Our music critics have already chosen the 37 best concerts in Seattle this week, but now it's our arts critics' turn. Here are their picks for the best events in every genre—from the 9e2 art, science, and technology festival to Zoe | Juniper's Clear and Sweet, and from the end of Seattle Restaurant Week to Power: From the Mouths of the Occupied. See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.
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MONDAY

READINGS & TALKS

Geraldine Brooks: The Secret Chord
Bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks is a master of building on and adapting existing stories to make new narratives...whether she's writing detailed, heavily researched historical fiction, exploring the lives of her childhood pen pals, or filling out the life of the absent father in Little Women. At this event, Brooks will read from and discuss her newest novel The Secret Chord, based on the life of The Bible's King David.

Mauro Javier Cardenas
Writer Mauro Javier Cardenas will read from his debut novel, The Revolutionaries Try Again, which tells the story of three childhood friends living underneath an Ecuadorian dictator. According to Mexican writer Carmen Boullosa, “It’s the novel we’ve been waiting for, witness to the most recent wave of immigration from Latin America to the US, told through the eyes of a privileged class that forces their conationals out of their countries. It’s been ten years since a book this alive, this incandescent, has fallen into my hands.”

PERFORMANCE

The Northwest Sublime: A Salute to Moss
This multimedia performance event—centered around creativity and the Pacific Northwest—promises a reading by Eric Wagner of an autobiographical story in which he decides to learn Beethoven’s “Appassionata” sonata, followed by a performance of that sonata by pianist Mark Salman. The evening will conclude with a discussion with both performers, led by Alex Davis-Lawrence, co-editor of Moss, a journal of Northwest writing.

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

FOOD & DRINK

Seattle Restaurant Week
It’s time again for our city’s annual prix fixe extravaganza. Restaurants across town will offer three courses for a mere $32. Some will also do lunch service for $18. The idea of the event is to lure the type of diners who don’t normally make space in their budgets for gastronomical excess. It’s definitely a loss leader, designed to lure diners in with a cheap feast, get them hooked, and convert them into long-term income sources. Viewed through more rose-tinted lenses, it’s also a great way for you to try out some places you’ve probably been curious about but loath to set aside $200 for. Lark, Tilth, and Marjorie all come time mind. TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE

MONDAY-SUNDAY

FILM

The Seattle Social Justice Film Festival
Celebrate progressive causes and learn more about pressing social issues at the Seattle Social Justice Film Festival. See the complete Social Justice Film Festival schedule.

TWIST: Seattle Queer Film Festival
The Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival turns 21 this year, and to celebrate, it has changed its name to TWIST, the Seattle Queer Film Festival. The next 10 days will be filled with screenings of features and shorts by the finest of queer film, video, and VR artists of the past, present, and future. SEAN NELSON See the complete TWIST film festival schedule.

TUESDAY

FOOD & DRINK

Tarot Card Tuesdays
All October, you can get your tarot read on Tuesdays (alliteration!) while you drink in the Fireside room of the Sorrento Hotel. Tarot is wonderful because it's basically someone rephrasing all the problems that exist in your life and making you feel like the things you know you should be doing but can't bring yourself to are really good, objective advice from a trained spiritual advisor. Plus, there's booze, so it'll make the realization that you should have gotten that divorce seven years ago a lot easier to swallow. TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE

READINGS & TALKS

Ramon Isao, Shin Yu Pai, EJ Koh, and Casandra Lopez
This reading, presented by the Jack Straw Writers Program, will feature Ramon Isao, Shin Yu Pai, EJ Koh, and Casandra Lopez.

TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY

CONFERENCE

Seattle Interactive 2016
Seattle Interactive Conference is the culmination of the best technology that online business professionals, developers, and entrepreneurs from around the world have to offer. SIC brings technology, creativity, and current trends to one place for tech lovers to explore and discover. Attendees will be able to network and mingle with individuals in the tech industry while enjoying disruptive technology, business models, social media apps, new games, advertising, and more hands-on entertainment.

