Arts & Media❯Readings❯Poetry

Monday Mic Night is an open mic event. Bring whatever you’d like to share—music, poetry, a soliloquy, a painting, even a magic trick. All ages and talent levels are welcome. Non-performing audience members are welcome too.

This event is free, all ages, and open to the public.

Date: Monday, November 9
Time: 7-9pm (Signups start at 6:30pm)
Location: Sherwood Center for the Arts, Maera Boughey Theatre
22689 SW Pine Street, Sherwood OR 97140

More information at our website: Monday Mic Night | Sherwood Center for the Arts

One Last Gathering of the Crows. Join Darcelle XV Plaza for the Wildwood: Follow the Crows Farewell Weekend. After soaring across Portland all season, all 30 spectacular crow sculptures are coming together for one final celebration. This free, family-friendly event is your last chance to see the crows in Portland—and the only opportunity to experience the entire flock in one place.

Meet some of the talented artists behind the crows, collect autographs, take plenty of photos and support OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital through optional donations.

Costumes are highly encouraged. At 2 p.m. on Halloween Day, costumed guests can strut, flap or swoop through the plaza in a festive Costume Parade. Prizes will be awarded in both Adult and Under-18 divisions for:

• People’s Choice
• Best Themed Costume
• Best Crow Costume

Admission is free, and all ages are welcome. Bring your family, gather your flock and help give Portland’s beloved crows a send-off to remember.

In Smith Claudel's third solo exhibition with Carnation Contemporary, the yard is both a symbol and a physical source material, juxtaposing the enclosure of nature and its display with the control of the body. In this exhibition, temporary sculptures of raw clay, harvested from the artist’s yard, will soon return to the earth. A series of botanical drawings was made with the artist's menstrual blood. And a site-specific installation displays a collection of yard work specimens: a small patch of grass unnaturally maintained, nail enamel coating unfired pinch pots, and plant clippings caught in resin.

Yard Work examines the absurdity and care of maintaining one's landscape, and the tension between being kept and being desired.

Kim Smith Claudel is an artist and visual designer based in Portland, Oregon. Working across painting, sculpture, and installation, Smith Claudel creates work that exists in deliberate flux. Her process-driven approach embraces the ephemeral, the decaying, and the mundane, building visual systems that resist completion. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including a recent solo exhibition (End Cycle) at The Vestibule in Seattle. Other recent solo exhibitions include The Arts Center (Corvallis, OR), The Painting Center (NYC), Mt. Hood Community College (OR), and KyotoBA (Japan). Recent residencies include Building 5 in Portland and the Boston Center for the Arts. She holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. She received an MS in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab, where she was a Learning Innovation Fellow. She is a member of Carnation Contemporary Gallery and the WAVE artist collective.

Opening Saturday, October 03, 5–8 p.m.

Internationally renowned artist Pipilotti Rist presents her major installation 4th Floor to Mildness in a West Coast premiere and only second exhibition in the U.S.

Pipilotti Rist dissolves exhibition spaces through luminous color, moving imagery, and melodic sound. 4th Floor to Mildness immerses the viewer in a soft, aquatically inspired environment, where a film shot underwater plays across two biomorphic-shaped screens hanging from the ceiling. A soundtrack by experimental musician Soap&Skin/Anja Plaschg adds to the ambience with lyrics about dreams, love, and memories as the camera catches glimpses of floating bodies. Two projected light circles move across the room, enlightening it with visceral hues. For Rist, this light represents a “desire to turn yourself inside out.”

Rist creates conditions for visitors to come together in unconventional ways so that they might better understand their relationships to one another, their own bodies, and nature. In the gallery, raft-like beds provide a place or visitors to rest and share social space as they watch the projection overhead. She asks: “What happens to our perceptions when we don’t have to stand or fight gravity?” The sensation of floating may evoke a sense of returning to an elemental state. For the artist, the work “describes the fantasy of [ourselves] being an organic plant . . . and simulates our dissolution into water, mud, slime, molecules and atoms.”

Originally created for the fourth floor of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, PAM adapted the work to the Crumpacker Center with the assistance of the artist’s team at Atelier Rist; production partner Portland Garment Factory, a woman-owned B-corp and zero-waste creative factory, created the curtains, beds, and bed coverings, and Figure Plant engineered and fabricated the hanging screens.

Church of Art's collaborative neurographics is a mindfulness-based creative activity that provides therapeutic relaxation through intuitive mark-making on a grand scale. For this mindfulness-based collaborative art activity, Church of Art will cover a long row of tables with a roll of paper and acrylic paint pens in a variety of sizes and colors. Participants will move freely around the table, filling the paper with sweeping, colorful doodles to the sounds of calming music. The giant scale allows for whole-arm movements, which signal brains to move out of fight-or-flight mode and into a state of mental relaxation and improved focus. The collaborative aspect of this workshop teaches one to let go of perfection and expectation through shared creative exploration, while working large encourages greater freedom of expression.

Neurographic art is a relatively new form of focused, intentional mark-making that uses curved, bold lines, vibrant colors and calming patterns. Physician and neurographics practitioner Ruben Halperin, M.D., will be the guide, co-facilitating this workshop with artist and Church of Art founder, Erika Halperin.

