Our music critics have already chosen the 45 best music shows, but now it's our arts critics' turn to pick the best events in their areas of expertise. Here are their picks in every genre—from a night of Broad City Trivia Past Event Like List with Betty Wetter to Marie, Dancing Still: A New Musical Past Event Like List , and from the grand opening of ARTS at King Street Station Past Event Like List to Northwest Women Stars of Food & Wine Past Event Like List . See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.

Found something you like and don't want to forget about it later? Click "Save Event" on any of the linked events below to add it to your own private list.

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MONDAY

FOOD & DRINK

Author Talk: Vietnamese Food Any Day by Andrea Nguyen Past Event Like List
James Beard Award–winning author Andrea Nguyen is a respected authority on Vietnamese cuisine. Her new book, Vietnamese Food Any Day, makes Vietnamese cooking more accessible than ever by explaining how to prepare authentic flavors at home using ingredients you can procure at any mainstream grocery store. It has recipes for dishes like honey-glazed pork riblets, chili-garlic chicken wings, and no-churn Vietnamese coffee ice cream. At this event, she’ll discuss the book and sign copies. JULIANNE BELL

Musang Fundraiser Past Event Like List
At this fundraiser for Melissa Miranda's upcoming Northwest-inspired Filipino restaurant Musang, enjoy her delicious food alongside beer and wine, with music by DJs Melenie and Daps1.

PERFORMANCE

12 Minutes Max Past Event Like List
This show features 12 minutes ("surprisingly quick or unfortunately long"—Rich Smith) of brand-new work from Pacific Northwest performers, who this time were chosen by curators Hendri Walujo and Keiralea McDonald. Danica Bito, Moises J. Himmelfarb, Katie Fox, Austin Larkin, Katiana Rangel, Juliet McMains and Erica Valkren, Beth Terwilleger, and Rachel Winchester will share performance art, dance, movement, visual art, and more. 

MONDAY-TUESDAY

COMEDY

Aziz Ansari: Road to Nowhere Past Event Like List
The Emmy-winning star and creator of Master of None and expert dork-rogue portrayer on Parks and Rec will swing by Seattle for his new tour.

VISUAL ART

Made with Love & Anxiety Past Event Like List
The Push/Pull Gallery in Ballard is hard to define—it serves as an art gallery, event space, and underground comics shop that supports the work of emerging artists, illustrators, and cartoonists. But what’s in a name? Or a categorization? Push/Pull will be showing Love & Anxiety, a collective of Costa Rican artists from various disciplines who come together under The Joy manifesto, which was formed, in part, to “create work that expresses, from our point of view, the current state of our human condition.” The group will be showing work from Joy, a black-and-white zine full of cartoons, portraits, and much more. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Closing Tuesday

MONDAY-FRIDAY

VISUAL ART

Your Personal Steel Past Event Like List
The subject of Love Life, Patty Gone's book-length essay published by Seattle press Mount Analogue, is the romance novelist Danielle Steel, who has sold more books than J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Dr. Seuss, Tolstoy, or Dickens. Steel is an interesting figure. She writes her novels with an old typewriter on a desk that is a "Jeff Koons–style" sculpture of her own books. She's also a wealthy heiress who's been married multiple times. In Gone's view, Steel doesn't write "bodice-rippers," as my dad called them. Steel's books follow a common formula, wherein an older man seduces a younger woman mostly by being mean to her. The woman eventually tames the man in one way or another, and they end up together in the end. In Steel's books the real Prince Charming will always be the guy who decides to buy her name-brand clothing and commit to starting a family. In addition to offering fresh insights into a popular genre, Love Life is also the first book-length critical essay I've read that contains real narrative tension. Gone will perform personal readings of Danielle Steel passages by appointment. RICH SMITH
Closing Friday

TUESDAY

COMEDY

Outstanding: Queer Comic Competition (Semi-finals) Past Event Like List
Queer comics have battled it out at previous rounds; host Bobby Higley will help the six winners (Genevieve Ferrari, Paul Curry, Jenna Vesper, and others TBD) to weed one another out for the finals. This will be a live taping, so laugh real loud when your funny bone is tickled!

