Our music critics have already chosen the 31 best concerts in Seattle this week, but now it's our arts critics' turn to pick the best events in their areas of expertise. Here are their picks for the best events in every genre—from the closing week of Jim Woodring's The Pig Went Down to the Harbor at Sunrise and Wept exhibit to Live Wire with Luke Burbank and special guests including Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Dan Savage, from a David Lynch film series to Capitol Hill Art Walk, and from National Poetry Month events to Easter brunches. See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.
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MONDAY
READINGS & TALKSBrian Christian and Tom Griffiths: Algorithms to Live By
Science writer and poet Brian Christian is the author of The Most Human Human, a book that the New Yorker called "terrific" and "one of the rare successful literary offspring of 'Gödel, Escher, Bach,' where art and science meet an engaged mind and the friction produces real fire." For his latest work, Christian teamed up with cognitive scientist and professor Tom Griffiths to create an interdisciplinary take on how computer algorithms can be useful for very human problems—"from finding a spouse to finding a parking spot." Hear from both authors at this Town Hall talk, and learn about memory, computer logic, and ways to apply these strategies to your own life.
MONDAY-THURSDAY
FOOD & DRINKSeattle Restaurant Week
Seattle Restaurant Week is a twice-yearly event that is actually two half-weeks (Sunday through Thursday, from April 2–13) during which 165-plus restaurants around Seattle—and Bellevue, Kirkland, Edmonds, Woodinville, Issaquah, Redmond, Tukwila, and Snoqualmie—offer 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.
MONDAY-FRIDAY
ART50 Years of Pottery Northwest
For the venerable pottery studio's 50th birthday, past and current resident ceramic artists and sculptors will exhibit unusual new works in a reprise of a recent show at Portland's National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. Meet the artists over light refreshments at the opening reception on Friday.
MONDAY-SATURDAY
PERFORMANCEThe 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).
There will be no performance on Tuesday or Wednesday.
TUESDAY
FILMChampioning Youth: The Amara Film Series
Amara (a nonprofit that offers support to foster children and their parents) will host this poignant and thought-provoking film series that will highlight a number of real stories from our city and state; every screening will be followed by a discussion. Tonight, they'll screen Closure, a documentary about Angela Tucker, a black woman who was raised in Washington State by a white couple. At one year old, she was adopted—in a "closed adoption"—from foster care in Tennessee. Closure (filmed by Tucker's husband) shows her search for her birth family. After the screening, you'll have the chance to hear from Angela, her husband Bryan, and speakers from Adoptive Friends and Families of Greater Seattle, the Refugee and Immigrant Children's Program at Lutheran Community Services, and Families of Color Seattle.
The Films of Douglas Sirk
The master of simmering melodrama and “women’s pictures,” Douglas Sirk brought out the colorful beauty and underlying strife of small-town and big-city America in the 1950s. In this week's iteration of this film series, watch All That Heaven Allows, about which Charles Mudede says: "And then it happens. The deer appears in the window of the suburban house. It is the end of the film. We have been through a lot—a lot of family fights, a lot of romantic tension. The deer walks onto the lawn and eats the grass—but this activity has nothing to do with the plot, which concerns a youngish gardener, Rock Hudson, and an olderish and well-to-do widow, Jane Wyman. The two fast became lovers. This romance causes a scandal in the sleepy suburbs. But that deer in the window is to this movie what the plowman is to the fall of Icarus in Bruegel’s famous painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. All That Heaven Allows could not be a more perfect film."
Jaimee Garbacik & Friends
Jaimee Garbacik (editor, artist, and author of Gender & Sexuality for Beginners), Josh Powell, and illustrator Jon Horn have finally finished Ghosts of Seattle Past (Chin Music Press), a collaborative book featuring tons of art and stories based on the memories of Seattle mossbacks, transplants, and the dispossessed alike. You remember that punk house you used to go to in high school? Or that one coffee shop in the Melrose building? Or the 10,000 years of Duwamish life buried in the ground beneath the city? Those stories are all in there, as well as great comics by Eroyn Franklin and Jon Strongbow. After the main reading at Elliott Bay Book Company, the crew will travel to the Jewelbox for an after-party featuring additional readings by book contributors Kibibi Monie, Elissa Washuta, Kate Lebo, and Kathy Fennessy, live music from Aaron Semer, and dessert. RICH SMITH
Lynda Mapes: Witness Tree
Author and Seattle Times reporter Lynda Mapes spent an entire year learning about a single, 100-year-old red oak tree, and at this event she'll share her findings, compiled into the book Witness Tree.
