arts
Your 2015 Spring Arts Guide
45 arts events--theater, music, film and more--to experience this spring
Among the many signs that spring has arrived are the wealth of excellent performances, exhibits and concerts suddenly competing for space in our calendars. Will you get to know a Lizard Boy, indulge in Splurge Land or buckle up with Chastity Belt? We recommend all three—and 42 more arts events—in our guide to the best…
What’s Next for the Harvard Exit
Seattle’s Harvard Exit succumbs to the city’s new priorities
The Harvard Exit, which screened its final film in mid-January, didn’t start out as an art house movie theater. The Woman’s Century Club (WCC), a group of progressive Seattle women founded in 1891, had the building constructed as a clubhouse for its burgeoning membership (which included Seattle Mayor Bertha Landes). A WCC history book explains…
‘Now I’m Fine’ Balances Dramatic Personal Stories with Humor
With a performance wrought from his darkest days, it’s Ahamefule J. Oluo’s time to shine
“There’s sometimes a misconception that this is an uplifting show,” Ahamefule “Aham” Oluo says. A smile curls at the edges of his deadpan voice, but it comes from a place of sincerity, not scorn. His tall frame folded into a café chair at a coffee shop in his neighborhood, Columbia City, he is discussing his…
The 50 Bands Rocking Seattle Music Right Now
Are you up on Seattle's music scene? Test your knowledge with these local bands
What’s your favorite current Seattle band? If you have trouble answering (or if you draw a blank after Macklemore), we’re not going to judge. But we are going to suggest it’s time to check in with the city’s thriving indie music scene. New local bands are exploring sounds, blurring genre boundaries (though we’ve wrestled them…
‘Angels in America’ to Feature Mark Mitchell’s Costume Design, No Feathers Allowed
Seattle artist Mark Mitchell creates garments fit for an angel—and the dearly departed
The messenger angel in Tony Kushner’s play Angels in America makes a famously big entrance when she first appears—crashing through the roof of an apartment building to convey her prophecy to a gay man struggling with AIDS in 1980s Manhattan. In the original 1993 Broadway production, which won a Tony Award for Best Play and…
Writer Adrianne Harun on Her New Novel ‘A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain’
Adrianne Harun’s haunting new novel portrays a hard-luck town along a Pacific Northwest highway
For the past 45 years, young women—mostly First Nations—have disappeared along Highway 16 in British Columbia. Some were found murdered, others were never seen again. This tragic road, called the Highway of Tears, is the inspiration for Port Townsend writer Adrianne Harun’s hypnotic new novel, A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain…
Writer Kim Fu Discusses Her Debut Novel ‘For Today I Am A Boy’
Belltown-based writer Kim Fu makes her debut with a gripping, insightful novel
Kim Fu, 26, grew up in Canada as the only writer in a family of scientists and engineers. Perhaps that experience is what enabled her to so vividly capture the feeling of being an outsider in one’s own family in her powerful, timely debut novel, For Today I Am a Boy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; $23)….
Seattle’s Lindy West Brings Women’s Issues to Light Online
Writer, performer and activist Lindy West keeps her wit about her
“Jane Fonda hugged me.” Columbia City–based writer, performer and activist Lindy West still can’t quite believe she got a squeeze from one of her idols, but there is video evidence from the Women’s Media Awards, held in October in New York City. West, a Seattle native, former writer for The Stranger and now full-time writer…
Therapeutic Arts
It may seem counterintuitive: Ask movement-challenged people to not only move, but dance; or those with memory issues to observe the details of paintings. But that is exactly what a collaboration between some Seattle arts groups and health care organizations is off ering to patients, and their caregivers, with Parkinson’s and dementia. Dance for Parkinson’s…
Photographer Holly Andres’ The Homecoming at Photo Center NW
Unsolved mysteries at Photo Center NW
Portland photographer Holly Andres creates scenes that are eerily familiar yet just out of reach. With elaborate sets, vintage props, costumes and staging reminiscent of Nancy Drew book covers, her cinematic tableaux resemble stills from a long-forgotten movie that still haunts your subconscious. Her new show, The Homecoming, reveals Andres’ early training as a painter,…
Homemade in Seattle: A Book of Wonders
If you already have tickets to SAM Remix, you can get a FREE copy (1 of 50 limited editions) of a beautiful hand-bound, two-sided book fresh “off the presses” from Folio 2011. The book represents a lovely-sounding combination (I haven’t gotten my copy yet) of several “homemade” works by local artists, including musings and graphics…
The Weekend Must List: Walk on the Viaduct and Get Hip to City Arts
MUST ART UPCity Arts Festival For the second year in a row, the City Arts Festival is bringing arts of all genres to venues across Seattle. If it all feels too gloriously overwhelming, just focus on our must-see picks, including music from Long Winters and Campfire OK, words from great Northwest poets, dance from Amy…
Hey Marseilles Cleans Up Nice
Last year, our photographer Hayley Young photographed local band Hey Marseilles for a story in Performer magazine. Hayley approached Jane Parsen, general manager at the Seattle Brooks Brothers store, to help style the band for that shoot. Thanks to Jane and Brooks Brothers (and Hayley’s great creative direction, of course), the boys looked very dapper…
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