Our Community
Our Mission
The Open Road nurtures inner transformation through education, dialogue, meditation & mindfulness, and the arts, in order to promote peace, love, happiness and understanding.
We welcome everyone, regardless of income, age, or cultural background.
Our Programs
The Open Road supports and encourages lifelong learning for everyone through classes, talks, dialogue groups, study groups, performances, workshops, seminars and retreats.
Jerry Smith
April 12, 1933 – July 8, 2025
Jerry Smith changed many people’s lives–
including mine. Without Jerry Smith
there would be no Open Road. The
Jerry and Donna Smith Family
Foundation has been the primary
financial supporter of The Open Road,
from the beginning up till the present.
peace, love, happiness & understanding 4/2/26
Dear Friends of The Open Road
The April issue or peace, love, happiness & understanding features Rocky’s final letters from prison. There is a peace, love, happiness & understanding Archive.
To celebrate Walt Whitman’s 207th birthday, Rocky Hutchinson & Johnny Stallings will read an abridged version of Walt’s great poem Song of Myself on Sunday, May 31st, at 2 p.m. in the Artspace Room at Taborspace. There will be a birthday cake. This Open Road event is free.
¡Bibliophilia! Johnny Stallings hosts a lively conversation about books on Saturday, June 13th, at 2 pm, in the Artspace Room at Taborspace, 5441 SE Belmont. There will be snacks. This Open Road event is free.
Check out the Open Road Spring Schedule 2026.
Jerry Smith passed away on Tuesday, July 8th, 2025. He changed my life. Without Jerry Smith there would be no Open Road. The Jerry and Donna Smith Family Foundation has been the primary financial supporter of The Open Road, from the beginning up till the present.
Get your copy of My Jedi Memoir: A Double Life by James Kahn today!
THANK YOU!!! to donors, teachers, performers, friends–everyone who makes The Open Road thrive!
YOGA with Elizabeth. Elizabeth Domike teaches yoga five mornings a week online. Gentle joint activation movement, with a poem at the end of each practice. Join people from all over the world. To register, contact her at: smallhouse@aol.com.
Check out the Open Road Archive of Classes, Workshops, Performances, et cetera and Past Events.
Open Road Recommends: Will Hornyak’s performances. After a busy beginning of 2026, currently (May 2026), Will is taking a break from public performances, other than schools. Stay tuned.
The Open Road published a monthly Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue from September of 2020 through June of 2024. It was mailed to men in prison and emailed to people “on the outside.” There is a complete archive of this journal at: Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue Archive. Also, check out Johnny’s version of the first Zen text: the Hsin Hsin Ming of Seng Ts’an.
There was a reading of OUR HANDS OF RUIN, a play by Casey Wood, at Taborspace on April 12th, 2025.
The Open Road has a Walt Whitman Archive: Friends of Walt.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Prison is a documentary by Bushra Azzouz. The film premiered on August 7, 2022 at Cinema 21, in Portland, Oregon. The Open Road was fiscal sponsor of the the film from April of 2020 to June of 2024. To make arrangements to see the film or to organize a public screening, email Josh Underhill: josh@openheartsopenminds.org.
Open Road Press is a new project of the Open Road, starting in early 2024. Our first publication is The Nonstop Love-In: poems, stories, essays & other writings by Johnny Stallings. Click on the title to learn more about how you can buy a copy or get it from the Multnomah County Library. Makes a great gift!
We had a lively weekly, then bi-weekly, then monthly book group from June of 2020 till August of 2025–¡Bibliophiles Unanimous!
The Open Road is fiscal sponsor of the Mom Foundation Nepal. Click on Mom Foundation to go to the web page and learn more.
The Village Zendo has online group meditations every day.
You can see and hear Hamilton Cheifetz and Janet Guggenheim play Song of the Birds by Pablo Casals.
May all people be happy.
May we live in peace & love.
–Johnny
