(Artist-activist Betty LaDuke will discuss her exhibition Turtle Wisdom: Personal, Political, Playful on February 19 — with the art on display at the Bend campus through March 25 | Photo courtesy of COCC)
Central Oregon Community College’s (COCC) 17th annual Season of Nonviolence — held mid-January through early April — features an engaging lineup of free community events, including a keynote event, book talks, films and an art exhibition. Complete details and registration information can be found at cocc.edu/snv.
The full 2025 Season of Nonviolence schedule, presented by COCC’s office of equity and well-being and the COCC Foundation’s Nancy R. Chandler Lecture Series, includes:
A January 27 keynote event, at 6:30pm, Belonging, Justice, and Our Shared Humanity, with activist Rev. Nontombi Naomi Tutu, is at the Tower Theatre. A human rights activist and daughter of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Tutu will speak to how the foundation for a just society lies in accepting others and recognizing the potential for greatness in all. *Event is sold out; waiting list only.
A February 19 artist’s talk with artist-activist Betty LaDuke will be held at 5:30pm in the Bend campus’s Barber Library west wing reading room. LaDuke, who has spent more than 60 years traveling the world as an artist and activist, will speak about her exhibition, Turtle Wisdom: Personal, Political, Playful — and how turtles are symbolic storytellers for current events — showing at the Barber Library Rotunda Gallery January 6 to March 25, with a reception scheduled for 4:30pm on February 19.
A series of community book groups are convening to discuss Belonging without Othering: How we Save Ourselves and the World by john a. powell and Stephen Menendian, with several start dates and formats, including virtually, from January 29 to February 20. The book encourages a world where citizens build institutions, cultivate practices and orient together toward a shared future, for the benefit of both societal healing and planet preservation.
Fragments of Connection: Quests for Belonging, a COCC collaboration with the Bend Contemporary Dance Company, will take place at 5:30pm on Thursday, March 6, in the Pinckney Center for the Performing Arts on the Bend campus. Inspired by writings on loneliness, anxiety and community, the program performs an original dance piece that examines the search for connection at various stages of life, from childhood through adolescence and adulthood.
A feature-length documentary titled Farming While Black: Reclaiming Land and Agricultural Heritage will screen at 5:30pm on Tuesday, April 8, at Wille Hall on the Bend campus. The film follows Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, who is helping propel a rising generation that’s finding strength in the deep historical knowledge of African agrarianism — and its potential to save the planet.
COCC’s Season of Nonviolence is inspired by the work of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, honoring their vision for an empowered, nonviolent world. For more information, contact Charlotte Gilbride, coordinator of the Nancy R. Chandler Lecture Series, at 541-383-7257 or cgilbride@cocc.edu, or Christy Walker, dean of equity and well-being, at cwalker2@cocc.edu or 541-383-7412.
Sponsors for COCC’s Season of Nonviolence include First Story, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Associated Students of COCC, Brooks Resources Corporation, Cascades Academy and the Oregon Community Foundation’s Casey Family Fund.
In advance of college events, persons needing accommodation or transportation because of a physical or mobility disability should contact Caitlyn Gardner at 541-383-7237. For accommodation because of other disability, such as hearing impairment, contact disability services at 541-383-7583.
