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LIVE MUSIC
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Laufey is single-handedly making vocal jazz cool again. The Icelandic singer-songwriter has garnered the attention of Gen Z with her instrumentally sparse songs about young love in self-discovery. The songs are pithy enough to go viral on TikTok while also traditional enough to play while having dinner with your grandparents. She will stop by to support her sophomore album, Bewitched, alongside singer-songwriter Grace Enger. AV
(Paramount Theatre, Downtown Seattle)
LIVE MUSIC
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On her latest album, Shelter, South African singer-songwriter Alice Phoebe Lou’s voice shimmers through poetic lyrics about internal and external relationships. Her delicate vocals—reminiscent of indie rock angels like Faye Webster, Mitski, and Angel Olsen—comfortably lay atop a plush bed of ’70s-inspired soft rock with cozy folk flourishes. She will support the album alongside kindred spirit Sam Burton. AV
(The Showbox, Downtown Seattle)
FILM
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If you consider life to be both an endless pursuit of beauty and philosophical challenges, I humbly suggest that you watch more ’60s- and ’70s-era Italian films. Viva Italia! makes it easy—the selection of straordinari film italiani boasts rare 35mm prints and 4K restorations. Chef’s kiss. LC
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown)
LIVE MUSIC
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Prolific cellist/experimental artist Lori Goldston, whose first major appearance was on stage with Nirvana during their iconic MTV Unplugged set, will perform Sarah Hennies’s concert-length work The Reinvention of Romance alongside the local percussionist Aaron Michael Butler. New York Times writer Steve Smith described the piece as “90 minutes of spare, economical gestures, played not quite in sync…[resulting in] an extended sequence of simple figures arranged in succinct packets, each repeated at length until a timer prompts moving on to the next.” AV
(Good Shepherd Center/Chapel Performance Space, Wallingford)
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Grammy-winning Kronos Quartet is a rotating cast of string players (founded by Seattle’s own David Harrington and much beloved by NPR) who changed the stuffy world of chamber music forever by incorporating contemporary and popular music into their repertoire. For this multimedia performance, the ensemble will present a “live documentary” featuring music, narration, archival footage, and filmed interviews with trailblazing artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries (including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley). AV
(Moore Theatre, Belltown)
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The Last Dinner Party is kind of like London’s answer to MUNA. The five-piece band evokes their art-pop grandparents—Sparks and Kate Bush— with operatic vocals, theatrical piano ballads, and nods to their literary heroes. They do this, however, with the same humor and charm as the aforementioned artists. Their debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy, is a melodramatic pop feast with themes of queerness, sex, and gore. Don’t miss an opening set from electro-pop artist Miss Grit. AV
(Showbox SoDo, SoDo)
LIVE MUSIC
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I am a regular listener of the feminist philosophy/pop culture podcast Binchtopia—a “Binchie” to be precise (IYKYK)—so, the fact that I will be in the presence of my parasocial bestie Eliza McLamb this month has me shaking in my boots. If you know anything about her podcast with Julia Hava, then you know that McLamb is incredibly insightful about the trials of girlhood, which is the heart of her debut album, Going Through It. Exploring female friendships (“Glitter”), parentified children (“Bird”), social media addiction (“Modern Woman”), and being mythologized by boys (“Mythologize Me”), the album chronicles her own experiences of growing up through tender folk-tinged lullabies and ferocious indie rock anthems. She will support the album alongside the LA-based indie rock project Mini Trees. AV
(Barboza, Capitol Hill)
PARTIES & NIGHTLIFE
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The ’60-themed DJ night Boots will celebrate its second anniversary with a far-out birthday bash featuring go-go dancers, mod decor, and groovy tunes from the space age. The party will get started with a go-go dance lesson at 8:30 pm. Afterward, you can show off your new moves with a sock hop soundtracked by vintage vinyl DJs (and Boots founders) Maxwell Edison and Sarah Savannah. Don’t forget to dress to impress! I am talking paper dresses, fashion helmets, and giant statement earrings. AV
(Sunset Tavern, Ballard)
READINGS & TALKS
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Former Seattleite, formidable poet, genre-crossing artist, TEDx speaker, and podcaster Anastacia-Reneé’s funky, feminist collection Side Notes from the Archivist: Poems illuminated Black femme culture through coming-of-age poems set in ’80s Philly, and it had me awe-inspired just last year. (“The deft tonal shifts of Anastacia-Reneé’s words and delivery amuse, disarm and devastate,” said the Seattle Times.) She’s somehow already back with Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere, a “bold hybrid collection of poetry, flash fiction, and Afrofuturism sci-fi,” which sounds incredible. Show up to her talk with fellow author Noni Ervin to become a super fan. LC
