Dean Strang and Jerry Buting, The Washington Brewers Festival, The Seattle International Dance Festival, And More Arts Picks For June 13-19
by Stranger Things To Do Staff
Our music critics have already recommended the 26 best concerts in Seattle this week, but now it's our arts critics' turn: Here are their top picks for things to do in Seattle this week, from the Washington Brewers Festival to The Minstrel Show Revisited, and from Seattle Women's Pride to the week of Young Blood at the Frye. See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.
Want this in your inbox? Sign up for the Stranger Things To Do newsletter.
MONDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Jay Newton-Small: Leveraging Female Political Power
TIME political correspondent Jay Newton-Small will speak about the power of women in government—from their roles in Washington to the most effective ways to use their voting power—at this talk that's perfectly timed for the 100th anniversary of the election of the first woman to Congress.
Jonathan Evison
Evison reads from This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!, about a 78-year-old widow who decides to go on an Alaskan cruise her late husband booked before his death.
ART
Pat DeCaro: Foreign Shores
We talk about immersive art. Virtual reality. Art you physically enter and allow it to take over. Seattle artist Pat DeCaro's installation Foreign Shores takes over the controls of your body and mind in the old-fashioned way. Like a novelist, she presents a keyhole, and you slip through before you know it, propelled by desire. JEN GRAVES(Through Friday)
FOOD & DRINK
Rooftop Dinner Series 2016
Enjoy the warm summer weather (and clear views of mountains and the sound) at Bastille's twice-weekly rooftop dinner series. The groups are small—under 10 guests—and the food is super local, often harvested directly from the rooftop garden. (Through Tuesday)
Yalla Pop-Up
Chef Taylor Cheney has an impressive résumé, having worked in the kitchens at MistralKitchen and the Harvest Vine (as well as the dearly departed La Bete, Licorous, and Lampreia). More importantly, she’s also spent significant amounts of time in Egypt, studying and immersing herself in the country’s cuisine. On Mondays, Cheney is taking over Capitol Hill’s Marjorie with Yalla (it means “Let’s go!” in Arabic), her Middle Eastern pop-up featuring dishes such as mutabal (charred eggplant with yogurt, tahini, and pomegranate), tabbouleh, maftoul (braised chicken with chickpea stew and couscous), and even a Moroccan mint tea julep. ANGELA GARBES
THEATER
9 Circles
Strawberry Theatre Workshop presents 9 Circles, a play by Bill Cain and directed by Greg Carter, that likens the civilian trial of Steven Dale Green to the descent through Dante's nine circles of hell. (Also Thurs-Sat)
COMEDY
Collide-o-Scope
Created and hosted by Michael Anderson and Shane Wahlund, Collide-O-Scope is the cavalcade of curated video delights that takes over Re-bar twice a month. The show keeps getting better, with thematic suites, hallucinatory repetition, and inspired guests. Perennial bonuses: free popcorn and Red Vines, and multiple prizes waiting to be won via drawings throughout the show. Tonight's theme is "You won't believe what happens next," so go be incredulous.
TUESDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Lydia Millett with Stacey Levine
Lydia Millett will read from The Sweet Lamb of Heaven, her new thriller novel about a woman taking her six-year-old daughter and escaping from her unfaithful husband, in a conversation with novelist Stacey Levine.
Paul Pierson
Pierson, who is a professor of political science and holder of the Avice Saint Chair of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, will read from and sign copies of American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper, a book that he co-wrote with Yale political scientist Jacob S. Hacker.
COMEDY
Comedy Nest Open Mic
The rules of this pro-lady stand-up night are refreshing in their simplicity: no misogyny, racism, homophobia, hatred, or heckling. Based on the size, quality, and diversity of the crowds it attracts, the rules work. Tonight's show features local comedian Kamryn Minch.