TUESDAY-SUNDAY

PERFORMANCE

Man 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 Joplin—her soprano is so clean the room sparkles every time she holds a note, and her control is insane—and I'm so glad she's back in town for this one. RICH SMITH

Medea
The story of Medea is devastating—after being spurned by Jason, her love, she exacts revenge and communicates her sense of loss by killing their children. Watch Seattle Shakespeare Company perform the chilling tale. October 18-20 are preview performances.

Roz and Ray
Local playwright Karen Hartman's medical thriller is about twin boys born with hemophilia. The disease puts the kids at a high risk for contracting AIDS, which in 1976 is starting to spread more widely in America. The boys' father, Ray, is a single parent who obviously wants to keep his boys alive, and Dr. Roz is the pediatrician with a miracle cure: Factor 8. Something goes wrong during the administration of the drug, forcing Dr. Roz and Ray to deal with an increasingly bleak future. In a recent interview, Hartman said she likes to write plays about the parts of life that are rarely dramatized, and this tangled-up bit of medical history fits that bill. Though the play's certainly going to be a bit of a downer, there's sure to be enough humor to balance it out. This world premiere will be directed by Chay Yew. RICH SMITH

FILM

SSAFF: Seattle South Asian Film Festival
Celebrate South Asian cinema at the 11th annual Seattle South Asian Film Festival, with screenings of 23 feature films (and 22 shorts) at many locations across Seattle. This year, they'll highlight films from Bangladesh and celebrate the theme #LoveWins. See the complete Seattle South Asian Film Festival schedule.

WEDNESDAY

POLITICS
Third Presidential Debate Watching Parties
Like it or not, the final debate is this Wednesday, and, on our election calendar, we've compiled all of the places in Seattle to watch it go down with alcohol, bingo, Theo chocolate, free food, and more alcohol.

READINGS & TALKS

David Szalay
British novelist David Szalay will read from All That Man Is, which won the 2016 Paris Review Plimpton Prize for Fiction and which is on the 2016 Man Booker Prize Shortlist. His new novel tells "subtle, seductive, poignant, [and] humorous" stories of nine different men at different stages of life, for a result that "illuminate[s] the individual while exploring society’s unsettling complexity" (Publishers Weekly).

Lou Rowan, John Olson, and Rebecca Brown
This reading, part of a series that highlights authors working across genre lines, will feature author Lou Rowan (A Mystery's No Problem, Love's) alongside two Stranger Genius Award winners: Rebecca Brown (American Romances, The Last Time) and poet John Olson (Larynx Gallery, Backscatter).

Partnering for a Peaceful Resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Learn more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—and listen to experts talk through some potential solutions—at this event presented by J Street, featuring Palestinian Ambassador Maen Areikat, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami, and KUOW's Ross Reynolds.

WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY

OPERA

Hansel & Gretel
You might consider parting with hard-earned cash on this one, and not just because Engelbert Humperdinck’s adaptation of the Grimm tale hasn’t been performed at Seattle Opera in 23 years and who knows when it will come again. No, it’s because of this particular production, reviewed tantalizingly (and glowingly) by The Guardian: “In Laurent Pelly's witty 2008 production for Glyndebourne
 the tale becomes a gleefully ghoulish satire on consumerism, in which the forest is a maze of dead trees... HĂ€nsel and Gretel's family are forced to live in a cardboard house following economic collapse; the Witch's gingerbread residence is a free-for-all supermarket; and the children who are freed at the end, after the Witch is thrown into her own ovens, are obese, having gorged themselves on the supermarket's high-sugar, high-fat goodies.” Plus! The Witch is played by a man, in Seattle Peter Marsh. At Glyndebourne it was Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke, who “plays her as a murderous matriarch, sharpening her knife, stripping down to her underwear, revealing wisps of mouldy hair under her wig and a ladder of bodyhair rising up her abdomen.” I sincerely hope Seattle receives a ladder of bodyhair. JEN GRAVES

WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY

FILM

24th Seattle Polish Film Festival
Don’t miss the 24th Seattle Polish Film Festival—playing for two weekends at SIFF Cinema Uptown—featuring new releases, independent films, documentaries, and old classics. See the complete Polish Film Festival schedule.

