READINGS & TALKS

Boots Riley in Conversation with Jesse Hagopian
Boots Riley (of the Coup) has been making politically and aesthetically engaged hiphop full of brains and heart for more than two decades. In advance of the Coup's Mural Amphiteatre show, Riley will discuss politics, culture, and his new book of collected lyrics (and related commentary, photos, and ephemera), Boots Riley: Tell Homeland Security—We Are the Bomb, with Seattle activist Jesse Hagopian. Also scheduled to appear: local hiphop luminaries Geologic (Blue Scholars) and Gabriel Teodros. (University Book Store, Thurs Aug 20, 7 pm, free) SEAN NELSON

The Seventh Smoke Farm Symposium
Every summer, a collection of scientists, artists, philosophers, and other thinkers travel 60 miles north of Seattle to the big barn at Smoke Farm for a day of lectures, conversation, and communal dining. Disclosure: I cohost the event with Stuart Smithers (chair of the religion department at University of Puget Sound), so I can’t miss it. But you shouldn’t, either. This year will include presentations about brain research, death’s role in life, lies about the US criminal-justice system, psychedelics and meditation, and the changing surfaces of Capitol Hill. Our chef for the evening will be Monica Dimas. (Smoke Farm, Sat Aug 22, 11 am, $20 suggested donation) BRENDAN KILEY

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FILM

The Diary of a Teenage Girl
The Diary of a Teenage Girl, which is set in San Francisco in the 1970s and stars Kristen Wiig, Bel Powley, and Alexander Skarsgård, is based on Phoebe Gloeckner’s autobiographical graphic novel about a teenage girl’s emerging sexuality. “Emerging” in the sense that she’s 15 and has a sexual relationship with her mother’s boyfriend. Some people believe the book encourages or justifies pedophilia. Others think it presents a complex picture of a young woman’s coming of age. Either way, what good is art that doesn’t steer us away from the false comforts of illusory moral certainty? (Opens Fri Aug 21, various locations) CHARLES MUDEDE

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ART

Mother//Hood
The stated subject of Shelly Leavens's solo exhibition of satirical and pointed sculptures and drawings is motherhood, as the title says. But it's really about change and resistance to it, and rather than anything soft and warm, it has an undeniable undercurrent of violence: a looping video walk around the changing, chain-link-fenced South Seattle block where she recently moved (and which is gentrifying?); a life-size painted cardboard cutout of a smug man from around the time the house was built (when men and women existed in blatantly separate realms); and objects, including bullets, that she found in the attic of her home, paired with menacing, fictional letters she wrote from the perspective of their owners—her predecessors. (Punch Gallery, Thurs-Sat, free, through Aug 29) JEN GRAVES

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PERFORMANCE
An American Dream
When a Japanese American family is forced out of its home on an island in Puget Sound and sent to an internment camp, a German Jewish immigrant and her American soldier husband are the ones who move into the house—and opera ensues. This is the story of An American Dream (originally, and I'd say better, titled Belongings), a 65-minute chamber opera written by San Francisco composer Jack Perla (libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo) and commissioned by Seattle Opera. This is the piece's world premiere. Don't miss hearing what a new work in an old form sounds like, and especially one tinted with the shadowy politics of World War II Seattle. (McCaw Hall, Aug 21 at 8 pm and Aug 23 at 2:30 pm, $50-$125) JEN GRAVES

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Ian Bell’s Brown Derby Series: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Seattle has a venerable and undignified tradition of marvelously ramshackle bar theater. If Dina Martina is its queen, Ian Bell's Brown Derby Series—which adapts major motion pictures for raucous, boozy audiences—is the crown prince. For this round, David Gehrman stars as Indiana Jones, Basil Harris plays "the face-melting Nazi," Josh Hartvigson capers as the famous capuchin monkey (spoiler alert: He gets poisoned), and the special effects will be re-created using only duct tape, cardboard, and silly string. (Re-bar, Aug 20-22, 8 pm, $20) BRENDAN KILEY

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FOOD & DRINK
Holy Mountain Beer Dinner
Beer dinners pairing craft brews with food that’s impeccably sourced and prepared are actually fairly common at restaurants in this town (ah, Seattle). But this dinner at Ravenna’s Salare, matching chef Edouardo Jordan’s farm-fresh, world-inspired food with Holy Mountain Brewing's seasonal, carefully aged beers stands out. While both the restaurant and the brewery have been open less than a year, their founders are dedicated to traditional, old-world (not to mention) labor-intensive processes: whole animal butchery, charcuterie making, barrel aging, and, of course, lacto-fermentation. It’s a match made in heaven.(Salare, Wed Aug 19 at 7 pm, $125, sold out) ANGELA GARBES

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FESTIVALS
Summit Block Party
For many Capitol Hill denizens, this is the real summer block party. It’s free, local-centric, full of sonic diversity, and devoid of hordes of suburban d-bags. Musical highlights for the fourth edition of this hedonistic hoedown include rowdy garage punks Ubu Roi, cogent rapper RA Scion and supremely funky DJ Indica Jones, ex–Rose Windows guitarist Chris Cheveyo’s new rock juggernaut Dræmhouse, electronic torch-song brooders youryoungbody, anthemic rock charmers Snuff Redux, and psychedelic warlords Terminal Fuzz Terror. Summit Block Party is where you can feast on enjoyable sounds without feeling like you’re part of a marketing experiment. (Summit Ave, Sat Aug 22, noon, free. See the full Summit Block Party schedule) DAVE SEGAL

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