LitPDX seeks to amplify marginalized voices, and welcomes all, their ideas, their events, and their words.

For details regarding specific events please contact the organizers or venues. If you are an organizer or venue and would like to reach out to us please feel free to contact us or submit an event using our submission form. We’d love to hear from you!

Birds of the West: An Artist’s Guide

Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, OR, United States

Birds accompany us in our daily lives with their songs, flashes of bright color, and energetic activity. Even people who don’t consider themselves birders notice them; from urban wetlands to wilderness trails, we follow the sound of a distant twitter or song. Award-winning artist Molly Hashimoto captures birds through different media, from quick sketches with pen and wash to more carefully planned block prints. In Birds of the West (Skipstone), Hashimoto shares her range of artwork as a way to encourage readers, whether artists or not, to observe more closely the feathered friends around us. Through art and words, she explores specific Western habitats, providing the natural histories of birds typically found in each, as well as intimate personal encounters and inspiring passages from others.

Free

First Thursday: Art Opening and Book Talk!

Elisabeth Jones Art Center 516 NW 14th Ave, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for First Thursday on June 6th from 5pm to 8pm! Opening this First Thursday is an exhibit of woodblock prints by NW Artist and Author Molly Hashimoto. From 7pm to 8pm, Molly will give a talk on her recently published book Birds of the West: An Artist's Guide. Also exhibiting at the Elisabeth Jones Art Center: - For the Seventh Generation: A Community of Coastal Watchers - featuring new panels in the two-foot by one-mile panomural of the western coastline. - Earth, Water, Air, Fire - large scale acrylic paintings created collaboratively at EJArt Center honor the Earth and all living things. - Ghost Net - An installation by Emily Miller. A mountain of discarded ghost nets slowly repurposed into utilitarian objects. -…

Free

Westside Writing Group

Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, OR, United States

A group for anyone writing nonfiction or memoir who would like company, support, and, most of all, accountability. Whether you’ve never written a word or you’re a published author, join us!

Free

This Never Happened – Liz Scott

Another Read Through 3932 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for a reading from Liz Scott’s new memoir, This Never Happened. This Never Happened is a genre-bending memoir, told in a non-linear way using photographs, letters, and lists. This is a spare work…alternatively heartbreaking and darkly comic. Like an archeological dig, Scott’s memoir goes in search of the answers to the mysteries of her family. In her relentless quest to uncover the truth, she leaves no one, including herself, unexamined. In the end, it is about the challenge of making peace with questions that will never be answered and the struggle to forgive. Liz Scott has been a practicing psychologist for 40 years, helping clients to identify life themes and make sense of the puzzle of their lives. She has brought this focus to her…

Free

Day Trips From Portland, Oregon: Getaway Ideas for the Local Traveler

Powell's Books on Hawthorne 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR, United States

Rediscover the simple pleasures of a day trip with Kim Cooper Findling’s Day Trips From Portland, Oregon (Globe Pequot). Findling’s guide is packed with hundreds of exciting things for locals and vacationers to do, see, and discover within a two-hour drive of the Portland metro area. Go biking, hiking, kayaking – or swimming! – on Sauvie Island, or visit the recreational wonderland around the town of Silver Lake, where you can get a glimpse of Mount St. Helens. Do something (mildly) intoxicating: Go on a tasting tour at one (or more) of the 200 wineries in the Willamette Valley. Do something historical: See people in period clothing reenact mid-19th-century daily life at Fort Vancouver, or 1920s farm life at Pomeroy Living History Farm in Yacolt.

Free

Portland Story Theater: Urban Tellers

The Old Church Concert Hall 1422 SW 11th Ave, Portland, OR, United States

Connect to the heart and soul of Portland! This SEASON FINALE and final show at TOC features Urban Tellers® some of your favorite Urban Tellers: Warren McPherson, Lynn Fitch, Frank Engel, Penny Walter and PDX Story Theater founders Lynne Duddy and Lawrence Howard. The stories that people tell at Urban Tellers® shows are making a positive impact on our community by giving everyone the fundamental human right To Be Heard. Be a part of this revolution of listening. Come and listen someone into being. Jazz at 7pm. Stories at 8pm. This 2018-19 Season Finale and final show at TOC features some of your favorite Urban Tellers: Warren McPherson, Lynn Fitch, Frank Engel, Penny Walter and PDX Story Theater founders Lynne Duddy and Lawrence Howard. Rogéri Jazz Duo when…

$15 – $20

Jennifer Pastiloff in Conversation With Lidia Yuknavitch

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

Jennifer Pastiloff’s On Being Human (Dutton) is an inspirational memoir based on the popular workshop of the same name, about how her years of waitressing taught her to seek out unexpected beauty, how deafness taught her to listen fiercely, how being vulnerable allowed her to find love, and how imperfections can lead to a life full of wild happiness. Exuberant, triumphantly messy, and brave, On Being Human is a celebration and encouragement of happiness and self-realization over darkness and doubt. A book that helps the reader access their own vulnerability, bravery, and humanness. Pastiloff will be joined in conversation by Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan.

Free

The Mystery Box Show: EXXXOTICA Expo Performance and Seminar

Portland Expo Center 2060 N. Marine Dr, Portland, OR, United States

The Mystery Box Show: True Stories All About Sex Presented By The Mystery Box Show What do you have in common with a porn star? With a stripper? With the person sitting next to you in traffic, the person who bags your groceries? It’s sex, plain and simple. Get a peek into the sex lives of others, as The Mystery Box Show features people telling true stories of their sexual adventures. Attending audience members will also have an opportunity to confess their wild experiences as well (anonymously, of course!) Nothing at The Mystery Box Show is too raw, too sweet, too strange, or too deep; it’s all about the sex, and all about the story. ABOUT THE MYSTERY BOX SHOW What do you have in…

Free – $229.99

The Mystery Box Show – Annual Pride Show

Alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR, United States

The Mystery Box Show celebrates Pride month with 5 stories of LGBTQ+ adventure and triumph from Woody Shticks, Paymon Salahshoor, Tara Zaugg, Kate Trower, and Noah Grabeel! From vanilla to kinky, queer to straight, and everything in between, a night at The Mystery Box Show brings you tales of one-night stands, explorations into fetish, awkward first times, dark fantasies come true, and much much more. Storytellers have included bestselling authors, nationally touring comedians, adult film industry veterans, theatre professionals, sex toy experts, members from the kink community, students and people from all walks of life. Nothing here is too raw, too sweet, too strange, or too deep; it's all about the sex, and all about the story.

$22 – $57

Cultural Connections: Celebrating Immigrant & Refugee Stories

New Expressive Works 810 SE Belmont St, Portland, OR, United States

Cultural Connections: Celebrating Immigrant & Refugee Stories. (A program of New Expressive Works' "Our Cultural Voices" Series) NOTE: This event is organized by multi-cultural youth and aimed for youth but all are welcome to join and participate. WHAT: Cross-Cultural Youth-Driven Conversations ~ Community Art Making ~ Food ~ Performances Come join Youth Advocates for Immigrants and Refugees (YAIR) in a cultural celebration of immigrant and refugee art and stories. Be prepared for an empathetic story exchange, amazing art, and delicious food! PROGRAM: 2pm - DOORS OPEN, Community Mural Making 2:20pm - Intro and presentation by Belize Nishimwe (Champion 2019 Oregon Poetry Out Loud Contest) 2:30 - 3:45pm - Story Exchange Community Conversation 3:45 - 4:00pm - Food, Community Mural Making 4:00pm - 5:00pm - Cultural…

Free