This week, our arts critics have chosen the best events in every discipline—from the silent reading party to Hump! to a week-long celebration of arts in honor of Abbey Arts—for you. See them all below, and, if that’s still not enough, check out our complete Things To Do calendar, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
TUESDAY
POLITICS
First, vote. Then, check out our complete list of election parties, or places where you can get drunk with candidates as the results come in.
FOOD & DRINK
Dine Around Seattle
During Dine Around Seattle (not to be confused with Seattle Restaurant Week), which runs until November 25, more than 65 restaurants throughout the area are serving three-course dinner menus for just $33, with many restaurants also offering a three-course lunch for $18. See the complete list of participating restaurants. See complete list of participating restaurants.
ART
Abbey Arts Tenth Anniversary (10 Events, 10 Days)
The Fremont Abbey celebrates 10 years with 10 events happening around Seattle, with many of them housed in the Abbey itself. The events will range from folk concerts to card making to poetry slams to square dancing, and will be a celebration of art in all its forms. (Through Nov 14)
BEGR, HAEL, and DAKS: No Peace Just Us
Look, BEGR and HAEL together represent a half-century of graffiti writing all over the nation, and their work comes together in a scathing social commentary exhibition called No Peace, Just Us. And in addition to them, Art Primo Seattle invited Atlanta-based DAKS, known not only for his work on the streets but for his work with Grammy-winning producers and musicians.
READINGS & TALKS
National Geographic Live: Mighty Wilderness
National Geographic explorers Steve Boyes and Jer Thorp, who led a live-data expedition across the Botswana’s Okavango Delta, will tell behind-the-scenes stories of their experiences on the expedition.
FILM
SHRIEK: A Women of Horror Film & Discussion Series: Alien
Scarecrow Video continues its weekly series with a screening of Alien.
THEATER
Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play
In this eerie play by Anne Washburn, an unspecified catastrophe wipes out the world’s electricity, forcing human beings to scavenge for survival and scrap with each other. In the first act, some frightened people around a campfire comfort themselves by retelling an episode from The Simpsons. By the third act, 75 years after the original disaster, that episode has been distorted through retelling into a solemn opera. (Through Nov 15)
WEDNESDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Silent Reading Party
Invented by Stranger editor-in-chief Christopher Frizzelle, the reading party is every first Wednesday of the month at 6 pm. That’s when the Fireside Room at the Sorrento Hotel goes quiet and fills with people with books tucked under their arms.
Word Works: Benjamin Percy on “Blending Genre”
Benjamin Percy, the author of three novels and two books of short stories, and the winner of honors including two Pushcart Prizes, the Plimpton Prize, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories, will a talk on “Blending Genre” at Hugo House.
ART
Sondra Perry
Inca presents Sondra Perry’s first solo exhibition, featuring a 2010 piece called “Red Summer” and a 2015 video called “Lineage for a Multiple-Monitor Workstation: Number One.”
MUSIC
Newaxeyes
“Are you hip to Newaxeyes yet? If not, tonight represents a perfect opportunity to acquaint yourself with their dislocated experimentalism, a bracing fusion of samples, doom-y squalls, and caustic beats.” – Kyle Fleck
SSDD, Nail Polish, and Ubu Roi
Tonight is the official West Coast tour kick-off show, and something of a Help Yourself Records showcase, at Chop Suey.
FILM
My Fair Lady 50th Anniversary
The classic musical starring Audrey Hepburn as a Cockney flower girl is 50 years old!
THURSDAY
FILM
Hump! Film Festival
Hump! Film Festival, The Stranger and Portland Mercury‘s amateur-produced porn festival, kicks off this Thursday at SIFF Cinema Uptown.
READINGS & TALKS
Sandra Cisneros
The author of the The House on Mango Street will read from her new book, A House of My Own: Stories from My Life, after a special tribute to Eduardo Galeano, who passed away on April 13 and is featured in A House of My Own.