Waking Up to Privilege Systems: Putting Unearned Power to New Uses
If you know you possess societal privilege but you don't know what you can do for those with less—or you're unclear about what all the social justice fuss is about—Peggy McIntosh of the Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity Project has some explanations and many concrete suggestions.
TUESDAY-SATURDAY
PERFORMANCEDry 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.
TUESDAY-SUNDAY
ARTJim Woodring: The Pig Went Down to the Harbor at Sunrise and Wept
In his artist statement, Jim Woodring (2010 Stranger Genius Award winner for literature) said that the 10 drawings that make up The Pig Went Down to the Harbor at Sunset and Wept are the things of his dreams and "each picture I draw is an attempt to answer one question and ask another at the same time." The large drawings were outlined in graphite and then filled in with black ink—the giant pen dipped in a vase used as an inkwell. Woodring didn't touch up or fill in anything after. The question Woodring answers while asking another revolves around the presence—but more so the absence—of the pig in the work's title. The shapes in the illustrations are organic, amorphous, corporeal. The drawings march around the walls left to right in numerical order. Naturally, one follows this order and expects a story to unfold. Having been told there is a pig and a harbor and a sunset and weeping, the mind is desperate to place all of these elements and confirm there is a beginning, middle, and end. KATIE KURTZ
This exhibit closes on Sunday.
Cirque du Soleil: Luzia
Cirque du Soleil's latest atmospheric, high-flying, fantastical production is called Luzia: A Waking Dream of Mexico, and will celebrate aspects of Mexican culture and climate from lively games of fĂştbol to glamorous butterflies.
Here Lies Love
David Byrne’s critically adored disco musical about the life and times of Imelda Marcos, disco-obsessed wife of Ferdinand Marcos. She danced by his side (and by Richard Nixon’s—look it up on YouTube) while his dictatorial ass terrorized the Philippines. Unlike other musicals, you don’t have to forgive this one for its melodramatic, sappy songs. The fast numbers are groovy disco bangers and the slow numbers are touching, tropically inflected twee rock/pop. Production-wise, this show will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen at the Rep. The installation of mobile dance floors will significantly change the theater’s seating situation, and the audience will be dancing (according to the demands of the dictator, of course) throughout the show. RICH SMITH
WEDNESDAY
ARTKat Larson with Negarra A. Kudumu: The Energy that Flows Through Everything
In Kat Larson's most recent solo exhibition at Bridge Productions, she told the story of the Ghost From Vega—a being from another planet that crash-landed on Earth only to find its power diminished by the lack of love and empathy it encountered among us. Using photography, video, and performances to invoke what she calls "the universal energy that flows through everything," Larson weaves new mythologies that seek to reawaken our sense of vulnerability and wonder. Hear the artist speak about her process and philosophy in a conversation with the Frye's manager of public programs, Negarra Kudumu. EMILY POTHAST
Fist and Shout
Local comedic geniuses El Sanchez and Marita DeLeon sail onto new territories with their latest project, Fist and Shout, a QTPOC-centered comedy and variety show.
Checking the Gate: Representation in Media
KD Hall Foundation creator and CEO Kela Hall, formerly Secretary of the Seattle Association of Black Journalists, is an advocate for women around the world and hosts conferences and training for young adults. Hall will speak about portrayals of women, queer people, and people of color in media.
Environmental Experience and Brain Development
We already know that childhood poverty can begin a difficult-to-break lifelong cycle in terms of quality of life, but what about its effect on the brain? Katie McLaughlin, UW associate professor of psychology, and Charles A. Nelson, a doctor at Boston Children's Hospital, will talk about the consequences of neglect for the growing mind.
Lawrence Krauss: The Greatest Story Ever Told—So Far
Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss (author of New York Times bestselling books A Universe from Nothing and The Physics of Star Trek) is known for making science accessible...but not too accessible, as his works still explore the complex theories behind exciting and relatable concepts. His latest work, The Greatest Story Ever Told—So Far, is billed as a "dramatic story of the discovery of the hidden world of reality." This sounds ambiguous because it is—the book addresses the science that lurks behind the world as we know it, from our developing understanding of physics and quantum mechanics to the detailed complexity of the Higgs particle.
