Past
TBA Guest Scholar C. Riley Snorton (Professor of English and Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Chicago) will present a lecture on his current research at the intersection of Black, Africana, trans, queer, and performance studies. A distinguished interdisciplinary scholar and writer, Snorton is the author of Nobody is Supposed to Know: Black Sexuality on the Down Low and Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity. Co-presented with PNCA’s MA in Critical Studies Program.
Learn moreKaren Sherman joins PICA’s Erin Boberg Doughton (Artistic Director & Curator of Performance) for a conversation about her TBA performance Soft Goods and its thematic connections to one of the Festival’s major through-lines—the visible, invisible and precarious “work” of being an artist, arts worker, and citizen in the context of performing arts, cultural industry, creative economy, and our political moment.
Learn moreJ-Sette, also known as Bucking, is a performance style popular in the southern United States, practiced widely among majorettes and drill teams at historically Black colleges and universities, and also among teams of primarily queer men who compete in gay clubs and pride festivals. The workshop focuses on bombastic performance energy, complex relationships to rhythm and music, movement precision, group dynamics, and discovering joy in flesh and community. We will explore how the performance of J-Sette creates expectations around attention and accountability to a community, and how it positions leadership. All bodies are encouraged to participate, regardless of previous training or ability.
Learn moreTo kickoff the 16th TBA Festival, step into the thriving Pacific Northwest street-and-club dance community and experience a 7-to-smoke freestyle dance battle, The Beautiful Street, where dancers will compete, round for round, in the styles of breakdance, hip-hop, house, locking, popping, vogue, waacking, and more. Celebrating individuality, creativity, and technique, freestyle dancers are fueled by the music, each other, and the crowd. This battle will engage and inspire. The dance battle will be followed by an epic dance party!
Learn morePICA’s Time-Based Art Festival activates the city of Portland, Oregon, with contemporary art projects that bring artists and audiences together, creating a vibrant community through live performances, music, screenings, workshops, talks, and visual art installations. TBA is interdisciplinary, and champions those artists who are challenging forms and working across mediums.
Learn moreswallow is a multi-channel video installation of visual gestures from contemporary television and film exploring parts of black femme existence considered less desirable for consumption. what resistance sits wet and warm in the offal? swallow considers the different imperatives around consumption that exist for black bodies and what it feels like to hunger for things that catch in your throat. how do we read black femme queerness into, underneath and behind these visual spaces? how does it look, feel and sound, to open things up so that we can fit inside?
Learn moreI Wanna Be Well is the first retrospective of the work of renowned American artist, activist, writer, and educator Gregg Bordowitz.
Learn moreBETWEEN. highlights artists working within the queer and trans diaspora, and the unique voices coming from between or beyond the binary. This exhibition aims to queer the curatorial process, taking into account current visibility politics and presenting the work of LGBTQIA2S+ artists in ways that challenge normative art world conventions.
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