GEEK

Broad City Trivia Hosted by Betty Wetter Past Event Like List
You know Betty Wetter as the fantastic drag host of HUMP! and TUSH, now she’s invited The Stranger and SPLIFF Film Fest Past Event Like List to join her for Broad City trivia. In honor of pot powerhouses Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, and SPLIFF, we’re peppering in some questions about cannabis from our very own King of Kush, Lester Black. Come test your knowledge of terpenes, cannabinoids, Oprah, pegging, and period pants. The grand prize for the evening is a pair of tickets to the opening night of SPLIFF on 4/19, which also gets you into the exclusive after party hosted by The Reefwhere joints and blunts will be lit in celebration! Come hungry too, because winners will also get some of that mouth-watering Breezy Town Pizza. Maybe you can share some slices with your very own Bingo Bronson—just be sure to lay off the nitrous. CHASE BURNS

READINGS & TALKS

Frans de Waal: Mama's Last Hug Past Event Like List
The brilliant Dutch American ethologist and author Frans de Waal has unveiled some of the mysteries of primate (including human) behavior and psychology in books such as Our Inner Ape: The Best And Worst Of Human Nature and Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? The title of his latest tome refers to a video of a dying chimpanzee named Mama hugging her human biologist friend. From this image, de Waal delves into non-human species' emotional lives.

Jonathan Evison and Willy Vlautin Past Event Like List
Hear Jonathan Evison read from Lawn Boy, about a young Chicano boy doing menial work for which he's overqualified in Washington State, alongside Willy Vlautin, who will read from his novel Don't Skip Out on Me, whose protagonist is an Irish-Paiute Indian boy who reinvents himself as a professional boxer.

Salon of Shame #89 Past Event Like List
Writing that makes you cringe ("middle school diaries, high school poetry, unsent letters") is read aloud with unapologetic hilarity at the Salon of Shame.

TUESDAY-SATURDAY

VISUAL ART

Cameron Anne Mason: Field Past Event Like List
Seattle artist Mason's heavily textured, dyed textile/print sculpture mimics natural Pacific Northwest landscapes. Mason is a member of Dusty Nation, a collective that creates interactive pieces at Burning Man.
Closing Saturday

Taiji Miyasaka: Circum•ambience Past Event Like List
When you enter MadArt, you unwittingly enter a planetary system. The gallery is currently occupied by three spheres of vastly different sizes that all seem to be frozen in mid-orbit around each other. It's easy for you, a puny human, to get sucked into each orb's gravitational pull. And you should give in. All three spheres were created by Taiji Miyasaka, an architecture professor at Washington State University's School of Design + Construction, as part of his show at MadArt, Circum·ambience. Miyasaka, who emphasized to me that he's not an artist but an architect, is most interested in the complexity of how light moves—exists—in a space. As I slipped off my shoes and ungracefully climbed into the small square opening of the larger sphere Earthen Light, I felt like I was being reverse-birthed back into my mother's womb. Everyone inside sat with their butts on the edge of the circle, backs leaning on the plaster walls, legs crisscrossed underneath them. Someone let out a soft coo—to test the acoustics of the space—and it boomeranged back to them. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Closing Saturday

TUESDAY-SUNDAY

PERFORMANCE

A Doll's House, Part 2 Past Event Like List
Nora, in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll's House, is arguably one of the most famous female roles in 19th-century theater. Every leading ingenue has had her turn playing the "little lark"—even Seattle’s Cherdonna Shinatra recently took on the role. But the ending of the play is famously up for interpretation, and Tony Award nominee Lucas Hnath’s cheekily titled A Doll's House, Part 2 takes on the challenge of picking up where Ibsen left off. It’s funny, smart, and maybe the best old play to come out of the 2010s. CHASE BURNS