THEATER
The Mystery of Love & Sex
From Bathsheba Doran (of Boardwalk Empire and Masters of Sex fame) comes this story of two parallel relationships happening across generations. Charlotte's relationship with her childhood best friend Johnny may be turning romantic while her parents' marriage begins to fall apart. (Through Sun)
Paint Your Wagon
Lerner and Loewe's Paint Your Wagon is musical about a bunch of lovelorn, lonely, and gold-lusting '49ers getting into scrapes on their way out West. There's a lot of grab-your-hoe-and-off-we-go sing-a-longs, which are enlivening, but I have a soft spot for "I Was Born Under a Wand'ring Star," which kind of sounds like the Oompa Loompa theme but written and sung by Leonard Cohen. For the show, the 5th Ave. Theatre commissioned Jon Marans to freshen up the book, which should speed up the story. RICH SMITH (Through Sun)
ART
Young Blood
My god, I haven't seen a show this good—this vital, appealing, meaningful—in Seattle in a long time. The Frye's exhibition of films and paintings by Kahlil Joseph and his brother Noah Davis is a display of strong connections between two brilliant artists accomplished in very different worlds and mediums. It's also a tale of famous, sought-after artists who've held their own in the big time, consistently making original, relevant, and powerful art. JEN GRAVES (Closes Sunday)
WEDNESDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Chardonnay Showdown
Taste unoaked, lightly oaked, and classic Chards at this rooftop patio tasting at the new Premiere on Pine.
READINGS & TALKS
Mary Roach
Mary Roach has written about corpses (her description of severed heads sitting in dog bowls awaiting the steady hands of plastic surgeons will never leave me), shitting in space (look up "fecal decapitation"), orgasms (check out that TED Talk for info on recipes for semen and ancient greek orgasm theory), and she does it all with a clear eye and a dry humor. In her latest monosyllabic book of fish-out-of-water pop-sci, called Grunt, Roach turns her attention to the lives of US soldiers. Some of the questions she'll answer, according to press materials: why are zippers dangerous for snipers? how do troops nurse nukes? and what are the benefits of caffeinated meat? RICH SMITH
PERFORMANCE
Stick Fly
Intiman Theatre Festival is kicking off its 2016 season, which will focus on U.S. plays written by black women, with Lydia R. Diamond's Stick Fly, a dramedy about an affluent black family living on Martha's Vineyard. Family ties begin to loosen when the sons bring their partners home to meet the fam. The two women—one a white Peace Corps volunteer who taught underprivileged children in the city; the other a black woman who grew up in a wealthy home—argue about the complexities of class, race, and unearned advantages. Over the course of all the butting-of-heads, promises are broken, confessions are made, and family secrets air out. Veteran Shakespearean actor G. Valmont Thomas plays the dad in this, and he's all the reason I need to see this. RICH SMITH (Through Sunday)
THURSDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Happy Hour Food Walk
Every third Thursday, participating restaurants in the Chinatown-International District will have $2, $4, or $6 bites.
Guest Chef Night with Jake Wilson of Ballard Annex Oyster House
FareStart is a fantastic organization that empowers disadvantaged and homeless men and women by training them for work in the restaurant industry. Every Thursday, they host a Guest Chef Night, featuring a three-course dinner from a notable Seattle chef for just $29.95. This week FareStart welcomes Chef Jake Wilson of Ballard Annex Oyster House.
PERFORMANCE
The Minstrel Show Revisited
"Originally, minstrel shows were white men in blackface pretending to be black people. Then they became black people in blackface pretending to be white people being black people" says Donald Byrd, artistic director of Spectrum Dance Theater, in an interview with NYU's Black Student Union. He goes on to describe the story of Yusef Hawkins, a 16-year-old black kid who was attacked and killed by a mob of white people in Brooklyn because they thought he was dating a girl from the neighborhood. (He was there to buy a car.) News of this murder shook Byrd, and, he says, served as a "wake-up call" for him. He realized the civil rights movment of the 1960s hadn't resolved several racial issues. This event led him to create The Minstrel Show in 1991, which goes three or four dreams down into the work of representation and stereotypes... Byrd claims the show will make you cringe. It will make you laugh. It will make you angry. It will make you cry. It will exhaust you. I believe him. RICH SMITH (Through Sunday)
READINGS & TALKS
History Café: World Refugee Day—Stories from Western Washington
This celebration of United Nations' World Refugee Day will feature a conversation with community members and activists about Seattle's refugee communities, the world history events from which people sought refuge, and their experiences after arriving in Western Washington.
