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2019/2020 Portland Arts & Lectures: Susan Orlean (Sold Out)

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 1037 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

Susan Orlean is an author and journalist, and has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992. She has written eight books, including, most recently, The Library Book, a New York Times best seller and a Washington Post Top 10 Book of the Year for 2018. Her other books include Rin Tin Tin, Saturday Night, and The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award–winning film Adaptation. Orlean has been called “a national treasure” by the Washington Post, and the New York Times has said that her work “has that elusive quality to it: exquisitely written, consistently entertaining and irreducible to anything so obvious and pedestrian as a theme.” The 35th season of Portland Arts & Lectures features some of the most engaging writers at work today. Our 2019/2020 season features George Packer, Amor Towles, Min Jin Lee, Susan Orlean, and Colson…

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SOLD OUT

Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus

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

The fear of campus sexual assault has become an inextricable part of the college experience. Research has shown that by the time they graduate, as many as one in three women and almost one in six men will have been sexually assaulted. Drawing on the Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) at Columbia University, the most comprehensive study of sexual assault on a campus to date, Shamus Khan presents a new framework that emphasizes sexual assault’s social roots. Empathetic and insightful, Sexual Citizens (W. W. Norton) (coauthored by Jennifer S. Hirsch) transforms our understanding of sexual assault and offers a roadmap for how to address it.

Free

R. Douglas Fields

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

Analyzing brainwaves, the imperceptible waves of electricity surging across your scalp, has been possible for nearly a century. But only now are neuroscientists becoming aware of the wealth of information brainwaves hold about a person’s life, thoughts, and future health. In Electric Brain (BenBella), world-renowned neuroscientist R. Douglas Fields takes us on an enthralling journey into the world of brainwaves, detailing how new brain science could fundamentally change society.

Free

Telltale: You Are Not Alone

Chapel Theatre 4107 SE Harrison St, Milwaukie, OR, United States

Hey, champ! Thanks for checking out Telltale. This is a monthly curated storytelling event for people that like to get vulnerable and take no shit. We are into genuine connection, laughter, heartbreak, poignant moments, and community building. We are now in our third season, and we are very excited for all the shows coming up this year. At Telltale, you can expect 8-10 performers sharing something with you, in the way that feels right to them--so there will be a mix of comedy, stories, music, essays, and more. Your evening will likely include honesty, swear words, enthusiasm, resistance, alcohol if that floats your boat, excellent pizza, dark humor, and some rad raffle prizes. You might make a new friend. You know how hard it is…

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$8

Grief and the Lyric Essay

Literary Arts 925 SW Washington Street, Portland, OR, United States

For writers at all levels It can be a challenge to access grief, not to mention represent it in word and forms, yet writers like Claudia Rankine, Ann Carson, and Maggie Nelson pull it off beautifully and in wildly different ways. We will try different ways into the conversation with grief, first through reading other writers, then in our notebooks. Writing exercises will allow you to explore memory, specifically as it can be accessed through the body. You will leave with a solid start into a new piece of writing or a fresh take on an older draft. Saturday, February 22 from 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Sunday, February 23 from 2:00–5:00 p.m. (two sessions) CLASS LIAISONS: All classes have one liaison position. Liaisons receive free tuition in…

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$135

Habiting the Arid West: Michael Light, William Fox, Charles Hood

Passages Bookshop 1801 NW Upshur, Suite 660, Portland, OR, United States

Please join us to celebrate the publication of Lake Lahontan/Lake Bonneville, a collection of extraordinary aerial images by photographer Michael Light, featuring essays by William Fox, Charles Hood, and Leah Ollman, recently released by Radius Books of Santa Fe. Michael Light will speak about and show work from the new book; writers William Fox and Charles Hood will respond to Light's work, as well as giving brief presentations about new books of their own, on such subjects as the artist Michael Heizer, and the mammals and birds of California. Lake Lahontan/Lake Bonneville is the fourth volume in Light's aerial survey, Some Dry Space: An Inhabited West, which "journeys into the vast geological space and time of the Great Basin — the heart of a storied…

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Free

Sierra Crane Murdoch in Conversation With Rebecca Clarren

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

When Lissa Yellow Bird was released from prison in 2009, she found her home, the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, transformed by the Bakken oil boom. The landscape had been altered beyond recognition, her tribal government swayed by corporate interests, and her community burdened by a surge in violence and addiction. Three years later, when Lissa learned that a young white oil worker, Kristopher 'KC' Clarke, had disappeared from his reservation worksite, she became particularly concerned. Unfolding like a gritty mystery, Sierra Crane Murdoch’s Yellow Bird (Random House) traces Lissa's steps as she obsessively hunts for clues to Clarke's disappearance. Crane Murdoch will be joined in conversation by Rebecca Clarren, author of Kickdown.

Free

Columbia Writers Series: Reading & Discussion with Terese Mailhot

Clark College 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver, WA, United States

Terese Mailhot is from Seabird Island Band. Her work has appeared in Guernica, Pacific Standard, Granta, Mother Jones, Medium, the Los Angeles Times, and Best American Essays 2019. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Heart Berries: A Memoir. She is the recipient of a 2019 Whiting Award. She teaches creative writing at Purdue University. This event will be free and open to the public. Monday, February 24, 2020 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. in PUB 258 A & B

Free

Reading: Stephanie Thornton Plymale: American Daughter

Annie Bloom's Books 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Portland author Stephanie Thornton Plymale. At age 4, Stephanie Thornton Plymale survived a full throttle, head-on collision in a mail truck stolen by her mother’s boyfriend. Again, at age 5, sat in the back of a van going 70 miles per hour, Stephanie survived a drunken rollover crash. She was twice physically unscathed but left mute with trauma, a condition which would come and go for years. She later suffered life-threatening burns due to neglect and became blind in one eye. Homelessness evolved to isolation in the Dependent unit of the state of California – to placement in several foster homes, one of which being horribly abusive. By age 10, Stephanie’s experience was that of criminal neglect, chronic hunger, truancy, homelessness, and…

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Free

Tender Table Presents: Tampopo

Clinton Street Theater 2522 SE Clinton St, Portland, OR, United States

Tender Table is turning 3! To celebrate we are holding a special birthday fundraiser- a screening of Tampopo at the Clinton Street Theater! All ticket sales will go directly towards our 2020 programming. "Tampopo is the tale of an enigmatic band of ramen ronin who guide the widow of a noodle shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe. Tampopo serves up a savory broth of culinary adventure seasoned with offbeat comedy sketches and the erotic exploits of a gastronome gangster. Sweet, sexy, surreal, and mouthwatering, Tampopo remains one of the most delectable examples of food on film." (Rotten Tomatoes) ***If you are Black, Indigenous, or a person of color and would like a discounted ticket, use promo code "BIPOC" to receive $5 off***…

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$10
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