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MONDAY

READINGS & TALKS

Author Talk: Tu David Phu, The Memory of Taste Past Event Like List
Oakland-raised chef, Top Chef alum, and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Tu David Phu, executive chef and managing partner at the Las Vegas restaurant District One, cut his culinary teeth working in some of the country's most prestigious restaurants, but he later realized that it was his Vietnamese refugee parents who imparted the most important lessons, including but not limited to "frugality, food-covery cooking, and practical gill-to-fin eating." His new book The Memory of Taste: Vietnamese American Recipes from Phú Quoc, Oakland, and the Spaces Between captures this resourceful, pragmatic spirit with childhood memories, stories of his family's life on Phú Quốc, stunning photography, and tips on everything from fish butchering to whipping up Dungeness crab donburi. He'll be joined by local author Susan Lieu, who wrote the heart-wrenching memoir The Manicurist's Daughter. JB
(Book Larder, Fremont)

Nhi Yến Đỗ Trần Past Event Like List
Debut author and Cherry Blossom Sangha cofounder Nhi Yến Đỗ Trần, who immigrated to the United States from Vietnam at 10, tracks the development of Buddhist practice in the United States in Budding Lotus in the West. Buddhism sometimes functions as an enlightenment catch-all in the states, a tradition that Westerners turn to in an open-ended quest for self-actualization. But what would the Buddha say about, like, abortion? Guns? Gender equality? Trần's critical examination offers both a crash course in key Buddhist concepts and a mosaic of her personal experiences with the practice. LC
(Elliott Bay Book Company, Capitol Hill)

PERFORMANCE

Who? Weekly Past Event Like List
I'm outing myself as a millennial when I admit that I look back fondly on Bobby Finger's time as a regular contributor at Jezebel. Thankfully, Finger is still funny and is now one-half of the comedy pod Who? Weekly, alongside friend and NYC freelancer Lindsey Weber. Together, they dutifully describe the hijinks of various C-list celebs through deep dives, listener call-ins, and games. Are you the target audience for Who? Weekly? Here is a test. How many of these names do you recognize: Grier Henchy, Sab Zada, Drew Starkey, Crispian Mills? If you said something like "none," and are now desperately fighting the urge to Google each one, you should instead head to this live taping of the pod. LC
(Neptune Theatre, University District)

TUESDAY

LIVE MUSIC

Empress Of Past Event Like List
I became enamored of the Honduran American songwriter, musician, and producer Lorely Rodriguez, better known by her stage name Empress Of, after seeing her open for Carly Rae Jepsen in 2023. Rodriguez took her stage name from the Empress tarot card, representing the divine feminine, and it's not hard to see why—she channeled pure sensuality and power as she commanded the audience's attention, gyrating to sexy bangers like "Save Me" and "Wild Girl." On her latest release, the bilingual album For Your Consideration, she deftly plays with power dynamics within love, sex, and the entertainment industry and has fun doing it. The "Jolene" tribute "Lorelei" casts her as a home-wrecking femme fatale, while the single "Femenine" expresses her desire for a subservient man: "Sabes que yo soy tu daddy," she purrs. JB
(Neumos, Capitol Hill)

Faye Webster Past Event Like List
Faye Webster's star has been steadily shining since her 2013 debut Run and Tell was released when she was just sixteen years old. But it wasn't until her 2021 album, I Know I'm Funny haha, that things really began to take off. Seriously, "In A Good Way" has nearly 50 million streams on Spotify. The album mixes soft R&B with a country-folk twang while utilizing her whispery soft vocal quality to deliver cheeky lyrics about basketball, falling in love, greedy landlords, and owning your sense of humor. Webster will play songs from her highly anticipated follow-up album, Underdressed at the Symphony, alongside Japanese indie pop artist Mei Ehara. AV
(Paramount Theatre, Downtown)

Jack White Past Event Like List
One of my biggest regrets is missing Prince's intimate set at the Showbox in 2013.  As a senior in high school, I couldn't scrounge up enough babysitting money for the $75 ticket. Needless to say, that ended up being my last opportunity to see the icon perform live. I'm not saying that Jack White is anywhere near Prince in terms of potential regret-ablility. But regardless of the performer, it's a rare treat to see an arena-touring artist at a standing-room-only venue. Relish in the opportunity to see the garage-rock revivalist, real-life vampire, Third Man Records founder, and half of the White Stripes as he swings through Seattle for an impromptu concert. AV
(The Showbox, Downtown)