Romeo + Juliet Past Event Like List
Director John Langs cast deaf actors to play Romeo and Friar Lawrence, and he incorporated American Sign Language into the script. Romeo, played by Joshua Castille, signs to other characters and they sign back. Sometimes an interpreter serves as interlocutor. Other times, a group of actors voices Romeo's lines, popcorn-reading style. Castille also yells out lines during moments of emotional stress, which is enormously affecting. Working with sign master and ASL translator Ellie Savidge, Langs also added scenes, namely one where Juliet learns to sign a few key phrases in ASL. All of this was more than a victory for an underrepresented community in theater. Having other actors literally voice Romeo's lines while he signs embodies the central theme of the universality of love. It also compounds the tragedy of Romeo's death. Watching him die is like watching the whole town die. RICH SMITH

WEDNESDAY

COMEDY

Improv and Standup Comedy Night Past Event Like List
Jazz up your mid-week by seeing a mashup showcase of improv and stand-up comedians, including Alyssa Yeoman, Manny Martin, and Jesse Warren of Bandit Theater and Yeah Okay.

FOOD & DRINK

Brave Horse & FareStart Cook's Feast Past Event Like List
FareStart is a local nonprofit that provides job opportunities to disadvantaged and homeless people by giving them access to resources for life skills, job training, and employment in the food service industry. Brave Horse Tavern, Tom Douglas's cozy South Lake Union gastropub, counts six proud FareStart graduates among its line cooks, and for this dinner, they’ll prepare a feast in collaboration with executive chef Bradley Layfield to raise funds for FareStart—raffle prizes and "other fun surprises" included. JULIANNE BELL

PERFORMANCE

Dear Prudence and Friends Live in Seattle Past Event Like List
Daniel Mallory Ortberg, Slate advice columnist (Dear Prudence) and founder of the much-missed The Toast, will join English professor and author Grace Lavery to dispense some relationship counseling.

READINGS & TALKS

An Evening of Science Fiction with Nancy Kress, Jack Skillingstead and Daryl Gregory Past Event Like List
Hear from three highly regarded authors who work in fantasy, YA, thriller, and sci-fi genres. Prolific, multi-award-winning Kress (33 novels to her name!) and her Locus- and Philip K. Dick Award-nominated husband, Skillingstead, live in Seattle. So does Gregory, who also has some impressive laurels, including a Best Fiction Book of the Year from NPR and Kirkus for 2014's Afterparty. He's been nominated for 2018 Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards. Adam Rakunas will moderate a Q&A with these local stars.

Jacob Tobia: Sissy Past Event Like List
Assigned male at birth, Jacob Tobia (co-host of MSNBC's Queer 2.0) has set out to make being a "sissy" a point of pride and "a rallying cry for a much-needed gender revolution." In this book, subtitled A Coming-of-Gender Story, they talk about their childhood and their hope for a new, (trans)feminist world.

John Lanchester: The Wall Past Event Like List
Lanchester's new novel compounds multiple contemporary anxieties—Brexit, climate change, the border wall—in one satire: A "Defender" of the concrete wall surrounding his nation tries to perform his duties repelling despairing outsiders imperiled by rising seas.

Poetry of the Uncanny: GennaRose Nethercott and Sierra Nelson Past Event Like List
Rich Smith has written: "Nelson's work combines the scientific with the lyrical in ways that inject wonder back into both disciplines, and it's looking like the new book will be more of the same greatness." That book is The Lachrymose Report, a collection of poetry about what links us to the past. Nelson will read from this book alongside GennaRose Nethercott, who'll introduce you to her National Poetry Series-winning The Lumberjack's Dove. There will even be a crankie shadow puppet show to provide visual stimulation.

WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY

PERFORMANCE

Bonbon Past Event Like List
The slinky dancers of Pike Place's kitschy cabaret return with another tasty show. Ever wanted to ogle athletic dancers twirling from chandeliers inches from your face? Go. There's also a family-friendly brunch version Past Event Like List that you can guiltlessly take your out-of-town relatives to.