Robert Millis: Indian Talking Machine
Sound artist and researcher Robert Millis will speak about Indian Talking Machine, his book about Indian classical music and the gramophone industry. His presentation will include several short films, and will touch on the first recordings ever made on the subcontinent (including old 78 rpm shellac records) and musicians from the 1890s–1950s.
Terry Tempest Williams: Celebrating America’s National Parks
Terry Tempest speaks about her new book, The Hour of Land, about the park system’s history and potential future, in advance of the National Park Service's 100th birthday this year, on August 25.
Tracy Barone with Maria Semple
Hollywood producer and screenwriter Tracy Barone, who brought us a handful of Will Smith vehicles—Ali; Wild, Wild, West; and Men in Black—took a long break from the silver screen and started working on a novel, which eventually became Happy Family. The book's a late-in-life coming-of-age comedy about a cop-turned-academic named Cheri, who discovers a bunch of secrets about her adopted parents as she considers adopting a child of her own. Sounds very hyphenated, but hyphenated can be funny! And I trust anyone who had the foresight to see greatness in Men in Black, which is secretly a very sad and funny blockbuster. Plus, Barone is going to read with Maria Semple. Christopher Frizzelle called Semple's book, Where'd You Go, Bernadette, "the funniest book ever written about Seattle," so it'll be worth it to hear the new stuff if she has any. RICH SMITH
Transforming Oregon’s Politics
Northwest author and journalist Floyd McKay, whose book Reporting the Oregon Story: How Activists and Visionaries Transformed a State was released in April, will discuss how the state of Oregon went from a "sleepy political backwater" to a leader in environmental politics. In this discussion with fellow former journalist Bob Royer, McKay will also discuss the similarities between Washington and Oregon environmental politics.
ART
A Space of One's Own: A Conversation on Affordable Housing and Work Space for Artists
In conjunction with Keller Easterling's Gift City, Henry Art Gallery will host a panel of guests for a discussion of affordable artist housing in the midst of Seattle's drastic economic and physical changes.
FRIDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Washington Brewers Festival
Admission to the 11th annual Washington Brewers Festival includes eight tasting tokens and a souvenir glass; once inside, you can sample more than 400 beers from 105 breweries, taste wine and cider, listen to live music, and purchase food from a variety of food trucks.
Le Gourmand June Cooking Class
Bruce Naftaly will teach this three-hour cooking class, where you'll work with seasonal ingredients including strawberries, roses, Montmorency cherries, gooseberries, cèpes, plum cots, mulberries, and pink singing scallops. (Through Sunday)
READINGS & TALKS
Making a Murderer's Dean Strang & Jerry Buting: A Conversation on Justice
Public defenders extraordinaire and dad-fashion icons Dean Strang and Jerry Buting made a permanent home in the nation's hearts when they defended Steven Avery from the prosecutorial sleaziness of Ken Kratz in Netflix's hit true-crime show Making a Murderer. A bunch of hot takes published after the show got popular claimed that the people who produced the documentary cherry-picked facts that made Avery seem less guilty than he was portrayed in the doc, but the flames of a million hot takes couldn't burn away the power of clear-eyed, reason-driven, and refreshingly skeptical Buting and Strang. The two lawyers will speak at the Paramount about the current state of the criminal-justice system. Hopefully they will tell us there are more people like them in the world of public defense. RICH SMITH
Alexis Smith
Portland novelist Alexis Smith will read from Marrow Island, a futuristic novel that explores the precarious environmental situation of the Pacific Northwest.
