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MONDAY
READINGS & TALKSPreti Taneja: We That Are Young
Taneja's retelling of King Lear, transplanted to a powerful business family in New Delhi, uses the familiar elements of an aging titan, his virtuous but rebellious daughter, her bloodthirsty sisters, and their psychopath half-brother. It's been getting great reviews in the UK: After awarding it the prestigious Desmond Elliott prize, the judges actually called it "awe-inspiring." And it's only Taneja's first novel!
Teaching For Black Lives
Education activist and Garfield High School teacher Jesse Hagopian heads this activist conference on ending racism in the school system through wide-ranging reform.
MONDAY-THURSDAY
ARTLawrence Pitre: We Are One
Like the great Seattle artist Jacob Lawrenceâwith whom he studied at the University of WashingtonâLawrence Pitre uses bold, stylized figures to create paintings embedded with political, social, and cultural history. Born and raised in the Central District, Pitre has witnessed decades of transformation and economic displacement firsthand. In We Are One, he presents paintings of historical people, places, and events from Seattleâs African American, East Asian, and Jewish communities, from the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II to the radical activism of the Gang of Four. âThe inclusiveness behind the work is meant to show that we need each other again,â says Pitre. âWe have to come back together and start standing up for our community as a whole.â EMILY POTHAST
Closing Thursday
Mkt. Anniversary Dinner
To celebrate five years of business, the Italian-inspired Tangletown eatery will offer a three-course prix fixe menu and wine pairing. Feast on polenta fritters, green beans, and baby lettuce salad for the table before digging into some Bucatini Cacio e Pepe or Strozzapreti beef ragu. They'll have birthday cake for dessert.
MONDAY-FRIDAY
ARTAnna Macrae: Morphing Landscapes
Increasingly recognized Northwest artist Anna Macrae builds landscapes through frenetic, colorful lines, "awkward marks," and blotches of color.
Closing Friday
MONDAY-SATURDAY
FILMLocal Sightings Film Festival
Seattleâs only festival devoted to Pacific Northwest movies will screen 14 features and 10 shorts programs, as well as offering media workshops, appearances by about 40 filmmakers, and one kickass artsy opening party. Donât miss the 1963 classic It Happened at the Worldâs Fair, in which Elvis Presley jaunts through the Worldâs Fair in sunny Seattle. That last screening (at SIFF Cinema Egyptian) will feature live commentary from Stranger film editor and resident philosopher Charles Mudede, musician/writer Ahamefule J. Oluo, and former Stranger contributor and Shrill author Lindy West. JOULE ZELMAN
A Small History of Amal, Age 7
In A Small History of Amal, Age 7, a little Indian boy fights the god of death shortly after the Mumbai train bombings in 2006. Nabilah S. Ahmed plays the title role in this one, and sheâs delivered standout performances in everything Iâve ever seen her in. RICH SMITH
MONDAY-SUNDAY
ARTBecoming American
The "Pig War" of 1859, so called because it flared up over the shooting of a pig on San Juan Island, marked the last time the UK and US fought over territory. With no humans killed or shots exchanged, the episode has become something of a historical joke. Twenty artists organized by the nonprofit cefalonia drew inspiration from this once ambiguous borderland, creating on the very site of the bloodless conflict. It's worth taking the ferry out to the English and American Camps in the piney San Juan Island National Historical Park to discover the results. But if you prefer to stick closer to home, you can see works by Stranger Genius Award winner Barbara Earl Thomas, Dori Scherer, Rodrigo Valenzuela, and 11 others at Seattle's studio e, with a solo exhibition by Korakrit Arunanondchai at Specialist. In September, the 24 members of the SOIL collective will respond with an exhibition of their own. The diversity of artists yields an abundance of themes, but race, frontiers, barriers, immigration, and history all figure large. JOULE ZELMAN
Closing Sunday
Dan Friday
Lummi glass blower Friday crafts exquisite sculptures based on Native practices like, in this case, cedar bark weavingâan art he encountered growing up with his relative, the Lummi weaver Fran James. The objects are exquisite, paying homage to the intricacy of the traditional craft and adding his own asymmetries and vividly contrasting colors. For this exhibition, he pays tribute to traditional Lummi reefnet fishing.
