Cultural District

Norman Huynh, Conductor
Steiger Butte Drum and Singers, Native American ensemble
Members of Portland State University Chamber Choir, Ethan Sperry, Conductor
Oregon Symphony

STRAVINSKY Symphonies of Wind Instruments
Michael GORDON Natural History
Grace MIEDZIAK New work (Fear No Music Emerging Composers Fellow, Oregon Symphony commission)
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21

Inspired by Crater Lake National Park, Michael Gordon’s Natural History weaves Native and symphonic music in this paean to the natural landscape. Plus, hear works by two of classical music’s most intrepid pioneers: Stravinsky’s experimental musical essay on wind and brass sounds, Symphonies of Wind Instruments, and Beethoven’s vivacious and dramatic Symphony No. 1. Native Oregonian Grace Miedziak enhances the program with a new work that celebrates the Pacific Northwest.

Poets Victoria Chang (Tree of Knowledge) and Beth Piatote (distant waters) sit down for a conversation on their recent publications andtheir evocative use of nature throughout their poems. Moderated by writer and editor Alyssa Ogi, this discussion promises a rumination on our shared home, oppressive efforts of erasure, and the art and language that we use to understand our world and ourselves.

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

A poet watches the limbs of a eucalyptus tree get sawed off: the image persists, refracting and recurring across poems of art, language, selfhood, memory, and loss.

Joan Mitchell said, When I talk about love, I mean loving a tree. When I talk about love, I mean loving where a tree used to be.

Men assess the eucalyptus tree growing on the poet’s street; a crane arrives. The sound of a chainsaw rings in the air and branches begin to fall. This tree-cutting haunts the poet and becomes the locus from which the rest of the collection spirals. It refracts across works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Mitchell, and Hilma af Klint, whose painting series lends the collection its title and who becomes a model for engaging with the world. At the core of the collection, the long poem “Eureka” examines the violent 1885 expulsion of Chinese Americans from the eponymous California town. Roving, evocative, and intricate, Tree of Knowledge is rooted in Victoria Chang’s crystalline voice and generous, probing gaze, and by certain images —trees, a hanging figure, a branch, fingertips, a briefcase—that resurface like apparitions.

As a scholar of Native American literature and law, Beth Piatote focuses on the endangerment of Indigenous languages. As an activist, she moves against the current of English-language colonization, working to rescue and revitalize the language of her people. Language, she posits, is an expression of land, a means through which we can travel great distances.

distant water brings the reader into the language of our shared home, North America, revealing a sonic world and grammar governed by rivers, kinship, and ancestral knowledge. “In our homes and homelands,” she writes, “we share the language with the plants and animals and waters and rocks and sky.” Inventive and playful, these poems explore the sounds, structure, and wisdom of the Nez Perce language, illuminating its vitality and capacity to organize relationships to time and place. Braiding aural, linguistic, and spiritual ecologies, distant water conveys an understanding that to be in language is to be in place. To be at home.

As the trailblazers of progressive Irish dance, Trinity Irish Dance Company has spent 35 years redefining the art form through the vision of Founding Artistic Director Mark Howard. This family-friendly program, featuring live music from the company’s own folk-rock band, draws from new and classic Trinity repertoire. Highlights will include the Portland/Northwest premieres of “Pasture Bedtime, Bleating Hearts,” a whimsical work by Portland’s own Ashley Roland and Jamey Hampton of BodyVox; “Séseacht,” choreographed by renowned tap dancer Michelle Dorrance in collaboration with the company; and “The Sash,” choreographed by Mark Howard, Chelsea Hoy, and Stephanie Martinez. Trinity has sold out stages across Europe, Asia, and North America—a tradition kept restlessly alive through their distinct artistry.

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.

Todd McGrain’s original bust of York, the enslaved man who was the only African American member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, was secretly installed on Mount Tabor Park in 2021. It was placed on the vacant pedestal where a statue of Oregonian editor Harvey Scott (1830-1910), a known racist, once stood. The surprising appearance of York, with no artist name attached to the work, is a local example of the protest art being created in the wake of political and social unrest. The unsanctioned installation of the original bust made a significant contribution to the spirited dialogues on American history, systemic inequality, and public monuments happening across the nation.