An Evening of Generative Poetry and Art
Expect readings and presentations from intermedia artists Amaranth Borsuk (author of poetry book Pomegranate Eater), micha cárdenas (an artist, theorist, and Assistant Professor of Interactive Media Design at the University of Washington Bothell), Ian Hatcher (a text/sound/code artist, author, and developer of the poetry app Abra), Lisa Ma (who frequently speaks at technology, science, and policy conferences and who has worked with TED Global), and Lisa Samuels (the author of 13 books of poetry and prose and visiting scholar at the Simpson Center for the Humanities).
Seattle StorySLAM
A live amateur storytelling competition much like The Moth, in which audience members who put their names in a hat are randomly chosen to tell stories on a theme (this week, it's "fathers").
PERFORMANCE
NW New Works Festival 2016
Mandatory. NW New Works gives you a snapshot of all the performance/theater/dance you're going to be talking about a year from now. Some stuff is in-progress. Some stuff is close to done. Some stuff is the best. Some stuff is ???. But part of the joy is figuring out which performance has the most potential to become the next mind-melting, genre-altering thing that will emerge from this region and conquer the rest of the country. RICH SMITH (Through Sunday)
Seattle International Dance Festival
During this 16-day "explosion of dance," local, national, and international dancers will perform in indoor and outdoor spaces around South Lake Union. The festival includes the Inter|National Series, which connects (as the name suggests) international dance artists and companies with regional audiences and performers, and the Spotlight Series, a group of three performances with different foci on Seattle dance: contemporary ballet, specific artists' perspectives, and contemporary dance. (Through June 25)
QUEER
Re: Imagining Possibilities
The 2016 Out & Equal NW Regional Summit will bring together hundreds of LGBT professionals and allies for workshops and talks about workplace diversity and inclusion.
Capital City Pride
Before Seattle's Pride Parade next weekend, celebrate Pride the Olympia way, with an all-ages street party on Friday, a festival in Heritage Park on Saturday, and a parade down Capital Way on Sunday. (Through Sunday)
SATURDAY
FESTIVALS
Block Party at The Station
Block Party at The Station is a relatively new concept at a long-beloved Beacon Hill joint that deserves much credit for standing strong as a fount of creativity, neighborhood involvement, and damn good coffee. This festival focuses on showcasing hiphop and art that may have been missed by larger, more corporate events (or perhaps other block parties). This year, featured artists and musicians include Stasia Mehschel (of recently defunct THEESatisfaction), JusMoni, Draze, Donormaal, Otieno Terry, Rogue Pinay, and many more, with local legends Nikkita Oliver, Brett Hamil, and Kirby Teuila Grey as hosts.
