Think Out Loud

The new Oregon Children’s Theatre play “SPIDER” centers around teens struggling with the numbing effects of social media, normalized gun violence and the interplay of online reality and real life. Playwright Madeleine Adriance graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in Portland in 2019 and is currently a senior at Brown University. She took a semester off to assist with the production of the play OCT commissioned her to write. 

Adriance got involved in the organization when she was just 8 years old and took her first playwriting class when she was a freshman in high school. “SPIDER” opens Friday and runs through November 5. Adriance joins us to discuss the play and the importance of talking about what she calls the “ever-present specter of gun violence” young people live with.

The Portland State University Bike Hub started an e-bike rental program this year. The rentals were established through a Drive Change Fund award from Portland General Electric which emphasizes electrifying transportation in Oregon. The goal of the program is to help students who live further from campus reduce car trips and their transportation costs.  Daniel Penner is the Bike Hub supervisor and Claire Hinkley is a second year grad student at PSU.  We learn more from them about the program and how it’s helping students get to campus. 

The COVID-19 pandemic dealt a heavy blow to Oregon’s farmers markets. According to the Oregon Farmers Market Association, visitor numbers and sales both dropped by nearly 50% between 2019 and 2020. But as reported in the Capital Press, the association’s most recent survey shows an estimated 3.5 million visits to farmers markets in 2022. That’s down from 4.2 million in 2019, but an improvement from the 2020 low of 2.2 million.  

Ashley Hess is the executive director of the Oregon Farmers Market Association. She joins us with more details on how markets across the state are bouncing back.

This Friday, people will start lining up at the High Desert Museum for an annual art show that can feel more like a Black Friday sale. But instead of a mad dash to score a new 4K TV, the customers here will be jostling past each other to grab canvases of original artwork off the wall, each one priced at just $20. Now in its tenth year, the 20-Dollar Art Show features more than 4,000 handmade pieces of art submitted by 165 artists this year. If a work sells, 100% of the money goes to the artist, according to Stuart Breidenstein, an artist and the co-founder of the 20-Dollar Art Show and Bright Place Gallery in Bend. Oregon ArtsWatch profiled the show before tickets for the opening night event, which are now sold out, went on sale. Breidenstein and Kait Kenobi, an artist and branding consultant in Bend, join us to talk about this unique event and its enduring appeal for artists and the community in Central Oregon. 

For the first time, the Oregon Department of State Lands has millions of dollars to remove abandoned and derelict vessels  from state waterways. The department previously had to request money from the Common School Fund for cleanups, but the state Legislature granted it $18.8 million in June to address the growing number of hazardous vessels. The funding will also be used to develop a statewide program to identify, prioritize and oversee vessel removals.

Crews recently removed the Tiffany from the Columbia River near Rainier, Oregon. The 86-foot former fishing vessel is the first to be removed and deconstructed using the new funds.

Chris Castelli is acting deputy director of operations at the Department of State Lands. Bob Dorn is the CEO of Hyak Maritime, which is housing the Tiffany as it’s deconstructed. They join us to talk about the new funding and what it takes to remove potentially hazardous vehicles from state waterways.

For many arts organizations in Portland and across the nation, recovery from the pandemic has been painfully slow or downright elusive. Lagging box office sales are forcing companies like the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Artists Repertory Theatre to layoff staff and cancel or scale back entire seasons. So it’s all the more surprising to see an arts venue in the region that has drawn more than 70,000 people since it opened last year for musical performances, art exhibits, community events and classes. The Patricia Reser Center for the Arts opened in March 2022 in downtown Beaverton and features a 550-seat theater, art gallery, outdoor plaza, meeting and rehearsal spaces. Executive director Chris Ayzoukian joins us to talk about the new season which launched last month and his hopes for the future amid uncertainty around arts funding and audience demand. 

Since our last conversation with Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, Republicans lawmakers staged a historically long walkout, a state task force convened to address serious problems in Portland’s central city, and a coalition of prominent leaders have begun calling for an overhaul of Measure 110, Oregon's drug decriminalization law. We spent an hour in Salem with the governor to talk about all those things and more.

When Tom Swearingen wrote his first poem to remember a friend who had died, he didn’t consider himself a poet. But the small group of friends and family he read it to told him to keep writing. He did, and he says because he long enjoyed Western music, art and literature, including the cowboy poetry of Baxter Black, that was the style that fit. Within 10 years, Swearingen had published a collection of poetry which was named the 2020 Cowboy Poetry Book of the year by the International Western Music Association. The group also named him best male poet in 2019 and 2022. He also got Willamette Week’s nod in its “Best of” edition this year. Swearingen, like other cowboy poets, is particularly busy in the summer months with performances at rodeos and other events. We listen back to a conversation about his work and read some of his poetry.

Late this summer, Gov. Tina Kotek announced a new task force aimed at addressing the challenges of Portland’s downtown. City mayor Ted Wheeler told OPB last month that if Portland’s downtown fails, it could have consequences for the rest of the state. But what are downtowns facing in other parts of Oregon? Natascha Adams is the co-chair of the Independence Downtown Association. Jen Bell is the former co-president of Downtown Eugene Merchants. They both join us to share what’s working and what isn’t in their communities.

A north Portland low-income apartment complex that opened in the summer of 2020 was meant to be a way to help some people out of homelessness.  Now, three years later tenants are citing filthy conditions, assault and thefts. While some have stayed, others have fled and returned to shelters. Courtney Vaughn is the News Editor for the Portland Mercury. She joins us to share more on the habitability issues of the complex.