Eugene Weekly

Kommuna Lux, a lively folk music ensemble from Odesa, Ukraine, performs 7:30pm May 30 at Unity of the Valley on a West Coast U.S. tour, raising funds for direct aid in the country through their nonprofit KMLX. The conservatory-trained musicians focus on acoustic traditions, blending Eastern and Central European folk music jazz and klezmer, which is celebratory Ashkenazi Jewish music of Central and Eastern Europe. Still, with instruments such as clarinet, trumpet, trombone, percussion and voice, the band holds a similar irreverent sensibility and showmanship to Balkan punk bands like Gogol Bo****lo. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Kommuna Lux stood at a crossroads. Some members left to join the fight, while those remaining decided their place was sharing their cultural heritage on stage. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. The show is all ages.

Read more in Eugene Weekly’s What’s Happening Calendar!

Community Light High-energy Ukrainian folk band Kommuna Lux performs in Eugene

Cascadia Democratic Action, a nonviolent movement whose ultimate goal is to achieve an independent democratic bioregion, announced on the eve of Cascadia Day, May 18 that it’s time to open the conversation of increased autonomy, including secession — withdrawing the Cascadia bioregion from the U.S. CDA says it wants autonomy because the federal government is failing to prevent systemic abuse and is rapidly descending into fascism.

Hugh Spitzer, a retired University of Washington School of Law professor says while it would be a difficult task, “If there’s a will, there’s a way.” He adds that federal approval for secession could come in the form of a constitutional amendment, a statue or even a treaty.

Read more online on EugeneWeekly.com.

Separation Anxiety Cascadia Democratic Action hopes for autonomy from the United States

Retail giant Costco appears intent on expanding its hemmed-in Eugene store, but details remain sketchy.

This we know: The company last August paid $6 million to a real estate investment group for the Chad Drive property that housed Office Depot, the deed shows. The property is across Chad from the Costco store.
Atlas Holdings, the private company that owns the Office Depot and OfficeMax chains, earlier this month closed the Chad Drive store.

That leaves Costco with an empty 25,000-square-foot building with about 1.5 acres of parking holding about 140 parking spaces.

This is what we don’t know: Costco’s intentions.

Read the rest in Eugene Weekly’s Bricks $ Mortar.

Costco’s Mystery Buy Retail giant Costco appears intent on expanding its hemmed-in Eugene store, but details remain sketchy. This we know: The company last August paid $6 million to a real estate investment group for the…

When you enter the Miller Theatre Complex at the University of Oregon to see Los Dreamers, what will first catch your eye are some beautiful posters of a pre-conquest Indigenous woman clutching a bouquet of multi-colored corn and flowers while monarch butterflies hover nearby.

When you’re seated and the play begins, you’ll see an empty stage backed by a rosy sky that changes color periodically to indicate the time of day. Then pieces of a set slowly enter as if by magic.

A young woman named Penelope, but usually called Scoobi, is in the process of arranging a marriage of convenience with a blond American named Dylan. Scoobi was born in Mexico but has lived in the U.S. much of her life. She is now in law school, and paying an American to marry her will greatly increase her chances of avoiding capture by ICE.

This romantic, political comedy by Mónica Sánchez, a playwright based in New Mexico, caught the attention of Malek Najjar, a professor in the UO Theatre Arts department. Working closely with the author, he has mounted the first fully staged production of the script.

The play runs through June 7. Read the review and get showtimes in Eugene Weekly.

Bilingual Dreaming When you enter the Miller Theatre Complex at the University of Oregon to see Los Dreamers, what will first catch your eye are some beautiful posters of a pre-conquest Indigenous woman clutching a…