Seven Films by Kelly Reichardt
THROUGH MARCH 22
(FILM) Clinton Street’s monthlong series for March centers the Pacific Northwest’s director supreme Kelly Reichardt, working near through her entire filmography. Novelist and Reichardt’s frequent artistic collaborator Jon Raymond will attend three screenings (Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, Showing Up) and offer post-viewing Q&As. If you missed Reichardt’s The Mastermind (2025), you’ll have another shot on March 22. (Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton, $10, cstpdx.com) LINDSAY COSTELLO
Riot Queens
THROUGH MARCH 29
(THEATER & PERFORMANCE) You don’t know about the Compton Cafeteria Riots—we don’t live in San Francisco, and they don’t teach enough queer history in school—but maybe you should. In 1966, a group of trans women stood up to police who were targeting and harassing them, in an all-night restaurant in the Tenderloin neighborhood called Gene Compton’s Cafeteria. Someone allegedly threw a cup of coffee in an officer’s face. What happened next? Prolific playwright Mikki Gillette penned Riot Queens to bring us up to speed, based on her own extensive research. As Mercury critic Jenna Fletcher wrote in a review last summer: “Gillette’s plays offer the rare opportunity to support art made by and within queer community at a time where it’s more urgent than ever.” Read our full review! (Back Door Theater, 4319 SE Hawthorne, $25 or pay as you’re able, fusetheatreensemble.com, mature audiences) SUZETTE SMITH
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Emily Wise: Meet Me at the Mothership
THROUGH APRIL 4
(VISUAL ART) The motto of Emily Wise’s artistic output might be “the longer you look, the more you find.” Wise’s last two exhibitions at Chefas Projects, Hair of the Banshee and Hands that Hold the Melting Rope, populated neon-hued acrylic compositions with cool girls, Irish banshees, and shadowy flora. Meet Me at the Mothership brings together more of Wise’s lucid dreams in painting form. Inspired by a recent experience in Utah’s desert terrain and envisioning the multivalent mothership as a “cosmological, terrestrial, and corporeal” figure, the show asks an interesting question: What is the maternal quality, exactly? Wise’s women scroll TikTok and witness mythical, light-spilling eggs in pursuit of the truth. (Chefas Projects, 134 SE Taylor Ste 203, stephaniechefas.com, all ages) LC
Minidoka on Our Minds
THROUGH JUNE 14
(COMMUNITY) Between August 1942 and October 1945, the US government forcibly moved over 13,000 Japanese Americans to a concentration camp in Minidoka County, Idaho, as part of a nationwide order to incarcerate those the government deemed “alien enemies” during World War 2. Minidoka War Relocation Center became the main destination for interned persons from Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. A new exhibition, Minidoka on Our Minds, explains the history of the site and presents it with artworks made by survivors and their descendants. For example, sculptures by Mira Nakashima were made with wood gathered by Ed Abe, a man who died collecting it during a snowstorm at Minidoka in 1942. (Japanese American Museum of Oregon, 411 NW Flanders, $8, jamo.org, all ages) SS
Mundo de las Mujeres
MARCH 11-21
(THEATER & PERFORMANCE) For the third year, Milagro Theatre celebrates playwriting and performance by Latina/e women with its Mundo de las Mujeres festival. For fans of staged readings, Mia Torres directs two—Erlina Ortiz’s Las Mujeres on March 11 and Alexis Scheer’s Laughs in Spanish on March 18. Andrea Menchaca Hall’s stand-up special Speaking American is the main event on March 21. (Milagro Theatre, 525 SE Stark, $5 + pay what you will, milagro.org) SS
