Willamette University professor Emily Drew will present the Conversation Project Program discussion “White Out: The Future of Racial Diversity in Oregon” from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, at Linn-Benton Community College in the Fireside Room, second floor Calapooia Center, 6500 Pacific Blvd. SW, Albany. Drew will lead a discussion that explores the question: What does the racial integration of place require of us, and how might we prepare to create and meet this opportunity? A Unity Celebration will follow, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the college Diversity Achievement Center, second floor Forum building.

The program is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by the generous support of Oregon Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Oregon Cultural Trust.Read more . . .

Conversation Project Discussion Leader, Nan Laurence wrote this about her recent Conversation Project Program discussion in Grants Pass – “A City’s Center: Rethinking Downtown”:

The challenging perspective of my conversation topic is that it is about the communities where the conversations take place. So while I am trying to lead a conversation that roots architecture and urban planning in the liberal arts tradition, I am also trying to draw from local circumstances and the political and physical reality of that place. Small towns are complex, organic places; I can’t fully prepare for any of these conversations.

For the Grants Pass conversation, downtown was easy to find, as it is for many small communities – I take the “City Center” exit off the freeway. And if the town has a clear urban form, the main street is obvious – in historic communities often the exit leads right into the center of town.

As soon as I saw the Grants Pass municipal building, I stopped at the first coffee shop I passed to stretch my legs and read the map and the local paper. There were only a handful of tables in the cafe, but they were occupied; three men sat at one table, and an older couple sat in the window drinking coffee and looking at their ipods. The Dutch Bros. was right across the street, filled with high school kids.

It was raining when I walked out, so I crossed the street to look for a hat at a vintage and theatrical clothing store. The store owner began to talk about downtown, and when I explained why I was there, she closed up the shop and led me down the street on a tour of her city’s downtown. We went into every storefront where she knew someone or had previously been a tenant – at least a dozen shops, mostly antique stores. She chatted the whole time about everything she loved or hated about the town and its residents. As it turned out, she was moving her store from Grants Pass to a storefront in Ashland – an easier place to sell her bustiers and feathered hats.

Adrienne was from Seattle and never expected to find herself in a town this small. She had a unique perspective on her town – who bought her clothes, who owned different buildings, what the rents were – absolutely outrageous in her opinion – and whose building was authentically historic. I’d have to say that she mostly complained. But when the 6th or 7th person hugged her or called out to her on the street, I heard something different – an unexpected pride. She sounded like an unofficial mayor, holding forth on local politics, the current controversy over bus shelters and public art, and the beloved president of the Evergreen Federal Bank and his patronage of the town.

Finally, she led us to the tallest building in town, a mostly empty six story structure next to the now vacant site of the historic Josephine Hotel. We walked right in the door, up six flights of stairs, past leaks and puddles and empty wine bottles all the way to the roof terrace. We stepped out cautiously and looked out over the city, surrounded by broad hills and gray skies. The city stretched out in front of us like an historic city view or an old map, white church spires prominent above office buildings, the stop lights of 6th street leading through downtown, across the river and beyond. Welcome to Grants Pass, she said.

As it turned out, Adrienne didn’t attend the conversation event that evening, since she wasn’t a part of the Josephine County Cultural Coalition. The event had a very different tone from my impromptu walking tour; it was a celebration of folks who were involved in volunteering, creating, teaching, and supporting cultural activities. But what I came away with was like the view from the 6th story rooftop – a town facing changes and hard times, again, but full of citizens eager to keep working at it, year after year, until they got it right or it was time to move on.

I’m off to Lakeview in a few weeks – I can’t wait. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Find a conversation project or bring one to your town at Oregon Humanities.