Caught Past Event Like List
I'd count Christopher Chen's Caught as one of the four smartest/powerfulest/provocativest straight plays I saw in 2016. The play is meta-theatrical, but in a meaningful way—less of a self-flagellating/self-congratulatory annoying ouroboros kind of thing and more of a flower blooming out of another flower kind of thing. It's about Western responses to Chinese dissident art. Sort of. It's also about relative pain. It's also about how the truth is a collaborative fiction, and about how nobody can really know anyone else. Importantly, it's about an hour and a half long, tops. This remount is presented by Intiman and directed by Desdemona Chiang. Go see it. RICH SMITH

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Past Event Like List
 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a play-within-a-play adapted from the novel by Mark Haddon. Precocious, non-neuro-typical teenager Christopher sets out to solve the murder of his neighbor's dog, a crime of which he's been unjustly accused. But his investigation, which is shaped by unusual fears and abilities, leads him to his own family's secrets and lies.

Hollywood & Vine Past Event Like List
Enjoy a vintage and magic-filled tribute to Tinseltown with the 20-year-old circus troupe Teatro ZinZanni as they perform in their new Woodinville space.

I Do! I Do! Past Event Like List
Get ready to weep nostalgic tears at the Village Theatre's production of a multiple Tony Award-winning musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, which portrays 50 years of a loving marriage.

VISUAL ART

Dylan Neuwirth: OMNIA Past Event Like List
Dylan Neuwirth transforms the entire Bellevue Arts Museum into an enormous metaphor for the cycle of life through five exhibitions composed of neon, video, performance art, digital art, and sculpture. Two parts of this multi-faceted takeover are installed outside, on the building's exterior and on the balcony, while two more are found within the museum. The last piece in the entire installation is an online flash gallery entitled New Folklore. Elaborating on the theme of post-humanish, Neuwirth reflects upon "alienation, subconscious violence, [...] systemic addiction," and the search for freedom and control.
Closing Sunday

Polaroids: Personal, Private, Painterly Past Event Like List
Robert E. Jackson's exhibition of his collection of Polaroids, cocurated with museum executive director and chief curator Benedict Heywood, is a curious and deeply interesting look into the candid lives of others. All the subjects and authors of these snapshots are unknown to Jackson—the photos are what Heywood described as "pure images." The Polaroid camera was responsible for leveling the playing field when it came to photographic authorship. Anyone could have one, and there was no special training needed to learn how to use it. All you had to do was aim at anything and push a button. The photos don't come across as narrative in and of themselves, but more like beautiful, half-second windows into random people's lives. They certainly appealed to my baser, voyeuristic self, the one whose nose is in everyone's business. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Closing Sunday

THURSDAY

COMEDY

Tiffany Haddish: #SheReady Tour Past Event Like List
Recently seen in Night School and The Oath, Tiffany Haddish might not always appear in movies as good as Girls Trip, but she's still a contender for supreme funny person. See her live.

FILM

British Comedy Classics Past Event Like List
Watch the finest British comedies of the 1940s and ’50s during this weekly series—starting with Basil Dearden's The Smallest Show on Earth, about a couple who inherit a decrepit cinema filled with aging employees.

Nocturnal Emissions Past Event Like List
Local horror queen Isabella Price will host this series of classic slashers and supernatural chillers with a burlesque performance before every screening. This week's film is The People Under the Stairs.

READINGS & TALKS

Lit Fix: Sixth Anniversary Past Event Like List
This will be the last Lit Fix show (a quarterly reading and music series in Seattle) for a while, so don't miss readings from excellent authors and poets Florangela Davila, Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, Jane Wong, and Margot Kahn Case, plus musical guests Joy Mills and Tom Parker of the Joy Mills Band. All proceeds will benefit Team Red.

The Moth Seattle GrandSLAM Past Event Like List
This is the megaslam edition of the Moth, in which winners of previous storySLAMs will battle for the title of GrandSLAM Story Champion. Hear inspiring, embarrassing, enlightening, sometimes enraging stories and take home the Moth's new book Occasional Magic: True Stories About Defying The Impossible (included in the ticket).

