SOU’WESTER EVENTS!

Discover what’s happening during your next stay or plan a visit around our free live music, workshops, wellness offerings and more!

Jul
14
Fri
Exhibition: “We Do” @ The Sou'wester Lodge Art Gallery Trailer
Jul 14 @ 9:00 am – 9:00 pm

JOHN & JULIE
“We Do”

An art exhibition in The Art Trailer Gallery July 14th-July 23rd 2023

Lifelong creative folks, John and Julie met in 2017, started drawing together and haven’t looked back. They each had established artistic practices – John is a painter primarily and Julie is a filmmaker primarily – however both are open to working in ways that push them out of their comfort zones and allow for spontaneity and improvisation. They have made drawings, paintings, films, sounds, saunas, and land art together. To celebrate their “first date anniversary” each year, they look at Wikipedia’s list of traditional wedding anniversary gifts and have a ritual of making art using the material assigned to that year. They cater the event, ie; order take-out, and reflect on the year past and the year ahead for their relationship. The result is this collection of works presented here on the occasion of their wedding taking place July 22, 2023. We Do: Saying Yes to a Relationship of Depth, Connection and Enduring Love is a book by Stan Tatkin that has been a guidebook for building John and Julie’s relationship.

John Frentress has made art since the age of three and studied art at Kirkwood College with Doug Hall who was an amazing multi-disciplinary artist. He went on to study and work at several schools and community education centers on the west coast and considers himself to be primarily a “proper” art school short timer, and an auto-didactic life long learner. Like many artists, he has a BS degree in Psychology. John had the privilege of occupying a studio in the Blackfish gallery in the Pearl district of Portland for 19 years – sadly the building is now sitting vacant waiting for a bulldozer. He works with brushes using oils, acrylics, sumi ink and watercolors – sometimes paints on light bulbs and other trash.

Julie Perini is a filmmaker, daily videomaker, diary keeper, video artist, reader, writer, teacher, question asker, raw nerve, hot spring hopper, product of white suburbs of New York and DIY culture of the 90s, and friend to many. Her involvement with the post-9/11 “War on Terror” spurred her work with prison and police abolitionist movements. She exhibits work in theaters, community spaces, galleries, campgrounds, storefronts, the sides of bridges, and many other venues. She sees movies in actual movie theaters. Julie likes old cameras and eats pancakes at a diner at least once a week. Originally from New York, she is a Professor of Art at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.

curated by Nikki Cormaci


Jul
15
Sat
Music: monica and Lou Trove @ The Sou'wester
Jul 15 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

monica: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

‘monica’ is songwriter Caitlyn Faircloth’s melancholy dream of electric guitars and dusty amplifiers. This project lingers in sleepy, asymmetrical indie rock using soft, lonely melodies to create a nostalgic soundscape for listeners. Caitlyn lives in Quilcene, WA on the Olympic Peninsula.

Lou Trove is the nom de plume for Adam Torres’ new experimental electronic music project, which prominently features the sounds and textures of digital mellotron flute to narrative incisive compositions inspired by precious geologic formations from the Earth’s core. Aesthetically and thematically sparkly, Lou Trove makes music for meditation, hearing as seeing, and as a portal to depart upon adventures of the imagination.

Jul
25
Tue
Summer Art Camp: DIY Screen Printing @ Ilwaco Artworks
Jul 25 @ 9:00 am – Jul 27 @ 3:00 pm

DIY Screen Printing with Azenath and Ian

Screenprinting is a hands-on medium that allows students to reproduce any artwork they want in multiple colours and on many mediums. Our workshop, aimed at beginner students, will show how to undergo the entire printing process using a combination of recycled, homemade and a few purchased tools. Students will leave with the handmade screens and prints they made in the workshop, a booklet of historical art and propaganda prints from our collection, and inspiration and understanding to help them start screenprinting on their own.


Jul
27
Thu
Exhibition: Barn Rave, 2011 @ The Sou'wester Lodge Art Gallery Trailer
Jul 27 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Barn Rave, 2011” by Tori Wheeler

ON VIEW
JULY 27 2023 – OCTOBER 12 2023

Tufted, and interactive artwork, Barn Rave, 2011 encapsulates the frenetic, feral exchange of energy found in a packed dance floor. The modular work recalls a night in a remote barn outside of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Its tessellated pieces intertwine, forming a hazy, abstracted scene of kids drenched in sweat, a barn filled with fog, hay, pulsating music, and a mix of suspicious substances. This ephemeral experience imprints neural pathways.

