We read literature! We write literature! We are a city of literature!
We read literature! We write literature! We are a city of literature! MARY KNOX MERRILL VIA GETTY IMAGES

UNESCO (Finally) Names Seattle a "City of Literature:" An organization called Seattle City of Literature has been applying for the designation since 2013. This week they finally got it. Board member Stesha Brandon says the partnership will help provide “equity training for members of the literary community” and also maybe facilitate writers’ exchanges with other countries. Seattle joins Iowa City as the only other municipality in the U.S. to be recognized by UNESCO for its literary contributions to the world.

Short Run Starts Today: The giant book expo (and bake sale!) isn’t until Saturday, but there’s a sweet book arts exhibit on view at Soil Gallery tonight. What should you pick up on Saturday? Rich Smith painstakingly assembled a very thorough shopping list.

The Historic Georgetown Steam Plant Will Be Immortalized…In A Comic: The National Historic Landmark and Steampunk photographer’s dream has been making a lot of inroads into the art community recently by hosting theater events and art exhibits. Back in August, they sponsored a contest to find an artist and a writer to “create a story grounded in the experiences of the people and significance of the steam plant’s history.” This week they choose cartoonist David Lansky and author Mairead Case for the project; the final product is a book that will be distributed free of charge in regional libraries, museums, and schools in 2019.

The City Seems to Have Made Up Their Mind About Who Gets To Redevelop KeyArena: Despite a letter signed by influential Seattle musicians that was sent to city council the other day, favoring investor Chris Hansen’s proposal to turn KeyArena into a mid-size arts and music venue.

You Can Now Stream Classic and Indie Films with Your Library Card: Our city’s ever forward-thinking library has partnered with streaming service Kanopy to offer five free streams a month for SPL cardholders. Kanopy has over 30,000 films, including many from the esteemed Criterion collection. It’s a great (free) way to ween yourself off Netflix.

Women in The Art World Are Not Surprised: About the amount of sexual abuse and harassment that happens in the industry: “we have been groped, undermined, harassed, infantilized, scorned, threatened, and intimidated by those in positions of power who control access to resources and opportunities,” an open letter posted on the website Not Surprised said. The letter was signed by hundreds of women and gender nonconforming artists, curators and educators, including some folks from Seattle.

Lo-Fi hosts a tribute to Spacemen 3 tonight: Stranger music scribe Dave Segal has a hot tip for some psych-out fun tonight at Lo-Fi. “Local luminaries Black Nite Crash, Shitty Person, and Liiight will resurrect English psychedelic rockers’ stratospheric song structures and effects-laden guitar wizardry, with DJ sets by the fabulous Mamma Casserole between performances. Spacemen 3 creative core Sonic Boom and Jason Pierce will likely never reconcile their differences, so this might be your best chance of experiencing their magical chemistry in a live setting.”

The Star-Studded Lion King Will Be the Best Thing To Happen To 2019: With celebs like Beyonce, Donald Glover, James Earl Jones, and John Oliver, you can’t go wrong, says Stranger music intern Anna Kaplan.