Immerse yourself in this beneficial form of meditative doodling and experience the mood-boosting effect of creativity coupled with community gathering.

Using paper and acrylic markers. All materials and supplies are provided by the studio.

Tickets Include:

• 2 hours of guided creative exploration in a supportive, friendly environment with all supplies included.
• Light snacks and non-alcoholic beverages are included.
• That wonderful feeling of joy and connectedness that comes from a few hours of in-person artistic play with other adults.

Celebrating 20 years of cinema, culture, and community—a very special milestone celebrating two decades of building bridges between Latin America and Portland through film.

Over these 20 years, the stories have made audiences laugh, reflect, and feel deeply, while offering new perspectives on identity, collective memory, and cultural diversity. What began as a dream has grown into a vibrant community of filmmakers, artists, volunteers, sponsors, and audience members who believe in the power of cinema to bring the community closer together.

This year features the generous collaboration of musician and composer José Manuel Aguilera, who has authorized the use of his song "Confabulario"—from the album *Tinta negra y roja*—as the official theme for this anniversary edition. The official poster for the twentieth edition was designed by Gilberto Martínez and inspired by the work of renowned graphic artist Joel Rendón. Its visual power and rich symbolism reflect the creative spirit and cultural diversity that have defined the festival over the past two decades.

Each year, Milagro observes Día de Muertos with the premiere of a new production, altar displays, and community events with the Día de Muertos Festival. The Centerpiece event of the 31st Annual Día de los Muertos Celebration is Marigolds y Memorias, an original devised production inspired by the traveling carpa tradition, in which humor, music, and storytelling come together in a vibrant theatrical journey. Guided by an elder, a younger generation learns o build an altart, the heart of Día de Muertos, discovering the meaning behind each of its elements, from candles and marigolds to photographs, ofrendas, and cherished recuerdos. Through song, dance, and short theatrical vignettes, the altar gradually takes shape as an act of remembrance and cultural inheritance, inviting audiences to consider how traditions are taught, how memory is kept alive, and what is carried forward when we share rituals across generations.

Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a long-honored tradition with roots in Indigenous Mexican culture. Día de Muertos is observed annually in Mexican and other Latin American cultures on November 1st and 2nd as a remembrance of those who have passed. Individuals and families who honor this day set up ofrendas (altars) with offerings to their departed loved ones. Typical offerings include marigolds, calaveras, photos of the dead, and traditional food like “pan de muerto.”

The pace and compression of time are relentless, like getting whiplash while watching the sun rise. In Borne’s recent work, he uses sound, color, texture and motion to reflect on the experience of time. While some works attempt to freeze time by using gesture and color to elicit a bodily response, others playfully attempt to capture the doldrums of minutes passing us by, inviting meditation on seizing the mercurial moment.

From flower to pollen to fruit to seed, fitting perfectly into the migration of birds and the life cycles of insects or the feelings of being embodied by the physical sensations of having to pee, hunger or breathe, Laughery’s work is an exploration of the anatomical systems that sustain us within their cycles. His drawings use the aesthetics of our organs' unique folds, puckers and sacs to imagine new biologies, different systems.

Russell Borne received his BFA from Oregon State University in 2007 and his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2014. Russell’s artwork creates a dialogue invented through the interaction of objects to tell a story. He explores micro- and macro-cultural identity to pause and flip preconceptions of what you are looking at. Borne has spent the majority of his career in design and art direction for various international companies. Most recently, Borne leads North America Brand Design for Adidas. Borne lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

Drew Laughery is an artist and musician working across many media, though he tends to return again and again to drawing as a generative space to explore ideas. He was born and raised in rural Oregon. He loves paper and working with its unique qualities. He is a founding member of the rock band Blitzen Trapper and has toured the world performing on keyboards. He left in 2011 to pursue his visual art career, earning RACC grants and exhibiting around the Portland area. He is excited to debut at Carnation Contemporary for the first time as a new member.

Started in 1999 and organized by writer Willa Schneberg, this annual event features readings by prominent Oregon Jewish poets and writers. The writers in the 2026 program span a range of genres, including fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and essays. Each author will share selections from their work.

Each year, Milagro observes Día de Muertos with the premiere of a new production, altar displays, and community events with the Día de Muertos Festival.

Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a long-honored tradition with roots in Indigenous Mexican culture. Día de Muertos is observed annually in Mexican and other Latin American cultures on November 1st and 2nd as a remembrance of those who have passed. Individuals and families who honor this day set up ofrendas (altars) with offerings to their departed loved ones. Typical offerings include marigolds, calaveras, photos of the dead, and traditional food like “pan de muerto.”

Doomsday is an MF Doom-themed group art exhibition celebrating the life, legacy, music, and unmistakable visual identity of one of hip-hop’s most influential and mysterious artists. Presented in partnership with Unspoken and More Than February Art Gallery, the exhibition brings together a diverse group of artists working across painting, illustration, sculpture, design, fashion, and mixed media to reinterpret the world of MF Doom through their own creative lens.

Timed around the anniversary of Doom's passing, Doomsday is both a tribute and a celebration—honoring an artist whose impact extended far beyond music. From the iconic metal mask and comic-book-inspired mythology to his intricate lyricism, production, and independent spirit, MF Doom created a universe that continues to inspire artists, musicians, designers, and fans around the world.