Made of mere plaster and paint, the original bust sustained damage from several acts of vandalism, inspiring McGrain to come forward and offer a bronze version of the bust to the city. This Spring, the Portland Art Museum debuted the bronze bust of York, temporarily, as a part of the 2026 Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial: The Price of the Ticket. In collaboration with Oregon Contemporary and the City of Portland’s Office of Arts & Culture, Portland State University, a community survey was offered to give Portlanders the opportunity to share their thoughts on where the monument should be placed for the long term.

Join us for a thoughtful discussion around McGrain’s act of protest and York as a historical figure significant to the history of Portland and the wider nation. Led by biennial curator and historian TK Smith, the panelists will include: Todd McGrain, artist of the York portrait; Intisar Abioto, artist and curator who recently curated Black Artists of Oregon at the Portland Art Museum; Eric Fredericksen, the public art administrator of the City of Portland; and Zachary Stocks, historian and executive director of Oregon Black Pioneers.

TK Smith is an award-winning writer, curator, and cultural historian. He has over ten years of experience as an independent curator. Most recently, he served as Curator, Arts of Africa and the African Diaspora, Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University. Previously, Smith served as Assistant Curator: Art of the African Diaspora at the Barnes Foundation. Smith’s writing has been published in exhibition catalogues, academic journals, and periodicals, including Art Papers where he is a contributing editor. He has been a visiting lecturer at numerous academic and cultural institutions, including Cornell University. Smith is a doctoral candidate in the History of American Civilization program at the University of Delaware, where he is completing his dissertation entitled, “Granite, Power, and Piss: The Transformation of a Confederate Symbol.”

Intisar Abioto, born in Memphis, TN, is an explorer-artist working in dance, writing, photography, and curation. In long-form projects encompassing the visual, folkloric, documentary, and performing arts, her works consider the breath/ breadth of people of African descent against the expanse of their storied, imaginative, and geographic landscapes. She has produced The People Could Fly Project and The Black Portlanders, among others. In 2017 she began original research on the history and presence of Black artists in Oregon which led to the curation of the 2023 Black Artists of Oregon exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. Black Artists of Oregon: Continuum, an accompanying exhibition catalogue is forthcoming in 2026.

Eric Fredericksen is the public art administrator of the City of Portland, where he oversees the management of the City’s 1,700-piece collection and guides the Percent for Art program. From 2017 to 2025 he led the public art program at the City of Vancouver, BC, with a focus on artist-led approaches to public art: extending open invitations for artists to propose ideas outside the limits of a predetermined site, theme, or medium. He also worked with public and private partners to dramatically increase the visibility and voice of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations on their unceded territories through art commissions in traditional and contemporary forms. He was previously the Waterfront Art Program Manager for the City of Seattle, where he commissioned significant public artworks by Ann Hamilton, Qwalsius – Shaun Peterson, Norie Sato, Buster Simpson, Oscar Tuazon, and Stephen Vitiello. As the founding director of Western Bridge, Seattle, he organized exhibitions and commissions from 2004 to 2012, and he began his career as a writer and editor at Architecture magazine and The Stranger. As an independent curator, he has curated exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Or Gallery, and Artspeak, all in Vancouver; the Noorderzon Festival, Groningen, the Netherlands; and Open Satellite, Bellevue, Washington.

Born in 1961, artist Todd McGrain’s early career as a sculptor involved apprenticing in bronze casting facilities, where he gained hands-on experience assisting prominent sculptors of the previous generation. In 1996, McGrain received a Guggenheim Fellowship, enabling him to study major art collections across the United States and Europe, with a focus on Italian Renaissance art. In 2000, his focus shifted to creating public memorials for bird species that have become extinct in the modern era, permanently installed at sites of historical significance to each species. This ongoing project has been widely exhibited at art centers, galleries, and public gardens, including the Smithsonian Institution, Cornell University, and Stanford University.

Zachary Stocks is a public historian, interpreter, and the Executive Director of Oregon Black Pioneers. Zachary previously served as Program Director of Historical Seaport and Visitor Services Manager of Northwest African American Museum. He is a former intern of Colonial Williamsburg and Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and a former seasonal Park Ranger at Lewis & Clark National Historical Park. He holds a BA in History from the College of William & Mary with a certificate in Public History from the National Institute for American History and Democracy, and an MA in Museology from the University of Washington. Zachary is a 2025 graduate of the prestigious History Leadership Institute, sponsored by the American Association of State and Local History. Zachary lives in Astoria.

