Writing

A Home in the Forest

High rents in Oregon towns fuel some to seek refuge on public lands. Published November 27, 2022 in The Statesman Journal.

Gerald “Buddy” Blair’s home is a couple of trailers and three cars parked at a dispersed campsite with his family just outside Sisters in Central Oregon’s Deschutes National Forest. 

Blair and his wife, Adrian, spend their days working at the Sno Cap Drive In, a popular hamburger restaurant in the touristy town tucked below the Three Sisters mountains. After work, the couple head to their home hidden among towering ponderosa pine trees, where they live with a 4-year-old boy, a 17-year-old boy and a blue heeler named Namu. Read more

A night (or day) at the museum: Getting better for workers?

At museums and other cultural institutions, traditions of low pay are changing as employees seek a stronger voice. Published December 8, 2022 in The Christian Science Monitor.

Emily Searles wants all of her co-workers to know her salary. She isn’t boasting: The development operations manager at the Brooklyn Academy of Music is also a union organizer and wants to keep her bosses accountable. So she posts her pay in BAM’s Slack communications channel to encourage transparency. This way, any chasm in earnings between two employees working similar roles can be brought to light. Read more

The forgotten answer to the affordable housing crisis

New zoning laws offer a unique opportunity to fill Lane County neighborhoods with affordable co-ops. Published February 3, 2022 in Eugene Weekly.

Melissa McReynolds reclines in a fluffy black folding chair in her upstairs apartment at 10th and C streets in Springfield. Behind her, a mountain bike hangs vertically on the wall, freeing up valuable space in the compact living room. Her orange and black tortoiseshell cat, Ava, crouches under McReynolds’ chair, green eyes fixated on something outside. McReynolds smiles and follows Ava’s gaze out the rain-streaked window. Read more

A costly winter looms. How much will the West be willing to sacrifice?

In Europe, a civic responsibility ethos is taking hold as residents dim lights and lower thermostats to confront brewing economic and energy crises. Across the Atlantic, Americans are taking a more individualistic approach to resilience. Published December 13, 2022 in The Christian Science Monitor.

This tiny hamlet of 1,400 in northern France is shrouded in silence by 9 p.m. on winter nights. At that hour, most residents are putting their children to bed or settling on the couch after a hard day’s work. 

But not Rémi Pantalacci. Read more

Garrett Hongo’s Quest for Artistic Perfection

The professor and poet, whose art explores natural beauty and repressed emotion, is recognized for a lifetime of achievement. Published May 12, 2022 in Oregon Quarterly.

Garrett Hongo’s writing is rooted in beauty and emotion. The creative writing professor is a master of translating feelings from his past into vibrant literature.

In Kahuku, a Hawaiian town on the north shore of Oʻahu where he spent his early childhood, Hongo was surrounded by beauty on all sides: breathtaking vistas, lush forests and rain-drenched volcanic peaks blanketed in green moss, the deep blue hues of the Pacific. Read more

Language is Culture

An endangered language in northwestern Spain vies for a place in contemporary society after centuries of repression and marginalization. Published October 4, 2021 in Ethos.

Night comes slowly in Asturias. In Oviedo, the region’s capital, situated near the coast of the Bay of Biscay in northwestern Spain, the summer sun doesn’t set until close to 10 p.m. Around 7 p.m., low gray clouds roll in, blanketing the surrounding green mountains and accentuating the illuminated spire of the 1200-year-old Cathedral of San Salvador at the hilly city’s center. Read more

Powerful port pollutes water for years with little state action

Drinking water of thousands increasingly impaired by excessive nitrogen dumps. Published May 5, 2022 in the Oregon Capital Chronicle.

Guadalupe Martinez points to a 24-pack of bottled water by her kitchen sink with just a few bottles left, one of thousands she’s brought home over the last 18 years.

“Ever since we’ve been living here, we’ve been buying water,” she said. 

The 54-year-old grandmother knows she can’t drink the water that comes out of her tap. It would make her and her family sick.

She is not alone. Read more

‘Mutual aid’ is a radical ideal. Some live its communal spirit.

The pandemic saw neighborly care expand in varied ways. For mutual aid societies, the effort reflected visions of a society based on communal solidarity. Published January 30, 2023 in The Christian Science Monitor.

It’s a frigid afternoon at the headquarters of Mutual Aid Eastie in East Boston, a predominantly working-class, immigrant community just across the Boston Harbor from downtown. There’s a tenants’ association meeting going on inside. Seated around a wooden dining table, members of a local housing advocacy group are helping two neighbors who have just received eviction notices decide what to do next. Read more