Closing Sunday
Merci Beaucoup
Elizabeth Arzani's tin and assemblage sculptures are on exhibition in this farewell show before the artist moves to Europe. Alongside these eye-pleasing, DIY-aesthetic 3D pieces, Heidi Dyer will sell ceramics and donate all of the proceeds to SOS Mediterranée, a migrant rescue organization.
Closing Sunday
Monyee Chau
Monyee Chau's vitreographs (glass prints) were made at the Pilchuck Glass school earlier this year. Chau's take on an abstract approach to autobiographical subjects looks intriguing.
Closing Sunday
TUESDAY
READINGS & TALKSChain Letter: Running the Shadows
Willie James, Kate Berwanger, and others will read at this recurring Capitol Hill-based reading and performance series "where the curated become the curators." There will be an open mic at the end.
Encountering Rarity: Restoring the Endangered Island Marble Butterfly
For almost 100 years, scientists thought the island marble butterfly was extinct. Now, thanks to conservation efforts at the National Park Service, the unremarkable but beautiful insect is making a slow but steady comeback in the coastal prairie grasses of the San Juan Islands. The decision to save this species or to let it extinguish is still an open question, however. UW's Amy Lambert will tell us what our answer to that question says about our own species. RICH SMITH
Heid E. Erdrich: New Poets of Native Nations
Heid E. Erdrichâs highly acclaimed anthology features 21 Native American poets from many different Native nations whose first books were published in the 21st century. Sheâll read alongside Trevino L. Brings Plenty, who writes straightforward narrative poems that will make you cringe and laugh; Laura Da', who shares some of those sensibilities but tends to thread her poems with more lyrical language; and Cedar Sigo, who swings easily from chatty poems to short, surreal lyrics dripping with painted sound. RICH SMITH
TUESDAY-SATURDAY
ARTEunice Kim: Nature Stories
This Seattle printmaker developed allergies to the chemicals generally used in the practice and so developed a more environmentally friendly and healthy process, which produces variation in prints. She creates images formed by spots in simple formations, perhaps reminding you of magnified microbes or of a more subdued Yayoi Kusama.
Closing Saturday
Polina Tereshina
Iâve been seeing a lot of artists lately leaning into an 1980s advertising palette of pastels and neons, and who seem to draw inspiration from David Hockney, California, abandoned shopping malls, and the âSan Juniperoâ Black Mirror episode. Polina Tereshinaâs gouache on paper paintings fall in this vein with semi-nude figures posed against sherbet landscapes and often accompanied by potted cacti. There is an elegance to the stripped-down three-part compositions of figure, furniture, and plant that offer a glimpse of a larger story. KATIE KURTZ
Closing Saturday
Sister Mary Corita Kent: Selected Works
Born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Sister Mary Corita Kent entered a convent at age 18. In 1947, during graduate school at the University of Southern California, she fell in love with screenprinting. Influenced by Andy Warhol, the slogans of the Civil Rights era, and her own commitment to consider poverty, racism, and injustice from a spiritual perspective, Corita Kent created one of the boldest, most distinctive bodies of 20th century poster art. After heading up the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles for a number of years (where she could often be seen screenprinting in a full nun's habit) she left the order and moved to Boston, where her work took on a more introspective style. EMILY POTHAST
Closing Saturday
Ursula Rose
Ursula Rose conjures parts of nudes, portraits, and still lifes in ethereal watercolor that seems to emerge organically from the blank background.
Closing Saturday
TUESDAY-SUNDAY
ARTTo Sing of Beauty
Paul Stephen Benjamin and C. Davida Ingram's collaboration considers blackness and musical expression through video installations. Ingram's The Deeps: Go Away from My Window incorporates music and performance by Hannah Benn and Rachael Ferguson, while her other video, Procession, "conjures a sense of the African American Northern Migration via railway" through the metaphor of changing Seattle. The Atlanta-based Benjamin reworks Nina Simone's performance of "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair" in New York City, 1959. Don't miss this duoâIngram has been producing fascinating art in the city for the past few years, and Benjamin was awarded the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia Working Artist Project not so long ago.
