Portland Book Events: June 26-July 2

From what we could find (please contact us if you have an event you would like us to add to this or future schedules), the local book events for the week of June 26, 2010 through July 2, 2010 are:

Saturday June 26th-

Voices in Verse (Cedar Mill Community Library, @10:00am): Bring along a cup of coffee and share your own poetry or listen to others read their favorites. The group meets on the fourth Saturday morning of each month in the library’s upstairs meeting room.

Locally Grown Poetry w/ Kirsten Rian and Sam Lohmann (Hollywood Farmers Market, 44th & Hancock, @10:30am): On the last Saturdays of June, July and August, Portland poets will read while the market’s band-of-the-day takes breaks. Listen to good words while you choose your sweet carrots, free-range eggs, luscious berries – and lettuce so beautiful it could be a bouquet. Sam Lohmann edits the semiannual poetry zine Peaches and Bats, and is the author of several chapbooks and pamphlets, most recently Onlooking and Fluted Octaves (for nothing). Kirsten Rian’s anthology of Sierra Leonean poetry, Kalashnikov in the Sun, came out this year, following a collection of her own poetry and essays, Fugue (2009). She’s the poetry editor at writersdojo.org and was co-editor of the collection Walking Bridges Using Poetry as a Compass.

Alex Robinson Signing (Cosmic Monkey Comics, @12:00pm): Alex Robinson, Harvey Award winning creator of Box Office Poison, Too Cool to Be Forgotten, and more will sign copies of his work.

Taki Soma and Michael Avon Oeming (Things From Another World-Sandy Blvd, @1:00pm): Comic book creators Taki Soma and Michael Avon Oeming recently collaborated on Rapture, a limited series from Dark Horse Comics, called “A stylistic delight” by Broken Frontier and “. . . a compelling tale about the boundaries of humanity” by MTV.  In addition to signing their works, Oeming will be offering sketches for sale, with all proceeds benefiting the Hero Initiative, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping comic book creators, writers and artists in need.

Dana Haynes (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @4:00pm): Crashers (Minotaur) is Dana Haynes’s brilliantly conceived, high-energy thriller, combining cutting-edge, CSI-style investigation with a straight-out-of-24 ticking-clock chase.

Free Outdoor Film Screening: Women’s Film Preservation Fund (Ampersand, @9:00pm): The Women’s Film Preservation Fund is the only program in the world that works to preserve the cultural legacy of women in the film industry. This one-night only presentation includes That Man of Mine, a charming musical starring a young Ruby Dee and musicians from the all-woman jazz band, The International Sweethearts of Rhythm. Made by a small independent black company for black audiences, it was one of the first films to successfully counter its era’s negative stereotypes of African-Americans. And from late 1930s Groton, Massachusetts is The Movie Queen, a rare example of the “see yourself in pictures” genre. For this fun screening under the stars, Cinema Project has teamed up with northeast Portland photo and ephemera gallery Ampersand.

Sunday June 27th-

Opening Reception: John Adams Unbound (Central Library, @1:00pm): Besides being our nation’s second president, John Adams was known as an independent thinker and a brilliant mind. This traveling exhibit provides the remarkable opportunity to explore the book collection that fed his intellect.  Adam’s amassed one of the greatest private libraries in young America. The opening reception will feature early American music.  Click here for further information.

Travis Nichols (Ampersand, @7:00pm): Travis Nichols will read from his debut novel Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder. Titled after the US Air Force song, this engaging debut explores the legacy of the Greatest Generation from the perspective of Generation Y, the fallout of war through the eyes of a pacifist, and the enduring human desire for love, adventure, truth, and understanding.

Portland Poetry Slam w/ Rocky Bernstein (Backspace, @7:30pm, $5 suggested donation): PPS is back with an open slam for 50 bucks and the assorted glory that comes with it, an open mic and a feature with Rocky Bernstein from Seattle. If you showed up to the Deathmatch, you don’t need to be told that Rocky is one of the most insightful, original, and just plain badass women rocking the stage in poetry right now.

Spare Room presents Deborah Poe & Meredith Blankinship (Concordia Coffee House, @7:30pm, $5 suggested donation): Deborah Poe is the author of the poetry collections Elements (Stockport Flats) and Our Parenthetical Ontology (CustomWords), and is  fiction editor of the online journal Drunken Boat.  Meredith Blankinship is a recent transplant to Portland from the east coast and is the author of two self-published chapbooks: an origami noose and White Subaru Night. She is currently working on a project about ghost bikes around Portland.

Monday June 28th-

R. Gregory Nokes (Lan Su Chinese Garden, @11:00am): R. Gregory Nokes will present historic photos of the Chinese experience in the American West including mining, railroad building, and more, plus photos related to the massacre in Hells Canyon with pauses to read from his book, Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon.

