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Nothing helps cure that late winter ennui quite like putting some fun events on the calendar to look forward to. (Well, round-trip tickets to Palm Springs are also very effective, but we’re not here to tell you to blow that kind of cash.) Here are some local options that caught our eyes this March through May, across many artistic disciplines: performance, film, visual art, music and books. Get planning.
DISH: Portland Dining Month
We had kind of forgotten about this promotion because it has been on hiatus for five long years, but now we remember—it’s the one where more than 100 restaurants offer limited-time, prix fixe menus of an appetizer, entree and dessert for the entire month of March. This time, the menus will be available at two different price points, $35 or $55, and some restaurants will offer both options. It’s the perfect chance to go somewhere new. Various locations, pdxdiningmonth.com. March 1–31.
VISUAL ART: A Land That Remembers by Erinn Kathryn and M. Earl Williams
Two artists present their new work at Carnation Gallery in a show that delves into how landscapes endure over time. Kathryn’s installation Echo of the Oak re-creates a 400-year-old tree out of Amazon cardboard paper pulp as a way to “eulogize the memory of lost landscapes,” according to an artist’s statement. In Ghost Dance in the Machine, Williams reexamines Indigenous rituals through digital media. Carnation Contemporary, 8371 N Interstate Ave., carnationcontemporary.com. March 7–29, opening reception 5–8 pm Saturday, March 7. Free.
FILM: Portland EcoFilm Festival
It’s not just your imagination: From March through June, movie screens around town will be decidedly crunchier. The 13th annual Portland EcoFilm Festival will show more than 30 films about nature and ecology at venues such as the Hollywood Theatre, Cinema 21 and the Clinton Street Theater. On April 15 and 18, director Igor Bezinović will attend the regional premieres of Fiume O Morte!, a documentary about the post-World War I Italian occupation of his hometown of Rijeka, Croatia. The film won the 2025 European Film Award for Best Documentary. Various locations, portlandecofilmfest.org. March 12–May 30.
MUSIC: Toody Cole
Portland punk legend and bassist Toody Cole promises to carry the Dead Moon songbook forward at her show at the Star Theater. Following the death of fellow Dead Moon founders Fred Cole and Andrew Loomis, Cole’s bandmates will be drummer Kelly Haliburton of Pierced Arrows and guitarist Christopher March of Jenny Don’t & The Spurs. Chatter Box opens. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 866-777-8932, startheaterportland.com. 8 pm Tuesday, March 17. $25. 21+.
BOOKS: Kin by Tayari Jones
Tayari Jones’ 2018 novel An American Marriage was a must-read, and we have our fingers crossed that her new offering, Kin, published Feb. 24, will be too. Her new book takes place in fictional Honeysuckle, La., in the 1950s. It tells the story of two motherless girls growing up against the backdrop of Jim Crow and the civil rights movement. Jones will be in conversation with Kiley Reid at a ticketed event that includes a hardcover copy of Kin. Powell’s Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 503-228-4651, powells.com. 7 pm Tuesday, March 24. $45.
THEATER: New2You Festival
Local theater company Hand2Mouth has put together the inaugural New2You Festival of new works, all exploring the theme of body and technology. The nine original works during the nine-day festival will span genres and formats: absurdism, clowning, storytelling, projection art and more. Expect a thorough skewering of artificial intelligence. Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, 15 NE Hancock St., hand2mouththeatre.org/new2you-2026. March 27–April 4. $15–$40.
THEATER: Fat Ham
Theatergoers lost their damn minds about how great this modern Hamlet adaptation was when it played at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival last spring. For those who didn’t make it down to Ashland, the 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by James Ijames will luckily open in the Rose City in April as a co-production between Portland Center Stage and Portland Playhouse. It tells the story of Juicy, a queer Black kid living in the South whose father’s ghost appears at a backyard family cookout. Portland Center Stage, 128 NW 11th Ave., 503-445-3700, pcs.org. April 19–May 17. $25–$98.
BOOKS: Oregon Book Awards Ceremony
This year’s celebration of the state’s most accomplished writers will be hosted by last year’s fiction winner, Kimberly King Parsons, author of We Were the Universe. This year’s nominees include a number of debut authors as well as some familiar names, such as memoirist Lidia Yuknavitch in the creative nonfiction category for Reading the Waves and popular cartoonist Aron Nels Steinke competing in the graphic literature category with Speechless. Portland Center Stage at The Armory, 128 NW 11th Ave., literary-arts.org/event/oba-2026. 7:30 pm Monday, April 20. $15–$65.
