1991 - 2002
May 12, 1991 (Mother's Day) Hazel Hall House
First Performance - Scenes from Sue Mach's Monograms
A deeply moving reading of selected scenes from local playwright Sue Mach's first full-length drama, based on the life of poet Hazel Hall. It was performed on Mother's Day, 1991 in the very room in which Hall wrote her poetry. Hall died on Mother's Day, 1924.
Performers: Vana O'Brien: Hazel Hall, Sue Mach: Ruth Hall; Hosts Joan Sears and Gerry Itkin
October 22, 1991 Pioneer Courthouse Square
Press Conference - OCHC Announces its Arrival and Mission
The OCHC Board, newly appointed by Mayor Bud Clark, picked John Reed's 104th Birthday to announce its formal existence and outlined plans to become a cultural presence and raise the profile of our cultural roots.
August 9, 1992
Old Church
Premiere Reading - Monograms
This OCHC-sponsored performance was the final act of the 1992 Portland Poetry Festival dedicated to poet Hazel Hall of Portland. The event drew a sizeable audience and helped launch a subsequent "bidding war" among the most prestigious Portland theaters for the right to stage the play.
Readers: Joanna Goff, Alyson Ayn Osborn, Don Alder and Scot Douglas
November 8, 1992 Cody's Cafe [now Il Fornaio] directly behind the Hazel Hall House
The Stars Come Out for Hazel
In which some of Portland's best voices read poems by, and statements about, the work of Hazel Hall. It was a fundraiser for the Hall Memorial, to be unveiled 2½ years later, on Mother's Day, 1995 (See Exhibit B, page 41).
Presenters: Sue Mach, Katherine Dunn, Leanne Grabel, Ginnie Cooper, Margie Boulé, Vern Rutsala, Walt Curtis, Anne Hughes, Sally Lawrence, Chuck Duffy, Marian Wood Kolisch, Martha Ullman West, David A. Horowitz, Tim Barnes
Nov. 23 - Dec. 19, 1993 Portland Repertory Theater Stage II
Premiere Staging - Monograms
After winning the rights to stage this exciting theatrical debut, Portland Repertory brought Sue Mach's drama to life in a noteworthy production. OCHC was given the opportunity to speak briefly before most performances, raising community consciousness of Hall's importance as a poet, and expanding our base of enthusiasm for the creation of the Hall Memorial. Monograms moved to PRT's main stage in 1994.
Cast: Kelly Brooks: Hazel Hall, Sarah Lucht: Ruth Hall, Sam A. Mowry: Vachel Lindsay, Mark Schwan: Mr. Kidd, Bruce Burkhartsmeier: Director
May 7, 1994 (Mother's Day Eve) Metropolitan Learning Center (MLC)
Hazel Hall Symposium & Celebration - A Stitch in Time Seventy Years After
See Hall program
February 10, 1995 (Mother's Day) Metro Washington Park Zoo
Penny Avila Plaque Dedication
Penny Avila, a longstanding presence in the poetry community, was honored with a plaque at the Zoo, with which she'd been instrumental in creating its highly successful children's Valentine Poetry Contest.
Presenters: Zoo Director Sherry Sheng, poets David St. John, Christopher Merrill and David Hedges
May 14, 1995, Mother's Day Hazel Hall House, 106 NW 22nd Place
Unveiling - Hazel Hall Memorial Park
OCHC unveiled its first major memorial to a significant creative Oregonian at the home in which Hall wrote her verse. An earlier OCHC effort helped place the residence on the National Register of Historic Places.
Presenters: Sue Mach, Jonathan Nicholas, Katherine Dunn, Sandra Williams, Jane Glazer, Rob Tuttle, Walt Curtis, Brian Booth, Joan Sears, David A. Horowitz, Tim Barnes, John Laursen, and David Hedges
Winter, 1995 World Forestry Center
C.E.S. Woods - Poet in the Desert Photographs / Slide Show / Lecture by Ron Cronin
Photographer Ron Cronin generously donated one of his lovely large format framed works from the natural world of Harney County visited often and loved so much by Wood. OCHC raffled it during this Poet in the Desert presentation and thus initiated the OCHC fundraising effort that ultimately resulted in the C.E.S. Wood Memorial.
