SOU’WESTER EVENTS!
See what’s happening during your next stay or plan a visit around our free live music, workshops, wellness offerings and more!
Noah Kite : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
The son of an acting coach and a therapist, Kite seems to have it in his DNA to blend the dramatic and analytic. Each musical wave crest and fall mirrors a turn in the story. Instruments rest for minutes before suddenly emerging. Emotions and motifs sustain and then drop into oblivion. The tone switches suddenly from accusation to epiphany. It is the sound of someone going through it.
Alongside the the musical tumult, the steady voice of Kite never loses his cool despite the searing intimacy of the song’s content. He thoughtfully guides us through the story of his relationship, in as well as struggles with friends, substances, sex and codependency. He has been clearly affected by the proceedings, but is determined to stare into them without blinking.
Let’s write some memoir! This workshop will help us move past resistance and start to unlock memories and develop them into stories. The key is to start to understand the events of your life into elements that you can use to tell the most effective story you can. Let’s get into some of the particulars of how memoir functions and do some writing in class to get momentum with our stories.
Nick Jaina is a writer and musician living with his family in Oakland, California. He was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award in 2015 for his memoir Get It While You Can. He has composed music for film and ballet, and toured the world playing a unique mixture of music soundscapes, songs, and readings.
Workshop cost $20
Lindsay Clark : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
“A rare exhibition of the weight that minimalism can bear in contemporary, reflective folk music. ”
Lindsay Clark finds balance between traditional and english folk, country, and her own version of experimental folk that seems to come from within. Exquisite and pitch perfect, her music speaks of quiet revelation, with a background of (usually her own) multi-tracked vocal arrangements. With influences ranging from the Beach Boys, Elizabeth Cotton, Joni Mitchell, Appalachian folk, her classical upbringing, and her father’s record collection, she blends many worlds into a uniquely warm sound. She has carved out a vibrant place as an artist with a penchant for poetry, rich harmony, and a style of self-taught fingerpicking influenced by Nick Drake, John Fahey, and others.
Originally from the small gold rush town of Nevada City, CA, she now resides in Portland, OR. Her sound has been described as “folk with angelic vocals washing over smooth edges” (1859 Magazine). She has shared the stage with musicians such as Alela Diane, Adam Torres, Nat Baldwin (Dirty Projectors), Ryan Francesconi (Joanna Newsom), Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Michael Hurley. “Crystalline” was released in 2018 via boutique German label Oscarson.
Her forthcoming full-length album (which she wrote, produced and co-arranged), Carpe Noctem, features guitarist William Tyler, Alela Diane, Sage Fisher (Dolphin Midwives), Alexis Mahler (Shook Twins) & Andy Rayborn (Paper Gates). It was engineered and arranged with Jeremy Harris (Vetiver, Adrienne Lenker, Hand Habits), and is out 6/24/22 with Audiosport Records (NL). She has also recently collaborated on Michael Hurley’s latest release, Time of the Foxgloves (No Quarter Records). She is currently at work on her first collection of lyric memoir-in-essays. PRE-ORDER CARPE NOCTEM
Peter Donovan : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Peter Donovan is an astute musical storyteller. His perceptive songs span genres and feature narratives based on both real-life and fictitious characters, written with a contemplative heart. After finding success and a dedicated fanbase with Seattle’s All The Real Girls and his side project The Rose Petals (alongside Elijah Ocean), Donovan returns in 2022 with his first proper solo album, This Better Be Good.
His previous releases spun expertly-crafted character sketches that earned plaudits from Paste Magazine, Consequence of Sound, American Songwriter, and more. With This Better Be Good, Donovan spreads his wings, combining the plaintive soul of indie rock, the heartfelt sincerity of Americana, and the stirring studio pageantry of ‘70s singer-songwriters, drawing them together to explore more intimate depths.
This Better Be Good is Donovan’s most personal effort yet; a loose concept record about the ups and downs of an ultimately doomed romance between two people. The songs are more reflective than bitter; more nostalgic than sad. It’s an album about learning and growing from lived experiences and reflecting on past failures in the interest of future successes. Donovan has managed to create an album that is sonically nostalgic and modern at once, both soul-stirring and dripping with heartache. It’s a roadmap of his past seen through fresh eyes, and a triumphant first step in this new chapter.
LAITH : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Laith, known by some as Hutch Hartford, hails from the suburban hurricane of Houston, Texas. Laith’s music is soaked withmemories of Grandma and Grandpa’s bayou house, rides on a red vintage lawn mower packed with cousins, and smoky, music filled bars
New Victorian : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
New Victorian is the ethereal, small-rock project from Portlander Scott Taylor.
Hanna Haas : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Hanna Haas is a folk singer-songwriter based in Portland whose warm guitar and soft vocals carry songs that speak to the constant rising and falling of life and the eternal beauty of it all.
DJ Papi Fimbres : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
David “Papi” Fimbres creates sound out of thin air that feels familiar at first, but at a second thought, is nothing you’ve ever heard before. As a percussionist and multi-instrumen
In this workshop students will use transparent objects to create moving image cyanotypes without the use of traditional filmmaking equipment. This hands-on workshop will demonstrate how to clear coat 16mm film with cyanotype solution, compose creative film sequences with pre-coated stock, properly expose in the sun, and develop and tone images using household chemicals. At the end of the workshop, we will splice and project our sequences. Participants are encouraged to bring translucent fabrics, objects, 16mm negatives, transparencies and other materials to enhance their creative journey.
Stephanie Hough is an experimental filmmaker, production coordinator and director of photography whose work explores repetition, gender, relationships and emotional landscapes. Her films HOW TO FEEL (DV, 2010), HEART (16mm, 2013), SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE (Super 8, 2016) have screened in the NW Filmmaker’s Festival, Portland International Film Festival, Experimental Film Festival PDX, BendFilm, The Boathouse Microcinema, TriBeca Film Center and more. As an educator with the Northwest Film Center, Pacific University and the PNCA, Hough has a passion for sharing analog film techniques and making learning accessible for all.
Workshop cost $70
Register for all three Analog Film Workshops for $150
Sunbathe is the devastatingly catchy, fuzzed-out pop band brought to you by songwriter Maggie Morris. Suffused with lyrical honesty and a raw performance style, Morris can command the stage coasting along on an abundance of hooks and lighthearted guitar. Sunbathe has quickly gained notoriety for their captivating live performances, touring with the likes of Typhoon and Built to Spill, all the while living and breathing a DIY ethos. Referring to themselves as the most punk pop band in Portland, Oregon– Sunbathe cites ABBA and The Ramones as two of their biggest influences yet they will remind you of neither. Their songs will leave you feeling nostalgic for something that you probably only experienced in a dream.