Want more? Here’s everything we recommend this month: Music, Visual Art, Literature, Performance, Film, Food, and This & That.
May 13
Called “Pure genius” by Paul Reubens, “One of the last great people” by Miranda July, and “Insane” by Dick Van Dyke, Dynasty Handbag (aka Jibz Cameron) is a legend among legends. The queer performance artist created her persona, Dynasty Handbag, back in 2001, as a music project after she graduated from art school. Little by little, her costumes, makeup, facial expressions, and onstage banter became bigger and more theatrical, until it was a full-on multidisciplinary performance. Supporting her debut memoir, Hell in a Handbag, Cameron will grace Seattle with a unique reading that incorporates performance and film, telling the story of her journey from the child of hippy clowns, to a teenage punk, to an avant-garde theater star. (Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm) AUDREY VANN
May 14
If you look back at the plethora of skateboard videos, books, and magazines that have captured the rise of skateboarding culture through the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, you will see boys. So many boys. Tony Hawk, Jay Adams, Tony Alva, Steve Caballero, Stacy Peralta, Eric Koston. Women were skating, too, of course—Peggy Oki was a member of the Zephyr Competition Team featured in Dogtown and Z-Boys—but h istory wasn’t focused on their stories. Natalie Porter is here to begin to set the record straight. After establishing the online WomxnSkateHistory archive, she has compiled stories, zines, and photos into her book Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides: A History of Badass Women Skateboarders, to celebrate the women and nonbinary athletes who contributed to the culture from the 1960s through today—Stephanie Massey, Cara-Beth Burnside, Georgina Matthews, and so many more. (Seattle Public Library Central Branch, 4 pm, free) MEGAN SELING
More
Willy Vlautin May 6, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free
Brandon Bye May 7, Third Place Books Seward Park, 7 pm, free
Scott Kurashige with Karam Dana and Linh Thủy Nguyễn May 8, Third Place Books Ravenna, 7 pm, free
Elissa Favero, Alejandro Pérez-Cortés, Kevin Dean, and Diane Nguyen May 8, Jack Straw Cultural Center, 7 pm
Jake Skeets May 10, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free
Annie Leonard & André Carothers May 11, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm
Emily Lynn Paulson with Andrea Dunlop May 12, Third Place Books Seward Park, 7 pm
Hillary Behrman with Rod Driver May 12, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free
Karen Tei Yamashita with Karen Maeda Allman May 15, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free
Sayantani Roy, BeeLyn Naihiwet, Natalie Pascale Boisseau, and Jean Ferruzola May 15, Jack Straw Cultural Center, 7 pm
Cascadia Day Poetry Explosion May 18, Vermillion, 7 pm, free
Sonora Jha with Katie Campbell May 21, Seattle Public Library Central Branch, 6:30 pm, free
Alex Garland with Marcus Harrison Green May 24, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free
Matt Dinniman with Bookborn May 25, Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm
The Moth GrandSLAM: Seattle GrandSLAM Championship May 29, Town Hall Seattle, 8 pm, all ages
Caro Claire Burke May 31, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free
Find all these listings and more on our sister site, EverOut Seattle!