(Elliott Bay Book Company, Capitol Hill)
FILM
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Ryuichi Sakamoto, Oscar-winning composer, unparalleled style icon, and one of the three melodic geniuses behind the Tokyo electronic outfit Yellow Magic Orchestra, passed away last year after a battle with cancer. (Chances are good that you’ve heard YMO’s arty electro-pop tunes, but if not, throw this on before continuing.) Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus is Sakamoto’s swan song—as a parting gift in 2022, he curated, sequenced, and performed a piano concert that “wordlessly narrates his life through his wide-ranging oeuvre.” You’ll hear selections from his pop icon days in YMO, his scores created for Bernardo Bertolucci, and his reflective final album. LC
(SIFF Theaters)
COMEDY
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Few comedic roles live on in the public consciousness like Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon and Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope—even if you’ve somehow never watched a single episode of 30 Rock or Parks and Recreation, you know damn well who they are. The comedy queens, who, unsurprisingly, are also BFFs, will celebrate 30 years of camaraderie with jokes, stories, and “conversational entertainment,” which I hope involves Tina eating her night cheese. LC
(WaMu Theater, SoDo)
LIVE MUSIC
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Patrick Flegel (formerly of the Canadian experimental indie rock band Women), takes inspiration from Patsy Cline, the Supremes, Karen Carpenter, and other expressive female vocalists for his drag persona/solo music project Cindy Lee. Lee’s sophomore album, What’s Tonight To Eternity, evokes the ballads of those aforementioned ingénues—but played on an antique tube-powered radio that caught fire mid-song, disintegrating slowly with each lovelorn lyric. Lee will support the album alongside Canadian electronic duo Freak Heat Waves. AV
(Vera Project, Uptown)
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Primarily known for his collaborations with A-listers like Kendrick Lamar, Solange, Frank Ocean, and Drake, London-based singer-songwriter/producer Sampha has made a splash in popular music with his distinctive, ethereal vocals and experimental electronic-tinged beats. He will support his sophomore solo album, Lahai, which meditates on alienation, individualism, and transformation. AV
(The Showbox, Downtown Seattle)
PERFORMANCE
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”All right bottoms, let’s take it from the top, alright?” Hawaii-born Miss Continental 2012 queen Sasha Colby chose the name “Sasha” during her transitioning process for its gender neutrality. The RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 winner is probably your favorite drag queen’s favorite drag queen, so head to her Stripped tour to find out what everyone’s flustered about. Parental discretion advised! LC
(Neptune Theatre, University District)
FILM
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Hosted by Steve and Gord of The BoneBat Show podcast, this one-day-only celebration of blood ‘n’ chuckles (which bills itself as “the first and only dedicated comedy-horror film festival”) will return for its cursed 13th edition. The fest runs ’til midnight, bringing together 37 comedy/horror shorts, plus premieres of Grecian flick Minore and Richard Elfman’s Bloody Bridget. Eerie tunes will be provided by the Pine Box Boys, aka “San Francisco’s singers of songs of murder and misery.” LC
(SIFF Cinema Egyptian, Capitol Hill)
FOOD & DRINK
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Gourmands across Seattle rejoice over this twice-yearly event, which gives diners the opportunity to try curated menus for $20, $35, $50, and $65 at dozens of restaurants. It’s an excellent opportunity to branch out of your usual rotation of tried-and-true favorites and cross some destinations off your culinary bucket list. Round up some friends to join you, and don’t forget to tip your server generously. JB
(Various locations)
FILM
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This inclusive festival centers films by Deaf, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled, and Hard of Hearing filmmakers from around the world, with flicks screened in person April 5-7 and streamed online April 8-22. The fest will showcase 44 films from 11 countries, including standouts like The Tuba Thieves, a sensory docufiction that uses a series of “unusual thefts occurred targeting twelve Southern California high school band rooms” as a jumping-off point, and Extraordinary Women, a short film program in which “multi-talented trailblazing Deaf and Deafblind women are front and center.” LC
(Northwest Film Forum, Capitol Hill, Monday-Sunday)