The Source Spring Speaker Series: Reimagining Freeways in a Connected Seattle Past Event Like List
Friends of Waterfront Seattle and HistoryLink will host a panel on one of Seattle's thorniest issues: freeway infrastructure. Jennifer Ott will moderate this talk on the debates that preceded the building of the freeway, the demolition of the Alaska Way Viaduct, further works on the I5, and more. 

VISUAL ART

'Painted Dreams, Seasons 1 & 2' Screening Past Event Like List
To the outside observer, mainstream romance novels are a kind of softcore porn consumed by an extremely dedicated, mostly female audience. My mom read them in the layaway line at Walmart, and yours probably did, too. But for Patty Gone, a multimedia artist and poet living in New York City, the books are something else entirely. They're a massive cultural force. Given how well they sell, they basically underwrite the entire production of more "serious" contemporary literature. On March 21, the artist will screen their Painted Dreams video series on a big old projector at Mount Analogue. The series examines American soap operas through academic and personal lenses, combining the soft-focus, satin-pajamas aesthetic of the popular daytime shows with Gone's Bloomingdale window-display style. RICH SMITH

THURSDAY-FRIDAY

COMEDY

The Matchelorette Past Event Like List
Directors Kayla Teel and Michael Draper and a cast of improvisers will recreate the seedy/addictive TV show The Bachelor with contestants eliminated one by one from a competition for true love. Teel and Draper are both magnetic local wits themselves, so we're anticipating a rose-worthy run of this new spontaneous play.

THURSDAY-SATURDAY

COMEDY

Ali Siddiq Past Event Like List
Houston comic Ali Siddiq spent six years in prison for cocaine possession. There, he honed his comedy chops and storytelling skills before, uh, a captive audience, so you know he’s hungry and grateful every time he grips a mic on the outside. As a black man, Siddiq has accumulated a trove of humorous observations about the foibles of white people—how they excel at complaining, how they deal with crying babies on flights, their exuberant love of trail mix. He’s also constructed sidesplitting tales about being high on mushrooms and his time behind bars. His story is as inspirational as his bits are funny. DAVE SEGAL

PERFORMANCE

Ms. Pak-Man: Mazed and Confused Past Event Like List
Ms. Pak-Man is a bright yellow disaster portrayed by local comedy hero Scott Shoemaker (Ian Bell's Brown Derby Series and Homo for the Holidays), and she'll be back in voracious form for another adventure.

THURSDAY-SUNDAY

COMEDY

Intersections Festival Past Event Like List
Improv comedy queens Natasha Ransom, Jekeva Phillips, and Kinzie Shaw are organizing a festival for performers who identify as LGBTQ+, are of color, and/or have disabilities. Phillips asks: “Seattle is a diverse city. Why are we only seeing the same faces and hearing the same voices?” Rejoice in representation and see burlesque, improv, theater, dance, and music acts, plus a party.

PERFORMANCE

Balloonacy Past Event Like List
I don’t have children, so I can’t say if babies will like Balloonacy, one of the cutest pieces of theater made for young children in recent years. But I once saw Balloonacy at Minneapolis’s Children’s Theatre Company stoned out of my mind, and WOW, is it one of the most magical things to ever be created for the stage. It’s a wordless, situational comedy about an old man who lives alone and is trying to celebrate his birthday when suddenly, red balloons bust into his apartment to tease and tickle him. It’s basically an allegory for socialism, but for kids. CHASE BURNS

Director's Choice Past Event Like List
Pacific Northwest Ballet artistic director Peter Boal will give us what we've been waiting for all year: a compelling collection of contemporary ballets that push boundaries and make the form feel alive again. This year, he's presenting world premieres from American choreographers Robyn Mineko Williams and Matthew Neenan, plus Justin Peck's In the Countenance of Kings. My prediction is the new pieces will be romantic, abstract, and slightly nostalgic. Then Peck's piece, enlivened by Sufjan Stevens's swirling, sylvan score, will pull us out of the past and ready us for a newly dawning spring. RICH SMITH

John Past Event Like List
A young couple trying to reknit after a cheating incident is haunted by ghosts at their bed and breakfast getaway—and the owner of the house has memories of her own. Annie Baker's play was listed as one of the 10 Best Shows of 2015 by Time and received critical praise all around.

