From Lidia Yuknavitch's New Novel to a Berlin Quest-Turned-Portland Play, April's Pop Culture Hot List
Blossom performs at Holocene on April 19.
Image: Courtesy Amanda Adams
The Singers
There’s a strong lineup of local women making music around town this month, among them folk-fueled singer-songwriter Laura Gibson (April 15, Mississippi Studios), harmonizing sister trio Joseph (April 28, Crystal Ballroom), R&B rising star Blossom (April 19, Holocene), and the 11-piece ukulele strummers the Ukeladies, now a monthly happy hour feature at the Secret Society (April 22).
The Books
From left: Robin Romm speaks at Powell’s on April 21; Lidia Yuknavitch speaks at Powell’s on April 18.
Lidia Yuknavitch, Portland’s self-proclaimed misfit writer returns with The Book of Joan, a postapocalyptic tale of a bloodthirsty cult leader and a child warrior, Joan, who communes with the earth and ends up sharing quite a bit with her namesake.
Local writer and editor Robin Romm has gathered thinkers from Roxane Gay to playwright Sarah Ruhl to talk about glass ceilings, leaning in, and feminism in Double Bind: Women on Ambition.
The Play
Portland playwright Andrea Stolowitz
Image: Courtesy S. Samiee
In 2012, Portland playwright Andrea Stolowitz came across the diary of her great-grandfather, a Jewish doctor who escaped Nazi Berlin. Two years later, Stolowitz herself arrived in the German capital to piece together traces of her ancestor’s life. The result, Berlin Diary (April 15–30, CoHo Theater) follows their parallel journeys in a meditation on family, memory, and history.
