Oregon Humanities

Congratulations—and a huge thank-you—to the team at Tonkon Torp LLP who were honored by the Multnomah Bar Association for their work on our lawsuit to hold the federal government to its commitment to fund state and territorial humanities councils.

Oregon Humanities Team at Tonkon Torp Honored with MBA Pro Bono Award of Merit Tonkon Torp attorneys Anna Sortun, Steven Wilker, Paul Balmer, and Gracey Nagle have been honored by the Multnomah Bar Association (MBA) with a 2026 Pro Bono Award of Merit. The award is in recognition of their work representing Oregon Humanities and the Federation of State Humanities Councils in Or...

Join us this Thursday for a conversation with labor organizers Reyna López and Ramón Ramírez and historian Joaquín Lara Midkiff.

We'll explore the many ways that the mid-Willamette Valley has been home to powerful farmworker and solidarity movements that transformed the lives of migrant laborers and reshaped Oregon's political and economic landscape.

https://oregonhumanities.org/programs/consider-this/consider-this-labor-farmworker-organizing-and-histories-of-indigenous-communities-in-oregon/

This event is part of By the People: Conversations Beyond 250, a series of community-driven programs created by humanities councils across the United States, its territories, and the District of Columbia in collaboration with local partners. Together, these programs explore 250 years of the nation's cultural life and imagine its shared future. The initiative was developed by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage as a complement to the 2026 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

"When African immigrants arrive in Oregon, they do not come empty-handed. They carry skills learned long before their visas are stamped...They bring philosophies of work forged in a place where survival and creativity are inseparable."

Bright Alozie shares the stories of two women—Fatou Ouattara and Anne Johnson— who are building businesses and cultural belonging in Oregon.

Read the full story in our spring issue:

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