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In sophomore director Rose Glass’s queer melodrama Love Lies Bleeding, Kristen Stewart plays Lou, a chain-smoking dirtbag dyke and gym manager who splits her time between unclogging toilets, fending off the unwanted advances of her overzealous admirer Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov), worrying about her sister Beth (Jena Malone), reheating frozen dinners in a drab apartment, and masturbating on a faded couch in full view of her cat. When she meets ambitious muscle mommy Jackie (Katy O’Brian), who’s passing through town on her way to a bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas, the star-crossed sapphic lovers immediately fall into a spiral of toxic U-haul infatuation. Glass, who directed the 2019 psychological horror flick Saint Maud, brings a startlingly singular and stylish vision to life. She’s cited David Cronenberg’s Crash and Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls as influences for Love Lies Bleeding, and the carnal obsession of those films shines through in her work. The result is a seedy, sexy, high-octane ride that holds its own amongst the erotic thriller canon. JB
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown, Monday-Tuesday)
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Boots Riley’s surrealist dark comedy Sorry to Bother You follows LaKeith Stanfield as a telemarketer navigating workplace racism, corporate conspiracy, labor organizing, and…a lot more. (If you’ve already seen the 2018 film, you know that it takes a very bizarre turn.) “If Mike Judge’s Office Space and Robert Downey Sr.’s Putney Swope hooked up after a night of bingeing on hallucinogens, Marxist theory, and the novels of Paul Beatty and Colson Whitehead, the offspring might look something like this,” the New York Times reported. LC
(Central Cinema, Central District, Monday-Wednesday)
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The late Taiwanese director Edward Yang is regarded as a pioneer of the ’80s-born Taiwanese New Wave, and the reasons are clear—his films tend to feel almost literary in pacing, smoky and subtle, with painstaking mise-en-scène. This series celebrates five of Yang’s 4K film restorations, so if you’re unfamiliar with Yang’s uniquely meticulous and empathetic oeuvre, now’s the time to catch up! SIFF Cinema Egyptian will screen A Brighter Summer Day, Yi Yi, and others. LC
(SIFF Cinema Egyptian, Capitol Hill, Monday-Sunday)
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Olivia Colman is a national treasure, and she doesn’t even live here. She’s English and has a delightfully historical face that lends itself perfectly to queenly roles set in the past (The Crown, The Favourite). In other words, she was born to play a prim, devout Christian in 1920s England who begins receiving lewd, sinister letters. Thea Sharrock’s black comedy is based on a real scandal that shook the sleepy town of Littlehampton, Sussex, which makes it all the more delicious. LC
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown, Monday-Thursday)
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Alex Garland’s latest, Civil War, is A24’s most expensive in-house production to date, following a group of military-embedded journos headed to DC “before rebel factions descend upon the White House.” Honestly, I’m wary of how he’ll handle this one, although Garland’s work does tend to thrive in dystopian settings. But Kristen Dunst stars as a photojournalist, which is reason enough to watch. Also, Garland may or may not be retiring from directing (“I’m going to take a break for the foreseeable future,” he clarified recently), so if you’re a fan of the filmmaker behind Annihilation and Men, you should plan to let his new one marinate. LC
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown, Thursday-Sunday)
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On top of all of the other stuff you’re probably worried about, you should also care about nuclear issues, from uranium mining to nuclear waste, nuclear war, and nuclear accidents. If that sounds overwhelming, the International Uranium Film Festival has you covered—they’ve been presenting films on nuclear issues for the last 13 years. The three-day fest will include screenings, panels, and Q&A sessions, so you’re basically guaranteed to come away feeling more knowledgeable. LC
(Northwest Film Forum, Capitol Hill, Friday-Sunday)
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A sweeping sci-fi film with origins right here in the Pacific Northwest, Dune: Part Two is a sequel that surpasses the first by leaps and bounds as it transports us back to the world first created by the late local author Frank Herbert. Picking up where its predecessor left off, it follows the young Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as he aligns himself with Chani (Zendaya) and the rest of the Fremen who have found a way to survive in the harsh desert climate of Arrakis. As they battle against the forces of the galaxy looking to mine the valuable resources that the planet holds, there is soon a growing sense that the greatest dangers are only just beginning. The film also digs into fears Herbert explored about the hazards of giving power to leaders who talk a big game even as they may be the villains of their own stories. Readers of said books know how this ends, but the film offers just as much to those who are going in blissfully unaware, and its stunning visuals deserve to be seen on the big screen. In all of 2024, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a film as immense and well-crafted as Dune: Part Two. STRANGER CONTRIBUTOR CHASE HUTCHINSON
(SIFF Cinema Downtown, Belltown, Friday-Sunday)
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Juzo Itami’s “ramen western” follows a band of milk truck drivers whose pit stop at a roadside noodle shop blossoms into a quest for the perfect noodle recipe. The genre-bending 1985 film is segmented by stirring stories that don’t relate to the main plot, but speak to the emotional power of food. Slurp it up in a new 4K restoration at this screening. LC
