COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS “I was a daughter,” Fanny Ball’s oration begins, “I was born. I was the daughter of one of those chiefs, the ones that don’t die of old age. Kientpaush was hanged.” Kintpuash, Ball’s father, was also called Captain Jack. He was a Modoc leader who resisted militarized white settlers in defense […]
Spring Arts Preview 2022
Posted inTheater & Performance
What’s Coming up Soon from Our List of 30 Arts Events to Check Out in Portland This Spring?
Courtesy of mitski Spring has sprung, and with it comes an exciting batch of events that will get you cultured and out to enjoy the weather. From the return of the smash hit musical Hamilton to the AAPI-centered film Crouching Comic and from TEDxPortland to Tyler, The Creator, we’ve rounded up 30 of the most […]
Posted inSpring Arts Preview 2022
Eye of the Tiger: Portland’s Art Communities Claw Their Way Back
Mercury Staff GROWL! “Who is this tiger and why is this tiger growling at me?” you may ask. This tiger is YOU, Portland. It’s your local arts scene—impassioned, thoughtful, mysterious, and punching far above its weight in the metaphorical boxing ring that is mid-size, artsy cities. As the arts and culture editor of a Portland […]
Posted inSpring Arts Preview 2022
Performance Artists and More, Super Futures Haunt Qollective Are Ghosts of Love and Social Justice
“I was a daughter,” Fanny Ball’s oration begins, “I was born. I was the daughter of one of those chiefs, the ones that don’t die of old age. Kientpaush was hanged.” Kintpuash, Ball’s father, was also called Captain Jack. He was a Modoc leader who resisted militarized white settlers in defense of Modoc lands, now […]
Posted inSpring Arts Preview 2022
Crouching Comic: A Funny, Insightful Local Film From an All-Asian Cast and Crew
On the last day of Alberta Poon and Katie Nguyen’s shoot, for their short film Crouching Comic, the sky began to rain ash. “I don’t know if it was Mother Nature being like, ‘We don’t want this film, we don’t want your story,’” Poon, the film’s director and co-writer, said. “But it was quite the […]
Posted inSpring Arts Preview 2022
In The Queers, Mikki Gillette Writes Real, Unflinching Stories about the Transgender Experience
There are no fantasy heroes in Mikki Gillette’s work. And hardly any glamour. “A person at a reading said, ‘I’m glad you aren’t just writing the noble transgender character,’” Gillette told the Mercury. “And inside I laughed out loud because that’s not what I would ever do.” As a playwright, Gillette focuses on characters who […]
Posted inSpring Arts Preview 2022
A Sneak Peek at the Portland Gallery Shows You Can See During the 2022 Spring Season
Whether displayed against the backdrop of the stark realities of our present-day or in a fantastical, surreal abstraction, hope, resilience, and strength are feelings and states of being that are predominant themes in exhibitions this season. Art lovers will have ample choices to stimulate their optical nerves; well-known institutions have invigorating cultural presentations, while artist-run […]
Posted inSpring Arts Preview 2022
Portland Art Museum Scores a Rare View, Not Just of Frida Kahlo, but the Interconnected History of Mexican Modernism
Standing in front of Landscape with Cacti, a massive landscape oil painting that muralist Diego Rivera painted in 1931, feels like standing with friends in happy company—if your friends happen to be five-feet-tall cacti on canvas. They meander over a sunny hill, prickly arms open in greeting. I found refuge in this golden-yellow landscape as […]
Posted inSpring Arts Preview 2022
People Want to Read Changing the Narrative, PSU’s Graphic Novel Comic Collection About Student Homelessness
Portland State University instructor Kacy McKinney has used comics to teach in her classroom, written about them academically, and made them herself. Now she’s bringing local organizations together with indie artists to tell stories about homelessness, and what it means to cope with food and housing insecurity, through an 80-page full color comic. Changing the […]
Posted inSpring Arts Preview 2022
30 Arts Events to Check Out in Portland This Spring
Spring has sprung, and with it comes an exciting batch of events that will get you cultured and out to enjoy the weather. From the return of the smash hit musical Hamilton to the AAPI-centered film Crouching Comic and from TEDxPortland to Tyler, The Creator, we’ve rounded up 30 of the most anticipated arts and […]
Posted inSpring Arts Preview 2022
How to Be Picked as a Human Sacrifice at Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music
Portland hasn’t seen a Taylor Mac performance since the 2011 Time Based Arts Festival, when then arts editor Alison Hallett famously got into an in-print tiff with reviewer Noah Dunham over their conflicting interpretations of Taylor Mac’s show Comparison Is Violence, or the Ziggy Stardust Meets Tiny Tim Songbook. But the MacArthur Genius theater performer […]
Posted inSpring Arts Preview 2022
Eye of the Tiger: Portland’s Art Communities Claw Their Way Back
GROWL! “Who is this tiger and why is this tiger growling at me?” you may ask. This tiger is YOU, Portland. It’s your local arts scene—impassioned, thoughtful, mysterious, and punching far above its weight in the metaphorical boxing ring that is mid-size, artsy cities. As the arts and culture editor of a Portland publication, I […]