The puzzle-like components and imagery pay homage to a transformative and hedonistic celebration of youthful exuberance. The liberated sensuality and sometimes-brainlessness of infectious bassy beats become the unyielding desires to relinquish the burdens and constraints of adolescence in small town surroundings. The pieces move and connect, at times surpassing a perfect fit. Capturing the raw energy of dancing amidst others. Capturing unbridled energy. Their arrangement allows for infinite reconfigurations—a reflection of the ever-shifting nature of the dance floor.

Tori Wheeler is an artist, designer, and dancer whose work is influenced by ecstatic human exchange, touch and tactility, music-and-nature-induced-trance-states, and a dash of trickster humor. Their creative practice mirrors that of a desire path.

Tori holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design from the Kansas City Art Institute and works as a textile artist, gold leaf gilder, and fairweather graphic designer.

Curated by Nikki Cormaci

Jul
29
Sat
Blair Borax: Presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Jul 29 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

 

Blair Borax: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Blair Borax is a singer-songwriter who writes tender folk-pop songs to make you feel less alone. 

With vocal stylings reminiscent of 1920s jazz, songwriting that is unafraid to tackle the taboo, and pop melodies that stay with you for days, Blair Borax has something special to offer. She conjures a vocal charm somewhere in between Regina Spektor and First Aid Kit, wordsmithing inspired by folk songwriting greats like John Prine, and moody vulnerability like Haley Heynderickx and Big Thief’s Adrienne Lenker.

After releasing her first EP ‘everything is light work’ in May of 2021, Blair released her debut album “Keep Walking” in June 2022.  “Keep Walking” will take you on an emotional rollercoaster, through the stages of anger, grief, and joy beyond trauma and heartache. It is the perfect companion to help you keep walking too.  She is working on her sophomore record, “Tender Lately” this year.

 

Aug
5
Sat
Hemlock Live at The Sou’wester @ The Sou'wester
Aug 5 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Hemlock 

Live at The Sou’wester Lodge

hemlock is the “phone-fi” bedroom folk project of swamp-raised musician Carolina Chauffe and various rotating collaborators, currently based in Chicago, IL. Bare-boned and bittersweet, this is means-to-an-end modern-day folk art for the open-hearted – a practice of gratitude to the here and now, swaying with rich, sun-glinted harmonies and tender finger-picking.
 
A self-proclaimed memory-hoarder, Carolina created hemlock in their home state of Louisiana in 2018 with the intention to further explore the practice of songwriting as a heart archive – erring on the side of the imperfect, eager, prolific. The songs of their several releases are often accompanied by intimate voicemails and field recordings – sonic collages spanning the many places they’ve called home – Astoria, OR being one of the most beloved of them. They are honored and thrilled to be back in the Pacific Northwest for a moment to share song with you.
 
Live music presented by Sou’wester Arts
Aug
12
Sat
Ritchie Young and Rebecca Sanborn @ The Sou'wester
Aug 12 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
 
 
Ritchie Young, the lead singer and songwriter for the Portland-based indie rock band Loch Lomond. The band has released several albums and has gained a following both nationally and internationally.
 
 

Rebecca Sanborn began writing songs at age six, starting an early pattern of straying creatively from sheet music. Her piano instructor taught her to write the music down, which seemed like a magical power. She also fell in love with theatre and writing, pursuing all of these arts with equal passion.  Rebecca got her first agent at age ten and landed starring roles in commercials. One director hired her on the spot because she had a voice “like Lauren Bacall”. In High School she would wake at 5 am to jump rope in the driveway and then pound out short works of fiction on the typewriter in the garage so as not to wake anyone. The love affair with stories and music continued and at eighteen, she left her native Portland, Oregon to study at The College of Santa Fe, in New Mexico—majoring in Theatre and immersing herself in the free, unpredictable world of the Contemporary Music Program. Every Thursday night a Forum was held where new music was emphatically encouraged. Rebecca had found her home. She studied under the experimental composers Joseph Weber and Peter Gordon and was moulded by Martha Graham’s personal demonstrator, Juanita Barry, in rigorous modern dance classes for four years.