Dies Irae, Desirée
MARCH 13-15
(MUSIC) If the words “classical music” don’t tend to grab your attention, consider that Third Angle New Music’s curatorial flavor trends toward experimental takes on the form. So far, their 40th anniversary concert series has explored the works of minimalist pioneer Steve Reich from inside Hopscotch’s interactive art exhibits, and brought a string quartet and clarinet ensemble to the World Forestry Center. Maria Finkelmeier and Brady Evan Walker’s UFO-laden chamber opera Dies Irae, Desirée is next on the docket, in which a YouTube streamer-turned-cult leader claims to communicate with aliens. Cast members Sarah Tiedemann and William Pyle also play flute and saxophone among other live instrumentalists. (Vault Theater, 350 E Main, Hillsboro, $30-$40, thirdangle.org, all ages) LC
Born in Flames
MARCH 13-15
(FILM) Fans of Octavia Butler and Ursula K. Le Guin will dig Lizzie Borden’s dystopian docu-fiction Born in Flames (1983), which imagines the fractured aftermath of a revolution that didn’t keep its promises. The director’s guerrilla approach blends real news footage with direct-action feminism; don’t blink and you’ll catch Kathryn Bigelow in a small role. (5th Avenue Cinema, 510 SW Hall, $7 or free for Portland State University students/faculty/alumni, 5thavecinema.com, not rated) LC
The Siren Theater Improv Giants
MARCH 14
(COMEDY) Whether performing or watching, improv is not for the faint of heart. When it doesn’t click, it really doesn’t click. But when it does? Goddamn it’s magical, and can hit heights seldom seen when attending the theater. Some of the best improv I’ve seen in Portland comes from the minds of the Siren Theater Improv Giants, featuring Shelley McLendon, Nicholas Kessler, Tony Marcellino (formerly of the legendary PDX group the Liberators) and Jed Arkley (Whiskey Tango). Alone, each member of this fantastic foursome are hilarious—together they combine to become a veritable Transformer of hilarity—so if you want to increase your chances of witnessing magic? These Giants are an extremely good bet. (Siren Theater, 3913 N Mississippi, 7:30 pm, $10-$20, sirentheater.com, 14+) WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
Red Carpet Awards Watch Party with Ry Bred
MARCH 15
(FILM) Finally, a chance to whip out the actor-pun cocktail names you’ve been saving up all year. That is, should you wish to host your ungrateful friends at a home Oscars watch party. Another option: Get out there and judge the actor-pun cocktail names of any of the fine movie houses throwing their own Academy Awards soirees. Tomorrow Theater will have a pink carpet (!) and hilarious local queen Ry Bred providing commentary for…FOUR HOURS of speeches, play-off music, and celebrity outfits, projected on the theater’s big screen. (Tomorrow Theater, 3530 SE Division, 4 pm, FREE with RSVP, tomorrowtheater.org, all ages) SS
La Llorona
MARCH 18
(FILM) Few films manage to fuse folkloric terror with social ethics—in fact, though it’s billed as horror, Jayro Bustamante’s La Llorona (2019) might be in a category all its own. A retired general implicated in the Guatemalan genocide of native Maya communities cowers like a baby in his mansion as protests rattle the walls. But don’t worry. A supernatural force—the vengeful kind—penetrates his barricade. Note: La Llorona is not the schlocky The Curse of La Llorona, also released in 2019. Bustamante’s film is an atmospheric and far superior demand for justice. (Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy, 7:30 pm, $12, hollywoodtheatre.org, not rated) LC
Jacqueline Novak
This performance has been rescheduled for Sun May 31.
