If you look forward to our roundup of the best Portland events every week (hey, thanks!), you'll be pleased to know that we've extended our range through the weekend to help you keep your schedule full of ways to stay entertained without leaving your couch. Read on below for details on virtual events like Profile Theater's production of Mlima's Tale Past Event Like List , the BendFilm Festival Past Event Like List , and Northwest Theatre Workshop and Theatre Vertigo's Bad Citizen: Part II Past Event Like List . For non-virtual things to do, check out our roundup of socially distant in-person happenings for the weekend Like List , or peruse our complete in-person and streaming calendars and our guide to ways to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day Like List .
Jump to: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday
MONDAY
COMMUNITY
MusicPortland October First Monday: Building Equity in Community Media
Past Event
Like
List
XRAY.FM's DJ Ambush, We Out Here Magazine's Mac Smiff, former Portland Mercury music editor Jenni Moore, and Vortex Music Magazine's Chris Young will link up online to discuss independent music institutions and the role they play in Portland, as well as how indie media can foster inclusivity.
GEEK
The Princess Bride Trivia
Past Event
Like
List
Stumptown Trivia will test your knowledge of everyone's favorite Renaissance-era rom-com on Facebook Live.
MONDAY-TUESDAY
MUSIC
Virtual Concert: Pacifica Quartet
Past Event
Like
List
Enjoy a retrospective of chamber music works honoring the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, brought to your ears by Portland's Pacifica Quartet on YouTube.
MONDAY-SATURDAY
COMMUNITY
MVM XII: A Virtual Gala from the Comfort of your Couch
Past Event
Like
List
My Voice Music, a local organization that teaches youth to write, record, and perform original songs, will host an online gala featuring performances from their "resilient young rockers" and MCs, as well as a virtual auction.
TUESDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Powell's Books Presents Michael Ian Black in Conversation With Maria Konnikova
Past Event
Like
List
Comedian and newly fangled writer Michael Ian Black shares a heartfelt letter to his college-bound offspring in A Better Man: A (Mostly Serious) Letter to My Son, which warns about the effects of toxic masculinity and offers tools to overcome it. Join him for a reading and conversation with writer and psychologist Maria Konnikova.
WEDNESDAY
COMMUNITY
Blue Sky Artist Talk: Diana Nicholette Jeon
Past Event
Like
List
Listen in on a Zoom talk and Q&A with artist Diana Nicholette Jeon, whose photography exhibition "Nights As Inexorable As the Sea" is currently on view at Blue Sky Gallery.
MUSIC
VNPRT & Friends
Past Event
Like
List
Catch a special birthday edition of the improvisational music series VNPRT & Friends, where Portland-based DJ VNPRT will spin live with accompaniment from Brown Alice (Brown Calculus), Charlie Brown III on keyboard, Noah Simpson on trumpet, Cary Miga on bass, and Shook Black on drums, with additional special guest Adriana Wagner.
READINGS & TALKS
Maaza Mengiste, Hannah Georgis
Past Event
Like
List
Set during Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, Maaza Mengiste’s The Shadow King casts a light on the women soldiers who were left out of the WWII chapters of your history books. The author will be joined in conversation by Hannah Giorgis, culture writer at The Atlantic.
The Stranger Presents: Silent Reading Party
Remind
Like
List
A lot of people are taking the opportunity to turn the online version of The Stranger's super-successful words 'n' vibes experience into a weekly online destination, a respite from (waves hands exasperatedly at basically everything) and an opportunity to simply... slow up, sit down, and just listen to live piano music while sinking into a good book. If you haven't tried it out yet, tonight's the night, and we'll see you at 6pm. If you have tried it out before? Welcome back. It's a damn nice oasis of low-key bliss, isn't it?
WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY
THEATER & PERFORMANCE
Mlima's Tale
Past Event
Like
List
Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage's play, directed here by Reginald L. Douglas and performed by Profile Theater players, is told through the perspective of a Kenyan elephant whose prized tusks trap her in an illegal ivory market. "Mlima takes us on a journey through memory and fear, history and tradition, want and need, and the complicated deals we make with ourselves and each other to get what we most desire," read press materials. Watch the performance on the theater's website for a whole month.
