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MONDAY
READINGS & TALKSPatti Smith
The punk-rock queen and author of Just Kids, for which she won the National Book Award in 2010, presents her 2015 book, M Train. The "M" seems to stand for Manhattan, mental, Michigan, more coffee, memento mori, melancholy, music, Murakami, memoir about living in New York and taking out a mortgage for a coffee shop, and making a living by making art. Throughout the book, Smith winds readers through the last few decades of her personal and professional life, noting inspirations and showing off photos of the journey along the way. Your ticket includes a copy of the book. RICH SMITH
SH*T GOLD
Velocity invites artists from all media and genres to contribute up to five minutes of risky material to this very supportive open mic night.
MONDAY-THURSDAY
FILMFrench Cinema Now
See a showcase of new films in Frenchâincluding Reset, Go Home, A Kid, and Eva & Leonâat SIFF's annual mini-festival French Cinema Now.
MONDAY-SATURDAY
THEATER & DANCERhinoceros
You're probably going to spend a lot of time while watching Strawberry Theatre Workshop's production of Eugène Ionesco's classic absurdist play thinking, "Okay, but do the rhinoceroses stampeding all over this French town represent Trump supporters, or do they represent Bernie Bros, or do they represent Hillbots perfectly enacting the Democratic nominee's vagenda of manocide?" And then once you figure that out, you're going to be thinking, "All right, well, is this funny and pointed parable about the rise of the 20th century's worst -isms a critique of the idea of the state of political discourse, or a critique of incrementalism, or�" By the end of the show, you'll think Rhinoceros is either EXACTLY the play we need to be seeing right now or EXACTLY the play we don't need to be seeing right now. RICH SMITH
There are no shows on Tuesday or Wednesday.
MONDAY-SUNDAY
FILMSeattle Latino Film Festival
This eighth annual celebration of Latino film will highlight guest country Venezuela.
Revolt. She said. Revolt again.
This Washington Ensemble Theatre production will be the West Coast premiere of Revolt. She said. Revolt again., which is supposed to be a powerful, absurd-funny, polyvocal, multimedia, fiercely feminist call for revolt. Revolt draws its title from a Julia Kristeva book about "revolt" as a mode of being (hi, grad school) and also highlights the way language shapes our perceptions and expectations of women. RICH SMITH
There are no shows on Tuesday or Wednesday.
TUESDAY
READINGS & TALKSSix Pack Series
Washington Ensemble Theater's quarterly-ish variety show is my favorite reading series in Seattle. It's always energetic, often politically engaged without being too self-serious, and sometimes very moving. The theme for this installment is "EAT ME," which will feature "stories of food, famine, and feasting!" Local literary organizer Willie Fitzgerald may or may not read a story about buying himself pounds of Utz's crab chips for his 30th birthday. The Stranger's music calendar editor Kim Selling is sure to draw a snort-laugh or two with her poems or essays. One of the promotional photos on Sara Porkalob's website shows her in character as the Dragon Lady holding up a shrink-wrapped package of raw duck heads, so. And MJ Seiber will probably be loud and funny. Beers and booze available at the bar. RICH SMITH
TUESDAY-SUNDAY
THEATER & DANCEA Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun is one of the earliest examples of black realism on the American stage. Housing discrimination, race, class, family, the complexities of right action in America, all of it wrapped up in one of the greatest plays ever written. RICH SMITH
The Royale
Marco Ramirez (Sons of Anarchy and Orange is the New Black) loosely bases this show on the life of Jack Johnson, the first black man to become the World Heavyweight champ in boxing. The play dives inside the mind of Jay Jackson, whose single-minded desire to win clashes with the Jim Crow era's attempt to control the bodies of black people in the south. If Jackson can beat a retired heavyweight champion, who's a white guy, then he'll become a symbol of black excellence. But he also risks inflaming racial violence. That tension drives the play, as does lyrical language and highly physical choreography. RICH SMITH
There are no shows on Friday.
WEDNESDAY
READINGS & TALKSAda LimĂłn
Ada LimĂłn, a poet whose most recent work, 2015's Bright Dead Things, was selected as one of the Top Ten Poetry Books of the Year by the New York Times, will speak as part of the 2016-17 Seattle Arts & Lectures Poetry Series.
