Our music critics have already chosen the 32 best concerts in Seattle, but now it's our arts critics' turn to pick the best events in their areas of expertise. Here are their picks in every genreâfrom the one-day-only flurry of readings that is the last-ever APRIL Festival to Dinos on the Rocks to an epic durational performance festival to the Seattle Jewish Film Festival. See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.
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MONDAY
READINGS & TALKSLauren Grodstein with Laurie Frankel
Hear from author Lauren Grodstein, who is known for novels including Reproduction is the Flaw of Love, Girls Dinner Club, A Friend of the Family, and An Explanation for Everything. She will share bits and pieces from her upcoming work, Our Short History, a story about a mother making difficult family decisions while facing imminent death. Grodstein will be joined by Laurie Frankel, whose new novel, This Is How It Always Is (as Rich Smith wrote in January) "explores the trials, tribulations, questions, and unbridled delights that come along with raising a trans child."
MONDAY-WEDNESDAY
COMEDYHari Kondabolu
It's not always a guaranteed pleasure to watch comedians working out new material, but Hari Kondabolu is not just any comedian. You could make the case that his asides, self-edits, and ad-libs are as funny as the individual finished bits. Though the finished work is, all in all, a whole other level of funny. These shows give small audiences an intimate look at the process of a comic whose trajectory is thrilling to behold. Plus, when you see the final, polished gems months from now, in video clips from TV appearances shared on your Facebook feed, you'll be in a great position to make the comments all about how YOU saw it first. Everybody wins! SEAN NELSON
MONDAY-SUNDAY
ARTPCNW 21st Juried Exhibition Opening
Every year, Photo Center Northwest presents a juried exhibition with work chosen from submissions from around the world. This year, the show is juried by Sandra Phillips, Curator Emeritus of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She's renowned in the Bay Area (and nationally) for her experience in curating photographic collections, and during her time as photography curator at SFMOMA, she helped the museum's photography department become one of the top ten in the United States.
Seattle Jewish Film Festival
The 22nd annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival is a nine-day cinematic exploration and celebration of Jewish life around the globe. They promise dozens of Jewish and Israeli films from countries including France, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Poland, along with exciting guests, and the rest of the usual film festival draws. This week's films include Big Sonia, Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, The Zookeeper's Wife.
7th Annual Plate of Nations
Plate of Nations is your two-week-long chance to explore the many cuisines and cultures of the Rainier Valley. Until April 9, 11 independently owned eateries serving Ethiopian, Eritrean, Laotian, Middle Eastern, Somali, Thai, or Vietnamese (or, in the case of Olympic Express restaurant, a wondrous halal mash-up of all nearly all of these things) food are offering shareable plates, specially priced at $15 and $25. If youâve never been to Cafe Ibex, Huarachitos, or Rainier BBQ, youâre missing out on some of the best food in town. South Seattle is where itâs at. Catch up. ANGELA GARBES
TUESDAY
READINGS & TALKSAmy Hatvany: It Happens All the Time
In It Happens All the Time, Amy Hatvany examines what happens when fast friends since childhood, a young man and woman, get drunk together, and one of them decides to go furtherâwithout the consent of the other. Hatvany uses alternating viewpoints to express each character's perceptions and expectations in a fraughtâand all too commonâsituation.
Annie Hartnett: Rabbit Cake
Annie Hartnett's debut novel tells the story of a fact-obsessed 12-year-old girl named Elvis who is learning to deal with her mother's death, and has been compared to works including Maria Semple's Where'd You Go Bernadette and and Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You.
Bob Ortblad: Who Built Seattle?
Seattle certainly has changed in the tech booms of the past few decades, but it has also undergone other, older transformations, including the Klondike Gold Rush population spike around the turn of the century. Learn more about Seattle's history (from the physical restructuring of the city's landscape to the notable buildings of the 20th century) from civil engineer and history enthusiast Bob Ortblad, who will focus on Seattle's development from 1853 to 1953.