THURSDAY
COMMUNITY
Raise Your Pen
Past Event
Like
List
Join Write Around Portland writers, Executive Director Liz Eslinger, and slam poet Marisol Tawadros for a virtual fundraiser benefiting the organization, which brings writing workshops to hospitals, schools, homeless youth shelters, senior centers, low-income apartments, prisons, social service agencies, and treatment facilities.
FILM
Movie Madness University: Psycho
Past Event
Like
List
Hollywood Theatre programmer Ted Hurliman will go deep into the Hitchcock classic Psycho on its 60th anniversary.
MUSIC
Come Together: Mental Health Music Festival
Past Event
Like
List
Speakers from Mental Health America, the National Alliance on Mental Health Illness of New York City, and MusiCares will raise awareness of mental health at this online music festival, featuring sets from Smith & Meyers, Jason Isbell, Kiiara, American Authors, and others.
Transistor Twister: Radio Dance Party
Past Event
Like
List
This dance party will come to you in the most 1960s way possible: broadcast live on the video-less KMHD Jazz Radio. The "Transistor Twister" affair promises two whole hours of music you can do the twist to, from Muddy Waters to Lavern Baker to Dee Dee Sharp.
READINGS & TALKS
David Biespiel, David Naimon
Past Event
Like
List
In his new memoir, 2016 Oregon Book Award winner David Biespiel recounts his Jewish boyhood in Texas and explores his relationship to his hometown. He'll be joined in conversation by David Naimon, host of the literary radio show Between the Covers.
RESISTANCE & SOLIDARITY
Black Lives for Fire Relief Telethon
Past Event
Like
List
Local organization SNACK BLOC (who have come through with sustenance, medical supplies, and "chill zones" for protestors during Black Lives Matter demonstrations) are hosting a virtual telethon supporting communities whose homes and lives have been ravaged by the Oregon fires. At the same time, they'll continue to center their message around the need for systematic change at the local and national level to benefit Black communities.
THURSDAY-SUNDAY
FILM
BendFilm Festival
Past Event
Like
List
Part of the fun of the BendFilm Festival is the venues at which its films are screened (like a historic movie theater downtown and a craft brewery), but while social distancing won't allow for that this year, features like Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President will be shown at drive-in venues. Don't have a car? There are plenty of streaming options too, like the Stranger-approved documentary Spawning Grounds.
FRIDAY
HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH
Noche Libre: Chiquitxs Regional Edition w/ DJs Lapaushi & La Tati
Past Event
Like
List
Settle into a night of "Latinxs rhythms and vibes" from Central and South America regions, featuring DJs Lapaushi from Ecuador and La Tati from Honduras.
MUSIC
Vote Out the Gas - Sarah for Mayor Benefit Concert
Past Event
Like
List
This ASL-interpreted benefit concert for Portland mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone will feature livestreamed performances from Northwest indie-rock heavies Corin Tucker, Stephen Malkmus, Patterson Hood, Laura Veirs, and many others.
READINGS & TALKS
A Conversation with Elena Passarello
Past Event
Like
List
Actor and non-fiction writer Elena Passarello will discuss her essay "Twinkle, Twinkle Vogel Staar, On Mozart's Feathered Collaborator," which originally appeared in Virginia Quarterly.
Terry Virts in Conversation With Katie Mack
Past Event
Like
List
According to press materials, former NASA astronaut Terry Virts's account of traveling to the great beyond "will appeal to anyone with even a passing interest in space." The author will appear in conversation with Katie Mack.
THEATER & PERFORMANCE
A Taste of Dance
Past Event
Like
List
Local choreographers will showcase new dance works every Friday in October, starting with TriptheDark Dance Company's three pieces reflecting some of the major events of the past few months (the COVID-19 crisis, the resurgence of Black Lives Matter, and the upcoming election, to name a few). Those who registered in September will enjoy wine tastings while they watch the performances, but those who missed that boat can and should still pour themselves the finest vino they have onhand.
