Vietgone, Fantagraphics' 40th Anniversary Celebration, Homo For The Holidays, And More Critics' Picks
by Stranger Things To Do Staff
Our music critics have already chosen the 28 best concerts in Seattle this week, but now it's our arts critics' turn to pick the best events. Here are their picks in every genre—from Fantagraphics' 40th anniversary celebration to Homo for the Holidays 2016, and from the Seattle Human Rights Day Celebration to Tini Bigs' "Closing Time" 20th Anniversary Party. See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.
Get all this and more on the free Stranger Things To Do mobile app—available now on the App Store and Google Play. You can even save your favorite events and get reminders later.
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MONDAY
FILM
Next Dance Cinema 2016
Before Next Fest NW this weekend, see gems in dance cinema at this one-night-only event, presented by Velocity in partnership with Northwest Film Forum. The program, curated by Tonya Lockyer and Jacob Rosen, will feature different short films at the 7 and 8:30 pm sessions, including a feminist revolt (developed in conjunction with Washington Ensemble Theatre's production of Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. this fall) and Shared Space, which "explores the changing landscape (socially and physically) of Capitol Hill from the perspectives of artists of color, using volumetric data capture of dance and personal interviews." Most films will be from local artists, but a few will be inter/national, including Sketches of a Woman in Four Movements, filmed in four distinct sites in Turkey.
MONDAY-WEDNESDAY
COMEDY
Hari Kondabolu with Elicia Sanchez
“Hari Kondabolu,” says original riot grrrl musician Kathleen Hanna, “is punk as fuck.” And it makes perfect sense that Kondabolu’s new comedy album, Mainstream American Comic, was released on Olympia’s original punk record label Kill Rock Stars. Laugh till you cry at the live show, then take the album home so you can make other people cry, too. He'll perform with Elicia Sanchez, whom Lindy West called a "grumpy nugget of delight." KELLY O
TUESDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCE
A Christmas Carol
ACT Theatre's production of A Christmas Carol is a dependable, simple pleasure, with just enough variation to warrant returning year after year.
Disney's The Little Mermaid
5th Avenue Theatre's production of Disney's the Little Mermaid is like one giant fuck you to winter. And winter cometh.
The air is colder. Don't you just want to be under the water where everything's hotter? You do. But there's more than just seasonal utility here. The music by Alan Menken is great, and lyricist Howard Ashman was a genius who did not enjoy nearly enough time on this planet. Seattle’s own Diana Huey will surely charm as Ariel, and I have every faith that the 5th Avenue will come through with some underwater dazzle. Dazzle aside, in the consumerist glare of the holiday season, this show reminds us of the power of the human voice, promotes the joys of fostering an active imagination over the ease of passive consumption (c.f. snarfblatts), and advocates for meaningful connections to others who are not like you. Not bad for a family-friendly affair. RICH SMITH
The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G
Playwright Qui Nguyen takes nerd/comic culture, action movie hijinks, ninjas, and puppetry and genre-fucks them all into a goofy-funny but ultimately substantive story about resilience and revenge *ahem* redemption. The story is, as is so often the case, metatheatrical: Nguyen's main character pulls him into the action and forces him to write a story he's been putting off for years. The rap battle between David Henry Hwang (as a character) and the playwright (as a character) is not to be missed. This show is directed by former Washington Ensemble Theatre co-director Ali el-Gasseir, and it will run at the same time as Seattle Rep's production of Nguyen's Vietgone. GO SEE BOTH. RICH SMITH
Vietgone
So often we hear stories about the end of the American war in Vietnam that focus on the experiences of shell-shocked American soldiers returning to a country they don't quite understand anymore. But this ain't your typical play about the legacy of that war. Directed by May Adrales and produced in association with Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Qui Nguyen's geeky, formally adventurous, and energetic love story centers on the lives of two Vietnamese immigrants as they travel around the United States learning the language and navigating the complexities of refugee camps. Los Angeles Times theater critic Charles McNulty says the play won him over with its innovative use of music and language, but also "with its simple honesty." RICH SMITH
WEDNESDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Contagious Exchanges
This monthly reading series curated and hosted by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore features queer writers. This iteration features writer and translator Randa Jarrar and poet and writer Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home earned Piepzna-Samarasinha an American Library Association Stonewall Award and a finalist nod from Lambda. The poems are pretty straightforward lyrical performance pieces about the daily inequities, triumphs, and loves of a "queer disabled femme of color writer." In October, the independent but generally very good Saraband Books published Jarrar's collection of stories, Him, Me, Muhammad Ali, which uses humor and a fabulist touch to reveal the diversity and complexity of modern Arabic life. RICH SMITH
Frederick L. Brown: The City is More Than Human
Frederick Brown will read from The City is More Than Human: An Animal History of Seattle, an exploration of the way that animals—from pigs to dogs—have shaped Seattle. The book takes a broad view, explaining the way our city's former inhabitants traded livestock for pets, outlining the relationship between Euro-American and Native American residents, and examining the nature of the modern city.
