Featured Event
FILM
11th Annual QDoc Film Festival
May 18–21
Hollywood Theater
$8–85, all ages
The United States’ only queer documentary film festival celebrating figures and moments in America’s queer history. Free passes to youth under 23 are available on request (meaning email the organizers, not show up at a crowded film festival demanding free entry).
Tuesday, May 16
THEATRE
The Importance of Being Earnest
7:30 p.m. (multiple show dates/times)
Artists Repertory Theater
$10, all ages
Opening night for the all-female version of Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy.
Wednesday, May 17
ART RECEPTION
What else is a window | Carlin Brown
6 p.m.
Melanie Flood Projects
Free, all ages
The PSU MFA candidate and Littman + White co-curator’s thesis exhibition features sculptural objects and photographs interpreting the physical experience of a screen as a physical threshold.
Thursday, May 18
CABARET
Bob’s Buns! Buns! Buns!
6/9 p.m.
Star Theater
$20–25, 21+
Miss Kennedy’s Theater of Burlesque gives the popular Fox cartoon the burlesque treatment. Featuring a cast of local powerhouses and a cameo from our online editor.
COMEDY
No Pun Intendo
7:30 p.m.
Ground Kontrol
$3, 21+
Nariko Ott, Portland’s Funniest Person 2016, hosts this monthly nerd and video game-themed standup comedy night.
FILM
Medicine for Melancholy (2008)
Whitsell Auditorium
7 p.m.
$6–9 (free for Art Museum and NW Film Center members)
You liked Moonlight, right? Here’s your chance to see director/co-writer Barry Jenkins’ breakout romance about race and class.
COMEDY
Russell Howard, Amy Miller
8 p.m.
Alberta Rose Theatre
$25, all ages
The U.K. comedian visits Portland on his Round the World tour, with local support from the hometown hero herself.
INDIE ROCK
Alvvays, The Courtneys, Candace
8 p.m.
Wonder Ballroom
$10, 18+
Night One of the Red Bull Sound Select Presents: 3 Days in Portland.
FILM
Alien: Covenant (2017)
8/11 p.m.
Hollywood Theater
$7–9, all ages
Although Hollywood Theater will be screening the new Ridley Scott movie throughout May and June, this is your night to see it on their biggest screen. Also playing on Cinema 21’s big screen, which is closer to campus.
Friday, May 19
READING
Write Around Portland
6:30 p.m.
Taborspace
Free, all ages
Numerous Portland writers gather for a regular reading series and book release party.
DANCE MUSIC
NAO, Harriet Brown, Chanti Darling
8 p.m.
Wonder Ballroom
$10, 18+
Night Two of Red Bull Sound Select Presents: 3 Days in Portland.
CHAMBER MUSIC
New Pearls from the Antilles
8 p.m.
Temple Baptist Church
$5–20, all ages
Local new music ensemble Fear No Music performs music by Cuban composers and members of Cascadia Composers. Come early for a pre-concert talk with the visiting musicians at 6:30.
NIGHTLIFE
PDX EveryBODY: DIY Performance Art Strip Club
9 p.m.
Dante’s
$15–20, 21+
The Corinne Loperfido x Patrick Buckmaster party celebrates literally every body: the classically beautiful, and every deviance from those standards. This event gives you a place to practice your strip club etiquette. No photos allowed. Read our review of the show at psuvanguard.com.
Saturday, May 20
WALKING TOUR
Pride Forever
Noon
Voodoo Doughnuts
$13, all ages
Know Your City highlights the history of Portland’s queer community, from its beginnings in the 19th century to the AIDS Crisis and documented cases of transphobic violence.
ROCK
Blue October
7 p.m.
Roseland Theater
$27.50–40, 21+
When I was in high school this band was famous for the songs “Hate Me” and “Into the Ocean.” They’re touring in support of their new album Home (2015).
CHAMBER MUSIC
Sense of Place
8 p.m.
Temple Baptist Church
$5–20, all ages
Second night of Cascadia Composers, featuring the Vanguard‘s very own Matthew Andrews playing discarded beer bottles.
