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!

Jun
16
Sun
Film Screening: Always Moving / Magical in Motion By LAURA HEIT + MONA HUNEIDI
Jun 16 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Always Moving / Magical in Motion By LAURA HEIT + MONA HUNEIDI

  • OPENING FILM SCREENING 6/16/24
  • FREE AND OPEN TO ALL
  • FILM WILL BE SCREENING DAILY 11a & 4p or by request with the front desk

“I am interested in everything that is opaque, that which takes place in secret and behind curtains or in the shadows. My aim is not to make clear or justify, rather I aim to watch/show as if in a dream. My work focuses on the minutiae of human behavior, obsessive habits, arduous matters of the heart, betrayal, espionage and inexplicable phenomenon. These themes are the impetus and the architecture that builds the sets, the mise en scene and the characters I create. 

I use wood, glass, transparencies, wire weaves, paper dolls, found objects, doll parts, shadows, tea leaves and texture to create space and the characters that inhabit it. I believe that everyday articles are curious when taken out of context and that still objects, no matter how pedestrian, are magical in motion.”  —  MONA HUNEIDI

Always Moving / Magical in Motion features the stop-motion, live-action puppetry, hand drawing and computer animation in the short films of artists Laura Heit and Mona Huneidi. Sometimes fantastical, sometimes abstract, sometimes in orbit, these films visualize the things we cannot see, fears, hypothetical stars, moments inside catastrophes, and the future. On view at The Sou’Wester’s Red Bus Microcinema, 3728 J Place, Seaview, WA, June – September,  2024, with screenings at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily. A special closing event attended by filmmaker Laura Heit will take place in September. More details to come.

Laura Heit is an interdisciplinary artist who currently lives and works in Portland Oregon. Her work has been exhibited and screened in the US and abroad, at venues including Track 16 (Los Angeles, CA), Boise Art Museum (Boise, ID), Adams and Ollman (Portland, OR), The Schnitzer Museum of Art (Eugene, OR), The Schneider Museum of Art (Ashland OR), She Works Flexible (Houston, TX), REDCAT (Los Angeles, CA), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN), MoMA (NYC, NY), Millennium Film (NYC, NY), Pompidou (Paris, France), TBA Festival (Portland, OR), the Guggenheim Museum (NYC, NY), Walt Disney Hall (Los Angeles, CA), and Detroit Institute of the Arts (Detroit, MI) among others. Her grants include; 2016 Oregon Arts Council Individual Artists Fellowship, Artist Project Grant Regional Arts & Culture Council including the 2014 Innovation Award, The British Council, and the MacDowell Colony. She has previously held positions at PNCA as chair of Animated Arts, SAIC, and Cal Arts where she was co-director of the Experimental Animation Department. Her book Animators Sketchbooks was published in 2013 by Thames and Hudson. 

Mona Huneidi is an animator/filmmaker who was born and raised in Kuwait. She went to primary schools in Lebanon and Kuwait and arrived in the US in 1980 to pursue her education. She holds a BFA in Filmmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute. She worked as an assistant producer for television productions in Kuwait in the late 80s and early 90s. Upon returning to the US, she joined the pre-production team at Imago Theatre working as a puppeteer, a dramaturg, prop master and a set dresser. She earned a Drammy award in 2004 for the projection design on the play Missing Mona. She writes, creates and produces her own animated films, which have been shown locally at Performance Works Northwest, Imago Theatre Cabaret and PCC’s Art Week. Her work has also been screened internationally at  Festival Du Cinéma Bruxelles, Festival De Cine Internacional De Barcelona, Animacam Online Animation Festival Galicia, and the Cannes Short Film Festival.     

Curated by Nikki Cormaci

Jun
29
Sat
Live Music: Generifus @ The Sou'wester
Jun 29 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Live Music: Generifus

6/29. 8. FREE

Generifus is the music project of Washington State native Spencer Sult. Beginning in 2005, Sult has written, recorded and released around twenty LPs, Eps, Singles and Compilations. Generifus has toured the USA multiple times and Japan once via car, train,Greyhound bus and plane. 
Jul
6
Sat
Live Music: Lê Almeida & Melanie Radford @ The Sou'wester
Jul 6 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Lê Almeida & Melanie Radford: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Melanie Radford:
 
As a professional bassist of multiple genres, Melanie has performed and toured across the United States, Europe, Australia, and Brazil, most notably with the 90’s indie rock band Built to Spill as well as her riff-heavy, post-riot grrrl outfit, Blood Lemon. While she became known as the bassist who brought infectious, head-banging energy to these bands, her solo work is a separate and distinctive energy altogether.
 