The exhibition will feature original artwork and special installations inspired by Doom, including sculpture, collectible objects, apparel, prints, collaborative pieces, and one-of-a-kind interpretations of the mask and character. Guests will also be able to experience interactive elements including an MF Doom-inspired photo booth, music, merchandise, raffles, and special collaborations created specifically for the exhibition. At its core, Doomsday is about bringing together art, hip-hop, community, and independent creativity while giving artists a space to celebrate a cultural figure whose influence remains deeply present.

Opening Reception: Thursday 6 p.m.–9 p.m.

Join us at Northwest Library on Pettygrove for an evening of poetry. Every month co-hosts Sherri Levine and Dale Champlin will bring you two or three featured poets, followed by an ever-popular open mic. Readers include celebrated poets as well as poets from the Portland poetry community and the library vicinity. Held on the fourth Wednesday of the month all year round!

We are delighted to welcome Gavin Van Horn, editor of the new anthology Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of Nature to Broadway Books. He will be joined by poet Brittney Corrigan, one of the contributors to the anthology.

A stunning gathering of creative nonfiction, research, and poetry, Sensoria transports readers into compelling stories and ethical reflections that stretch the limits of the moral imagination, calling attention to the wondrous ways in which humans and other-than-human beings experience and perceive the world. By exploring the sensorium among all forms of life endowed with different kinds of consciousness and communicative abilities, this volume highlights ecologically and socially diverse ways of touching the world with mind, and touching mind with the world.

Celebrate the release of A Thousand Flames, the debut poetry collection by Corey S. Pressman. Corey S. Pressman's debut collection, A Thousand Flames, offers poems of secular devotion in which a bird feeder can stand as the axis mundi and the bees have a god of their own. Across twelve sections, they travel from a Rockland County childhood to a hilltop in the fog, and as far back as the rooftops of Neolithic Çatalhöyük. Each poem asks you to slow down and stay a little longer than expected.

"Corey Pressman is a magical human - magical art, magical writing. His finely made poems are bells of vision and clarity to help us 'stay the same changing.'" - Naomi Shihab Nye

Portland Art Museum invites the community to join a Free First Thursday event, offering free admission to the museum for all, plus a Live Wire event as part of the Literary Arts Portland Book Festival. Visitors can take in the afternoon gallery pop-ups, the evening show, or both!

4:30 – 6 p.m. — Free, pre-show, pop-up performances will take place throughout the Museum’s galleries. Performers are poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle.

Free First Thursday tickets can be reserved online one week in advance and are also available at the door.

7 p.m. — Enjoy a fully seated, ticketed Live Wire taping hosted by Luke Burbank with announcer Elena Passarello, featuring a blend of interviews, comedy, and music performed live for the audience, then edited into an episode for broadcast to over 200 public radio stations nationwide. Performers are poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle. Doors will open at 6:30pm.

GA Tickets are $15. Preferred Seating is $40. Discounts available to Portland Book Festival passholders.

Dessa is a singer, rapper, and writer who fell in love with language as a toddler—and just never got over it. Now, she works in fields that traffic in words: she’s recorded rap bangers as part of the fiercely independent Doomtree collective, released a live album with the Grammy-winning Minnesota Orchestra; contributed to The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler; delivered a TED Talk on the intersection of romance and neuroscience that’s notched more than 4 million views; hosted 2 seasons of behavioral science podcast Deeply Human (BBC/American Public Media); and published a memoir recounting most of the above called My Own Devices (Penguin Random House).

Mac Barnett, the 2025–2026 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is a New York Times bestselling author of stories for children. Mac’s books have won many prizes, including two Caldecott Honors, three New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book Awards, three E. B. White Read Aloud Awards and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, as well as several international prizes. He lives in Oakland, California. His latest book, illustrated by X. Fang, is Tom Nancy: The Sheep Who Swapped Brains with a Boy. From two of the most exciting picture book makers today comes a hilarious trickster tale and Freaky Friday switcheroo story: a sneaky, cheeky sheep named Tom Nancy has a brain swap proposal for an innocent farm boy named Felix that will change both of their lives forever. Laugh-out-loud, subversive, and totally unexpected.

Ed Park is the author of the novels Personal Days and Same Bed Different Dreams. He is a founding editor of The Believer, and has worked in newspapers, book publishing, and academia. His writing appears in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Profound, wily, and beautifully wrought, his new book Three Tenses: A Transmission from the Nineties is a meeting of memory and myth, confession and obfuscation, coalescing to offer a singular picture of creativity in action.

The princess of Portland comedy, best known for her breakout performance on the popular Netflix special Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda, Mx. Dahlia Belle has been compared to a Swiss Army knife—different tools to extract sharpness, softness, vulnerability, hope, and wicked wit. She’s been declared one of “11 Trans Comedians… Funnier Than Dave Chappelle” by Out Magazine, repeatedly featured on NPR, and has written for Cosmopolitan Magazine, The Guardian, The Stranger, and Portland Mercury. Her live performances have included NW Black Comedy Festival, Upper Left Comedy Festival, SF Sketchfest, and an awkward conversation with John Waters and Piers Morgan. In the upcoming live taping of her comedy special Affirmed at Polaris Hall on November 22nd, Mx. Dahlia Belle delivers 60 new minutes of stand-up to celebrate and affirm being human in the modern world through a combination of the wholesome and mundane, anecdotes about house cats, liscivious foibles of the LGBT community, and an unapologetic account of her personal journey with gender-affirming care, all delivered with her trademark free form wit.