Closing Sunday
Cirque du Soleil: VOLTA
Every Cirque du Soleil show Iâve experienced has abounded with breathtaking, eye-popping visuals as well as awe-inspiring feats of movement by Cirqueâs cast of dancers, physical actors, athletes, and circus performers (acrobats, contortionists, aerialists, and the like), all within a big tent. The subject matter of VOLTA, Cirqueâs 41st production, involves extreme sports, touching on (but not limited to) shape diving, BMX, and rope skipping. One fan said it was âabsolutely spectacular," so don't miss this Marymoor Park run. LEILANI POLK
Skylight
A young woman flees a long-term affair with a rich married restaurateur when his ailing wife finds them out. Having previously lived in splendid comfort virtually as a member of their happy extended family, she now lives in self-imposed exile, working with poor, violent kids who have even fewer resources than she does. Then late one night, her former loverâs son shows up to ask why she abandoned him. Shortly after he leaves, his fatherâs limo rolls up. David Hareâs drama, originally produced in 1995 and later revived in 2015 (with Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan, just to give you a sense of the age disparity), is a strange combination of trenchant and way out of step with the psycho-social and psycho-sexual temperature of 2018. But, like most of his major works, itâs funny and involving, and it serves as a cracking showcase for two actors who know what theyâre doing. SEAN NELSON
WEDNESDAY
READINGS & TALKSChristian Kracht: The Dead
Kracht is not messing around with this resonantly titled novel, which won both the Herman Hesse Literature Prize and the Swiss Book Prize. It's about a Swiss filmmaker, Emil NĂ€geli, who travels under Nazi orders to Japan with a secret resistance mission. Japanese film minister Masahiko Amakasu and a "strangely thuggish, pistol-packing Charlie Chaplin" get involved. Kracht, who looks like he's been living alone on a frozen mountain for the past 20 years, has crafted a story about fascism and the screen that's won praise from such literary giants as Karl Ove Knausgaard and SjĂłn.
Erin Gibson: Feminasty
The snarky co-host of the Throwing Shade podcast declares her vision of "a utopian future where women are recognized as humans." Feminasty, named after her honorific on the podcast, is a collection of essays about the unnecessary burdens placed on women in the workplace and elsewhere.
Steve Phillips: Brown Is the New White
According to Town Hall's description for this event, Steve Phillips will break down the persistent "myth of the white swing voter" through an analysis of the 2016 election. He says, and supports, what many have been shouting: Progress will depend on a strategy that incorporates America's "racially diverse majority."
Thor Hanson: BuzzâThe Nature and Necessity of Bees
Washington native and conservation biologist Thor Hanson is one of those science writers who can poke and stoke your curiosity no matter what he's writing about. A few years ago, he championed one of the tiniest but mightiest forces of nature in The Triumph of Seeds. In Buzz, he's moved up one rung on the taxonomical ladder with a comprehensive book on bees, an insect that started out in the world as a wasp that "dared to feed pollen to its young." They've been pollinating the earth's flora for 125 million years, but, like everything else on this planet, they might not be buzzing around for much longer. At this Town Hall event, find out everything you can about these honey bugs before we find some way to shrivel them up for good. RICH SMITH
My Brother, My Brother and Me
The three McElroysâJustin, Travis, and Griffinâwill take their advice podcast to the theater, where they'll hopefully conduct another Haunted Doll Watch.
WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY
ARTOrchids and Evergreens: Thai and Seattle Printmakers
Seattle Print Arts, with the help of Nikki Barber and Miranda Metcalf, brings together floral prints from artists in Chiang Mai and Bangkok as well as in the Northwest. See work by, among others, Seattleites Claire Cowie, Kim Van Someren, and Romson Bustillo and Thailanders Kittikong Tilokwattan, Orn Thongthai, and Srijai Kuntawang.
