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Culture

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PuzzleWatch

Detail from Norman Rockwell's 1943 "April Fool cover" for The Saturday Evening Post

PuzzleWatch: April Fools

Celebrate a slightly belated April Fools’ Day with a fittingly foolish crossword puzzle.

In Ashland, a pair of winners at OSF

The intimate solo shows “Smote This” and “Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender” dive compellingly into soulful matters – and they run at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival only into May.

OSU’s new cultural hub throws a party

The university swings open the doors of its new $75 million PRAx arts and performance hall and kicks off a creative space for students, artists, and the surrounding community.

Ned Blackhawk and the Rediscovery of America

Blackhawk, winner of a 2023 National Book Award for his history of Native life in the U.S. and its historical misrepresentation, speaks in the Oregon Historical Society’s Hatfield Lecture series.

Corvallis’s PRAx of life opens its doors

OSU’s new performance and exhibition space, a busy hub of activity from morning to evening, brings a chance to transform how people see the university – and it has an open house April 6.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 14

K.B. Dixon’s cultural-portrait series continues with black & white images of novelist Lydia Kiesling, actor Charles Grant, multidisciplinary artist Emily Ginsburg, photographer Thibault Roland, and writer/editor Margaret Malone.

Exploring race through theater at The Reser

Recent productions “North” and Red Door Project’s “The Evolve Experience” highlight the Beaverton arts center’s socially responsive programming.

Liz Cheney on Jan. 6 and beyond

Speaking to a Hatfield Lecture Series audience about her book “Oath and Honor,” the former congresswoman talks about Putin, China, Israel/Hamas, Trump’s “Big Lie” and more.

Songs from the Congo

Looking at “Black Artists of Oregon” and “Africa Fashion” at the Portland Art Museum.

Jon Franklin, who died last month at 82, taught a generation of journalists – including ArtsWatch’s Brett Campbell -- to apply the power of storytelling to news reporting. Franklin is pictured in 1985 in his University of Maryland office. Photo by: Edwin Remsberg/The Diamondback/University of Maryland University Archives

Jon Franklin and the art of nonfiction

A former student recalls how the one-time University of Oregon and Oregon State professor taught generations of writers to use the techniques of drama to tell true stories.

Everybody comes to Mekong Bistro

With music and dancing and dining and a welcoming vibe, a refugee from Pol Pot’s Cambodia has created a gathering place for Southeast Asians and others in greater Portland.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 13

K.B. Dixon’s cultural-portrait series continues with black & white images of jazz drummer Ron Steen, multimedia artist Pamela Chipman, musical-theater leader Sharon Maroney, filmmaker Jim Blashfield, and author and environmentalist Allison Cobb.

A painting’s long and personal journey

How Beauford Delaney’s “Twilight Street” got from 119 Waverly Place in New York’s Greenwich Village to the studio of art conservator Nina Olsson to the Portland Art Museum’s walls.

Dennis Nyback: The show must go on

Fifteen months after the death of the legendary showman and collector of rare and offbeat films, friends and colleagues are rescuing his films and bringing them back into theaters.

Stage & Studio: A Memory of Gerardo Calderon

The vibrant musician, born in Mexico and bringing its sounds and traditions to the Northwest, has died. Dmae Lo Roberts brings back this podcast conversation with him.

Leonard Bernstein in 1955

PuzzleWatch: Maestro – The Bernstein Puzzle

The iconic conductor, composer, and music educator, back in the limelight after getting the biopic treatment, now receives the greatest honor of them all: his own ArtsWatch crossword puzzle.

Listen to ‘I Have a Dream’

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, take seven minutes to watch and hear the eloquence and artistry of the famous speech that helped re-set a nation’s compass.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it slow

Yes, Portland’s in the middle of a rare winter storm, and events are shutting down. Then again, it’s a good time to slow down, take a break, reminisce and recharge.

Hank Minor, a master falconer from Sisters, and his Harris hawk, Molly, gave a presentation in September on the art of falconry at the Harney County Library in Burns. Photo courtesy: Harney County Library

Oregon’s rural libraries: Crossroads of community

In small towns, libraries are often the only places that host art and cultural events. Librarians say grants, such as one open this month from Oregon Humanities, are crucial to making that happen.

Tilikum Chamber Orchestra Romantic
Kalakendra May 18
CMNW Council
Blueprint Arts Carmen Sandiego
Seattle Opera Barber of Seville
Stumptown Stages Legally Blonde
Corrib Hole in Ground
Kalakendra May 3
Portland Opera Puccini
Cascadia Composers May the Fourth
Portland Columbia Symphony Adelante
OCCA Monthly
NW Dance Project
Oregon Repertory Singers Finding Light
PPH Passing Strange
Maryhill Museum of Art
PSU College of the Arts
Bonnie Bronson Fellow Wendy Red Star
Pacific Maritime HC Prosperity
PAM 12 Month
High Desert Sasquatch
Oregon Cultural Trust
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