Our music critics have already chosen the 39 best concerts this week, but now it's our arts critics' turn. Here are their picks for the best events in every genreâfrom a talk about cyberwarfare and Russia to the newest iteration of Ian Bell's Brown Derby Series, and from the "brunchy booze fest" Bacon, Eggs & Kegs to a RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars viewing party with Mama Tits. See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.
Jump to: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday
MONDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Sarah Jaffe
Sarah Jaffe has covered labor issues for some time now, and recently she's written about Kshama Sawant, Fight for $15, and protest movements for the Nation in addition to her duties as host of Dissent magazine's Belabored podcast. Her new book, Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt, picks up on her coverage of nascent US activist movements, including Occupy, Black Lives Matter, and the Tea Party, and tells us how they've been so good at grabbing the spotlight and getting things done. RICH SMITH
Bard in a Bar: The Comedy of Errors
Shakespeare would no doubt approve of Bard in a Bar: rowdy, crowdsourced, and boozy presentations of his plays. This time, watch a raucous performance of The Comedy of Errors.
FOOD & DRINK
Bendy Brewski Yoga
In a gallery lined with gold frames, the Frye Art Museum hosts a series of âNoise Yogaâ classes, which caters to lovers of yoga, art, and experimental music. But what about all the craft beerâloving yogis and yoginis of Seattle? Where can they go? Now they can go to âBendy Brewskiâ classes at Naked City: 45 minutes of yoga (open to all levels, with mats available to borrow) followed by a pint of beer. It seems inevitable that someone would finally find a way to combine two of the cityâs favorite activities. Namaste and cheers. ANGELA GARBES
There will also be a class on Sunday at Pyramid Brewing Company.
MONDAY-SATURDAY
THEATER
Do It for Umma
Written by Seayoung Yim and directed by Sara Porkalob, Do It For Umma deals with themes of immigration and inheritance, investigation into family secrets, and revenge.
There will be no shows on Tuesday or Wednesday.
MONDAY-SUNDAY
ART
Graphic Masters
This is your last week to be spellbound. You will enter Seattle Art Museum and go up to the fourth floor. There, you will meet the 18th-century Spanish conjurer Francisco de Goya in the form of an entire early set of his print series Los caprichos, in which unspeakable things happen beautifully in every panel... Los caprichos is the heart of Graphic Masters, the summer exhibition at Seattle Art Museum that's about to close. Pick up a microscope at the entrance. You'll want to get close to these crawling lines on paper before the retire again to hibernate in storage. JEN GRAVES
SAM is closed on Tuesday.
TUESDAY
FILM
Magic Society presents: Super Duper Video!
This strange and psychedelic evening of art, hosted by Buddy & Friday Hangs, promises live puppetry, selections from puppet TV and films, music, special guests, a Skype Q&A with Sid Krofft, and even some prizes.
TUESDAY-SATURDAY
ART
BOOM: Changing Seattle
This exhibit is a tributeâto "places lost, preserved and desired during moments of rapid development and growth in Seattle," featuring stellar local artists and groups including C Davida Ingram, Seattle in Progress, No Touching Ground, Rodrigo Valenzuela, Paul Komada and Inye Wokoma, Ghosts of Seattle Past, and Invisible Seattle.
WEDNESDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Fires and Snowpack: Climate Change Impacts in the Pacific Northwest
As part of a climate talk series presented by Cascadia Climate Action, Diana Gergel (Graduate Fellow at the Northwest Climate Science Center) will speak about the far-reaching consequences of global warming, from snowpacks to forest fires.
Astronomy on Tap: Peddler Edition
Learn about science while getting tipsy at this monthly event presented by the UW Astronomy department. This time, hear from UW Professor Ben Williams about "WFIRST: The Future Wide Field Space Telescope," and from UW graduate student and astrobiologist Jacob Lustig-Yaeger on "Life Under a Red Sun: Habitability and Biosignatures for Planets Orbiting M-Dwarfs."
THURSDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Rough Draft No. 4
Rough Draft, the excellent, imaginative, and thoroughly unconventional pop-up dinner party/actual party, is back with revisions. The model is the sameâwhimsical, aggressively seasonal food and great local boozeâbut the setting is, as always, a little different. As you would expect with any revised draft, there are a few little edits. This time, the dinner is at NUBE Green and the crew has conspired with Shovel and Stone Coffee Bar and Dank Crystal candles to add delicious coffee and aromatic candles to the mix. If the scented candle thing sounds like a little much, well, that's kind of the whole point of Rough Draft: unabashed sensual excess. Do Bacchus proud and snap up the last couple of tickets while you can. TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE
Guest Chef Night with Alex Wilson
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 Alex Wilson of Oddfellows.
Outdoor Movie Night: Top Gun
Soak up the warm weatherâor hide from the rainâat Peddler's outdoor yet covered beer garden, where you can watch a movie while enjoying the great outdoors. (You can even bring your dog.)
PERFORMANCE
Nat Evans: Logways, Coyoteways
Nat Evans presents this live performance/participatory eventâcombining naturalistic field recordings with an original musical scoreâinside Mark Dion's Neukom Vivarium.
