The Must List: MLK Day of Service, Leavenworth Bavarian IceFest, Nordic Lights Film Fest
What to do in Seattle in the days ahead
By Seattle Magazine Staff January 12, 2017
Must Send in the Clowns
Judy Collins
(1/12-15, 7:30 p.m.) Seattle’s Grammy- and Oscar-nominated activist, author, filmmaker and singer/songwriter, Collins is a Renaissance woman. Also, she’s the only reason anyone ever heard of Leonard Cohen. $55. Jazz Alley, 2033 Sixth Ave., jazzalley.com
Must Chill
Leavenworth Bavarian IceFest
(1/14–15, all day) Where can you find the Great Frisbee Sweep, Ice Cube Scramble, Bavarian Mug Relay, Snowmobile Sled Pull (starring your dog) and the Smooshing Contest, where teams of four strap their eight feet onto 10-foot longboards and race through the glittering snow? Only at IceFest. $1–$5. Leavenworth, Front Street Park; leavenworth.org
Must Watch
Nordic Lights Film Festival
(1/14-17, times vary) See three submissions for the Foreign Language Oscar; films from Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; and 2015 Golden Globe nominee The Fencer, about a Cold War hero, by Finnish four-time Oscar contender Klaus Härö, who was given the Ingmar Bergman Award by Bergman himself. SIFF Film Center, Seattle Center, 305 Harrison St., siff.net
Must Volunteer
MLK Day of Service
(1/16, all day) Why not spend Martin Luther King Jr. Day the way he spent his days: doing something good for America? Volunteer for United Way’s MLK Day of Service. Start the day at a rally on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus, then gather a team, pick a project online and live the dream. Free. University of Washington and various locations; uwkc.org/events/mlk-day-of-service
Must Listen
SAL Presents: Local Voices
(1/18, 7:30 p.m.) In a sumptuous room with a fireplace, Seattle Arts and Lectures (SAL) hosts Local Voices, during which SAL Writers in the Schools read works in progress. One of the readers, Aaron Counts, who is the lead engagement artist for 4Culture’s Creative Justice pilot program, has great stories to tell. Free. Capitol Hill, Sorrento Hotel, Fireside Room, 900 Madison St.; lectures.org
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Studio Sessions: Jo Cosme
The Seattle-based multimedia artist and 2026 Neddy Award winner challenges the postcard version of Puerto Rico and centers the persistence of its people.
Jo Cosme knows how seductive a postcard can be. The Seattle-based Boricua (Puerto Rican) multimedia artist works across photography, installation, video, sound, and interactive elements to examine and pull apart how Puerto Rico is seen, sold, and misunderstood from the outside. Trained in photojournalism, with a BFA in photography from Puerto Rico School of Fine…
Seattle’s Drag Brunch Has History
The city’s Sunday shows started long before the mimosas got bottomless.
There was a time not too long ago, when drag performances—now a mainstay of Seattle’s queer scene—were kept under wraps. And when brunches, complete with singing and dancing queens dressed in dazzling drag as you sipped mimosas, weren’t a Sunday staple. During the 1940s and ‘50s, an era largely shaped by restrictive laws and bias…
Studio Sessions: Sangram Majumdar
Working at the confluence of history, culture, and various painting traditions, UW associate professor Sangram Majumdar is one of this year’s Neddy Artist Award winners.
Discover the art of UW professor Sangram Majumdar, a 2026 Neddy Artist Award winner. Learn about his inspiration and upcoming Seattle exhibition at Cornish.
Rearview Mirror: A Georgian Dinner, Sidewalk Sips, and One-of-a-Kind Clothing
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
A new life for old clothes To celebrate one year in its current studio, the FXRY—a clothing repair service available via in-person appointments, home pickup, or mail-in drop off—is dropping its first collection. A small batch of reworked pieces, Second Mark will feature 13 vintage barn jackets, cropped, chain-stitched, and renewed into a completely unique, one-of-one…