Free First Thursdays at the Museum and PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater aligns with the revitalization of the long-standing Portland art galleries’ tradition of opening their doors for openings, receptions, and events on the first Thursday of each month. In recent months art and culture organizations have joined to bring back this popular activity, including the Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in the North Park Blocks.

Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.

New Room Studios is proud to present this Portland debut show by the Genius Artist Fellow and matter painter Jeff Beers. “Paper & Raincoat” are the two main ingredients of a new series that unfolds like a mythic cycle of life and death. Beers painstakingly made it out of scraps of thin sheets of paper that he’s aged for 30 years, and surplus raincoat material from Columbia Sportswear. (Beers got the latter from the local nonprofit SCRAP Creative Reuse.) After 16 months of meticulous work, these two simple ingredients have found cosmic depths in this series of 8 pieces. The show also includes a series of Beers’ earlier, more earthy and elemental works. These pieces use tars, paints, emulsions and waxes to explore the microcosms and macrocosms of the materials simultaneously.

Rarely able to afford art supplies, Beers learned at an early age how to make his own. He still makes his own paints and emulsions, and his subject matter often includes materials he’s foraged from the built and natural environments. He works with the materials until he learns their languages and how they want to be seen, and much of his art is in the discipline of letting them speak through him.

This show is hosted by The Salmonberry Trail Foundation, which is dedicated to building an 82-mile trail for hiking and biking from Banks to the Oregon Coast. “Jeff Beers: Paper & Raincoat” will take over their spacious and historic office in downtown Portland in November.

Celebrate Día de los Muertos at M&M Marketplace with two days of culture, music, food, and family fun. Join us on Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1 from 2 PM to 7 PM for a free community celebration in Hillsboro.

Enjoy live music, traditional altars, Calenda, Calaveritas Literarias, a Concurso de Catrinas, food, shopping, and family entertainment. Bring your family and friends as we come together to honor loved ones and celebrate Día de los Muertos traditions.

Dates: Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1
Time: 2 PM to 7 PM
Location: M&M Marketplace, 346 SW Walnut St., Hillsboro, OR 97123
Admission: Free

¡Acompáñanos con toda la familia para celebrar nuestras tradiciones, recordar a nuestros seres queridos y disfrutar un fin de semana especial en comunidad!

Nuwave Runway is a celebration of the Pacific Northwest fashion community and the many designers, models, creatives, businesses, nonprofits, and organizations that make it unique. This year’s theme is “Awareness,” focusing on increasing visibility of the fashion industry in the PNW and highlighting communities and talent that deserve more recognition.

The evening will begin with a pre-show dinner social at 6:00 p.m., followed by the fashion show at 7:00 p.m., featuring over nine designers from across the Pacific Northwest, showcasing their unique designs and perspectives on the runway.
Throughout the show, designers will have an opportunity to introduce themselves, share the stories and inspiration behind their designs, and talk about who they are. Select sponsors will also have the opportunity to speak about their fashion-related business or nonprofit, helping connect the audience with organizations contributing to the growth of the PNW fashion community. The dress code is to wear anything fun and fashionable in your own way.

Join the Farewell Weekend at Darcelle XV Plaza. See the entire flock gathered together for the first—and final—time before the sculptures head to auction in support of OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.

Adornment is often reserved for the aristocracy. The common person is expected to wear plain colors and utilitarian shapes meant for labor; clothes that blend in. In Loose Threads and Raw Edges, the GMS Collective explores adornment as a form of identity. The exhibition celebrates our artists’ love of color, texture, and responsiveness to material. These creations are meant to be seen and felt. They are the antithesis of the erasure that many artists experience in this capitalist society.

First and foremost, the GMS artists create for themselves. In a world obsessed with production, efficiency, and exploitation, it is a solace to experience art made to fulfill individual creative impulses rather than be commodified. This exhibition asks, “How can I make the most creative impact with the least amount of environmental impact?” In the hands of the GMS artists, simple threads, notions, and trims are alchemized through countless hours of experimentation. Gold spun from rubbish. Discarded textiles are treated like jewels, meticulously assembled into garments and tapestries fit for royalty — creating a kingdom of one’s own.

Funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council and the Arts Access Fund.

Show Opening: Thursday, September 3, 2026, 5:30–7:30 p.m.
Gather:Make:Shelter Group Exhibition

This immersive tasting experience celebrates the creativity, craftsmanship, and intersection between artists and winemakers. Enjoy wines from 50 Willamette Valley wineries alongside engaging artistic experiences, seasonal culinary offerings, and opportunities for discovery throughout the evening.

• Tastings from more than 50 premier Willamette Valley wineries
• Pinot-friendly grazing boards and seasonal bites
• Five featured artists and winery pairings
• Live art demonstrations
• Hands-on interactive experiences throughout the event
• Opportunities to connect with featured artists and winemakers
• Access to artwork from the Portland Art Museum’s Rental Sales Gallery, with opportunities to purchase or rent pieces for your home

Tina Chang reads from her new poetry collection Lion at Portland Art Museum in the Native American Art gallery (Level 2, Room 215), paired with Sara Siestreem, fastened to the rock (blood, sweat, and tears).