Show and Tell Open Mic (Three Friends Coffee House, @7:00pm): Before we go on Summer Vacation in July and August, this very special edition of Three Friends Monday: Caffeinated Art will be an extended version of the very popular Show and Tell Open Mic – it’s our way of saying “thank you” to everyone who has made this the consistently high-quality event that it has become. We’ll go until we run out of people who want to share (or 9:45, whichever comes first).

Michael Largo (Annie Bloom’s Books, @7:30pm): God’s Lunatics chronicles the lives of celebrated mystics, martyrs, wizards, shamans, cult leaders, founding fathers of Utopian experiments, victims of demonic possession, and originators of New Age movements who dedicated their lives to seek answers and explain the unknown secrets of the universe. A legendary researcher, Largo also examines practices, symbols, objects of religious import, locations (real and other-worldly), and phenomena surrounding these fascinating religious figures, all to create a composite image that represents the many ways in which communities have sought to understand the unknowable.

Bret Easton Ellis (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Twenty-five years have passed since the events of Bret Easton Ellis’s Less Than Zero. In Imperial Bedrooms (Knopf), Clay Easton, now a successful screenwriter, returns to L.A. to cast his latest movie. But the more things have changed, the more they stay the same, and Clay is soon drifting around in his familiar old circle.

Shane Jones (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): In Light Boxes (Penguin), Shane Jones’s fantastical first novel, February, a god-like spirit who lives in the sky, is punishing a town for flying. As endless February continues, children go missing and adults become nearly catatonic with depression. But others find the strength to fight back.

Tuesday June 29th-

Dr. Michael Munk presents “The Experience and Legacy of McCarthyism in Oregon” (McMenamin’s Edgefield, @6:30pm): Learn more about one of Portland’s most politically contentious eras—when the radicals and the Red Squad battled it out in a city changed dramatically by World War II when a labor force was built almost overnight in Kaiser’s enormous shipping yards. Michael Munk retired after teaching political science for more than twenty-five years, most recently at Rutgers University. He is author of The Portland Red Guide: Sites & Stories of Our Radical Past (Ooligan Press, 2007).

Loretta Stinson (Broadway Books, @7:00pm): Loretta Stinson reads from her sensitive and insightful first novel, Little Green, just published by Hawthorne Books and Literary Arts. It’s the story of Janie Marek, an orphan who runs away from her stepmother and lands at a strip club, where she gets a job and falls for Paul Jesse, a drug dealer who spirals into addiction and begins physically abusing her. As the violence escalates, Janie finds a job in a bookstore and begins to establish her independence. Like Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, this novel examines the psychology of a woman who experiences violence at the hands of someone she loves and finds the strength to leave. This is a life-affirming story about a woman who finds herself in books, in the promise of education, and in the community of friends who help her find a way out.

Kathryn Schulz (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): On the heels of the success of The Wisdom of Crowds and Predictably Irrational comes Kathryn Schulz’s Being Wrong (Ecco), a thoughtful and persuasive celebration of human fallibility that examines what it means to be right or wrong — and why it matters so much to us.

Wednesday June 30th-

Simple Handmade Books (Woodstock Library, @2:30pm, Free Registration): Learn how to make your own books from reclaimed materials with Portland artist Dawn Grunwald. We will gather outdated maps, junk mail and discarded magazines to create new journals and sketch books. Simple binding techniques will be used to make one of a kind works of art to record your thoughts or sketch the scene.

Adrian Phoenix (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): The beginning of an exciting urban fantasy series by Adrian Phoenix, author of The Maker’s Song, Black Dust Mambo (Pocket) is the story of a fledgling voodoo priestess who gets caught up in murderous intrigue.

Classics Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): This month we meet to discuss An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. Join us!

Justin Cronin (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): With The Passage (Ballantine), award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe. Its inventive storytelling, masterful prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction.

Thursday July 1st-

Storytelling w/ Eric Kimmel (A Children’s Place Bookstore, @2:00pm): Local storyteller and ACP favorite Eric Kimmel. If you’ve never heard Eric tell a story, you’re missing out. And if you have, you know you don’t want to miss this!

Create Your Own Comic Book (Sellwood-Moreland Library, @3:00pm): We all have seen them, we have all read them, but not all of us have created one! This workshop will take your knowledge of cartoon creation to the next level! You’ll learn about the different parts of a comic book, how to write it, how to plan it out, and how to bring it all together! It is time to see your characters and stories come to life on the action filled pages of a comic book. Ideal for kids 6-12.

First Thursday: The Sea Beasts (Reading Frenzy, @6:00pm): Join us this 1st Thursday for Sea Beasts by our very own Harlan Mahaffy! Mr. Mahaffy has made limited edition prints from a series of 14 original works on paper for your consideration. Sea Beasts aims provide an antidote to the tide of cuteness overwhelming our fair city with big eyes, fluffy kittens and precious moments by celebrating the more humble and homely creatures among us. Harlan Mahaffy is an artist, illustrator and print maker based in Portland, Oregon. This is event is free and so is the beer! Exhibit will run through the month of July.