April 9, 1996 World Forestry Center
Stewart Holbrook aka Mr. Otis
A talk by Brian Booth on the writing of Stewart Holbrook and his painting under the nom de plume Mr. Otis, in conjunction with a showing of Otis' work in an adjacent gallery. The paintings are fanciful, the themes are fascinating and though reflections of an earlier era, also timeless.
July, 1996 H.L. Davis childhood home & Fort The Dalles
H.L. Davis Memorial Unveiling & Reading - The Dalles
OCHC joined citizens of The Dalles in honoring Pulitzer Prize winning and always controversial novelist and poet H.L. Davis with the unveiling of a plaque at his childhood home. It was the first memorial to Davis in his long-time home town. The group then repaired to a grove of trees outside Fort The Dalles, during which several enthusiasts shared recollections of Davis and read selections from his work.
Presenters: Barbara Davis, Bob Williams, David Hedges, Rick Rubin, and others
September 7, 1996 Mark Woolley Gallery [then Acanthus Gallery]
Writers of West Portland: A Guide to Portland's Literary Past - Release Party
Readers selected favorite writers to commemorate our literary past in this gathering to release our literary map/guide produced in conjunction with The Oregonian.
Presenters included: Sue Mach: Hazel Hall, Craig Lesley: Albert Richard Wetjen, Martha Gies: Vivien Bretherton, Virginia Euwer Wolff: Anthony Euwer, David Horowitz: Richard Neuberger, Dennis Stovall: Richard Gill Montgomery, Arlie Holt: Dean Collins, John Henley: Ben Hur Lampman, Bud Clark: Gary Snyder, Frank Meyers: Sam Simpson, map/guide developer Rob Tuttle, designer John Laursen, and others
October 24, 1996 Friendly House [NW 26th & Thurman]
Writers of West Portland: A Guide to Portland's Literary Past - 2nd Release
This program focused on writers who lived in NW Portland or on King's Hill.
Presenters: Ilka Kuznik: Louise Bryant, Tim Barnes: C.E.S. Wood, Jane Glazer and Sue Mach: Hazel Hall, Walt Curtis:Albert Richard Wetjen, Rob Tuttle:13 Oregon authors of The Loop.
August 9, 1992
Old Church
Premiere Reading - Monograms
This OCHC-sponsored performance was the final act of the 1992 Portland Poetry Festival dedicated to poet Hazel Hall of Portland. The event drew a sizeable audience and helped launch a subsequent "bidding war" among the most prestigious Portland theaters for the right to stage the play.
Readers: Joanna Goff, Alyson Ayn Osborn, Don Alder and Scot Douglas
January 16, 1997 Madison Room, Oregon Historical Society (OHS)
The Young John Reed and Portland's Bohemia (1st Discovering Oregon Originals Series)
A discussion of the early years of John Reed in Portland opened a collaborative series produced by the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission and staged at the Oregon Historical Society. Born and raised within the prominent Green family urban estate bordering Washington Park, John Reed's early years of carefree living were fostered his life-long obsession with the plight of the underdog and relations between social classes.
The program examines Portland's radical community at the turn of the century, Green and Reed family members and the multi-faceted Green family servant Lee Sing, who had an early influence on young John, the members of Portland's early 20th century "bohemia," the emergence of Reed's tumultuous relationship with Louise Bryant, and Reed's early writing.
Presenters: Fred DeWolfe [now deceased], with Michael Munk, Janet Kreft, and Andrés Berger
February 20, 1997 2nd Floor Gallery, OHS
Oregon's C.O. Camps - Intentional Creative Communities (Oregon Originals)
The WWII-era Waldport C.O. Camp, and later the Wyeth C.O. Camp, were homes to artists recruited from C.O. camps across the nation. The talk presented their creative community that emerged here, which included poet/publisher Bill Everson (Brother Antonious), poet and master bookcrafter Glen Coffield, and the remarkable creative energy unleashed in the aftermath of WWII up and down the West Coast and beyond.