Moisture Festival Past Event Like List
Moisture Festival is devoted to the variety of performers Seattle has fostered over the years, from circus acts to comedians, burlesque dancers to musicians, and jugglers to tap dancers. Variété is the main, recurring event, with a rotating lineup, and there are also matinée and rather racier late-night versions. The bawdy Libertease Cabaret is for adults only and features burlesque dancers and scantily clothed aerial performers. There are also workshops, talks, and special opening and closing nights. New guest artists this year include French clowning duo Viktor Levillon and Alexis De Bouvere, comedian Mike Wood, and juggler Anne Küpper. If you love circus acrobatics, clowning, comedy, and/or sexy dance, you owe it to yourself to go.

FRIDAY

FOOD & DRINK

Brewology Past Event Like List
What if your sixth-grade museum field trip grew up to be the boozy evening of your dreams? Such is the premise behind this geeked-out craft beer fest, where you’re invited to imbibe as many four-ounce samples as you can handle from breweries and cideries and learn the science behind your favorite beverages. Talk to the brewmasters to get the scoop on their processes, take a toasty trip through the Science Center, and participate in hoppy hands-on activities and demonstrations that would make Bill Nye proud. JULIANNE BELL

READINGS & TALKS

Andy Lee Roth: Censored 2019 Past Event Like List
Andy Lee Roth's Censored 2019: Fighting the Fake News Invasion highlights important news stories covered by independent journalists (but ignored by mainstream news sources) from 2017 to 2018. Join the author for a reading. 

The Intimacy of Distance: Matthew Zapruder and Catherine Barnett Past Event Like List
Writer and poetry editor Matthew Zapruder (Wave Books, a Stranger Genius nominee) and poet Catherine Burnett (Human Hours) will converse about their years of correspondence and literary experimentation. 

FRIDAY-SATURDAY

PERFORMANCE

Marie, Dancing Still: A New Musical Past Event Like List
This new musical from Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens, and five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman shines a light on the life of Marie van Goethem, a young "opera rat," as they called ballerina students at the Paris Opera in the 19th century, who inspired Degas's Little Dancer Aged 14. The sculpture was the only one the impressionist master ever displayed in public. Though critics of the era praised the piece, they also "protested almost unanimously that she was ugly," according to the National Gallery of Art, mostly because they were fucking losers. Flaherty and Ahrens's story takes you behind the curtain of a cutthroat world of ballet, where a bunch of young, working-class girls have to beg, borrow, steal, and land a perfect grand jeté to get ahead. New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck will play the title role. RICH SMITH

Showing Out: Word & Shout! Past Event Like List
Dani Tirrell curates this performance showcase for emerging Northwest-based black poets, screenwriters, novelists, playwrights, spoken word artists, and wordsmiths.

Valtesse Past Event Like List
For those with a yen for high-end kink, the performers of Valtesse will revel in opulent "couture burlesque, aerial, whips, chains, dance, and doms." Wear black, red, and/or fetish gear to fit in, and stay on after the show for a party by the fireplace.

VISUAL ART

Mike McCready and Kate Neckel: Sway Past Event Like List
Mike McCready of Pearl Jam joins energetic abstract artist Kate Neckel for a multimedia exhibition featuring music, collage, painting, and more.
Opening Friday

FRIDAY-SUNDAY

FOOD & DRINK

Plate of Nations Past Event Like List
Every year, Plate of Nations presents a two-week-long opportunity to avail ourselves of the rich and varied cuisines of Rainier Valley, with shareable plates priced at $20 and $30. This year, 14 restaurants are participating, with Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, Peruvian, Mexican, Mediterranean, and more represented in the mix. Among the highlights are Szechuan fare from Little Chengdu, smoky Peruvian charcoal-roasted rotisserie chicken from Big Chickie, inimitable tacos from Tacos Chukis, and Ethiopian food from Cafe Ibex. “If you’ve never been to Cafe Ibex... you’re missing out on some of the best food in town,” former Stranger food editor Angela Garbes once wrote about the event. “South Seattle is where it’s at. Catch up." JULIANNE BELL

PERFORMANCE

Keyon Gaskin: [lavender]: a self portrait Past Event Like List
This On the Boards production brings Portland artist Keyon Gaskin and collaborators to perform this "self-portrait," whose title is not meant to be words but the actual color. [lavender] debuted at the 2018 American Realness fest in New York. This dance will be performed by a rotating cast of locals. 