Opening Wednesday
WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY
ART10 Ătudes for Summer
The summer between my first and second year of graduate school at California College of the Arts in San Francisco (MA, Visual & Critical Studies, 2007) was one of the more difficult times of my life. Iâd absorbed a lot of theoretical texts, and my thesis idea was still in a nascent state. One of our advisers warned us things would get real weird psychologically once we dove into our second year. She wasnât wrong. So it makes perfect sense to me that Emily Zimmerman was inspired by György Ligetiâs frenetic sounding and technically complicated piano Ă©tudes while organizing this exhibition of second-year MFA students. Godspeed and good luck to Granite Calimpong, Lucy Copper, Abigail Drapkin, Jackie Granger, Baorong Liang, Sean Lockwood, Brighton McCormick, Charles Stobbs III, Emily Charlotte Taibleson, and Connor Walden as they head into this next year. KATIE KURTZ
Opening Wednesday
WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY
ARTBellwether 2018
We keep writing about the mischievous, Stranger Genius Awardâwinning artist trio SuttonBeresCuller for a simple reason: Theyâre a lot of fun. Over the years, John Sutton, Ben Beres, and Zac Culler have caused stirs by floating around on an artificial island in Lake Washington and creating a joystick-controlled painting viewer module, among other installations and happenings. The trio has curated this yearâs annual Northwest arts festival in Bellevue, with exhibitions, installations, and events spreading from the epicenter of the museum to various areas around the city. Theyâll showcase rising Pacific Northwest sculptors in a special pop-up gallery, host performances, and no doubt highlight the creativity and architectural excitement to be found east of Lake Washington. JOULE ZELMAN
Closing Sunday
FEMAIL: AMPM (2.0)
FEMAIL, a fashion duo composed of Janelle Abbott and Camilla Carper, collaborate on garments by sending them back and forth through the United States Postal Service. By a process of âreactive collaboration,â Abbott and Carper create sentimental, extravagant, and quirky garments that are sometimes closer to soft sculpture than a traditional garment. This is FEMAILâs first museum exhibition, and itâs a stunner. CHASE BURNS
Closing Sunday
Jessica Rycheal and Zorn B. Taylor: Everyday Black
Jessica Rycheal is a portrait photographer whose work documents subjects drawn from Seattle's multigenerational activist community with a sensuous, effervescent joie de vivre. Also a portrait photographer, Zorn B.Taylor often spotlights the idea of intentionally chosen family, capturing his subjects with simultaneous attention toward the monumental and the quotidian. In this two-person exhibition, curated by C. Davida Ingram and Leilani Lewis, Rycheal and Taylor present a series of intimate, honest, and lovingly created photographs celebrating many prominent members of Seattle's black creative community. EMILY POTHAST
Closing Sunday
MUSE: Mickalene Thomas Photographs and tĂȘte-Ă -tĂȘte
Earlier this year, Mickalene Thomas's bright, brilliant portraits of black women in dazzling interior spaces graced the walls of Seattle Art Museum as part of Figuring History, a multigenerational group show that placed her in a lineage of monumental painters that also includes Robert Colescott and Kerry James Marshall. While most of Thomas's works begin with photographic sources, MUSE is the first exhibition devoted to considering her photographs as finished works in themselves. As the title suggests, this show revolves around the inspiring women who compose Thomas's community. Curated by Thomas, tĂȘte-Ă -tĂȘte is an accompanying exhibition of photographs by artists who further inspire her. EMILY POTHAST
Closing Sunday
Femme Fatale
Femme Fatale, Can Can's collaboration with local band Prom Queen, is a show dedicated to the enigmaticâand equally problematicâMata Hari, a woman who wasn't afraid to take her own path and create a story that was entirely hers, and on her own terms. Hari, who was a Dutch woman born with the name Margaretha Geertrudia Zelle, used a multitude of cultures to create her wildly popular personaâincluding a backstory as a Javanese princess who was taught the art of "sacred Indian dance" from birthâand was later met with critique over her use of Orientalist imagery to foster her popularity. Although inspired by Mata Hari, Can Can Dance Company absolutely sizzled as they broke away from Hari's appropriative legacy and instead brought down the house with their own blend of raunchy fun, seductive cheekiness, and downright hot chemistry. SOPHIA STEPHENS
Native Gardens
Though Latina playwright Karen ZacarĂas hails from Washington, DC, her well-received comedy Native Gardens sounds like the most Seattle shit ever. An impending barbecue party ignites a property-line dispute between two neighbors. One coupleâa Chilean lawyer named Pablo and his Ph.D.-candidate wife Taniaâlikes their garden overgrown with native plants. The other coupleâRepublicans Frank and Virginia Butleyâkeeps a prim English garden. As the two couples battle over how their gardens grow, a bunch of economic and racial tensions rise to the surface and boil over. Arlene MartĂnez-VĂĄzquez directs. RICH SMITH
THURSDAY
FOOD & DRINKAuthor Talk: Lyndsay Sung: Coco Cake Land
Lyndsay Sung's cookbook Coco Cake Island offers instructions for how to make adorable cakes, from blue bears to pink cats to buttercream rosettes. Tonight, she'll demonstrate decorating techniques, sign copies of her book, and answer all of your pressing cake-related questions.