(Central Cinema, Central District, Friday-Sunday)
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If you count yourself among the ever-expanding subset of movie-goers whose ideal flick features Tilda Swinton and a side of surreal quirk, then Julio Torres’s Problemista (an A24 film, obviously) has your back. The film follows a Salvadoran toy designer in NYC whose work visa runs out as he works as an assistant for an art-world weirdo. Expect something freaky and wonderful that also grapples with the broken US immigration system. LC
(Northwest Film Forum, Capitol Hill, Wednesday-Thursday)
PERFORMANCE
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A true testament to the popularity of underground cabaret entertainment in Seattle, the longstanding Moisture Festival has fostered circus performers, comics, burlesque dancers, and musicians for years, and now claims to be “the world’s largest comedy/variety show festival.” The 24-day fest offers eye-popping events from the (relatively) mild-mannered to the racy and scantily clad end of the spectrum. LC
(Broadway Performance Hall, Capitol Hill, Monday-Sunday)
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Mikhail Bulgakov’s masterpiece, The Master and Margarita, was first published (in a censored form) in 1967, and it’s beautifully weird. It’s about the devil and his entourage; there’s a scene-stealing chain-smoking cat; it’s full of pranks and hypocrisy, metaphysical elements, beheaded bureaucrats, haunted theaters, Communism, and Stalinism. It’s gothy and fantastical and anti-totalitarian. I mean, what’s not to love? Director Mike Lion has adapted the tome for this production, which attempts to preserve its Russian sensibilities but also includes musical numbers, puppetry, physicality, and clowning. LC
(12th Avenue Arts, Capitol Hill, Wednesday-Sunday)
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Playwright Sanaz Toossi’s profound debut production won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. English follows four adult students as they prepare for the TOEFL test from a classroom in Iran. The TOEFL—or Test of English as a Foreign Language—sees the group aim for fluency through gamified approaches, and the results build a “two-way crackle in the room” (The Daily Beast). This production was co-produced by Seda Iranian Theatre Ensemble. LC
(ArtsWest, Junction, Thursday-Sunday)
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Celebrating a “diverse garden” of performance artists, SpringShot serves as a launch pad for brand-new dance, theater, burlesque, and comedy shorts over three weekends, come rain or shine. Popping up like one of those bright magician’s bouquets, over 30 artists will appear during three choose-your-own-price performances. Step outside to see week one’s shows, which feature Si-Inni, Coco Justino, Ashley King, Erin Popelka, Daisy Dot, Bebe Abundance, Sinful Sugar, Vivienne Minx, Fawna Fae Tal, and others. LC
(18th & Union: An Arts Space, Thursday-Saturday)
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In what sounds like a fun, fond, but nonetheless dark and violent parody of 19th-century feminist classics like Jane Eyre, Jen Silverman’s comedy (directed by Annie Lareau) follows two sisters, a dog, a new governess, and a hen on the gloomy English moors, enlivened by “anachronisms sprinkled throughout” and even a power ballad. LC
(Seattle Public Theater, Green Lake, Thursday-Sunday)
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Pacific Northwest Ballet will present a fresh array of ballet for this performance, including a performance of Crystal Pite’s artful work The Seasons’ Canon. Back by popular demand, the “mesmerizing work” features 54 dancers “moving as one organism to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons,” which sounds like a very sophisticated way to celebrate the coming of spring. Twyla Tharp’s Shaker-influenced work Sweet Fields and Jessica Lang’s “stunning solo work” The Calling will round out the show. LC
(McCaw Hall, Uptown, Friday-Sunday)
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In this quirky collaboration between science writers and playwrights, five brand-new 10-minute plays will be performed over two nights, each based on the spiciest science news. I’m picturing aliens and Bunsen burners bubbling with mysterious green goo, and if you’re as confused about “science news” as I am, never fear—additional context on play themes will precede each work in short presentations with science writers. LC
(Theatre Off Jackson, Chinatown-International District, Friday-Sunday)
COMMUNITY
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As we speak, tulips are blooming in Skagit Valley and calling on you to come dance in their fields, take influencer/dating profile pics, and simply spend a moment stopping to smell the flowers. We recommend checking online before you go for each garden’s ticket price (there are four different ones, but at least all parking is free!) and status of the blooms. Towns in the area make the most of the floral festivities by hosting dozens of events ranging from the annual parade on Saturday, April 6 in La Conner to a salmon barbecue, mountain film festival, and pickleball tournament April 25 to 28 in Mount Vernon. Check out this comprehensive brochure for all the activities, art shows, performances, tours, and local eateries. SL