Conceptualized while touring extensively and needing to find an undisturbed space for herself, Melanie began writing her solo material as a love letter to the bass guitar, rooted in drone, delicate minimalism, and textural field recordings that were collected in her travels.
 
Currently working on her solo album, Melanie will be performing at Sou’wester, showcasing a sample of new material and collaborations with her partner, Almeida
 
Almeida is the mastermind of an unlikely and noisy indie scene that emerged in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro in the early 2000s. A prolific producer initially labeled as lo-fi, he was called the “Brazilian answer to Robert Pollard” in a report by The Guardian. His sound has incorporated elements of krautrock, free jazz, afrobeat, hip hop and Brazilian music.
 
Oruã, his main band, was formed in 2016 and from 2018 onwards began to tour, promoting his first albums recorded at Escritório on old cassette tapes. In 2018 Almeida left Brazil for the first time, playing drums with Built to Spill in Chile and with Oruã in Uruguay. He joined Built to Spill in 2018 for the band’s first shows in South America and then traveled between the United States and Europe, performing more than 130 shows with them, half opening with Oruã. He played drums, co-produced, and co-mixed Built to Spill’s latest release, When the Wind Forgets Your Name (2022, Sub Pop Records).
Jul
20
Sat
Live Music: Lindsay Clark and Half Shadow @ The Sou'wester
Jul 20 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Live Music: Lindsay Clark and Half Shadow

7/20. 8p. Free

 

Lindsay Clark:

Lindsay Clark finds balance between traditional folk, English folk, country and her own version of experimental folk that seems to come from within. 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 unique and vibrant place as an artist with her 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. She has shared the stage with musicians such as Alela Diane, Adam Torres, Nat Baldwin (Dirty Projectors), Ryan Francesconi (Joanna Newsom), Jolie Holland, and Michael Hurley. Her sound has been described as “folk with angelic vocals washing over smooth edges” (1859 Magazine), with her recent album Carpe Noctem called “stunning” by NPR Music. The album features William Tyler, Alela Diane, Sage Fisher (Dolphin Midwives), & Andy Rayborn (Paper Gates) and was engineered, co-produced, co-arranged with Jeremy Harris (Fruit Bats / Hand Habits). She has also recently contributed to Michael Hurley’s latest release, Time of the Foxgloves.

Half Shadow:

For the past decade Half Shadow, the midnight-blue songwriting moniker of Portland’s Jesse Carsten, has been unfurling an enigmatic, windswept music: equal parts earthen folk and cosmic rock and roll, with a primal pop experimentalism seeping from the edges. Wedding an expansive, transcendent poetics to a fiercely home-spun aesthetic, Carsten creates joyful, eclectic song-collages that embrace the experimental singer-songwriter tradition of the Pacific Northwest while enfolding an array of canonical art-voicings; songs range from abstract finger-picked poems to heart-tugged acapella treaties and repetitive art-rock incantations. Half Shadow’s performances are recognized as deep feeling, immersive events. The Portland Mercury has praised Carsten’s shows as “invariably powerful, full of wonder, and unlike anything else.”

Following a steady string of homemade cassettes, CD-Rs, and digital one-off releases, Carsten birthed the first fully formed Half Shadow LP in 2019, Dream Weather Its Electric Song, which was hailed by Antiquated Future as “a carefully thought-out work…of poetic devotionals to the natural world, the subconscious, other realms.” The record was celebrated for its ability to work tangible magic. As Queen City Sounds put it, Dream Weather deconstructs “familiar songwriting styles, bringing the logical mind into alternate pathways of operating.” Following Dream Weather, on which Half Shadow toured in late 2019, and which after followed the world-crashing pandemic, Carsten released At Home With My Candles (Bud Tapes/Dove Cove Records), an album of mythopoetic paeans to the domestic uncanny, the mysterious and unseen worlds experienced at home. Expanding the project’s intimate poetics into something more sonically encompassing, Carsten conjured intimate folk song epics, lo-fi dirges, and primal pop experiments that effectively connect the domestic and the cosmic, the ordinary and the surreal. The album displays, according to Various Small Flames, “an uncanny marriage between personal insight and a wider mystical experience” and was celebrated by a small but fervent cadre of international listeners in the know.

Carsten’s non-linear and environmental dream-lyrics place him in the company of like-minded contemporaries such as Mega Bog’s Erin Birgy, Yves Jarvis, and Ruth Garbus, for whom songwriting is an attempt at surreal levels of poetic feeling. Having been called “one of Portland’s best kept secrets,” it is paradoxically Half Shadow’s mystery-inspired, DIY ethos that spirits Carsten’s ever-evolving project out of the home-recordist’s cave and onto more illuminated stages. When it does, Half Shadow is ready to wrap listeners in the dark, sparkling hues and mossy undergrowth that have become the poetic trademark of this singular undertaking.