Bryan Stevenson
Bryan Stevenson, a public interest lawyer, law professor at NYU's law school, and the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, will speak as part of the 2016-17 Seattle Arts & Lectures Literary Arts season. He's received numerous awards, including a MacArthur "Genius" Grant, for his work fighting poverty and racial discrimination in the criminal justice system, and his 2014 book Just Mercy was selected as one of 2014's 10 best nonfiction books by TIME.
Loud Mouth Lit
This series of "fresh, local, and organic" author readings, which thrives on face-to-face interaction, is curated by playwright and fiction Paul Mullin. At the March edition, guest author Kelleen Conway Blanchard will read "A Religion of Crows" (a "true story about murder and God and fathers"), and Mullin will read "A Dead Body," a "not-so-true story about a dead body and the three people who wish it wasnât (inspired by another not-so-true story of the same title by another erstwhile playwright, Anton Chekhov)."
Path with Art Spring Voices Showcase
Path with Art is an organization that works to help people recovering from homelessness, addiction, and trauma by recognizing the transformative and beneficial powers of artistic engagement. Spring Voices is a showcase that will highlight the recent work of their students, including poetry, prose, performance, and song.
Fight Back Seattle: Open Self-Defense Session
A few weeks ago, jogger Kelly Herron was attacked in a bathroom at Golden Gardens Park while training for a marathon. She managed to fight off her attacker while uttering the (now internet-famous) battle-cry phrase âNot today, motherfucker!â Herron was able to resist her attacker because she had just completed a self-defense class for women offered by the company she works for, RealSelf, a health and wellness start-up that provides information to those seeking cosmetic or health treatments. The self-defense class was given by community dojo Fighting Chance Seattle. Now, in response to the incident, the start-up is hosting the same self-defense class. It's free and open to the public. AMBER CORTES
TUESDAY-SATURDAY
ARTArt of Resistance Part 2: Migration Now!
Justseeds Artists' Cooperative and CultureStrike (two artistic organizations that prioritize social justice and political progress) have joined together to create this compilation of prints that addresses issues surrounding migration. They write: "Migration is fundamentally about our right to move freely across planet Earth, in search of our fullest and best selves."
This exhibit closes on Saturday.
Dan Attoe: New Drawings
See new drawings by artist Dan Attoe, who Jen Graves admiringly called "a highly unsettling painter of unwholesome redneck life." In 2008, she wrote: "What distinguishes his jewel-like, classically painted scenes of contortionist strippers, red-faced ministers, religious fanatics, dangerous yokels, lost souls, and alien tourists from Twin Peaks is Attoe's continually shifting point of view, expressed in texts he scribbles on and around his paintings. The texts range from confessional to aggressive, poignant to clichéd. They ultimately beg and defer the question: Who is this guy and what is he telling us?"
This exhibit closes on Saturday.
Marita Dingus: The Gathering
Marita Dingus's mixed-media sculptural work, using salvaged materials and incorporating elements of nkondi figures by the Kongo people, will evoke the spirit world and its role in soothing human conflict and anxiety. In their words: "The Gathering represents the duality of people seeking spiritual support outside themselves when in fact the spiritual strength comes from within."
This exhibit closes on Saturday.
Susan Skilling: Paintings
This show will feature layered and earthy paintings, always delicate, often in gouache on Thai mulberry paper, by Susan Skilling.
This exhibit closes on Saturday.
TUESDAY-SUNDAY
ARTSwedish Crime Scenes
Do you number among the junkies of Swedish crime literature? Starting with Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall and continuing through Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson, Swedes have been among the most darkly inventive mystery authors on the planet. Is it something to do with the spookiness of their landscapes? This Nordic Heritage Museum exhibit might give you an idea: "From Gotland in the east to FjÀllbacka in the west, from Ystad in the south up to Kiruna in the north, the country is seen in a new perspective: via murder investigations where the focus is not only on the crime but also on the Swedish welfare model and human psychology." Learn about the authors and the landscapes with which they populate Sweden's underworldly dwellers.
This exhibit closes on Sunday.
Dry Powder
Charles Isherwood's review of Dry Powder for the New York Times begins, "Calling all Bernie Sanders fans," so this was an appropriate choice by the Rep for Seattle audiences. Dry Powder, written by first-time playwright Sarah Burgess, skewers the world of high finance with humor and gusto. Directed by Marya Sea Kaminski.