The Adventure Zone
Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy will be back for the Adventure Zone podcast, a Dungeons & Dragons serial comedy quest.
MUGZ: A Drag Show
Americano will host this new themeless drag night where styles can be diverse and out-there. For the first iteration, expect jaw-dropping insanity from rapper Michete, The Stranger's own Uh Oh, Christian Brown, Britt Brutality, and Voodoo Nightshade.
Throwing Shade Live: There's No Place Like Condo Tour
Bryan Safi, Erin Gibson, and their guests invite you to a rollicking political and pop culture podcast, complete with "Singing! Dancing! Guests! Games! Clowns!"
TUSH!
Beacon Hillâs Clock-Out Lounge had a promising beginning. Co-owner Jodi Ecklund, former Chop Suey talent booker, launched the venue with a performance by Christeene, an Austin-based âdrag terroristâ who ate ass out onstageâor had her ass eaten out? I forget? I was drunk? Ass was definitely eaten! People loved it and hoped it was a sign that more rowdy, uncategorizable drag nights would follow. TUSH!âa new drag monthly led by Betty Wetter, Miss Texas 1988, Angel Baby Kill Kill Kill, and Beau Degasâis that sort of night. It's another reminder that the best drag in town doesn't just happen on Capitol Hill anymore. CHASE BURNS
Arjun Singh Sethi: American Hate
In American Hate: Survivors Speak Out, this activist/lawyer/Georgetown professor gathers stories of those who have been bullied, discriminated against, and physically hurt by racists, xenophobes, anti-queers, and other bigots in post-2016 America. As Reza Aslan writes, "Itâs one thing to talk about the sudden rise of hate in Trumpâs America. Itâs something else to read the stories of those whose lives have been affected by hate, and, in some cases, devastated by it."
University of Iowa International Writing Program Group Reading
Four writers from the University of Iowa's prestigious program, including Mongolian poet and translator Bayasgalan Batsuuri, Chinese poet, essayist, and mathematician Cai Tianxin, Romanian writer and prose writer Dan Coman, and Turkish poet and nonfiction writer Bejan Matur.
Jake Uitti
Join Stranger contributor and former Third Place Books employee Jake Uitti as he discusses what it's like to write books about your hometown (he published 100 Things To Do In Seattle Before You Die and Unique Eats and Eateries of Seattle this year). He'll also read passages and share interviews with local chefs like Renee Erickson, Josh Henderson, and Ezell Stephens.
Kai-Fu Lee: China, Silicon Valley, and the Dual Visions of AI
Hear about China's sudden surge in artificial intelligence research from the author of AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order at this Town Hall event. Kai-Fu Lee foresees a crisis for blue- and white-collar workers, with an even greater exacerbation of economic inequality. Eek.
Kevin Prufer and Megan Snyder-Camp
Four-time Pushcart Prize-winning poet Kevin Prufer (his most recent collection is How He Loved Them) also acts as editor-at-large for Pleiades: Literature in Context and curates the Unsung Masters Series, among other pursuits. Megan Snyder-Camp wrote The Gunnywolf, which won the 2016 Dorothy Brunsman Award, and has won many other laurels for previous works.
Lit Fix 23: Falling Forward
The local quarterly reading and music series Lit Fix will welcome the new season with a night of readings from former Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen, short fiction writer Kristiana Kahakauwila, novelist Urban Waite, and essayist Katie Lee Ellison, with music performances from Americana artists Leslie Braly and Ed Brooks.
Porter Fox: Northland
Porter Fox's Northland: A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America's Forgotten Border details his three years of traveling across the border between the United States and Canada. According to the publisher, "Fox follows explorer Samuel de Champlain's adventures across the Northeast; recounts the rise and fall of the timber, iron, and rail industries; crosses the Great Lakes on a freighter; tracks America's fur traders through the Boundary Waters; and traces the forty-ninth parallel from Minnesota to the Pacific Ocean."
