Portland’s latest, greatest storytelling series, Back Fence PDX , kicks off this Thursday, June 19th with a theme that could only be described as hopeful, particularly with this weather lately: summer love. Storytellers include Alison Hallett of the Mercury. Intermission to showcase Pompina’s vintage swimwear, in which 2GQ writer Nora Robertson and a few other local artsy-girl types will “model” the suits for ya. Be there or be…you know the drill.
Or, actually, "No.Fest : Nu Music.Arts St.John's." Head to North Portland on Saturday, June 21st for loads of music and goodness, free, all ages. White Rainbow, Evolutionary Jass Band, and Dead Air Fresheners are among the many bands playing.
Quote of the day:
"Astoria is the new St. John's." -- JD Berger, 2004
"The Affected" is a movie being made by Lisa Wells and Catawampus Films from here in Portland.
"Amigo" is a benefit for the film with Point Juncture, WA, Tractor Operator, Hutch & Kathy of The Thermals, and more.
"Human Rights Issues & Pesticide Poisonings" are among the charming side effects of the "veiled genocide" that global agribusiness has inflicted on Nicaragua.
Comprendes, amigo? Thought so. Off to Holocene with you. Thursday June 5th. Details follow.
Continue reading "PESTICIDE POISONINGS & HUMAN RIGHTS IN NICARAGUA: BENNIE @ HOLOCENE TONIGHT" »
2GQ director/editor/etceterator Tiffany Lee Brown will read June 4, along with Matt Love, Leah Stenson, and Caitlin Clark.
Blackbird Wineshop and Oregon Literary Review
co-host an evening of readings, performances and video on the first
Wednesday of every month, 7-9pm. Blackbird Wineshop is at 3519 NE 44th
(off Fremont).503-282-1887.
Continue reading "OREGON LITERARY REVIEW READING: First Wednesday" »
A kinesthetic salon of performance, installation, food, and drink by the artists of Works Corps. Tickets cost $5 less if purchased in advance from Brown Paper Tickets online; price includes tea, snacks, and beverages for grownups.
13 April 2008, Sunday
Showtimes 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2:00, 3:30, and 5:00. Advance reservations recommended.
Tickets: $10-20, advance at Brown Paper Tickets.
At Performance Works NW
4625 SE 67th Ave, Portland
(half-block north of SE Foster Road).
Reservations & Info: 503 475 2306, housebound@2GQ.org, www.2GQ.org
The artists of Works Corps are (l. to r.): Nora Robertson, Clare Carpenter, Lilian Gael, and Emily Stone; front: Tiffany Lee Brown. Photo by Steve Fritz.
Co-presented by 2GQ and Performance Works NW's Alembic series.
2 Gyrlz Performative Arts is proud to present legendary performance artist, Ron Athey, for the first time ever in Portland. This will truly be a rare and exceptional event, in which performance is taken to an edge that 2 Gyrlz and other presenters in this city have rarely dared to visit. This is not about shock, this is about exposing truths and presenting new possibilities.
RON ATHEY (L.A.), SAMANTHA SWEETING (Britain/France), and Portland's own ARIA BENNER and MICAH PERRY of Cliché Au Lait.
First Thursday 03 April Hippodrome, PDX (SE 3rd & Oak)
$8 | 21 +
Performances run 8 - 9:30 pm
After Party next door @ BRANX, 320 SE 2nd Ave., with PAN!ZEN Soundsystem (Chromosome 23/Acroyear, Try My Cabbage, Rudement, and b0t23 of Buried in Time/ELM). 21+, 9:30-close, $5 suggested donation or come in from the Ron Athey/ 2 Gyrlz show.
Continue reading "TONIGHT: 2 GYRLZ BRINGS RON ATHEY TO PORTLAND" »
The Video Gentlemen present BYOTV, kicking off COUTURE08 @ the New American Art Union. Linda Austin's video screens during WEEK ONE: March 22-29.