• Exhibitions Todd McGrain: Debut of York General accessibility

  Mar 31, 2026 – Jan 31, 2027

  1219 SW Park Ave

The theme for this year's fall concert is kaeru. In Japanese, kaeru has multiple meanings: to return home, to transform and also…frog. The performance will include pieces inspired by the Pacific Northwest, the city of Portland and the idea of home. Our fall concert is also when we bring out THE BIG DRUMS.

Saturday, November 14 at 7:00 pm
Sunday, November 15 at 2:00 pm

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit portlandtaiko.org.

Alicia Jo Rabins reads from her new memoir When We’re Born We Forget Everythingat Portland Art Museum in the Asian Art gallery (Level 1, Room 108), paired with Watanabe Sadao, Adam and Eve.

From the creator of the internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter project Girls in Trouble, a memoir following her journey from a secular Jewish childhood to becoming a modern queer woman owning ancient teachings and finding her own meanings in them, refracted through feminist interpretations of the lives of Biblical women.

As a self-described ‘90s suburban high school weirdo, Alicia Jo Rabins spent her time practicing violin and smoking cigarettes behind the mall while secretly dreaming of setting out on a spiritual quest no one around her seemed to understand. She often found herself drawn to the more ritualistic and rigorous Judaism that her parents had abandoned to assimilate and “become American.” In college, a chance meeting led her on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to study rabbinical texts (and play bluegrass fiddle on the street for cash). But that two years of immersing herself in traditional observance was only the start of a journey full of twists and turns.

When We’re Born We Forget Everything follows Alicia’s relentless, often embarrassing, sometimes enlightening search for the sacred in everyday life as she tours America playing with a klezmer-punk band, falls in and out of love, scrapes through the initiations of motherhood, and witnesses the beauty—and danger—of mysticism. Rabins braids this personal narrative with the hidden stories of biblical women, uncovering a path of queer identity, feminist awakening, and spiritual self-invention. This lyrical, searching memoir is a meditation on longing, lineage, and what it takes to find meaning in a fractured world.

“Alicia Jo Rabins writes as if she’s in conversation with the divine itself. . . .This isn’t merely a book to be read—it’s a scripture for the searching heart, a reminder that the border between the human and the holy is, and always has been, porous.”
—Reza Aslan, author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

S. A. Cosby’s All the Sinners Bleed meets Percival Everett’s Erasure in this literary thriller following the grandson of a famous Black actress from the 1920s to the 1940s, now a filmmaker himself, who returns to his grandmother’s cabin retreat in the California mountains only to encounter the legacy of her rage born in Old Hollywood. Interviewed by Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya (Helen House).

Award-winning author Tananarive Due returns with the follow-up to the multi-award-winning The Reformatory in this generational novel of rage. With flashbacks to Johnny’s grandmother—who brushed shoulders with giants like Lena Horne, Clark Gable, and Hattie McDaniel—this novel explores three generations, beginning with Mazelle Washington’s life as a young actress. Fifty years after Mazelle’s death, Johnny will discover the secret she kept and nurtured since she was a child, when she had a dark wish come true.

A monster lurks outside Mazywood, hidden for generations, and Johnny brought his family to its hunting grounds.

Jake Shimabukuro is a world-renowned ukulele virtuoso whose groundbreaking artistry has redefined the instrument for the 21st century. Hailed as the “Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele,” Shimabukuro has captivated audiences across the globe with his masterful technique, innovative spirit, and deeply expressive performances that seamlessly blend elements of jazz, rock, classical, blues, folk, and traditional Hawaiian music.

Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, Jake began playing the ukulele at age four, quickly developing a unique style that pushed the instrument far beyond its traditional boundaries. He first gained international recognition after his jaw-dropping rendition of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” went viral, introducing millions to the ukulele’s untapped potential.

Over the course of his career, Shimabukuro has released numerous acclaimed albums, collaborated with an array of legendary artists—including Bette Midler, Yo-Yo Ma, Jimmy Buffett, Ziggy Marley, and Mick Fleetwood—and performed everywhere from the Sydney Opera House to the Hollywood Bowl and the Kennedy Center. His most recent projects showcase both his dazzling technical command and his growing focus on emotional storytelling through music.

Beyond the stage, Jake is a passionate advocate for music education and community outreach, frequently performing at schools and benefit concerts to inspire the next generation of musicians. Whether playing an intimate solo show or headlining with a full band, Shimabukuro continues to prove that the ukulele is an instrument of infinite possibilities—one that speaks a universal language of joy, connection, and hope.

