Going a little batty trying to stay occupied at home while Portland remains in lockdown? We've got you covered with a roundup of our picks for this week's best online events, from a Portland Book Festival Past Event Like List discussion with prize-winning authors Isabel Wilkerson and Viet Thanh Nguyen Past Event Like List to the I, Anonymous Live-streaming Show Past Event Like List , and from the Virtual Sinferno Cabaret Past Event Like List to HUMP! Greatest Hits, Volume 2 Past Event Like List .

---

Jump to: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Multi-Day

---

MONDAY

FILM

Ursula K. Le Guin and the Movies Past Event Like List
This three-part online workshop will delve into the late, legendary Portland author Ursula K. Le Guin’s work as it's been adapted for the screen. Filmmaker Arwen Curry (director/producer of the 2018 feature documentary Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin) will begin each class with rare interview footage with Le Guin.

READINGS & TALKS 

West X Midwest: Claudia Rankine and Jericho Brown Past Event Like List
McArthur Fellow Claudia Rankine and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jericho Brown will discuss Just Us, Rankine’s new collection of essays, poems, and images that explore a better future for race equity in America. 

See Also: Multi-Day Events

---

TUESDAY

COMMUNITY

BLOOD and SOIL! Real Estate and Racism in Modern American History Past Event Like List
Johns Hopkins history professor N. D. B. Connolly will argue that modern liberalism, suburbanization, and multiculturalism all stem from Jim Crow-era governance, resulting in redlining and other forms of modern white supremacist segregation. 

MUSIC

Sylvan Esso Past Event Like List
Former Stranger staffer Kim Selling wrote, "Every new generation of college kids needs at least one party album to rally behind. For my freshman year, it was M.I.A.’s Kala and Kanye West’s Graduation—for this year’s crop, it will be Sylvan Esso’s What Now. Their electrified, multilayered pop is clever, bright, and fully hitched to dance as a primary activity in a way that feels much like two-dimensional worship. Preaching a lifestyle adjacent to “the power of dance heals all” is a little #LoveWins for my taste, but Sylvan Esso manage to carry their music through these lyrical tropes with a strength of conviction that is truly impressive (and occasionally beguiling). And hey—who am I to shit on such an active joy?" Join the artist for an online concert courtesy of Wonder Ballroom. 

READINGS & TALKS

Braiding Sweetgrass Author Robin Wall Kimmerer Past Event Like List
Author Robin Wall Kimmerer, who writes about plants and botany through Native American traditions and Western scientific traditions in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, will give a talk on building a sustainable future. 

How I Built This: Guy Raz & Sadie Lincoln Past Event Like List
Guy Raz, host of the podcast (and author of the new book) How I Built This, will join Sadie Lincoln, co-founder of the fitness company barre3, for the Portland Book Festival Past Event Like List . 

Margaret Atwood & Karen Russell Past Event Like List
Dystopian fiction queen Margaret Atwood will join the Portland Book Festival Past Event Like List for a look at her first collection of poetry in over a decade, which traverses themes of love, loss, the passage of time, and, yes, zombies. She'll be joined by beloved local author Karen Russell. 

Tainted Love: Rebecca Dinerstein Knight & Raven Leilani with John Freeman Past Event Like List
Two authors whose recent books deal with messy, obsessive relationships (Raven Leiliani's buzzy Luster and Rebecca Dinerstein Knight's Hex) will join a Portland Book Festival Past Event Like List discussion moderated by John Freeman editor of Freeman's Love. 

See Also: Multi-Day Events

---

WEDNESDAY

COMEDY

The I, Anonymous Live-streaming Show! Past Event Like List
If you're desperately needing some top notch comedy, then the I, Anonymous Show is for you! Here's how it works: We get the funniest local and national comedians to riff and heckle the wildest, jaw-droppingly wrong, and uncensored I, Anonymous submissions from the famous Stranger and Portland Mercury column, and in return you laugh yer buttz off! Joining your delightful host Kate Murphy (a Mercury "Undisputable Genius of Comedy") will be the following murderers' row of hilarious, nationally beloved comedians: Amy Miller, Adam Pasi, and Carla Rossi/Anthony Hudson. WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY

COMMUNITY

Meet the Columbia River’s Most Ancient Elder: Lamprey
Past Event Like List This online event with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission will introduce the oldest Pacific Northwest-native fish: the Pacific lamprey, whose fossils date back as far as 500 million years.

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?

MUSIC

Wild Rivers: Live from Lockdown Past Event Like List
This folk-pop show with Wild Rivers, streamed live from the Mod Club in Toronto (and presented by Wonder Ballroom), will benefit mental health organizers Bring Change to Mind and Jack.org. They'll be busting out new tracks from their 2020 EP Songs To Break Up To, as well as their single "Pink Shades."

READINGS & TALKS

Breaking Bread: Liz Crain & Megha Majumdar Past Event Like List
Bestselling novelist Megha Majumdar (A Burning) and cookbook author Liz Crain (Dumplings Equal Love) will talk food and shared meals in this Portland Book Festival Past Event Like List discussion. 

Native Story Hour Past Event Like List
Join Karen Kitchen (Osage Nation) for a story hour featuring songs and books from Native cultures. 

See Also: Multi-Day Events

---

THURSDAY

COMMUNITY

Restoring Portland’s Home Basin Past Event Like List
Learn about the Freshwater Trust's approach to restoration work and how it protects the basins and its communities and ecosystems. 

