THURSDAY 19
SEE OR DON'T SEE | Set to tour her debut album — aptly titled Have you SEEN This Woman? — the jazz-cabaret singer VIVA plays a sayonara set at Sonny's tonight. A beam of light on the Portland music scene the last few years, her energy and performance depth are not to be missed, and it's about time she gets captured on record. 6 pm | $15 adv, $20 door | Portland House of Music, 25 Temple St., Portland | portlandhouseofmusic.com
CUT UP YOUR MAGAZINES | I probably write about him too much, but there's a strong chance Portland's id m theft able is the city's "best" artist — if that were anywhere near a conceivable category. Normally an experimental, Fluxus-influenced "musician" of sound collage and noise events, the dude's visual work has thusly gone underrated. A smattering of his collages have been tacked up on the walls of Mayo Street Arts, and I could think of a thousand worse things you could look at tonight. The show stays up through March 10, but it opens with a reception from 6-8 tonight. | Free | Mayo Street Arts, 10 Mayo St., Portland | mayostreetarts.org
FRIDAY 20
MORNING BELL | If this morning you wake an hour earlier in the dead, cold night, forgive yourself. Should you spend twice as long plunged in dread and idly scrolling through your social feeds before stepping out of bed, you're not alone. We're trying not to be hyperbolic here, but screw it: Today is the first day of what will almost assuredly be the most seismic political shift in your lives. Join a throng of people in the resistance movement in a symbolic-yet-powerful reading of the Constitution (is that an instrument of the left again?) at the Maine State House. 11 am | Free | Maine State House, 210 State St., Augusta
FLESHED OUT | It was likely coincidental that tonight's edition of Naked People Reading, a positivist, community-building event if there ever was one, occurs on the same day as the day a misogynist sex offender is sworn into office. But the synchronicity reminds us that protest isn't the only way forward — we all need radical models of a good society, too. A collection of Portland artists host a public, safe-space literary event where people read assorted radical texts in various states of undress. Obviously, no photos or video allowed. Proof that simple, fun, bare-bones ideas can be part of the resistance. 7:30 p.m. | $5 | SPACE Gallery, 538 Congress St., Portland | space538.org
SATURDAY 21
RISK SOMETHING | Officials from the Trump administration have said they expect the first week in office will be active. They mean, of course, taking steps to defund Planned Parenthood and repeal the Affordable Care Act, which will leave millions without insurance and literally kill people. But regardless of the efficacy of those actions, their actual first order of business will be colored by the tens of millions of folks attending the Women's March on Washingon (and its satellite marches, occurring in 53 countries and all 50 states, with at least six official ones here in Maine). If you're in Portland, the "Women's Walk" begins at the top of Congress Street on Munjoy Hill at 10:30 am. Expect attendance in the hundreds. Eastern Promenade Obelisk, 11 Congress St., Portland | https://www.facebook.com/events/1778266389086894/
SOUND BATH | Sooner or later, you'll need to get out of the political mindset and bathe in an art form that restores you. Is that rock music? Hard tellin'. It is 2017, after all — not the finest era for the form. But take it from us, that's not the fault of Portland's rock scene! Hell no it ain't, m'dudes! Exhibit that realness tonight, as four of them clamber onto the Empire stage to uncork some scorchers. The group Forget, Forget have been around about a half-decade now, and I personally have come around to their synth-infused chamber-rock sound. Tall Horse have received high marks for their drowsy, melodic indie-country, which envelops listeners with their own frayed nostalgia. Cape Cannons, the new group by local staple Dustin Saucier, is characteristically fleshed out and rich emotional rock music. And The Empty, another new outfit, is riotgirl dance-pop. All ages and free at Bayside Bowl. 8 p.m. | Free | Bayside Bowl, 58 Alder St., Portland | baysidebowl.com
FIND YOUR PEEPS | If you can't get the political world out of your mind, you're set too. "The Other Inaugural Ball" is the sort of spirited counter-protest you'll feel right at home in, where performances by the venerable Theater Ensemble of Color (fresh off their fantastic debut performance of THE OTHERS last weekend) perform, along with the invigorating electronic-pop group Hi Tiger and the phenomenal Portland dance troupe Sudo Girls, comprised of young women dancers originally from Sudan. With an address by featured speaker Fatuma Hussein (of United Somali Women of Maine), while DJ 32french keeps everyone in a dancing mood. Proceeds for this POC-led event go toward the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP). Recommended. 7 pm | $10 | Mechanics Hall, 519 Congress St., Portland | https://www.artful.ly/store/events/10850
SUNDAY 22