In Lion, Tina Chang mines personal and collective memory to explore safety and danger, visibility and invisibility as an Asian American woman. Throughout the collection, Chang responds to multi-hyphenate women artists, including Haena Yoo, Hồng-An Trương, Astria Suparak, and a collective whose work paid tribute to the life of Christina Yuna Lee, a young woman who was killed during the height of anti-Asian hate crimes. Responding to art across various media—text, illustration, painting, video, and sculpture—Lion sparks cross-disciplinary dialogue on Asian American perspectives, surveillance, and the myth of the model minority.

As the aftermath of the pandemic is examined, so too are the structures of bias, racism, and violence that continue. The collection’s title explores the word’s cultural history, composite Chinese iconography, and lion-centered explorations of strength and mastery. Lion traverses the closeness and distance between the racialized self the world views and the perceived self who endures and survives.

“An urgent exploration of Asian American identity from a poet with a ‘fearless imagination.’”–Tracy K. Smith, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

Join Portland Japanese Garden and experience the awe-inspiring artistry of NUNO, the iconic Japanese textile design studio. Featuring vibrant and compelling fabrics produced across eight specific regions of Japan, NUNO’s championing of small-community makers illuminates the breadth and depth of contemporary Japanese textile design. This unforgettable exhibition includes site-specific installations and a hands-on touch wall that will make you rethink your relationship to cloth.

In this Talk, Portland-based mixed media artist Diane Archer will discuss her work, process, inspirations and motivations. Diane Archer was born and spent her early life in Ohio, where she received a BFA from The University of Akron and an MFA from Kent State University. In 1999, a residency at the Sitka Center brought her west. She fell in love with the Pacific Northwest and decided to make Oregon her home. In 2007, Diane was interviewed for Oregon Art Beat and in 2023 her work was included in the Harvard Map Library Collections.

Anish Kapoor: Dissolving Margins, from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, is a bold and expansive exploration of nearly four decades of Kapoor’s printmaking practice and marks the artist’s first retrospective survey dedicated to this collaborative and technical practice. This exhibition presents an immense catalog of the artist’s printmaking–over 150 prints spanning from his earliest experiments to his most recent work.

Visit the exhibition, meet the curator, and enjoy light refreshments on the evening of October 22, 5 p.m.

Live Wire joins forces with the Portland Art Museum for an afternoon of roving performances ahead of an evening recording of the program. The event coincides with PAM's monthly Free First Thursday and the Portland Book Festival's expanded programming. Performers will include poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle.

Free pop-up performances will take place throughout the Museum’s galleries, giving visitors a chance to catch live performances and storytelling while moving through the PAM spaces. Completely free through PAM’s Free First Thursday general admission. Also, enjoy a fully seated, ticketed Live Wire taping hosted by Luke Burbank with announcer Elena Passarello, featuring a blend of interviews, comedy, and music performed live for the audience, then edited into an episode for broadcast to over 200 public radio stations nationwide.

Visitors can take in the afternoon gallery pop-ups, the evening show, or both.

Oregon Jewish Voices 2026 November 5, 2026 Admission: $10 general admission, $5 for members with code on back of membership card Location: OJMCHE Auditorium Share × " class="share-btn"> Share on Facebook &text=Oregon Jewish Voices 2026" class="share-btn"> Share on Twitter Email Thursday, November 5 | 7pm start time, doors open at 6:30pm Started in 1999 and organized by writer Willa Schneberg, this annual event features readings by prominent Oregon Jewish poets and writers. The writers in the 2026 program span a range of genres, including fiction, poetry, playwriting, and nonfiction. Each author will share selections from their work. About the Speakers Ayelet Amittay is a poet and psychiatric nurse practitioner in Eugene, Oregon. Her first book, The Eating Knife , is an extended Midrash on the Akedah—the binding of Isaac. It was published by Fernwood Press in 2025. Her chapbook, Therapy Room , won second place in the 2024 3-Day International Chapbook Contest. Ayelet’s poems appear in Gulf Coast , Michigan Quarterly Review , Rattle , Critica Press , Tupelo Quarterly , Pleiades , and others. She received fellowships from the Yiddish Book Center and the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing . Find her at www.ayeletpoet.com or on Instagram @ayeletpoet. Rachel Attias is a writer, educator, and editor based in Portland. Her writing has appeared in n+1 , Porter House Review , X-R-A-Y, and more, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions. She holds an MFA from Oregon State University, and teaches writing at Portland Community College and around the Pacific Northwest. She is also part of Art/Lab’s 2026 Fellowship Cohort, which empowers Portland-area Jewish artists and culture bearers. Her writing is concerned with present and ancestral relationships, our changing natural world, memory, time, and everyday absurdity. Find Rachel at www.rachelattias.com . Daniel Isaiah Elder Daniel Isaiah Elder writes fiction and nonfiction. He was awarded a 2026 Susan Kamil Emerging Writers Prize and received a Lambda Literary Emerging LGBTQ Writer fellowship, as well as an Art/Lab fellowship for Jewish writers. He works as a bookseller at a small independent bookstore, and at Lidia Yuknavitch’s alternative workshop organization, Corporeal Writing. His essays and fiction have appeared in The Rumpus, Catapult, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Witch Craft Magazine, and many more. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his partner and their blended family