READINGS & TALKS

Tegan & Sara Book Tour: Crush Past Event Like List
The celesbian indie pop twin sister duo Tegan & Sara's new middle-grade graphic novel Crush, a follow-up to the previous installment Junior High, is created in collaboration with queer cartoonist superstar Tillie Walden and deals with the agony and ecstasy of adolescence, including crushes, puberty, coming out, sisterhood, music, and friendship. The autobiographical series, set in the present day, is "lightly fictionalized" but draws on the Canadian siblings' real experiences. As a fan of the sisters' poignant coming-of-age memoir High School and its Amazon Freevee TV adaptation of the same name, I can't tell you how much a book like this would have meant to me as a tween, and I'm so happy for the Gen Alpha kids who get to grow up with this kind of media. Stop by Washington Hall to see Tegan and Sara speak on everything from first loves to songwriting. JB
(Washington Hall, Squire Park)

WEDNESDAY

LIVE MUSIC

Santigold Past Event Like List
Philly-raised musician Santigold is known for her genre-defying sound that blends electronic, new wave, indie rock, reggae, and hip-hop elements. She will stop by in support of her 2022 album, Spirituals. Describing the album as a "celebration of human resilience," the title is a nod to traditional Black spirituals. "These contained songs that when sung and performed got Black people through the “un-get-through-able” she told Rolling Stone. "That’s what this record did for me." AV
(Showbox SoDo, SoDo)

SPORTS & RECREATION

Seattle Kraken 2024-25 Home Games Remind Like List
Kraken hockey is back, baby! There've been some player additions and staffing changes (a new head coach and the NHL's first woman assistant coach) in the off-season, so we're interested to see what this season will bring. Head to this preseason game against the Edmonton Oilers to get you hyped for the first at-home regular season game on October 8. If you don't have a ticket to a game at Climate Pledge, you can always head to one of these bars to watch. SL
(Climate Pledge Arena, Uptown)

THURSDAY

COMEDY

Flock! Live Queer Comedy Remind Like List
Calling all trans, bi, sapphic, gay, butch, femme, pan, enby, and ally folks! This recurring night of stand-up pulls from the well of Seattle's finest queer comedians, and it's grown to become one of the city's buzziest showcases. This time around, FLOCK! will head to Capitol Hill's newest comedy haunt, so head there to squawk along with the best of 'em. LC
(Comedy/Bar, Capitol Hill)

LIVE MUSIC

illuminati hotties Remind Like List
Even if you haven’t heard indie rock luminary Sarah Tudzin’s name, you’ve probably heard her work. She’s an in-demand producer, mixer, audio engineer, and, since 2018, performer under the stage name Illuminati Hotties. But her meteoric rise in the industry started three years ago. In 2021, she released her third album, Let Me Do One More, on her own Hopeless Records imprint, to critical acclaim. Then she worked on boygenius’ the record and Weyes Blood’s Titanic Rising—arguably two of the most beautiful-sounding records of the last decade—and earlier this year, she won her first Grammy for her work with boygenius. It feels like her talent is finally on full display, and her knack for sonic perfection is clear on her fourth release, POWER, which she described as “all rippers” and “no filler.” She will support the album alongside fellow rock artists Maddie Ross and Daffo. AV
(Neumos, Capitol Hill)

Smokey Robinson Remind Like List
Are you in the mood to see a living legend? Not only has Smokey Robinson thrived as both a solo performer and with Motown vocal group the Miracles, but he has also written countless American standards, like "My Girl," "Tracks Of My Tears," "My Guy," "You've Really Got A Hold On Me," and literally hundreds of others. And, perhaps most notably, he is my cat's favorite singer. AV
(Paramount Theatre, Downtown)

FRIDAY

LIVE MUSIC

Weezer: Voyage To The Blue Planet Tour 2024 Remind Like List
Weezer knows. Despite the massive success the band has seen since the release of their 1994 self-titled debut, Rivers Cuomo and company are perfectly aware that, in some fans’ eyes, they’ll never truly top what has come to be referred to as the Blue Album. With the explosive opening 15 seconds of “My Name is Jonas,” the cheeky “Undone — The Sweater Song,” and the heartwrenched “Only in Dreams,” it is iconic. (And it has aged better than Pinkerton—still love you, though, Pinkerton!) To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Blue Album, the band is heading out on a US tour, Voyage to the Blue Planet, where they’ll play the record from start to finish. To round out the alt-radio rock circa 1995 soundtrack of the evening, the Flaming Lips and Dinosaur Jr. open the show. STRANGER MANAGING EDITOR MEGAN SELING
(Climate Pledge Arena, Uptown)