Reception on Saturday March 22nd from 5-8pm at New American Art Union, 922 SE Ankeny, Portland.
NAAU's stipend recipients for Couture '08 are Rose McCormick, Ty Ennis, Jim Lommasson, Jacqueline Ehlis, TJ Norris, Stephen Slappe, Vanessa Renwick, Laura Fritz, Ethan Jackson, The Video Gentlemen.
Coming up this week, 2GQ’s series “Domestic Terror” showcases short fiction by Kristy Athens. Not to be missed!
She will read in Portland with Shanna Germain and Lara Tribak at a Barnes & Noble reading hosted by Sage Cohen on February 20. Keep reading for details.
Continue reading "KRISTY ATHENS: Reading in Portland + Original Fiction on 2GQ" »
The literary, littoral, and alimentary delights of Nye Beach in Newport, Oregon, make it a necessary coastal stop for writers and fans thereof. From the author-themed rooms of the Sylvia Beach Hotel to the Nye Beach Writers' Series of readings and events, this calm little tourist hamlet has it going on. And oh, the food!
Keep reading for the upcoming schedule for Writers on the Edge. --Tiffany Lee Brown
"Working History: African American Objects" finds curator Stephanie Sydner in top form, bringing the work and/or live presences of Kianga Ford, Nick Cave, Adrian Piper, Faith Ringgold, Kara Walker, and many others to Portland, at Cooley.
Continue reading "NICK CAVE LECTURE & MORE FABULOUS STUFF @ COOLEY" »
2 Gyrlz Performative Arts returns to Portland! Our fearless leaders, co-directors Lisa Newman and Llewyn Maire/Yhi, have returned from their year-plus in England, and they've brought us some tasty European treats to savour: Tex Napalm, Dimi Dero, and Anthony Malat. Keep reading for deets.
UPCOMING 2 GYRLZ SHOWS:
Feb 9, Saturday ~ Tex Napalm/Dimi Dero/Anthony Malat; Magick Daggers; and special guests at Rotture, 9 pm, $8
April 3, Thursday ~ Ron Athey performance followed by PanZen party, at Rotture
April 13, Sunday ~ Works Corps performs "HOUSE BOUND" at Performance Works NW, co-presented by 2GQ
Continue reading "THE GYRLZ ARE BACK IN TOWN: Rock Fest at Rotture Feb 9th" »
The Works Corps invites the 2 Gyrlz community to experience the group's very intimate and unusual new performance, "House Bound," at Performance Works NW on April 13, 2008. The work delves into the tension between individuality and relationship, between selfhood and family, between freedom and claustrophobia, between private and public.
2GQ is delighted to co-sponsor this rare opportunity for audiences to visit a very different kind of house. We'd like to give a big shout-out to the show's current donors, including the Cooley Gallery at Reed College, Plazm magazine, P!x Patisserie, Vanessa Renwick/Oregon Dept of Kick Ass, and Steve Fritz Photography.
Continue reading "2GQ co-presents "HOUSE BOUND" at PERFORMANCE WORKS NW" »
Come along, creative whores! Eat food, hang out, and dive into a conversation about "The Wife, the Mistress, and the Prosititute" as essential metaphors for life as artists, writers, and as creative professionals. Discuss design,
language, survival, protest and collaboration!
Join 2GQ editrix Tiffany Lee Brown (who moonlights as a Plazm editor) with the Plazm crüe, editor Jon Raymond and art director Josh Berger.The evening is hosted and curated by Stephanie Snyder of the back room and the Cooley Gallery at Reed College.
Music by Tara Jane O'Neil. Food by catering & farmers market favourites Tastebud Farm, who will soon open their new dining room in Southeast Portland.
January 11, 2008, 6:30 pm, Podkrepa Hall, 2116 North Killingsworth Street. $45 per person includes a delectable feast, wine, and a copy of a book written & pressed especially for this occasion. Reservations are highly recommended; these events usually sell out. Email thebackroompdx@gmail.com or buy tickets via THE BACK ROOM online. Keep reading for details...
