Each month, Literary Arts staff will round up news, events, and more happening in Portland, and beyond. Let us know if you have any events or news to share.
EVENTS
Portland Latin American Film Festival (Travel Portland) Through December 7 | $8 – $12 dollars | Hollywood Theater, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd
Portland
The Portland Latin American Film Festival announces its XVI Season at the Hollywood Theatre, with a mix of seven feature films, documentaries, and short films from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Uruguay and the USA.
Charles Johnson in Conversation With Daniel Duford (Powell’s) Monday November 28, 7:00 p.m. | Free to attend | Powell’s City of Books, 1005 West Burnside Street, Portland
Years before he wrote his National Book Award–winning novel Middle Passage, Charles Johnson created sidesplitting and subversive gag comics about Black life in America, now collected for the first time in nearly half a century. Taught via mail correspondence course by the comics editor Lawrence Lariar, mentored by the New Yorker cartoonist Charles Barsotti, and inspired by the call of poet Amiri Baraka to celebrate and depict Black life in America, Johnson crafted some of the fiercest and funniest cartoons of the 20th century. Reimagining the gag comic as a powerful and incendiary tool, Johnson tackled America’s mid-century afflictions — segregation, inner-city poverty, police brutality, and white supremacy — by craftily subverting stale gag tropes. He populated them with bullet-dodging Black Panthers, doubt-filled Klansmen, militant babies, self-serving politicians, and complacent suburban liberals. All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End (New York Review Comics) brings together work from across Johnson’s career: college newspaper gags, selections from his books, Black Humor and Half-Past Nation Time, his unpublished manuscript, Lumps in the Melting Pot, and uncollected pieces. Taken together, this volume reveals Johnson as long overdue for appreciation as a cartoonist of the first order. Johnson will be joined in conversation by Daniel Duford, artist, writer, and Visiting Professor of Art at Reed College.
Thanksgiving Day Volunteer and Opportunities and Free Meals (Blanchet House) Thursday November 24, 10:00 a.m. | Free | Union Gospel Mission, 3 NW 3rd Ave Portland
On this website you will find a list of volunteer opportunities for this upcoming holiday. Additionally there are resources for some of the meals that will be made available to the Portland community. For example Union Gospel mission will be serving to go meals on that Thursday.
RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTS AND WRITERS
Cave Canem Fellowship (Cave Canem Foundation)
Deadline: November 28th Cave Canem Fellows are among the most distinguished poets in the field, not only as recipients of the highest literary honors and critical acclaim but also for their service in communities across the country. nEach year a cohort of 10–20 new Fellows is selected based solely on the quality of their poems. Cohorts encompass a range of different aesthetics and poetic practices (the spoken word tradition, formalism, multimedia performance, text-based composition, etc.), to ensure an equity of voices in our gathering—all united by a common purpose to improve craft and find productive space. Fellows receive an unparalleled opportunity to study with a world-class faculty and join a community of peers at the Retreat, a week-long series of intensive poetry workshops, thought-provoking presentations, both public & private readings, and creative discourse
Oregon State Parks Centennial Creative Challenge (Oregon State Parks)
Deadline: December 31
Oregon’s Poet Laureate Anis Mojgani shared his thoughts about Oregon’s special places in a poem written for the Centennial celebration of Oregon State Parks. Now they want to hear from you!
What do Oregon’s state parks mean to you or your family, or how do they complement the Oregon mystique? Use Anis’ poem, The branch is both branch & tree, as inspiration, or draw from your own experience. Whether it’s a photograph, painting, dance, collage, or a song you’ve written—be creative and submit a digital file of your creation and describe the inspiration for your work. Submissions will be accepted through Dec. 31, 2022 and displayed on their website and social media.
FOR KIDS/ TEENS
A Pittock Mansion Christmas: Music Makes the Season (Pittock Mansion) Friday, November 25, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. | $6 – $15.50 dollar tickets | Pittock Mansion, 3229 NW Pittock Drive, Portland
Pittock Mansion Christmas rings in the holidays with this year’s Music Makes the Season exhibit. Experience this beloved Portland tradition and take in the sounds of the season through the festive,
music-themed displays of our volunteer decorators.
Bubbles + Books Weekly Story Time with Literacy Lady PDX (PDX Parent) Friday, November 25, 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. | Free to attend | REC Room Hammer + Jacks, 6406 SE Foster Rd Portland
Story time runs about 25-30 minutes and includes an opening song + dance followed by alternating stories, sing alongs and movement breaks! There are also bubbles! The event closes with a goodbye song and final dance for those wanting a little extra movement before departure! This is a great mid-morning activity for parents and children that squeezes in a lot of fun and reading! This event’s best for babies and preschoolers, but older siblings are welcome too. 😊
Elf the Musical ( Lakewood Center for the Arts ) Saturday, November 26, 7:30 p.m. | Ticket prices vary | Lakewood Center for the Arts, 368 S. State St. Lake Oswego
Based on the film by David Berenbaum, this hilarious fish-out-of-water musical follows Buddy the Elf in his search for his father. Faced with the harsh reality that his dad is on the naughty list, Buddy wins over his birth family and helps New York remember the true meaning of Christmas.
IN THE NEWS
Best Books 2022: Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly) 2022 Portland Book Festival authors Tess Gunty’s and Kate Beaton’s books have been chosen as the top ten books of the year by Publishers Weekly. Congratulations!
Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka wins 2022 Booker Prize (OPB) The 2022 Booker Prize was given to The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, written by Sri Lanka’s Shehan Karunatilaka.
2023 Carnegie Longlist (American Library Association)
Congratulations to Kate Beaton, Hua Hsu, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, and Morgan Talty for making the Carnigie longlist!
RECOMMENDED READING
Allyship: More resources for your journey (Multnomah County Library)
Fall Into A Cozy Hobby (Multnomah County Library)
