3 The RAPS Sheet April 2021 MAY Thursday, May 20 The annual ice cream social has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the sched‐ uled meeting will occur via Zoom, with Maryhelen Kincaid, project leader, and Tanya March, project researcher, presenting “The Vanport Placemarking Project: Remembering and Honoring Vanport’s Significant Cultural History.” AUGUST Thursday, August 19 In what will be the first in‐person meeting since the coronavirus pandemic changed everyone’s lives in spring 2020, the RAPS summer picnic is scheduled to occur on August 19 at Willamette Park in southwest Portland. Confirmation of the event plus additional details will be forthcoming in the summer edition of the RAPS Sheet and via email. Upcoming RAPS events RAPS Group Reports Book Group THE POWER OUTAGES imposed by the February ice storm prompted the RAPS Book Group to delay our February meeting by a week. We discussed Have You Seen Luis Velez? by Catherine Ryan Hyde. We thought it a wonderful story, with complex characters drawn with tenderness. We did disagree about whether the villain in the book was racism or the availability of guns. But a bit of disagreement creates a lively discussion. The March meeting was on March 15, and we discussed The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert. We all liked the book very much, finding in it a great deal of information and new insights. The author involves the reader in the life of one species at a time, describing the animal or plant, its surroundings, its lifestyle, and its extinction. The culprit the author identifies are humans, with their tendency to change the environment, moving things from place to place. She introduces the concept of pace—environment changing so rapidly that animals and plants do not have time to adapt. If there is any hope, Kolbert suggests, it is in the adaptability of species, given time. And the unique ability of humans to think abstractly and creatively. For April we have decided to discuss Jojo Moyes’s The Giver of Stars, a novel based on Eleanor Roosevelt’s traveling libraries. Known as the “Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky,” this team of women steps well beyond the conventional role of women in bringing books to those who have never had any. The RAPS Book Group meets the third Tuesday of each month, traditionally in the homes of various members. Currently we are using Zoom for our meetings. Any RAPS member is welcome to join the group. —Joan Shireman Bridge and Hiking Groups BRIDGE GROUP AND HIKING GROUP activities have been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. ARE YOU A Portland State Magazine subscriber? If not, you should be! And the good news is that the magazine is free to retired Portland State faculty and staff. Edited by Scholle McFarland, Portland State Magazine strives to connect the University and the community it encompasses—alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of PSU. It is published two or three times a year, during fall, winter, and spring terms, by the Office of University Communications. Recent articles have investigated the impact of the pandemic on Portland State students, profiled alumni who campaigned for office in the 2020 election, and examined a 15th-century codex and its journey to the PSU Library. Portland State Magazine also features several regular features, including Alumni Life, Research, The Arts, and Park Blocks. The magazine is distributed on campus and by mail, reaching roughly 144,000 readers, including alumni, retired staff and faculty, current parents, donors, board members, and Oregon legislators. To subscribe, simply email your name and mailing address to psumag@pdx.edu. Add your name to ‘Portland State Magazine’ subscription list—it’s free!
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