Ready to have the best weekend of your life? The Stranger’s critics have chosen the very best arts and culture events this weekend, from a dance piece about feminine rage to a reading by “one of the best writers in the world” to a huge group art show on AIDS in America. Read what they have to say about these events here, and find full details on all of them—and hundreds more—on our Things To Do calendar.
THURSDAY-SUNDAY
THEATER: Pat Graney: Girl Gods
“Choreographer” doesn’t feel substantive enough to describe what Pat Graney does. She’s a dance auteur who creates affecting and sometimes humorous spectacles: installations that immerse her audience in an exaggerated dreamworld, or women dancing in Judy Jetson dresses that are wired to turn their smallest movements into sound, or 130 female martial artists spread across a landscape. In Girl Gods, Graney explores “feminine rage” with a littered stage, cocktail dresses, and “uneasy vaudeville married to explosive physicality.” Starring dancers Sara Jinks, Sruti Desai, Cheryl Delostrinos, Jenny May Peterson, and Jody Kuehner (aka Cherdonna Shinatra, who won this year’s Stranger Genius Award for performance). BRENDAN KILEY
See all of our recommended theater and dance events.
FRIDAY
FILM: The Martian
I don’t know how high you’d have to be to not want to see a Ridley Scott film about Matt Damon getting stranded on Mars, based on Andy Weir’s startlingly sharp novel, and co-starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kristen Wiig, Donald Glover, and Jeff Daniels, among others, but I am not now, nor have I ever been, quite as high as that. For every 10 or so films Scott directs, one is fantastic, and he’s overdue. SEAN NELSON
See all of our recommended films.
FRIDAY-SUNDAY
FESTIVALS: Macefield Music Festival
Oh, heeeyyy, Macefield Music Festival! Nice to see you again! Three years old already, huh? I love that your namesake is still badass granny Edith Macefield, who refused to sell her Ballard home to greedy developers. I also love that, unlike some other music festivals, especially the one that just happened, um, one month ago, your prices are still affordable for (non-tech-working) local music fans. The only thing I don’t love is how excellent Friday night’s lineup is. It’s TOO good. Anyway, I still love you, Macefield. See you on Ballard Avenue! KELLY O
See all of our recommended festivals.
SATURDAY
READINGS: Jonathan Raban
Do not miss this rare opportunity to hear the best writer in the city, and one of the best writers in the world, read from his works. Jonathan Raban’s journalism, fiction, nonfiction, and literary criticism are all first-rate. I really could not heap enough praise on this Englishman, and I consider his decision to settle in this part of the world in 1989 as a significant moment in the history of Pacific Northwest literature. This reading is part of the Frye’s Genius / 21 Century / Seattle. CHARLES MUDEDE
See all of our recommended readings & talks.
ART: Art AIDS America
Mark this. It’s a bold, big group show meant to address how AIDS changed the course of American art, including 125 works by over 30 artists. The show is curated by TAM’s Rock Hushka and Jonathan D. Katz (Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture), and it’s a decade in the making. It’s already visited Los Angeles, and after this it will go to the Bronx, but it was organized right here in Tacoma, “the city that established the nation’s first government-sanctioned needle exchange program,” TAM director Stephanie Stebich points out. The art, in all manner of media, dates from 1981 to today. JEN GRAVES
See all of our recommended art events.
QUEER: Queer Geek Presents: Magic Casual Play
Planeswalkers, take note: Battle for Zendikar releases this week, huzzah! And if the preceding sentence makes no sense to you, perhaps it’s time you took another look at Magic: The Gathering. Every month, Phoenix Comics & Games hosts a casual play event, where experts and newcomers alike are welcome. Bring your Standard deck and your mastery of the game—or if you’re still a novice, simply show up ready to learn. There’s no gay mafia like a gay-geek mafia, so with any luck, they’ll manage to push the Eldrazi back to the mountains of Akoum by the end of the afternoon. Cohosted by Andrew Schultz and Queer Geek Seattle’s Eric Starker. MATT BAUME
See all of our recommended queer events or our complete geek calendar.
SUNDAY
FOOD: Northwest Provisions Pop-Up #2
Northwest Provisions is a pop-up created by chefs currently working at Seattle’s most exclusive and iconic restaurant, Canlis, so it should be interesting to see what they come up with when they’re off the clock and doing their own thing. Chef Ty Blana says they are dedicated to “hyperlocal” foods, with much of their produce coming from Blana’s home garden on Beacon Hill. This dinner’s menu, with dishes such as chicken liver mousse with root vegetables, pork belly with burdock root, and fried mochi with pickled blackberry, will also be paired with yeasty farmhouse-style ales made by hosts Urban Family Brewing. ANGELA GARBES
See all of our recommended food and drink events.