PERFORMANCE

A 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

THURSDAY

FOOD & DRINK

Alice B. Toklas Tour and Dinner
The Sorrento is, apparently, the most haunted place in Seattle. Including by Alice B. Toklas, author of an eponymous cookbook and lover of Gertrude Stein. Apparently Toklas briefly lived in Seattle as a teenager, and at some point lived in the neighboring apartments. "Although she only lived in Seattle a short time," says Sorrento's publicist Jaime White, "it's speculated that she haunts the Sorrento because she was here during a very happy time in her life." This event should be a very happy time in your life too. Guests will be treated to ghost tour (with booze), followed by a prix fixe dinner from The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook. Alas, her famous recipe for hashish fudge will not be served, just wine. But if your interest in Toklas revolves primarily around pot brownies, SPOT makes the best modern day versions I've had, and they're cheap and ubiquitous. TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE

Creepy-Crawly Cocktails
The UW's Burke Museum, as part of their NiteLife series, is hosting an event that features a bunch of creatures that are notoriously creepy. While I'm an inveterate arachnophobe, and not really interested in going and getting squicked out on purpose, they've got some enticing arguments for attendance. For one, bats and snakes are pretty cool. For two, Westland will be there, dispensing their appropriately named Cocktailus Westlandii, a concoction of their American single-malt whiskey, black walnut bitters, orgeat syrup, and lime juice. There's also beer from Two Beers, specifically their seasonally appropriate Grey Skies Dark Pale Ale. Perhaps most importantly, there will be access to the Burke's Wild Nearby exhibit, which includes a motherfucking fire lookout replica! Fire lookouts are super fucking cool, and the fact that you can actually rent and sleep in them is even cooler, but that sure as shit ain't happening in late October. However, this event presents you a chance to drink in a fire lookout without hiking through a miserable downpour to do it. It also provides you with two drink tickets for $15 (less for students and museum members!), which is about what you'd spend with tip at your average Thursday happy hour elsewhere. Need I say more? TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE

Happy Hour Food Walk
Every third Thursday, participating restaurants in the Chinatown-International District will have $2, $4, or $6 bites.

COMMUNITY

ARTSaboard
Help Seattle's Office of Arts & Culture make plans and dream up goals for the cultural hub that will soon inhabit the top of King Street Station.

THURSDAY-SATURDAY

READINGS & TALKS

Power: From the Mouths of the Occupied
Do you know the names and stories of Black Seattleites who have endured/are enduring state violence? If you don't, organizers Patrisse Cullors (cofounder of Black Lives Matter) and C. Davida Ingram (local powerhouse artist and Stranger Genius) will make sure you do after this storytelling event. Local participants—Faisal Provincial, Hodan Hassan, jah-vi Cotten-Cohia, KT, Luzviminda Uzuri "Lulu" Carpenter, Marcel Baugh, Monique Franklin, Yirim Seck, and Akilah Franklin—will take the stage at the gorgeous (and warm!) Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center to recount their struggle in story, poem, righteous monologue, and whatever other genre that can contain the energy of their power and pain. RICH SMITH

PERFORMANCE

Ian Bell's Brown Derby Series
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, actors will present a staged reading of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. BRENDAN KILEY

THURSDAY-SUNDAY

PERFORMANCE

Zoe | Juniper: Clear and Sweet
Y'all know what shape-note singing is? Back-country hymns. The kind of congregational music an Alabama boy hears when he's walking toward the light. What you have is a big choir singing four-part harmonies, and they're singing loud, simple music. Stranger Genius award winners zoe | juniper will use this music's democratic ethos and raw power as inspiration and atmosphere for this piece. Southern Protestant surrealism mixed with visceral dance? Deal. RICH SMITH

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.

FRIDAY

PERFORMANCE

Bullygirl
Bullygirl (written and performed by Jennifer Jasper, and directed by Shawn Belyea) features Jasper delving "into the darkness of adolescence to pick at the bones of her self-esteem."

