The news is bleak, the nights are long. Yet somehow... the calendar is still stacked. January is when culture gets weird in the best way; this week, medieval manuscripts emerge from the vault, and camp horror and queer literature come out to play. Plus, artist Elizabeth Knight presents her dog embroideries, and local hardcore shows up to shred. Don't say we didn't warn you!
It was the perfect day for a festival when Literary Arts' 2025 Portland Book Festival took over the downtown Park Blocks on Saturday. The sun shone brightly through the orange November leaves, and not a drop of rain fell while excited book-lovers lined up early all the way around the Portland Art Museum to pick up their wristbands. Despite the crowds at the festival's first-ever sold-out year, many weren't worried about the busy chaos and instead leaned into the joyful mood.
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy has died at the age of 78. She was a Black trans elder who has been fighting for the community for decades and was a veteran of the Stonewall Riots. She worked for the Mattachine Midwest gay rights' organization, started Miss Major's Angels of Care to take care of gay men dying of AIDS in the 1980s, was the executive director of the Transgender Gender-Variant and Intersex Justice Project, and built a safe haven for trans people called tilfi.