Upon returning to the Northwest after college, Rebecca met her husband and musical partner, drummer Ji Tanzer. They are both members of the adventurous jazz quintet, Blue Cranes, the art pop trio, Swansea, and Portland’s veteran indie group, Loch Lomond. Rebecca and Ji also starred in the film “Light of Mine”, which garnered a coveted spot at the A.F.I. Fest in 2011. “Light of Mine” was the only independent film from The States to be included in the festival. Rebecca plays in the all-female, cape-wearing, fog-machine-loving synth trio, Eccoh Eccoh Eccoh with Kyleen King (Brandi Carlile) and Jenny Conlee-Drizos (The Decemberists).

In 2021, Rebecca was invited to write an original set of music for the Montavilla Jazz Fest—composing and arranging eight songs in two months. She performed these tunes with her long-time mentor and hero, pianist Randy Porter, bassist Jon Shaw, and of course, Ji Tanzer. The work now stands as a collective entitled “Shadow Work”. Several pieces have since been arranged by Douglas Detrick, and were performed at the 2022 Montavilla Jazz Fest with the 12-piece Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble as a part of “The Heroine’s Journey” – an evening with Marilyn Keller, Darrell Grant, and Rebecca Sanborn. In 2023, Rebecca was awarded a RACC grant to record “Shadow Work”.

Throughout all of the years of hard touring and performing, Rebecca never lost touch with the written word. She earned a spot in the highly competitive Tin House Winter Workshop in 2016, mentoring under Mitchell S. Jackson. She has completed five novels and continues to work on her literary, musical, or theatrical craft on a daily basis. When Rebecca isn’t engaged in art or teaching, she can be found chasing after her costume-obsessed five-year-old daughter or trying to get some sleep.

Aug
26
Sat
Starover Blue: Presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester Lodge
Aug 26 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
 
 
The nostalgic tones of a Juno-106 combine with ambient layers, sparkling guitars, and airy, bittersweet vocals to define Portland dream pop band Starover Blue
 
Founding members Kendall Sallay and Dirk Milotz began the group in 2007 while studying music at San Jose State University, then relocated to Portland in 2016 where they reformed as a six-piece. The band’s penchant for lush vocal harmonies, textural experimentation, and subtle use of odd meters appeals to fans of acts ranging from Cocteau Twins, Beach House, and Big Thief to The Joy Formidable, The Velvet Teen, and Wye Oak.
 
A new EP is underway for 2023 release, taking inspiration from heavier-hitting indie rock versus the synth pop textures of 2019 LP Ordinary Magic and 2016 debut Spacegeist. 
Sep
2
Sat
Olivia Awbrey Live at The Sou’wester @ The Sou'wester
Sep 2 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Olivia Awbrey Live

Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Olivia Awbrey is a weathered songwriter based out of Oregon. Her debut full-length album, Dishonorable Harvest, gained international recognition amongst independent music enthusiasts and earned her a spot at festivals across the Northwest and in Canada. Flood Magazine notes that, “each of Awbrey‘s songs is an intricate story in itself.” An old-soul folk musician with a modern indie lens, Awbrey reflects on nuanced perspectives within conflict, drawing from the buttressing of urban and rural settings, searching for an honest moment that cuts through the noise of assumptions. She recently began pressing vinyl by hand. Her next album is forthcoming.

Sep
9
Sat
Ezza Rose Live at The Sou’wester @ The Sou'wester
Sep 9 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Live at The Sou’wester

Since 2009, Ezza Rose and band has been cultivating a sound of their own. Drawing on several influences from the likes of Mazzy Star, Patti Smith, and their residency in Portland, ERB writes and performs music which reflects the listeners’ lives back at them while hinting at a new perspective. The fluidity of love, the ebb and flow of relationships, and getting caught in the machine of expectations, all are deconstructed with flowy rhythm, aggressive electric guitars, and dreamy vocal melodies. Ezza is excited to strip these songs down to their roots and perform for you acoustic this evening! She is currently working on a solo acoustic record to be released late in the year 2023. 
 
“More electrified and slightly more ominous than the simple, lilting sound she previously established, this is Rose at her best so far.” – Willamette Week
 
“…an intense studio album with a sudden and unexpected beauty.” – Oregon Music News
 
“Her beautifully delicate, mournfully classic voice floats amongst the loosely bound, misty particles in the air and our minds and fills the cracks with a sound that’s chilling and comforting, all at once.” – Vortex Music Magazine
 
“Ezza’s singer/songwriting talents push on. Her voice is consistently smooth and clear, ethereal, and from the gut.” – ElevenPDX