Books & Talks

LeVar Burton

8 p.m. Fri, Revolution Hall, $30–100
Let LeVar Burton—famously known for playing Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge on Star Trek and Kunta Kinte on Roots—and his soothing voice transport you to an alternate literary universe as he reads hand-selected short fiction for a live presentation of his podcast, LeVar Burton Reads.

Film

Filmed by Bike

Various times Fri–Sun, Hollywood Theatre, prices vary
Gear up for a weekend of the “world’s best bike movies” at this 16^th annual festival, which showcases a range of inspiring, breathtaking, and quirky bike-centric flicks. Also on deck: a bike ride with filmmakers, a panel discussion about bike culture and film, and plenty of parties.

Music

Yuja Wang

7:30 p.m. Thu, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, $35–130
World-class pianist Yuja Wang, recognized by the New York Times for her “speed, flexibility, pianistic thunder and interpretative nuance,” will grace the Schnitz  with four refreshing interpretations of classical pieces.

Futurebirds

9 p.m. Thu, Mississippi Studios, $12–14
The Georgia-based quintet fuses country, psych rock, and multi-part vocal harmonies to easygoing effect.

Shook Twins

9 p.m. Sat, Aladdin Theater, $20–24
Based in Portland, the identical twin sisters make folky, haunting music that straddles the space between bouncy and bleak.

Theater

Salt

7–10 p.m. Thu–Fri, 2–5 p.m. Sat–Sun, Shaking the Tree, $10–30
After Trump was elected, local theater company Shaking the Tree pledged resistance. Now the first act of protest arrives: nine multimedia installations—some live, some static—by visual and performing artists exploring civil disobedience.

OPENING Fences

7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, Portland Playhouse, $34
For Fences, the seventh August Wilson play staged by Portland Playhouse, the Northeast Portland theater company taps Obie-winning director Lou Bellamy to helm the story of a hardworking African-American family man in 1950s Pittsburgh. Denzel Washington tackled the lead role in the recent film adaptation; here it’s played by Lester Purry, a veteran of Wilson’s work.

OPENING Rigoletto

7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, 2 p.m. Sun, Keller Auditorium, $35–250
In this tragic tale set in a town in northern Italy—not to be confused with the saga of “two lovers in fair Verona”—a high-powered, promiscuous duke selects the court jester’s daughter as his next subject to seduce. Watch how a father’s revenge unravels as Portland Opera performs Verdi’s masterpiece.

OPENING Touretteshero

7:30 p.m. Fri–Sat, Echo Theater, $5–50
Jess Thom is neurologically programmed to be unpredictable. The British performer and disability rights activist has Tourette’s, which means her live shows veer in surprising directions, and toward gloriously surrealistic turns of phrase. In her comedy piece Stand Up, Sit Down, Roll Over, audiences are also encouraged to move around and make noise.

CLOSING Quietly

7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, 2 p.m. Sun, New Expressive Works, $20–25
When two middle-aged men walk into a bar in Belfast, an emotional reunion occurs in the very same place that transformed their lives more than 30 years ago. Owen McCafferty’s play, presented here by Corrib Theatre, finds the men—Ian (Tim Blough) and Jimmy (a commanding Corrib debut for Tim Rooney)—attempting a kind of reckoning with their past and grappling with the legacy of violence in their communities and personal lives, as a Polish bartender (Murri Lazaroff-Babin) bears necessary witness.

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.

Robert Lyons

10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, FREE
In his latest series of photographs, critically acclaimed photographer Robert Lyons—best known for his work capturing the Egyptian landscape and the horrors of the Rwandan genocide—turns his lens to a familiar place, his hometown of Easthampton, Massachusetts. In One Eye Crying (from a German expression that roughly translates as “with mixed feelings”), Lyons depicts his internal tensions around returning to the US after many years abroad by presenting scenes that “appear both familiar and exotic.”