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

Meet people who like doing the things you like to do!

Come meet some new people while exploring Frybread Fest at Director Park, a celebration of Native American culture, food, and music. Enjoy the festivities, discover something new, and maybe make a connection along the way! The festival is free to attend with food available to purchase.

We'll start on the corner of Yamhill and Park across from Nordstroms. If you're late, check in on the app and use our selfies to find us. Meetsies at 11am, festival runs until 7pm.

All generations of singles welcome who want to meet some new people, hear some tunes, and maybe find a spark.

How it works:

The app is your guide to the event.

Download the Meetsies app to register for the event. Your Meetup RSVP does not register you and more people register than RSVP. Check your app store or find the download link at meetsies.com.

Create a profile and use the app to check in with a selfie when you arrive.

When you've met someone, exchange QR codes to unlock their profile. At the end of the night, you'll have a chance to connect safely in the app.

The Meetsies app is free for your first 30 days, then $4.99/month. Meetsies events are included with your subscription. Any food, drinks, or costs associated with the venue are on you.

Already have the app? Make sure you've downloaded our latest update. We've made lots of amazing changes to make the event more fun!! More info at meetsies.com

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.

Join us for a talk with Dr. Nazanin Hedayat Munroe, Mary Ausplund Tooze Endowed Visiting Professor of Islamic + Ancient Art!

From luxury silks to patched wool, dress across the early modern Islamic world communicated the inner and outer states of its wearers through a shared language of regional and religious codes. In this lecture, Dr. Munroe examines how clothing and textiles expressed social status, political allegiance, spiritual devotion, and personal taste.

Nazanin Hedayat Munroe is Director of Textiles and Associate Professor of Fashion at City University of New York. An artist and art historian, she is author of several books and articles, including Sufi Lovers, Safavid Silks and Early Modern Identity (Amsterdam University Press, 2023/Routledge, 2025), winner of the R.L. Shep Award from Textile Society of America.

This talk is made possible by the generous support of the Mary Ausplund Tooze Endowed Visiting Professor of Islamic & Ancient Art fund.

Image: Man's Robe (Jama) with Poppies, 17th Century (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 29.135)

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.

In Tenderhead, Lisa Jarrett weaves together her interest in migration and tracing lost familial histories to Beauty Supply stores and salons—critical intersections of Black life. The artist’s first solo museum exhibition in Oregon features new works and site-responsive installations that activate the abundant patterns, colors, images and textures found at the Beauty Supply. She says, “The Beauty Supply is my art supply store.” It is a site where she accesses physical materials as well as the less tangible memories activated by these materials, so important to her work.

Jarrett suggests that the Beauty Supply, salon, and kitchen sink are places undeniably linked to migration and diaspora as surrogate homelands. The geographic locations, aesthetics, layout, products, customers, and economies of the Beauty Supply locate it firmly in this “in-between” place, setting it apart as a complicated site of joy, nostalgia, desire, and unmet need. Jarrett investigates how these relatively mundane places and objects function as dynamic living archives in Black communities and families that accompany us from generation to generation. Places like the Beauty Supply (as well as the people, objects, ideas, and experiences contained therein) are the foundation of the work in this exhibition. Tenderhead refers to a question that she (and many others) vividly remember being asked while getting their hair done as children: “Are you tenderheaded?” Jarrett says, “It’s a loaded question,” and this exhibition offers windows into her reply.

🌍 The Enduring Color Line in South Africa

Join us for a Black Bag Lecture with Dr. Trevor Makhetha, who will share his research on race relations in post-apartheid South Africa, expanding upon W. E. B. Du Bois’ theory of the color line.

📅 Tuesday, November 10
⏰ 12:40–1:30 PM
📍 Pan-African Commons | Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 236
💻 Join online: https://pdx.zoom.us/j/87668392970

Free and open to the public! Refreshments will be served. Masks suggested.

Presented by the Center for Black Studies, PSU Pan-African Commons, and the Black Studies Department.

Join PSU professor and violinist Tomás Cotik and pianist Shinmyung Rho for an evening celebrating some of the most captivating works in the French violin repertoire. The program features the elegance and imagination of Claude Debussy’s Violin Sonata, the lyrical charm of Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne and Cortège, the expressive intensity of Francis Poulenc’s Violin Sonata, and two beloved works by Maurice Ravel: the Violin Sonata No. 2 and the dazzling virtuoso showpiece Tzigane. Spanning the late Romantic and early modern eras, these works reveal the remarkable palette of colors, textures, and emotions that characterizes French music, showcasing its refinement, imagination, and brilliance.

