Weekly (p)reviews: Momentum, deconstructed
Robert Ham
November 30, 2021
Machado Mijiga levels up and gets in the grooves; Squid builds a confusing subgenre hedge maze
Machado Mijiga levels up and gets in the grooves; Squid builds a confusing subgenre hedge maze
The veteran dancer and choreographer’s first in a series of three live performances at Performance Works Northwest challenges traditional perspectives on identity and time.
Immersive Van Gogh exhibits are all the rage in 2021. What do they offer viewers?
The director will be at a Clinton Street screening to talk about his star-crossed (and star-studded) 1979 movie, whose perilous making is a tale unto itself.
Art exhibitions, gallery shows, and other not-to-miss art events in December.
Indigenous Resilience: Steph Littlebird dives into cultural resources management with David Harrelson.
The Oregon author talks about his love for noir, his writing process, and his fondness for Sam Shepard and Myrna Loy.
DramaWatch Weekly: The beloved actor, director, and leader of CoHo Productions died Saturday after a battle with lymphoma.
Stephen Sondheim, who changed the face of Broadway, has died at 91; Esperanza Spalding and five other Oregon-linked artists score Grammy nominations.
As the holiday season begins, a time to remember, a time for thanks, a time for art and song.
The moving, imaginative film “Stories of Oceania” is the centerpiece of MediaRites and Theatre Diaspora’s Oceania Celebration.
Oregon Chorale’s ambitious array; caroling with Oregon Repertory Singers and Jonas Nordwall; a variety of Messiahs with Rogue Valley Chorale, Vancouver Master Chorale, Portland Baroque Orchestra, PSU Chamber Choir with the Oregon Symphony
Mia Pixley brings her cello to Newmark Theatre; James Powers jams his birthday at The 1905; HANiF dishes disses at Georgie’s
“OFFAL,” Simone Fischer’s exhibition at Astoria Visual Arts, offers a meditation on consumption and industrial farming.
Lush, lively, and luxuriant, Ridley Scott’s high-fashion tale walks a tightrope between campy nighttime soap and insightful true-crime drama with nary a wobble.
Dmae Lo Roberts takes you on an audio tour of the immersive Van Gogh show and talks with one of its art historians and curators.
Vlatkovic, performing with CMNW co-directors Gloria Chien and Soovin Kim, gets a five-minute standing ovation.
From Brahms to the Eagles, one of Portland’s most versatile choral composers explains her multifaceted influences and methods.
“How to Be Golden: Lessons We Can Learn From Betty White” chronicles the actor’s life and allure as she approaches her 100th birthday.
Anya Roberts-Toney’s new show “If She Floats” takes on witches and the art historical canon.
A festival by and for Asian American/Pacific Islanders. Music for the holidays. Lighting the theatrical Fuse. 9,000 years of Oregon art. Wrapping up the Book Fest.
An elaborate surprise party celebrates Zagelow’s three decades as the music group’s top administrator – and the adventurous programs she’s brought in.
Most of the films made before 1950 are lost. A tenacious group is working to rediscover them, and bring them back to public view.
Festival authors, science fiction, and cookbooks: A look at what visitors to last week’s festival had tucked under their arms.
Portland’s LGBTQ theater ensemble gets a new home, a new season, and a new way of thinking about how it does business.
The Oregon ArtsWatch guide to giving musicians your money
The jazz pianist and writer of such wry and well-loved songs as “My Attorney Bernie” and “I’m Hip” had lived in Portland since 1986.
The Shaun Keylock Company returns to the stage after two years to perform the hits of Gregg Bielemeier, a beloved Portland choreographer.
Bach Cantata Choir welcomes soloists to stage for their first live concert offering of 2021. At 2 p.m. on Nov. 21 at Rose City Park Presbyterian Church, four stellar soloists–all familiar Northwest vocal artists–will mix and match their talents to offer some
Baroness hits the road; Bewitcher comes home; Soccer Mommy and IDLES and their guitar techs
The 60-plus pieces in the Salem show include work by Elizabeth Conrad Hickox, Andrew McDuffie Vincent, Carl Hall, April Waters, and Henk Pander.
The festival, scaled back due to COVID, is deemed a success by both Literary Arts organizers and visitors with arms full of books.
The Portland painter’s historical revisions at Froelick Gallery upend the view of gender in Western art. Also at Froelick: Michael Schultheis’s explosions of paint.
As the holiday hip hop tour heads to Portland, rap pioneer and show MC Kurtis Blow talks about his career, his faith, and his heart transplant.
The three writers, participating in a live virtual event from Annie Bloom’s Books, explore topics ranging from the pandemic, to immigration, to climate change.
Theatrical barbecue, skeleton piano, down on the sheep farm, Troubles in Belfast, schools & Congress, bustle of books, a galaxy far far away.
Marc Mohan at the movies: Branagh recalls his childhood during the Troubles; a political bio puts things in and leaves things out; some short streaming gems.
This week at the theater: Chewing over the issues in Portland Playhouse’s prism on race and language; “Mean Girls” and 600 Highwaymen hit town; last chances & more.
Composer and pianist Wright explains how she and her students are fighting climate change using instruments made from trash
Generations meet and play when the Keylock company’s young dancers take on the witty choreography of Oregon legend Bielemeier, 71.
Carrying on a tradition launched 17 years ago, the Salem choir opens its 37th season with a salute.
The bellwether: In Maryhill Museum’s second collaborative art project along a 220-mile stretch of the Columbia River – this one by fiber artists – sheep and their wool lead the way.
The bill, which would redress decades of inequality in arts access, has broad support but faces a long journey in Congress.
push/FOLD’s festival drew national and international contemporary-dance ideas from Brooklyn to New Jersey to Portland to L.A. to the Dominican Republic and Taiwan.
Mohammed Murshed’s exhibition is a “love letter” to his native Yemen exploring memory, violence, and hope.
The star of the rapid-fire one-man show coming Nov. 14 to Portland’s Newmark Theatre talks in an ArtsWatch Q&A about the method behind his miraculous madness.
If you’re a writer, do things look different here? Dao Strom, J.C. Geiger, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., Amelia Díaz Ettinger, Laura Moulton, Ben Hodgson, Teresa K. Miller, and Rene Denfeld weigh in.
Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Erdrich will headline the Nov. 13 in-person festival, put on by Literary Arts, preceded by virtual events featuring more than 100 writers.
Carmona’s joyful and exuberant sculptures are inspired by memories of his childhood home in Puerto Rico.
A new month stirs up a storm of cultural activity, from a big book fest to galleries to stage, screen, and sound.
Give to our GROW FUND.