For lovers of the strange, unusual and bizarre, the Oddities and Curiosities Expo showcases hand-selected vendors, dealers, artists and small businesses from all over the country with all things weird. You’ll find items such as taxidermy, preserved specimens, original artwork, horror/Halloween-inspired pieces, antiques, handcrafted oddities, quack medical devices, creepy clothing, odd jewelry, animal skulls/bones, funeral collectibles, and more. There is something weird for everyone. All items you see at the shows are legal to own and sustainably sourced.

tell ___ ‘hi’ from me showcases the work of 27 self-taught, neurodivergent artists who live and create in Oregon and are members of the Portland-based Progressive Art Studio, North Pole Studio. This diverse collection of contemporary 2D and 3D works reflects honest creative expression and raw innovation. It invites the viewer to deepen their understanding of the Progressive Art Studio movement and artists working within it, both regionally and nationally. tell ___ ‘hi’ from me offers a warm greeting and a long overdue introduction. It speaks to presence, persistence, and belonging: ‘we’ve always been here, won’t you get to know us?’ … ‘it’s time you get to know us’.

Join us during Hillsboro Art Walk to stroll through the gallery and meet the artists. Enjoy hands-on art activities, refreshments, and more!

Join Mary Miller Doyle and friends for a presentation of Wonder Is a Lovely Place to Be: 365 Days of Wit, Wisdom, and Irrepressible Imagination by Brian Doyle and Mary Miller Doyle. Drawing from both beloved and previously unpublished Brian Doyle works, this collection of essays, poems and sketches invites readers to notice holiness woven through ordinary, everyday moments.

Mary Miller Doyle and John and Cindy McPhee will read passages from Wonder is a Lovely Place to Be and retired Lake Oswego Public Library director Bill Baars will host. We'll also be serving apple and marionberry pie, Brian's favorite flavors.

Brian Doyle (1956-2017) was the author of many books, including the novels Mink River and The Plover; The Grail, his account of a year in a pinot noir vineyard in Oregon; and The Wet Engine, a memoir about his infant son’s heart surgery and the young doctor who saved his life. He edited Portland Magazine at the University of Portland.

This program is supported by the Friends of the Lake Oswego Public Library. Participation is free, and no registration is required. Please note, seating is limited due to the size of the space. Seats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.A livestream will be available.

Lake Oswego Public Library is located at 706 Fourth Street, Lake Oswego. For more information, contact Alicia Yokoyama at 503-534-4228 or [email protected]

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Book Bar is a five-day pop-up bar, café and cultural clubhouse in the heart of downtown Portland during Portland Book Festival week. Stop in for drinks, food, conversation and a rotating lineup of literary-inspired performances, pop-ups and unexpected happenings.

On Wednesday night, 45th Parallel Universe presents a celebration of Allen Ginsberg, featuring live readings of Howl and other works accompanied by live jazz.

The evening brings together voices from Portland’s literary, music, theater and radio communities for a tribute to one of the most influential figures in American poetry, and to Howl, which Ginsberg first read publicly in Portland while studying at Reed College.

Featured participants include Gregory Scholl, Robert McBride, Fred Child, Alexis Hamilton and additional special guests.

Told entirely by two performers, a poet and a musician, Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s An Iliad remixes Homer’s tale, bridging the ancient with the contemporary. In turns humorous and tender, violent and harrowing, An Iliad is a vital examination of the human compulsion towards war, a passionate interrogation of the toll war has on our humanity, and a testament to the power and potential of storytelling.

Heaven’s Gate (2021)
High-definition 3D 8K video with sound, color; 5 min., 45 sec., loop

A lavish and satirical take on the silver-screen spectacle of Hollywood dreams and excesses, Heaven’s Gate both celebrates collective storytelling and satirizes saturated glamour and stereotypes. The continuously looping video ascends through the seven levels of purgatory, each stage its own unique landscape of visual samples lifted from iconic moments in cinematic history.

Anthology (2025)
Photo–montage printed on wallpaper

Anthology mirrors the way we recall films: as iconic moments, cinematic scenes and emotional cues. By intuitively forming associations between set pieces and characters, Marco Brambilla constructs a compelling “memory timeline”, a series of powerful still images that represent narrative fragments, punctuating the rhythm of cinema across genres and eras.

These curated images resonate not because of their plot context but due to their visual and emotional impact. Chosen for their ability to stand apart, they act as pauses or reflections within the flow of a film’s narrative, exploring how singular moments in film can encapsulate entire stories. Characters and scenes become a visual grammar—pauses, interruptions, and exclamations— underscoring the evolving relationship between image, time, and viewer interpretation in cinema history.

Portland artist Eva Wrzesinski spent months visiting Blanchet House’s free café, drawing portraits of 22 guests while learning about their lives. The result is "At Our Table", a portrait exhibition that invites viewers to see people experiencing poverty, homelessness, addiction, and mental health challenges as unique individuals with stories worth hearing.

The event offers an opportunity to view the portraits and interview Wrzesinski and participating café guests about their experiences.

Each portrait includes excerpts from interviews that explore guests’ memories, relationships, challenges, and hopes for the future.

