Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

The Humble Poets' Open Mic will be at The Stacks Coffeehouse on the last Sunday of each month, 4:00-6:00pm.

The featured readers for October is Marcus Lattimore.

We are encouraging poets and storytellers to come share their works, and musical accompaniments are welcome as well. The address is 1831 N. Killingsworth (between Interstate and Denver). And even though poets are generally quite wealthy, this event will be free, with only a suggested donation for those who can. Hope to see you all there!

Marcus Lattimore, a native of Duncan, South Carolina is one of the most decorated athletes in South Carolina history. A former Collegiate All American running back at the University of South Carolina - Marcus played for the Gamecocks for three seasons. Marcus was drafted in the 4th round of the 2013 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers where he spent two seasons after retiring from knee complications.

Marcus is now a writer living in Portland, Oregon where he teaches Creative Writing at the Oregon Change Clinic. He was recently crowned Oregon’s 2024 Spoken Word Grand Slam Champion and competed in the National Competition in Atlanta. He enjoys exploring the Great Northwest with his wife Miranda and Dog Mocha.

Athletic Accolades: National Freshman of the Year (2010), Walter Camp All American (2011), University of South Carolina’s All Time Touchdown Record Holder, University of South Carolina Hall of Fame Inductee (2019), South Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame inductee (2024), October 29th Marcus Lattimore Day in the State of South Carolina (2012), SEC Legends Inductee (2023)

Poetry Accolades: June 2023 Slam Champion Portland Oregon, August 2023 Slam Champion Portland Oregon, September 2023 Slam Champion Portland Oregon, Oregon’s Grand Slam Champion 2024, Literary Arts Keynote Poet 2024 Portland Oregon, Oregon Poetry Association Keynote Speaker 2024

Filament is an all-genre Creative Writing Reading series from Portland State’s MFA Program. Join us on October 25th. The featured reader for this event will be Darla Mottram.

Come celebrate the second print run of Loaners: The Making of a Street Library, by Ben Hodgson and Laura Moulton. This co-written memoir tells the story of how Street Books (Portland’s bike-powered mobile library for people living outside) was created and traces Hodgson’s journey from the streets back into an apartment. Writer Rene Denfeld has called Loaners “illuminating and powerful,” and writer Pete Rock says it is “the most heartening, encouraging book I’ve read in years.”

Hodgson and Moulton will read from the book, answer questions and host a conversation that explores more compassionate responses to people living on the streets of Portland.

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

What Makes a Man?
An evening of discussion, writing, and reflection for cis and trans men

Join Adam Segal of New Masculinities Group for a warm and welcoming chance to connect with other men and explore our connection to healthy masculinity. After introductions and initial discussion, we'll take time to write, journal, and even draw through our thoughts, then come together to share our reflections. 

What does it mean for you to be a man? When do you feel most like a man? And what do you feel is expected of you being a man in your community? Join us to explore these and other prompts! Since the Paris Olympics, we've been particularly interested in the relationships between masculinity, physicality, and athletic ability.

Plan to stay as long as you like, but please arrive on time so we can get to know each other first. A barista will be present as we arrive, but will depart after the first round of beverages. Snacks to be provided to keep our evening energy up!

* * *

New Masculinities Group is a Portland, OR-based community committed to critical engagement with sexuality, gender, and masculinity, through a feminist lens. We host remote and in-person meetings for men as well as for folks of all genders. In the group and elsewhere in our lives we attempt to live with humility, accountability, and a will to change. Adam Segal, our facilitator, is a cis straight Ashkenazi Jewish white man who has been holding spaces like these for over 7 years.

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

Our next Craft Night will be October 3rd!

The Stacks hosts a Craft Night on the first Thursday of each month! Everyone is welcome, and this is a free event. Drinks and snacks available will be available for purchase, but no purchase is necessary to attend.

Bring your own craft projects and meet your neighbors for chit-chat while we craft together!

We are very excited to host this reading in partnership with Third Eye Books!

This is a free event, and everyone is welcome. We will have drinks and snacks available for sale, and Third Eye Books will be here selling books. Author Brit Barron will be here to read from her book, Do You Still Talk To Grandma?