READINGS & TALKS

In Conversation with Larry David Remind Like List
Jerry Seinfeld is a corny asshole and a tacit supporter of the Israeli government. I don't fuck with that man. Unfortunately, his sitcom did something miraculously right. Every time I see an episode, I'm surprised that it still holds up. And as far as Jerry goes, I'm more of a George-Elaine hybrid, anyway. I don't have to tell you this, though. Co-creator Larry David is the ill-tempered man behind the show about nothing, as well as Curb Your Enthusiasm, which ended in April after 12 seasons. Aside from all the common lore about David, some of the most intriguing insights into his personality come from a 2012 episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee called "Larry Eats a Pancake." In it, he orders an herbal tea (not coffee), puzzles over a pancake, and reports that two pieces of pizza are his idea of "out of control." LC
(Benaroya Hall, Downtown)

SATURDAY

COMEDY

Tim X Lee Remind Like List
Somewhere down the line, PowerPoint went from being a practical, if dull, presentation program to a catalyst for very funny house parties and on-stage nonsense. Biologist-comedian Tim X Lee is at the front of the pack as far as "creative uses of PowerPoint" go. Blending satire, science education, and the Microsoft program, his slides aim for a blend of intellectual backing and hilarity. In other words, you can get drunk at this show and tell everyone you spent the night studying. LC
(Rendezvous, Belltown)

SUNDAY

LIVE MUSIC

PJ Harvey Remind Like List
I saw PJ Harvey back in 2016 while she was supporting her ninth album, The Hope Six Demolition Project. At first, I was disappointed not to hear decades-old tracks from Dry, Rid Of Me, and To Bring You My Love. But, reflecting on the experience, I highly respect her prioritization of new material and willingness to keep evolving. I didn't know it at the time, but her new music is great. Harvey's latest album, I Inside The Old Year Dying, is hushed and ethereal, highlighting her gorgeous falsetto vocals. AV
(Paramount Theatre, Downtown)

MULTI-DAY

EXHIBIT

Almost Live! (Almost an Exhibit) Remind Like List
Seattleites of a certain age who make jokes about Ballard residents driving around with their seatbelts hanging out from underneath closed car doors will be very stoked for the Museum of History and Industry’s newest exhibit. Almost Live! (Almost an Exhibit) is a collection of props, costumes, and clips from the weekly sketch comedy show that defined—and poked fun at—the Pacific Northwest region from 1984 to 1999. STRANGER MANAGING EDITOR MEGAN SELING
(MOHAI, South Lake Union, Monday–Sunday)

FALL

20th Annual Great Pumpkin Beer Festival Remind Like List
Though pumpkin beer is a decidedly divisive beverage, Elysian Brewing Company's annual squash-themed festival continues to draw fans, celebrating 20 years this October. The great pumpkin in question—a gigantic gourd weighing in at several hundred pounds—is scooped out, scorched, filled with pumpkin beer, sealed, conditioned, and tapped at the event. What's more, over 80 pumpkin beers, including around 20 from Elysian, will be poured. All proceeds benefit the all-ages programming at the Vera Project. JB
(Seattle Center, Uptown, Friday–Saturday)

Leavenworth Oktoberfest Remind Like List
Washington's own Bavarian-styled village hosts three weekends of Oktoberfest fun, filled with traditional food and drink, music and dance performances across three stages, and a kinderplatz (aka kids’ zone) complete with a 62-foot ferris wheel. Quench your thirst with imported German beer and wine and satiate your hunger with bratwurst—there's even non-alcoholic, vegan, and gluten-free options. Each Saturday starts with a polka band-led festzug march through town, and keg tappings are held daily. Prost! SL
(Leavenworth, Friday–Saturday)

Oktoberfest Northwest Remind Like List
This three-day, Munich-inspired Oktoberfest celebration boasts German-style food, steinfuls of beer, and live entertainment, including traditional music and dance performances alongside '80s cover bands. Festivities include the "Bavarian Bier-lympics," a "sports haus," and a hammerschlagen tournament, where folks compete to throw a hammer in the air, catch it, and drive a nail into a stump. There's an entire day focused on the dog-variety of wieners, including a trivia challenge, longest wiener contest, peanut butter lick contest, and the popular wiener dog races. Families can enjoy the Stein Dash 5K, a root beer garden, pumpkin decorating, and more until 6 pm when the event goes 21-and-up. SL
(Washington State Fair Events Center, Puyallup, Friday–Sunday)

FESTIVALS

Bainbridge Book Festival Remind Like List
Bainbridge Island's inaugural book festival offers all the typical elements you'd expect from an event of its kind—readings, panels, author signings, Q&A sessions–with the bonus of a scenic day trip to Bainbridge Island. (Maybe you'll spy some autumnal foliage. Picture it now: Latte in hand, signed books, crunchy leaves. You're welcome.) Anyway, Friday's ticketed launch event will celebrate novelist Nicola Yoon's One of Our Kind, but Saturday's events are free, with much-loved authors like Sloane Crosley, Sonora Jha, Neely Tubati-Alexander, Jonathan Evison, Michela Tartaglia, Jon Mooallem, and Chelsea Bieker in conversation. LC
(Bainbridge Island, Friday–Saturday)