Seattle StorySLAM: Payback
Enjoy beer from Hilliards, cider from Seattle Cider and Schilling, wine from Wilridge, and cocktails from Sound Spirits, all while taking in this famous storytelling and performance event. This week’s theme is “Payback.”
ART
Robert Rhee: Winter Wheat Opening Reception
Robert Rhee, a young artist who’s teaching at Cornish and who was responsible for this year’s Airbnb installation, is opening this new solo exhibition of sculptures made from gourds and metal cages on Thursday.
First Thursday Art Walk
The city’s main, and oldest, art walk happens on the first Thursday of every month.
zoe | juniper: We were.
As part of the Frye’s Genius exhibition, the Seattle-based dance and visual arts team that won the Stranger Genius award in 2013 will perform live.
THEATER
Festen
Tony nominee and Seattle Rep regular Wilson Milam directs this New Century Theatre Company family drama about the false cheeriness of families. (Thurs-Sun, through Nov 21)
Sgt Rigsby & His Amazing Silhouettes: The Ballad of Karla Fox
This new show from wickedly funny Seattle shadow-puppet company is a “super intense and really dark psychological thriller” about a fox that learns about the evil in the world after her parents die in an accident. (Thurs-Sat, through Nov 21)
MUSIC
Wally Shoup Deep Lounge Quartet
Venerable local free-jazz catalyst and powerfully emotive saxophonist Wally Shoup tonight spotlights a musician who’s existed below the radar for several years: Eric Amrine.
Luna
One of the finest groups to take the Velvet Underground sound (third and fourth LPs, mainly) overground hits up The Showbox.
Boytoy
“I’m a sucker for ’90s teen-movie soundtracks, and Brooklyn’s Boytoy sounds ripped straight from the Clueless CD.” -Robin Edwards
Rego
“This evening, up-and-coming art-rock outfit Rego are celebrating the release of their new EP, Boy Turn, with like-minded daze-out technicians Orange Paint. Rego are tough to pin down… just know that it’s going to be good.” -Kyle Fleck
LeFt0
“Coming straight outta Belgium, DJ LeFt0 is a crate digger’s crate digger, with an ear for sliced and skewered hiphop rhythms and slinking sub-bass.” -Kyle Fleck
FRIDAY
FILM
The Nightingale
The Nightingale, a film about an old man who makes a long-overdue trip from Beijing to his native village, with the pet bird of the title and his precocious Skype-fiend of a granddaughter reluctantly in tow, opens today at Pacific Place.
Manhattan
“All the disagreements in Manhattan can be reduced to one, a debate between Woody Allen’s character, Isaac, and a socialite at a swank party: Is it better to combat incoming Nazis from New Jersey with bricks and bats or devastating satire in the Times? … Anyone who can’t live without the arts shouldn’t live without seeing this movie.” -Jen Graves
ART
Camp Fires: The Queer Baroque of Léopold L. Foulem, Paul Mathieu, and Richard Milette
This Bellevue Arts Museum exhibit, featuring queer baroque work from three francophone Canadian ceramic artists, opens today.
READINGS & TALKS
Carrie Brownstein
Carrie Brownstein, of Portlandia and Sleater-Kinney fame, has a new book out: Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl. Hear her talk about it with 2015 Stranger Genius nominee in literature Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette.
In the Age of Mass Incarceration: Volunteer in a Prison? Are You Mad?
On the National Day of Prison and Reentry Nonprofits, learn about how to get involved in volunteering in prisons—and why you should want to.
Mary Gaitskill
She reads from her new book The Mare, which is about a Dominican girl who learns to ride horses and the horse that changes her life.
Poetry & Music Salon #4
Catch some Ginsberg/Whitman “brought to life” with free dessert; opening weekend only! (Also on Saturday)
DANCE
Emergence
After its success in 2013, Pacific Northwest Ballet brings back Crystal Pite’s mind-bending Emergence, which begins with a single dancer hatching and metamorphosizes into a stageful of swarming, clicking, hissing dancers.
CABARET & VARIETY
Spin the Bottle
This is Seattle’s longest-running cabaret and has seen just about everything—dance, theater, comedy, paper airplanes, tears, stunts, music, romance—from just about everyone.
