Books & Talks

Corey Pein

7:30 p.m. Fri, Powell's City of Books, FREE
In 2015, former Willamette Week writer Corey Pein ventured into Silicon Valley, doubling as an eager entrepreneur looking to strike it rich and a journalist interested in the inner workings of techie territory. Pein chronicles his experiences in Live Work Work Die: A Journey Into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley, exploring how greed, exploitation, and hypocrisy run rampant in tech.

Music

Calexico

8 p.m. Thu, Revolution  Hall, $25
For more than two decades, this Arizona-born indie-rock band has paid homage to its Southwestern roots, weaving together a wide array of musical influences (Americana, tejano, country, and cumbia) to create a distinct sound critics have dubbed “desert noir.” Calexico’s latest studio album, The Thread That Keeps Us, was recorded in northern California and was heavily inspired by the Golden State’s complex landscape—its tracks balance timely issues like displacement and environmental destruction with brighter odes to the beauty of nature.

Nellie McKay

8 p.m. Fri, Alberta Rose Theatre, $20–25
Singer-songwriter Nellie McKay has an eclectic musical repertoire, effortlessly shifting from high notes on a Doris Day song to rapid-fire rhymes or reggae tracks. The British-born, American-raised artist is also known for vocalizing her progressive politics—she identifies as an environmentalist, pacifist, anti-capitalist, feminist, and an animal rights activist (who is currently working to get horse-drawn carriages off the streets of NYC). On her latest solo album, Sister Orchid, she plays piano, ukulele, harmonica, celeste, harp, and cello.

Dr. Dog

8 p.m. Fri, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, $28–45
Since getting its big break opening for My Morning Jacket in 2004, this Philly band has released album after album of catchy contemporary twists on ’60s pop and ’70s rock. After a much-needed five-year break, Dr. Dog recently reunited to create Critical Equation, a 16-track album recorded on analog tape that shies away from the band’s original upbeat sounds and toward a slightly edgier (and way more organ-heavy) psychedelic side.

Film

OPENING Jewish Film Festival

7 p.m. Sun, Whitsell Auditorium, $10
The 26^th annual Portland Jewish Film Festival—a longtime collaboration between the Northwest Film Center and the Institute of Judaic Studies—returns for another year of international flicks spanning multiple genres. The fest opens on Sunday with Maktub, a comedy about two survivors of a suicide bombing working to fulfill wishes placed by strangers at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall.

Theater

Broken Bone Bathtub

7 and 9 p.m. Thu–Fri, 7 p.m. Sat, 2 and 4 p.m. Sun, locations vary, $25–30
An immersive theater production in the bathroom of a private home? The fourth wall is defiantly broken in Siobhan O'Loughlin's one-woman show, which chronicles the performer's experience of seeking help after a serious bike accident. The audience, gathered around a bathtub, help O'Loughlin wash herself as she digs into themes of trauma and generosity. Locations vary; you'll be sent info after purchasing a ticket.

Fences

7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, 7 p.m. Sun, 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.

I and You

7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sun, Artists Repertory Theatre, $25–50
There’s no greater glue to unite two seemingly incompatible teenagers than a deep analysis of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” right? In this drama by Lauren Gunderson (one of the most produced playwrights in America), two classmates—Anthony is popular, athletic, and polite, while Caroline is feisty but homebound due to illness—find that the more familiar they become with Whitman’s poem, the closer they grow to one another.

OPENING Faust

7:30 p.m. Fri, 2 p.m. Sun, Keller Auditorium, $35–250
In Gounod’s masterwork, hell breaks loose when an aging scientist gives his soul to the devil in exchange for another chance at youth. In addition to eye-catching sets and costumes, this special co-production by Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Portland Opera incorporates 3-D projection mapping by visual artist John Frame.

CLOSING Fallout

7:30 p.m. Fri–Sat, Imago Theatre, $10–20
Count on Imago Theatre cofounder Carol Triffle to milk the end of the world for off-kilter humor. The playwright, known for fever-dream absurdity, sets her latest work in a nuclear fallout shelter, following three characters as things go haywire. 

Visual Art

OPENING Daesha Devón Harris & Cinthya Santos-Briones

Noon–5 p.m. and 6–9 p.m. Thu, noon–5 p.m. Fri–Sat, Blue Sky Gallery, FREE
Blue Sky features work by Daesha Devón Harris and Cinthya Santos-Briones, winners of the 2018 En Foco Photography Fellowship—a program designed to support exceptional photographers of color. In My Soul Has Grown Deep Like the Rivers, Harris explores past and present racial ideologies in America through photographs of vintage cartes de visite and cabinet card portraits that she placed in aquatic environments in her hometown of Saratoga Springs. Santos-Briones’s Abuelas (which translates to grandmas) recognizes the experiences of Mexican immigrant women elders in New York, with portraits in which the women selected where and how to be portrayed in their own homes.

OPENING Julie Green

11 a.m.–8 p.m. Thu, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Fri–Sat, Upfor Gallery, FREE
The Oregon artist, known for her “Last Supper” series illustrating the meal requests of death row inmates, visits similar themes in her newest exhibit, In Food, Fashion and Capital Punishment. This time, the plates are disposable Chinet covered in plaster, the painting delicately reminiscent of antique china.