Arts
Here’s What’s Happening at the Nordic Museum’s Grand Opening Celebrations
Party Nordic style during this weekend's celebrations.
The Nordic Museum’s grand opening events officially began May 1, and continues through the weekend with receptions, galas and tours for museum members, donors and VIPs (including the crown princess of Denmark and the president of Iceland), but even the julkinen (that’s Finnish for “public”) can attend a portion of the festivities. Note: For the…
Must List: ‘Aida,’ Seattle Bike-n-Brews, Taco Libre Truck Showdown
Your weekly guide to Seattle's hottest events.
MUST SEE Aida(5/5–5/19) Audiences expect spectacle in productions of Aida, and always have; Verdi’s 1871 tale of a love triangle set in ancient Egypt was even then a throwback to the grand-opera approach of an earlier generation, extravagant affairs full of processions, ballets and as many extras as you can pack onto a stage. But…
Seattle’s Music Festival Season Begins with These Three Events
Music festival season officially returns with this tuneful trifecta
This article appears in print in the May 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe. Folklife (5/25–5/28) Launched: 1972Focus: folk, world music, DIYTypical festival experience: Drum circles, impromptu mandolin jams, shrieking kids running through the International FountainWho goes: The Woodstock generation and their grandkids, aficionados of the hammered dulcimer, people who really don’t see why everyone thinks Portlandia is…
ArtsWest’s ‘An Octoroon’: Uncomfortable and Urgent
Intense and heady, 'An Octoroon' pushes us to examine race—and ourselves
From the outset, An Octoroon toys with expectations. A lengthy prologue sets the scene—kind of—introducing viewers to the playwright, New York City’s Branden Jacob-Jenkins’ (BJJ; played by actor Lamar Legend, pictured above), who appears wearing only black Calvin Klein briefs. He begins a monologue about being a “black playwright”—everything that means and implies, to himself…
Meet SIFF Artistic Director Beth Barrett, the Reason It’s the Nation’s Biggest Film Festival
Barrett loves movies so much she volunteered with the Seattle International Film Festival for years before taking a staff position. She guesses she watches 600 films a year
This article appears in print in the May 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe. Sarah Wilke, the Seattle International Film Festival’s (siff) executive director, puts it simply: “Beth loves watching films.” She’s referring to artistic director Beth Barrett, who since October 2016 has been the master strategist of the small army required to pull off not only SIFF’s…
Must List: ‘Familiar,’ MoPOP’s 2018 Pop Conference, Bacon and Beer Classic
Your weekly guide to Seattle's hottest events.
MUST SEEFamiliar(4/27–5/20) Actress Danai Gurira may be known for her roles as Michonne on The Walking Dead and Okoye in Black Panther, but her skill as a playwright—notably for her 2015 play Eclipsed, about female sex slaves to a rebel leader in Liberia—has generated its share of acclaim. (Eclipsed was nominated for multiple awards and…
Art Zone’s Nancy Guppy Stretches Her Creative Canvas with First Solo Art Show
"The Further Adventures of Snippity Snap" opens at Solo Bar in Lower Queen Anne on May 3.
This article appears in print in the May 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe. It’s not hard to find the playfulness Nancy Guppy brings to her weekly TV show—Art Zone with Nancy Guppy (cable channel 21; online at seattlechannel.org)—in her own art. But which of her collaging techniques came first? Building a program with artists of all kinds…
Ellen Forney on the “Book That I Wished I Could Have Had”
The Seattle graphic artist and illustrator's new book is a road map for those struggling with bipolar disorder
In 2012, Seattle graphic artist, longtime The Stranger contributor and Cornish instructor Ellen Forney brought out Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me, her acclaimed memoir-in-comics of being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and its impact on her creativity. Her new follow-up, Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life (Fantagraphics, $19.99, out May 15) is a sort of companion, packed with nuts-and-bolts…
A Rare Citywide Exhibition Celebrates Michael Spafford
The polarizing painter's work is on display all around Seattle through May 26
This article appears in print in the May 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe. Even more interesting—and more fun—than the substantial list of awards on painter Michael Spafford’s résumé (from a Rome Prize to a Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award) are the controversies in his bio. A professor at the University of Washington School of Art (from 1963…
Sneak Peek at MoPOP’s New Marvel Exhibit, Opening April 21
Transport yourself into the Marvel Universe at MoPOP
One of the most anticipated MoPOP exhibits is finally opening its doors to comic and pop culture fans. Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes opens to the public this weekend with a two-floor, 10,000 square foot exhibit, the largest to date at MoPOP. The exhibit uniquely tells the story of Marvel, from the very first comic…
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