QUEER
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Viewing Party
Yes, yes, Bob the Drag Queen is coming to Neighbours this Friday, of COURSE you're going to that. But you should also wet your whistle the night before with Seattle's most legendary drag matriarch. Mama Tits is Purr's live host for a screening of the Season 2 premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (get there early unless getting smooshed into a corner is your thing). Even if you're not up on your Drag Race, any appearance by Mama Tits is can't-miss: No one casts shade like this grande dame, who's never left a room without every eyebrow raised and every pearl clutched. MATT BAUME
READINGS & TALKS
Cyberwarfare, Russia, and the CIA
Cybersecurity experts are pretty sure that Russian intelligence agencies hacked into the DNC, but they're less sure if their plan was to reveal pro-Clinton corruption within the DNC and thus increase support for Trump. Regardless, everybody freaked out for the same reason: OMG RUSSIA IS MEDDLING WITH US PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS. I'm sure some countries wish that hacking into e-mails is all the United States ever did when it comes to intervening in the power structures of other countries, but this breach does raise questions about the way nations are using technology to exert their power on each other. This political roundtable at Folio aims to raise and maybe answer some of those questions. The big guest is Nada Bakos, who was the person in charge of tracking al-Zarqawi, and who was also a member of the team tasked to determine whether Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. Political writer and editor Mort Kondracke of Roll Call and historian and journalist Robert W. Merry will weigh in. RICH SMITH
THURSDAY-SUNDAY
THEATER
Duels
This play by Nick Stokes and directed by José Amador "bleeds vegetable juice, smashes tomatoes, smears blackberries, speaks Spanish, capitalizes on immigrants, and recedes from suburban now to rural then, when the shooting began."
Hooded or Being Black for Dummies
This Theatre Battery production, written by Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, is performed in a local shopping center, and centers around two 14-year-old black boys with vastly different backgrounds who eventually "traverse the gap between 2pac and Nietzsche."
FRIDAY
FILM
The Fierce Awakens: The Hitchhikerâs Guide to the Galaxy
Three Dollar Bill Cinema presents this series of free outer-space-themed movies in Cal Anderson Park, where there will be a DJ starting at 7 pm, and concessions including popcorn and candy on sale, proceeds from which will benefit Three Dollar Bill Cinema's year-round efforts to provide voices for the LGBTQ community through film.
QUEER
Purse First with Bob the Drag Queen and Thorgy Thor
Neighbours celebrates 34 years of looking fresh and staying cool with a full-on show featuring winner of RuPaul's Drag Race, Bob the Drag Queen, with performances by Thorgy Thor, Cucci Binaca, Cookie Couture and more, and music from Victor Rodriguez (LAX, Bears in Space) and Nark (Bottom Forty, Dickslap).
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
_IOTA
Don't let the almost hopelessly abstract title fool youâthis "multimedia/contemporary dance performance" is grounded in themes of the body and identity. And it might even be slightly humorous at times! I say that because Jody Kuehner is among the women/queer/nonbinary choreographers that Coleman Pester, director of the even more abstractly named //TECTONIC MARROW SOCIETY, has gathered for this show. You know Kuehner as Stranger Genius Award winner Cherdonna Shinatra, but IOTA will give you an opportunity to see her work without all the makeup. Jenna Eady and Cameo Lethem, two emerging dancers in the scene, will also present work. Videos promoting the performance look beige with bright splashes of color, the dances look minimal and personal. Get ready for an intimate, introspective kind of night. RICH SMITH
FRIDAY-SUNDAY
Ian Bell's Brown Derby Series: The Craft
Seattle has a venerable and undignified tradition of marvelously ramshackle bar theater. If Dina Martina is its queen, Ian Bell's Brown Derby Seriesâwhich adapts major motion pictures for raucous, boozy audiencesâis the crown prince. For this round, actors will present a staged reading of The Craft, about teenage witches at a Catholic prep school.
Raisins in a Glass of Milk
The one-act play is a collection of scenes and monologues based on interviews with theater artists of color; it aims to work against stereotypes and instead offer nuanced storytelling centered around people of color.
SATURDAY
FILM
Drive-In Movies at ACM: Jurassic World
On a summer evening, head to LeMayâAmerica's Car Museum to watch drive-in movies on a 40-foot outdoor screen, starting around dusk.
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
Bacon, Eggs & Kegs
Taste lots of PNW beers and ciders, Bloody Marys and mimosas, and brunch bites from local restaurants at this "brunchy booze fest" (note, not boozy brunch fest) that will also feature dueling pianos and lawn games.
SUNDAY
Vibrations Festival
Capitol Hill venue Cairo may be dead, but Vibrations is alive and well for at least one more year, thanks to a coordinated effort by Seattle curation team Vignettes. The 2016 iteration lays out the greatest hits: an afternoon-into-evening frolic across the Volunteer Park amphitheater grove with a panoply of local art, music, and business favorites to keep you satiated in the late-summer haze. Take your pick of goods from vendors like Spin Cycle, Cold Cube Press, and Indian Summer as you swan to the sonic vivacity of Lilac, Aeon Fux, and Jenn Champion. Devour a snack from the Patty Pan and Six Strawberries food trucks as you snake through the visual installations provided by Mariko Yoshino, Leena Joshi, and MKNZ. Lists of three are convenient for blurbs, but thereâs really a hell of lot more where all this comes from, and you can take it all in for free. KIM SELLING
