MUSIC

Blackalicious
Saturday at 9 pm, Star Theater
Blackalicious is currently on tour to promote new album Imani, Vol. 1, the first in a trilogy yet-to-come. What sets this group apart? Nearly two decades of hip-hop experience and lyrics steeped in spiritual positivity.

Colin Currie with the Oregon Symphony
Saturday at 7:30 pm, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
The award-winning young British percussionist plays Smetana, Cherubini, and MacMillan's "Veni, vent Emmanuel" (all recorded for future broadcast—so expect a classical concert of particularly high quality).

Beth Hart
Saturday at 8:30 pm, Roseland Theater
The Grammy-nominated, LA-based blues rock icon tours for new album Better Than Home (Single "Mechanical Heart," sung in a register so low she gives Nina Simone a run for her money, has topped iTunes's blues list).

COMEDY

Live Wire! Feat. Maya Forbes & Aasif Mandvi
Saturday at 7:30 pm, Revolution Hall
The NPR-syndicated local variety show collects an eclectic group of creative visionaries and musicians, like Maya Forbes—writer and director of the autobiographical Infinitely Polar Bear—and Aasif Mandvi, who works on HBO’s The Brink. The night will also feature musical guests like Blitzen Trapper, Pink Martini’s China Forbes (sister to Maya), and self-described downer pop band Soft Sleep. 

FILM

Portland German Film Festival
Friday–Sunday at various times, Cinema 21
The world of German cinema explodes onto the big screen this weekend in all its black and white, sobering glory. Hosted by Zeitgeist Northwest, the curated festival features the US premiere of Margaret von Trotta’s The Misplaced World, as well as Wacken – The Movie, a documentary about German rock’s biggest festival.

BOOKS & TALKS

Dr. Genevieve Bell: Human Behavior and the Next New Thing
Thursday at 7 pm, Mercy Corps Action Center
Dr. Bell, director of interaction and experience research at Intel Labs (the tech company’s research division), has been working on predicting the future of technology since 1998.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Portland Creative Conference
Friday from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, Gerding Theatre
The creative world descends on Portland for this annual conference founded in 1990 and organized by the nonprofit Keeping the Arts. Speakers include the likes of Pink Martini’s China Forbes and Steve Emerson, visual effects supervisor at LAIKA. 

Portland Magic Festival
Friday–Saturday from 10 am, Sunday from noon, Alberta Rose Theater
Fare thee well, dear traveler, perchance you have the time solve my fantastical riddle of one metal ring becoming entangled in another? Learn from the master illusion weavers at the first ever Portland Magic Festival, where both established and up-and-coming magicians, local and international, will perform and host mystical workshops. 

THEATER

OPENING Little Gem
Thursday and Friday at 7:30 pm, Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 2 pm, CoHo Theatre
This award-winning play from Elaine Murphy, which in its initial production traveled from Dublin to New York and Australia, tells the personal stories of three generations of ordinary Irish women grappling with life, death, sex, and the occasional glass of Sambuca. After a run at Kells Irish Pub last February, it’s revived here in a Corrib co-production with CoHo Theatre.

OPENING Passion Play Part III
Thursday–Sunday at 7:30 pm, Shaking the Tree Studio
In Sarah Ruhl’s homage to medieval Christendom’s Eastertime passion plays (Parts I and II played earlier in September), we find ourselves in Spearfish, South Dakota, at the onset of the Vietnam War. Reagan shows up, as do lots of fishies.

OPENING Pippin
Thursday–Saturday at 7:30 pm, Saturday at 2 pm, Sunday at 1 pm and 6:30 pm, Keller Auditorium
Pippin is a story as old as stories themselves: A young prince must choose a life of safety or adventure. Tony Award-winner Diane Paulus directs this genre mashing musical that features songs from the composer of Wicked. French acrobats Les 7 Doigts de la Main, renowned for their traveling circus show Traces, will add their own vibrant visual flair.

OPENING Sherlock Homes: the Final Adventure
Friday & Saturday at 7:30 pm, Magenta Theater
Vancouver’s Magenta Theater got permission from playwright Steven Dietz to stage their production in 1960s London, as the great detective’s last adventure unfolds.