FOOD & DRINK
Urban Ag Bike Tour
Anyone who eats at Southeast Seattle’s many Vietnamese and East African restaurants knows that it’s one of the most diverse areas of the city. Unfortunately, it’s also an area that has high rates of poverty, food insecurity, diabetes, and asthma, as well as lower rates of physical activity. To counteract these health issues but also celebrate their communities’ commitment to providing good food for residents, two great organizations, the Rainier Valley Food Bank and Columbia City’s Bike Works, are teaming up to host three family-friendly bike tours of some of Southeast Seattle’s local food havens, open to bicyclists of all levels. The first one takes participants on a leisurely, five-ish mile journey with stops at the Food Bank, the Judkins P-Patch, Bradner Orchard, and the Seattle Community Farm. Afterward, you’ll sit down to a meal made from produce grown along your route. The whole thing is, miraculously, free. ANGELA GARBES
QUEER
Seattle Women's Pride 2016 with Comedian Dana Goldberg
It is a truth universally acknowledged that when June rolls around, you must look to your nearest lady-friend for event planning, because nobody's more organized and proactive about Pride than lesbians. This year, they're kicking off Seattle Pride season a whole week early, with a party at Q Nightclub. Celebrated comedian Dana Goldberg, voted one of the "Top Five Funniest Lesbians in America" by Curve magazine, will be there, as will the fabulous Lesbians Who Tech with a special lounge. VIP tickets are super reasonable and get you a meet and greet, a swag bag, and priority entrance like you're the most important lesbian in Seattle, which you very well may be. MATT BAUME
Bacon Strip: The Story of Gay Pride
Every month at Bacon Strip, hostess Sylvia O’Stayformore brings us comedy, costumes, outrageousness, and drag performances featuring local acts and special guests. Come for the smoked pig products—stay for the men with penises tucked between their butt cheeks. This time, Sylvia will tell the story of drag queens and Gay Pride throughout the years. MATT BAUME
Mimosas with Mama
Mama Tits's show, "30 Minute-ish Chicago," features all your favorite songs from the Broadway show plus some elaborate quick-change drag-queen magic. But that's not all. The musical is just the culmination of the experience: The first half of the two-ish hour experience is a delightful drag cabaret/brunch buffet, with singing, dancing, comedy, and more naughty entendres than you can shake a stick at. And, by popular demand, they've extended it one extra week—so don't miss your chance to see this. MATT BAUME (Through Sunday)
ART
Young Blood Gallery Talk
Young Blood's guest curator Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes will speak about the exhibit. If you haven't seen it yet, do so—today and tomorrow are your last opportunities.
A Touch of Light
Seattle-based arts organization A Touch of Light curates the artwork of prisoners from around the country and the world, in an effort to promote social change and give prisoners a second chance. The first Captive Art gallery show opens today, and will feature work from Pacific Northwest artists in the new A/NT Gallery space in the International Fountain Pavilion. (Through July 31)
READINGS & TALKS
American Red Cross presents Refugees on the Rise: An International Crisis
Learn about refugee communities at this storytelling event presented by the American Red Cross, Muslim Community Resource Center, and Refugee Women’s Alliance, and emceed by KUOW's Liz Jones. After the event, there will be a reception with local support agencies.
SUNDAY
FOOD & DRINK
FEAST BBQ
Rachel Yang's restaurant Trove—which combines a noodle bar, ice cream truck, beer-focused bar, and Korean tabletop-barbecue joint into one massive, high-energy space—hosts this quarterly, meat-centric, family-style feast.
Sunday Supper: Father's Day Edition
A family-style Father's Day dinner with wedge salad, pot roast with mashed potatoes and asparagus, and ice cream sundaes.
COMEDY
The Dude Bra Tour
Music and comedy with comedian Kate Willet (comedy club expert and Comedy Central TV star) and "musical muse of the sex-positive revolution" Rachel Lark, who has been featured on Savage Lovecast. Local favorite Elicia Sanchez will join in on the fun for an awesome, musical night of hilarity.
QUEER
Stiffed! Pride Kick-Off Tea Dance featuring Lady Miss Kier
Stiffed! moves from its traditional Saturday time slot to a special Sunday afternoon tea party event for the Seattle Pride Kick-Off event, with Lady Miss Kier of Dee-Lite strutting her stuff, DJs Dana Dub and Pavone on the disco spins, and $1 draft beers.
READINGS & TALKS
Sherman Alexie
On Father's Day, Stranger Genius Sherman Alexie will read from his new children's book Thunder Boy Jr., the idea for which, as he recently told Trevor Noah on The Daily Show, came about during his father's funeral in 2003.
Juneteenth: Contemporary Slavery in the US
On Juneteenth (the celebration of the day African Americans learned of their emancipation) the Northwest African American Museum will present a panel discussion where local non-profit leaders and political activists will discuss modern-day slavery in the United States: forced labor and sex trafficking. KUOW's Jamala Henderson will host, and guests include Priya Rai of API Chaya, Robert Beiser from Seattle Against Slavery, and Emi Koyama.