Books & Talks

Portland Zine Symposium

11 a.m.–6 p.m. Sat–Sun, Wattles Boys & Girls Club, FREE
Now in its 18th year, this free celebration of indie publishing returns with a weekend of panels, tabling, and skill-share workshops. Special guests this year include comic book artist Yumi Sakugawa, known for her irreverent take on self-help, and Osa Atoe of Shotgun Seamstress, a zine about the world of black punk rock.

CO-LAB

8 p.m. Sat, 7 p.m. Sun, CoHo Theater, $16–30
A joint venture from Lost Lander's Matt Sheehy and Back Fence PDX's B. Frayn Masters, this evening mashes up live storytelling, mixed media, and music. Expect eight-minute stories from a handful of tellers—juiced up with PowerPoint, video, music, and more—followed by Sheehy's solo show, Aberdeen, about the multi-instrumentalist's experiences as a forester in the rural Pacific Northwest. 

Music

Summer Cannibals

9 p.m. Sat, Mississippi Studios, $12–15
Summer Cannibals, fierce heirs to the Portland punk rock mantle, signed to legendary label Kill Rock Stars in 2016, and in May of that year dropped Full of It, a masterpiece of polished rawness. Front woman Jessica Boudreaux has juggled a fiery solo project on the side, but the band is back in action this summer.

Folsom50

8 p.m. Sat, Skyline Tavern, by donation
Half a century after Johnny Cash’s performance at Folsom Prison—which produced one of the greatest live albums of all time—Portlanders Danny Wilson and Tracy Schlapp have put together a series of shows in prisons across Oregon, involving a musical performance of the entire album interspersed with details of Cash’s life and his prison shows. This fundraiser treats Portlanders to the full show to raise money for upcoming performances. 

Theater

Coming Clean: Life as a Naked House Cleaner

7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, locations vary, $23
Former actor and TV host Ethan Mechare bares all in this interactive, site-specific solo show—it will be performed in three different Portland living rooms—about his time tidying up London homes clad in nothing but his birthday suit (really). For more, check out our Q&A with Mechare.

CLOSING Out of Sterno

8 p.m. Thu–Sat, 2 p.m. Sun, Siren Theater, $15–20
Set in an Alice in Wonderland-like world, Deborah Zoe Laufer’s comedy revolves around a woman named Dotty whose husband has prohibited her from leaving home for seven years. See how Dotty fares after receiving a call from an unknown woman and embarking on her first-ever journey into the city of Sterno.

JAW

8 p.m. Fri, 4 p.m. Sat–Sun, The Armory, FREE
Come summer, theater often means Shakespeare in the park. Not so at Portland Center Stage’s annual playwriting festival, which features free staged readings of four fresh works. In its 20th year, the offerings riff on school integration, nail-salon pilgrimages, and a man with many avian friends.

OPENING Orfeo ed Euridice

7:30 p.m. Fri, 2 p.m. Sun, Newmark Theatre, $35–200
Journey to hell and back with this dose of early classical opera, which comes with showers of rose petals, a full chorus, and a ballet, all employed by Portland Opera to tell the ancient tale of Orfeo’s descent to the underworld to bring back his wife.

Visual Art

CLOSING Alia Ali

Noon–5 p.m. Thu–Sun, Blue Sky Gallery, FREE
The figures are swathed in lushly patterned fabric, their faces obscured by the folds of cloth. These are the unconventional portraits of Borderland, Ali’s beautiful yet unsettling photo series of textile artisans and collectors from around the world, Yemen to Indonesia to New Orleans.

CLOSING R. Keaney Rathbun

11 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Sun, Waterston Gallery, FREE
The local multimedia artist returns to Waterstone with a highly personal new exhibit. Regeneration features autobiographical bas relief paintings that Rathbun created both during and after a battle with an incapacitating illness, with scenes from his own tropical garden and from travels through French Polynesia, Easter Island, Costa Rica, and Oregon.

CLOSING Julie Green

11 a.m.–6 p.m. Thu–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.

Special Events

Washington Park Summer Festival

6 p.m. Fri–Sun, International Rose Test Garden Amphitheater, FREE
This free three-night fest, organized by Portland Parks & Rec, showcases an eclectic array of art, music, and dance from all over the globe, including dance and storytelling of the African diaspora, Italian opera, and a psychedelic cumbia orchestra.

Portlandia Mermaid Parade

Noon Sat, Tom McCall Waterfront Park, FREE
Break out the clamshell bra. This aquatic extravaganza is back for the third year with water nymphs of all stripes and persuasions conveyed down Gov. Tom McCall Waterfront Park in wheelchairs and wagons—because, umm, walking is hard without legs.