Spring is officially here, and with a new season comes new arts and culture events to add to our calendars. OPB producer Donald Orr sat down with All Things Considered co-host Crystal Ligori to preview a few things to look out for in April.
Listen in or read a transcript of their conversation below.
Crystal Ligori: So what’s the first thing on your arts and culture radar?
Donald Orr: The Oregon Book Awards are this Monday and over 30 Oregon writers are finalists. We’ve been lucky enough to have a handful of these finalists on OPB, including author Lidia Yuknavitch.
Her latest novel, “Thrust” is by no means linear. There’s no protagonist or main character per se — but it does feature a time-traveling young girl and a talking turtle to help guide us, the reader. The book serves as a critique of America’s injustices throughout its past and future.
The Washington Post calls the novel, quote, “Part history, part prophecy, all fever dream.”
OPB’s Geoff Norcross spoke to Yuknavitch last summer about how her novel is structured like stanzas in a poem:
File headshot of author Lidia Yuknavitch.
Courtesy Lidia Yuknavitch
Lidia Yuknavitch: “When you read a poem, you don’t experience dismay that things are moving association by association or image by image. You delight in it. It’s part of how poetry works on you. It creates a poetic effect on your body. And I’m deeply, deeply interested in that relationship between writing and the body. And so I have given my best shot at arranging prose, with the kind of poetics of prose.”
Orr: Lidia Yuknavitch is a finalist for the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction. And that’s just one piece of this celebration of Oregon writers that’s happening on Monday. You can find tickets and more information at literary-arts.org
Ligori: Alright, gonna go get some tickets right now…and what’s this about a film festival that’s happening next month?
Orr: The Portland EcoFilm Festival continues at the Hollywood Theatre next month. The environmental film series showcases films about the environment and eco-conscious living year-round, and this April has a weekend of programming ahead of Earth Day.
One screening in particular focuses on our relationship with water.
“Follow the Water” discusses how Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest view their connection to water. The film is primarily shot in Portland and explores our collective connection, disconnection and reconnection to the waters, told through a multicultural lens.
Here’s a clip that features Wenix Red Elk. She’s with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s Department of Natural Resources.
Wenix Red Elk: “Water is the most important of all things. It is the giver of life. When you look at water, it’s the reason why this planet is so special and unique. Everything that lives here relies on that water. Water is the first of all living things, and in our creation, or our Tamanwit Tamalwit, that is the creation of the foods, of how the foods first came forward. And so water was the first of all things.”
Orr: You can watch Follow the Water, and other short films about water on Saturday, April 15th. And you can check out a full weekend of environmental cinema, from April 14th through the 16th. There’s more information online at hollywoodtheatre.org
Ligori: Alright, I think we’ve got a little more time. Hit us with one more April event to look out for.
Orr: Totally — the Portland Lindy Exchange is an annual dance event celebrating vintage jazz music and dances from the ‘20s through the ‘50s, including swing dance, Lindy Hop, Balboa, and more. The Portland Lindy Society is holding its first Lindy Exchange in three years since pandemic shutdowns — so folks should be excited to get moving on the dance floor and in their communities.
There will be a handful of dance events at multiple venues throughout Portland, April 14-16. There’s more information at portlandlindysociety.com
