Books & Talks

Joel Berg
7:30 p.m. Fri, Powell’s City of Books, FREE
The antipoverty advocate and director of the nonprofit Hunger Free America just dropped a new book, America, We Need to Talk, which parodies self-help tomes while also examining why our country has gone so haywire of late—and providing a plan for the future.

Comedy

Billy Crystal
7:30 p.m. Fri, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, $65–125
The comedian, movie star, and voice of Mike Wazowski—the little one-eyed green ball from Monsters, Inc.—takes a new live show on the road, promising both stand-up and “sit-down” (as in film clips, stories, and more).

OPENING The Aces
8 p.m. Thu–Sat, Siren Theater, $15–25
Sound the alarm: Shelley McLendon and Michael Fetters bring back their sketch comedy fire to the Siren. Claiming not to have liked each other when they met, this hilarious duo proves that laughter is the bridge that brings people together. Don’t miss one of eight performances by the group that describes themselves as “the tallest sketch comedy in America.” 

Dance

Cuisine & Confessions
7:30 p.m. Thu–Fri, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sat, Newmark Theatre
As adept at flipping omelets as at flipping their bodies, Montreal circus troupe the 7 Fingers digs into our relationship with food, via bendy acrobatic feats and banana bread baked onstage.

In Circadia
8:30 p.m. Fri–Sat, 3 p.m. Sun, BodyVox Dance Center
“If dreams were a dance, this is what they would look like,” says the Huffington Post of choreographer Eliza Larson’s dance piece, which explores the rich world of sleep.

Film

CLOSING Cascade Festival of African Films
Various times thru Mar 4, Portland Community College’s Cascade Campus, FREE
Back in 1991, this fest launched as a humble four-film affair. This year, it’s up to 17 feature-length films (plus six shorts) from across the continent, including South Africa, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Tunisia.

POWFest
Thu–Sun, Hollywood Theatre, $9 general, $60 festival pass
The annual showcase of women in cinema celebrates its 10th anniversary with its first guest of honor of color: Cheryl Dunye, whose 1996 film The Watermelon Woman was a trailblazing LGBTQ work. Other highlights include The View from Tall, a feature film exploring teen sexuality and consent, and Out of Order, a doc following queer faith leaders.

OPENING Burlesque: Heart of the Glitter Tribe
Opens Fri, Living Room Theaters, $5–10
Local director Jon Manning's new film brings Portland's star burlesque performers to the big screen. We've got an interview with Manning and more on the movie here.

Music

E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
7:30 p.m. Thu, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, $30–115
Celebrate the film’s 35th anniversary by basking in a big-screen showing, with John Williams’s score performed live by the Oregon Symphony.

ACLU Benefit Show at Holocene
8 p.m. Thu, Holocene, $10
This 21+ musical performance features acts by Lenore, Lindsay Clark, Catherine Feeny, Anna Tivel, and Robin Bacior.

Ghostface Killah
9 p.m. Thu, Dante's, $30–50
Former Wu-Tang Clan member Dennis Coles (a.k.a. Ghostface Killah) is renowned for agile, hardcore beats infused with stream-of-consciousness narrative lyrics.

In the Dark 2.0
7:30 p.m. Fri–Sat, OMSI Planetarium, $35
If you believe concerts give you entirely too much distracting stuff to look at, this one’s for you: Georg Friedrich Haas’s String Quartet no. 3, performed in the total darkness of the OMSI Planetarium.

Jens Lekman
8 p.m. Fri, Revolution Hall, $25
Life Will See You Now—the Swedish singer’s first album in five years—features snippets of gospel, disco, and steel drums alongside Lekman’s characteristically playful but melancholy lyrics.

The Last Artful, Dodgr & Neill Von Tally
8 p.m. Fri, Disjecta, $7–10
We’re fully hooked on the woozy vocals of the Last Artful, Dodgr, whose new release—Bone Music, with fast-becoming-legendary producer Neill Von Tally—dropped February 3. The LA-PDX transplant sang backup for Aminé on Jimmy Fallon last year. Only a matter of time till she’s front of stage.

