We need to nurture culture and community during this time when our options for getting together are limited. Here are a few suggestions, for starters:

Every other Sunday at 3, please join us for Bibliophiles Unanimous!: The Open Road Literary Salon.

Subscribe to The Open Road’s peace, love, happiness & understanding journal. Use the Contact form on this website to let us know if you’d like to get it in your inbox every other week.

Browse through the 375,000 high-resolution images of public domain works from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art!

Right now (3/18/21) you can watch Zeina Daccache’s documentary “Johar Up In the Air” on the Catharsis Facebook page!  Zeina has been making her films available for free during this challenging time. It’s a rare opportunity to watch these great films. Don’t miss it!

The Fourth Shakespeare in Prisons Conference highlighted Ashley Lucas’ new book Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration. I interviewed Ashley for the September 3, 2020 issue of peace, love, happiness & understanding.

The Metropolitan Opera shows a new opera every day starting at 4:30 pm (PDT). Each opera streams for 20 hours. Here’s the link to the Metropolitan Opera.

The Portland Japanese Garden  is open again. Hurray!

Virtual group meditation daily at  The Village Zendo   

Host a Zoom meeting of your own! It’s easy. I’m hosting two every week. I really love seeing and hearing my friends–some of whom are far away.

WALT WHITMAN FUN: For two years now, we have celebrated Walt Whitman’s birthday with a group reading of “Song of Myself” on Zoom at the end of May! You can also listen to an interview I did a couple years ago on Marfa Public radio: “Song of Myself” interview with Johnny Stallings . Perin Kerns turned me on to the amazing “Whitman, Alabama” documentary by Jennifer Crandall, which features a wonderful array of people reading verses from “Song of Myself.” 

Follow Kim Stafford on Instagram and get inspired on a regular basis!

Enjoy this song from Mexico, Mexico Lindo y Querido, thanks to Playing for Change!

Lots of adventure suggestions at  Virtual Concerts, Play, Museums, et cetera   

Get a poem-a-day from poets.org.  

LOTS of ideas at The Social Distancing Festival!

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is brainstorming and heartstorming ideas. Check out their website and learn more.

peace, love & happiness

Johnny