THURSDAY: HISTORIAN ROXANNE DUNBAR-ORTIZ READS NOT "A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS"
The author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States virtually visits "our" shores with yet another book that shatters a foundational American myth: Not "A Nation of Immigrants": Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion (published by Beacon Press). In the book, Dunbar-Ortiz argues the phrase "nation of immigrants" sounds nice and works in the service of a good goal, but it ultimately masks the country's history as a settler state populated by colonizers and kidnapped Africans and islanders. She traces the history of the idea from the colonial days through the 1960s and up to the present Biden administration, showing that the rhetoric really began to develop as "a convenient response by the ruling class and its brain trust to the 1960s demands for decolonization, justice, reparations, and social equality."
Seattle Public Library and Elliott Bay Book Company will host the virtual event at 6 pm on Thursday, September 23. Register here.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY: LET 'IM MOVE YOU: THIS IS A FORMATION AT ON THE BOARDS
Multifaceted movement-makers Jermone Donte Beacham and jumatatu m. poe present This Is a Formation, the final installment of their decade-long visual and choreographic exploration of J-Setting, a dance form that originated in the majorette lines of historically Black universities in the late 1970s and then split out into a million different directions as it iterated through underground Black gay clubs in the south. By bringing the audience onstage in the Merrill Theater, Beacham and poe's take on the form collapses the typically vast distance between the dancers and the audience, giving us a dance-floor view of the performers, "whose call-and-response movement forges and affirms community around Black queer resistance and delight," according to press materials. The title also hints at a productive if tension-rich conversation between Christianity and queer dance, a problem most likely solved by the only thing you can find both at the church and at the club: lots of wine transcendence.
The shows start at 7:30 pm on Friday, September 24 and Saturday, September 25. Masks, proof of vax or negative COVID test within 24 hours required. Buy tickets ($20) here. Related performances include an "outdoor processional between Rainier Beach and Columbia City" on Thursday, September 23 at dusk. A Queer Slow Jam Party kicks off after the Saturday night performance.
SATURDAY: CHINATOWN-ID NIGHT MARKET
One of the city's largest night markets returns this Saturday with a feast for all senses, and even a vax van in case your dumb ass still needs to get the jab you should've gotten back in May!!! Dozens of vendors representing neighborhood restaurants will set up beneath festival tents to sling all manner of foodstuffs and trinkets. We're talking boba, taiyaki, dumplings of all shapes and sizes, bowls galore, fucking corn dogs, teas for days, cut flowers, little cute shark stickers — everything. Entertainment options include martial arts demonstrations, taiko drum performances, and Apex Diablo's mesmerizing yo-yo show. Not a bad way to spend what will likely be the year's last nice day.
The market runs 1 to 9 pm on Saturday, September 25. Masks required, but proof of vax not required. So. But if you need to get vaxxed, the International Community Health Services (ICHS) will provide a vax van onsite from 4:30 to 7:00 pm.
SATURDAY THRU MONDAY: JAPANESE BREAKFAST SPENDS THE WEEKEND AT THE NEPTUNE THEATRE
I didn't exactly plan to spend an entire weekend awash in the memories of my old, mismanaged love affairs, but that was before I saw that Michelle Zauner and her atmospheric indie rock outfit, Japanese Breakfast, planned to spend a long weekend at the Neptune Theatre. Like the freaky daddy in the video above, the characters that populate her new album, Jubilee, search for happiness in dark clouds of sax-inflected synth. Even if the characters never seem to fully access it, the listener finds snatches of it in the bouncy bass of "Be Sweet," or in the spacious intimacy of the hook in "Posing in Bondage." Not sure if it'd be rude to read Zauner's well-received memoir, Crying in H Mart, during the live show, but it'd certainly pair well with the music.
The show runs Saturday, September 25 thru Monday, September 27. Doors at 7 pm, show at 8 pm. Tickets cost $39.50 (not including fees), and you can find them here. Proof of vax or proof of negative COVID PCR test required.