MUSIC
Lemolo
Meagan Grandall’s dream pop project Lemolo are finally back with a new album, celebrated tonight at the Crocodile.
<a href=”http://www.thestranger.com/events/22981528/mesh-civil-duty-marcus-price-shawn-osullivan-biome-p-l-l-and-beau-wanzer
“>M.E.S.H.
MOTOR and Elevator have joined forces for this loaded bill. Headlining is Berlin-based producer M.E.S.H. (James Whipple), whose music sounds like Photek during his peak drum & bass phase, but slowed to a brutal dubstep tempo.
The Membranes
“Did you ever think you’d get a chance to see the Membranes play live in 2015? To the tiny percentage of readers who even know/care about these scabrous British post-punks, the answer is probably ‘no.'” -Dave Segal
SATURDAY
ART
Matthew Offenbacher: The V&A
Matthew Offenbacher explores the idea of “transitional objects” in this exhibition, which is only open this and next Saturday.
Mutual Therapy
What Nat Evans says about his installation: “Mutual Therapy is an opportunity for plants and humans to enjoy a relaxing, mutually beneficial sonic environment – soothing tones, blankets and clean air for humans, with gentle sunlight and sounds to boost the immune systems of plants.”
READINGS & TALKS
Heather McHugh and Yussef El Guindi: The Embarrassment of Genius
Heather McHugh, a 2007 Stranger Genius winner, and 2015 Genius nominee in literature Yussef El Guindi will read and participate in a panel discussion about what being described as “genius” did to them.
MUSIC
Earshot Jazz Festival: Torsten Mueller & Phil Minton
“Earshot Jazz festival gets really far out on November 7 with the European duo of vocalist Phil Minton and double bassist Torsten Mueller. Together, the two are an absurdist, sublimely slapstick force of nature.” – Dave Segal
Oddisee
“For the past year, my hiphop purchasing habit has followed one simple rule: If Mello Music Group put the album out, buy it. The label’s flagship artist is Oddisee, a DC emcee with a smooth flow to match his often organic arrangements.” -Joseph Schafer
<a href=”http://www.thestranger.com/events/22936564/telekinesis-say-hi-and-navvi
“>Telekinesis
“Local Michael Benjamin Lerner has done pretty well for himself as Telekinesis: four records on a reputable indie label is nothing to scoff at.” -Joseph Schafer
Damien Jurado
“While he’s most associated with his spare acoustic songs of interior life, his latest work—Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son, another collaboration with producer Richard Swift—is far more kaleidoscopic, delving into groovy, psychedelic, orchestrated pop. The consistent factor: Jurado’s ability to transport you to someplace sublime.” -Kathleen Richards
QUEER
Inquisition & Fetish Night
“Don’t be that weirdo who shows up at Fetish Night dressed in normal-people clothes. Leather, fur suits, rubber—whatever your vice is, be sure to dress up so you can skip the line. The Sisters will be selling Jell-O shots and indulgences to support PrEP outreach, so whatever you decide to wear, don’t forget to include a cash donation to a worthy cause.” – Matt Baume
SUNDAY
ART
Vermillion Makers Market
Enjoy live music and a full bar while you scope out beautiful paintings and jewelry from local artists and designers.
THEATER
John Osebold: City Light
John Osebold is a Seattle-based writer, musician, and performer who has created over 20 original music and theater shows and who won the Stranger Genius award for theater in 2011. This performance at the Frye is a re-arranged selection of music, theatrical moments, and video from his repertoire. Plus some new stuff!
MUSIC
Youssou N’Dour
Senegalese percussionist/composer Youssou N’Dour is internationally renowned for his stylistically omnivorous take on Afro pop.
Versing, Couches, and the Echo Echo Echoes
“Bay Area indie-rock trio Couches are self-proclaimed “real lazy,” channeling a slacker-ish, post-grunge, mid-to-late-’90s Modest Mouse/Built to Spill Northwest vibe.” -Brittnie Fuller