MUSIC

Free the Bird: A Solo Performance by Edna Vázquez Past Event Like List
PICA's queer-centric We Got Each Other's Backs Past Event Like List festival will wrap up with an intimate solo performance from Portland-based Latinx singer-songwriter Edna Vázquez, a portion of proceeds from which will benefit Pueblo Unido PDX and the Voz Workers' Rights Education Project. 

Noon Concert - 20 Digitus Duo Past Event Like List
Pianists Maria Garcia and Momoko Muramatsu, who have performed with the likes of the Mark Morris Dance Group under the moniker 20 Digitus Duo, will play classical standards peppered with pieces celebrating their shared Latin American musical heritage. 

READINGS & TALKS

Booker Prize Ceremony Past Event Like List
Two days after the publication of his new memoir, President Barack Obama—who, in addition to being a great writer, is also a voracious reader with eclectic tastes ranging from Sally Rooney to Hilary Mantel—will present this year's Man Booker Prize alongside past winners Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, and Bernardine Evaristo. The broadcast will be streamed live online in partnership with BBC from London’s Roundhouse and will honor nominees Tsitsi Dangarembga, Diane Cook, Avni Doshi, Maaza Mengiste, Douglas Stuart, and Brandon Taylor.

Isabel Wilkerson in conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen Past Event Like List
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson (The Warmth of Other Suns) explores "how race and related matters are viewed, perceived, experienced, understood" in her new book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Join her for a Portland Book Festival Past Event Like List conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen, who also won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his 2016 book The Sympathizer.

This Is Major: Shayla Lawson on OPB Past Event Like List
You may know Shayla Lawson from her book I Think I'm Ready to See Frank Ocean, which takes individual Frank Ocean songs as inspiration to produce "a mythological mixtape of confession and surreal sleuthing," as poet Phillip B. Williams has described it. Join her for a conversation on her new book of essays, This is Major: Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls and Being Dope. She'll be joined by OPB's Tiffany Camhi as part of the Portland Book Festival Past Event Like List .

See Also: Multi-Day Events

---

FRIDAY

FILM

HUMP! Greatest Hits, Volume 2 Past Event Like List
The HUMP! team is bringing back some fan-favorite amateur porn shorts from years past in the second volume of streamable compilations. If you get inspired, find out how to make and submit your own HUMP! film here—submissions are due January 8!

MUSIC

IN MY HOUSE: Floyd Vader + Ben Tactic Past Event Like List
This three-for-one house music extravaganza will bring you a dance workshop, dance performances, and DJ sets with Floyd Vader and Ben Tactic, courtesy of Holocene.

Portland Columbia Symphony: Wind Quintet Past Event Like List
Enjoy an evening of works by Gershwin, Hindemith, and Northwest composer Nicole Buetti, courtesy of the Portland Columbia Symphony. 

Thunderstorm Artis Past Event Like List
A recent finalist on The Voice, singer-songwriter Thunderstorm Artis will perform live from the Alberta Rose Theatre at this Portland Music Stream concert. 

READINGS & TALKS

Chosen Ones: Veronica Roth & Charlie Jane Anders Past Event Like List
Breaking her bestselling YA streak, Veronica Roth's Chosen Ones is the author's first adult novel, about what happens 10 years after a group of teens saves the world from evil. The author will be joined by Charlie Jane Anders (The City in the Middle of the Night) at this Portland Book Festival Past Event Like List event.

Live Wire Radio with Jill Lepore Past Event Like List
Those Instagram algorithms that prioritize faces over text and show you things based on what the internet aligns with your interests? That started all the way back in the Cold War. Hear more from Jill Lepore, author of These Truths, at this Portland Book Festival Past Event Like List edition of Live Wire Radio. 

See Also: Multi-Day Events

---

SATURDAY

COMEDY

Free Online Roast of Harry Potter 2 Past Event Like List
Now that JK Rowling has been outed as a trans-exclusionary radical feminist via Twitter, you shouldn't have a trace of guilt while roasting the second Harry Potter movie online with your internet friends. This event includes drinking games and primo observations from local comedians, as well as chances to add your own comments. 

FILM

Future Retro West Coast Premiere Past Event Like List
Warren Miller's new outdoor film will have you longing for the slopes. This *exclusive* online premiere is available only to West Coast-dwellers and includes red carpet events, coupons, giveaways, and more.

MUSIC

Saroon Album Release Show Past Event Like List
Join a gaggle of indie-folk artists for the online release of a new "existential psychedelic soul" album from Portland natives Saroon. 

READINGS & TALKS

Miami Book Fair X Portland Book Festival: Marcus Samuelsson & Dawn Davis Past Event Like List
Ethiopian Swedish chef and restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson, the head chef at Harlem's comfort food favorite Red Rooster, will discuss his co-written book The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food alongside incoming Bon Appétit editor-in-chief Dawn Davis. 

See Also: Multi-Day Events

---

SUNDAY

THEATER & PERFORMANCE

Virtual Sinferno Cabaret Past Event Like List
Dante's long-running cabaret show will bring its fire-dancing, DJs, and debauchery to wherever you are. 

---

MULTI-DAY

MUSIC

Virtual Concert: Fauré Piano Quartet Past Event Like List
The German-based Fauré Piano Quartet will bring their fresh interpretations to the table on Friends of Chamber Music's YouTube channel.
(Monday-Tuesday)

SHOPPING

Portland Audubon’s 40th Wild Arts Festival Past Event Like List
Support the work of the Portland Audubon Society by shopping for nature-themed works at their annual Wild Arts Festival, moving online this year.
(All week)

THEATER & PERFORMANCE

Hot ‘n’ Throbbing Past Event Like List
A single suburban mom writes feminist erotica to help pay the bills in Paula Vogel's latest production for Profile Theater.
(All week)