Books & Talks

Apricot Irving

7:30 p.m. Thu, Powell's City of Books, FREE
Local author Apricot Irving’s debut book, The Gospel of Trees, is a memoir about her childhood as a missionary’s daughter: in the early 1980s, at age 6, her family moved from Oregon to Haiti, where they lived for most of the next decade. Kirkus praised Irving’s “timely and often insightful perspective on modern-day Haiti.” 

Natalie Singer

7:30 p.m. Fri, Powell's City of Books, FREE
Trigger warning, Portlanders: Singer's debut book, California Calling, is a memoir about being obsessed with the Golden State. Structured largely as a series of interrogations and replies, Singer explores the iconography of California as well as themes of family and belonging. She'll be joined in conversation by Portlander Jenny Forrester, author of Narrow River, Wide Sky.

Dance

Jessica Lang Dance

8 p.m. Thu–Sat, Newmark Theatre, $26–70
Combining the fluidity of ballet with the shapes and conceptual risks of modern dance, Juilliard alum and former Twyla Tharp company member Jessica Lang brings elegance and grace to the dance floor—even when wearing a white gown that makes the Duchess of Cambridge’s train look humble. “Lang has a gift for conveying emotion with exquisite simplicity,” said the Washington Post. This program features six works choreographed by Lang and performed by her company.

Film

POWFest 2018

Various times and venues Fri–Sun, ticket prices vary
The annual celebration of women in cinema returns for its 11th year. On deck: several feature-length films, two programs of short films, a showcase of video art and music videos directed by Portlanders, and workshops taught by writer and producer Julie Keck. Two-time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple is this year’s guest of honor. She'll discuss her film career and screen a double feature, including the Academy Award-winning documentary Harlan County, U.S.A., which tells the story of a grueling coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town.

Music

The Lone Bellow

8 p.m. Thu, Aladdin Theater, $20–79
In 2011, after his wife was left temporarily paralyzed by a horseback riding accident, Zach Williams began a songwriting project, penning haunting numbers that dealt with tragedy, hope, and redemption. That project would become the Lone Bellow, a gospel-tinged Americana trio that released its third album, Walk Into a Storm, last September.

David Rawlings

8 p.m. Fri, Roseland Theater, $35
The towering figure of Americana takes the Roseland stage, backed by a full band that includes longtime musical partner Gillian Welch, Paul Kowert of the Punch Brothers, Willie Watson, and Brittany Haas.

Lorde

7 p.m. Sat, Moda Center, $39.50–99.50
She became famous at 16 with her 2013 hit “Royals,” and now the Grammy-winning New Zealand phenomenon is on tour for her sophomore album, Melodrama. “Where Pure Heroine is coolly detached and self-contained, Melodrama is more searching, and, in some ways, more celebratory,” wrote Rolling Stone. “It’s also, musically speaking, more expansive.”

Theater

OPENING Death and the Maiden

7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, 2 p.m. Sun, Vault Theater, $25–30
How does a country come to terms with an oppressive regime and transition back to democracy? Ariel Dorfman’s 1991 play may be set in a post-Pinochet Chile, but there’s plenty of relevance to 2018 America. Bag & Baggage’s new associate artistic director Cassie Greer makes her solo directorial debut with this tale of private revenge and public reckoning. 

OPENING Scarlet

7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, 2 p.m. Sun, Portland Playhouse, $25–39
Take Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 19th-century novel about a “fallen woman.” Rewrite it as musical theater. What have you got? A Portland Playhouse world premiere. Written and composed by Portland playwright and former high school drama teacher Michelle Horgen, Scarlet also got help in the development process from Bitch Media, and it features a few performers from PHAME, a local arts and education nonprofit focused on opportunities for the developmentally disabled community. For more, check out our story on the show.

OPENING Between Riverside and Crazy

7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sun, Artists Repertory Theatre, $25–50
The rent might be controlled, but everything else is topsy-turvy in Stephen Adly Guirgis's Pulitzer-winning drama about a retired NYPD police officer and recent widower whose recently paroled son and friends wander in and out of his Manhattan apartment. The New York Times called it "dizzying and exciting."

The Holler Sessions

7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, 2 p.m. Sun, Artists Repertory Theatre, $25
That jazz skeptic friend of yours? Show them the light with Frank Boyd’s solo show, in which the Seattle actor and writer plays a Kansas City DJ who is maniacally evangelistic about Ellington and Coltrane.

Visual Art

Common Ground

10 a.m.–8 p.m. Thu–Fri, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Sat–Sun, Portland Art Museum, $19.99
For more than 25 years, Fazal Sheikh has photographed individuals made invisible by war, ethnic and religious strife, climate crises, and social banishment. Common Ground features works from eight of his series, each telling first-person testimonies of unimaginable hardship and perseverance in present-day Pakistan, India, South Asia, and elsewhere.

New Feelings

11 a.m.–6 p.m. Thu–Sat, PNCA Center for Contemporary Art & Culture, FREE
From the rhinestone-loving Mickalene Thomas to Moroccan-born Hassan Hajjaj—who frames his color-popping, pattern-wild images with convenience-store goods—this photography exhibit explores race, history, and identity via staged portraits by six artists from around the globe.