WEDNESDAY 4/23  

Kelly Goto with Lori Matsukawa and Seattle Kokon Taiko

(BOOKS/MUSIC) Once upon a time, Seattle had a homegrown comic chronicling Japanese American life with a little bit of samurai swagger. From 2012 to 2018, artist Sam Goto drew Seattle Tomodachi (“friend of Seattle”) for the North American Post, capturing stories of immigration, incarceration, and resilience with heart and idiosyncratic humor. His daughter, "global lecturer" and author Kelly Goto, revives his legacy in Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist’s Perspective of the Japanese American Experience, blending cartoons, family memories, and big feels. Catch her in convo with Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist and local legend Lori Matsukawa, plus a badass drumming session by Seattle Kokon Taiko. (Town Hall, 7:30 pm, all ages) LINDSAY COSTELLO

Good Morning! It keeps being shiny outside. It’ll be a little warmer today than yesterday, squarely in the mid-60s. It’s supposed to be this beautiful all week, but spring is fickle, and she can take it away at any moment. Enjoy it while you can.

Alright, let’s dive into the news.

My wife and I are socially monogamous but have a DADT arrangement that applies if we’re not in our home city. While my wife would prefer that I divulge details to her, I don’t want to hear her details, so we defaulted to DADT based on my preferences. Because we aren’t out to friends about being open and I can’t share this with my wife, I don’t have anyone I can talk to about this, so I am writing to you.

I just had an outstanding weekend getaway with a new friend. Nothing in particular was over the top about our itinerary — saunas and cold plunges followed by fancy meals — but time flew by while also seeming to stand still. The sex was WOW and our conversations about serious subjects were spiced with tongue-in-cheek teasing about this fantasy world we were playing in. She is poly and can share details with her partners, but she enjoys the “secrecy” aspect of my arrangement. We’ve been messaging each other about just how hot our getaway was and have already scheduled our next trip together in a few months. Messaging someone else from “home base” may constitute a rules violation.

Weather: Happy Earth Day! Today’s forecast: sunny with a high near 60. It’s perfect weather for pretending we’re not hurtling toward climate collapse. So get out there, hug a tree, recycle your plastic, and try not to think about how Exxon knew in the '70s.

Born Into Freedom, Dad Denied It: Dr. Noor Abdalla and political prisoner Mahmoud Khalil welcomed their first child yesterday. Khalil had requested a two-week furlough from his detention in Louisiana to be present for the birth. Per the cruelty of the Trump regime, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official named “Mellissa” denied Khalil’s request. 

Religious Freedom Means Never Having to Learn Anything: The culture war circus is back at the Supreme Court, where Justices are weighing whether books with LGBTQ+ characters in public schools trample on religious freedom. A school board in Montgomery County, Maryland okayed five storybooks to promote tolerance—scandalous!—but some parents claim that just seeing queer people in print violates their religious beliefs. They're arguing that a) parents should control what their kids learn and b) the Constitution guarantees them the right to not be mildly uncomfortable in a pluralistic society. With a bench stacked by Trump and dominated by justices molded in Catholic schools, odds are good that the Court will carve out some religious opt-out. 

A letter signed by at least 550 individuals, health care professionals, and advocacy groups is urging Seattle Children’s Hospital to restore access to gender-affirming surgical care to trans people under 19.

The community letter, organized by the Seattle trans advocacy group Gender Justice League (GJL) and addressed to Children’s Board of Directors, says the hospital’s decision sends a “troubling” message to trans communities and may violate state law. The Washington Law Against Discrimination explicitly protects the rights of transgender people in places of public accommodation, which include hospitals.

Signed by the ACLU of Washington’s health policy program director, reproductive rights advocates like ProChoice Washington, LGBTQ groups like the Lavender Rights Project and Gender Justice League, as well as various health clinics, doctors, and labor unions, the letter calls on the hospital’s board of directors to immediately resume surgical care, educate the public on the scientific consensus that supports transgender care, and engage with workers, families, and advocates to collectively rally public support for its gender-affirming care program.