SATURDAY

COMEDY

Bechdel Test Past Event Like List
In a better world than this, female characters in films would talk about whatever the fuck they please—say, horses, cramps, or ongoing global disasters at the hands of a small-fingered megalomaniac. But all too often in this world, female characters, when they talk to each other at all, discuss one thing and one thing only: men. There’s even a term for it—the Bechdel Test, named for the cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who, in a 1985 comic strip, featured a character explaining that she goes to a movie only if it has at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. Inspired by the Bechdel Test, Jet City Improv re-creates films that fail the test, but with a Bechdel-approved twist. You name the movie; they make it pass. KATIE HERZOG

Maria Bamford Past Event Like List
Maria Bamford is a singular force in stand-up comedy. You can sense she’s striving mightily to maintain a serene, reasonable facade, but her mercurial thoughts and the world’s ridiculousness—from mundane to profound—keep busting through the restraints. Hilarious observations and impersonations gush forth, often through gritted teeth. Bamford’s stream of consciousness swerves in unexpected directions and often gets uncomfortably personal and realer than almost anyone who’s spoken into a mic onstage. Although her act sometimes resembles the late Robin Williams’s, Bamford’s delivery is calmer—and more unnerving. How she alchemizes her grave mental-health issues into comedy gold is a miraculous feat. DAVE SEGAL

Uncanny Comedy Festival Presents Hannibal Buress Past Event Like List
As Dave Segal has written, "As famous for his acting credits for Broad City, The Eric Andre Show, Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, Daddy's Home, and other funny films and television shows as he is for accusing fellow comedian/actor Bill Cosby of rape, Buress is a masterly storyteller whose anecdotes keep accruing layers of hilarity as they go." Buress will appear with Jeff Dye, Jubal Fresh, and Jessimae Peluso.

FILM

Scarecrow Academy 1959: The Greatest Year in Film History Past Event Like List
The video rental library's new series contends that 1959 was the best year in film history ever. It saw "a high point of Hollywood studio filmmaking, the rise of new independent cinema, the great flowering of international movies, and the beginning of the French New Wave." Film critic Robert Horton will delve into the highlights of this landmark year, including tonight's Fires on the Plain.

FOOD & DRINK

20th Annual Washington Cask Beer Festival Past Event Like List
Lester Black calls cask ale “the most underappreciated beer style in Seattle,” noting that its “mellow carbonation, smooth flavor, and not-quite-cold serving temperature perfectly complement never-ending rainy days.” Try it for yourself at this festival featuring cask-conditioned beers from more than 40 different Washington breweries. JULIANNE BELL

Museum of Glass Eighth Annual Slider Cook-off Past Event Like List
The Museum of Glass will celebrate eight years around the sun with their annual slider cook-off, featuring fiery glassblowing by artist John Miller and live music "inspired by Jimmy Buffett." The theme is "Key West," so dress like you're a fancy person who lives in Florida. 

READINGS & TALKS

Catherine Bresner, Sarah A. Chavez, Heather June Gibbons Past Event Like List
Hear work by Catherine Bresner, author of The Merriam Webster Series and Everyday Eros; Sarah A. Chavez, who wrote Hands That Break & Scar and All Day, Talking; and Heather June Gibbons, who created Her Mouth as Souvenir, Sore Songs, and Flyover.

