pat Courtney Gold
A career built on a platform of Wasco fishing culture on the Columbia River
Saturday, February 14, 2009, St. Valentine’s Day –
Celebrate Oregon’s 150th birthday, our Sesquicentennial, in your own special way
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 – 7 pm Sesquicentennial Special
Authors Shannon Applegate, Molly Gloss and Jane Kirkpatrick
Three brilliant authors trialogue on women’s role in
forging an Oregon consciousness on the land
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Historian E. Kimbark MacColl – His Civic Vision Shapes Portland Today
with Harry Stein, Jewell Lansing, David Bragdon, et al
Produced in conjunction with Portland State University’s Friends of History
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 – 7 pm
Master Artist-Educator George Johanson
A 6-decade career retrospective across wide-ranging art disciplines
Thursday – Saturday, May 14 - 16, 2009
Another World Instead: Symposium on Oregon Poet Laureate William Stafford
with Dorothy Stafford, Tim Barnes, Kim Stafford, Fred Marchant, Paul Merchant, and several TBA
Produced in conjunction with Friends of William Stafford, Lewis and Clark College and the NW Film Center
Some Stafford program elements will have an admission fee.
Discovering Oregon Originals—Spring 2008
11th Season of programs from Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission
March: “Sometimes a Great Notion” and the Kesey Legacy
Friday, March 21, 2008—7 pm Free at First Unitarian Church, SW 12th & Salmon Street
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1963) and Sometimes a Great Notion (1964), Ken Kesey’s initial books, made his reputation. A University of Oregon graduate, he studied with Wallace Stegner at Stanford, with a stellar cast of fellow students including Wendell Berry, Ed McClanahan, Larry McMurtry, Robert Stone, and long-time collaborator Ken Babbs.
Anticipating the April 4 world premiere of Aaron Posner’s stage adaptation of Sometimes a Great Notion at Portland Center Stage, speakers who knew him personally for decades will focus on Kesey’s creative career.
Presenters: Gretchen Douglas, Boyd Harris, Walt Curtis, Mark Christensen & Aaron Posner
Special Addition: Betty MacDonald—Of Eggs and Cures on her100th Birthday
Wed, March 26, 2008—4 pm Free at Hollywood Branch Library, NE 41st & Tillamook
Let us never forget the incomparable author of The Egg and I, The Plague and I, and the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books, a NW original whose centennial is upon us. Rare guest appearance: Rhonda Kennedy as Mrs. P.W. Presenter: David Milholland
April: Return of The Impossibilists
First Thursday, April 3, 2008—6 pm on Rake Gallery, 325 NW 6th
Monthly Art Opening features massive Impossibilist stable alongside Rake regulars
Friday, April 4, 2008—7 pm Free at First Unitarian Church, SW 12th & Salmon Street
Semi Tilt Exposure with Tom Cassidy [aka Spaceangel], Mark Sargent & troops
To wit…a visual and poetic feast for imaginative minds
Saturday, April 5—8 pm 2008 Rake Gallery, 325 NW 6th
Full Tilt Exposure with Mark Sargent, Tom Cassidy, Ijme vanSloten et al
Jazz, Poetry & much more…
Tuesday, April 15 [Tax Day 2008]—8 pm Rake Gallery, 325 NW 6th
Premier Portland Poets—In the Spirit of The Impossibilists
Featuring: Mark Sargent, Leanne Grabel, Dan Raphael, Barbara LaMorticella,
Walt Curtis, James Honzik & Casey Bush
In the early 1970s, Portland became home to The Impossibilists. This ofttimes madcap movement is rooted in poetic expression and riveted to a world of creative possibilities, including music, theater and art. Their traces are legion and their energy has little flagged. This set of events will capture them at full throttle, here from Sparta, Greece, the Twin Cities, all over the West and quite likely nebulae beyond our known universe.
Please join us in welcoming them back. Prepare to meet your many makers.
May: “Welcome to the Scriptorium”—Calligrapher & Teacher Lloyd Reynolds
Sunday, May 18—3 pm Free at First Unitarian Church, SW 12th & Salmon Street
Presenters: Jaki Svaren, Bill Gunderson, Lois Leonard & others TBA
Few creative figures have had the local and global impact of Lloyd Reynolds, Oregon’s only Calligrapher Laureate, whose holistic view of design has influenced generations of local calligraphers and image makers, poet Gary Snyder, Apple’s Steve Jobs, and local politics and economy in ways this program will reveal.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 – 7:30 pm
Metaphors of Dissent – Mr. Cogito Brings Us Voices from Beyond our Borders
with John M. Gogol, Charles Seluzicki and Walt Curtis
All too few know of the remarkable links between dissident poets of Eastern Europe and nations worldwide and several enlightened publishers here in Oregon. For some two decades Mr. Cogito, a press based at Pacific University in Forest Grove, co-edited by John M. Gogol and Robert A. Davies, published exceptional poets in translation whose voices were being stifled in their own lands. These writers’ delight at being read beyond their borders stiffened their resolve to speak boldly about their own situations and perceptions. Charles Seluzicki, in several publications, including his Trace Press edition of Zbigniew Herbert of then East Germany, joined Mr. Cogito in this effort.
Poems they printed from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and the U.S will be read. The publishers will discuss their motives and enthusiasm, the value of translating and presenting authors from other lands, and how such efforts can go forward.
&& 6:00 pm Presidential Debate – Join us before the program for the final debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, live with a lively audience. Metaphors of Dissent will follow immediately.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Kesey fellow Ed McClanahan is in town Wed. November 5 at 7:30 pm to read from his new book O Clear the Moment at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 West Burnside. Please join OCHC at a post-reading reception /no-host bar for Ed at Cassidy’s, 1331 SW Washington, just 5 blocks walk from Powell’s. It begins around 8:30 pm and will continue until we all crumble in post-election frazzle. Of O Clear the Moment, the Oregonian’s Jeff Baker says: “…the yarns McClanahan spins start as truth and get stretched into something wilder and funnier.” Allison Hallett in the Portland Mercury writes: “McClanahan’s skills as a humorist are predicated on a deep respect for the language, and the book’s best moments come when McClanahan indulges in the rhetorical flourishes that make his lowbrow subject matter all the funnier.” Ed McClanahan was last with us for our November 2003 Ken Kesey events. He served as editor of the 7th and final edition of the Kesey-founded magazine Spit in the Ocean. Please welcome Ed to our fair city once again.
Sunday, November 23, 2008 – 2 pm
He Gave Us His Heart: Portland Opera’s Maestro Herbert Weiskopf
with Christopher Mattaliano, Doug & Marta Weiskopf, Dory Hylton, David Hedges et al
In his brief but historically significant years as the second director of Portland Opera, Maestro Herbert Weiskopf [1903-1970] married a rare mix of professionalism and passion. A native of Austria, and long-time musical figure in St. Louis and Los Angeles, between 1966 and 1970 Weiskopf transformed the Portland Opera into a professional community organization that attracted international stars while grooming local and regional talent. He worked hard to bring local singers up to the standards of talented performers from California, the East Coast, and Europe, establishing what the Oregon Journal called, “a first-rate opera company.”
At the conclusion of Lucia de Lammermoor in his 4th season, Weiskopf took an unprecedented solo curtain call and retired to his dressing room. Within a few hours his heart stopped beating. This program will examine Maestro Weiskopf’s contributions to Portland musical culture and link those early years with the state of Portland Opera today. Wanda Weiskopf, his widow, biographer, and a talented poet will also be invoked.
Produced in conjunction with Portland Opera