Mona and the Mainframe
K.B. Dixon
December 3, 2023
What’s in that famous smile? Algorithmically, some computer scientists say, you can break it down to percentages of emotion. But, really, now: Does that make sense?
What’s in that famous smile? Algorithmically, some computer scientists say, you can break it down to percentages of emotion. But, really, now: Does that make sense?
Through annual residencies in local schools, Salem native Caitlin Lynch and fellow artists give music students firsthand experience of how professional musicians collaborate to create a performance.
Settle into winter with a holiday book fair, a new cookbook from a Northwest Jewish kitchen, an author appearance by Henry Winkler, and a solstice story time.
The much anticipated finale of PICA’s “Time-Released” programming is the work of Andrew Tay and Stephen Thompson. The performance engages with representations of Asian identity with a sense of play, recognition and, ultimately, reclamation.
Portland Center Stage sinks its teeth into a “Dracula” with feminist flair. Plus: It’s open (holiday) season with a musical “Wonderful Life,” a visit to Whoville, a comic Christmas tea.
Carols old and new, Gospels and Winterfests, Bach and Menotti, and more.
Akiho’s “Sculptures” and Spalding’s collaboration with Fred Hersch received multiple nominations, Tham has been selected for an international conductor competition, and Cotik has unveiled a prototype of his new interdisciplinary media project.
Punk, metal, jazz, and the Oregon School of Composition–just in time for the last Fee Free Friday of 2023.
The films of underground pioneers George and Mike Kuchar will be shown as part of the Clinton Street Theater’s Kuchar Festival December 4-9.
Dmae Lo Roberts talks in her new podcast with Jerry Foster, leader of the Black theater company PassinArt, about staging Langston Hughes’ gospel musical version of the Nativity story.
For 10 years, Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett have presented curated selections from lost or discarded VHS tapes to sold-out crowds. They share their latest highlights this weekend at the Hollywood Theatre.
The five-time Oregon Book Award winner exhibits his critical literary skills and extensive research in a sweeping biography of the “Lonesome Dove” author.
Four “Messiahs,” choirs and harps, Northwest composers, and more.
The Pulitzer-winning opera by Rhiannon Giddens & Michael Abels makes its way across the country.
Two years after the death of founder Ian Mouser, MVM continues to provide education and opportunities for young musicians.
More nuts than you can crack a whip at, classical Indian dance, contemporary premieres, the return of “ZooZoo,” five women choreographers at NW Dance Project – and even a “NOT-Cracker.”
The painter, who lost everything in a fire two years ago, will present his performance piece on the Earth and environment Dec. 3 during a Unitarian service in Newport.
Bobby Bermea: The talented actor Lester Purry, who’s created a bond with Portland Playhouse, is back in town and creating his own kind of skinflint in the Playhouse’s “A Christmas Carol.”
For 16 years, the center has provided cultural programs – everything from ceramics to concerts to yoga – out of the historic Delake School, but it hasn’t been easy.
As the giving season moves into high gear, the state’s innovative tax credit system allows you to double the impact of your donations to nonprofit cultural groups.
At the Portland Art Museum, a shining show of fashion from Africa, an energetic celebration of Black artists that feels like the start of a much bigger picture – and a third show, “Throughlines,” that mixes and matches from the museum collections.
K.B. Dixon’s cultural-portrait series continues with a “special edition” featuring trailblazing women artists Lucinda Parker, Judy Cooke, Phyllis Yes, Sherrie Wolf, and Laura Ross-Paul.
21ten’s “Taking Care of Animals” is a big show in a small space. Plus: a snowflurry of holiday shows, from Scrooge to Rudolph to “Black Nativity” and more.
Art on the Road: In Los Angeles, links to past and present, peace and war in the art of William Blake and Arthur Tress
Creating a bigger table for a more sustaining and convivial feast.
Nicolas Cage plays a biology professor who starts appearing in people’s dreams, Barry Keoghan stars in Emerald Fennell’s sophomore feature, and Joaquin Phoenix is Napoleon in Ridley Scott’s latest historical epic.
The bassist (en route to Curtis Institute of Music) and guest conductor (on loan from Metropolitan Youth Symphony) presented a shining concert curated by late PCO director Yaacov Bergman.
Thirty years after his death, a resilient Shoalwater Bay tribal artist has an exhibit in Astoria side by side with young tribal artists inspired by his example.
MYS stirred up the fun in their cartoon-themed season opener.
PYP season opener celebrated the group’s century mark.
Final three shows of 3A’s intimate series featured performances by Branic Howard, Yawa, and Methods Body.
The Portland theater company leaps into the Off-Broadway spotlight with “Make Me Gorgeous!,” a bravura one-man show about trans trailblazer Kenneth Marlowe.
Amy Leona Havin sits down afterwards with the company’s founder and artistic director to discuss SKC’s merger with Conduit and what’s next for the contemporary dance company.
Fresh as ever, the music of four women composers received a superb outing.
Next spring’s opening will make Corvallis a destination for world-class arts performances, exhibits, and education.
Put your best foot forward and try to solve this dance-themed crossword puzzle.
Performed in the round, ‘Radioactive Practice’ draws on street dance, contemporary African forms, and martial arts to upend expectations of established dance forms.
A series of public meetings about arts funding after the breakup with RACC provides a lens into the still-forming City Arts Program plans – including slashed overhead costs.
Four humans huddle in a farmhouse against a storm as the wild beasts roam outside in “Taking Care of Animals.” Plus some grand celebrity impersonation, openings, and last chances.
YOB is love; Eugene versus Corvallis; Renegade Opera and PSU Opera; twangy Indian music; and the one true “Messiah.”
The artist’s glass installation and collages on view at Adams and Ollman explore the ties that bind, both humans to one another and to the environment. Feddersen’s heightened visibility in the art world fits with a larger trend of renaissance for Indigenous art.
Profile’s world premiere of christopher oscar peña’s story of a young woman’s perilous arrival in the United States defies expectations.
Portland-based director Todd Haynes’ latest feature is an elusive melodrama with strong performances from Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.
The 45-year-old community theater emerges from the pandemic shutdown with its first full-scale musical since 2019 and a new focus on fundraising and drawing fresh, young faces.
Financial difficulties for the 1905, which has just gone out of business, raise larger questions about the history and future of jazz in Portland.
Actor and ArtsWatch columnist Bermea looks at the Portland theater company’s troubles and remembers the good times as he tries to sort out what’s gone wrong.
Rebekah Sobel will join the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in January, moving from the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
In the historic Willamette Valley town made famous by the movie “Stand by Me,” a volunteer-run gallery provides a year-round showcase for members, as well as classes and workshops for children and adults.
“The view never stays the same for long; never for a moment, actually”: Dan Powell’s book of photos captures moments from an ever-changing landscape in the dry stretches of the West.
Profile keeps rolling with its trio of plays by christopher oscar peña, this one about the aftermath of a spasm of violence. Plus openings, last chances, and a billboard campaign.
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