Event Listings in Oregon

A Morse Bookmarks event featuring Neil O'Brian, assistant professor of political science at UO.

In the late twentieth century, gay rights, immigration, gun control, and abortion debates all burst onto the political scene, scrambling the parties and polarizing the electorate. Neil A. O’Brian traces the origins of today’s political divide on these issues to the 1960s when Democrats and Republicans split over civil rights. It was this partisan polarization over race, he argues, that subsequently shaped partisan fault lines on other culture war issues that persist to this day.

Neil O’Brian is an academic expert in U.S. politics with focus on public opinion, political parties and polarization. In May 2024, he was named a 2024 Andrew Carnegie Fellow.

Motion Design is a mateuring art form that bridges Design and Animation in the service of communication. Kinetic Communique is an exhibit that explores the vast sub genres of Motion Design and the many applications of it's form. As more content delivery methods are developed into the future, Motion Design is quickly becoming a much larger form of communication in our everyday lives.

The first-ever US tour by a group of Tibetan nuns comes to Lincoln City Cultural Center October 10-15th for the creation of the Avalokiteshvara Sand Mandala, and a full week of Tibetan cultural events, workshops, talks, and ceremonies.

The highlight of the visit by the Jangchub Choeling Tibetan nuns is the creation of the Avalokiteshvara Sand Mandala in the Lincoln City Cultural Center theater. It will take four to five days to complete, and is a colorful and meticulously hand-created piece of sacred Tibetan art representing Avalokiteshvara (Chrenrezig in Tibetan), the Bodhisattva (or “Great Being”) of Compassion. The Dalai Lama himself is said to be the reincarnation of Chenrezig. The completed mandala will be a symbolic depiction of a celestial palace, filled with sacred symbols from Tibetan culture, including animals, trees, geometric designs, and a portrait of Avalokiteshvara.

Unlike some other forms of “sand painting,” the Tibetan sand mandalas are brocade-like designs that give the final design a three dimensional quality. To draw the designs, the nuns use narrow metal funnels identical to the ancient tools used for at least a millennium in Tibet. The funnels are then vibrated by the nuns, using a special metal rod so that the fine lines of colored sand can be carefully ‘painted” into the mandala.

The week of events begins on Thursday evening, October 10th, 6pm with the an opening “purification ceremony.” Then, from October 11th through the 15th, the nuns will be working on the sand mandala daily from 9am to 4pm at the Cultural Center theater. The public is invited to come and observe this meditative process of the mandala’s creation throughout the visit.

While the nuns are here, they’ll also be offering a number of other Tibetan cultural events, including a Tibetan Cultural Night on Saturday, October 12th which features the sacred Dakini Dance, a ritual dance that until recently was only performed by Tibetan monks. Also on the Cultural Night program, the “Chod Ceremony" for removing of inner and outer obstacles featuring classic Tibetan Buddhist chanting and ceremony, followed by a Q& A and slideshow with the nuns about their history and life in Tibet, their perilous journey across the Himalayas to exile in India after the Chinese invasion in 1959, and the recent creation of an order of Tibetan nuns and “Geshemas” (or senior teachers) alongside the large Tibetan monasteries of the monks.

Other events during the week include the “White Tara Empowerment Ceremony” on Friday, October 11th, a meditation workshop on Saturday morning at 10am, and on Sunday, a talk on “Who is Green Tara?”, another important figure in Tibetan Buddhism.

On the final evening of their visit, Tuesday, October 15th, at 5pm, the nuns will conduct the Dissolution Ceremony for the finished sand mandala, during which the completed mandala is ritually swept up and carried to the ocean. This ritual “dissolution” symbolizes the impermanence of all created things, a fundamental teaching of Tibetan Buddhism. The public is invited to come and celebrate with the nuns this beautiful week of cultural exchange and sharing.

All events are walk-up and by suggested donation. All proceeds benefit directly the Jangchub Choeling nuns' medical care in India.

This is the first-ever full tour in the United States by a group of Tibetan nuns, and is part of a year-long visit that has brought the nuns to Boston, Minneapolis, Chicago, and NYC. The tour group includes four Tibetan nuns, one of whom is a “Geshema”, the highest degree awarded in the Tibetan monastic universities. Thanks to the efforts of Tibetan women who aspired to become nuns, and to the efforts of the Dalai Lama, the order of Tibetan nuns was re-established in the last 1980s, and Geshema degrees awarded to nuns only in the past decade. However, there is still a lack of facilities, as well as qualified female teachers amongst the nuns, and thus the nunneries work in close cooperation and support from the various Tibetan monasteries and colleges in exile in India.