(THEATER & PERFORMANCE) Novak is a comedian interested in pursuits of the spirit—past life regression, Jungian dream analysis, Women Who Run with the Wolves. She blends amla powder into her smoothies, prioritizes beauty in the home (vintage Christmas blow molds), and channels self-optimization at all costs (through her Hobonichi planner). Yes, she’s particular and product-craving and also a podcaster (she co-hosts Berlant and Novak with fellow genius Kate Berlant), but Novak’s mind spins so quickly that you, too, will get caught in its centrifugal force. Her Emmy-nommed 2024 special Get On Your Knees was, on the surface, “about blow jobs,” but actually offered a dense philosophical exploration of sexual firsts. What will be the target of Novak’s obsession this time? (Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie, 8 pm, $50.14-$73.75, aladdin-theater.com, all ages) LC
Ibram X. Kendi
MARCH 21
(READINGS AND TALKS) Historian and author Ibram X. Kendi won the 2016 National Book Award for his stark, massive Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which changed contemporary culture’s thinking on racism from a view that rooted it in personal prejudice to something continually reinforced by policy and power structures. His bestselling memoir How to Be an Antiracist showed readers the impact of prejudice across vast facets of our lives. Now Kendi’s newest work digs into great replacement theory and its many ghastly visages, which have existed through history but rarely been revealed revealed with the incisive gaze that Kendi wields. (Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark, 7:30 pm, $55 tickets include a copy of the book, powells.com, all ages) SS
Trans Town PDX 2026
MARCH 29
(COMMUNITY) Portland’s biggest Trans Day of Visibility celebration showcases the community’s talent, economic power, and joy. The day kicks off with an afternoon resource and mutual aid fair offering free haircuts, a market, food demos with vegan street-food champions Mis Tacones, jewelry making with Ally Lea, and Narcan training with No More Dead Friends. After the fair, a ticketed fundraiser hosted by two of Portland’s funniest comedians, Mx. Dahlia Belle and Ally J Ward, brings laughs and live music before the party moves to White Owl where Drag Race alumna Lexi Love headlines a lineup of “local legends.” All proceeds go to Werq Together, a nonprofit that offers peer support services, relocation assistance for folks fleeing hostile states, and trans-owned affordable housing. Show up and support this indomitable and inextricable part of the Portland community. (The Redd on Salmon, 831 SE Salmon, 2-9 pm, tickets $25+ or free for trans community members, instagram.com/transtown.pdx, all ages) BRI BREY
Amal El-Mohtar in Conversation with Kelly Sue DeConnick
MARCH 29
(READINGS AND TALKS) Amal El-Mohtar is that rare kind of writer who can build robust speculative worlds, then permeate them with gentleness and poetry. Having won Hugo and Nebula awards for her 2019 novella This Is How You Lose the Time War, El-Mohtar shifted to short stories with Seasons of Glass and Iron. The forthcoming collection (out March 24) compiles fairy and folk tales told through letters, journals, and reference materials. She’ll chat about it with comic book royalty Kelly Sue DeConnick. (Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 7 pm, $37.73, tickets include a copy of the book, powells.com, all ages) LC
Apple Hunters!
MARCH 31-APRIL 26
(THEATER & PERFORMANCE) Closing out a season of producing works by women playwrights with ties to the Pacific Northwest, this staging of Apple Hunters! also concludes a six-year residency of Mellon Foundation playwright-in-residence E.M. Lewis at Artists Repertory Theatre. If you liked other works by Lewis—Magellanica (2018), True Story (2023), among others—make it your beeswax to see this one. Set in rural Washington, Apple Hunters! follows four lifelong friends on a quest for a potentially extinct apple cultivar. You know that these apple metaphors are really about being a man and friendship. (Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison, $5-$60, artistsrep.org, all ages) SS
FKA twigs / Brutalismus 3000
APRIL 4
(MUSIC) Lady in the streets, freak in the beats chameleonic artist FKA twigs bares it all with every release, her late 2025 album Eusexua being no exception. Though I’m partial to her more experimental early work, twigs’ output the last few years has largely been remix-ready festival anthems, the deeper cuts of which fit in nicely with any mixtape you’re pulling together for a crush. The only time I’ve seen twigs was at Seattle’s Moore Theatre on her Magdalene tour, back in her swordplay and pole dancing days—one of the best live shows I’ve ever witnessed. Let’s see what she’s got in store for us this time. (Moda Center Theater of the Clouds, 1 N Center, 8 pm, $50+, rosequarter.com, all ages) NOLAN PARKER
Amy Bay: oh deeear mee
APRIL 4-MAY 10