South Asian Writers of the Pacific Northwest
Former Hugo House writer-in-residence Sonora Jha will host a reading with four Seattle-based South Asian writers: Jordan Alam, Sasha Duttchoudhury, Jasleena Grewal, and Shankar Narayan.
THURSDAY-SATURDAY
ARTGary Hill: Linguistic Spill ([un]contained)
Gary Hill's piece at last year's Out of Sight was tucked away in a dark corner of the basement, marked by a sign warning of flashing strobe lights. In the center of the room was a bench where viewers could sit and take in a slow-paced yet high-intensity experience that pushed the liminal boundaries of perception. Linguistic Spill ([un]contained) promises a similar audiovisual overload. "The immersive installation is not for the faint of heart," warns CoCA's promo text. Using electronic audio signals and a pile of video projectors, the artist aims to approximate pre-linguistic structures of perceptionâthe âspace where hieroglyphs are born.â EMILY POTHAST
Closing Saturday
SketchFest
The "world's original sketch comedy festival" brings together comedians from around the world for a week of funny skits and films. This week, check out Darrin Schultz, the Maple Daddies, and Mad Gravity, Day Job and Pure & Weary, SketchFest "Industry Night," Best of the Fest, and Doesn't Even Rhyme and D&D.
Jerome Robbins Festival
If you've ever lunged around your living room snapping your fingers like a Shark or a Jet, or if you've ever shimmied around like a rich man (ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum), then you've danced Jerome Robbins's choreography. This extra special festival celebrates his cinematic work as well as his lesser known stuff, including Circus Polka, with music by Igor Stravinsky; In the Night, with a Frederic Chopin score; Afternoon of a Faun, to Claude Debussy's classic; and three other dances. Robbins coached Pacific Northwest Ballet artistic director Peter Boal for years. It'll be exciting to see how the student interprets the work of the master. RICH SMITH
THURSDAY-SUNDAY
ARTAidan Fitzgerald: Content-Aware
On August 22, Cold Cube Press co-founder Aidan Fitzgerald staged a performance in which he sat in a folding chair, dressed in white from head to toe, and scrolled through his phone for eight continuous hours. This performanceâwhich was live-streamed on YouTubeâis one of Fitzgerald's meditations on the work of art in the age of digital content creation. In the 1930s, Walter Benjamin wondered if the work of art reproduced mechanically could retain any of the "aura" of the original. Today we might ask something different: If there was no one there to Instagram it, did the work ever exist in the first place? EMILY POTHAST
Closing Sunday
Louder in the dark
In tandem with the ambitious Becoming American, this member artist show highlights and responds to Aram Saroyanâs experimental poetry, written from 1964-72.
Closing Sunday
French Cinema Now
For one week, Seattle turns into a center for French and Francophone cinema culture, offering some of the best movies you'll see all year. The opening film, Return of the Hero, stars Jean Dujardin in a Napoleon-era comedy of errors. For those desiring grittier fare, Modi Barry and CĂ©dric Ido's ChĂąteau follows an ambitious street hustler in east Paris, while Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's A Season in France addresses the hard choices facing asylum-seekers. If you just crave some of that continental wit, try Place Publique or Just To Be Sure, but don't be afraid to get weird with When Margaux Meet Margaux or All You Can Eat Buddha. JOULE ZELMAN
Everything You Touch
The New York Times calls Sheila Callaghan's play Everything You Touch "volatile," "histrionic," "florid and highly flammable." In other words, it's perfect theatrical fodder for Washington Ensemble Theatre. The story, to the extent that there is a story, involves a depressed young woman named Jess and her possibly imaginary friend/lover/father/fashion-designer, Victor. Themes of body-image issues and alienation bind the whole thing together. You're going because Kiki Abba is one of the best comedic actors in town, and she's playing the lead role. Maggie Rogers directs. RICH SMITH
FRIDAY
ARTLusio Lights
Take in the rare tropical plant life of the Volunteer Park Conservatory surrounded by light installations by Lusio light artists at this after-hours fundraising events. Stop into the Bromeliad House bar to grab a drink to take with you while you wander, or head to the Seasonal House to dance among the ferns.
Comedy O'Clock: A Seattle Improv Zine Release
Welcome the second edition of the improv-centric zine Comedy O'Clock and enjoy performances by funny people who stay up late, plus other surprises.