Learn more about Portland State University School of Music & Theater's Strings area.

🌍 The Enduring Color Line in South Africa

Join us for a Black Bag Lecture with Dr. Trevor Makhetha, who will share his research on race relations in post-apartheid South Africa, expanding upon W. E. B. Du Bois’ theory of the color line.

📅 Tuesday, November 10
⏰ 12:40–1:30 PM
📍 Pan-African Commons | Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 236
💻 Join online: https://pdx.zoom.us/j/87668392970

Free and open to the public! Refreshments will be served. Masks suggested.

Presented by the Center for Black Studies, PSU Pan-African Commons, and the Black Studies Department.

In Buddhist thought, the Tree of Life is a symbol of awakening, wisdom, and the interconnectedness of all life. Its roots reach deep into the earth while its branches extend toward the sky, reminding us that each generation grows from those that came before and that our lives are shaped by the communities and traditions that sustain us.

Opening the PSU Choirs' concert season, "Tree of Life" explores these themes through music that spans continents and centuries. Performed by the PSU Chamber Choir, Rose Choir and Thorn Choir, the program pairs cherished works from the Classical choral tradition with music by a new generation of Southeast Asian composers. At its center is Indonesian composer Bagus Utomo's Gayatri, inspired by the legendary queen whose wisdom and spiritual devotion remain an enduring part of Indonesian cultural heritage. The concert also features works by Budi Susanto Yohanes, Ily Matthew Maniano and Matthew Lyon Hazzard. Several of these pieces will be recorded later this year by the internationally acclaimed PSU Chamber Choir at Skywalker Sound, offering audiences an opportunity to hear this music before it is released.

This concert will be performed twice: November 20 at 7:30 PM and Sunday, November 22 at 4:00 PM.

View the full 2026-2027 Choir Season, Tree of Life.

Learn more about the Portland State University School of Music & Theater Choirs.

Diwali, “the festival of lights,” is a holiday celebrated all across India. In collaboration with the Indian-American community, NWCT is excited to bring the festivities back to The Judy. Create a beautiful rangoli, make a lantern, learn a diya (lamp) dance, and enjoy savory and sweet Indian treats.

Free to attend with a suggested donation of $10 per family.

RSVPs are strongly encouraged.
All ages welcome.

The theme for this year's fall concert is kaeru. In Japanese, kaeru has multiple meanings: to return home, to transform and also…frog. The performance will include pieces inspired by the Pacific Northwest, the city of Portland and the idea of home. Our fall concert is also when we bring out THE BIG DRUMS.

Saturday, November 14 at 7:00 pm
Sunday, November 15 at 2:00 pm

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit portlandtaiko.org.

The ancient Greeks loved wall murals and small portable paintings, but most of these have been lost over time. Instead, their art is best known from objects such as ceramic pots and vessels, excavated from rubbish heaps and graves. These ordinary household wares were produced in vast quantity, and some were even decorated by artists of extraordinary talent. Those that survive, often reconstructed from shards, continue to inspire artists and all of us with the stories and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. The stories range from the labors of Herakles to the poet Orpheus, and range in time from Greek antiquity to the age of Pablo Picasso. Here, we can see how later artists have interpreted those eternally relevant stories and themes for their own generations.

'Who can be a Japanese Emperor?: Japan's Insistence on Male-Line Succession'
A Presentation by Prof. Thomas Naruse, Kokushikan University
Hosted by the Center for Japanese Studies

　The Japanese imperial system has been facing a declining number of imperial family members. Under the current system, only male members of imperial family are eligible for succession. However, at present, there is only one male member under the age of 50. While there are 5 female members under 50 years old, since current legislation stipulates that female members leave the imperial family upon their marriage, there are concerns about the shrinking number of imperial family members.

　Regarding this situation, the Japanese Diet and government are considering countermeasures. While there is strong public support for allowing a female emperor, the Diet and government continue to insist on succession through the male-line. As of June 2026, the government is drafting amendments for Imperial House Law to deal with the situation, but the policy of maintaining male-line succession remains unchanged.

