Portland writer, theater artist and social services professional Paul Susi will be reading from his 2025 memoir “Character Work” at the Tillamook Library on Tuesday, Oct 13, 4 pm! Paul will discuss his acclaimed mutual aid project, PDX ID Assistance, focusing on helping unhoused / impoverished people replace lost IDs and birth certificates.
From Oregon Humanities: Character Work and Community Work with Paul Susi
Paul Susi, a theater artist, a social services professional, an educator, and a writer who is also so much more than any blurb could say. He’s a person who’s trying to live in the world and be fully open to its suffering and darkness as well as to the beauty that it holds. He’s trying to reckon clearly with our past and to move toward a more gentle, patient, and just future. He’s also trying to connect and to trust the power of connection. And in everything he does, he’s working to bring more light.
Paul Susi is a writer, an educator, a theater artist, and a social services professional, born and raised in Portland. The son of Filipino immigrants, he has toured an adaptation of the Iliad to prisons all over Oregon, Wisconsin, Maine, and Vermont. He is the author of Character Work, published by Perfect Day Publishing in 2025. He is the Director of the Vendor Program for Street Roots, an independent, award-winning weekly street newspaper in Portland. His first book, Character Work, is available now from Perfect Day Publishing.
Paul also works with Oregon Humanities as a facilitator for the Conversation Project and Reflective Conversation Trainings, and he has contributed several essays to our publications.
- “Here Lies” (2022) about his experience playing Chee Gong. Paul also read from this essay in a 2023 episode of The Detour, “A Kind of Immortality.”
- “Who We Really Are” (2025) about his work helping people recover legal ID
- “Beyond Capacity” and “Notes from Peace Shelter” about his time managing overnight shelters in Portland
- Paul appeared in a This Place episode talking about Lone Fir Cemetery.
You can read more about Paul’s performance and community work on his website.
