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!

Spectral Transmissions: Ghosts of Futures Past

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Presented and Directed by Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher Spectral Transmissions: Ghosts of Futures Past is a multimedia event in the style of a 1930s/1940s radio show. In this special festival edition of Spectral Transmissions, a host of filmmakers, writers, and artists explore how the past and the future haunt us today. Program contributors include: Cliff Hengst, Donal Mosher and Mike Palmieri, Courtney Stephens, Nels Bangerter with Jack Bangerter and Nicole Billeschou, Lynne Tillman, Mark Elijah Rosenberg with Steven Christopher Quinn and Elliot PDS-70b Skaff, Steven Sheil and Jeanie Finlay, Kirsten Johnson with Dick Johnson, Matt McCormick, D-L Alvarez, Holland Andrews, Jason Hanasik, Johanna Jackson, Selections from the Public Domain Review, Chanti Darling, Danny Paul Grody, Nancy Andrews and Jennifer Reeder. The program will screen for the festival duration, March 5-14. Tickets can be purchased below.…

$9

PROTOCOL: Episode 1

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

When an unexpected tragedy befalls the crew aboard space cruiser Elegua IV, they are thrust into a thrilling mystery which threatens their mission to preserve humanity. Conceived by Portland artist Phil Johnson, this science fiction audio experience traverses multiple times, dimensions, and galaxies. Immerse yourself in the pilot episode of PROTOCOL, a new podcast which explores how the systems we trust may not always be on our side. In honor of Lowell Jacobs. “PROTOCOL marks a revolutionary period in the world of audio and cinema. My goal was to expand the audio genre and create something unique, yet reminiscent of the way folks used to gather around the radio for their weekly audio dramas. The pilot of PROTOCOL was conceived with a group of futurists…

Free

Application Deadline: KBOO Artist in Residence

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The KBOO Community Radio Artist In Residence Program assists artists working creatively with sound. Every year, one artist or one collaborative group of artists will be awarded twenty hours of studio recording*** and production time with a KBOO Mixologist in order to create a piece of sound art that will be publicly presented at the end of the Residency. ***Due to COVID19, studio recording time may be limited or not available. KBOO is currently closed to all non-essential in-studio activity and we do not yet have an anticipated date for re-opening. The public presentation may need to be limited to a virtual format only depending on health and safety measures. Applicants should submit proposals that do not depend on using KBOO studios or having an…

Free

Oregon Book Awards Show: The Archive Project

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The 2021 Oregon Book Award winners will be announced on May 2, 2021, on a special episode of The Archive Project, airing on OPB Radio at 7:00 p.m. The hour-long show will be hosted by Omar El Akkad and Elena Passarello, and will feature readings from Oregon Book Awards winners, archival audio from previous Oregon Book Awards ceremonies, and an interview with CES Wood recipient Molly Gloss. Omar El Akkad was born in Cairo, Egypt and grew up in Doha, Qatar until he moved to Canada with his family. He is an award-winning journalist and author who has traveled around the world to cover many of the most important news stories of the last decade. His reporting includes dispatches from the NATO-led war in Afghanistan,…

Free

The Strange Case of Nick M.

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

A cocky podcaster unearths a box of old audio tapes belonging to a psychotherapist revealing a risky experiment with an amnesiac patient. Imago marks their foray into radio drama with The Strange Case of Nick M. by Drew Pisarra. Purchase a ticket and you will receive a link and password on May 6 so you can listen to this original radio play beginning May 7. Your ticket gives you access to stream the piece anytime from May 7 12pm PT until May 15 12am PT. Only one ticket is required per household. If you have any questions, email us at imagotheatre@gmail.com. The Strange Case of Nick M. is Imago's trippy audio journey into the fragmentary world of Nick M. a severe amnesiac. Narrated by a…