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
MUSIC
Hanson - Live And Electric Revisited
Past Event
Like
List
On the 15h anniversary of The Best of Hanson: Live & Electric, enjoy Hanson classics like "Where’s The Love and This Time Around," plus covers of Radiohead and U2.
THEATER & PERFORMANCE
Bad Citizen: Part II
Past Event
Like
List
These four new short plays that explore the challenge of being a citizen in a divided society are a collaboration between Northwest Theatre Workshop and Theatre Vertigo. Each online performance includes a post-show conversation with the cast, crew, and you, the audience.
SATURDAY
FILM
15th Annual Hump Film Fest - Encore Presentation
Past Event
Like
List
Our colleagues, the creators of HUMP!, were crushed to cancel their originally planned fall tour. But after receiving enthusiastic support and permission from the filmmakers to show their films online, they knew that the show must go on! Even if we can’t watch together in movie theaters, we can still watch the 16 sexy short films, curated by Dan Savage, in the privacy and safety of our homes. Dan will introduce the show and then take you straight to the great dirty movies that showcase an amazing range of shapes, colors, sexualities, kinks, and fetishes!
MUSIC
Soovin Kim: Bach’s Complete Violin Sonatas & Partitas
Past Event
Like
List
Chamber Music Northwest will kick off their virtual season on the right foot (for free!) with Bach’s set of six sonatas and partitas for solo violin, performed by Co-Artistic Director Soovin Kim.
READINGS & TALKS
John O. Brennan: Undaunted
Past Event
Like
List
Covering more than 30 years in his career in government, John Brennan shares his trajectory from a young CIA recruit with a penchant for spy stories to his travels in the Middle East to his final days as CIA director. Hear him read from his memoir Undaunted tonight with Powell's.
RESISTANCE & SOLIDARITY
RESPECT RUTH & March for Our Future
Past Event
Like
List
Two days before the confirmation hearing for Ruth Bader Ginsburg's proposed replacement begins, demonstrators will gather nationwide to honor the iconic late Supreme Court Justice's memory and preserve her legacy as a champion of equal protection under the law for people of all genders, races, and creeds.
Terry Schrunk Plaza (Southwest)
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
QUEER
Our Bold Voices Celebrates: National Coming Out Day
Past Event
Like
List
It's a weekend of queer music, stories, and Q&As on Zoom in honor of National Coming Out Day.
SUNDAY
COMEDY
International Coming Out Day Comedy Extravaganza!
Past Event
Like
List
Join Portland Pride and XRAY.fm in celebrating queer comedy (and queerness in general) with over 25 LGBTQ+ comedians from around the world, like Belinda Carroll and DarcelleXV: The Musical’s James Sharinghousen. You can stream the whole thing on Pride Northwest's YouTube channel or you can listen in on XRAY.
QUEER
The Coming Out Monologues 2020
Past Event
Like
List
LGBTQ+ Oregonians will perform original stories telling of their experiences coming out to their friends and families.
ALL WEEK
FILM
Ashland Independent Film Festival, Varsity World Film Week
Past Event
Like
List
You know Ashland for its annual Shakespeare scene, but its annual film festival is another reason to visit (or, in this year's case, open your computer). The festival will kick off its 20th anniversary with the Varsity World Film Series, where you'll be able to stream new international films from Chile, China, France, Israel, and beyond.
Portland Dance Film Fest
Past Event
Like
List
With 10 days of screenings, workshops, and world premieres (including 24 short films made while sheltering in place, such as Deny Ardianto's Morning Coffee), this fourth annual film festival will have you longing for live dance performances again.
FILM
Portland Latin American Film Festival XIV
Past Event
Like
List
The Hollywood Theater is moving the Portland Latin American Film Festival online, which is bittersweet. Bitter: Everyone loves a big screen, especially at this historic gem. Sweet: You'll have a full 48 hours to watch a film once you hit play. From September to November, the festival will present six movies from Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Switzerland, and Belgium that celebrate and honor the cultural diversity of Latin America. The current film is Jose Manuel Cravioto's Olimpia, which tells the story of two members of the Mexican National University brigade during the 1968 student movement in Mexico.