Mamma Mia!
Bafflingly successful rock musical Mamma Mia! (featuring the songs of ABBA, like "Dancing Queen" and "Money, Money, Money") comes to the Paramount on its farewell tour. Don't miss your chance to see the eighth longest-running show in Broadway history (it premiered in 1999).
WEDNESDAY
ARTThe Warmth of Other Suns with Isabel Wilkerson
Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns is the definitive history of the Great Migration of African Americans from South to North between 1915 and 1975. Reading the book changed my entire view of the United States of America. It made me understand things I never understood before. It made me marvel at how much history gets lost between the bookends of slavery and the civil rights movement. Reading this book was like that drunken night when you finally get to know somebody, except the somebody is your country. And have you seen Jacob Lawrence's 60-panel Migration Series that tackles the same topic? YOU MUST. JEN GRAVES
Chris Hayes
Journalist and author Chris Hayes hosts the weekday evening MSNBC show All In with Chris Hayes, and often fills in for Rachel Maddowâand he's the author of Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy. He's stopping by Seattle to share his second book, A Colony in a Nation, which deals with racial inequality, criminal justice, and pervasive surveillance.
Climate Science on Tap: Salmon in a Time of Global Warming
Perhaps the scariest thing about global warming is that we still don't know what effects it'll have on our ecosystems: It's a worldwide experiment with no certain outcome. But scientists do have some facts and projected scenarios. For example, how will the warming of streams affect the survival of salmon? Hear from James Winton, who holds the enviable title of USGS chief of fish health; Nick Bond, UW and state climatologist, and Rachel White from UW Atmospheric Sciences. Swallow your environmental anxiety with beer and food truck fare.
The State of Arts Criticism in Seattle
Arts criticism has gone the way of much of print media: Online migration and the popularity of user reviews have diminished the presence and standing of professional critics. Doug McLennan, who founded artsjournal.com, will lead a discussion with former Seattle Times theater critic Misha Berson; Paul Constant, formerly of the Stranger and founder of seattlebookreview.com, Brendan Kiley, also a former Stranger writer and now a theater critic and arts editor at the Times; and David Brewster, formerly of Seattle Weekly and Crosscut.com. Come for insights into what we've lost and how new experiments in criticism can revive the art of review.
WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY
PERFORMANCEYellow Fish // Epic Durational Performance Festival
Witness art as an expression of enduranceâand no, we're not talking about sitting through The Hateful Eight or something. Yellow Fish sends performers to various parts of the city to say "fuck you!" to exhaustion, boredom, irritation, pain, and the grinding passage of time in pieces that last from one to 48 hours. Think Marina AbramoviÄ fasting and remaining mute for 12 days in front of an audience, or EJ Hill lying in wooden roller coaster for three months. While Yellow Fish's artists won't be holding poses for quite so long, they'll still mount a challenge to the idea that performance art should be brief and digestible. If you're curious about the idea, check out their workshops on April 1 and 8.
WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY
ARTChuck Close Photographs
Very little freshness has been revealed of the portraitist Chuck Close in the last few years. Iâm not sure what unquenched curiosity is satisfied by this exhibition, of 90 of his photo-based pieces over the years, from maquettes for paintings to Polaroids and daguerrotypes. What I do recommend on the occasion of this show is to read Wil S. Hyltonâs recent story in the New York Times Magazine, âThe Mysterious Metamorphosis of Chuck Close,â which is the freshest thing to happen to Chuck Close in years. It goes, âOne of the things you hear people say about Close now, with the supposed benefit of hindsight, is that the medical catastrophe he suffered in 1988, which took his mobility and nearly killed him, also revolutionized his work⊠forced him to abandon the conventions of realism and develop a novel way of painting: dividing his canvas into a grid and then filling one square at a time to create a dynamic neo-pointillist effect. This is a tidy, bow-wrapped narrative, which should be the first indication that itâs wrong. Something about Close seems to invite this sort of pop-psych exegesis.â JEN GRAVES
This exhibit closes on Sunday.