(VISUAL ART) Amy Bay’s latest solo exhibition continues to pull at the artist’s recurring conceptual thread: floral painting as a radical act. In the past, Bay’s compositions have zoomed in on ripe flora exploding from all angles, occupying each painting’s entire frame; her works have also functioned as feminist critiques of art history’s anti-flower stance and homages to all things decorative, patterned, and lush. In Bay’s 2024 exhibition The Book of Love, her petaled meditations focused on the comfort of these motifs—her latest, oh deeear mee, unfolds as a more mysterious “lamentation and celebration,” filling both of Nationale’s exhibition spaces with monotypes, works on paper, and paintings inspired by decorative floral wallpapers. (Nationale, 15 SE 22nd, nationale.us, all ages) LC
Twin Peaks, in entirety
STARTING APRIL 5
(FILM) That gum you like is going to come back in style, and by “that gum,” we mean “David Lynch’s entire Twin Peaks series.” The Pacific Northwest’s damn finest (sorry) cultural export will screen in entirety at Clinton Street Theater, “for the first time in history,” they claim. How has nobody done this before?? The year-long(!) program will open with Twin Peaks’ extended pilot “Northwest Passage,” obviously, followed by the second and third episodes all screened in one sitting. Laura Palmer is blue-lipped and wrapped in plastic, but you knew that. Time for a revisit. (Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton, $20, cstpdx.com) LC
David Byrne
APRIL 7-8
(MUSIC) Indicative of his entire 50+ year career, David Byrne isn’t afraid of asking the tough questions on his new album Who Is The Sky? More cohesive than his last album-turned-Broadway-musical American Utopia, WITS? continues Byrne’s toeing the line between pure pop bliss, Studio 54 style, and the avant garde of Max’s Kansas City. All the while, he’s still critiquing us, himself, and the powers that (shouldn’t) be—though in a brighter tone than we’ve heard from the broad-shouldered cutie in a minute. Is the hopeful cheer coming from his recent marriage or the ever-elusive contentment of elders? Hard to say, but it feels good. (Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay, 8 pm, $104.22+, portland5.com, all ages) NP
Portland Panorama
APRIL 9-19
(FILM) Those who miss the now-defunct Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) will want to keep their eye on Portland Panorama. Returning for its second year, the fest is keeping after the idea of a multi-venue showcase of new international cinema and films from the Pacific Northwest. At time of press, we knew only that the kickoff film—screening April 9 at Cinema 21—would be Costa Rican drama Abril, in which writer and director Hernán Jiménez also co-stars. The other star? Heated Rivalry’s François Arnaud. Oh, I see. NOW you’re interested. (Various locations, $15 per screening, passes $150-350, portlandpanorama.org) SS
The Glass Menagerie
APRIL 18-MAY 20
(THEATER & PERFORMANCE) Well, if it’s going to be a Tennessee Williams play, it’s going to be about declining Southern gentility splattering extravagantly into full-blown decay. And if it’s going to be produced at Shaking the Tree and directed by Samantha Van Der Merwe, we’re more than likely going to see visuals we’d never expect. Williams coined the term “memory play” to describe The Glass Menagerie, as he felt his central character’s recollection of his mother and sister should be understood as subjective and non-realistic. This all leaves so much fertile ground for Van Der Merwe to move in, and we can’t wait. (Shaking the Tree Theatre, 823 SE Grant, $12-48, shaking-the-tree.com) SS
Making Earth Cool Earth Day Celebration
APRIL 25
(COMMUNITY) Sunnyside Environmental School and Making Earth Cool, among other Gaia-luvving organizations, will bring some environmental joie de vivre to the city on April 25. Their annual Earth Day celebration “serves as a poignant reminder that we are mere specks within the grandeur of the greatest masterpiece ever created.” Okay, true!! Although we are but flecks of stardust darting across our majestic planet, the event gives us something to live for: gigantic puppets, live music, crafts, and a secular “Earth Ceremony.” You’re invited to dress up as your fave flora or fauna for a costumed parade through the Sunnyside neighborhood, too. (Sunnyside Environmental School, 3421 SE Salmon, 11 am-3 pm, FREE, makingearthcool.com, all ages) LC
Sunn O)))
APRIL 25
(MUSIC) Not that this has anything to do with Seattle drone monoliths Sunn O))), but imagine the deep shame of finding out you’ve been mispronouncing the name of one of your favorite bands for years. Anyway, on April 4 Sunn releases their first album in seven years (the longest time between Sunn releases to date))). “Glory Black,” the album’s first single, washes through your skull with vibrations most dark, then drops off around the 3:30 mark, dissolving into heavy, sparse piano. Are Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley getting soft as the band approaches their Pearl Anniversary? Not likely… Check out the show without ear protection and LMK how that goes. (Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th, 8 pm, $47.50+, roselandpdx.com, 21+) NP
