Top Things to Do This Weekend: March 10–13
Kyle Abraham and his company take the Newmark stage by storm this weekend.
Image: Jerry and Lois Photography
BOOKS & TALKS
Matt Love
7:30 pm Thursday, Powell's City of Books
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s mixed legacy now includes a fictionalized portrayal in Matt Love’s debut fiction novel, The Great Birthright: An Oregon Novel. Love, a Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award Winning writer and teacher living on the Oregon Coast, turns another screw in the detective novel genre with a witty reimagining of Scalia’s dissent on the 1967 Beach Bill—the legislation that established public ownership of Oregon’s Beaches.
Rebecca Traister is at Powell's to read from new book, All the Single Ladies.
Image: Eliza Long
Rebecca Traister
7:30 pm Friday, Powell's City of Books
Journalist Rebecca Traister is one of the smartest, wittiest people writing about gender and politics today. Her new book, All the Single Ladies, dives into the unprecedented growth in the number of unmarried women in America and explores how their independence is shaping our country and its future. Plus, read our Q&A with Traister.
Daniel Clowes
2 pm Sunday, Powell's City of Books
Acclaimed graphic novelist Daniel Clowes—the mind behind Ghost World—debuts his ninth volume, Patience. It’s a sci-fi love story told in technicolor that publisher Fantagraphics calls “his most suspenseful, surprising and affecting story yet.” Clowes is joined in conversation by cartoonist Eric Reynolds.
COMEDY
CLOSING Aces National Forest
8 pm Friday–Saturday, Siren Theater
Rock-solid sketch-comedy duo the Aces—composed of Shelley McLendon and Michael Fetters—stage a new, backcountry-inspired show.
Amy Miller and Sean Jordan's Going Away Friendship and Pizza Party
8 pm Sunday, Aladdin Theater
Like every other funny person who builds their chops in Portland, comedians Amy Miller and Sean Jordan are moving to Los Angeles. Before they leave, they're throwing themselves a big ol' bash, with standup sets by Bri Pruett, Nathan Brannon, Gabe Dinger, Phil Schallberger, Anthony Lopez, and Jordan Casner.
DANCE
Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion
8 pm Thursday–Saturday, Newmark Theatre
White Bird’s Uncaged series presents work by New York choreographer and dancer Kyle Abraham: The Quiet Dance, Absent Matter, and The Gettin’are meditations on identity and injustice exercised through fluid movement grounded in traditional contemporary dance and hip-hop. Need more reasons to see the MacArthur Genius Fellow? We've got 'em.
MUSIC
The Revivalists
9 pm Thursday, Aladdin Theater
New Orleans septet the Revivalists perform from their latest LP Men Amongst Mountains, set to release July 17. Think Pearl Jam meets funky soul sound.
Hometown hero Esperanza Spalding returns on Friday.
Image: Holly Andres
Esperanza Spalding
9 pm Friday, Wonder Ballroom
The Portland-raised bassist and singer-songwriter—who beat out a certain Canadian pop star (also hitting town this weekend) for a Grammy a few years back—has a brand-new album, Emily's D+Evolution. It's her fifth full-length album and her most adventurous so far: the New York Times called it "a sustained burst of funk enlightenment that rings with echoes of childhood."
Joseph Moog
4 pm Saturday–Sunday, Lincoln Hall, Portland State University
The German piano prodigy, who was recently nominated for a Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Solo—and also bagged the 2015 Young Gramophone Artist of the Year Award—hits PSU on a tour of the States. He’ll play a different lineup each day, including selections by Bach, Brahms, and Debussy.
Justin Bieber
7:30 pm Sunday, Moda Center
Biebs is back, minus the bad-boy act (for now). Glistening new album Purpose is a study in club-ready redemption. Girl, you know he’s sorry.
THEATER
OPENING We Are Proud to Present...
7:30 pm Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, Artists Repertory Theatre
Jackie Drury’s six-actor cast aims to tell the story of 20th century colonial genocide, but in the process they get a bit a bit, um, distracted. (Full title: We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915.)
OPENING The Lady Aoi
7:30 pm Thursday–Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, Imago Theatre
Yukio Mishima’s erotic thriller invokes both medical stasis and midnight incubi in what director Jerry Mouawad calls the Japanese version of Fatal Attraction. For more, read our preview.
CLOSING Chapatti
7:30 pm Thursday–Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, CoHo Theatre
A humorous tale about love found in the most unexpected circumstances: Dan and Betty both live alone in Dublin with their respective companions—Dan with his dog Chapatti, and Betty with a gaggle of 19 cats. Gemma Whelan directs Christian O’Reilly’s tender drama about human connection and collective experience.
Defunkt guns it down.
Image: Rosemary Ragusa
CLOSING Blasted
7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, Defunkt Theatre
On its 1995 premiere, Sarah Kane’s brutal drama was itself blasted, for shock value. (After all, it’s a story of war, rape, and death.) Years after her 1999 suicide, the late playwright gets critical nods for her fearless exploration of humanity’s darkest corners.
VISUAL ARTS
CLOSING APEX: Shelby Shadwell
10 am–8 pm Thursday & Friday, 10 am–5 pm Saturday & Sunday, Portland Art Museum
Shadwell’s massively lustrous black-and-white charcoal renderings aim for a dialogue that “elevates the mundane;” the Wyoming artist startles with abstractions of cockroaches and dirty diapers.
CARPA: Craft Advanced Research Projects Agency
11 am–6 pm Thursday–Saturday, Museum of Contemporary Craft
This (spoofy) state agency—featuring curators/officers Sara Clugage, Carole Lung, and Otto Von Busch—is dedicated to maintaining the “technological superiority of US artisans.”