Continue reading "THE WIFE, THE MISTRESS, & THE PROSTITUTE: PLAZM AT THE BACK ROOM" »
HELLO, GYRLZ: Most of you know by now that 2 Gyrlz founder/directors Lisa Newman and Llewyn Maire have returned from their year-plus of performing and living in Europe. Portland is ready for a new round of innovative performance programming from our favourite gyrlz. The new season promises to bring some excellent international artists to town; we will soon update this site and 2gyrlz.org with confirmed shows.
COMPENDIUM BOOKS AVAILABLE
We also have signed, numbered, limited edition books on sale; click "Compendium" on the Plazm Books site.
This week: Mike Midlo brings his fabu, delightfully weird organ-and-chicken-noises music to Portland from the wilds of White Salmon, WA. Deets follow!
Continue reading "PANCAKE BREAKFAST: not just for brunch anymore" »
NOTE: As Nora reminisces about writing workshops last summer, the Wordstock Festival offers tons this weekend -- including a reading and a workshop by Steve Almond. 2GQ writer/editor/bookmakers Nora, Tif, and Clare will be at the PLAZM booth at the festival, booth #1130, Sat & Sun (PLAZM distributes 2GQ and our new book, A Compendium of Miniatures -- signed copies will be available). Also check out Tif, Jon Raymond, & Lidia Yuknavitch reading at 5 pm Sunday at the McMenamins Stage.
Ah, the halcyon days of summer when you can enjoy riding your bike with your face into the wind, two consecutive hours without rain and the Tin House lecture series, which never fails to amaze me with its stellar lineup despite the fact that it only costs fifteen bucks each. What some of these folks would cost to see at the Schnitz I don’t like to think about. I believe Steve Almond was in the fifty-dollar range last time he read there. And there I was, front and center in the Reed College amphitheatre, listening to him crack wise about writing sex scenes. ... (Keep reading for Nora's report on the series.)
ScratchPDX are calling themselves "Portland's performance lab" with their semi-open-mic-for-performers series at Hipbone Studio. You just need to email them and explain what piece you'd like to do (2-10 minutes).
If you check out ScratchPDX and don't mind sharing what you saw or performed, email us at the current year @2GQ.org. For example, in 2001 you would contact us by mailing 2001@2GQ.org. Sorry for the convoluted email address procedure, there --- it's for spam reduction.
Jonathan Raymond, Tiffany Lee Brown, and Lidia Yuknavitch appear at Portland's festival of books on November 11th in PLAZM reading.
PLAZM magazine has brought words to the page with a bold, unusual vision since 1991. From artist/writer collaborations to revolutionary experiments in typography and design, PLAZM provides a platform for local and international art, design, and culture, along with nonfiction, creative, and critical writing. PLAZM presents a reading, video, and slides at the Wordstock Festival to coincide with the release of its 29th issue...
Together with Jonathan Raymond and Lidia Yuknavitch, 2GQ editroid Tiffany Lee Brown will be reading from Plazm magazine at the Wordstock Festival in Portland on Sunday, November 11, at 5 pm. 2GQ collab's Tif, Clare Carpenter, and Nora Robertson will also be on-hand throughout the weekend at Plazm's booth, #1030. Signed, numbered copies of Clare & Tif's A Compendium of Miniatures will be available for sale, along with other goodies from Plazm Books.
WORDIGO 2, Write Around Portland's annual benefit, is a celebration of writing like no other. This year's event features word games, collaborative novellas, and readings by Monica Drake (_Clown Girl_) and Tom Spanbauer (_Now Is the Hour_). All this verbosity is for the best possible cause -- bringing the transformative power of writing to those in Portland with the least access to opportunities to gather and write. Coming up Novermber 3rd...