Brit Barron gets it. Those people who hurt us with their bigotry and ignorance . . . they’re often the people we love: They’re our friends, our parents, our grandparents, and even our religious leaders. And what we want is for them to grow, not to be canceled by an online mob. So what can it look like to strive for justice without causing new harm or giving up on the people we love? Barron shows that the way forward is to create a gracious and risky space for people to learn and evolve. We need to form the sorts of relationships where we can tell difficult truths, set boundaries, forgive, and share stories of our own failings. And this starts with examining ourselves.

In Do You Still Talk to Grandma?, Barron draws readers into this tension between relationship and accountability, sharing painful experiences from her own life, such as her parents’ divorce and belonging to a faith community that sided with the forces that dehumanize BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folks. Barron illuminates the challenges and hope for these relationships, showing that the best research points toward humility, self-awareness, an openness to learning, and remembering that others can learn too.

Barron envisions a redemptive way of being that allows progressives to love people who say or believe problematic things without sacrificing themselves, their values, or their beliefs. Provocative, charming, and vulnerable, Do You Still Talk to Grandma? is an essential read for anyone struggling to live compassionately without giving up on conviction.

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

The Humble Poets' Open Mic will be at The Stacks Coffeehouse on the last Sunday of each month, 4:00-6:00pm.

The featured readers for September is Julia Gaskill.

We are encouraging poets and storytellers to come share their works, and musical accompaniments are welcome as well. The address is 1831 N. Killingsworth (between Interstate and Denver). And even though poets are generally quite wealthy, this event will be free, with only a suggested donation for those who can. Hope to see you all there!

Julia Gaskill (she/her) is a poet and professional daydreamer from Portland, OR. She has competed multiple times on national poetry slam stages and toured with her poetry across North America. Her work has been published through Moria Magazine, Pine Row Press, Vagabond City Lit, and more, and her poems have been featured on YouTube channels such as SlamFind, Write About Now, and Button Poetry. She was included in the anthologies A Shape Produced by a Curve (great weather for MEDIA, 2023), Excelsior! (FreezeRay Poetry, 2022), and In Absentia (Bicycle Comics Press, 2020). Julia is the author of four chapbooks, runs the poetry mic Slamlandia, co-created the Bigfoot Poetry Festival, and is the creator of the spoken word album, Stouthearted Bitch. Her debut full length collection, weirdo, was published through Game Over Books in 2022. Find out more about Julia at @geekgirlgrownup on Twitter and Instagram or at juliagaskill.com.

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

Our next Craft Night will be September 5th!

The Stacks hosts a Craft Night on the first Thursday of each month! Everyone is welcome, and this is a free event. Drinks and snacks available will be available for purchase, but no purchase is necessary to attend.

Bring your own craft projects and meet your neighbors for chit-chat while we craft together!

What Makes a Man?
An evening of discussion, writing, and reflection for cis and trans men

Join Adam Segal of New Masculinities Group for a warm and welcoming chance to connect with other men and explore our connection to healthy masculinity. After introductions and initial discussion, we'll take time to write, journal, and even draw through our thoughts, then come together to share our reflections. 

What does it mean for you to be a man? When do you feel most like a man? And what do you feel is expected of you being a man in your community? Join us to explore these and other prompts! Since the Paris Olympics, we've been particularly interested in the relationships between masculinity, physicality, and athletic ability.

5:30-600PM: Rolling welcome, introductions and community agreements
6:00-6:30PM: Introductory conversations, communal sharing
6:30-7:15: Free writing and reflection time (quiet discussion still welcome)
7:15-8:00PM: Sharing and discussion

Plan to stay as long as you like, but please arrive on time so we can get to know each other first. A barista will be present as we arrive, but will depart after the first round of beverages. Snacks to be provided to keep our evening energy up!

* * *

New Masculinities Group is a Portland, OR-based community committed to critical engagement with sexuality, gender, and masculinity, through a feminist lens. We host remote and in-person meetings for men as well as for folks of all genders. In the group and elsewhere in our lives we attempt to live with humility, accountability, and a will to change. Adam Segal, our facilitator, is a cis straight Ashkenazi Jewish white man who has been holding spaces like these for over 7 years.

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.

Our next Craft Night will be August 1st! We’re back on our regular schedule — on the FIRST THURSDAY of the month. Hope to see you there!

The Stacks hosts a Craft Night on the first Thursday of each month! Everyone is welcome, and this is a free event. Drinks and snacks available will be available for purchase, but no purchase is necessary to attend.

Bring your own craft projects and meet your neighbors for chit-chat while we craft together!

Every Tuesday is Writing Cafe at The Stacks! Learn more here.