This month's biggest Pride event Past Event Like List takes place online this weekend, and there's a slew of other noteworthy virtual events (Pride-themed and otherwise) leading up to it. See our picks for the week below, from book-release parties with Stacey Abrams Past Event Like List and Asako Serizawa Past Event Like List to TUSH Pride Past Event Like List . Plus, explore our complete guides to Pride Month Like List and COVID-safe in-person things to do in Seattle.
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MONDAY
FILM
Queer Pride at Three Dollar Bill Cinema
Past Event
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Three Dollar Bill is celebrating Pride with a stellar program of indie films centering queer and trans identities, including Emma Seligman's Shiva Baby, Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust, and Aleksandr M. Vinogradov's Bare, plus a program of shorts.
MUSIC
Make Music Day Seattle
Past Event
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What began in France as the Fête de la Musique in 1982 is now a worldwide summer solstice tradition that spans 120 countries and 800 cities. In Seattle, participating local venues will host music lessons, drum circles, jam sessions, and more music-related activities for all ages and experience levels (not to mention tons of live performances) online.
READINGS & TALKS
Blake Scott Ball with Gary Groth: The Popular Politics of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts
Past Event
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While it may have passed its glory days, even those who didn't grow up reading Charles Schultz's prolific Peanuts comic series know that Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and the rest of the gang are household names. Join Blake Scott Ball as he discusses his new book, Charlie Brown's America: The Popular Politics of Peanuts, which details how the comic strip used a wholesome format to explore the social and political turmoil of the postwar era.
Juneteenth Encore + Black Music Month Monday Program
Past Event
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Seasoned music expert and entertainment industry vet Paul Porter will "unveil the real nature and motivations behind the music that gets played on radio and TV" in this online program presented by Town Hall and the Northwest African American Museum.
Mark Petterson with Rebecca Brown
Past Event
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Seattle-based poet Mark Petterson will recite selections for his recent book, Transfiguration, alongside be Rebecca Brown, a senior member of the MFA faculty at Goddard College and University of Washington, Bothell.
TUESDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Ask a Novelist with Laurie Frankel
Past Event
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Beloved Seattle writer Laurie Frankel (whose long-awaited new novel, One Two Three, takes a fresh approach to the classic story of a seemingly idyllic small town hiding dark secrets) will impart wisdom to budding writers in this Hugo House Q&A.
Emily Rapp Black with Lidia Yuknavitch
Past Event
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In her new memoir, Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg, Emily Rapp Black holds a conversation with Frida Kahlo's famous work The Two Fridas, which, as an amputee from childhood, she felt an instant connection to. The New York Times-bestselling memoirist will discuss her latest work with acclaimed author Lidia Yuknavitch.
The History of Anti-Asian Hatred and the WWII Japanese-American Incarceration
Past Event
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Join Densho director Tom Ikeda for a history lesson on the World War II-era incarceration of Japanese Americans, including his own grandparents.
Mortada Gzar with William Hutchins & Christopher Merrill
Past Event
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In his memoir I'm in Seattle, Where Are You? Iraqi novelist and short story writer Mortaa Gzar shares how a chance encounter with a U.S. soldier from Seattle drew him away from his native Basar and toward the Emerald City for love, just as Donald Trump was elected president and spewing anti-Muslim hate. Gzar will be joined on Elliott Bay's virtual stage by his translator, William Hutchins, and poet/essayist Christopher Merrill.
Stacey Abrams and Cari Champion
Past Event
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The Georgia politician, anti-voter suppression activist, and leader of the Southern Economic Advancement Project (which is currently focused on addressing pandemic recovery in the Deep South) will celebrate the paperback release of her book Our Time is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America. She'll be joined in conversation by broadcast journalist Cari Champion.
THURSDAY
MUSIC
Beethoven Eroica Symphony
Past Event
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Seattle Symphony principal tuba player John DiCesare will open this virtual program with Arild Plau's Tuba Concerto before the full symphony performs Beethoven's Eroica Symphony.
PERFORMANCE
Plays in Process: A Ritchie Valens Musical
Past Event
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Seattle Rep will explore the creation of A Ritchie Valens Musical, which imagines a world where the plane that killed the Chicano rock pioneer (and Buddy Holly and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson) landed safely.
TUSH Pride 2021
Past Event
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No need to claw your way through a crowd of tall strangers to get a view of the stage where specials guests (including Stasia Coup CarLarans, Arrietty, Killer Bunny, and One) and TUSH residents (Arson Nicki, Angel Baby Kill Kill Kill, Beau Degas, Miss Texas 1988, and Betty Wetter) will be performing for this special Pride show—it's virtual this year! It's hosted by the one and only Cookie Couture
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READINGS & TALKS
Asako Serizawa with Akil Kumarasamy
Past Event
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Published in January at the height of the pandemic, Asako Serizawa's debut novel, Inheritors, compounds stories of multiple generations of people experiencing versions of the same struggles in Asia and in the U.S. "Each character in these stories is occupied and occupier, trapped in a moral and existential crisis that's unnerving because it's evergreen, because the nature of human tragedy is our own making and the lessons we keep learning never seem to take," writes NPR's Marcela Davison Aviles. Join Serizawa for a reading alongside Akil Kumarasamy (Half Gods) in honor of the novel's paperback release.