Art History Talk: The Legacy of Mary Ellen Mark
Photographic Center Northwest executive director Michelle Dunn Marsh will speak about the extraordinary work of photographer Mary Ellen Mark, including her iconic documentary Streetwise.
Contagious Exchanges
This monthly series curated and hosted by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore will feature two stellar queer writersâthis time, hear from author Rebecca Brown and Stranger Genius Award-winning artist C. Davida Ingram.
Gary Younge: Another Day in the Death of America
Author and Guardian journalist Gary Younge (No Place Like Home: A Black Briton's Journey Through the American South) will speak about his new book, Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives, which deals with 10 young lives lost on November 23, 2013. That day wasn't historicâin fact, the day is random. Each day in the United States, seven young people will be shot dead. This book offers a glimpse into the lives of just a few of the numerous people struck down before their time.
Race and Social Equity: A Nervous Area of Government
Learn about some of the barriers to reducing inequalities in the public sector at this talk featuring Virginia Commonwealth University professor Susan T. Gooden, presented by the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance.
Sarah Glidden
Sarah Glidden will read from Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria and Iraq, described as a "graphic narrative documenting the lives of reporters documenting the lives of people in this region."
Silent Reading Party
Invented by our own Christopher Frizzelle, the reading party is every first Wednesday of the month at 6 p.m. That's when the Fireside Room at the Sorrento Hotel goes quiet and fills with people with books tucked under their arms. (And, occasionally, a Kindle or two.) By 7 p.m., you often can't get a seat. And there's always free music from 6 to 8 pm. Lately the resident musician is pianist Paul Matthew Moore. He's amazing.
The Politics of Pee: An Evening with T.J. Jourian [This event has been cancelled]
Transgender social justice scholar, advocate, and consultant T.J. Jourian will speak about "moral panics (Cohen, 2010), the limitations of law and the administrative violence that impacts trans people (Spade, 2015), particularly those most marginalized, the connections to other methods of policing and erasing 'undesirable' bodies, and what intersectional analysis and praxis has to offer as remedy."
Legal, Regulated Marijuana: Next Steps to Permanence
Learn about marijuana regulation (and proposed changes like lounges, delivery, defelonization, and vacation) from Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes.
WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY
ARTFay Jones: Water
For 56 years, Fay Jones has lived in Seattle and made paintings here. She's been recognized with museum retrospectives, and in the mid-1980s she made a huge permanent mural that's still in the tunnel at Westlake Station downtown, where thousands of people pass by every day. Oh, you've seen it. In 2013, Jones won a prestigious Joan Mitchell Grant, but in the last few years she's been relatively quietâuntil now. Water is her first solo exhibition at James Harris Gallery, and it closes on Saturday. JEN GRAVES
Samantha Scherer: Aerial
Samantha Scherer's drawings depict in great detail large-scale disasters like car wrecks, overturned trailers, homes and airplanes and lives tossed and turned and mangled. The drawings are also tiny, huddling in the very center of an 8-by-8 piece of white paper, and they're a little faint, made entirely in pencil. This series is called Aerial. You can see what's happened, but you are at a distance, and there is nothing you can do. Will it feel familiar? These are beautiful little studies in emotional paralysis. JEN GRAVES
This exhibit closes on Oct 8.
Susanna Bluhm: March Snow of New York
Almost 100 years after it was made, Susanna Bluhm painted a righteous 1923 painting onto a New York City park bench in winter. The scene takes place not out in the real world but on one of Bluhm's canvases. It's a five-foot-tall oil and acrylic painting called Park Scene with Heap of Snow in Suzanne Valadon's Lap. What we see is a stand of bare trees behind a park bench that's only partly visible. Resting on the bench are a pair of crossed legs draped in flowy green-and-white-striped pants. To an art history nerd, those pants would be recognizable anywhere: They're the ones worn in Suzanne Valadon's 1923 self-portrait The Blue Room. Unlike the figures of Renoir, Degas, or Matisse (to Valadon, friends), Valadon's women, even when nude, were less surfaces for looking and more vehicles for action. Bluhm doesn't paint figures muchâmore expressionistic abstracted landscapes with "blobs" and "lumps" in them that she calls out directly in her titles. But in this new series, Susanna meets Suzanne, as well as other female artists whose work she either sees or sets in the landscape she finds in contemporary New York in winter. Throughout her scenes of hard, cold, icy New York, voluptuous shapes appear in stark but mysterious contrast. Some of them are disembodied red open mouths lined by shining-white teeth. There is much to see here, from abandon to rage. JEN GRAVES
This exhibit closes on Oct 8.
WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY
ARTMood Indigo: Textiles From Around the World
This show is 89 pieces of cloth in every possible shade of blue from every time and every place. Given our excessively connected and visually saturated global existence, who wouldn't want Mood Indigo's calming, transhistorical promise of blue immersion and also the possibility of infinite information that it makes available? Mood Indigo is both a diversion from the world and an invitation to lunge back into it. JEN GRAVES
This exhibit closes on Oct 9.
Senga Nengudi: Improvisational Gestures
I've loved Nengudi's sculptures. Over the years, I've seen them the way they usually appearâplaced in line in the chronological march through 20th-century art history at major museums from New York to Parisânext to Robert Morris's sagging rubber sculptures and Eva Hesse's deteriorating latex, all representing a thing called post minimalism. Now I realize how feeble my love was. Senga Nengudi: Improvisational Gestures, the survey exhibition at the Henry Art Gallery with 14 of her sculptures plus photographs, videos, and a performance, reveals to me that I didn't really know the first thing about her work. JEN GRAVES
THURSDAY
ARTFirst Thursday Art Walk
During October's edition of the city's oldest art walk, look forward to gallery openings, free booze, and the opportunity to mingle with other artsy folks in Pioneer Square. Find a complete list of openings and events on our First Thursday calendar, and make sure not to miss the opening receptions for Jen Graves's picks: Jury-Rigged Fly Traps at Flutter Studios, 20 Years of Weaving by Dr. Susan Pavel at Stonington Gallery, Barbara Polster's High Noon_1 (Summit) at Glassbox Gallery, Brit Ruggirello's Blue Hotel at 4Culture, Chelsea Ryoko Wong's The Fish Jumped Laughing into the Net at ZINC contemporary, and In Denial at SOIL.
Define American: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant
Journalist, filmmaker, and activist Jose Antonio Vargas was part of the team at the Washington Post that won a Pulitzer for their breaking news coverage of the 2008 Virginia Tech shootingâbut you're more likely to know him from his autobiographical film, Documented, or his brave writing about his status as an undocumented immigrant. Hear him speak about his work and life story.
People, Place, Power: Advancing Racial and Economic Equity in Changing Communities
Judith Bell (vice president of programs at The San Francisco Foundation) will speak about some of the pressing problems facing San Francisco and other citiesâlike Seattleâthat are growing at rapid rates.
Seattle StorySLAM
A live amateur storytelling competition in which audience members who put their names in a hat are randomly chosen to tell stories on a theme. Local comedians tend to show up, but lots of nonperformers get in on the action as well. Tonight's theme is "Divorce," but it's not just limited to the breaking up of marriagesâexpect stories about separating from friends or even ideas as well.
Guest Chef Night: Caffe Vita
This FareStart guest chef dinner is about as conceptually perfect as a food event can be. For one, you get to eat food from Jonathan Sundstrom of Lark. Ever heard of Lark? Of course you have, because itâs been pushing the boundaries of Seattle food for well over a decade. For two, you also get to taste food from Monica Dimas, who is famous now for her cheap, delicious tacos, tortas, and fried chicken sandwiches, but cut her teeth in restaurants every bit as hifalutin as LarkâCampagne, Spinasse, Monsoon, mkt., just to name a few. For three, itâs cheap. You might be able to get a couple of Dimasâs amazing lengua tacos and a Tecate for under $15 at Neon Taco, but you ainât gonna get four courses as eclectic as these, from chefs with these pedigrees, for $29.95 ever again. And have that money go to a really good cause, no less. Itâs a no-brainer. TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE
THURSDAY-SATURDAY
THEATER & DANCEMark Morris Dance Group with The Silk Road Ensemble
The Mark Morris Dance Group may have moved on to bigger stages than Seattle has to offer, but don't worry, they come back every so often. This performance is a rare chance to see the inventive and humorous choreography that made Morris famous. The company will perform original production Layla and Majnun (based on an ancient Persian tale) with music by composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli, and featuring Azerbaijani singers Alim Qasimov and Fargana Qasimova with The Silk Road Ensemble.