(Various locations across Skagit Valley, Monday-Sunday)
VISUAL ART
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As part of Frye’s ongoing Boren Banner Series, Seoul-born, Portland-based artist Samantha Wall’s intricate stenciled work, which draws from her nuanced perspectives as a Black-Korean immigrant, will become bigger and more visible on the facade of the Frye Art Museum. Drop by the museum to see the artist’s larger-than-life, mythical serpent-woman, which pulls from Korean lore to “push against the exoticization of those who are perceived as other” and “present femininity as a powerful, liminal state of being.” LC
(Frye Art Museum, First Hill, Wednesday-Sunday; opening)
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Spring is a great season and all, but it’s also kind of weird. Newly hatched nestlings emerge with pinkish, bald heads, and crocuses expand from the grass next to the muddied slush that’s still plopped in the gutters. As we emerge from the darkness of winter, it takes a moment for the season to feel real. Spring, Time conjures some of the surreality I’m describing—the artists involved, including Anneka Wilder, Sharon Servilio, Yeon Jin Kim, and others, are thinking about mechanically grown grass, plastic flowers, and misbehaving creatures. I’m intrigued by Colton Sampson’s barbed-wire flora. LC
(The Vestibule, Ballard, Thursday-Saturday; closing)
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Conceptual artist and activist Hank Willis Thomas blends mixed media with mass-produced, archival, and contemporary images to create photographs, sculptures, and installations that reckon with important questions about the role of art in civic life. LOVERULES, which pulls works spanning 20 years of Thomas’s career from the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation’s collection, includes some of his most well-known pieces, including the corporate advertising-inspired works Branded and Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America. Staying curious about advertising and visual culture as creators of “narratives that shape our notion of value in society,” Thomas spotlights the cultural tropes that influence race relations, inequality, and resistance. LC
(Henry Art Gallery, University District, Thursday-Sunday)
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LA-based painter Sebastian Loo creates ink and color compositions on rice paper for I, Chrysalis, Open at the Close, which he describes as a “hyper-personal” exhibition. That descriptor makes sense—Loo’s work blends a system of symbols with Buddhist and Christian aesthetics to draw parallels between his own life and “the transitional site of the chrysalis.” We’re talking mortal impermanence here, so get on board! Loo’s process includes pointillism, paper cutouts, and collage approaches, and the results are a blast to observe. (I’m partial to Flying or Falling: bb Luci and friends to Daoist canyons, embracing suffering and acknowledging faults for the purpose of growth?) LC
(SOIL, Pioneer Square, Friday-Sunday)
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Exploring the diversity of SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African)experience, SOIL’s latest exhibition showcases video projections, sculptures, and vinyl installations. Whispers of the Veiled Melody features works by Iranian artists Nasim Moghadam and Kiana Honarmand, whose multimedia approaches blend memories and sociocultural influences to reflect on the distinctions of their identities and heritages. (Moghadam’s award-winning works focus on “hyphenated identity, as well as the constraints on women, their bodies, and their voices,” while Honarmand contemplates “the complexities of her cultural identity, the violation of women’s rights in Iran, and the Western perception of the SWANA identity.”) LC
(SOIL, Pioneer Square, Friday-Sunday)
COMEDY
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Despite being nominated for seven Grammys, Jim Gaffigan still feels like an everyman—like, I think I could talk to him about my landlord’s refusal to replace my broken dishwasher, and he’d at least attempt to understand it. I’m probably completely wrong, but you know what I mean, right? Anyway, the relatively family-friendly dude will crack some jokes about his impressive food consumption and the trials and tribulations of daily life on this tour. (Promotional materials report that he lives in Manhattan with his wife and five “loud and expensive” children, so prepare for anecdotes about their antics.) LC
(Paramount Theatre, Downtown Seattle, Thursday-Sunday)
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Fortune Feimster’s writing and acting credits read like a highlight reel of popular TV comedies over the last decade or so: Glee, Two Broke Girls, Drunk History, Chelsea Lately, The Mindy Project, Workaholics—I could go on. An unapologetically butch lesbian who employs broad physical comedy and tells jokes about her Southern upbringing, relatable dating woes, and her relationship with her mother, Feimster is the 22nd century’s answer to the mass-appeal stage comic. If you want an evening when you chuckle more than you think (and we all need those sometimes), catch Feimster’s show. FORMER PORTLAND MERCURY ARTS AND CULTURE EDITOR BLAIR STENVICK
(Moore Theatre, Belltown, Friday-Sunday)
EverOut Staff
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