ENORMOUS SPIRIT | The classically trained violinist and songwriter Gaelynn Lea is a dynamo. You may remember her as the winner of NPR's Tiny Desk Concert Series last year, beating out 6,100 entries with her set of fiddle music steeped in Irish melodies. Equally meditative and ebullient, Lea's live performance belies her distinctive method — reliant on loops and effects and self-taught as a condition of a congenital disability called Osteogenesis Imperfecta. For the past ten years, Lea has been collaborating with Alan Sparhawk of the indie-rock band Low (to give you an idea of where we are genre-wise), and plays here tonight with Jerusha Robinson of the slow-core group South China. The concert will be followed by a Q&A session moderated by Disability Rights Maine director Kim Moody. Recommended. | $10 adv, $12 day of | SPACE Gallery, 538 Congress St., Portland | space538.org
BARBED TONGUES | Join local comedians as they do their part to mock and ridicule the new leader of the country (though we hear straight-up contempt is effective too). A local effort of the national WHAT A JOKE Comedy Festival takes place in over 30 cities across the country, all proceeds benefiting the vital American Civil Liberties Union. This one takes place at the new Bunker Brewing facility, and features local comedians Connor McGrath, Jordan Handren-Seavey (formerly of Portland, now of Boston), Aharon Willows-Hebert, and more. 6:30 pm | $10 suggested donation | Bunker Brewing Co., 17 Westfield St., Portland | bunkerbrewingco.com
WOKE UP LIKE DIS | When was the last time you publicly celebrated your hair? Or others' hair? Thought so! Tonight at One Longfellow Square, the unique hair-themed event "Beauty in Colors" is a showcase of the works of stylist Dathan Hunter, and sheds some light on the many unique cuts and colors adorning this city's heads. With a performance by the Pihcintu Multicultural Chorus, DJ'd by Bubba's party selector DJ Jon, and hosted by the inimitable Nicole Antonette — who by our calculations, appears or performs in at least three events on this weekend calendar alone. 6 pm | $10 adv, $12 day of | One Longfellow Square, 181 State St., Portland | onelongfellowsquare.com
MONDAY 23
SELF-CARE IS IMPORTANT | We suggest taking this evening to read a book.
TUESDAY 24
DOWNLOAD SIGNAL | Have these times prompted you to re-evaluate your relationship to art? How about to your fellow citizens, any movement there? What about to social media ... any hot takes you got brewin' about that topic? (Social media is trending, we hear.) 'Cuz if so, maybe that coaxed an insight or two into the practice of physical exercise, spontaneous movement, that sort of thing. No? 'Cuz the two sure seem correlated. You can't consume, gripe about, or contribute to fake news, for example, while you're playing theater games in a space with other actors. And isn't that interesting? For the last several months, an inventive and big-hearted group of Portland theater artists have hosted "The Playground," a drop-in situation room of physical activity and theater sports. We don't know what they'll be up to tonight, but showing up is another way to exercise your resolutions, be they of the New Year's or anti-Trump variety. 7 pm | by donation | Mayo Street Arts, 10 Mayo St., Portland | mayostreetarts.org
SHE MADE HIM HAPPY | They say the way the Maryland-raised folk artist Maggie Rogers broke through was by cracking Pharrell Williams's chill facade as he was filmed listening to her song "Alaska" at a masterclass at NYU. "I've never heard anything that sounds like that," he said. "That's a drug for me." Crazy! With three albums under her belt (the last in 2014), she's coasting on the unique and rollicking folk-pop forms of her new tracks "Alaska" and "Dog Years." A new album is likely around the corner; in the meantime, see if you feel what Pharrell feels tonight at the Port City Music Hall, when Ms. Rogers rolls through. 8 pm | $10 adv, $12 day of | Port City Music Hall, 504 Congress St., Portland | portcitymusichall.com
WEDNESDAY 25
PICK YR BATTLES | Previously known mostly to Portland street artists and prolific morning walkers, the city-sanctioned graffiti wall near the East End Wastewater Treatment Plant became a thing of larger civic notoriety when a mural appeared depicting Governor Paul LePage in a KKK robe last summer. Citing that political speech (which, sure, is bold — but then again, so is cutting off refugees' General Assistance), some vocal civilians allege these artists have gone too far, and have put the continued use of the municipal wall up before City Council. (Our take on the issue? It's clearly a promo spot by Banksy.) A public hearing on the issue goes down tonight in the Portland Water District building. Seriously, though, now's not the time to be cracking down on free speech. 7 p.m. | Free | Portland Water District, Nixon Room, 225 Douglass St., Portland
THURSDAY 26
LONG ROAD AHEAD | Next week's highlights include a "heroes and villains" masquerade at P.H.O.M.E. A night of resilience storytelling the USM Glickman Library (brought by the terrific Women and Gender Studies program), and The Love Witch, Anna Biller's modern-day gothic fantasy, at SPACE Gallery.