Michael Tisserand
Journalist and author Michael Tisserand (who wrote books including The Kingdom of Zydeco and Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember) will share his new biography, Krazy, a massive book about the life and work of cartoonist George Herriman. Herriman is best known for creating the comic strip Krazy Kat, which ran from 1913 to 1944. Tisserand worked on this book for ten years, and it will explore the life of the artist as well as American pop culture and history.
WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY
ARTFuture Isms
Future Isms, curated by Jon Feinstein, is a group show of photography and video that explores sci-fi fantasies, dystopian and utopian futures, and premonitions based on what's happening in the world at the moment.
This exhibit closes on Saturday.
Perfect Arrangement
As Red Scare shades into lavender paranoia, the US government asks two State Department employees to identify "deviants" among their colleagues—but coincidentally, these two designated inquisitors are gay themselves, and straight-married to another gay couple. Their perfect cover threatened, what are they to do? This play by Topher Payne brings a light touch to a depiction of McCarthy-era intolerance.
There will be no performance on Friday.
THURSDAY
ARTCapitol Hill Art Walk
Every second Thursday, rain or shine, the streets of Capitol Hill are filled with tipsy art lovers checking out galleries and special events. This month's unmissable oddities and openings include irony-soaked paintings by former Seattle Art Museum security guard Arturo Artorez at Vermillion, dense and shadowy forests in watercolor by Erin Kendig at Ghost Gallery, works by internationally renowned anti-capitalist artist Minerva Cuevas at Hedreen Gallery, the 21st Annual Juried Exhibition (juried by Sandra Phillips) at Photographic Center Northwest, a chance to drink while sketching live models at Capitol Cider, a group show of paintings by Mike Force, Kelly Bjork, and Aidan Fitzgerald at The Factory, and a lolcat/high art film mashup by Edward Wolcher and Amber Cortes at Northwest Film Forum.
Ava DuVernay's "13th" Film Screening
Watch Ava DuVernay's highly acclaimed documentary on mass incarceration and the perpetuation of slavery. Ijeoma Oluo wrote of 13th: "The interviews that DuVernay was able to get for this documentary are extraordinary. Michelle Alexander, Angela Davis, Van Jones—even Newt Gingrich—and so many more add vivid insight and lived experience to the story of mass incarceration throughout American history...the thread woven through slavery, the civil rights movement, and modern mass incarceration is strong enough for just about anybody to see."
Danger Diva featuring Thunderpussy
Boy, we sure hope Danger Diva takes off as a cult classic thriller, because it sounds like it has the making of one—and it features the Northwest's own Molly Sides, the lead singer of Thunderpussy. Sides plays Devi Danger, a singer forced to electrically charge up a high-tech company's employees' brains to be used as batteries. Stay for a live Thunderpussy show after the movie's premiere.
Family Circle: The Films of Yasujiro Ozu
Charles Mudede writes, "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 places—mid-century, post-war Japan." This week, SAM will screen Tokyo Story. 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. Tonight, chef Shawn Applin of Outlier will cook a menu that will include a roasted beet salad, Double R Ranch culotte steak frites, and a chocolate brownie with hazelnut streusel.
Enchant Vertical Dance Student Showcase
Enjoy drinks while watching pole dance students and instructors from Enchant Vertical Dance deftly spin and climb. A portion of the ticket sales will go to Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary.
Celebrate a New Washington Poetry Anthology: Washington 129
Join our state's Poet Laureate Tod Marshall and other local talents for the launch of Washington 129, a pan-Washington anthology of poems from 129 writers. Mingle, nosh, and hear some excerpts of the community's latest literary collaboration.
Garrison Keillor
A Prairie Home Companion legend Garrison Keillor (also known for his program The Writers Almanac, his numerous books and articles, and his work editing poetry anthologies) will speak in Tacoma.
Hari Kunzru: White Tears
Novelist and journalist Hari Kunzru (whose novels include The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions, and Gods Without Men, and who is also known for participating in a very risky reading of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses at the 2012 Jaipur Literature Festival) will share his new novel, White Tears, which is described as "a ghost story, a terrifying murder mystery, a timely meditation on race, and a love letter to all the forgotten geniuses of American music."
Siel Ju: Cake Time with Corinne Manning and Tara Atkinson
Celebrate the launch of Siel Ju's debut "novel-in-stories," Cake Time, with some actual cake—plus readings by Seattle writers Corinne Manning (We Had No Rules) and Tara Atkinson (Bedtime Stories and Boyfriends).