THURSDAY-SUNDAY
THEATER & DANCEAlan Sutherland: Little Brown Mushrooms
This "hallucinatory dance/theater meditation" is an exploration of the magic mushroom (Psilocybe cyanescens) by Alan Sutherland.
Ghosts
Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts was considered scandalous when it was first performed in 1892, and still shocks some with themes including sexually transmitted disease, euthanasia, and incest. Follow the story of widow Helene Alving in this new adaptation by director Richard Eyre.
The Holler Sessions
This "live radio show" is a celebration of jazz music (also a "jazz primer for the uninitiated") hosted by an eccentric Kansas City DJ.
FRIDAY
FILMAdam Green's Aladdin
Deep-voiced indie weirdo and Macaulay Culkin's roommate Adam Green is back with his new film and accompanying stage show, Aladdin. Tonight includes a screening of Adam's Aladdin, which is a musical interpretation of the legendary Middle Eastern folk tale featuring all his art star celebrity friends. The screening will be followed by a concert in which Adam performs music from the movie as well as older and more familiar work from throughout his career.
Earshot Jazz Festival
This is the season of Seattle's premier jazz event, the Earshot Jazz Festival, which includes more than 50 distinct concerts and events in venues across town. One of the big names at this year's festival is veteran pianist Freddy Cole, who will present with his trio a performance tied to the legacy of his late brother, Nat King Cole. There will also be a tribute to Charlie Parker, helmed by the award-winning saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa. Local ubiquitous talent D'Vonne Lewis will curate a series of concerts with his groups Limited Edition and Industrial Revelation, the Roosevelt High School Jazz Band, and special jazz festival collaborators, as this year's Resident Artist. The festival starts today and continues through November 11, and we have the complete Earshot Jazz Festival schedule on our Things To Do calendar.
(A)live Heart Book Release
Celebrate the release of artist and poet Imani Sims' new collection of poems with an evening of "live performance and a little magic."
Snap Judgment
This storytelling eventâcreated by Glynn Washington and co-produced by WNYCâwill combine elements of music, radio, stage, screen, and web, to give audiences "a glimpse into the lives of a stranger."
FRIDAY-SUNDAY
THEATER & DANCEMan of La Mancha
The 5th Avenue Theatre's fancy new state-of-the-art sound system will be ready and raring to push out lush tones for this season opener: Allison Narver's take on Dale Wasserman's Man of La Mancha. The show stars Tony-nominated actor Norm Lewis as the windmill-slaying Don Quixote, and I'm very much looking forward to his "Dulcinea," but I'm super-mega looking forward to any noise that Nova Payton makes during her portrayal of Aldonza. I heard/felt/was destroyed by Payton's voice during last year's production of Janis Joplinâher soprano is so clean the room sparkles every time she holds a note, and her control is insaneâand I'm so glad she's back in town for this one. RICH SMITH
Cirque Goes to the Cinema
Cirque de la Symphonie bring the revelry of the circus to the genteel drama of the symphony, with a brand new program of physical feats by acrobats, jugglers, and aerial flyers paired with the music from major films, including Gone with the Wind, Chariots of Fire, The Magnificent Seven, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Gladiator.
Irish Reels Film Festival
American films dominate world cinema, with British TV sometimes grabbing its share of public attention, but how often do we get to sample Ireland's rich independent film culture? There's something here for every filmic interest: animated documentaries, imaginative shorts, and features with stars like Aiden Gillen.
Kinofest Seattle
Presented by The Portland German Film Festival in collaboration with Northwest Film Forum, this festival will highlight the latest and greatest in German-language cinema, with films including Margarethe von Trottaâs The Misplaced World, about an unnerving doppelganger, and Then Is It the End?, a âcinematic homageâ to film critic Michael Althen.
