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Holly Hazelwood is many things: A freelance contributor for the Portland Mercury, a senior editor and contributor at Spectrum Culture, co-host of the Enjoy Your Life podcast, and a concert photographer at Show Goose. If you spot her in the wild, she’d love to talk to you about the best concerts you’ve seen lately.
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. I don’t have the data to back it up, but based on anecdotal evidence […]
As Portland-grown rapper Vursatyl finished his set on May 12, he demanded the crowd get hyped for GZA, the Wu-Tang Clan deity visiting the Hawthorne Theatre in celebration of 30 years of his classic Liquid Swords album. The respectably sized crowd squealed with joy—after all, it’s not often you get to see one of the […]
Many, many years ago, I had my first taste of The Glass Menagerie, the foundational memory play by Tennessee Williams. My high school staged it. So as I entered Shaking the Tree Theatre’s performance space, the gleeful words of our drama student aide rang in my ears: “Let’s get DEPRESSED!” It’s always a crapshoot how […]
Even if you live in a city as queer-friendly as Portland, being a trans person is a political act.
Holly Hazelwood
Holly Hazelwood
Holly Hazelwood
Holly Hazelwood
Holly Hazelwood
Southeast Morrison’s Holocene is easily one of the best places in Portland for music that feels like Capital-A “Art.” Artists like Chicago’s greatest unsung avant-garde pioneer Olivia Block, former Yellow Swans synth maestro Pete Swanson, and Hopscotch art installation contributor Seth Nehil are perfect for a space like this. Will you get to dance? Maybe—but […]
To love anything is to be challenged by it. Love shouldn’t hurt you, and at its best, it has the power to push you to your limits in pursuit of growing, changing, and learning something new about yourself. After all, as the late Andrea Gibson once said, “It hurts to become.” Depending on what it […]
It’s that time again, Portland: The 25th annual Pickathon music festival is upon us! Chances are, if you’ve held court with any of Portland’s many, many music nerds and concert junkies, you’ve likely learned a great many things about Pendarvis Farm’s four-day, genre-agnostic blowout. Trying to describe Pickathon to people who haven’t been is tough, […]
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