Presenters: William Eshelman, with Charles Davis, Dorothy Stafford, and Brian Booth
April 17, 1997 2nd Floor Gallery, OHS
Women Artists of the WPA (Oregon Originals)
The WPA was perhaps the most exciting Roosevelt Administration Depression-era creation, which in Oregon embraced work done by Albert and Arthur Runquist, C.S. Price, and Martina Gangle Curl, Aimee Gorham, and Ed Quigley, among many others. This program looked at the role played by women in the WPA, both in Oregon and across the U.S.
Presenters: Susan Fillin-Yeh, curator, Cooley Gallery at Reed College, Trisha Kauffman of ArtSpace in Bay City, Oregon, and WPA-era collector Ron Ennis
May 15, 1997 2nd Floor Gallery, OHS
Rebels with a Cause: Marie Equi and Tom Burns (Oregon Originals)
The literature of early Portland is replete with references to radicals who made Portland a hot spot for labor organizing and women's rights. Two leading lights are Dr. Marie Equi, among the first women graduates of the University of Oregon Med School, and clockmaker Tom Burns, whose shop was a lending library and wobblie [IWW] hangout. Presenter Howard Morgn's talk became a chapter in the OSU Press book A Richer Harvest - The Literature of Work in the Pacific Northwest.
Presenters: Fred DeWolfe and Sandy Polishuk, historians, Portland, and Howard Morgan, McMinnville
June 19, 1997 Madison Room, OHS
The Many Lives of Stewart Holbrook (1893-1964) (Oregon Originals)
Stewart Holbrook, whose alter-ego was artist Mr. Otis, left an enduring legend in his writing, art, and the creative community of writers and affiliated artists. Brian Booth's OSU Press book Wildmen, Wobblies and Whistle Punks captures highlights of the Holbrook oeuvre, but no single book can capture the range and energy of this seminal Oregonian.
Presenter: Brian Booth; Readers: Ilka Kuznik, Brian Doyle and David Milholland
August 31, 1997 Free Speech Plaza by Civic Stadium
Tri-Met West Side Light Rail Opening
The careers of eight prominent Portland figures were invoked in a presentation contracted by Tri-Met for its initial West Side Light Rail Opening. They included Mel Blanc, Hazel Hall, Marie Equi, James Beard, Abigail Scott Duniway, Stewart Holbrook, John Reed, and C.E.S. Wood. We produced a bookmark for each (See Abigail Scott Duniway at right; others on page 52a). OCHC also produced a walking tour guide for the stations along SW 18th Avenue.
Presenters: Lola Milholland, Mt. Tabor Middle School, actor Johnny Stallings, Walt Curtis, Rick Rubin, David Milholland, and others.
October 17-23, 1997 NW Film Center, Portland Art Museum, YWCA, Old Church
John Reed / Louise Bryant Multi-Media Festival
See Reed / Bryant program
October 24, 1996 Friendly House [NW 26th & Thurman]
Writers of West Portland: A Guide to Portland's Literary Past - 2nd Release
This program focused on writers who lived in NW Portland or on King's Hill.
Presenters: Ilka Kuznik: Louise Bryant, Tim Barnes: C.E.S. Wood, Jane Glazer and Sue Mach: Hazel Hall, Walt Curtis:Albert Richard Wetjen, Rob Tuttle:13 Oregon authors of The Loop.
May 16, 1998 Clackamas County Museum of History
Riverspeak - The Literature and Lore of Oregon Rivers
"We don't tend to ask where a lake comes from. It lies before us, contained and complete. Tantalizing in its depth but not its origin. A river is a different kind of mystery, a mystery of distance and becoming, a mystery of source. Touch its fluent body and you touch far places. You touch a story that must end somewhere but can't stop telling itself, a story that is always just beginning." John Daniel, Oregon Rivers.