Construct/Re-Construct
curated by Rhoda London
A group show of work by Portland artists expressing the building blocks that bring an idea to fruition and showing the artists in dialogue with their materials. 2GQ editor Tiffany Lee Brown and book artist Clare Carpenter present an installation documenting the collaborative process behind their new project, A Compendium of Miniatures.
September 29-October 27, 2007
Cathedral Park Place
6635 N. Baltimore Ave, Portland, OR
(the former Columbia Sportswear/Modern Zoo building)
Opening Reception Saturday, September 29, 5-8 PM
Gallery hours Friday and Saturday only 12-5 PM
Artists: Josh Arseneau, Francesca Berrini, John Brodie, Tiffany Lee Brown, Clare Carpenter, Cathy Cleaver, Nancy Cushwa, Kristina DiTullo, Tore Djupedal, David Hacker, Helen Heibert, Harrison Higgs, Scott Wayne Indiana,James Jack, Horatio Law, Todd Leninger, Seth Nehil,Liz Obert, Kelly Rauer, Anya Shapiro, Benjamin Stagl,Andy Stout, Robert Wilhelm, Karen Willey, Linda Wysong.
When not doing 2GQ, my secret alter-identity is now a co-editor at Plazm magazine, a veritable institution of Portland art, culture, and design since 1991. Our new issue features Yoko Ono, Todd Haynes, JD Samson (Le Tigre), Storm Tharp, Domenick Ammirati, Lidia Yuknavitch, Marvin Bell, and a pull-out poster of Portland music from The Wipers to Nequaquam Vacuum.
Oh, and The End of War. And Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis, and Bill Walton, and psychedelic posters, and all kinds of stuff. Keep reading for the press release.
PARTY: Sept 26, Ace Hotel on SW Stark & 10th in downtown Portland, bands and DJ's (Glass Candy, Hooliganship, Evolutionary Jass Band, more), cheap, all ages, plus art benefiting Veterans for Peace. Please do come.
Continue reading "PLAZM #29: NEW MAGAZINE + RELEASE PARTY SEPT. 26" »
Scott Wayne Indiana, Carlton Mellick Jr., Paul Ash, and more read from the new anthology this Thursday at the Aalto. Read on for deets.
Line up an amazing weekend in Portland July 27, 28, and 29. Friday: Writer's Edge workshop readings featuring Lidia Yuknavitch, Brian Evanson, Lucy Corin, and Lance Olsen. Saturday: Soriah's CD release party and performance. Sunday: Water in the Desert Festival and ritual in North Portland.
Yr everlovin' editrix Tiffany Lee Brown and 2GQ book artist Clare Carpenter of Tiger Food Press have been working hard on "A Compendium of Miniatures" for nearly two years. Friday June 29, they bring a performance-based literary reading of the work, along with a participatory installation, to Pacific University's MFA in Creative Writing program. Clare will also give a presentation about book arts, and the two will lead a discussion about how collaboration and multidisciplinary exploration can lead to an expansive writing practice. 1:00 pm at Pacific; open to the public.
The book of the Compendium will be available this fall. In September, a new installation of the Compendium will be unveiled at Cathedral Park Place (the St. Johns building where Modern Zoo happened). We'll also bring it to PNCA. See ya then!
Continue reading "COMPENDIUM OF MINIATURES AT PACIFIC UNIVERSITY" »
There's no way you don't have time to catch a launch for Mike Daily's latest novel, Alarm, since there's four of them, the next one being tomorrow at Powell's, 7:30. Reading from an experimental melange of narrative, found objects, an alter-narrator and audio beats (see inclosed CDs of live and studio performances), Daily tells us an account of a couple slowly splitting apart amid post-911 anthrax scares, semi-employment and the detritus of the San Fernando Valley. Appearing with band---and moi as quest artist---at last week's Phase One: Words + Music, you can catch the full meal deal at the Ash St. Saloon on July 25th and at the Someday Lounge for the FC2 Writer's Edge conference on July 26th, or a pared down version at Aftermath for First Thursday on July 5th. Beat happening.