Dana Grigorcea with Alta L. Price Past Event Like List
Swiss Romanian writer Dana Grigorcea and her translator Alta L. Price will come to Seattle for a reading of the newly released English language edition of Grigorcea's novel An Instinctive Feeling of Innocence, which follows a woman who returns home to Bucharest during the Ceausescu regime.

Poetry Brunch Past Event Like List
Hear from some interesting poets—Stranger favorite Sarah Galvin and Vinnie Sarrocco, Meredith Clark, Vi Tranchemontagne, Sonya Vatomsky, and Alexis Lopez—while you linger over a special brunch menu. 

SATURDAY-SUNDAY

FILM

Seattle Jewish Film Festival Past Event Like List
This annual film festival explores and celebrates global Jewish and Israeli life, history, complexity, culture, and filmmaking. It showcases international, independent, and award-winning Jewish-themed and Israeli cinema, and the audience votes on their favorites. Most of the films are shown in March; in April, the fest migrates to the Eastside. This year's VIP guest is Jamie Bernstein, author and daughter of the famous composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story, Candide). Special events will include a performance by Garfield High School Jazz Combo, the Sunday Klezmer Brunch & Sports Film, and the Sephardic Spotlight.

VISUAL ART

yəhaw̓ Past Event Like List
Mark the opening of a new arts space Past Event Like List in Seattle by attending the opening exhibition, yəhaw̓, curated by Tracy Rector (Choctaw/Seminole), Asia Tail (Cherokee Nation), and Satpreet Kahlon and featuring 200 pieces by indigenous artists working in all sorts of media.
Opening Saturday

SUNDAY

COMEDY

Stand-Up for SheJumps Past Event Like List
Have some laughs with Kelly Hannah, Alyssa Yeoman, Erin Ingle, Jennifer Burdette, El Sanchez, and Monica Nevi in support of SheJumps!, an organization that aims to increase the participation of women and girls in outdoor activities.

FOOD & DRINK

Northwest Women Stars of Food & Wine Past Event Like List
This annual reception gathers tastemaking women chefs, winemakers, and sommeliers of the Pacific Northwest (and their fans) in the Columbia Tower for a night of bites and drinks. The lineup this year includes Monica Dimas, chef and owner of Neon Taco, Westman's Bagel and Coffee, and Little Neon Taco; chef and “hummus maven” Kristi Brown, owner of That Brown Girl Cooks!; chef Nicole Matson of How to Cook a Wolf; Tana Mielke, chef and owner of Omega Ouzeri; Emme Ribeiro Collins, chef and owner of Alcove Dining Room; and many others. Besides food, there are exclusive tastings from sommeliers, plus wine, beer, cider, spirits, and a sparkling wine bar. The event raises funds for the SOS Clinic, a free urgent-care clinic in Walla Walla serving uninsured migrant workers. JULIANNE BELL

Whiskey & Waffles Brunch Past Event Like List
Trade the cup of coffee you'd usually have with your morning waffles for a glass of fine whiskey.

READINGS & TALKS

Becoming: An Intimate Conversation with Michelle Obama Past Event Like List
Michelle Obama is touring the country in support of her memoir, Becoming, which focuses on different aspects of her life, like being a mother, her time in the White House, her role as a public-health figure, and “how she found her voice.” I bought this book for my mom for Christmas—she refers to the former first lady as her “best friend” and she snatched up tickets to this event (which had to be pushed back because of Snowpocalypse 2019) as soon as they became available. There’s no doubt that Michelle will drop cute facts about her relationship with Barack, tell a few candid details about what it’s like to be at the top, and wear something completely and utterly stunning. JASMYNE KEIMIG

Seven Things I've Learned: An Evening with Ira Glass Past Event Like List
The creator of This American Life, Ira Glass, not only hosts his own blockbuster radio show and podcast, but he’s also produced film and television, danced with a famed ballerina company, DJed with our own DJ Dan Savage, and influenced an entire generation of current storytellers and radio producers. If there’s a podcast you love, chances are, Ira Glass has had some kind of influence on it, and he’ll be talking about both his life and his work when he brings his latest act to Olympia. KATIE HERZOG