　In this lecture, Prof. Naruse will examine why the Japanese Diet and government continue to adhere to male-line succession and what lies behind this policy. Beginning with the history of the emperor system and the rules governing imperial succession, he will discuss the current challenges facing the imperial system and the measures proposed to address them, how and why the Japanese Diet and government insist on male-line so strongly.

12:45 PM, Thursday, November 12, 2026
Fariborz Maseeh Hall Room 333
Free and Open to the Public
Please use the Broadway Entrance

For more information on the Center for Japanese Studies and our upcoming events, please visit: https://www.pdx.edu/japanese-studies

This installation celebrates prints by Black artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including many recent acquisitions shown for the first time at the Portland Art Museum. The work offers stories of the Black experience in the United States, allowing visitors to trace serious issues as brutal labor practices, as in Kara Walker’s Cotton, and lynching, in Hale Woodruff’s harrowing By Parties Unknown, as well as leisure and joy, evident in the bathers of Emma Amos and Derrick Adams.

Artistic production is another throughline. Viewers can trace the broad influence of Robert Blackburn, the founder of the influential Blackburn Print Workshop, who taught Romare Bearden, among others. Ron Adams honors Blackburn with a portrait. Although working across various printmaking media, including etching, lithography, and screen printing, the artists share a commitment to graphic expression and bearing witness to the breadth of Black representation in America.

The inaugural exhibition in the heart of the Rothko Pavilion speaks to the strong sense of place experienced through one's connection to the natural environment. Drawn from the Asian, Native American, Northwest, and Modern and Contemporary Art collections, Forming Nature, Nature Formed features artworks in glass, clay, metal, neon, and wood that speak to the ways artists from many cultural backgrounds interpret encounters with the natural world in sculptural form. Some works reflect close observation and representation of leaves, insects, hives, and other surrounding elements. Others become abstract expressions of energy inspired by the dynamic forces around and within us. A poetic neon text by Marie Watt serves to ground us in contemplation of the kinship with the environment of the Pacific Northwest and the creatures who inhabit this space alongside them.

As the trailblazers of progressive Irish dance, Trinity Irish Dance Company has spent 35 years redefining the art form through the vision of Founding Artistic Director Mark Howard. This family-friendly program, featuring live music from the company’s own folk-rock band, draws from new and classic Trinity repertoire. Highlights will include the Portland/Northwest premieres of “Pasture Bedtime, Bleating Hearts,” a whimsical work by Portland’s own Ashley Roland and Jamey Hampton of BodyVox; “Séseacht,” choreographed by renowned tap dancer Michelle Dorrance in collaboration with the company; and “The Sash,” choreographed by Mark Howard, Chelsea Hoy, and Stephanie Martinez. Trinity has sold out stages across Europe, Asia, and North America — a tradition kept restlessly alive through their distinct artistry.

Portland Art Museum celebrates the Deaf Community with Art in ASL on the 3rd Sunday of every month. Deaf Community members and their companions enjoy complimentary admission all day and are invited to participate in guided Look with Me sessions in the galleries between 12-3pm. Visitors of all ages are welcome.

Some Look with Me sessions will be led in ASL and some will be led in English. All sessions will have interpretation. Look for signs in the galleries to find locations of each session.

Join us for slow looking sessions from 12-3 pm then come to the Finley Studio for artmaking and social time from 3-5 pm.

Look With Me does not require special tickets. Museum tickets can be purchased online or at the box office.

Accessibility:
The museum galleries are wheelchair, mobility device, and stroller accessible. Complimentary stools, folding chairs, manual wheelchairs, and assistive technology are available upon request. All museum accessibility info is available here. Please contact us with any additional access needs at [email protected] or leave a videophone message at 503-420-3169.

Art in ASL is presented in partnership with the Deaf Look Club, a program of Bridge City Montessori.

Carmen Ripollés, art historian, author and professor of art history at Portland State University, discusses her recent book, Josefa de Óbidos, which explores the life and work of one of the most influential artists of the Portuguese Baroque. Drawing on years of research, Ripollés reexamines Josefa de Óbidos' remarkable career, revealing how she achieved extraordinary artistic and professional success in the 17th century while challenging traditional assumptions about women artists. The talk will offer new perspectives on Baroque art, women's history, and the enduring legacy of an artist whose work continues to reshape the understanding of the early modern Iberian world.

Experience a moving coming-of-age story about friendship, identity, and finding your place in a changing world.