Aug
3
Sat
Live Music: Kinsey Lee @ The Sou'wester
Aug 3 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Kinsey Lee Presented by Sou’wester Arts!

Kinsey Lee is a member of the American indie folk band, The Wild Reeds. The Wild Reeds are known for their beautiful harmonies, poignant lyrics, and captivating performances. Kinsey Lee’s vocals are a central part of The Wild Reeds’ sound. She contributes her distinct voice and songwriting abilities to the band’s repertoire. With 10 years of writing, touring, and performing on her resume she has begun to find her voice as a solo artist. Kinsey recently debuted her first solo track “Lover’s song” recorded by Duff Thompson and Steph Green of Mashed Potato Records. She is currently working on a record as a follow up. Kinsey hopes to be like Bonnie Raitt, Carole King, Brandi Carlile,  and Lucinda Williams when she grows up. Musicians with strong lyrics, true grit, and a heartfelt story to tell. 

Aug
17
Sat
Live Music: Ezza Rose @ The Sou'wester
Aug 17 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Live Music: Ezza Rose

8/17/2024 FREE AND OPEN TO ALL at The Sou’wester Lodge

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 fall 2024. 
 
“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
Sep
7
Sat
Live Music: Sunbathe and Strange Pilgrim @ The Sou'wester
Sep 7 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Sunbathe and Strange Pilgrim

live at The Sou’wester Lodge 9/7/24

Free and open to the public

Sunbathe and Strange Pilgrim, two indie rock projects exploring themes of displacement and longing, are joining forces for a stripped-down duo show. Maggie Morris, the driving force behind Sunbathe, is known for her raw, soaring vocals and dynamic songwriting, spanning dreamy pop to garage rock. Josh Barnhart, the multi-instrumentalist behind Strange Pilgrim, creates psychedelic-infused soundscapes and introspective lyrics that evoke both the natural world and the anxieties of modern life. Together, they promise a unique and intimate performance, blending their distinctive styles for a memorable evening.

Sep
14
Sat
Hans Miles “Dryer 15” Opening Receptions & Artist Talk @ Ilwaco Artworks
Sep 14 @ 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Recent Master of Art graduate from Notre Dame and new studio manager at Ilwaco Artworks, Hans Miles will share details and stories of his 15 years in the ceramic field- from explorations in salt fired pottery, time leading an art residency program at a ceramic sewer pipe factory and his move into monumental sculpture. Hans has had numerous solo and group exhibitions, and was the recent recipient of the annual purchase award at the Midwest Museum of American Art. His exhibition “Dyer 15”  will be on display at Ilwaco Artworks art gallery from September 14th – October 31st.

Sep
21
Sat
Live Music: Olivia Awbrey @ The Sou'wester
Sep 21 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

 

Olivia Awbrey Live at The Sou’wester Lodge

9/21/2024 

Free & open to the public

Olivia Awbrey is an Oregon-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose work blends traditional folk with modern indie-rock and fingerpicking blues. She has released two EPs, one full-length album, and is the recipient of arts grants from RACC, the Grammy Foundation, and Oregon Arts Commission. Her debut album, Dishonorable Harvest (Quick Pickle Records), showcased at festivals and venues across the Pacific Northwest and the UK. She lives in Willamina, Oregon.

Oct
5
Sat
Live Music: E. Ellison @ The Sou'wester
Oct 5 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

E. Ellison Live at The Sou’wester Lodge

10/5/2024

Free & open to the public

 

Previously under the moniker Cardioid and former Radiation City member, this new project from Lizzy Ellison is wrought with self discovery (not unlike previous works), but prodding deeper into the connection we have between the creation of music and ourselves.  Her new record, Pillars, evokes a semblance of control, when in fact during the creation of it, her life felt contrary to this.  The process was long as she allowed the songs to take shape in their own way, attempting to decode her methods in song-writing and creating new recording practices.  Staying true to the autobiographical form Ellison typically shares, these songs ebb and flow through different terrains of darkness and light, hope and despair, discomfort and peace, while describing the details of her life, and more specifically the struggles. Textural is an understatement;  almost bizarrely architectural in form.  At times predictable, alluring the listener, but often with questions unanswered. The palette of instrumentation is voluptuous and colorfully rich, using a classical acoustic guitar as the main inspiration and augmenting this with synths, layers of choral vocals, piano, fuzzed-out electric guitars, and raw lead vocals using as little effect as possible.  Pillars will be out this fall via Doe Records, Ellison’s Portland based record label.