PRIDE
Celebrate Pride with The Evergrey and Seattle Gay News
Past Event
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A panel of community leaders (Jeff Sakuma of the AIDS Memorial Pathway Project, Dee Ireland Lewis of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Shelley Brothers of Wildrose, and Alanna Francis of Three Dollar Bill Cinema) will discuss Capitol Hill's evolving relationship to Seattle’s LGBTQ+ community.
SATURDAY
FESTIVALS
Virtual Japan Fair
Past Event
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Hear music, take workshops, learn about culture, and buy goods from Japan at this online arts and culture fest.
FILM
Pr0n 4 Freakz
Past Event
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ScumTrust Productions and NWFF are back at it with a program of queer and trans smut. Stay logged on after the dirty movie for a Q&A on sex, pleasure, queerness, and gender with the creators, Saira and Alistair, and special guests.
PRIDE
Seattle Dyke March
Past Event
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In place of its annual in-person event, march to your couch for the Seattle Dyke March's virtual performance showcase with dancer Tracey Wong, burlesque artist Luna Sol, indie-pop singer-songwriter Delphine Elliott, and spoken-word artist Grae Violet.
READINGS & TALKS
Susan Herrmann Loomis
Past Event
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Spend your Saturday morning with Susan Herrmann Loomis (the author of In a French Kitchen, On Rue Tatin, and French Grill) as she shares her approach to the two-course meal using simple and wholesome recipes from her new cookbook, Plat du Jour: French Dinners Made Easy.
SUNDAY
MUSIC
Staycation: Festa Junina Livestream w/ En Canto & Xaxado Mission
Past Event
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West Coast Brazilian forró bands En Canto and Xaxado Mission will celebrate Festa Junina (an annual Brazilian summer festival) with a virtual concert.
MULTI-DAY
FILM
The Things Around Us
Past Event
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Local luminary Ahamefule Oluo, who stars in Charles Mudede's latest feature film Thin Skin, breaks from his usual ensemble in a new music video presented by Meany Center as part of the University of Washington’s Arts and Creativity Initiative. See it on demand, and be sure to tune in to a live Q&A with Oluo on opening night.
(Friday-Sunday)
PERFORMANCE
Akwaaba: Healing a Queer Black Soul
Past Event
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Through "poetry, sound, ritual, and monologue," artist Naa Akua's one-person show explores the Black queer healing process through their own personal narrative.
(Thursday-Friday)
Dance Happens Everywhere: PNB's Digital Season Encore
Past Event
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Serving triple duty as the finale of its digital season, a good-bye to its departing dancers (including principal dancer William Lin-Yee and soloist Leah Merchant), and a thank-you to its loyal patrons, Pacific Northwest Ballet will present a season encore performance of favorites from this past year, as well as world premieres choreographed by company members Ezra Thomson and Christopher D'Ariano spotlighting Mr. Lin-Yee and Ms. Merchant, respectively.
(Monday-Tuesday)
The Odyssey
Past Event
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Penelope and the goddess Athena get a chance to share their perspective on Odysseus’s journey home to Ithaca in this retelling of the classic Greek epic, adapted by Trixie Paprika from the translation by Emily Wilson (the first woman to translate The Odyssey). Featuring original music by Stuart Zobel and filmed at Theatre Off Jackson, this production "offers a lyrical and cinematic take on the classic," says Noveltease Theatre.
(Monday-Friday)
The Race & Climate Change Festival
Past Event
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Choreographer Donald Byrd and his troupe challenge audiences to confront urgent issues of our time, tackling racial justice issues of the changing earth with a month of virtual performances. According to press materials, the festival is based on the London design firm Squint/Opera's The Flooded London series, which visualizes a semi-submerged London in the year 2090. Expect intersections of science, race, Afro-futurism, and philosophy.
(All week)
PRIDE
Seattle Virtual Pride 2021: Resilience
Past Event
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In lieu of an IRL parade, Seattleites can sport their assless chaps and rainbow unitards at home for Seattle Pride's free (!) celebrity-packed online festival, headlined by the Queen of Bounce Big Freedia, and bolstered by the likes of Mary Lambert, Perfume Genius, YouTube sensation mxmtoon, burlesque performer Miss Violet DeVille, glamorous drag queen/trivia hostess Betty Wetter, and Cookie Couture. Also, look forward to lots of family-friendly entertainment and a breakdown of trans identities in horror films with Isabella Von Ghoul.
(Saturday-Sunday)