Set in the South Korean port city of Incheon, Take Care of My Cat follows five young women navigating life after graduation as their friendships are tested by different dreams, opportunities, and social expectations.

Directed by Jeong Jae-eun, this acclaimed film offers a heartfelt and insightful look at young adulthood, class, and the challenges of growing up in a rapidly changing society.

🌏 Join us for a special screening celebrating Korean cinema and storytelling!

🎥 Screening Dates & Times

• Friday, November 20: 6:00 PM & 8:30 PM
• Saturday, November 21: 6:00 PM & 8:30 PM
• Sunday, November 22: 3:00 PM

Shifting the Narrative: 21st Century Acquisitions highlights Native American art gifts and purchases since the year 2000 at the Portland Art Museum. This broad selection showcases the diversity of the collection including historical works that represent traditional practices, as well as media such as painting, sculpture, printmaking and more. Taking cues from the work itself, the exhibition is organized by theme and media, including sections highlighting basketry, fashion, and photography. Although the collection has long been recognized for its historical works from the Northwest Coast, Plains, and Western Oregon, this exhibition shifts the narrative to a wider array of Native expression, with an emphasis on the present.

The exhibition also includes a section that traces the history of the collection from the first acquisitions of Native American art in 1918 to the present. The breadth of the program and its relationship to communities of artists, visitors, students and Native people will also be explored. As we begin to imagine the future permanent collections galleries, Shifting the Narrative honors our past and welcomes a future where tradition, innovation, and community are celebrated.

Black Arts PDX is a display of ephemera and an extended documentary trailer that foregrounds the history of the Black visual arts community in Northeast Portland. Curated by Dr. Kiara Hill, this rotating installation sheds light on the practices of key figures who were instrumental in shaping the perception of Black arts and culture in Portland. Whether utilitarian or decorative, these materials highlight ways Black artists sought to beautify the city and utilize their technical skills to address the needs of Black people. Black Arts PDX stems from a collaboration between Dr. Hill and Cultural Bearers Archive, Inc., on an archival project dedicated to preserving the unique lived experiences of Black artists and cultural workers in Portland.

CREATE SPACE is an interactive environment within the Black Art & Experiences (BAE) galleries that invites visitors to slow down, reflect, and respond. Designed as a rest area, reading room, art studio, and community gathering space, it supports connection, creativity, and dialogue. Through artist-led programs, hands-on activities, and quiet areas for reading or reflection, visitors can engage with the Black Art and Experiences gallery in a personal, generative way. This first year, CREATE SPACE is activated alongside Conductions: Black Imaginings II, which centers Black performance art and its archives. Both spaces emphasize process — research, writing, improvisation, and experimentation — as essential to the creative journey.

Drawing on nearly two decades of collective learning with Tribal communities across Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Manipur, and Meghalaya, Dr. Harshit Sosan Lakra shares experiences of housing, cultural landscapes, community aspirations, and environmental stewardship. Through stories of co-designing homes, reimagining community spaces, sustaining cultural memories, and connecting communities with classrooms, the talk engages how communities, researchers, students, and planners learn and act together. These collective experiences highlight relationships of respect, care, and reciprocity, offering insights into community engagement, collaborative planning, and culturally grounded approaches to shaping our shared futures.

Portland State University is honored to host the Oregon Tribal Language Speaker Series. Our tribal partners will present their language program’s history, revitalization efforts, and future projects.

Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

Justine Flynn is a dedicated citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and currently serves as the School Administrator for the Shawash-iliʔi Skul. Justine has been an active member of the community of Grand Ronde her entire life and grew up participating in tribal activities and program since preschool. As a strong advocate for place-based learning and immersive language education, Justine is passionate about supporting and advocating for tribal students. She works hard to support the staff within her program to create an education environment that responds to families and students while also centering language and culture as the first priority. Justine holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Oregon in Race and Ethnic Studies, a Master’s Degree in Elementary Teaching, and a graduate certificate in Indigenous Educational Leadership from Kansas State University.

Join us for a lecture by Jordan Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design faculty member Carmen Ripollés, Professor of Art History, for a talk on her book, Josefa de Óbidos, which explores the life and work of one of the most influential artists of the Portuguese Baroque.

Drawing on years of research, Ripollés reexamines Josefa de Óbidos' remarkable career, revealing how she achieved extraordinary artistic and professional success in the 17th century while challenging traditional assumptions about women artists. The talk will offer new perspectives on Baroque art, women's history, and the enduring legacy of an artist whose work continues to reshape our understanding of the early modern Iberian world.