$10

Live Wire: Sarah Marshall, Dino Archie, Omar El Akkad, MAITA

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

SARAH MARSHALL Sarah Marshall is a writer, podcaster, and media critic focused on setting straight our collective memory—or at least getting to the bottom of why we believe and in turn define ourselves by popular narrative and myth. Why is the maligned woman a staple of our news media? Why do we believe that serial killers are brilliant? How do we keep stumbling into all these moral panics? These are some of the questions that propel Sarah forward. She is the co-host of the popular modern history podcast You’re Wrong About, which has been highlighted in the New Yorker, the Guardian and Time Magazine. Website • Twitter DINO ARCHIE Dino Archie is a stand-up comedian who has been featured on Comedy Central’s Adam Devine’s House…

$30 – $45

The Tesla City Stories Season 6 World Premiere

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

We are so grateful to be back! A monthly night of vintage radio comedy and drama — live onstage in Portland, Oregon! Straight outta 1944! Laughs! Chills! Romance! Danger! Booze! Eats! Cash bar! Live Foley! 1940’s live music! Prizes! Audience participation! New installment of “Blevins to Betsy“. Threatened by crooner Bobby Villanova’s attentions towards Betsy, Blevins takes comfort in the knowledge he’s still first in the hearts of radio fans. He is, isn’t he? “Blevins to Betsy” is a romantic-comedy set in the world of radio. He’s Blevins DeBell, America’s favorite radio star. She’s Betsy Harper, small town girl and production assistant at the TBC. Their fortunes and hearts become entangled when Betsy steps into the figurative shoes of Blevins’s former co-star and wife, Joan…

$9 – $140

Lux Radio Theater’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still”

Alberta Abbey 126 NE Alberta Street #205, Portland, OR, United States

Fake Radio opens its 2021 season of shows with a recreation of Lux Radio Theatre's 1954 Broadcast of: ”The Day the Earth Stood Still" Our special guest star is Phil Proctor, cast member from the world-famous "Firesign Theater" comedy troupe!! If you don't think Science Fiction can be hysterically funny, then welcome to the world of Fake Radio's comedic recreations of old-time radio classics! An alien named Klaatu lands his spacecraft on Earth just after the end of World War II. He brings an important message to the planet that he wishes to tell the representatives of all nations. However, communication turns out to be difficult due to Cold War fears and Klaatu is forced to try an alternative approach. The result shocks the entire…

$25 – $45

Live Wire: Tom Scharpling, Mohanad Elshieky, Kaveh Akbar, and MAITA

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

TOM SCHARPLING Tom Scharpling has hosted the weekly radio call-in comedy program, The Best Show with Tom Scharpling, for 18 years. He and his comedy parter Jon Wurster released a 16 disc compilation of their greatest hits, The Best of the Best Show, in 2015 to critical acclaim. He is also known as the voice of Greg Universe on the hit Cartoon Network animated series Steven Universe and as a writer-executive producer for the Emmy Award–winning show Monk. In his new book, It Never Ends, Scharpling is sharing a story he has never told before—his own harrowing coming of age. He chronicles the lengths he has gone to pull away from the brink of self-destruction, his difficult rehabilitation and how he committed himself to reinvention…

$30 – $45

Live Wire: Portland Book Festival Edition with Gary Shteyngart, Omar El Akkad, Atsuko Okatsuka, The Lowest Pair.

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

GARY SHTEYNGART Gary Shteyngart is not afraid to get satirical when the situation calls for it. An American writer born in Leningrad, Shteyngart’s prose is filled with blistering humor and sharp societal observations powered by masterful storytelling. His work is acclaimed and awarded, best-selling and blurbed, read and translated into twenty-six languages. Our Country Friends is the story of eight friends, one country house, four romances, and six months in isolation to explore love, friendship, family, and betrayal. Twitter • Buy 'Our Country Friends' OMAR EL AKKAD Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist. He began his journalism career at the start of the war on terror, and, over the following decade, he reported from Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and many other locations around the…

$30 – $45