MAY / JUNE 2022 CLASSES
Note:
Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday classes start at 10 a.m.
Tuesday classes start at 1 p.m.
Monday, May 2: Poetry Reading Fun!
Moderator: Trina Gaynon, SSI member
Tuesday, May 3: Climate Change and Geopolitics, Part 2 of 4
Presenter: Steven Browning, SSI member, US Ambassador (ret.)
Description: Climate change is a global threat requiring an unprecedented, coordinated global response. Are we up to the task? How do the nations of the world respond when one nation, acting in its own interests, builds dams and blocks water flows to its neighbors? How will the world respond to millions of climate refugees? To global food shortages? We will take a closer look at these and other security threats heading our way and how we and the international community might address them.
Wednesday, May 4: 23.VIII.39: Stalin, Hitler, and Europe
Presenter: Donald Steury, PhD, SSI member
Description: To Eastern Europeans, 23 August 1939—the date of the infamous Nazi-Soviet Pact—marks the beginning of a decades-long nightmare of Soviet conquest, domination and oppression. A nightmare that, for some, continues to this day. Although often neglected in the West, the Nazi-Soviet Pact unleased World War II and set the pattern of conflict in Eastern Europe for the next century. The whys, wherefors, and hows of the pact between Hitler and Stalin are as important now as they were in 1939.
Thursday, May 5: Shakespeare's The Tempest: A User's Guide
Presenter: Charlie Holmes, SSI member
Description: The Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland will be presenting Shakespeare's The Tempest at the Elizabethan Theatre this summer. It's one of Shakespeare's more readily accessible plays, but there are plenty of nuances worth exploring. How should Prospero, for example, respond to his daughter's enthusiastic claim, "O brave new world"?
Monday, May 9: Curiosity Cafe
Presenter: Polly Jackson, SSI member
Our new, member-driven event. During the first hour, Polly Jackson will introduce and lead a group discussion about Solutions for Climate Change. For the second hour, bring a question, idea, or opinion you want to share with the group.
Tuesday, May 10: Climate Change and Geopolitics, Part 3 of 4
Presenter: Steven Browning, SSI member, US Ambassador (ret.)
Description: Climate change is a global threat requiring an unprecedented, coordinated global response. Are we up to the task? How do the nations of the world respond when one nation, acting in its own interests, builds dams and blocks water flows to its neighbors? How will the world respond to millions of climate refugees? To global food shortages? We will take a closer look at these and other security threats heading our way and how we and the international community might address them.
Wednesday, May 11: Book Potpourri
Moderator: David Gaynon, SSI Member
Description: Bring a book you enjoyed reading and share your thoughts with fellow book worms.
Thursday, May 12: Planet Ocean
Presenter: David Lonsdale
Description: Planet Ocean! is an introduction to what everyone should know about Earth's most abundant and diverse environment. The program's far-ranging content includes sections on human interactions with the ocean, the role of the ocean in weather and climate, how life probably evolved and is sustained by the ocean, and much more.
Monday, May 16: Poetry Reading Fun!
Moderator: Trina Gaynon, SSI member
Tuesday, May 17: Climate Change and Geopolitics, Part 4 of 4
Presenter: Steven Browning, SSI member, US Ambassador (ret.)
Description: Climate change is a global threat requiring an unprecedented, coordinated global response. Are we up to the task? How do the nations of the world respond when one nation, acting in its own interests, builds dams and blocks water flows to its neighbors? How will the world respond to millions of climate refugees? To global food shortages? We will take a closer look at these and other security threats heading our way and how we and the international community might address them.
Wednesday, May 18: The way we are dying is killing us: A case for terramation (human composting)
Presenter: Micah Truman
Description: Washington State was the first place in the world to legalize terramation, otherwise known as human composting. Oregon and Colorado have also recently legalized the process. In this presentation, Micah Truman, CEO of Return Home, will go through the science, process, ethics, and ritual that surrounds terramation. Questions are highly encouraged: this will be an interactive presentation.
Thursday, May 19: Can creating art make us human?
Moderator: Susan Schenk, SSI member
Description: Anthropologists feel that our early ancestors’ artmaking marked the beginning of being human. Abstract thinking, deliberate two- and three-dimensional representation of intangibles, and early forms of writing are all evidenced in the Paleolithic painted caves of Europe. Susan Schenk will share what she saw and learned about Ice Age art on her National Geographic Expedition to the painted caves of France and Spain. She’ll share images, how the art was made, and theories about what it might mean.
