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Cyrus Farivar at Northwest Academy

Northwest Academy 1130 SW Main Street, Portland, OR, United States

Until recently, most of our personal activities were easy to keep private, and unearthing the details required at least some effort on the part of those seeking our information. Today, however, with the advent of social media and surveillance technologies, along with the movement of many aspects of our lives into the digital realm, our data has become more widely available and more public. Between emails, web browsing, phone calls, CCTV cameras, social media posts, and online transactions, we can be tracked by private companies as well as our government. But, how much of this tracking is even legal? Cyrus Farivar has written a great book, called Habeas Data, that examines 10 pivotal legal cases that have shaped our current rights related to privacy and…

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Free

A Generous Nature: Lives Transformed by Oregon

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

Marcy Cottrell Houle’s A Generous Nature (Oregon State University) offers profiles of 21 conservationists and activists who have made enduring contributions to the preservation of Oregon’s wild and natural places and its high quality of life. These stories speak to their courage, foresight, and actions to save places, enact legislation, and motivate others to cherish and protect the places that make Oregon unique. In these times of unsettled political polarization and divisiveness, A Generous Nature is a crucial reminder of our individual and collective responsibility to stand for and defend the places, ideals, and laws that make Oregon a progressive model for the rest of the nation.

Free

The Moth: StorySLAM: Gumption

Holocene 1001 SE Morrison St, Portland, OR, United States

GUMPTION: Prepare a five-minute story about go-getting. Moments of courage and the peaks and pratfalls of a daring spirit. Scaling mountains or admitting to mistakes. Nerves of steel or jelly legs. Tell us about your gutsiest gambles and the mettle that forged them. You've got moxie, kid! This venue is 21+ *Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 12pm PT / 3pm ET. *Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final. Media Sponsors: OPB and Literary Arts Additional Information About the Venue This venue is 21+.

$15

Susannah Cahalan

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

From Susannah Cahalan, author of Brain on Fire and "one of America's most courageous young journalists" (NPR), comes The Great Pretender (Grand Central), a propulsive narrative history investigating the 50-year-old mystery behind a dramatic experiment that changed the course of modern medicine. For centuries, doctors have struggled to define mental illness: How do you diagnose it, how do you treat it, how do you even know what it is? In search of an answer, in the 1970s a Stanford psychologist named David Rosenhan and seven other people – sane, normal, well-adjusted members of society – went undercover into asylums around America to test the legitimacy of psychiatry's labels. Forced to remain inside until they'd "proven" themselves sane, all eight emerged with alarming diagnoses and even…

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Free

John U. Bacon “Overtime” Book Tour

Broadway Grill and Brewery 1700 NE Broadway Street, Portland, OR, United States

John U. Bacon, bestselling author and Michigan alumnus, is coming to Portland! Join us in welcoming him on his book tour for Overtime: Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines at the Crossroads of College Football. John will be giving a talk about the book and answering questions, as well as signing copies. Admission includes a copy of the book. More on Overtime: For the past year, John U. Bacon has received rare access to Jim Harbaugh’s University of Michigan football team: coaches, players, and staffers, in closed-door meetings, locker rooms, meals, and classes. Overtime captures this storied program at the crossroads, as the sport’s winningest team battles to reclaim its former glory. But what if the price of success today comes at the cost of…

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$10 – $25

H. W. Brands

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

In Dreams of El Dorado (Basic), Pulitzer Prize finalist H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. He takes us from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. He shows how the migrants' dreams drove them to feats of courage and perseverance that put their stay-at-home cousins to shame – and how those same dreams also drove them to outrageous acts of violence against Indigenous peoples and one another. The West was where riches would reward the miner's persistence, the cattleman's courage, the railroad man's enterprise; but El Dorado was at least as elusive in the West as it ever was in the…

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Free

Art & Power: Centering the Voices of Black Artists

Louiza 2808 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Portland, OR, United States

Black and African American communities have always created and contributed to thriving arts and culture landscapes. Despite racist laws and oppressive systems’ attempt to erase and co-opt these contributions, the resiliency, advocacy, and creativity of Black artists continues to challenge the paradigm. Black artists are bringing art to life across the region, redefining art spaces, creating new systems, and reimagining new futures. Join us for the last Art & Power of 2019 and listen, learn and reflect with local artists Bethlehem Daniel, Carlos the Rollerblader, Christine Miller, and Mic Crenshaw as they discuss their experience as Black artists in Portland’s arts ecosystem, with moderation by S. Renee Mitchell. We strive to host inclusive and accessible events that enable all individuals to engage fully. There will…

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Free

Westside Writing Group

Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, OR, United States

A group for anyone writing nonfiction or memoir who would like company, support, and, most of all, accountability. Whether you’ve never written a word or you’re a published author, join us!

Free

Lindy West

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

From the moment powerful men started falling to the #MeToo movement, the lamentations began: this is feminism gone too far, this is injustice, this is a witch hunt. In The Witches Are Coming (Hachette), Lindy West, firebrand author of the bestselling memoir and now critically acclaimed Hulu TV series Shrill, turns that refrain on its head. You think this is a witch hunt? Fine. You've got one. In a laugh-out-loud, incisive cultural critique, West extolls the world-changing magic of truth, urging readers to reckon with the dark lies at the heart of the American mythos, and unpacking the complicated, and sometimes tragic, politics of not being a white man in the 21st century. She tracks the misogyny and propaganda hidden (or not so hidden) in…

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Free

Going Feral: Field Notes on Wonder and Wanderlust

Powell's Books on Hawthorne 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR, United States

In her deeply personal and intellectually curious essays, Heather Durham explores wild America, weaving the unique perspectives of a trained ecologist, inquisitive philosopher, and restless nomad, probing the intricacies of the natural world as profoundly as she does herself. She wanders from New England vernal pools to Pacific Northwest salmon runs, Rocky Mountain pine forests to Desert Southwest sage flats in search of adventure, solace, authenticity, and belonging in the more-than-human world. Part scientifically informed nature writing, part soul-searching memoir, Going Feral: Field Notes on Wonder and Wanderlust (Wandering Aengus) is the story of a human animal learning to belong to the earth.

Free
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