HIP-HOP
Aminé, A2, The Last Artful, Dodgr
8 p.m.
Crystal Ballroom
$10, 18+
Night Three of Red Bull Sound Select Presents: 3 Days in Portland.
NIGHTLIFE
17th Annual Red Dress Party
8 p.m.
Old Freeman Factory
$40–140, 21+
This year’s theme for the annual HIV/AIDS and queer fundraiser is Alice in Wonderland. If you’re not familiar: you can wear whatever costume you want, as long as it’s a red dress.
DANCE PARTY
Slay
9 p.m.
Holocene
$5, 21+
Dance night centered around LGBTQ POC, with music from DJs Ronnin Roc and Automaton.
NIGHTLIFE
Blankstairs PDX
9 p.m.
TBD
Free, 21+
The experimental music record label is hosting a party headlines by one of its NYC artists, Mood Tattooed, and supported by local labelmates Carly Barton, Ben Glas and Warren Mark Mattox. Email [email protected] for the party’s location.
FASHION
Marco Marco
10 p.m.
Stag PDX
$10, 21+
The L.A. underwear designer co-hosts a fashion show with drag queen Nene Leakes Cartier, along with a drag show starring L.A.’s Rhea Litre (Raja Gemini’s drag daughter).
Sunday, May 21
CIRCUS
Joy Now! Arts Project
6 p.m.
Lagunitas Community Center
$5–12, all ages
Fundraiser for MarchForth Marching Band’s youth brigade and its summer arts camp, where kids and teens can learn circus arts like stilt walking.
VARIETY
Whoopee!
7 p.m.
Secret Society
$13–22, 21+
Armory Jane hosts this revue of all entertainment sex-positive, which includes burlesque, stand up comedy, music, poetry, bellydancing, short erotic films, storytelling, mini sex ed lessons, and more.
FILM
Truman (2015)
Whitsell Auditorium
7 p.m.
$6–9 (free for Art Museum and NW Film Center members)
Not that Truman. No, not that one either. Spanish filmmaker Cesc Gay’s “warm tale of friendship in the face of imminent mortality” won five Goyas and the Audience Prize for Best Film at this year’s Portland International Film Festival. Also showing Friday and Saturday.
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Oregon Symphony: Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection”
2 p.m.
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
$35–150 (limited $10 Student Rush and $5 Arts for All tickets available at the door)
Gustav Mahler is one of those larger than life classical composers you should hear live whenever possible. Featuring soprano Tamara Wilson, mezzo Elizabeth DeShong, and Portland State’s Chamber Choir, Man Choir, and Vox Femina. Evening performances Saturday and Monday at 7:30.
Monday, May 22
FILM
Risk (2016)
Multiple times/dates
Cinema 21
$6–8.50, all ages
Laura Poitras’ new documentary focuses on polarizing Wikileaks EIC Julian Assange, who has been living in London’s Ecuadorian embassy since 2012 for breaking the terms of his bail related to sexual assault allegations and fear of extradition to the United States.
SPEAKING
Jeffrey Tambor + Kristi Turnquist
7 p.m.
Powell’s Books at Cedar Mills Crossing
Free, all ages
The actor (Arrested Development, Transparent, Archer) speaks with The Oregonian‘s TV critic and pop culture writer to promote his new book, Are You Anybody?.
READING
Cannabis & Spirituality
7:30 p.m.
Powell’s Books on Hawthorne
Free, all ages
Book editor Stephen Gray talks about how to incorporate the totally-legal-in-Oregon plant into your spirituality, revealing how humans have done so for thousands of years across cultures, and to promote the book.
TRIVIA
Classic Simpsons Trivia
7 p.m.
White Owl Social Club
Free, 21+
Prizes for knowing the most about Matt Groening’s cartoon homage to Oregon. Woo hoo!
EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC
HO99O9
8:30 p.m.
Holocene
$13–15, all ages
Event copy: “Experimental, atomic energy mashed with a gut wrenching, shape-shifting, evisceration of genre explodes into style-defying spawns of sonically aggressive hip-hop, brutal rap, hardcore punk, noise, & thrash metal into one untamable force of the universe.”