Silent Reading Party
Invented by our own Christopher Frizzelle, the reading party is every first Wednesday of the month at 6 p.m. That's when the Fireside Room at the Sorrento Hotel goes quiet and fills with people with books tucked under their arms. (And, occasionally, a Kindle or two.) By 7 p.m., you often can't get a seat. And there's always free music from 6 to 8 pm. Lately the resident musician is pianist Paul Matthew Moore. He's amazing.
FILM
Queer Film Series: For My Wife
You don't have to be a Seattle local to remember the heartbreaking tragedy of December 2006, when floodwaters trapped Kate Fleming in the basement of her Madison Valley home. The news made national headlines when Harborview Medical Center initially refused to allow Fleming's partner, Charlene Strong, to see her before she died. This documentary, introduced in person by Strong on the 10th anniversary of the tragedy, recounts the activism that followed and her role in the passage of laws to recognize same-sex relationships. A Q&A will follow. MATT BAUME
FOOD & DRINK
Tini Bigs "Closing Time" 20th Anniversary Party
Today, Tini Bigs will have been open for just over 20 years. As one of Seattle’s few bars that’s open 365 days a year, that means they’ve sold booze every day for 7,311 consecutive days. To celebrate all the money they’ve made off Seattle livers along the way, they’re throwing a big party where it’s “50 percent off ALL food, wine, and spirits from 4 p.m. to the wee hours.” I had the chance to sit down with owner Keith Robbins for a drink recently, and of course I was like, “Everything? Are you sure?” Because that’s some crazy shit! He assured me, as he sipped his Yamazaki 18, that everything is really, actually 50 percent off. The bar at Tini Bigs is a wonderland of classy booze, and for one magical night, it’s all within reach! Even if you’ve still got $20,000 in student debt, you live in a $1,200-a-month closet, and get paid peanuts to be a social-media coordinator or something equally soul crushing, you can put on the one classy outfit you own and pretend you’re a moneyed connoisseur. It’s like Cinderella, but instead of a prince, you get whiskey. Although, if you get drunk and lose your shoe like Cinderella did, I’m fairly certain that Robbins will not drive around the city trying to find you and give you more whiskey. TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE
WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY
ART
Winter Gymnastics
Winter Gymnastics is a group show, a survey of works that pick up on the charms of a chill in the air, from Susanna Bluhm's large, thick, confectionary recent paintings of New York in snow to Doug Keyes's 2014 portrait of the artist Roni Horn as though she's seen through a block of ice, and stark-freezing photographs and paintings by Eirik Johnson, Mary Iverson, Robert C. Jones, Mark Thompson, Cable Griffith, Julie Blackmon, and Michael Kenna—plus works of historical photography by Marion Post Wolcott, Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, and Jacques-Henri Lartigue. This is the gallery's first show after moving from its longtime Pioneer Square location up north to Lower Queen Anne, where it now sits on the same block as the great theater On the Boards. It's always worth it to show up for G. Gibson, whether it is conveniently located for you or not. And this gallery, the also-indispensable literary-contemporary-art venue INCA, and On the Boards are forming a vital little cultural bloc on that corner. JEN GRAVES
This exhibit will have an opening reception on Thursday.
WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCE
Fucking A
Fucking A is an adaptation of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter by badass playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. Hester lives in a nightmarish Trumptopia in the middle of nowhere, and instead of "adulterer," her red letter stands for "abortionist." Despite the play's heaviness, there's plenty of humor in the dialogue, and the show is ultimately about the lovebond between mother and son. Malika Oyetimein, who was featured on City Art's 2016 "Future List," will direct. RICH SMITH
Gay Witch
This multidisciplinary arts showcase is focused on intersectional queer magic. They write: "Queers have always been witches. We are healers, spell casters, shape shifters and magicians. We pull our lives out of a hat. The world calls this a trick, a farce, a phony, a sparkling sleight of hand. We must know our lives are gloriously true and bravely our own. We must repeat this over and over under our breath, a spell for survival."