SATURDAY
READINGS & TALKSCharles Burns: Black Hole
Charles Burns will read from and sign copies of Black Hole, a 12-part comic series that tells the story of a sexually transmitted disease that disfigures teenagers.
Maria Semple
My esteemed colleague Christopher Frizzelle calls Maria Semple "the author of the funniest book ever written about Seattle." He's referring to her wildly successful, clue-filled novel, Where'd You Go, Bernadette? The new book, Today Will Be Different, contains a humor similar to the old book. The whole thing is basically the inner monologue of an upper-middle-class Seattleite who runs around town being delightfully indignant about her little dog, her precocious and possibly gay son, her do-no-wrong husband, and the larger world around her. But there's an added layer of gravity that complicates the glib in this book. RICH SMITH
C. Davida Ingram and Claire Cowie
C. Davida Ingram (2016 Neddy finalist) and Claire Cowie (2004 Neddy winner) will speak about their work, in conjunction with Pivot's Neddy Artist Awards: 20 Years exhibit.
Georgetown Art Attack
Once a month, the art that resides in the tiny airport hamlet of Georgetown ATTACKS all passersby. In more literal terms, it's the day of art openings and street wonderment.
Grand Opening: Gage South
The art scene in Georgetown has been brewing awhile, and if you haven't gone out to see it for yourself yet, now is the time. A whole new hub is opening. In addition to hosting strong galleries including the Alice, Bridge Productions, and Interstitial, Georgetown will now also be home to Gage South, a satellite of the Gage Academy of Art, the school on Capitol Hill that educates artists of all kinds and ages, especially in perfecting their techniques, from classical painters to cartoonists. Gage South is 2,000 square feet and features ateliers with teaching artists Kim Trowbridge (painting) and Geoff Flack (drawing), full-time and part-time studies in classical painting and drawing and digital painting with Tenaya Sims, and teen programs. It's located in Equinox Studios, where the slogan is "Fine & Heavy, Arts & Artisans" and you'll find blacksmiths, ceramicists, weavers, and batikers in addition to painters, sculptors, and drawers. Equinox is a project of Sam Farrazaino, the same artist/developer who turned the former immigrations building near the stadiums into a similar arts and cultural center, called Inscape. Just as the Inscape building is a historic site (a jail where the names of prisoners are still scratched onto the walls and also the place where folks got their citizenship), so is the World War IIâera factory building that now houses Equinox: "It was originally built for the company that invented Norton Bomb Sights (the 'crosshairs' that bombardiers would look through to zero in on their targets) and was considered a military secrets building throughout the war," according to Farrazaino. See what they're making in there now. JEN GRAVES
Birds at the Burke
On Saturday, October 8th, the Burke Museum will be hosting its annual âBird at the Burkeâ event, featuring talks, games, and displays from the research divisionâs ornithology collections. Iâll be there all day, working with specimens â feel free to stop by and say hi. ETHAN LINCK
Cucci's Critter Barn
Hosted by Cucci Binaca, Critter Barn has already made itself known for some wild drag from the likes of Betty Wetter, Amoania, Hellen Tragedy, Mona Real, Menorah, and Cookie Couture.
SML Leather Daddy & Daddy's Boy Contest
Who, pray tell, are the finest daddies and boys in the land? Prepare to be judged at the annual Seattle Leather Daddy/Daddy's Boy contest, hosted by Seattle Men in Leather. It's basically a beauty pageant with mustaches and sweat, plus entertainment from Sylvia O'Stayformore, Honeybucket, and the delectable Bacon Strip boys. Warm up for the contest with the meet & greet on Friday, and decompress afterwards with the Sunday victory party at Diesel. There's sure to be lots of leather and lube â not exactly your father's Father's Day. MATT BAUME
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
FESTIVALSGeekGirlCon 2016
Calling all Geek Girls! GeekGirlCon is a two-day convention that was founded following a panel at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con called âGeek Girls Exist,â bringing attention to the underrepresentation of women in the tech and gaming world. The convention aims to provide a safe space for women to celebrate their self-proclaimed geek status and to facilitate an unapologetic pursuit of their various passions. Attendees are encouraged to geek out over organized activities ranging from panels and vendors to a DIY science zone and cosplay (and so much more).