Moisture Festival
The Moisture Festival unites a vast kaleidoscope of burlesque and variĂ©tĂ© performers at Hale's Palladium and Broadway Performance Hall. Whomever you fancyâclowns, comedians, tightwire artists, aerialists, jugglers, singersâyou can find someone who's traveled from regions as far flung as Basque France or Wallingford to perform for you. The festival promises a variety of special performances and workshops, as well as performances of shows including their VarietĂš spectacular (with matinee as well as late-night editions) and the Libertease Cabaret.
THURSDAY
FILMFamily Circle: The Films of Yasujiro Ozu
The films in SAM's tribute to one of the three masters of Japan's Golden Age of film, Yasujiro Ozu, are all beautiful and have at their core the quiet spirit of their times and placesâmid-century, post-war Japan. The second film in the series is Late Spring, which doesn't have much action in it but presents the kind of stillness that only a highly refined sense of one's culture can achieve; and the series ends with An Autumn Afternoon, which is a little more lively and has one of the best bar scenes in the history of cinema. CHARLES MUDEDE
Guest Chef Night
FareStart is a fantastic organization that empowers disadvantaged and homeless men and women by training them for work in the restaurant industry. Every Thursday, they host a Guest Chef Night, featuring a three-course dinner from a notable Seattle chef for just $29.95. This week, Chef Megan Coombes of Altstadt will cook a menu including krĂ€utersuppe, lammwurst, and sĂŒsse brezeln.
Studio Supper: Renee Erickson of Sea Creatures Restaurants
"It is very rare that anyone has their phone out," Bethany Jean Clement once wrote of On the Boards' Studio Suppers series. Given the current behavior of pretty much everyone everywhere in any dining situation, I cannot think of higher praise. The Studio Suppers series is a communal dinner served on the opening night of select On the Boards shows. It's inclusive of booze and all the other dining necessities, and the pricing is on a sliding scale ($25â$100), with the idea being to encourage poor artist types to come rub elbows with wealthy art patron types. This time, they'll be rubbing elbows over the brilliant culinary delights of Renee Erickson. I would like to be all cool and hip and totally jaded to Renee Erickson, because that sounds like something a truly hipster food writer would do, but it's impossible. She's a straight-up wizardess, and her name on the bill would be enough to bring me in. However, the show also looks awesome. It's a dance performance choreographed by Heather Kravas, called Visions of Beauty, that aims to challenge our notions of gender and bills itself as "punk in attitude, feminist in spirit, and deliberately anti-spectacle." Pair all that with copious amounts of wineâwhich is, again, included in your ticket priceâand you've got the recipe for a very stimulating evening.TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE
THURSDAY-SATURDAY
ARTDave Nelson: P A T H S
Dave Nelson makes geometric sculptures, installations, and prints that seem simple at first glance. But after a little whileâand after seeing more of his piecesâthe work sinks in. Pay attention to the way he uses light (literally, fluorescent tubes) and stark black lines alongside delicate, sometimes barely visible organic shapes.
This exhibit closes on Saturday.
Distant Light
Distant Light is an interactive installation consisting of translucent fabric "walls" activated by wind current and backlit by a light source projecting slowly shifting multicolor gradients. The materials are simple, but the effect is one of immersionâan environment of rich, decadent color one can get lost in. Artist Sang Jun Yoo is a recent NYC transplant and current PhD candidate at the University of Washington's DXARTS program whose work engages the threshold between what is directly seen and what is perceived through processes of the mind that construct a congruent whole from snatches of sensory experience. In this case, the congruent whole is an opportunity for transcendence. EMILY POTHAST
There will be an artist talk on Thursday.
26 Miles
26 Miles is written by playwright and composer Quiara Aolegria Hudes, who wrote the book for Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical In the Heights and won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Water by the Spoonful. The plot centers on an estranged mother and daughter who take an impromptu road trip to Yellowstone, and deals with themes of Cuban-American identity, broken families, and the American landscape. Directed by Julie Beckman.
Yankee Pickney
This is the Seattle premiere of Yankee Pickney, a one-woman show written and performed by Jehan Osanyin and directed by Jimmy Shields. It's about a young West Indian woman navigating culture and identityâstuck outside both African American and white American communitiesâand "spinning a tale that stretches back centuries yet is as contemporary as today's headlines."
THURSDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCEFringe Festival
Five years after its relaunch, the Seattle Fringe Festival is back with two weekends of surprisingly good/bad, offbeat theatrical performances. This ain't the Rep. This is where the new, raw, just-bubbled-up stuff is, which can be exciting! I'm pumped to check out Sara Porkalob's Dragonbaby, Dacha Theatre's Shakespeare Dice, Jeffrey Robert's The Gay Uncle Explains It All to You, Arson Nicki + Friends' âFringe Fest Is Such a Drag," Squatch Tanztheater's Hey, I'm Average., Michael Washington Brown's BLACK!, and Troy Mink's The Midway Liar. RICH SMITH
Grounded
There are plenty of plays about unexpected pregnancyâbut this one, by George Brant (Elephant's Graveyard) shows the unique consequences for a star fighter pilot. She can no longer take to the sky, so now she sits in a trailer and operates drones. Timely and inquisitive, Grounded is an empathetic play (with slightly less political punch than you might expect). This production will be directed by Kelly Kitchens.
Smash Putt
This is basically the zenith of fun in a dreary Seattle winter. You get wasted, you play bizarro-world mini golf (including a hole featuring a golf ball cannon), and you generally are reminded how fun works. Last time I went, they even had the Infernal Noise Brigade marching around the venue, sowing chaos. TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE
FRIDAY
FILMA Fanatic Heart: Geldof on Yeats
For its inaugural film screening, Folio will present A Fanatic Heart, a documentary on the Irish nationalist poet W.B. Yeats, narrated by punk songwriter/activist Bob Geldof. Yeats was a folklorist, poet laureate, Nobel-winner and senator of free Ireland after independence from England, and Geldof shows "how one man dreamed an entire country out of the ravages of famine and into a new dawn." Authors, actors, and musicians like Sting, Noel Gallagher, Edna O'Brien, Bono, Van Morrison, Olivia O'Leary, Liam Neeson, Stephen Fry, and many others read Yeats's venerated poems throughout the course of the film.
Burke NiteLife: Dinos on the Rocks
Mix up your usual Friday evening drinking routine at this dinosaur-focused event featuring a selection of real fossils (including the jaw of the Tufts-Love T. rex), a potentially terrifying life-sized dinosaur augmented reality experience, and photo ops with the Jurassic Park Jeep. The admission fee includes two drink tickets.
Work Release 9
In Round 9 of Work Release, a dinner series offering cooks and chefs to experiment with cuisines outside of their normal menu confines, Carlile's bartender Felicia Chin-Braxton will mix up a tropically inspired cocktail array. The entry price covers all your drinks and snacks, plus tip and tax.
Art For Arts' Sake
Northwest Sinfonietta seeks to create an all-new concert experience with Art for Arts' Sake, in partnership with Spectrum Dance Theater and the Museum of Glass, in a performative exploration of the commonalities between these mediums. Included in the program will be the world premiere of "Hot Shop," a new work by Sinfonietta violist and local composer Heather Bentley.
La Petite Mortâs Anthology of Erotic Esoterica
See "the darker side of performance art" at this eerie, secretive variety show with circus arts, burlesque, music, and more. Feel free to wear a mask if you'd rather not be seen.
West End Girls: A Drag Extravaganza!
Many of the city's alt-drag pantheon will gather in the Far West (namely Delridge)âBetty Wetter, Butylene O'Kipple, and "unidentified frocking object" Arson Nicki, much praised by Stranger critic Matt Baume. The show starts at 9, but they're opening up early so you can whet your appetite watching RuPaul.
Augusten Burroughs: âšLust & Wonderâš
The best-selling author has a new memoir called Lust & Wonder about gay sex, romantic love, addiction, and more.
An Evening with Elizabeth Gilbert
The author of Eat, Pray, Love followed up that huge commercial success with another memoir, titled Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage. Now her latest piece, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, is an examination of her own "generative process."