Presenters: Katherine Harrison, Tribal Council Chair of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, Robin Cody, Dory Hylton, John Daniel, Janet Kreft, David Hedges, Rob Tuttle, Rick Rubin, Bud Clark, Walt Curtis, David Milholland, Patrick Harris, Director, Clackamas County Historical Society, and Don Francis, Willamette Riverkeeper
October 8-17, 1998
Collins Gallery and U.S. Bank Room, Multnomah County Central
Library, Portland Art Museum, Sovereign Collection
CES Wood Symposium and Celebration
See Wood program.
November 6, 1998 Benson Hotel through lower SW Portland to the Central Library
First Literary Walking Tour of Downtown Portland
Produced by request from the Community College Humanities Association and Chemeketa Community College of Salem, several OCHC Board members led some 30 visitors from the Western U.S. on a tour by the sites of important literary Oregonians including Anne Shannon Monroe, Sam Simpson, Vivien Bretherton, Hazel Hall, Fred Lockley, Dean Collins and Mary Carolyn Davies
Presenters: Rob Tuttle, Walt Curtis, Brian Booth and David Milholland
December 13, 1998 World Forestry Center
Riverspeak II - The River of the West
A refocused reprise of our Oregon City program, primarily examining the Columbia, from the perspectives of Native American legend, the geological record, and the literature and history since early settlement.
Presenters: Ed Edmo, John Gogol, Rob Tuttle, Janet Kreft, Rick Rubin, Brian Booth and others
March 9-16, 1999
Riverview Cemetery, Portland International Airport,
Pearson Field and Aviation Museum, Vancouver,
Washington Park, Milholland/Marquez residence
Visit from Holland - Film Crew of Rustplaatz Kremlin
A documentary film crew came to Portland to film two sections of a Dutch Television production on the fall of the Iron Curtain, and its impact on those buried in or near the Kremlin in Moscow. Pilot Andrei Tsjkalov flew the world's first Trans-Polar flight in the early 1930s, landing in Vancouver where he and his co-pilots are memorialized.
OCHC lent a hand in the section featuring John Reed, and staged a gathering for Reed enthusiasts and members of the Dutch community in Portland. The film was broadcast on VPRO-TV, Holland's public broadcasting network, on May 16, 1999.
March 18, 1999 Old Church
Opal Whiteley - Oregon's First Flower Child (2nd Discovering Oregon Originals series)
Two long time Whiteley fans came up from her childhood haunts in Lane County to share their considerable knowledge of her work and legend. Their talks explored her early, controversial bestseller The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow, and latter-day developments. Cottage Grove has since gone on to honor its best known native daughter.
Presenters: Steve Williamson, Springfield and Steve McQuiddy, Eugene
April 15, 1999 Old Church
Loggers and Lollygaggers in the Oregon Woods (Oregon Originals)
This program featured the writings of Oregon authors on the uses of our once trackless wilderness, examining works by Clara Cogswell Ingham, Big Sam Churchill, Elizabeth Lambert Wood, James Stevens and many others.
Presenters: Dorothy Churchill, Astoria and David Milholland, OCHC President, Portland
May 6, 1999 Old Church
Alberta Lucille Hart aka Dr. Alan Lucill Hart - An Oregon Pioneer (Oregon Originals)
Physician and novelist Dr. Alan Hart tried to keep a secret through two marriages and a successful literary career from which we have four out-of-print novels. Hounded for decades by a former classmate, who couldn't countenance Hart's decision to carry life forward as a male, Dr. Hart moved repeatedly across the NW before finally settling for his final years in Connecticut, where he was a highly respected expert on tuberculosis.
Presenters: Hart scholars Brian Booth and Thomas Lauderdale of Portland
May 20, 1999 Old Church
John Yeon - Oregon Architect & Preservationist
When John Yeon died March 13, 1994, at 83, Oregon lost one of its most committed and effective preservationists, as well as one of its true visionaries. Yeon's first finished work of architecture, at age 26 - the Aubrey Watzek House in Portland's West Hills, replete with inventions -- is still celebrated as "a progression of special, visual and tactile experiences." The work was featured in the Museum of Modern Art alongside such icons of American architecture as Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water. This talk examined his entire career and its impact on architecture and landscape architecture today.