The Nasty Body
Through comedy, dancing, and burlesque, comic hottie Claire Webber will use her ostomyâwhich she uses as a result of having her large intestine removedâas fodder for what it's like to have a body she deems "nasty."
Fish in the Percolator: The Return of the Twin Peaks Drag Show
Fish in the Percolator will play on Twin Peaks themes, characters, and novelties for a night of North Bendian drag. The Lynch-loving queens and kings of the evening will include Miss Texas 1988 as Nadine Hurley and Mr. Dr. Professor MD as Dr. Jacoby, plus RainbowGore Cake as Laura Palmer.
Hugo Literary Series: Jim Shepard, Cedar Sigo, Sabina Murray, and Anhayla
Hugo Literary Series will kick off a new season in the writing center's new home with an evening of music, poetry, and prose inspired by books. You'll hear from fiction writers Jim Shepard and Sabina Murray, PNW poet Cedar Sigo, and musician Anhayla, all riffing on the theme "Brave New World."
Jose Antonio Vargas: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
Pulitzer Prizeâwinning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas comes to Town Hall's Inside/Out series with his new memoir, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen. Vargas has been writing and speaking with authority on the plight and power of undocumented immigrants for several years now, and his work continues to be an invaluable resource for those who want this country to live up to its Dream. The memoir covers his own experience with immigration and detention, challenging our default understandings of âhome.â RICH SMITH
NPR's Joshua Johnson: How to Talk with America
Johnson is the host of 1A on NPR, a show that strives to cut through the noise and bring you the stories that really tell of our current moment in America. KUOW's brilliant Sydney Brownstone, formerly of The Stranger, will moderate a discussion with Johnson about reporting despite the outrage and contempt directed at journalists by certain political factions, considering such questions as "How does journalism shape our national identity? How does a reporter attempt civil conversation when outrage is commonplace? Should journalists fight back when being attacked as enemies of the people, and if so, can they remain objective?"
UW Bothell MFA Program Convergence Group Reading
Rebecca Brown, the Writer in Residence of UW Bothell's MFA in creative writing and poetics, will preside over readings by Dao Strom, Pimone Triplett, Srikanth Reddy, Terri Witek, Danielle Dutton, Stephen Dunn, Anida Yoeu Ali, and Natalie Singer.
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
PERFORMANCEThe Good Woman of Setzuan
Bertolt Brechtâs morality play about morality plays interrogates the paradox articulated most memorably in a 1979 smash hit by Nick Lowe: Do you really gotta be cruel to be kind? Brecht rolls the question up in the story of a sex worker named Shen Teh, who buys a tobacco shop with money sent from the gods as a gift for her generosity. But when things go south, she disguises herself as a man in order to save her shop. The gambit works for a timeâbut at what cost? Youâll likely leave this twisted parable cursing the interlocking problems of capitalism and the patriarchy. RICH SMITH
FRIDAY-SUNDAY
FILMTasveer South Asian Film Festival
This year, the 13-years-running, 10-day festival will focus on Pakistani film, with the theme of #KnowMe. Always relevant and on the artistic vanguard, Tasveer's biggest annual event does its best to dispel myths about South Asian countries.
PERFORMANCE
The Fall Kick-Off
Dance season is here, folks. During this kickoff weekend, Velocity recaps 2017/2018 and previews 2018/2019.
SATURDAY
ARTGail Grinnell and Samuel Wildman: from underneath
This will be the culmination of a September residency in which the two artists have recreated fake trees just like those constructed by Hollywood set designers to hide Renton's Boeing plant from spy planes in 1944. Unlike the Renton camouflage, Grinnell and Wildman mean their trees to be seen from below.
