TBA

Sean Schumacher / Courtesy of Portland Institute for Contemporary Art There were lines out the door for both ticket holders and those waiting in standby for Erin Markey’s TBA show. Nineties hip-hop bumped through the theater walls. People were spilling drinks and making new friends. Clearly, word had gotten out that Markey’s show, Boner Killer, […]

Bob Fortner / Courtesy of Portland Institute for Contemporary Art A few years back, some friends moved to New York. I asked them what they most wanted to do there. Their response? As if it was a completely normal response: “Make a theater band.” “What’s a theater band?” you might ask. I’m not sure if […]

Three years ago, Tagaq sang live over a screening Nanook of the North. PICA On Friday, PSU’s Lincoln Hall was practically packed, for good reason. Tanya Tagaq, one of Canada’s most esteemed contemporary performers was playing that night. Tagaq specializes in a unique Inuit-influenced style of throat singing. Dressed in a simple but elegant red […]

Briana Cerezo I’ve been covering the PICA’s Time-Based Art Festival for the better part of a decade. I’ve found writing about the contemporary canon to be both satisfying and deeply challenging. In many ways, reviewing means looking at the work more closely and acutely. I lean in, because it’s my job to really try and […]

RH One of the best sources for experimental sound art in Portland these days is the humble but beautiful label Sounds et al. Run by British expat Andrew Fry, the imprint has released only a small number of records in its short existence, but each one is beautifully packaged to complement the mind-expanding music within. […]

RH Notes of a Native Song, the ever-evolving stage show loosely connected to the life and career of writer/activist James Baldwin, is a purposefully messy affair. Even before the show started, singer/co-songwriter Mark Stewart (better known as Stew) was already onstage at PSU’s Lincoln Hall, acting as his own stagehand, leaving behind a wrinkled white […]

What the floor looked like after Critical Mascara. MB I knew I was in the right place for Critical Mascara at this year’s TBA when I almost walked backstage by accident, bumping into a group of gorgeous drag queens on the sidewalk outside PICA at Hancock, where they were waiting for their cue. Around the […]

Dohee Lee Pak Han MU/巫, Dohee Lee’s TBA: 17 performance, is a six-part journey. Using vocals, loops, dance, percussion, costuming, video, and technology, Lee moves through different acts—at times forlorn, animated, elegant, and ravaged. Lee is influenced by indigenous Korean shamanism, a female-led form of spirituality that has survived for thousands of years, despite the […]

Blackwell on an inflatable ice cream sandwich. Sign language interpreter looks on. Suzette Smith Before Becca Blackwell’s show began, we in the audience were asked to raise our hands if we’d been to a TBA performance before, and again if we’d been to an Artists Repertory Theater performance, and finally if we’d seen a Frontier […]