Hida Viloria
Intersex activist Hida Viloria's Born Both: An Intersex Life tells what it's like to be born outside the "norm." Raised as a woman yet conscious of their non-typical body, Viloria tried out various identities as an adultâfeminine woman, androgynous person, or manâonly to find their niche in "the space between genders." Viloria's self-discovery has led them to fight for intersex equality on the nationalâeven internationalâlevel. Hear pieces of their fascinating story from the source.
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
ARTCarolyn Gracz: Land Marks
Carolyn Gracz is known for her gorgeously simple collaged monoprintsâthis exhibit will still feature aspects of those works, but with additional adornments and etchings.
This exhibit closes on Saturday.
The Fog Machine Play
Alternate title: "Experientia de Apparatus Producens Nebula." (Actually, the same title, in a fancier language.) Copious Love Productions apparently felt really bad for their fog machine, purchased in 2013 and never given a starring role. So now, they're putting on 18 short plays by Brendan Mack in which their dear, neglected machine will be an essential player. Take part in a fringe theater experiment that they promise will be "unfogettable" (sadly, we can't take credit for that pun).
Made in Seattle: KT Niehoff
The child inside you will flip out at the sight of big helium balloons floating around the black-box theater inside 12th Avenue Arts, where choreographer KT Niehoff and approximately seven million collaborators are staging this multimedia brainsplosion called Before We Flew Like Birds We Flew Like Clouds. Using dance, short virtual-reality films, sound recordings of Radiolab-like interviews, and music, Niehoff and her deep bench of artists endeavor to convey the experiences of four different people in a state of extreme duress: a speed skater in the middle of a superfast turn, an astronaut blasting off and floating in space, a paraplegic rower rowing, and a heart-attack survivor seconds before (and after!) death. It's a lot to look at, but it's all good, and did I mention the room full of heart-lifting balloons?! RICH SMITH
Rainy Day in Seattle: Part 4
Is Seattle raining on your parade? Get your fix of free, restorative poetry courtesy of readers Cassandra Dallett, Christine No, Abe Becker, Elly Finzer, and Paul Corman-Roberts on Friday and Jesse Minkert , Neil McCrea, Duane Kirby Jensen, Stranger Genius Award nominee Robert Lashley, and Bill Gainer.
FRIDAY-SUNDAY
FESTIVALSFisherman's Village Music Festival
Celebrate the efforts of the Everett Music Initiative with this weekend festival spread over several beloved local venues, with live sets from The Cave Singers, Thunderpussy, SassyBlack, Fauna Shade, Kyle Craft, Porter Ray, Sloucher, and many more.
Dina Martina: Fine Avec Me
The verbal begarblement/drag performance artist Dina Martina will return with video, nonsensical songs, and extraordinarily funny if meandering stories with Fine Avec Me. We're no stranger (:-/) to Dina; our contributor David Schmader called herâadmiringlyâ "a singer who cannot sing, a dancer who cannot dance, and a storyteller who seems to have situational brain damage." She also won a Stranger Genius Award in 2012. And she was on our cover once. Do we have a crush?
SATURDAY
FOOD & DRINKEdible Book Festival
Food, book, and, most importantly, pun lovers unite! The Edible Book Festival brings people together for a lighthearted culinary, artistic, and literary celebration. Throughout the day, âbooksâ made from food and inspired by works of literature will be displayed. (Past entries have included works titled Gourd of the Rings, War and Peas, and The Life of Pie.) Later, awards (including âMost PUNderfulâ) will be handed out. Contestants are asked to bring a copy of the book that inspired them as well as a serving utensilâbecause at the end of the day, all the creations will be eaten. Itâs the most wonderful and delicious nerd parade imaginable. ANGELA GARBES
Hawaiian Dinner
Hawaiian Islands flavors will take over Delicatus, in a break from that worthy location's usual sandwich-dominated menu. You'll get four courses for $50, tax and tip included. We're interested to see what their taste for culinary adventure will reveal.
Arthaus 3.0: Rupaulooza!