Infamous Kitsap Ferry Riot Party
On an October morning in 1987, I woke up to my mom yelling at my older brother and shaking the newspaper at him. âRock fans riot on ferryâ screamed the headline. To this day, I have no idea if Andy really was asleep in his friendâs car like he told our mom or was âriotingâ along with everyone else on their return trip to Seattle from a GBH show in Bremerton. While Iâd only ever thought of this as a bit of family lore, the event has gone down as a critical moment in Seattle music history. This all-ages event celebrates the 31st anniversary of that night with a film screening of David Larew's Voices in the Dark, a sneak peek of The Infamous Kitsap Ferry Riot film, and music by Howling Gods and Toecutter. KATIE KURTZ
Sue Danielson: Intangible Horizon
At first glance, Sue Danielsonâs dense surfaces seem like inscrutable masses of information. On closer examination, their logic reveals itself. The carving up of space appears to happen not only laterally over the surface, but vertically in a stacking through time. Curvilinear lattices and organic grids are superimposed, layer by layer, on patchwork dashes of aquatic tones. This division of space calls to mind the process by which industrialism and politics carve up parcels of land, build roads, and even change the course of rivers. As the cofounder of the Duwamish River Artist Residency, Danielson is a close observer of these forces at work in the real world, and it shows. EMILY POTHAST
Closing Sunday
The Gloomwhisper Emergence
Improv gets fearsome as the spiritualist investigators Neville and Millicent Gloomwhisper (played by morbid, talented Ian Schempp and Elicia Wickstead) share details of terrifying hauntings and possessions.
The Nightmare Society
The Nightmare Society tells the story of a commune of artists who act out your nightmares at the sound of a grandfather clock. Explore your deepest fears while intermittently giggling at the revival of this hit improvised horror show, which always comes up with bizarre and compelling imagery.
Farm-to-Table Dinner with Jonathan Sundstrom
With the opening of his lovely restaurant Lark in 2003, James Beard Awardânominated chef Jonathan Sundstrom was an early adopter of the farm-to-table concept, and his abiding affection for the Pacific Northwest shines through in every dish, with impeccably sourced ingredients from local farmers, artisans, and foragers. Itâs fitting, then, that he should be the one to prepare a super-local supper on the historic 818-acre Carnation Farms. At this dinner, guests will enjoy a meal in the farmâs organic garden and get a behind-the-scenes tour. JULIANNE BELL
Fresh Hop Ale Festival
Amazingly, Yakima Valley supplies more than 75 percent of the nationâs hop crop. During this time of year, local craft brewers avail themselves of the proximity and abundance of the hop harvest, making ales with hops processed no more than 24 hours after being harvested. The result? Brews with a milder, more botanical profile and less bitterness than is normally associated with hoppy beers. Because of the fragile nature of those little green, cone-shaped flowers, itâs hard to rival the range of fresh hop beers found in our region, and theyâre available for an extremely limited time. Yakimaâs Fresh Hop Ale Festival, which benefits Yakima Countyâbased arts and science organizations, provides a rare opportunity to taste a range of these hyper-seasonal, ephemeral beers in one place before theyâre gone. JULIANNE BELL
West End Girls: A Drag Extravaganza
Cookie Couture will host a night of unpredictable antics with Baby Guuurl, Fraya Love, Jessica Paradisco, LaSaveona Hunt, and Old Witch.
LĂ©onora Miano: Season of the Shadow
For the first time, Cameroonian Francophone novelist LĂ©onora Miano will visit Seattle. Hear a selection from her dreamlike yet brutal historical novel Season of the Shadow, about a village whose members are being abducted for the international slave trade. Season of the Shadow won the Prix FĂ©mina (a coveted French literary prize decided by an all-female jury) in 2013, and it's been translated by Gila Walker.
SUNDAY
COMEDYStoner Chicks: Ep. 1 Cannababes
Stoned and sober women comedians Phoebe Richards (often seen at ComedySportz), Kayla Teel (Jet City), indie talent Grace Penzell (PoopTooth and more), and Stephani Thompson (Jet City) will act out "bad hookups, good pizza, poor decisions and 420 laughs." Given the talents of the four ladies, you won't need intoxicants to LOL.
Black Owl Market - Harvest Moon
Shop from comix artists, indie publishers, ceramicists, soap purveyors, and tons of other local vendors. Then, hang out in a beer garden.
Grilled Cheese Grand Prix Pop-Up
Food trucks and booths will duke it out in a bread-and-cheese battle royale to produce the finest grilled cheese sandwich in Seattle.
Mary Gabriel: Five Women Who Changed Modern Art
Many art history books write important women in aesthetic movements completely out of historyâexcept maybe as muses and spouses. National Book Award finalist Mary Gabriel's Ninth Street Women helps remedy this failure with her story of Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler, all of whom held their own in the male-dominated realm of postwar abstract painting. She'll be joined in conversation with Julia Ricketts at this Town Hall event.
