BOOKS & TALKS

Chinaka Hodge in Conversation with Anis Mojgani
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Powell's City of Books
Coming of age alongside the rise of hip-hop, poet Chinaka Hodge found that the musical genre bled into everything she did and experienced, particularly how she loved and was loved. She’ll discuss her emotionally charged, intelligent, and fiercely feminist book, Dated Emcees, with renowned slam poet and Portlander Anis Mojgani. (Plus, check out one of Mojgani's poems, published in our August issue.)

COMEDY

Stumptown Improv Festival
Various times Thursday–Saturday, Artists Repertory Theatre
The small-but-mighty festival returns for year three with another dud-free lineup. Local favorites include the Liberators and action thriller improvisers Bang + Burn, while the out-of-town groups read like improv royalty: freestyle rappers North Coast; husband-and-wife team Orange Tuxedo, and Canadians Sunday Service, which festival co-organizer Jed Arkley describes as “Kids in the Hall on cocaine.” For more, check out our story on the fest.

DANCE

Galaxy Dance Festival
11 a.m.–6:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, Director Park
Whether you’d rather watch some pretty pirouettes or bust out your own fly moves, Polaris Dance Theatre’s annual takeover of Director Park—three days of free performances and classes, of all styles of dance—is just the ticket.

A-WOL Art in the Dark
7:30 p.m. Friday–Sunday, Mary S. Young Park, West Linn
Suspended from the trees of West Linn’s Mary S. Young Park, members of the aerial dance collective twirl and twist to the spooky, trip-hoppy sounds of Dirty Elegance, who’ll also play a live set before the show.

Interview with a Zombie
8:30 p.m. Friday–Sunday, New Expressive Works
TopShakeDance’s new, expressive work is inspired by the endless possibilities of humanity’s uncertain future. How do humans prepare for survival? How might we adapt to an ever-changing world?

FILM

Top Down Rooftop Cinema
9 p.m. Thursday, Hotel deLuxe
As far as parking garages go, Hotel deLuxe’s rooftop lot is pretty swish, and the panoramic views pair well with the NW Film Center’s eclectic alfresco selections. Tonight is Key Largo, the final Bogart-Bacall noir, directed by John Huston.

Flicks on the Bricks
7 p.m. Friday, Pioneer Courthouse Square, FREE
Portland’s living room gets extra cozy every summer, with Friday-night flicks played on a gargantuan inflatable screen. Tonight: fantasy classic The NeverEnding Story. Bring a pillow and snacks for maximum chill vibes.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Dusk Saturday, Stub Stewart State Park
Back in May, the Hollywood Theatre purchased a massive inflatable screen for a brand-new series of screenings at parks all within an hour’s drive of Portland. This installment is a match made in bikey heaven. Pee-wee loves his shiny red cruiser, setting off on a cross-country voyage when the cherished ride is stolen from him. Stub Stewart boasts many miles of multi-use and mountain bike trails, and River City Bicycles will lead a guided ride through the park before the movie rolls.

MUSIC

Pickathon
Thursday–Sunday, Pendarvis Farm
If there’s one festival that typifies all that’s good, odd, barely functional, and utterly enjoyable about this town, it’s Pickathon, held on a rolling farm in Happy Valley. Banning plastic beer cups, giving out free water, composting waste, running lights on solar power—all that, and a killer music lineup that this year includes Jeff Tweedy, Yo La Tengo, Blossom, Chanti Darling, Myke Bogan, and Irish alt-country outfit I Draw Slow. For more, peek our day-by-day guide.

OPENING William Byrd Festival
Various times and locations, Aug 5–20
For the 19th year, Portland liturgical choir Cantores in Ecclesia celebrates the work of the English Renaissance composer, with choral concerts, organ music, lectures, and more.

Opera in the Park
6 p.m. Friday, Washington Park Amphitheater
Since 2003, Portland SummerFest has extricated opera from the concert hall and plunked it, for free, in the lush and green Washington Park Amphitheater. Up this year: an abridged version of Verdi’s Il Travatore, with all-star soprano and SummerFest mainstay Angela Meade atop the bill.

Kacey Musgraves
7:30 p.m. Friday, Crystal Ballroom, SOLD OUT
Some country musicians sing about pickup trucks and ’Murica. Musgraves sings about marriage equality and lighting up a joint. In other words, the singer-songwriter, with her shimmering voice and witty lyrics, is a country star for the rest of us.

Pink Martini
7 p.m. Friday–Saturday, Oregon Zoo
It wouldn’t be summer without a Pink Martini concert at the zoo: seeing the genre-crossing little orchestra in close proximity to trumpeting elephants and roaring lions is practically a Portland rite of passage.

Wavves
8 p.m. Friday, Hawthorne Theatre
The Southern California electronica rock band has a sound that niggles and grates, and yet it’s just so damn catchy. With elements of garage rock, avant garde electronica, and the wailing vocals of shoegaze, there’s something for everyone.

Emily King
9 p.m. Friday, Doug Fir Lounge
The Grammy-nominated R&B singer has a voice that’s by turns soulful, funky, and wispy.

THEATER

The Italian Girl in Algiers
2 p.m. Thursday and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Newmark Theatre
New scenery and costumes dress up Rossini’s madcap comedy of shipwreck, puffed-up chieftains, and nimble-witted women. For more, check out our Q&A with Ashraf Sewailam, who plays narcissistic ruler Mustafa.

OPENING Annapurna
7:30 p.m. Friday–Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Imago Theatre
In a squalid trailer in the Colorado mountains, an ex-husband and wife—they haven’t seen each other in 20 years, and now he’s dying of emphysema—dissect the mystery of the night she left. The New York Times called Sharr White’s drama, presented here by Third Rail, “a scruffier version of a Lifetime television movie about love gone wrong.” For more, check out our Q&A with director Isaac Lamb.

Original Practice Shakespeare Festival
6 p.m. Friday, Marylhurst University; 2 p.m. Saturday, Esther Short Park; 2 p.m. Saturday, Lents Park
OPS claims to produce Shakespeare the way it was done in the Bard’s day: with minimal rehearsal, an onstage prompter, and plentiful audience interaction. The company has 13 plays in its repertoire this summer, with showings at parks across the city. The Tempest is on this weekend.

VISUAL ART

OPENING Sharita Towne
10 a.m.–10:30 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m.–6 pm Friday–Sunday, Newspace Center for Photography, FREE
In Our City in Stereo, Towne uses stereographs—a form of 3-D photography pioneered in the mid-19th century—to explore gentrification and displacement today.

OPENING Harold Feinstein
Noon–9 p.m. Thursday and noon–5 p.m. Friday–Sunday, Blue Sky Gallery, FREE
Feinstein, who died last year, was known for his animated, candid photos of Coney Island—teenagers grinning, musclemen flexing, kids splashing. This retrospective showcases the best of his black-and-white photography.

Freedom
10 a.m.–8 p.m. Thursday–Friday and 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturday–Sunday, Portland Art Museum
Josh Kline’s multipart installation, hailed by theNew Yorker as “galvanic,” takes on corporate greed and the erosion of civil rights via riot gear-clad Teletubbies and reimagined Obama speeches. For more, read our Q&A with Kline.