The Seattle Process with Brett Hamil
Described as "Seattle's only intentionally funny talk show" and "a mudpie lobbed into the halls of power," The Seattle Process with Brett Hamil offers politics, exasperation, information, and comedy. Tonight is the one-year anniversary show, and will feature an interview with former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, local politics-themed Halloween costume ideas, a performance from rap duo Sleep Steady, and "the beloved crew of regulars, including Politically Uninformed Sidekick Travis Vogt, Underage Nonbinary Intern Galaxy Marshall and Human Warmth-Up Act Emmett Montgomery."

READINGS & TALKS

Jane Wong Book Launch: Overpour
Seattle-based poet Jane Wong's resume includes winning the American Poetry Review‘s Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize, being named a finalist for Poetry‘s Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg fellowship—and now, releasing a new collection of poetry with Action Books, Overpour. Celebrate the release with a cocktail reception, reading, and signing.

Ralph Nader: Breaking Through Power
Activist, author, attorney, and infamous Green Party candidate Ralph Nader will speak about his new book, Breaking Through Power: It's Easier Than We Think, about "David vs. Goliath battles against big corporations and the United States government."

Seattle StorySLAM
At this edition of the live, amateur storytelling competition much like The Moth, hear stories on the theme "busted."

FRIDAY-SUNDAY

FESTIVALS

9e2
This art, science, and technology festival will commemorate the 1966 exhibit 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering, a symposium that featured performances, speakers, and exhibits by prominent artists including Yvonne Rainier, Rauschenberg, and John Cage. See the complete 9e2 schedule.

PERFORMANCE

Inspire Performance Series
The Studios is treating us to three nights of irresistible pleasures, starting with Drag Race heroine Robbie Turner in a one-drag-queen storytelling and singing extravaganza entitled "I'll Tell You for Free." This girl can spins yarns faster than Rumplestitskin, so prepare to be dazzled. The following night, the dazzling Tipsy Rose Lee struts her stuff in "Bombshell," a live-singing tribute to Marilyn Monroe. And on Sunday, Jenny Shotwell tickles the ivories—she's not a drag queen, but she will be singing selections from Judy Garland's songbook, so clearly there's a little queer in all of us. MATT BAUME

This Is Halloween
It's Tim Burton's classic The Nightmare Before Christmas repackaged as a semi-scandalous spectacle for the masses. The audience eats chicken skewers and knocks back $10 cocktails while they watch Tim Keller as Jack "the Pumpkin King" Skellington sing and dance, cabaret-style, along with Luminous Pariah, Paris Original, Marissa Quimby, and Baby Kate, while a ghoulish orchestra pumps out the show's signature tunes. Despite the glitzy and consumerist exterior, the crew manages to smuggle a complicated cabaret about the horror of fixed identities into the unpretentious space of the Triple Door. RICH SMITH

SATURDAY

READINGS & TALKS

Emma Donoghue
Award-winning playwright, historian, novelist, and screenwriter Emma Donoghue (who wrote the weirdly gripping bestseller Room) will read from her new book The Wonder, about an 1850s English nurse sent to help a girl in a rural village who is said to survive without food.

FOOD & DRINK

Pumpkin Carving Party
Sip on hot apple cider and carve pumpkins with the kiddos on the deck of Ray's Cafe. There will be heat lamps and blankets to keep you warm, but adults can also purchase pumpkin beers and cocktails for an additional layer. Your $15 will buy you the cider, a pumpkin, an LED candle, and the use of a child-safe carving tool.

FILM

Roger Corman Double Feature
Celebrate Roger Corman's 90th birthday with a double screening of his low-budget, crowd-pleasing films Monster from the Ocean Floor and Ski Troop Attack, with a special introduction by Professor Fred Hopkins, host of Movie Marvels on Seattle's Community College TV channel.

SUNDAY

READINGS & TALKS

National Geographic Live: A Photographer's Life of Love & War
Pulitzer Prize‐winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario (who has photographed conflict zones including Afghanistan, Darfur, and Libya) will speak about her work and her memoir, It’s What I Do.

PERFORMANCE

Harlequeen Nights: A Vinsantos Introspective (NOLA)
This one man/woman show from veteran cabaret performer Vinsantos will highlight "the highs and lows of his career in the Dark Arts" through live music, storytelling, short films, and drag performances—plus bill support from local chanteusse Mal DeFluer.