LitPDX seeks to amplify marginalized voices, and welcomes all, their ideas, their events, and their words.

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Foucault in California

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

In 1975, iconic French philosopher Michel Foucault spent a weekend in Southern California at the invitation of Simeon Wade. Led by Wade and his partner, Michael Stoneman, Foucault experimented with psychotropic drugs for the first time; by morning he was crying and proclaiming that he knew Truth. Foucault in California (Heyday) is Wade's firsthand account of that long weekend. Presenting his late brother’s book is David Wade, as well as Heather Dundas, author of the book’s foreword.

Free

Michael Pollan in Conversation With Dave Miller / TICKETED EVENT

Newmark Theatre 1111 SW Broadway Ave., Portland, OR, United States

From Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind, comes a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants — and the equally powerful taboos. Of all the things humans rely on plants for — sustenance, beauty, medicine, fragrance, flavor, fiber — surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: People around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. But we do not usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable.…

$28