House of Dinah
Seattle director Andrew Russell and NYC playwright Jerome A. Parker present House of Dinah, a theatrical drag performance with music by Dinah Washington that follows the lives of five inter-generational black queens. This show—the Seattle premiere—exists in a place "where religious ritual meets drag performance and Dinah reigns supreme."
Krampus Christmas
Enjoy a cheery interactive Christmas horror show with bad Santa, creepy elves, and everybody's favorite Yuletide child-torturer, the Krampus. Explore a snowy wonderland populated with unexpected denizens.
THURSDAY
ART
Capitol Hill Art Walk
Once again, it's time to fill the streets of Capitol Hill with tipsy art lovers. Leading up to the art walk, we'll keep updating our Capitol Hill Art Walk calendar with events, like the unmissable Annual Art Primo Toy Art Show, a screening of Barry Johnson's Full Blown at HyBrid Space, and The Luminous Garden at Vermillion.
READINGS & TALKS
Peter Godfrey-Smith: Octopus Intelligence
Learn about cephalopod and octopus intelligence, communication, and biology with Peter Godfrey-Smith, author of Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. Humans may have more in common with those eight-legged weirdos than we'd like to think.
Rabih Alameddine
Painter and writer Rabih Alameddine (author of The Hakawati and An Unnecessary Woman, the latter of which made him a finalist for the National Book Award) will read from his latest work, The Angel of History.
Seattle Human Rights Day Celebration
Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and filmmaker. He's also an undocumented immigrant from the Philippines. Download his documentary, Documented, on iTunes and you'll hear several stories like his, stories that challenge preconceived notions about what undocumented immigrants do in this country, stories that show America--as ever--only serves to benefit from inclusive immigration policies. As part of this day's celebration of local human rights victories and an accounting of setbacks, Vargas will speak more broadly about his work as an immigrant rights activist. I don't have to tell you we need him now more than ever, but he also needs us to stand up and show support. Go. Learn. Maybe poke around for some free candy. Then act. RICH SMITH
THURSDAY-FRIDAY
FESTIVALS
Freakout Festival 2016
So apparently “festival season” is no longer a thing, because music festivals now relentlessly occur year-round, and when something trends so much that it happens every other weekend, it is now cemented in our permanent reality. With that being said, Freakout Festival is actually something you should want. It’s legitimately local and cheap (comparatively speaking), and it features sets by musicians of regional acclaim like punk-blooded ginger daddy Spencer Moody of the Murder City Devils, otherworldly string genius Erik Blood, god and goddess of metallic experimentation Zen Mother, and about 20 other cuties who just wanna get you up and moving around. December in this town is tough enough already, the current political climate notwithstanding, so go mix your fluids with friends and strangers alike, and remember why you engage with this music community in the first place. KIM SELLING
THURSDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCE
Dina Martina Christmas Show
You'd think the chubby-older-woman-with-a-hairy-back-and-no-talent-but-thinks-she's-God's-gift-to-singing shtick would get old, but it doesn't, because Grady West, who inhabits her horrible fashion choices, is a world-class artist, a first-rate writer, and a comedy genius. (He has a Stranger Genius Award.) There's something so enduringly brilliant about Dina's incurably bonkers self-empowerment, but also something grim and beastly about who she would be without it. I saw the Dina Martina Christmas Show with someone who hadn't seen a Dina show in a decade, and she couldn't believe how much funnier it was than she remembered. CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE
George Balanchine's The Nutcracker
Last year Pacific Northwest Ballet replaced Maurice Sendak's beloved pastel set with a brighter one by Ian Falconer, author of the Olivia the Pig children's book series and longtime set designer. The symmetry of Falconer's Nutcracker set would be obscene if it weren't for thick cartoonish lines and Dr. Seuss–like stage elements. It's hard not to see Wes Anderson's influence, but Falconer leaves his own distinctive marks all over the place. If you haven't seen this Christmas classic since you were a kid, you might give it a go this year. It is a deeply weird thing to see. I mean, the ballet goes into this little girl's dream, wherein there's a war with a many-headed rat king who ends up dying dramatically after the girl throws her handkerchief at him. But what's fucked up is that a nutcracker steals one of the rat king's crowns and then places it on the girl's head, which transforms her into a bunch of adult snowflake ballerinas with crowns on! And THEN it turns out that the nutcracker transforms into her childhood crush! The two walk hand-in-hand toward a giant exploding star, which ends up being a portal into a 45-minute Katy Perry video filled with dancing desserts and a glittery peacock that moves like a sexy broken river. Maybe bring a pot lozenge? RICH SMITH
Homo for the Holidays 2016
This drag and burlesque gigglefest features a bunch of wacky little holiday-themed skits that our own Dan Savage once called "FUCKING GREAT....FUCKING HILARIOUS!" Now in its ninth year, Homo For The Holidays is joined by Waxie Moon, with the likes and liknessess of the great BenDeLaCreme and Cherdonna. You should get plastered before you go, if only to help make your yuletide gayer. RICH SMITH
Peter and the Starcatcher
Peter and the Starcatcher is a Tony Award-winning play about Peter Pan's backstory—written by Rick Elice, with music by Wayne Barker, and based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.
FRIDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Ari Banias, Bill Carty, & Stacey Tran
I can't recommend Ari Banias's collection of poetry, Anybody, highly enough. On the surface the poems are conversational and friendly, but then three quarters of the way through Banias stabs you through the heart and walks away, which is evidence that they'd been carefully laying little linguistic traps for you the whole time. Topics include deep meditations on the gender spectrum, the primacy of pockets, whiteness, and having a lot of plastic bags around the house. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll buy the goddamn book--especially if you love Frank O'Hara. Seattle's very own Bill Carty (Refugium), and Portland's very own Stacey Tran (Fake Haiku) will read from their recent work, too. You can't go wrong going to this. RS
Dianne Kornberg: Madonna Comix
Elliott Bay Book Company and Prographica Gallery present this evening with artist Dianne Kornberg, co-author (with poet Celia Bland) of Madonna Comix, a book that blends text with visual art.
Fantagraphics 40th Anniversary Panel
Learn about the history of Fantagraphics at this panel featuring founder Gary Groth and rock-star cartoonists Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets), Gilbert Hernandez a.k.a. Beto, Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist Carol Tyler, Peter Bagge (Hate and Neat Stuff), Stranger Genius Jim Woodring, and Ellen Forney (known for, among many other accomplishments, graphic novel Marbles and her Shtickers emojis).
Quenton Baker: This Glittering Republic
Poet and educator and 2016 Made at Hugo House Fellow Quenton Baker will read from his debut full-length, This Glittering Republic. I'm confident that there's some irony in that title. Baker's poems focus on Blackness in America. He often employs a series of arresting images that link contemporary violence against black people with America's history of slavery. During readings, his deep, hypnotic voice drives home the power in each line, even when those lines sometimes leap into abstraction. If you haven't already, check out the poem "negroes exist / for the throwing," which was published in the James Franco Review. That poem will floor you. Be sure to pick yourself up in time to attend this launch. RICH SMITH
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
PERFORMANCE
Constellation
Cyrus Khambatta's company performs wintry dances inspired by global ideas: "Korean folktales, the earth’s rotation amongst celestial bodies, and the impact humans have on one another." For $30 total, dance enthusiasts can see a double bill: the troupe is also collaborating with Sergei Burlak Modern Line Dance Theater Company from Komsomolsk-on-Amur.
COMEDY
Louis C.K.
Sometimes I get a little tired of Louis C.K.'s pragmatic, mopey dad takes on American culture, but his comic genius is undeniable and his aim is true. Everything from his wildly successful stand-up performances to his web series to his I-don't-have-to-tell-you-how-good-it-is TV show, Louie, is all about how difficult and humiliating it is to be a good person and parent in a fucked up world. That's a truth worth remembering in this time of incessant moralizing. In the press materials, Louise promises to keep the ticket prices low (average $50), so you can likely afford to laugh.RICH SMITH
Louis C.K. will also perform at the Paramount tomorrow.
FRIDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCE
Next Fest NW: pastFORWARD
See the newest and freshest ideas in contemporary dance at this performance that will feature new work from Ethan Folk + Ty Wardwell, Syniva Whitney (Gender Tender), Quinn Hallenback, Sabina Moe, Alisa Popova, and Hayley Shannon.
SATURDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Celebration of Maged Zaher's Opting Out: Collected Poems
Maged Zaher will read from his Seattle-published new collection Opting Out: Early, New & Collected Poems (2000-2015). Zaher, an Egyptian-born poet now making his home in Seattle, has authored previous collections like The Consequences of My Body, which our Rich Smith favorably reviewed earlier this year. For Smith, Zaher is a "reluctant romantic" whose "awareness of the pitfalls of writing romantic poetry in a capitalist society with all of its attendant -isms allows him to refresh the whole mode." Join the poet for light refreshments and literary celebration.