---Nora Robertson
Haiku! Crêpes! What are you waiting for? Read on.
...by whom I mean who else but the residents of Olympia, Washington, once again wow the wondrous world with the Olympia Experimental Music Festival.
Now in its lucky 13th year, the festival is--or was, last time I saw it--hilarious, brilliant, and insane. This is not the snootypants brand of experimentica you may have been unfortunate enough to run into at hoity-toity venues (New York City, I'm thinking of you). This is genuine Northwest weirdness. Portlandia is represented by Dead Air Fresheners (pictured), Argumentrix, METAL, Celestville, Mood Ring, Nequaquam Vacuum, Shitty Vibe Smasher, Childhood Friends, White Rainbow, and A Garden to Play with Ghost. Somehow there's still room for bands from Washington state, Vancouver BC, SF, NYC, Montana, Athens, Australia, and of course, North Cambria, PA.
Solstice weekend, June 22-24. Keep reading for details. --Tif
Find out more about the Public Works Corps: Tiffany Lee Brown, Clare Carpenter, Lilian Gael, Nora Robertson, and Emily Stone...
...and about this week's guest artists, Sarah Dougher and Josh Berger.
PUBLIC WORKS reveals works-in-progress by local musicians, artists,
and writers.
With good food & delicious cocktails, in one of Portland's most
beautiful, intimate venues.
Join us this Wednesday, May 9 for the final evening of this Public
Works series. Guest artists SARAH DOUGHER (music) and JOSHUA BERGER
(visual art) will join our regular writers, performers, and
interdisciplinary artists: TIFFANY LEE BROWN, LILIAN GAEL, NORA
ROBERTSON, and EMILY STONE.
2GQ presents Public Works
Wednesdays, April 4 through May 9
5:30-7:00 pm
Free, at Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave between Couch and Davis
=== 2GQ presents ===
PUBLIC WORKS
Six weeks of live, raw works-in-progress, rough cuts, & experiments
being of a literary, performative, musical, & artistic nature
Click "continue" below to see the whole calendar & meet the artists...
Wednesdays, April 4 through May 9
5:30-7:00 pm
Free, at Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave
Nora Robertson brings back a report of his Portland appearance.
Last Thursday, the Portland Arts & Lectures series brought Jonathan Lethem to Portland. Onstage at the Schnitz, about a third of the way in, Lethem told a dirty joke. I wanted to see his face, but we were up in the nosebleeds, Tiffany muttering something about her great-great-aunt’s opera glasses sadly left behind at home. It wasn’t a really dirty joke, just naughty, told oddly in almost the same rhythm my New York Jewish grandma uses to tell naughty jokes.
Eric Hausmann and Lilian Gael (pictured left) will be this week's featured artists at Public Works. Come on down and see what they and the Public Works crew will do with some serious music!
Eric -- currently of Tres Gone, formerly of Spilling Static Orchestra, The Gone Orchestra, Locust Pudding, Brainwarmer, and Lions of Batucada -- will soundtrack a film he made entitled "Ramlee," a dedication to the 1950's Malaysian film actor and multi-instrumentalist, P. Ramlee. More about Eric at www.spillingaudio.com.
Lily Gael is a performing artist working with improv-movement, dance,
enviornments and sound. She is a recipient of a Soapstone writing residency in poetry, and recently performed "Revery/The Kitchen Project" at Oregon College of Art & Craft" for audiences of one.
Members of the Public Works Corps will also improvise with Eric (Tiffany Lee Brown, Nora Robertson, Emily Stone).
2GQ presents PUBLIC WORKS at the Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Ave between Couch and Davis.... Wednesday, April 18th, 5:30-7 pm.... FREE.
Click "continue" to see the PUBLIC WORKS CALENDAR.
Continue reading "FREE, BEAUTIFUL, WEIRD. BE THERE THIS WEDNESDAY." »
RIY: read it yourself. Bring a bit of poetry April 21, and check out the other events hosted free by your very own Multnomah County library system.