THURSDAY-SATURDAY
PERFORMANCELa Compagnie 
Hervé Koubi
Algerian French choreographer Hervé Koubi takes elements of "capoeira, martial arts, urban and contemporary dance" for his troupe of 12 male African and African French dancers. See the muscular Seattle debut of this acclaimed European innovator.
THURSDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCEDeep Space Lez
I had a good feeling about Deep Space Lez as soon as I saw the promotional photo: a group dressed in flannel with shiny boots and rolled-up cuffs crowded around a commanding woman sitting in Captain Kirk's chair. Why isn't there more lesbian science-fiction theater in Seattle? Fortunately, performer ilvs strauss (whose 2015 production Manifesto was either "a parody of modern dance" or "really smart and bold") has created a new show in which a ship of communally-living lesbians seek a home world and are waylaid by a sapphic distress call. Expect feminist wisdom, loose-leaf tea, guidance from the goddess, and arguments about whose turn it is to buy bulk nutritional yeast. MATT BAUME
Grounded
There are plenty of plays about unexpected pregnancy—but 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.
Wellesley Girl
In 2465, it's politics as usual in the United States—at least, inside a fortress city separating the survivors from a hellscape outside. Now, an army is at the gates, and suddenly the political process is more important than ever. This play by Brendan Pelsue dramatizes a recognizable dystopian future with themes of "political grandstanding, personal sacrifice, and a love triangle with a robot."
Norwescon
This science fiction and fantasy convention (with a literary emphasis) features an overwhelming number of events, including 500 hours of panel programming featuring more than 200 panelists, workshops on writing and filmmaking, gaming, concerts, dances, an art show, a masquerade, a film festival, a science fiction book awards ceremony, and, of course, lots of appearances by special guests representing the many aspects of science fiction and fantasy.
FRIDAY
COMMUNITY & CIVICSTrump-Proof Seattle District 6 Town Hall with Councilmember Mike O'Brien
The Trump-Proof Seattle campaign presses for a new income tax on the wealthiest of the city, which they say would raise $125 million for new social programs and compensate for cuts by the federal government. Councilmember Mike O'Brien, the District 6 Neighborhood Action Council, the Transit Riders Union, 350 Seattle, and Nickelsville Ballard will all pitch in to help explain and boost the movement at this town hall.
Campout Cinema: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Campout Cinema brings the "outdoor movie experience" indoors—remember blankets, pillows, and sleeping bags, and they'll provide the food, themed drinks, and "other surprises." At this edition, they’ll screen Raiders of the Lost Ark (in which Indiana Jones follows his quest to find the Ark of the Covenant) for 21+ guests.
An Evening with Alec Baldwin
Your favorite gravel-voiced leading man, Alec Baldwin, will speak about his new memoir, Nevertheless (his second book, following A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey Through Fatherhood and Divorce).
Jennifer Ackerman: The Genius of Birds
Jennifer Ackerman has written practical and fascinating books about science, including Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream: A Day in the Life of Your Body, Ah-Choo! The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold, and Chance in the House of Fate: A Natural History of Heredity. Her latest work, The Genius of Birds, deals with the grand intelligence of many species of birds—including their emotional and social abilities, like deception, blackmail, eavesdropping, and grief.
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
ARTSangjun Yoo: 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 immersion—an environment of rich, decadent color one can get lost in. Artist Sangjun 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
This exhibit closes on Saturday.
Ballet on Broadway
Broadway-inspired sing-along ballet is fun, accessible, set to recognizable music, and follows a simple plot—perfect for those passionate about musicals, ambivalent about ballet, or curious about the intersection of the two. This program will feature Carousel (A Dance) (based on the strange, slightly dark New England musical that includes an ensemble number titled "That Was a Real Nice Clambake"), Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (from the musical comedy On Your Toes), and West Side Story Suite (dancing gangsters).
FRIDAY-SUNDAY
FILMByDesign 2017 Film Festival
This annual cross-disciplinary festival is all about "design in motion": Film, documentary, and multimedia devoted to design and architecture. This year's offerings include "a documentary about the formidable writer and activist Jane Jacobs," an interactive expo of 3D video game universes from the 1990s, and a discussion of designers' use of animation.