Monday, May 23: Curiosity Cafe
Presenter: SSI member TBD
Description: Our new, member-driven event. During the first hour, one of our members will introduce and lead a group discussion about Helicopter Parenting vs. Free-Range Parenting. For the second hour, bring a question, idea, or opinion you want to share with the group.
Tuesday, May 24: Write Around Portland
Presenter: Sarah Weller
Description: Writing is a powerful tool for self-expression, creativity, healing and community building. It can also be an important tool for social change. Since 1999, Write Around Portland has brought their renowned workshop model into communities who often have the least access to writing and elevated those voices by publishing anthologies of participant work and holding public readings. We will explore Write Around Portland work as a tool for social change and discuss ways this approach can be incorporated into our everyday practices to create more respectful and vibrant communities. There will also be an opportunity to experience the model by writing and sharing together.
Wednesday, May 25: Leonardo da Vinci Notebooks
Moderator: Trina Gaynon, SSI member
Description: Two pages from the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci are included in the display of his inventions currently at OMSI. Da Vinci (1452–1519) kept notes and drawings of his studies, ideas and inventions, reflecting the wide range of his interests: A sample page will begin with his investigations of the intestines and end with remarks about the relations of poetry to painting. Over 7,000 pages have survived. What can we learn from the notebooks and how history has treated them?
Thursday, May 26: Slavery's Good Lookin' Twin: The Institutions That Endorsed and Supported Slavery
Presenter: Alicia Harding
Description: Slavery in America would not have been possible without the full support of the American government, national and international financial institutions, and the factories and businesses that depended on the labor of enslaved persons for their raw materials. Many historians have claimed that industrialization would not have been possible without the institution
of slavery. This aspect of slavery, until recently, has received very little recognition.
Monday, May 30: No Class, in Observance of Memorial Day
Tuesday, May 31: Richard Henry Dana: Two Years Before the Mast
Presenter: Richard Boyden
Description: In 1834, Richard Henry Dana, a son of privilege, set off on a long and perilous ocean voyage as a common seaman, around Cape Horn to California and back. His vivid descriptions of life at sea on a square-rigged vessel, of the natural wonders he encountered, and of the hardships and unjust treatment suffered by his shipmates made his book a bestseller, which influenced Herman Melville's writing of Moby Dick and launched a long campaign for the rights of America's merchant seamen.
Wednesday, June 1: Portland's Green Loop: An Update
Presenter: Keith Jones
Description: The vision of a linear pedestrian park traversing downtown Portland has been a long time in the making. We will learn the latest from the Executive Director of the Friends of Green Loop.
Thursday, June 2: Naturopathic Medicine and Senior Preventive Care
Presenters: Carrissa Bessich, ND, and Jessica Robinson, ND Doctoral Candidate
Description: In the first hour, Dr. Bessich will debunk some of the myths surrounding her field of naturopathic medicine. In the second hour, Ms. Robinson will share some tips on staying healthy as we age.
Monday, June 6: Poetry Reading Fun!
Moderator: Trina Gaynon, SSI Member
Tuesday, June 7: Writing workshop: Write Around Portland
Presenter: Sarah Weller
Description: Do you have a story you want to tell? Do you want to write with others in a supportive environment? Join Write Around Portland for a 90-minute creative writing workshop. Generate new writing and experience the transformative power of writing in community. Using the acclaimed Write Around Portland model, this workshop incorporates exercises to inspire the writing life, including freewriting and strength-building feedback. This workshop will be led by a trained workshop facilitator and open to writers of all levels and experience.
Wednesday, June 8: A Trip through Eastern Oregon History
Presenter: Dave Squire
Description: Uncover little-known facts about eastern Oregon from the Paleocene period up to the current time, including the Malheur occupation and the foreign power that was mining silver and mercury in the Blue Mountains in 1700. Learn about the evolution of human habitation in the area and how the economy has changed since the 1800’s - from fur to gold to cattle and sheep to timber to tourism. And how this changing economy affects the political divide between eastern and western Oregon.
Thursday, June 9: Fraud Prevention
Presenter: Ellen Klem, Director, Consumer Outreach and Education for Office of the Oregon State Attorney General
Description: Every year, thieves and con artists cheat thousands of Oregonians out of their hard-earned money and valuable personal information. This presentation will help you stop the fraud before it starts and teach you how to alert others so they can avoid becoming victims. Please join us and spread the word to your family, neighbors and friends across the state, to help them become smarter consumers as well.
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