First Thursday: Polaroids (Floating World Comics, @6:00pm): This July our exhibit will feature photographs shot on Polaroid or instant film.  For a while in 2008 Polaroid film was actually discontinued but now it’s back.  As Polaroid users will testify there’s something magic about the lighting and picture quality of a Polaroid, as well as the instant gratification.  This July 1st Thursday we’ll display the work of over 10 photographers, most of whom are from Portland.  We will also have enlarged digital prints of some of the images for sale.

First Thursday: Ink and Impact (Powells City of Books, @6:30pm): The Basil Hallward Gallery is pleased to present original broadsides from ten Northwest book artists. These broadsides feature writing from participants of Write Around Portland, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming lives and building community through writing. Artists include Inge Bruggeman, Barbara Tetenbaum, and Sandy Tilcock.

Bill Cameron (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): Set in Portland, Day One (Tyrus Books), Bill Cameron’s follow-up to the novels Chasing Smoke and Lost Dog, features a retired homicide detective, about to give up on life, who helps a woman escape her abusive past.

James M. Tabor (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): Blind Descent (Random House) is James M. Tabor’s thrilling epic about “supercavers” who contend with thousand-foot drops, deadly flooded tunnels, raging whitewater rivers, monstrous waterfalls, mile-long belly crawls, and much more, while trying to find the bottom of the world.

Literary Extravaganza & Moore-Walt Curtis Benefit (Berbati’s Pan, @8:00pm, $10, All Ages): A proclamation released by Portland Mayor Sam Adams states, “civic-minded friends are uniting to stage benefit performances, film screenings, and an auction of fine-art and literature to launch the Curtis Legacy Initiative to reestablish his personal studio and residence, and consolidate his regional and international reputation.”  This extravaganza features: Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen, Monica Drake, Tom Spanbauer, Matt Love, Walt Curtis, Dan Rafael, Barbara LaMorticella, James Honzik, Dusty Santamaria, Larry Yes, Richard Moore, and King & Moore.

Friday July 2nd-

Opening Reception for “To Be Named and Other Works of Poetic License” (Angst Gallery, @5:00pm): To Be Named is a one-of-a-kind, limited edition art book created collaboratively by poets David Madgalene, Toni Partington, and Christopher Luna. The text is a series of poetic travelogues written during Christopher Luna’s yearly visits to California from 2005 to 2009. Each poem was written in collaboration with other people he visited or with whom he traveled. The cover of each book is an album cover that has been altered, painted, and/or collaged upon by all three artists. Christopher, Toni, and David will read with David’s wife, Judy Irwin, accompanying him on keyboards. The covers will be on display at Angst Gallery throughout the month.

Artist Reception: Sarah Horowitz (Em-Space Book Arts Center, @6:00pm): Through her artist-in-residence at Em Space, Sarah Horowitz has focused on distilling the poems, images and aesthetic in her new artist’s book, Archeologies of Loss, into one simple form- the prospectus. Making a prospectus is a process of creating a balanced piece within a small limited format while evoking that of the original work it seeks to describe. Archaeologies of Loss deals with collective memories, their loss and disintegration but also their rediscovery and unearthing through individual histories, in this case, those of Sarah Lantz and her poems accompanied by etchings. It attempts to capture a lightness, a sense of space, as reflected in memories of desert winter landscapes—golden sun-bleached grass, charcoal woody stems, white snow, rust flowers. The book will be completed later this summer.

Emily Kendal Frey, Bryan Coffelt, Evelyn Hampton, and Kevin Sampsell (Ampersand, @7:30pm): Kevin Sampsell plays host to this evening of poetry.  Seattle poet Evelyn Hampton will read from her book of poems We Were Eternal and Gigantic, along with Emily Kendal Frey, whose latest collection, The New Planet, has been described as her best yet, and Bryan Coffelt, author of the new chapbook The Whatever Poems.

Walt Curtis Birthday Bash (Dante’s, @8:00pm, $10, 21+): A proclamation released by Portland Mayor Sam Adams states, “civic-minded friends are uniting to stage benefit performances, film screenings, and an auction of fine-art and literature to launch the Curtis Legacy Initiative to reestablish his personal studio and residence, and consolidate his regional and international reputation.”  The birthday bash features: Viva Las Vegas & her band, Body Vox-dancers, Uprising-OBT dancers, Leapin’ Louie Lichtenstein, Brush Prairie-country rock (with Zia McCabe of the Dandy Warhols), Courtney Taylor Taylor-(of the Dandy Warhols), and DJ Freaky Outy.

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For further events check out the links to the community calendars for Tri-County area Libraries: Washington County, Multnomah County, Clackamas County.

Image credit Zorger.