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GO | Patricia Wolf
Formerly of the L.A. group Soft Metals, Patricia Wolf is better known these days for her experimental and electronic solo forays. In May of this year, she released Life on Smoking Mountain, a series of breathtaking field recordings of bird chirps and other gentle soundscapes taken on Mount St. Helens. Wolf probably won’t play birdsong at this Creative Music Guild-curated Improvisation Summit of Portland, but it would be pretty cool to see the crowd response if she did. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-239-7639, holocene.org. 9 pm Wednesday, Oct. 13. $15.
VIRTUAL | Cecily Wong
Atlas Obscura co-founder Dylan Thuras and Portland writer Cecily Wong (Diamond Head) teamed up to write a directory of strange, interesting culinary tidbits from all over the world. Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide tells you what it is right away; this is a big book of weird food trivia. But if you’ve ever wondered about Norway’s pizza-consumption habits, what the rarest pasta in the world is, or if the guy who invented pad thai was evil, Gastro Obscura has your page number. Register for the Zoom event at powells.com. 6 pm Thursday, Oct. 14. Free.
GO | Martha Bakes
Written by playwright Don Wilson Glenn and directed by Vanport Mosaic’s Damaris Webb, Martha Bakes stars Victoria Alvarez Chacon and Melanie Moseley as original first lady Martha Washington and her slave Ona Marie Judge. The script was inspired by a story passed down through Glenn’s family about Washington’s last will and testament—specifically, the part that set his Mount Vernon slaves free after the death of Martha. “This was folklore that was part of our culture and told in different ways through enslaved people, and then passed on to their children and grandchildren, and I thought it was unique,” says Glenn. Now, as the tale comes to life for vaccinated and masked audiences at CoHo Theatre, it also commemorates the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery. CoHo Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 503-220-2646, cohoproductions.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, Oct. 14-17. $5-$50 donation suggested.
GO | Mic Check Soul Clap
A long-standing Portland hip-hop showcase, Mic Check is one of the scene’s best curations of up and coming talent, flexing rhymes onstage. This special Soul Clap show boasts not only new voices but established figures like Mic Capes and hosts DJ Klyph and DJ O.G.One. Though the small rooms it’s generally held in, like the White Eagle, give Mic Check a warm, community feeling—for this show’s purposes, Polaris Hall feels like a safer bet so cyphers can work their words at a safe distance. Polaris Hall requires proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test at the door for admission. But if you forget, the testing site at Mississippi Studios is less than a mile away. Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth Court, 503-240-6088. 7 pm Friday, Oct. 15. $10.
GO | Minority Retort: Mohanad Elshieky
Pure happenstance led comedian Mohanad Elshieky to Portland. In 2014, he could have ended up at any of the five cities participating in a six-week exchange program from Libya, but he landed in Portland where he began to work on a dream of performing standup comedy. After appearing on Conan and Wanda Sykes’ docuseries Unprotected Sets, Elshieky’s move to New York to take a digital producer job on Full Frontal With Samantha Bee felt like nature correcting a cool error made in our city’s favor. So it’s nice that Elshieky still visits—even nicer that he appears in an excellent comedy showcase like Minority Retort, where hosts Jason Lamb and Julia Ramos curate some of Portland’s best comedic talent. Curious Comedy, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-477-9477, curiouscomedy.org. 7:30 pm Friday, Oct 15. $15-$20.
GO | Face to Face
The opening performance of Oregon Ballet Theatre’s fall season, Face to Face contains three ballet pieces—Ben Stevenson’s Three Preludes, George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, and Jennifer Archibald’s SculptedClouds. While the trifecta represents a lovely smorgasbord of intimate and sparse works, Face to Face is also the only shot you’ll have at watching professional-level ballet in Portland until George Balanchine’s Nutcracker kicks off in mid-December. All three works are presented at each showing—but there are only three showings to choose from. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 503-248-4335, obt.org. 7:30 pm Friday, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 15-16. $24-$105.
SEE | Possession
After asking her husband (Sam Neill) for a divorce, Anna (Isabelle Adjani) starts exhibiting violently deranged behavior in this one-of-a-kind psychological thriller about the vicious, visceral dissolution of a marriage. Experience a newly restored version of the milk-drenched subway dance scene in glorious 4K! Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-493-1128, hollywoodtheatre.org. 9:30 pm Friday, 7 and 9:45 pm Saturday, 9:30 pm Sunday, Oct. 15-17. $8-$10.