The Chronic Pain Project is holding its next exhibition in the Aubrey R. Watzek Library at Lewis and Clark College. CPP showcases art by anyone with experiences relating to chronic pain. Some of the artists have been creating for decades, and others have only just begun. Through art, these artists make visible what millions live with but few understand.

This exhibition asks one to consider what embodiment means while living with an invisible condition. CPP seeks to shift dominant narratives, educate the broader public, and create community. What does embodiment mean to you? We invite you to consider our theme as you peruse "Embodied Existence."

One Grand Gallery is delighted to welcome back Portland-based Ashley Anson for her second solo exhibition with the gallery. Home Sweet Home expounds on Anson’s fondness for found textiles and materials and processes historically associated with feminine domestic labor. Drawing on traditionally gendered art forms such as quilting and embroidery, she combines textiles with painting and small sculpture to create narratives about the unseen worlds within people’s homes. Home is central to her work, a place that can hold peace, chaos, and danger all at once.

Anson transforms personal family folklore into layered narratives, exploring how stories imagined in childhood are remembered, exaggerated, and reinterpreted across generations. Her work also examines gender roles in art, asking what gives a painting masculine or feminine attributes and whether an artist’s gender can be sensed in the work. By combining the historically male-dominated practice of painting with embroidery and textiles, she challenges conventional distinctions between artistic mediums.

Join the opening reception on Friday, Oct. 30 from 6- 9 p.m. In the spirit of the Halloween season, the opening will transition into a party as the evening approaches. Costumes are strongly encouraged.

Lookout Landscape is an immersive art exhibition by Oregon-based artist and designer David Buckley Borden and a team of collaborators working across forestry, design, and engineering. Inspired by fire lookout towers, trail culture, and backcountry gear, the exhibition invites visitors onto a fabricated “Lookout Trail,” where a series of imaginative scenes—from a trailhead to a weather station, campground, and tool shed—reimagine the visual language of forestry and outdoor culture in the Pacific Northwest.

Blending research, humor, and design, the exhibition explores the complex relationships between people and working forests, with wildfire as an underlying thread. As visitors move through the space, they are encouraged to reflect on how forests are shaped, valued, and cared for, and to consider their own connection to these landscapes.

BOLD is thrilled to host The Body Has Teeth: A Reading and Conversation with Amy Baskin, David Loring Nash, Anthony DiPietro, and Summer Stewart.

Four writers enter the dark from different doors. Anthony DiPietro’s poems move through gay love, sex, and the strange repetitions of desire. Amy Baskin gives Lilith—the first woman, cast as a demon—her fierce voice. Summer Stewart’s poems and essays expose the scripts written onto women’s bodies and lives. In David Loring Nash’s Northwoods, witchcraft, revenge, and human folly wait just beyond the treeline. Join them for a reading, followed by a conversation led by Summer Stewart.

Step into autumn’s splendor as the garden transforms with the colors and textures of chrysanthemums, a flower of nobility and longevity in Chinese culture. Stroll among 81 mum varieties, cascading displays along the waterfall, and sweeping floral sculptures that transform the garden into a living gallery.

From dazzling floral artistry to hands-on learning opportunities, Chrysanthemum Festival is one of the garden's most anticipated annual celebrations—and an unforgettable way to experience Lan Su in fall. Explore this beautiful flower and time of year.

Nov. 5-8 — Nights of the Golden Flower: Immerse yourself in the illuminated works of 18 talented local floral artists and featured designer Toni Tibbits as they interpret this year’s theme, Golden Blooms Upon Autumn Waters. Plus, enjoy gentle music by Lulu Guzheng Studio, dance performances by YZ Dance Academy, floral jewelry-making, and all-ages fun as you wander among glowing lanterns and vote for your favorite designs of the showcase. Sensory Night November 14.

Join us for a poetry reading from Householding with Tom Blood, Shannon Baird, and Brian Hebb.

Tom Blood is the author of the sky position which was awarded the Oregon Book Award for Poetry. Published the raccoon, dot dot, the act, if ever then always, exp, and exp3. He also performs as the lead vocalist in the bands rob walmart, Tom Blood and Jordan Dykstra and Dream Center. Tom is Published in journals in NY, SF, Portland, London, Seattle and elsewhere. He believes the only purpose in life is to communicate love.

Shannon Baird is a Portland native, real estate broker, and award-winning designer whose work reflects a longstanding appreciation for architecture, art, and the character of place. With more than 24 years in real estate and as the founder of SBaird Design, she brings a distinctive perspective to the relationship between people, homes, and the stories they hold.

Shannon conceived the idea for this collection of poetry, originally written to accompany actual real estate listings. What began as an unconventional approach to presenting homes evolved into a book celebrating the character, atmosphere, and individuality of the places we inhabit.

Working closely with book designer Fredrik Averin, Shannon guided the creative development and design of the publication. The collection features poems primarily by Tom Blood, with additional contributions from Shannon Baird and Brian Hebb. Charlotte Moore wrote the foreword and afterword, and Rory Sparks produced the foil-stamped covers.

The book reflects an appreciation for the ways poetry can reveal something beyond the physical details of a property—offering a more personal evocative perspective on the meaning of home, a subject of perennial longing.