Coco Columbia
11 p.m. Sat, Secret Society, $10
The Portland singer-songwriter fuses jazz and electro-pop, resulting in swirly, entrancing, rhythmic, futuristic, cotton-candy-coated creations.

Theater

Matilda: The Musical
7:30 p.m. Thu–Fri, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sat, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sun, Keller Auditorium, $25+
The wildly popular musical adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel bursts into town, requiring that you recruit every book-loving human you know to accompany you to the Keller.

Savage/Love
7:30 p.m. Fri, Imago Theatre, $5–15
In 1979, Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin joined forces to create a series of 19 performance poems about love, which Imago co-artistic director Jerry Mouawad directs as "a bedroom suite in which a cast of 10 performers explore the poems, interpreted with text, dance, physical theatre and song."

OPENING Brontë
7:30 p.m. Fri–Sun, Hillsboro Public Library, $25–30
It’s off to the Yorkshire moors in Polly Teale’s play, which fuses fact and fiction to explore the tempestuous lives and stories of the Brontë sisters.

CLOSING Pen/man/ship
7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat and 2 p.m. Sun, Portland Playhouse, $25–34
It’s 1896, and a group of African Americans are on a ship bound for Liberia. Hostilities mount and family secrets trickle out in Christina Anderson’s maritime drama.

CLOSING Testament of Mary
7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat and 2 p.m. Sun, New Expressive Works, $25
Corrib, Portland’s resident Irish theater company, puts on a monologue by Colm Tóibín—the author of Brooklyn—imagining the mother of Jesus grappling in anguish with the life and death of her son. Jacklyn Maddux is gripping in a nuanced performance in this quietly political piece.

CLOSING Marjorie Prime
7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sat, 2 p.m. Sun, $25–50
Before Jon Hamm, Geena Davis, and Tim Robbins make it into a movie, catch the stage version of Jordan Harrison’s sci-fi-tinged play about aging, memory, and (ooh!) holograms.

Visual Art

CLOSING My Life Through My Lens
Thru Mar 5, Union Knott, FREE
Local photographer Renée Lopez’s first solo exhibit features her striking images of Portlanders of color, largely women and those in activist and music communities.

Iconoclastic
Noon–5 p.m. Thursday–Sunday, Reed College's Douglas F. Cooley Art Gallery, FREE
A new exhibit at Reed features work by a diverse array of artists—including Maya Lin, Goshka Macuga, Michael Rakowitz, Ryan Woodring, Morehshin Allahyari, and Daniel Rourke—exploring the destruction and censorship of images. This Saturday features two special events as part of Reed Arts Week. From 1–3 p.m., Pochas Radicales present Interrupción casual, a performance that intends to "[disrupt] whiteness and [build] solidarity with our hermanxs." A poetry reading follows at 4 p.m., featuring Manuel Arturo Abreu, Elissa Washuta, and Demian DinéYazhi' (who also has work in the exhibit).

OPENING Adrian Landon Brooks
7–10 p.m. Fri, 1–6 p.m. Sat, Stephanie Chefas Projects, FREE
In Golden Age, the Texas-based artist uses reclaimed wood, bright colors, and geometric patterns to create paintings that evoke folklore and Greek mythology.

OPENING Emily Counts
Noon–6 p.m. Saturday–Sunday, Nationale, FREE
Emily Count’s second solo exhibition at Nationale, Form Factor, is a display of sculptural pieces inspired by early computer graphics and playground designs. 

OPENING The Evocative Garden
Noon–5 p.m. Saturday–Sunday, Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, FREE
March is an all-out pottery party in Portland, with our city hosting the conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (March 22–25) and ceramics showcases filling dozens of arts spaces around town. This keystone exhibit at Disjecta brings together work by five invited artists (Megan Bogonovich, Jess Riva Cooper, Kim Dickey, Linda Sormin, and Dirk Staschke) and 30 additional creators drawn from an open submission.