Conner began his time with Portland Monthly as an intern, before becoming Arts and Culture Editor in 2019. He derives an unfortunate amount of pleasure from telling people he’s a native Oregonian, and when he’s not writing about the arts, he’s doing things people in their 20s do, like riding his bike and tweeting about actresses. He holds a degree in journalism from Boston University.

TBA

How PICA Is Pulling Off Its Time-Based Art Festival amid Overlapping Tragedies

A plague, shrinking budgets, and wildfire smoke aside, TBA 2020 is now streaming on a laptop near you.

09/16/2020 By Conner Reed

Footnotes

LISTEN: How Drive-In Theaters and Cinemas Are Adapting to the Coronavirus, with Conner Reed

Portland Monthly arts editor Conner Reed talks about how drive-in theaters have reemerged in the age of coronavirus.

09/04/2020 Edited by Gabriel Granillo

Viewpoint

Are Drive-In Movies Really Here to Save Us?

Drive-ins are the name of the moviegoing game right now. But can anything replace the shoulder-to-shoulder experience of a sold out screening at the Hollywood?

09/04/2020 By Conner Reed

Toon Town

Criterion Channel Highlights the Work of a Portland Animator

Bill Plympton, the “King of Indie Animation,” now has 22 of his short films on the streaming service.

09/03/2020 By Conner Reed

Music

Aminé Speaks

The Portland rapper on his new album, growing up Black in the Pacific Northwest, and leaning into uncertainty.

08/07/2020 By Conner Reed

Little Joys of Summer

Throwback Drive-In Theaters Are Suddenly Perfect for 2020

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, drive-ins have elbowed their way back into the spotlight. Here's why.

08/01/2020 By Conner Reed

Little Joys of Summer

Movie Theaters Are Out. Backyard Flick Houses Are In.

Arts editor Conner Reed has a few suggestions for your backyard film fest.

08/01/2020 By Conner Reed

Slings & Arrows

The Path Forward for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

“There’s a generation of people on the streets right now who are saying, ‘Everything has to shift. If you don’t shift it, we won’t come.’”

08/01/2020 By Conner Reed

New City

Summer Reads 2020

We asked Anis Mojgani, J.C. Mehta, and Mitchell S. Jackson to help us make sense of our changed city

08/01/2020 Edited by Conner Reed

Hill House

The Bizarre History of the Maryhill Museum of Art

How a motley crew spanning royalty and railroad execs built one of the Northwest's strangest cultural institutions.

08/01/2020 By Conner Reed

Sex Positivity

Do You Dare to Eat a Peach?

The Oregon Health Authority advises against it.

08/01/2020 By Conner Reed

Visual Art

Don’t Shoot Portland Is Installing a New Exhibition in the Pearl

Stop Killing Us: A Black Lives Still Matter Exhibition runs August 6–29 at Holding Contemporary.

07/24/2020 By Conner Reed

Theater

While the Curtain Stays Down, Portland Theaters Pivot to Audio

Profile, Artists Rep, and PETE are rethinking theatrical intimacy with a slew of new sound-based projects.

07/16/2020 By Conner Reed

Music

Sufjan Stevens Wrote a Song About the Rajneesh

"My Rajneesh" is the second Sufjan track this month.

07/10/2020 By Conner Reed

Food on Film

How to Make the Oily Cakes from First Cow in 8 Easy Steps

Look out, Robert Pattinson pasta.

07/10/2020 By Conner Reed

Interview

Oregon's New Poet Laureate on Imagining a Better, Brighter Portland

“The ‘weirdness’ of Portland is that it is a city of strange dichotomy,” says Anis Mojgani. “It’s very inclusive, and at the same time, extremely exclusive.”

07/08/2020 By Conner Reed