Books & Talks

Emily Witt
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Powell's City of Books, FREE
Witt has written about Tinder, anti-masturbation advocacy, and a webcam site called Chaturbate. She’ll discuss her first book—Future Sex, a plunge into sexual subcultures—with Bitch cofounder Andi Zeisler.

Don DeLillo
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, SOLD OUT
Literary Arts invites a giant of contemporary American literature onstage for a conversation with filmmaker Noah Hawley, who’s adapting DeLillo’s Zero K for the big screen.

Laurie Notaro
7 p.m. Friday, Powell's Books at Cedar Hills, FREE
The Eugene-based best-selling author has a new novel, Crossing the Horizon, a based-on-truth tale about three female aviators attempting to fly across the Atlantic in the late 1920s.

Lee Van Der Voo
7:30 p.m. Friday, Powell's City of Books, FREE
In The Fish Market, the Portland journalist dives into the big money behind the privatization of our oceans, and how that’s affected our supply of sustainable seafood.

Back Fence PDX
8 p.m. Saturday, Alberta Rose Theater
The beloved storytelling series hands the microphone to Noble Rot chef Leather Storrs, actor Lauren Modica, and (nepotism alert!) Portland Monthly style editor Eden Dawn, among others. Tonight’s theme? “Snooping Around.”

Comedy

Greg Proops
8 p.m. Thursday and 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday–Saturday, Helium Comedy Club
Get one last jolt of comedy gold before the holidays sap all your goodwill, courtesy of the improv master from Whose Line Is It Anyway? The final show of Proop’s three-day stop in Portland will feature a live taping of his podcast, The Smartest Man in the World.

Colin Mochrie & Friends
7:30 p.m. Sunday, Curious Comedy Theater
The Whose Line Is It Anyway? vet returns to town for a one-night only gig with Curious Comedy’s all-star improvisers.

Dance

Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group
8 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, PSU's Lincoln Hall
Reggie Wilson brings his Fist and Heel Performance Group to Portland for Moses(es), an exploration of leadership and following that riffs on the biblical figure. The Brooklyn-based choreographer, who calls his style “post-African/Neo-hoodoo,” draws from traditions of the African diaspora and incorporates body percussions and expressive vocalizations into this forceful, kinetic piece.

The Last Bell Rings for You
8 p.m. Thursday–Sunday, Shaking the Tree
Iconoclastic Portland choreographer Linda Austin assembles more than a dozen performers, ranging from ordinary folks to professionals, for some singing, bell-ringing, and other group behaviors (and probably even some dancing).

Music

Sleigh Bells
8 p.m. Friday, Wonder Ballroom
When not suing Demi Lovato—she’s accused of swiping from Sleigh Bells track “Infinity Guitars”—the noise-pop duo just dropped a new album, Jessica Rabbit, which they describe as “the sonic equivalent of firing synapses.”

Lupe Fiasco
9 p.m. Friday, Crystal Ballroom
The trailblazer of conscious hip-hop brings his lyrical rhymes to the Crystal.

Stephen Hough Plays Saint-Saëns
7:30 p.m. Saturday–Sunday, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
The lauded concert pianist and MacArthur “genius” grant winner—he was the first classical musician to receive the prize—takes on Saint-Saëns’s last piano concerto, inspired by the composer’s time in Egypt.

Aan
8 p.m. Sunday, Rontoms
Portland's proggy, experimental four-piece has a new album, Dada Distractions, which features an injection of '70s rock sounds—it was produced by drummer Riley Geare, formerly of Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

Theater

CLOSING The How and the Why
7:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, CoHo Theater
Too many topics go unexplored on American stages. Such as: menstruation. House of Cards writer Sarah Treem puts it at the center of her 2011 play, which finds two academics sparring over the biological reasons for menstruation and menopause (one theory involves a dream about toxic sperm).

CLOSING Coyote on a Fence
7:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, Post5 Theatre
Paul Angelo directs Bruce Graham’s drama, which centers on the interactions between two radically different inmates on death row.

CLOSING The Oregon Trail
7:30 p.m. Thursday–Friday and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday–Sunday, Gerding Theater
Pack up the covered wagon (have you bought enough bullets and spare axles?) and head west for Bekah Brunstetter’s new play, which imagines intersecting experiences of The Oregon Trail: one of the iconic computer game and one of the dusty, treacherous thing itself.

Xenophobadelica
7:30 p.m. Friday, The Headwaters
Pink Hanky—a local queer-femme producing and presenting group—brings New Yorker Dawn Crandell to town for her autobiographical solo show about being queer, black, and multiethnic. Crandell blends burlesque and poetry, setting it all to the music of Prince.

Visual Art

Alexander Chekmenev and Pablo Ortiz Monasterio
Noon–5 p.m. Thursday–Sunday, Blue Sky Gallery, FREE
Chekmenev’s photography offers a glimpse into post-Soviet Ukraine, including portraits of homebound citizens having their passport photos taken. Monasterio, meanwhile, has created photo collages to memorialize the disappearance of 43 Mexican students in 2014—a kidnapping linked to the drug war.

Hidden Assembly
10 a.m.–9:30 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Friday–Sunday, Newspace Center for Photography, FREE
Artists shine a light on the often invisible laborers who make the products we consume, from Mary Lum’s collection of the bottoms of brown paper bags bearing the names of those who oversaw their production, to Betty Marín’s examination of seasonal migrant workers in the Christmas tree industry. (The exhibition also takes place at the Center for Contemporary Art and Culture at PNCA, 511 NW Broadway, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Thursday–Saturday.)

Andy Warhol: Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
10 a.m.–8 p.m. Thursday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturday–Sunday, Portland Art Museum
From the iconic (think Campbell’s tomato soup can and neon-hued Marilyn Monroe) to more obscure early works, this wide-ranging showcase of about 250 images is the Pacific Northwest’s largest-ever display of Warhol’s work.

Special Events

Ripsgiving
6–9 p.m. Thursday, Gallery 135, FREE
For one night, IDL Worldwide transforms its downtown space into a tribute to the Trail Blazers’ 1977 NBA title, offering fans the chance to relive the pulse-pounding drama of that game on huge monitors. Blazer-themed installations will abound, including a huge, three-dimensional Blazers logo, with sounds spun by DJ Blowy Shirts. We've got more on the event here.

S.A.D. Park
4:30–9 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.–9 p.m. Saturday, and 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Sunday, Pioneer Courthouse Square, FREE
For three days, Portland’s living room will become S.A.D. Park: a space designed to ease seasonal affective disorder—or whatever tough moods people might be experiencing right now. Expect a large event tent illuminated by very bright lamps, plus a stacked lineup of events, including tai chi, meditation, discussions about feelings, life coaching sessions from a performance artist, an unconventional aerobics class, and—oh-so-crucially—a litter of puppies. For more, check out our preview.

OryCon
All day Friday–Sunday, Courtyard by Marriott
Novelist David Weber—best known for the swashbuckling Honor Harrington space adventures series—headlines this 38th annual fan-run science fiction and fantasy convention. Joining him this year: sci-fi/fantasy imprint Tor/Forge’s new executive editor Diana Gill and legendary cover artist David Mattingly, who has Playboy and Marvel on his résumé.