Conjuring: An Evening of Poetry & Performance on Nature, Justice, and Magic
Poet JM Miller will celebrate the release of their debut collection Wilderness Lessons (described as "a love letter to the planet that explores human violences") with this event that will explore "how nature, social justice, and magic conjure the human spirit for a night of poetry, experimental writing, and performance." Featuring Samar Abulhassan, Natasha Marin, Cody Pharigo, Anastacia Renee Tolbert, Jane Wong, and Lena Khallaf Tuffaha.
ART
Curator Talk with Luis Croquer
Luis Croquer (The Henry's Deputy Director of Exhibitions, Collection, and Programs) will speak about provocative American artist Paul McCarthy’s work and his exhibition White Snow Wood Sculptures with special guests and local artists James Coupe, Mary Ann Peters, and Dan Webb. The talk will center on the topic of "the work’s engagement with digital media, organic abstraction, social and cultural issues, and production technologies."
Georgetown Art Attack
Once a month, the art that resides in the tiny airport hamlet of Georgetown ATTACKS all passersby. In more literal terms, it's the day of art openings and street wonderment.
Seeing Art: A Multidisciplinary, Critical Discourse on Twenty-First-Century Art Practice
Learn about the ways that artists engage with the larger world around them at this panel featuring Sharon Arnold (founder and curator of Bridge Productions), Michelle Dunn Marsh (Executive Director of Photographic Center Northwest) and artist Rafael Soldi, who recently had a moving show at Glassbox Gallery about the disappearance of his partner.
The Sylvan Series: Illum
FnS (aka Mollie Bryan, who opened her own gallery/event space Mokedo in October), helms the Sylvan Series of light and sound art celebrations, which helps to lift spirits during Seattle’s dreariest months in the Volunteer Park Conservatory. For this “Illum” edition (short for “illumination”), she’s enlisted Orqid (veteran Seattle techno producer Tom Butcher), who’s recorded two albums for Germany’s revered Force Inc. as Codebase and is also co-owner of the synthesizer/electronic-music gear startup Patchwerks. He just issued an outstanding 7-inch single, Ideology, on his Disco Couture label. “Ideology I” proffers a boudoir-bound synth ballad somewhere between Depeche Mode and Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight,” but the two B-side tracks delve into headier realms. “Ideology II” is an eerie, ominous trawl through Zed’s Visions of Dune territory while “Ideology III” musters the purest celestial drone this side of Spiritualized’s Pure Phase Tones for D.J.s. For “Illum,” Orqid will play a hybrid live/DJ set. DAVE SEGAL
We Told You So: Comics as Art Release Party
This party will celebrate 10 years of Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery with the release of oral-story We Told You So: Comics as Art, an art exhibition of Fantagraphics memorabilia, and book signings with special guests. After the event, the celebration will continue at the Fantagraphics 40th Anniversary Party, which promises music, food, and refreshments at the Georgetown Stables.
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
ART
The Bureau of Arts & Culture
King Street Station will host 21 art proposals "designed to trigger a new enthusiasm for the direction of our city and how art can play a vital role in our future... tackling issues such as homelessness, gun violence, urban growth, cultural tourism, arts education, and human trafficking." Part of the show is the Give Gallery, where if you donate blood between November 28 and December 16 through Bloodworks, you can take home, free, a work of art by a local artist from the gallery, including Jeffry Mitchell, Crystal Barbre, Charles Peterson, June Sekiguchi, Warren Dykeman, and Amanda Manitach.JEN GRAVES
PERFORMANCE
Mimosas Cabaret: A Boob Job for Christmas
This boozy brunch theater experience, hosted by Isabella Extynn and local drag legend Mama Tits, promises an "over-the-top raucous" holiday spectacular with a breakfast buffet, brunch menu, a full bar, Jell-O shots, and of course, plenty of drag queens. The show will star Tipsy Rose Lee, Ruby Bouche, Sparkle Leigh/Dan Davidson, and Abbey Roads, performing choreography created by Tipsy Rose Lee.
SUNDAY
PERFORMANCE
Savage in Limbo
Five 32-year-olds, including a virgin, a broken couple, a failed nun, and an obsessive barkeep, hope to change their lives in this staged reading of the tragicomedy by John Patrick Shanley. Get all this and more on the free Stranger Things To Do mobile app—available now on the App Store and Google Play. You can even save your favorite events and get reminders later.