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Andrew Jankowski
Posted inQueer Issue 2026

At Pride Northwest, Pride Is Year Round

The nonprofit organization plans one of Oregon’s largest festivals—and cultivates the season’s spirit all year long.
Avatar photo by Andrew Jankowski

What follows is one of the many articles in the Mercury‘s 2026 Queer Issue. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you’re feeling generous and want to keep these types of articles coming, support us here.—eds. Pride is year round, as the saying goes, but for Pride Northwest it’s doubly […]

Posted inQueer Issue 2026

iLoveMakonnen Plays His First Portland Pride

The Portland-based rapper reflects on what makes Portland Pride special, and how Portland has fueled his creative work.
Avatar photo by Andrew Jankowski

What follows is one of the many articles in the Mercury‘s 2026 Queer Issue. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you’re feeling generous and want to keep these types of articles coming, support us here.—eds. Though he has attended Portland Pride celebrations since relocating here in 2017, chart-topping rapper […]

Posted inMovies & TV

PAM CUT’s Cinema Unbound Awards Expand to a Whole Week of Polymath Partying

Michelle Zauner, Maria Bamford, and the Criterion Mobile Closet raise funds for the Portland Art Museum.
Avatar photo by Andrew Jankowski

Found in the wording of their events, Portland Art Museum’s Center for an Untold Tomorrow (PAM CUT) promises ticketholders to its Tomorrow Theater more than just a movie. It’s offering an “experience.”  The Richmond neighborhood arthouse (itself a revamped and rehabbed porn theater) connects local cinephiles with Hollywood legends (Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro), […]

Posted inVisual Art

The Price of the Ticket Is Cost-Conscious 

Oregon Contemporary’s 2026 artists’ biennial considers the personal and financial toll of what it costs to be an American.
Avatar photo by Andrew Jankowski

Despite the chaos caused by last year’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) funding cuts, The Price of the Ticket—Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial exhibition—opened on schedule. Crowds of art lovers—spectators, neighborhood residents, and working artists, et al.—cycled through the Kenton gallery’s three room layout to see how Oregon-tied artists responded to curator TK Smith’s prompt about […]

Posted inCulture

Who’s Playing Portland Pride 2026?

Pride Northwest announces three drag artist headliners playing its July waterfront festival this summer.
Avatar photo by Andrew Jankowski

Say it loud; say it proud: Portland’s Pride parade is in July! Since the hot idea dropped in 2023, Portland Pride celebrations have come to feel like two months of intensifying queerness that eventually explodes into the biggest annual parade in the whole state and a weekend of events and performances in Waterfront Park—all of […]

Posted inMusic

Getting High on Her Own Supply

For FKA twigs, dancing is just as important as singing on her Body High Tour.
Avatar photo by Andrew Jankowski

FKA twigs’ Body High Tour was delayed last year by a host of production-related problems including visa issues, but if anything, the London-based singer only delayed gratification for her “Twiglets.” By the time of her rescheduled Portland appearance on Saturday, April 4, FKA twigs—AKA Tahliah Barnett—was not only promoting her acclaimed album Eusexua, but its […]

Posted inTheater & Performance

We Picked Out Which Cast Member Is Which Golden Girl in Savannah Sipping Society

Triangle Productions adapts a Jones Hope Wooten script full of wordplay and wit.
Avatar photo by Andrew Jankowski

If Savannah Sipping Society feels like beloved ’80s TV sitcom The Golden Girls, there’s a reason for that. The playwright collective that wrote the 2016 comedy script, Jones Hope Wooten, includes one of the show’s writer-producers. That Wooten is Jamie Wooten. But no one owns the story of four middle-aged femmes who meet, by chance, […]

Posted inTheater & Performance

“Portland Nice” Is on Full Display in Carol Triffle’s Latest Musical Comedy

Nice People is here to change minds and spare feelings.
Avatar photo by Andrew Jankowski

We find many kinds of “nice” in Nice People, a new comedy-drama by Imago Theatre co-founder Carol Triffle. There’s performative niceness and a request that one character explain (nicely) that they are, in fact, not a threat (nice). Eventually, someone even earns the sought-after title of “nice girl.” (Must be nice.) This is Triffle’s 20th […]

Posted inMusic

Snakes on the Dance Floor

Swedish producer Cobrah turned Wonder Ballroom into a gay rave.
Avatar photo by Andrew Jankowski

The Wonder Ballroom has long been a springboard for queer pop icons launching into the stratosphere, from Durand Bernarr’s concert last spring ahead of his Grammy win to the local stop nearly 20 years ago of Lady Gaga’s Fame Ball tour.  Swedish producer and beatsmith Cobrah slithered into Wonder’s pantheon on Wednesday, April 1 during […]

Posted inTheater & Performance

Fertile Ground Celebrates 17 Years with 17 Days and Nearly 100 Plays

The new works theater festival takes audiences to the furthest bounds of space.
Avatar photo by Andrew Jankowski

Spring has sprung, and playwrights spent the winter ensuring that this year’s crop of plays for the Fertile Ground Festival of New Works would have Portland’s theater world buzzing. Nearly 100 productions and readings criss-cross the fest’s schedule—17 days for the 17th year—unfolding at theaters across the Portland area between April 10–26.  Outer space is […]

Posted inQueer

Blow Pony Rides Into the Sunset

The long-running LGBTQ+ dance party ends March 28.
Avatar photo Andrew Jankowski

The long-running LGBTQ+ electronic dance party Blow Pony will saddle up for the last time on Saturday, March 28. Airick X—Blow Pony’s co-founder, who was known for several years as Airick Redwolf and Airick Heater—is retiring the party after uniting the queer community on the dance floor for 19 years, per a statement shared on […]

Posted inQueer Guide 2024

Cocktail-Coded

Northeast Portland neighborhood wine bar Bonne Chance built a queer clientele on allyship and Malört.
Avatar photo Andrew Jankowski

[Find the Mercury‘s Queer Guide in print—available in more than 500 spots citywide!—eds.] What makes a gay bar? Is it that little Progress Pride flag in the window? If that were the case, nearly every bar in Portland would feel queer-coded. No, what makes a gay bar is not simply the presence of Pride flags […]

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