Books & Talks

Megan Griswold

7:30 p.m. Powell's City of Books, FREE
In her debut memoir, The Book of Help, Megan Griswold charts her bumpy path through countless self-improvement remedies, from acupuncture to Qigong to sex seminars to ayahuasca (as well as more traditional therapies). She weaves in her personal story of growing up in a New Age California family, as well as navigating divorce after her husband was caught soliciting sex from a prostitute. Kirkus called it "fascinating," praising Griswold's well-positioned sarcasm.

Dance

Shay Kuebler/Radical System Art

8 p.m. Thu–Sat, Lincoln Hall, $25–38
White Bird brings to town this Canadian dancer-choreographer and his troupe, whose work incorporates hip hop, contemporary ballet, tap, and modern dance in fast-paced, acrobatic theater. In Telemetry, sounds become kinetic movement, the bodies channeling the musical forces against a multimedia backdrop.

Music

Jake Shimabukuro

8 p.m. Fri, Aladdin Theater, SOLD OUT
The ukulele hotshot, adored for renditions of the likes of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” returns to town for a sold-out show.

Eyelids & Federale

9 p.m. Fri, Mississippi Studios, $14–16
The Decemberists, Boston Spaceships, Guided by Voices, Elliott Smith: they’re all part of the lineage that led to Portland supergroup Eyelids, whose jangly, guitar-driven sound boasts Teenage Fanclub-esque vocal lines and solid melodic hooks. Fellow local favorites Federale, known for their darkly vampy, atmospheric anthems (which have found their way into films from Iranian noir A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night to The Lego Movie), join them on the bill.

Hansel & Gretel

7:30 p.m. Fri–Sat, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, $24+
Chicago’s acclaimed Manual Cinema—which uses handmade shadow puppets and old-school overhead projectors to immersive, enchanting effect—joins the Oregon Symphony to bring Engelbert Humperdinck’s fairy-tale opera to life.

Theater

CLOSING Teenage Dick

7:30 p.m. Thu–Fri, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sat–Sun, Artists Repertory Theatre, $30–60
This modern-day Richard III takes place in a high school, where a bullied 17-year-old with cerebral palsy in the full winter of his discontent will stop at nothing to achieve his goal of becoming class president.

Pescador/Fisherman

7 p.m. Sat, 3 p.m. Sun, Imago Theatre, $8–50
Chilean theater artists Silencio Blanco—which last brought their simple papier-mâché puppets to Portland for a wordless show about the dangers and exploitations of coal mining—return to town with a piece about a fisherman navigating his trade in the era of industrial fishing.

OPENING Four Last Things

7:30 p.m. Fri–Sat, 2 p.m. Sun, New Expressive Works, $20–25
Irish theater company Corrib presents Lisa Tierney-Keogh's 2009 play about a young woman facing depression on her family's rural farm. The Irish Times called its treatment of suicide "very brave and intelligent."

Visual Art

CLOSING Ashley Miller

Noon–5 p.m. Thu–Sun, Blue Sky Gallery, FREE
Miller’s highly stylized still lifes depict the Sweet Things of this exhibit’s title in disturbing, incongruous tableaux: a heavily frosted and sprinkled baby-doll perches with a birthday candle on its head; two giant bugs attack a toppling tower of doughnuts against a deep purple crushed velvet. 

CLOSING Karen Wippich

11 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Sun, Waterstone Gallery, FREE
What inspires Portland artist Karen Wippich? Vintage images—and cats. For her new show, Living with Kittens, she draws from her vast archive of images to make mixed-media collages featuring feline heads on human bodies. For more, check out our Q&A with Wippich.

OPENING Jeremy Okai Davis

1–10 p.m. Fri, 1–6 p.m. Sat, Stephanie Chefas Projects, FREE
Portland artist Jeremy Okai Davis, known for vibrant, paint-splattered portraits, presents a new exhibit titled Together, Brothers that draws inspiration from '60s jazz music, his own yearbook images, and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man.

OPENING Lilian Martinez

Noon–6 p.m. Sun, Nationale, FREE
The Observer called Lilian Martinez "Matisse of the Instagram era," which is frankly underselling the Los Angeles artist's luscious, colorful figures. Soft Shades, her first solo show at Nationale, features paintings with soft pastels and curvy lines showing bodies at rest.