TICKETS $15

Doors 6:30 p.m.; Event 7 p.m.
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THE EXPERIENCE

Join us for an evening celebrating one of the most influential voices in science fiction and fantasy. Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin offers a rare, intimate journey into the life and imagination of the legendary Portland-based author, whose groundbreaking works, including The Left Hand of Darkness and the Earthsea series, forever reshaped the genres she loved.

After the screening, we’ll host a conversation between director Arwen Curry and Katherine Murphy Lewis of From the Ground UP.

Also, don’t miss A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin, an exhibition with curation led by the author’s son Theo Downes-Le Guin that examines important moments and themes in Le Guin’s life and oeuvre! The show opens at Oregon Contemporary this weekend with a reception on Saturday, November 1st, 5-8pm. The exhibition continues through February 8, 2026 with events, programs, and a book release throughout the show.

ON SCREEN: Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin 

2018. Directed by Arwen Curry. Runtime: 68 minutes. 

The extraordinary life story of science fiction and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) who, in spite of remaining for many years on the sidelines of the mainstream literature, managed to be recognized as one of the most remarkable US writers of all time, due to the relevance of her work and her commitment to the human condition. Featuring Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, Michael Chabon, and more.

ONSTAGE: Arwen Curry and Katherine Lewis

Arwen Curry
Arwen Curry is the director/producer of Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, which was nominated for a Hugo Award and broadcast on PBS American Masters, the BBC, and Sweden’s SVT. Since its premiere in 2018, the film has screened for festival and community audiences across the U.S. and more than two dozen countries worldwide. Arwen’s 2023 project The Journey That Matters, published in installments on Literaryhub.com, includes six additional short films about Le Guin’s life and work. In 2022, Arwen was an ITVS Humanities Documentary Development Fellow with support from the NEH. Before that, she helped produce EAMES: The Architect & The Painter, Regarding Susan Sontag, American Jerusalem: Jews & The Making of San Francisco, several films for KQED, and other projects. As a writer and consultant, she advises documentary filmmakers on grants, scripts, and proposals. Arwen is a former editor of the punk magazine Maximum Rock‘n’Roll and a graduate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She lives in San Francisco.

Katherine Murphy Lewis
Katherine Murphy Lewis is the founding Artistic Director of From the Ground UP. Since 2013 Katherine has championed programing, workshops, residencies and new art development for underrepresented communities; directing/dramturging and producing over 60 original works and serving over 1000 participants in the ten years since the organization’s inception. Over the past nine years Katherine has built and sustained an annual artist residency program, a cornerstone of From the Ground UP’s programming that produces upwards of twelve new works from a cohort of multigenerian artists, each presented in From the Ground UP’s annual Mini festival of New Art.

In addition to her work in leadership and art making, Katherine had enjoyed collaborating locally and internationally, including her artist residence with Company of Wolves in Glasgow Scotland, in which she traveled and toured their show Achilles at Edinburgh Fringe and throughout the UK and Europe. Locally she has co-wrote and performed in the new play, Tonight Nothing, in partnership with Merideth Kaye Clark, which premiered at CoHo Production’s summer of 2019. Most recently she dramaturged and directed You Can’t Be Serious, a new work by local artist Andrea Parson. After presenting the world premier in partnership with Bodyvox Dance Center, You Can’t Be Serious went on to go on a national tour, receiving the best physical theater award at the New York Festival United Solo.

Currently Katherine is leading From the Ground UP into its next phase of evolution. Bringing forth a new phase of programs, all aimed at reimagining who, what and how we create new live art. In doing so she is fostering innovation, expanding artistic spaces and supporting artists who have struggled to find space, support and funding in traditional artistic spaces.

PRESENTED BY:

From the Ground UP : A Research and Development Center for New Art is a Portland OR, based non-profit that fosters the creation of new art. They seek to expand, reimagine and invent new ways of making, producing and presenting art.

They center femme identified artists (including non-binary communities) with the aim of offering opportunity to those who need it most. By focusing on marginalized populations they elevate sidelined voices, invoke important community dialogues, and support the creation and presenting of stories that are often overlooked. Knowing that by bringing these stories to the forefront they can create spaces that empower artists, invite the unusual, challenge norms, and forge new pathways that uplift individuals and communities both here and beyond.