As a director and screenwriter, Ryan Coogler has built a career as an unparalleled interpreter of other people’s intellectual property. With Creed, he became the first person who isn’t Sylvester Stallone to write a film in the Rocky franchise. With Black Panther, he nailed the near-impossible assignment of adapting a thinly-drawn Marvel character conceit—created by two white guys, or one white guy, depending on which white guy you ask—and turned it into an iconic, globally-beloved blockbuster. With Wakanda Forever, Coogler gave us an epic work of underwater anti-colonialism, despite the death of the film’s star (Chadwick Boseman) and a global pandemic. 

Now, over a decade into making feature films, Sinners feels like the first time Coogler is going deep into his own archive—he’s said it’s based on family lore, told to him by his Uncle James, who moved from Mississippi to Oakland during the Great Migration.

It’s a slow burn campfire story where the Mississippi skies and cotton fields are so huge they had to be shot in IMAX, and the music gets so wild it dissolves the boundaries of space and time. 

We're here to save you from answering "IDK" when someone asks you what you're up to this week. Add buzzy events to your itinerary from Kylie Minogue: Tension Tour to Pedro the Lion 30th Anniversary Shows and from Swan Lake: State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine & Live Symphony Orchestra to Ziwe's America.

MONDAY

LIVE MUSIC

Ichiko Aoba
The word "ethereal" tends to be overused when describing music. That said, Ichiko Aoba's music is actually ethereal. The Japanese singer-songwriter finds a sweet spot between folk, jazz, and classical music, employing swirling strings, ocean waves, windchimes, and delicate vocals to tell whimsical, and often fictional stories. She will support her new album Luminescent Creatures, which serves as a sequel to her critically acclaimed 2020 album Windswept Adan. AUDREY VANN
(Moore Theatre, Belltown)

Pope Francis Is Dead: Pope Francis, who was the first Latin American pontiff, is dead at 88. Francis moved the Catholic Church progressively—or, at least progressively for the Catholics. He believed in climate change, he made the church a somewhat more welcoming place for LGBTQ people, he opposed the death penalty, he condemned both the war in Gaza and Ukraine. Poetically, Francis died the morning after Easter. Tragically, one of the last people he met with before his death was Vice President JD Vance. I'd want to die after meeting him, too. 

SPD "Stop the Steal" Attendees Appeal to Supreme Court: Four of the Seattle Police Officers who attended Donald Trump's 2021 "Stop the Steal" rally, which later turned into the Jan. 6 insurrection, don't want their names revealed in public records. The officers maintain they did not participate in the insurrection. Earlier this year, the Washington State Supreme Court ruling which found "the officers failed to show that disclosing their names in public filings would violate their right to privacy," according to CBSNews. Unsatisfied with that, the officers, some of whom are still active within SPD, are banking on the Supreme Court to keep their political beliefs unassociated with their names. If they simply attended a peaceful rally, what are they worried about? 

Last Friday, when the historic Virginia Inn Restaurant and Bar announced on social media that it would be closing on April 27, the post included a call to arms. The author of the message, Virginia Inn’s owner Craig Perez, asked patrons to contact Mayor Bruce Harrell and the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA) to protest their notice to vacate. Perez added that the business’s lease has been terminated “due to failed negotiations for an equitable lease,” and ended the message by saying, “We have a staff of 20+ people; many long-term employees who have dedicated their lives and love to this place. We want to stay!”

Open since 1903 at the southwest corner of First Avenue and Virginia Street, the Virginia Inn’s easily the oldest restaurant in the Pike Place Market—it predates the Market itself, which opened in the summer of 1904. The building it’s in, the Livingston Hotel, was erected in 1901. In 2008, the bar expanded southward, taking over the frame shop next door and doubling its square footage.

It’s time to dig through your pile of unpaid bills and Safeway coupons. We’ve got a special election coming, and your ballot’s due on Tuesday. Let's get into it. 

At its simplest, King County Proposition 1 is a levy renewal. It would continue funding the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), a massive biometric database that stores over 3 million fingerprint and palm print records and helps police connect prints left at crime scenes to people. It also confirms the identities of arrestees, preventing people from being wrongfully detained or released under false names.