Version 3.0 of Kremwerk's drag-queen battle royale/dance party is upon us. Teams of hilarious and artsy queens will compete for bragging rights, shade throwing rights, and the right to play puppet master at the following year's Arthaus series. As I predicted, Betty Wetter, Cookie Couture, Miss Americano, and Khloe5X of Halfway Haus won the series last year, and they'll be hosting and picking the themes this year. For this Rupaul-obsessed party, Chixie Dicks, Light Haus, and Haus of Urchin will compete, with Halfway Haus hosting and performances by Cookie Couture, Betty Wetter, Americano, Old Witch, and Atasha Manila. French Inhale will DJ. Drinks will be had. RICH SMITH
LGBTQ Youth Leadership Conference
Queer students! If you're involved with your GSA/QSA (or want to be), this Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network conference offers tools for you to beef up your queer organization's school presence. (GLSEN's name is a couple of decades old, but their mission statement is trans-inclusive: "GLSEN envisions a future in which every child learns to accept and respect all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.") Meet other young civic-minded LGBT students, LGBT professionals, and GLSEN advocates. Free for students and accompanying teachers.
APRIL Festival
This will be the last APRIL Festival ever! For the last five years, these folks have curated a boozy, weeklong celebration of independent literature that connected Pacific Northwest readers to authors all around the nation. Now the organizers are moving on with their lives. Good for them! Don't like it? Start something yourself! In the meantime, block off your Saturday and enjoy this final one-day-only flurry of readings. In a gesture of looking back and looking forward, APRIL presents authors who have performed at the festival before with authors who haven't. Listen to vets such as Sarah Galvin, Elissa Washuta, and the Vis-Ă -Vis Society read alongside newbies such as Chelsea Werner-Jatzke, Jayinee Basu, and Tommy Pico. Buy cool indie books at the book expo in the afternoon; get drunk and eat and listen to great readings all evening; root for the playwright, the poet, the novelist, or the drag queen at night; and cry it all out at the closing party. Go say good-bye. RICH SMITH
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
ARTBemis Arts Spring Show
Come to the Bemis Art Show to see a juried exhibition, explore resident and visiting artist open studios in Pioneer Square, and listen to live music.
SUNDAY
FOOD & DRINKSeattle Restaurant Week
Seattle Restaurant Week is a twice-yearly event that is actually two half-weeks (Sunday through Thursday, from April 2â13) during which 165-plus restaurants around Seattleâand Bellevue, Kirkland, Edmonds, Woodinville, Issaquah, Redmond, Tukwila, and Snoqualmieâoffer set-menu, three-course dinners for $32. Many restaurants also offer three-course lunches for $18. How much do you save? It depends entirely on the restaurant, but Restaurant Week is a great chance to try restaurants that might normally be outside of your price range.
7 Deadly Queens
Since its debut last year (or possibly thousands of years ago in what the organizers steadfastly deny was an occult ceremony), Glitterbeast has reliably shocked, astounded, and bedazzled all who attend their explosive concussions of cabaret and drag. The latest show features an absolutely ingenious idea: The seven performers have been tasked with anonymously developing performances for each other, based on the seven deadly sins. They've been rehearsing for weeks, so by the time the curtain goes up, you'll be treated to a powerful infusion of lust, envy, sloth, pride, guttony, wrath, and whatever avarice is. Under normal conditions, Glitterbeast is impossible to predict, and with this new twist courtesy of visionary artist Jenna St. Croix, we may just be witnessing the birth of a whole new movement. (But not, we are assured, a cult.) MATT BAUME
An Evening with Neil Gaiman
Celebrated novelist Neil Gaimanâknown for his dark, vast body of work, and the creepy universality he creates that resonates in a deep, secret part of a readerâs psycheâwill stop in Seattle to discuss his upcoming book Norse Mythology, inspired by famous myths about the gods of Asgard.
National Geographic Live: The Mystery of Our Human Story
Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger is known for a number of discoveries and excavations (including Australopithecus sediba, effectively a transition between australopithecines and Homo habilis, and Homo naledi, which could potentially be a previously unknown Homo species) but he's also known for his "celebrity anthropologist" status. He's a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and a regular lecturer at a variety of venues, and he has used his scientific fame to push for open-access frameworks (upholding the standard himself, making many of his projects publicly available and encouraging collaboration).
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