The nuns are also offering House, Business, and Land Blessings while they’re here, as well as Personal Blessings and Healings. For more information, contact LC Friends of Tibet at 530-748-9365 or email LincolnCountyTibet@gmail.com.

This visit and residency is presented by Lincoln County Friends of Tibet in cooperation with the Lincoln City Cultural Center. Lincoln County Friends of Tibet also hosted the recent visit by the Gaden Shartse Tibetan monks to Newport back in June.

All funds raised during the visit go directly for the medical care and medical facilities for the nuns at Jangchub Choeling Nunnery in the Tibetan Refugee Zone in Mundgod, India.

For more information and a complete schedule, go to:

https://LincolnCity-CulturalCenter.org or https://LCFriendsofTibet.org

Email: LincolnCountyTibet@gmail.com;
Phone: 530-748-9365
Facebook: LCFriendsofTibet.

Dr. Mark Stevens, Director of Keyboard Studies and Assistant Professor of Piano at South Dakota State University, will present a solo recital designed to evoke various landscapes. The program explores the ways in which we observe, impact, and harmonize with the natural world. Repertoire by John Luther Adams, Ludwig van Beethoven, Christopher Cerrone, Natalie Draper, Laura Kaminsky, and Franz Liszt.

Dr. Joyce Wei-Jo Chen will perform a solo harpsichord recital, featuring works by Bach, Byrd, Rameau, Handel, and Martines. The harpsichord in use is a new personal acquisition by Dr. Chen and made by the world-renowned harpsichord maker, John Phillips (Ruckers-Taskin, opus. 77, Berkeley, 2000).

This exhibition examines artistic responses to violence instigated by state regimes across the Americas to disclose censored narratives, argue for the importance of artmaking as an act of memory and witnessing, advocate research, and seek justice.

Through the lens of contemporary art, Necroarchivos, “the archival study of the spaces between life and death and their interconnections” investigates diverse responses to the “disappeared” from the Americas. From the 1960s to the ‘90s in Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, El Salvador, Uruguay, and Nicaragua, intellectuals, artists, and activists were kidnapped, tortured, exiled, and in numerous instances murdered, for demanding human rights and opposing dictatorial regimes and censorship. More recently, from the late ‘90s to today, people in the region have been victims of ongoing failed policies such as the War on Drugs, narco-violence, the continued presence of dictators, feminicide, and a brutal state and border apparatus.

Conceptualized as “Necroarchivos” by Dr. Adriana Miramontes Olivas, these artworks examine, archive, and denounce these issues and the continued disappearance of women and other individuals while addressing both art historical concerns and trends to challenge the definition of art and its impact upon society.

Selections of original art and strips of Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes, 1985-1995. All original art is from the Bill Watterson Deposit Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

“Plegaria Muda” (2008-10) by Doris Salcedo is a contemplative installation consisting of pairs of tables that symbolize burials. The tables incorporate mud, seeds, and grass, speaking not only of death but also of life, or life after death. Our second largest gallery in the museum will be devoted for this special project.

Motion Design is a mateuring art form that bridges Design and Animation in the service of communication. Kinetic Communique is an exhibit that explores the vast sub genres of Motion Design and the many applications of it's form. As more content delivery methods are developed into the future, Motion Design is quickly becoming a much larger form of communication in our everyday lives.

A diverse mix of local sustainability efforts will be highlighted at the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition’s next Quarterly Gathering on Wednesday, October 16, from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library. The gathering will feature brief presentations by three Coalition partners and one Coalition action team. The public is invited.

Presentations by Louise-Annette Burgess of Maxtivity Creative Space, Sharonn David of Brothers Hauling, and Cassie Cruze of Grace Center for Adult Day Services will highlight what their organizations are doing to help create a sustainable community. There will also be a presentation by Kathy Chambliss of the Coalition’s Food Action Team about that team’s key projects. The gathering will include an opportunity for networking and information sharing by attendees, as well as delicious refreshments from First Alternative Co-op.

The October gathering is being generously sponsored by Northwest Realty Consultants and Willamette Nutrition Source, LLC..

The Corvallis Sustainability Coalition is a network of more than 350 partner organizations and hundreds of volunteers. Partner organizations include businesses, non-profit organizations, faith communities, educational institutions and government entities. The mission of the Coalition is to promote an ecologically, socially, and economically healthy city and county. The Coalition is working on a wide variety of projects in 12 topic areas: Community Inclusion, Economic Vitality, Education, Energy, Food, Health & Human Services, Housing, Land Use, Natural Areas, Transportation, Waste Prevention, and Water.
For more information, call 541-230-1237 or e-mail info@sustainablecorvallis.org.