Presenters: Randy Gragg, art and architecture writer; Wallace K. Huntington and Richard Potestio, architects
June 14, 1999 Lone Fir Cemetery
Centenary of the Death of Sam Simpson
Sam Simpson Society members joined poets and OCHC members for a memorial reading of Simpson's verse, including his famous "Beautiful Willamette," at his gravesite in Lone Fir Cemetery on a lovely late spring day.
Presenters: Simpson Society president Mary Kirschner, Robin Kimzee Jessee, David Hedges, Walt Curtis
Fall 1998 - Summer 1999 Cimetière des Gonards - France
Preservation of the Grave of Louise Bryant
OCHC raised the needed funds to repair the grave of author Louise Bryant in Versailles. From Paris, simply take the RER C to the Porchefontaine stop, buy roses, take the bus toward Cimetière des Gonards, walk up the hill, enter the gate, find Canton C, front row. You'll find a simple grave under a cedar. It's still there!
June 17, 1999
Old Church
Sam Simpson & Joaquin Miller - Oregon's Cultural Gold Rush (Oregon Originals)
Both poets were literary lions in the 2nd half of the 19th century, and both have faded from public recognition. Simpson's "Beautiful Willamette" was learned by most Oregon schoolchildren for decades (See page 33a). Miller's career was larger than life throughout, and though he's come to be known as the "Poet of the Sierras," he never forgot nor neglected his Oregon roots in Eugene, Canyon City near John Day, and Portland.
Presenters: Lee Lau, Simpson biographer of Stayton and poet Walt Curtis of Portland
September 16, 1999 Old Church
H. L. Davis - Oregon's Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novelist's Dark Vision (Oregon Originals)
Winner of the 1936 Pulitzer Prize for his sweeping Oregon novel Honey in the Horn, Davis has been a trying figure for some literary Oregonians. His characters represent the spectrum of humanity, noble and ignoble. His writing on our landscape, and the place of humans within it, is perhaps the best anyone has done to date.
Presenters: H.L. Davis niece Barbara Davis, David Milholland, OCHC President, and Brian Booth
October 1, 1999 Old Church
Ernest Haycox Centenary - Fêting Portland's Classic Western Writer (Oregon Originals)
Exactly 100 years after Haycox was born in Portland October 1, 1899, OCHC lead a celebration of the Dean of western writing. Haycox' last Oregon novels stake a claim for literary quality beyond the Western genre.
Presenters: Ernest Haycox Jr. of Mosier, Oregon, Stephen Tanner, Haycox biographer and professor at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, and David Milholland, OCHC President of Portland
October 14, 1999 Old Church
Naked Against the Rain - Book Release Presentation (Oregon Originals)
Rick Rubin's long awaited book on the Chinook people of the Columbia River and NW Coast received a selected reading and celebratory release.
Presenter: Rick Rubin
October 21, 1999 Old Church
Art Wars - Regionalism vs. Cosmopolitanism in the Pacific NW (Oregon Originals)
Carl Walters and early 2Oth Century Oregon artists faced obstacles to making a living with their art. This program examined their proponents and the many forces arrayed against them. It analyzed the ongoing resistance to the merit of regional art, as opposed to that "certified" by national and international authorities and institutions.
Presenters: Historian Michael Munk of Portland, Trisha Kauffman, Art Space Gallery, Bay City, Oregon and Robert Joki, Sovereign Collection, Portland
December 16, 1999 Old Church
A C.E.S. Wood Family Christmas (Oregon Originals)
Wood's many published holiday epistles were read and examined, and family members traced their remembrance of how the famous agnostic celebrated the festive season.
Presenters: Marian Wood Kolisch, Katherine Livingston, Tim Barnes, Ilka Kuznik