Now It's Dark: The Films of David Lynch
Even if the Twin Peaks revival weren’t right around the corner, it would still be a perfect time to reimmerse yourself in the incomparable cinema of David Lynch. SIFF’s series begins as it should, in black and white, with the industrial symphony of Eraserhead and the redemptive nightmare of The Elephant Man. If you’re looking for a true escape from the unraveling world, no other filmmaker creates a more thorough or engaging alternative. SEAN NELSON
The Secret Garden
The quietly mesmerizing musical The Secret Garden (written by Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman with music by Lucy Simon) comes to 5th Avenue Theatre, directed by David Armstrong.
SATURDAY
READINGS & TALKSApril Write-In
Community poets and authors including Quenton Baker, Karen Finneyfrock, EJ Koh, and Natasha Moni will gather for this Hugo House/Write Our Democracy event focusing the power of the word to fight against cynicism and for liberty and justice.
Gabriel Jesiolowski and C. Davida Ingram
For this evening of poetry, Gabriel Jesiolowski will read from the newly published As Burning Leaves, a meditation on the "ghost realm" of grief. Stranger Genius Award winner C. Davida Ingram will also share work.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
The homegrown radio/podcast comedy phenomenon known as Too Beautiful to Live—and its gregarious, hilarious, occasionally precarious host Luke Burbank (alas, he’s a Taurus)—are still alive and well, but THIS is Burbank’s other show, Live Wire, an NPR-friendly variety program based in Portland, Oregon. The panel includes Washington State attorney general and local heartthrob Bob Ferguson, general attorney of all things throbbing Dan Savage, comedy genius Jessi Klein, and hard-rock musical guest Ayron Jones. SEAN NELSON
SUNDAY
COMEDYMatch Game: EGGS!!!!
Audience contestants try to guess local celebrities' answers to silly questions in a furious storm of ribaldry. This month, the appropriately Easter-y theme is EGGS!!!! You'll have to attend to find out just how dirty it gets. Hosted by Richard Rugburn.
4th Annual Pickled Egg Eating Contest
Those with stomachs of adamantine can compete in gulping down pickled eggs. It might not be your idea of a classic Easter, but you may win a prize.
Afternoon Delight—Easter
The Bookstore will serve a special version of their high-end weekend tea service—sandwiches, amuse-bouches, and dessert—in the Author's Corner section. For Easter, they'll include a few extra courses and a complimentary mimosa.
Filipino Easter Sunday Brunch Pop-Up
At the newest event from local pop-up purveyor Melissa Miranda, indulge in a spin on traditional Filipino breakfast foods, mimosas, and Bloody Marys.
Miller's Guild Easter Brunch
"Suicide food actively participates in or celebrates its own demise. Suicide food identifies with the oppressor. Suicide food is a bellwether of our decadent society. Suicide food is not funny." So goes a quote from vegetarian activist Ben Grossblatt in Lindy West's epic 2007 feature on the oddity of restaurants whose mascots are on the menu. This Easter season, I wondered who would step up to the suicide food plate and serve rabbit. Meat activist Jason Wilson delivered. Easter brunch at his downtown temple of carnivorous delights, Miller's Guild, definitely includes the day's adorable mascot, in the not-necessarily-adorable form of "a tongue-in-cheek rabbit omelette with carrot pistou, peas, carrots, and spring onion." If you find yourself forced to go out for a Easter brunch with old people and children, you'll at least have the dark pleasure of eating the Easter Bunny to help offset all that wholesome, Jesus-loving, egg-painting, pastel bullshit.
Serafina Easter Brunch
Luxuriate in live violin music from Pasquale while eating a two-course spring menu using seasonal ingredients, like rhubarb, fava beans, and cherries. They'll have a children's menu for $12, too.
Tilth Easter Special
True to form, Tilth will serve a local, organic, Northwest-focused menu, served over three prix fixe courses, with options like seared St. Jude’s albacore tuna, cheddar biscuits with Skagit River Ranch sausage gravy, and brioche French toast with blueberry compote, peanut butter crumble, and chantilly.
Bowie vs Prince Music Video Sing Along
Resurrect your favorites this Easter with a mash-up sing-along to all the best videos of David Bowie and Prince's careers.
Records, Pancakes, & Bach
A Bach concerto in the OtB lobby first thing Sunday morning might appeal to the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed early birds among us, but it may sound a bit ambitious to those waking after a long Saturday night of "self care." That's the genius of the marimba. The instrument softens Bach's hard edges, making his songs sound like chill sunrises. Erin Jorgensen, master marimbist and chillest of the chill, plays the Baroque composer's most famous suites and serves up some mighty fine pancakes alongside. It's a bold, beautiful way to brunch. RICH SMITH
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