Continue reading "R.I.Y. + Poetry Month at MultCo Library" »
Literary Arts brings Jonathan
Lethem to Portland Arts & Lectures this Thursday, April 12th, 7:30,
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Here's what Nora Robertson thinks about
this opportunity to see the man himself:
The first book I ever read by Jonathan Lethem was Motherless Brooklyn, and I was charmed. The Chandleresque protagonist, hamstringed by Tourette’s and growing up orphaned, parses a surreal intrigue involving cryogenic chambers, talking kangaroos and, of course, a dame who both seduces him and hangs him out to dry. Years later, I would be similarly thunderstruck by fellow Brooklynite Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy’s appropriation of hardboiled detective tropes to investigate rather more existential mysteries. Very Sartre, Camus, Godard.
The first week of Public Works was delightful. (It will happen every Wednesday through May 9.) Pecos B. brought words that rollicked and rocked, all of us Corps members did word + movement improvisation, I unveiled the world premiere of video "Log Baby," Nora Robertson read luscious poetry in progress, and Lily Gael topped the evening with a serious shot of energy in the form of a short dance piece.
And then there was Emily Stone (pictured left). She presented a deeply moving interdisciplinary piece involving the themes of growth and home, alternating reading with movements performed in front of projected photographs, her pregnant belly distending into the screen. Meanwhile, the rest of us attended to a series of instructions she'd given us: cleansing, writing on eggshells, planting seeds. Beautiful stuff!
Next week -- Wednesday, April 11 -- Leanne Grabel will be our featured poet, belly dancer Grace Constantine will be our guest artist, and I'll show a brand new experimental reading + video piece. Expect more explorations from the Public Works Corps as well. Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Ave, 5:30-7 pm, free. More details about the series is in the next post, below. --Tiffany Lee Brown
2GQ presents PUBLIC WORKS
Six weeks of live, raw works-in-progress, rough cuts, & experiments
being of a literary, performative, musical, & artistic nature
Wednesdays, April 4 through May 9 ... 5:30-7:00 pm ... FREE .....
Someday Lounge ... 125 NW 5th Avenue ... in Portland's Old Town ... phone 503 248 1030
Works Corps:
TIFFANY LEE BROWN ..... CLARE CARPENTER ..... LILY GAEL ..... LEANNE GRABEL ..... NORA ROBERTSON ..... EMILY STONE
Guest Artists:
PECOS B. (April 4) ..... GRACE CONSTANTINE (April 11) .... ERIC HAUSMANN (April 18) ..... JEMIAH JEFFERSON (April 25) ..... JULIAN TULIP (May 2) ..... SARAH DOUGHER (May 9) ..... JOSHUA BERGER (May 9)
Authors and Dangerous Writers workshop leaders Stevan Allred and Joanna Rose "read fiction about the two things you're not supposed to discuss around your relatives" this Tuesday, March 20. Rose reads from her novel in progress, Ruby's Roadhouse, and Allred reads new work appearing soon in Rosebud.
McMenamin's Kennedy School - 5735 NE 33rd (between Killingsworth & Lombard). Readings start at 7; the readers invite you to join them for drinks afterward. A benefit for Community of Writers
Help Negativland create a live radio program onstage and dig deep with monotheism.
Saturday, Mar 10 2007 9:00PM
Bagdad Theater Portland, Oregon -- that's the McMenamin's at SE Hawthorne & 37th.
HOLY CRAP, PEOPLE! COSTES IS COMING!
If you somehow missed the absolute insanity of Jean Louis Costes at 2 Gyrlz's Enteractive Language Festival a couple years ago, now is your time to make up for it. Madness and mayhem and hilarity reign. Note: If you're afraid of bodily fluids and close representations thereof, stay home.
Show is at Someday Lounge, March 3.