Portland State University is honored to host the Oregon Tribal Language Speaker Series. Our tribal partners will present their language program’s history, revitalization efforts, and future projects.

Cowlitz Indian Tribe

Maiya Osife is the Language Program Manager for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and an enrolled member of the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians. She attended Portland State University from 2014 to 2018, where she studied Social Science with a minor in Indigenous Nations Studies. With over a decade of experience supporting Indigenous communities and more than six years leading Tribal language revitalization initiatives, her work today focuses on community-centered language planning, curriculum development, digital accessibility, youth and family engagement, and sustainable approaches to Indigenous language transmission. Maiya has led language revitalization programs in both Southern Paiute and Cowlitz Coast Salish communities, emphasizing practical strategies that strengthen language use in everyday life.

Esther Smithlin is the Language Technician with the Cowlitz Language Program and is an enrolled member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. She has been working for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe’s language program for one year and previously served the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe as a carver and graphic designer. Combining her background in graphic design, Salish carving, and Indigenous language learning, she supports language revitalization through educational resource development, language documentation, community instruction, and cultural engagement. Esther contributes to archival restoration projects, curriculum development, and the creation of language-learning materials that help increase community access to Cowlitz language and culture.

Join PSU professor and violinist Tomás Cotik and pianist Shinmyung Rho for an evening celebrating some of the most captivating works in the French violin repertoire. The program features the elegance and imagination of Claude Debussy’s Violin Sonata, the lyrical charm of Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne and Cortège, the expressive intensity of Francis Poulenc’s Violin Sonata, and two beloved works by Maurice Ravel: the Violin Sonata No. 2 and the dazzling virtuoso showpiece Tzigane. Spanning the late Romantic and early modern eras, these works reveal the remarkable palette of colors, textures, and emotions that characterizes French music, showcasing its refinement, imagination, and brilliance.

Learn more about Portland State University School of Music & Theater's Strings area.

Todd McGrain’s original bust of York, the enslaved man who was the only African American member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, was secretly installed on Mount Tabor Park in 2021. It was placed on the vacant pedestal where a statue of Oregonian editor Harvey Scott (1830-1910), a known racist, once stood. The surprising appearance of York, with no artist name attached to the work, is a local example of the protest art being created in the wake of political and social unrest. The unsanctioned installation of the original bust made a significant contribution to the spirited dialogues on American history, systemic inequality, and public monuments happening across the nation.

Made of mere plaster and paint, the original bust sustained damage from several acts of vandalism, prompting McGrain to come forward and offer the city a bronze version of the bust. This Spring, the Portland Art Museum debuted the bronze bust of York, temporarily, as a part of the 2026 Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial: The Price of the Ticket. In collaboration with Oregon Contemporary and the City of Portland’s Office of Arts and Culture, Portland State University conducted a community survey to give Portlanders the opportunity to share their thoughts on where the monument should be placed for the long term.

Join a thoughtful discussion about McGrain’s act of protest and York as a historical figure significant to Portland's history and the wider nation. Led by biennial curator and historian TK Smith, the panelists will include: Todd McGrain, artist of the York portrait; Intisar Abioto, artist and curator who recently curated Black Artists of Oregon at the Portland Art Museum; Eric Fredericksen, the public art administrator of the City of Portland; and Zachary Stocks, historian and executive director of Oregon Black Pioneers.

Rick Bartow (1946–2016) was an artist of deep complexity, and his work reflects a complicated, passionate person who still found space for lightness and humor. Bartow’s gift as a visual storyteller takes the viewer on a narrative journey: his self-portraits tell stories of pain, memory, and self-discovery; others reflect on his Wiyot identity, Native history and culture; and his portrayals of beings who walk on four legs, swim, or fly deftly capture their essence.

This exhibition provides a glimpse into Rick Bartow’s extensive body of work, including paintings, works on paper, mixed-media sculpture, and his less well-known work as a musician. Short films produced by the Bartow Trusts are included to demonstrate his continuing legacy and influence within his home community.

The Museum’s collection of work by Bartow only scratches the surface of an artist recognized as an iconic Native American, Oregon, and Northwest artist. PAM is grateful for generous loans from local collectors, planned gifts, and the Bartow Trusts.