On its face, Prop 1 may seem tempting enough. This is, after all, a levy with no organized opposition (as you’ll see on your ballot), endorsed by nearly all King County Councilmembers (yep, even the ones you like), and designed to renew a decades-old program that helps solve crimes and identify the dead, sometimes those beyond recognition. It’s relatively inexpensive—about $24 a year for the average homeowner—and funds forensic infrastructure across 39 cities and unincorporated King County.

OPENINGS

Akebono Japanese Cuisine
This traditional Japanese restaurant serving "sushi, sashimi, rolls, rice bowls, teriyaki, katsu, tempura, ramen, bento and more" opened its doors in Ravenna last week.
Ravenna

Every day, I sift through the hundreds of tracks that bombard my inbox. On a biweekly basis, I tell you about the two artists whose music most impressed me. This time, it's Chicago's Hieroglyphic Being's acid-house renovations and Seattle quintet Dining Dead's acerbic art rock.

Hieroglyphic Being, “I'm in a Strange Loop” (Smalltown Supersound)

Chicago producer Hieroglyphic Being (aka Jamal Moss) has been making spines tingle, skulls vibrate, and asses move for nearly 30 years. (Anyone who caught HB at 2013's Debacle Fest can attest to the man's ability to bring the heat live.) With deep roots in the Windy City's paradigm-shifting house scene, Moss nonetheless has gone off on radical tangents from that fertile dance-music source with releases on several prestigious labels, including Planet Mu, Soul Jazz, and RVNG Intl. He's part of an elite cadre of electronic musicians who have maintained phenomenal quality control for decades; others include Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, Surgeon, and Autechre. 

While acid house—and various mutations thereof—has been Moss's main mode, his output has been anything but one-dimensional. With the J.I.T.U. Ahn-Sahm-Buhl (featuring Sun Ra Arkestra legend Marshall Allen), Moss explores the seldom-trodden intersection of club music and avant-garde jazz. See 2015's We Are Not the First for a prime example of their unique fusions. He's also delved into bizarre strains of ambient music with his "Imaginary Landscapes" series. 

On Wednesday, the Washington State Senate passed HB 1971, a first-of-its-kind bill from House Rep. Nicole Macri that compels insurance companies in the state to cover up to a year’s supply of hormone replacement therapy, starting in January 2026. Now it's on its way to the governor's desk. For trans people, whose health care is under federal attack, it’s coming at a clutch time.

Insurers typically cover a one to three month supply of most drugs, including hormones. Their rationale is that dispensing any more than that at a time comes with the risk of paying for drugs they didn’t have to pay for, like if someone switches insurance plans before they’re due for a refill (or, like, dies unexpectedly).

Rep. Macri thought an exception was in order after seeing the results of a survey from the state LGBTQ commission that found trans and nonbinary people across the state were very worried about losing access to their medications.

Whether you're blazing for 4/20 or praising during Easter this weekend, there's plenty of fun to be had on this two-fer holiday weekend. Step out for happenings from OUR Fest to Stoner Chicks Improv's 4/20 Show and from CHASM to an Earth Day Market. For more ideas, check out our top picks of the week.

FRIDAY

CLASSES & WORKSHOPS

Lay Your Burden Down Sewing Circle
The Seattle Art Museum's 2024–25 Constance W. Rice Fellow, Carina A. del Rosario, has exhibited widely in public exhibitions and installations throughout the state. (Maybe you've spotted one of her pieces at a bus stop, the Danny Woo International Garden, or along the city's Central Area Greenway.) Drop by the museum for this art activity with del Rosario and you'll be contributing to Lay Your Burden Down, her "participatory fellowship project." The artist asks that participants share a current burden on mulberry paper, then help sew and embroider these burdens onto fabric. Best part? The textile artwork that you helped create will be installed at Seattle Asian Art Museum once complete. LINDSAY COSTELLO
(Seattle Asian Art Museum, Capitol Hill, free)