I love ferries, the anticipation of what's lying on the other side of the glimmering slate-green water, and this time it's something really good---Naomi Shihab Nye and the Canadian poet laureate George Bowering appearing on the Paul Gillie stage at the WPA's Burning Word Festival along with the Jack Straw Writers, Los Nortenos and too many others to mention. Also check out the open-mics on the more intimate Cascade stage (look for 2GQ friends 'n' family including poet Howard Robertson), the writing workshop tent, and the small press fair. With past performers including Tess Gallagher and Ilya Kaminsky, it'll be interesting to see what this year's boatload of talent turns up with. --Nora
Greenback Farm
April 28th, 7 am - 9 pm
KPSU presents a fine showcase of experimental music, jazz weirdness, and more. Obe'Skupla, Dead Air Fresheners, Childhood Friends, and more more more on February 17 at The Crux. Costumed improv freaks, eeriness, beauty -- what more could ya want? And it's three bucks. And all ages.
Theatre works in progress! Sign-up open mic of a theatrical bent! Interesting happenings! Cool beans! It's Last Saturdays, starting this month at Hipbone Studio.
Continue reading "THEATRE OPEN MIC-IN-PROGRESS: Last Saturdays with ScratchPDX" »
2GQ will present the Public Works series in April and May. We are superthrilled to announce the workshop participants/works-in-progress performers, writers, and artists:
Leanne Grabel Nora Robertson (McCrea) Sarah Dougher
Julian Tulip Lily Gael Emily Stone Clare Carpenter
Joshua Berger Jemiah Jefferson Tiffany Lee Brown
Continue reading "PUBLIC WORKS: Announcing the Participants" »
Cherchez La Femme records here in PDX will soon release "Voices from the Siren Nation," a compilation featuring Pink Martini, The Gossip, Kaia Wilson (Team Dresch, The Butchies), Swan
Island, Marisa Anderson w/Mirah, Heather
Perkins, and many others.
Join the mini-biki dance squad The Sprockettes December 15 is the CD release party at Holocene, plus music and goodness...
Come check out Queen of Heart. Our friend Sarah Dougher sends in this note: "As many of you may know, Portland is the home of the oldest drag club in the United States. Darcelle XV is celebrating 40 years of non-stop fabulousness this year. Filmmakers Jan Haaken and Wendy Kohn are in the process of finishing a documentary featuring Darcelle and his partner Roxy, their nightclub, their tireless activism and community service and the social and political implications of drag in American society."
2GQ presents for your consideration -- in conjunction with the esteemed Noah Mickens and his fantabulous Someday Lounge in Old Town Portland -- PUBLIC WORKS. This six-week workshop series of live literary and performance works-in-progress is curated by 2GQ's humble editrix, Miss Tiffany Lee Brown, and will occur every Wednesday night from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. from April 4 to May 9, 2007.
What has it to do with YOU?
Voyeur, drinker, arts maven or literary gadabout that you undoubtedly are, YOU get to watch the fabled artistic process unfold. You get to watch. Our workshop members will present new sketches, participate in experiments, and show works in progress, interspersed liberally with beer breaks. You get to watch the new sparks fly. You get to see all the edges, rough and unseemly.
So pencil it in. We'll see you in a few months.
Come hear 2GQ contributor Trevor Dodge read from his newest book, Everyone I Know Lives on Roads, 7 pm on Thursday Dec 14 at Reading Frenzy. Keep reading for deets.
FO A RM Magazine of Arts and Research presents THE FO A RM FESTIVAL OF SOUND & VIDEO is coming up November 18 at Portland Art Center to celebrate the release of their new magazine. Check it out!
A masked Italian noise rock duo, a butoh-Voudun dancer... A Japanese experimental percussionist and a macabre puppet show...A dark Victorian circus and a genuine freakshow... Something about a film crew from National Geographic?... And three nights of inspired horror at a haunted house hosted by Elvis.
All courtesy of the Someday Lounge in Portland, where the spirit of Hallowe'en comes but 365 days a year.
