Think Out Loud

Emily Wilson’s name on the cover of a book is a likely sign that it will be a bestseller. But she isn’t an author, and the books are unlikely fan favorites. Wilson has made a name for herself translating classic Greek texts - most notably Homer’s "The Odyssey" in 2017 and "The Iliad" in 2023. Wilson’s translations have gained a cult following and opened up these classics to a new generation of readers. She joins us in front of an audience of Lincoln High School students.

Portland’s Third Angle New Music will debut a new commissioned piece at its upcoming show on April 16 at OMSI’s Kendall Planetarium. The composition, called “Spheres,” was written for percussion quartet and three American Sign Language performers. Deaf and hard of hearing audience members can experience the program through haptic vests that translate the sound from the instruments music into physical vibrations. The vests were developed by local nonprofit CymaSpace, which aims to make arts and culture performances accessible to Portlanders who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Sarah Tiedemann is the artistic director of Third Angle. She joins us to talk about the new show and accessibility in the arts. 

 It’s been 20 years since Nancy Sullivan, a media specialist at Portland’s McDaniel High School, organized a poetry slam for students in the school’s library. That one slam eventually evolved into Verselandia, the citywide youth poetry competition now sponsored by Literary Arts. The slam allows students from across Portland to bring their original spoken word poetry to the stage of the Arlene Schitzer Concert Hall to be scored by a panel of judges. 

Alex Dang competed in the first Verselandia back in 2012. Qiana Woods won last year’s Verselandia and is set to compete again this year. They both join us, along with Sullivan, to talk about the history of the competition and the importance of slam poetry as a creative outlet.

Tadd Mick, Noelie Achen and Chris Schaffner are the owners of Tradewinds Charters in Depoe Bay. They recently won a statewide award from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The national winner of the Small Business Person of the Year award will be announced in May. Tadd Mick is the president of Tradewinds Charters, and Noelie Achen is the vice president. They’ll head to Washington D.C. next month to receive their award. Achen and Mick join us to share more about their business.

The Yamhill Community Action Partnership has reached “functional zero” for unsheltered families with children. That means more people in that group are exiting homelessness than are entering it in Yamhill County. 

The organization has invested in a liaison who works with landlords and clients to get people into rentals and stay housed. It also expanded emergency shelter capacity in Newberg and has focused on getting vulnerable populations into homes. Alexandra Ball is the executive director of YCAP. Amber Hansen-Moore is the organization’s deputy director. They join us to share more about how YCAP is addressing homelessness.  

More than one in five bridges in Oregon was in “distressed” condition in 2024. That’s according to the Oregon Department of Transportation’s annual bridge condition report. Oregon also has the fewest number of bridges in “good” condition as determined by federal standards compared to six other Western states. Under ideal conditions, ODOT says it would be able to replace 27 of those bridges per year. But with its current resources, it’s only on pace to replace three. 

Tova Peltz is a statewide capital program engineer at ODOT. She joins us with an update on how the state’s bridges are faring.

If you’re accused of a crime, having the right to an attorney - regardless of ability to pay -  is one of your fundamental constitutional due process rights in the U.S. At least in theory. In reality, Oregon - like many states around the country - has long suffered from a shortage of defense attorneys. In 2018 the shortage had become so severe that the nonpartisan nonprofit Sixth Amendment Center, found the state’s system so flawed it could not provide citizens with this fundamental right. Oregon has taken steps to restructure public defense and provide more funding for more public defenders, but the shortage remains. We talk about what state lawmakers are currently considering and more with Carl MacPherson, the executive director of Metropolitan Public Defender, and Kevin Barton, district attorney for Washington County.   

When you think about the Columbia Gorge, a multimedia rock opera might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But that’s exactly the vehicle producer Sarah Fox chose to showcase the unique history, personal stories and ecology of the Gorge. 

“The Watershed Rock Opera” unfolds in five movements that symbolize the cycle of the watershed itself. The journey starts in the clouds, descends into the Cascades and moves through a pear orchard before it ends in a kind of homecoming at the mighty river that connects the people and communities who call the Gorge home. (There’s also a comedic detour and duet prompted by a clogged toilet).  

Fox recorded interviews with five storytellers who provided the narration in the rock opera and inspired its musical score, which 20 local musicians and performers will bring to life this Friday for a series of sold-out shows at the Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River. Fox joins us for more details, along with Lesley Tamura, a fourth-generation pear orchardist in Hood River, composer and arranger Eric Kaneda and music director and percussionist Leila Kaneda.  

Multnomah County’s Preschool For All program has overshot its goals in each of its first three years, and this year is no exception. The county's coal was to support 3,000 slots, but it expects to have capacity for 3,800 3 and 4-year-olds in the 2025-2026 school year. Still, that number is far below demand, with nearly double the amount of applications filed every year than there are slots available. Backers hope capacity will be sufficient by 2030, when the county aims to offer 11,000 slots and meet its goal of universal access.

County voters approved the Preschool For All ballot measure in 2020 and the program opened in the 2022-23 school year. The preschool effort is funded by a 1.5% marginal tax on earnings of more than $150,000 per year for an individual and over $200,000 for households. 

Leslee Barnes, director of the Preschool and Early Learning Division at Multnomah County, and Patrick Earnest, director of the St. James Child Development Center, join us to talk about the program.

From notes of affirmation to gift cards, Portland nonprofit Wildly Kind aims to spread acts of kindness to strangers 

LONG SYNOPSIS: Wildly Kind is on a mission to spread acts of kindness to strangers, not only in its home base of Portland but also across the nation and around the world. The Portland Tribune recently profiled the three-year-old nonprofit and the national media attention it received for a pop-up event it held in February, which involved setting up a phone booth for people to record anonymous messages of hope and encouragement for others to hear. 

Executive director and founder Kayla Lamoreaux says Wildly Kind grew out of a desire to affirm and maintain her sobriety from alcohol through fostering “a community of kindness” by handing out flowers or self-care kits or paying for a stranger’s groceries at the check-out line. Wildly Kind has now grown to include volunteers, corporate sponsors and more than 100 “ambassadors” who go out to perform acts of kindness in more than 20 states and six countries. Ambassadors pay $20 a month to receive a branded t-shirt, a monthly newsletter with ideas for spreading kindness, priority sign-ups for pop-up events and other perks. Lamoreaux joins us to share more details about Wildly Kind and its unique nonprofit model.