Brian Hebb is a failed capitalist, former journalist and chronic penman for hire, furnishing other people’s ad copy and speeches with his favorite daydreams. For these sins, and others less relevant, he is at work on his first novel, The Last Days of Fake Bears, and a short story collection, Target Audience. He lives with his wife in Portland, Oregon where fleeting glimpses of their dead pets are most persistent.

Portland Art Museum invites the community to join a Free First Thursday event featuring free museum admission for all. This unique day includes a chance to explore the special exhibitions and PAM’s transformed campus and reinstalled permanent collection galleries.

October’s Free First Thursday features a special free film program presented in conjunction with The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art. The screenings celebrate film and video work by and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people, offering another way to explore the stories, histories, and perspectives at the heart of The Stars We Do Not See.

This eye-opening exhibition introduces North American audiences to the diverse and distinct visual iconographies of Indigenous Australia, which is made up of more than 250 distinct Indigenous nations. Explore this rich and living history of creativity through over 200 works made by more than 130 artists. Drawn exclusively from the collection of Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria, The Stars We Do Not See offers a rare opportunity to experience some of the most significant examples of modern and contemporary Australian Indigenous art. Charting watershed moments in Indigenous art from the late 19th century to the present, this exhibition reveals a rich history of creativity that predates the arrival of the British.

In her first solo show, Cathy Aster explores the public and private layers women wear at different life stages. Using image transfer and cut-collage techniques, she creates formal and metaphorical transparencies across a series of 14 images. She bathes the scenes in the autumnal glow provided by vintage magazines, then excavates the images for tenderness, risk and danger. She hooks the viewer with nostalgic images, then transforms the image by revealing unseen psychic realms. The women in Aster’s work look away even as they look directly at you; they look directly at you even as they look away.

Cathy Aster is a cut paper collage artist based in Portland, Oregon. After years of experience working in rare book conservation and digital library settings, she spends her time making art and creating community for collage artists. She has shown work at Alberta Street Gallery, Art at the Cave and Taylor Street Kitchen. She is part of the organizing group of the Pacific Northwest Collage Collective.

Art in the Burbs was purposefully and creatively designed to weave local artists with student artists. During the show, 20% of each artist’s sales will be retained to benefit The Foundation for Tigard Tualatin Schools’ Art in the Burbs Grant program. Grants are awarded to each of the district’s schools to use only in their arts programs – writing, music, fine art, and performing arts. The Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization.

Art in the Burbs provides a financial vehicle to enrich students’ lives through the arts. Click the button below to see how proceeds from last year’s show were used at your local school.

Enjoy Leslie McMillan’s one-of-a-kind handcrafted jewelry and painter bd dombrowsky’s visual explorations of the mischievous silver night and the many insights the capricious muse offers.

Painter bd dombrowsky's visual style is derived from an interest in vintage illustrated books — encyclopedias, primers, comics, and stories — all the simple visual devices used as a culture to educate and socialize. Much of their work is informed by myths and folklore, as they retell old stories and weave them into new ones. Drawing on a background in drama, sculpture and printmaking, bd dombrowsky's goal is to craft a resonant space in which these stories can unfold, drawn from a shared mythos but reimagined by the artist and narrated by the viewer.

Jewelry Artist Leslie McMillan

As a jewelry smith, Leslie McMillan is all over the place. To begin with, they have ADHD, so their mind is manic. Leslie roams from fusing gold on steel to traditional silversmithing to bonding Japanese silver leaf. When working with steel and gold, Leslie is drawn to the truth that you cannot control the outcome. When heated high enough to fuse with the steel, the gold takes on a life of its own and travels where it wants to go. When working with sterling silver and natural stones, Leslie follows a more traditional approach. Creating hand-forged settings and sourcing stones from First Nation lapidary artists are fundamental to the work. No matter the process, Leslie relies on inspiration from the great Pacific Northwest and all its natural beauty to influence the final piece.

Last Thursday Opening Reception, Oct. 29, 6–9 p.m.

Readings from Transformations: Wood/Metal/Stone/Sundry (Raven Chronicles, 2026). Transformations celebrates the discovery of, and connection with, found objects that hide within landscapes of urban decay and nature. Objects that, when revealed, stand as testaments to time, place, and the transformative effects of nature and the elements. Readers include Dan Raphael, Allison Green, Nora Martin, and Scott Martin.

The Portland Art Museum is pleased to present the recently acquired two-channel video installation, Do I Look Like a Lady? (Comedians and Singers), by internationally renowned artist Mickalene Thomas. Thomas’s work addresses themes of beauty and identity expressed through the myriad subjectivities of African-American women. Her multidisciplinary practice reconsiders Black womanhood and desire through a queer lens.

In recent years, Thomas has turned to video production as a way to expand her critical investigation into how mass media and entertainment distill the experiences of African-American women into a handful of archetypes. Do I Look Like a Lady? (Comedians and Singers) presents a dynamic checkerboard of moving image footage featuring African-American actors and singers from across the 20th century: from Jackie “Moms” Mabley to Eartha Kitt, Whoopi Goldberg, Whitney Houston, and several others. The video focuses on their individual voices as they express heartbreaking roles, pointed lyrics, sharp jokes, and strong statements of resistance to the dominant culture. The work is a powerful, and often riotous, reflection on the roles of Black women in the United States.