If you happen to be anywhere near Salem, Oregon, on October 26, go out of your way to get to Jacksons Books. Matt Briggs, author of Shoot the Buffalo (one of my Top 5 Reads of last year) will be be there in the flesh. --TLB
Details follow.
Wear your words! IPRC, the Independent Publishing Resource Center, offers workshops, a library, letterpress, and computers to zinesters, self-publishers, book artists and others. Good stuff. Support them Saturday, October 14th, 2006: IPRC Benefit at the Portland Art Center. The evening will feature a parade of costumes made up of words, and attendees are encouraged to "come dressed to be read!" There will be prizes for best costume, and Trashcan Joe will provide the music. Tickets are $15 in advance from Reading Frenzy.
Literary Arts will present a double bill in Spring of 2007 featuring Mary Gaitskill and George Saunders. Gaitskill wields words like a surgeon wields a scalpel-- a horribly clichéd simile, true, but imagine that the surgeon is separating conjoined twins without the aid of anasthesia. Imagine that you, the reader, are one (or both) of the twins.
You may know Gaitskill from Bad Behavior; Two Girls, Fat and Thin; and last year's National Book Award finalist, Veronica, from which it is luminous and frightening to hear her read. Saunders is, bluntly put, a genius of satire, social commentary, general hilarity, and that slippery form, the short story. Head straight for Pastoralia immediately, if you haven't already treated yourself to that amazing collection.
Appropriation, corporations, art, theft, Starbucks subvertising, and Barbie bashing. It's all part of the Pacific Northwest College of Art's look at illegal art. Heidi Cody will discuss Culture Jamming this Thursday, October 5, at lunchtime in a free lecture at PNCA...
Continue reading "Illegal Art and Culture Jamming -- Free at PNCA" »
Pencil Fight #3 (comix, art, weirdness, amazement) is ready to roll, with contributors from Carson Ellis to Mike Brophy. Fancy! Grass Hut hosts the launch party this Friday, September 29, at 811 East Burnside. The theme is "When Plants Attack." Yay! Click below for artist list, etc. --tif
Sharon E. Streeter, author and publisher of the Bush Rage series, uses poetry, voice, ukulele, and even
kazoo to get her point across. She says, "This is an event to signal the final days to register to vote and an opportunity see how words can be put to work for our beliefs. Free and open to the public."
Bush Rage, October 5, 7:30 p.m. St Johns Booksellers, 8622 N. Lombard Street. More about the project (including books and CDs) is at www.bushrageAllowed.com.
Event review by Nora Robertson
Folks of all stripes jammed their chairs together like they were packed in a 747 to hear the ladies of Bitch magazine launch BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006). It was standing room only at Reading Frenzy on September 6th to hear founders Lisa Jervis and Andi Zeisler skewer the tension between boys and girls in pop culture, spotlighting the centrality of gender in our understanding of the world.
Gyrl about town, cirkus ringmaster extraordinaire, noise musician, Butoh performer, and self-described "arts maven" Noah Mickens -- your friend and mine -- has been working hard to prepare an entirely new venue for Portland audiences, where acts are booked with a visionary's zeal instead of a capitalist's desire for predictable bands and old standbys. Get in on the opening action at Someday Lounge this week with Diego Piñon, Blinglab (Marne Lucas + Bruce Conkle), Jollyship the Whiz-Bang, 2 Gyrlz Bon Voyage Party, St Vitus Dance, and Societas Insomnia. Details follow.
After over five years of giving free rein to uncompromising performance in an unsafe world‚ the gyrlz, Llewyn Máire and Lisa Newman, are crossing the pond to spend a year making movement and noise‚ strengthening networks‚ strengthening our core. The new crossroads of creative convergence - Someday Lounge - is hosting a send-off party and you're invited.
Thursday 14 September, 9 pm-2 am
Someday Lounge -- 125 NW 5th, between Couch and Davis
Sliding scale admission. Donations help the 2 gyrlz tour . 21+. For details, keep clickin'.