Taste of Iceland Remind Like List
Did you know Seattle and Reykjavik are sister cities? In fact, Seattle is home to more Icelandic people than anywhere else in the United States. To celebrate Iceland’s culture, Seattle hosts an annual Taste of Iceland festival filled with frosty festivities. This year, you’ll be transported to the magical Nordic land with a free concert featuring up-and-coming Icelandic artists at KEXP, an Icelandic cocktail class, special tasting menus, a DJ session at Shibuya HiFi, a conversation with bestselling crime novelists Ragnar Jónasson and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, and more. Don't forget to spin the Icelandair prize wheel; you could win a trip to Iceland! SL
(Various locations, Thursday–Saturday)

FILM

Against Civilization: Six Films Past Event Like List
The Beacon's latest film series is a solid way to engage in some not-so-subtle nihilism. Against Civilization's flicks emphasize a quote by anarcho-primitivist John Zerzan: “As our plight deepens, we glimpse how much must be erased for our redemption.” Whew. On September 27, the series will continue with The Last Wave, directed by Australian New Wave dreamer Peter Weir (Picnic at Hanging Rock) and described as "part murder mystery, part apocalyptic nightmare." LC
(The Beacon, Columbia City, Monday–Tuesday)

All Monsters Attack! 2024 Remind Like List
October rolls around, and suddenly, everyone wants to watch vampires, ghosts, and cannibals get their freak on. Typical!!! If you're also feeling the sudden urge to stress yourself out with Cronenberg and Murnau, All Monsters Attack! has your back. The series shudders to life this month with creepy greats like the colonial-era cannibal tale Ravenous, the Nicolas Cage campy cult flick Vampire's Kiss, Roger Corman's The Masque of the Red Death, and a screening of Nosferatu set to a Radiohead score, which should get you amped for Eggers' remake releasing in December. LC
(Grand Illusion, University District, Tuesday–Sunday)

2024 HUMP! Part Two Remind Like List
Dan Savage's pioneering erotic film fest premiered an all-new lineup of sexy films featuring all genders and orientations earlier this year. Since 2005, HUMP! has brought inclusive, creative, and kinky films to the big screen—and since this year's fest features not one but two feature-length lineups, you can scope out the sex-positive fest yet again for a tantalizing treat. Part two includes 25 brand-spanking-new feasts for your eyeballs, including "smokin' hot paranormal encounters, a mind-bending space carnival, spine-tingling ASMR, [and] all the thermal eye candy you can eat." It's worth a venture outside of your sex dungeon, but you can still wear the latex catsuit. LC
(On the Boards, Uptown, Thursday–Saturday)

Scarecrowber Remind Like List
Physical media mavens Scarecrow Video, the city's own nonprofit video archive and resident experts on all things cinematic, are celebrating Halloween all month long at SIFF Cinema Egyptian. (Horror flicks are "every video store clerk's favorite genre," says SIFF, and I'm inclined to believe it.) Show Scarecrow some love by checking out the flicks they've curated for the series. The selection is solid, with a range of familiar freakshows and rarely screened deeper cuts. Scarecrowber will ooze to life with George Franju's Eyes Without a Face, the '71 creep fest Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, Dario Argento's Opera, The Strangers (the '08 original, which is actually terrifying), and other scares. LC
(SIFF Cinema Egyptian, Capitol Hill, Wednesday–Sunday)

16th Annual Seattle Latino Film Festival Remind Like List
This year's Seattle Latino Film Festival closes out National Hispanic Heritage Month with vital cross-cultural perspectives from 21 Hispanic and romance language-speaking countries. Venues city-wide will host screenings for the festival's 16th annual edition; I'm stoked for the opening night screening of The Shadow of the Sun, which "addresses themes relevant to the deaf community, marking a special tribute to inclusivity and representation," and a slate of Iberoamerican short films screening at the Beacon. LC
(Various locations, Friday–Saturday)

The Shining Past Event Like List
Perhaps one of my most "well, duh" opinions is that The Shining is fucking awesome. The book, of course, but also Stanley Kubrick's slow-burn masterpiece, even if Stephen King hates it. The flick's spine-chilling setting, replete with lonely halls and snowy mazes, owes a hefty amount of its dramatic effect to the Pacific Northwest, too—it features the iconic exterior of the Timberline Lodge. Also, if you need more convincing, the recently passed scream queen Shelley Duvall graces the screen, whether or not Nicholson and Kubrick really deserved her. All work and no play makes anyone a dull boy, so check into Room 237 (aka SIFF Cinema Downtown) for this fresh 4K restoration. LC
(SIFF Cinema Downtown, Belltown, Monday–Wednesday)

SIFF DocFest Remind Like List
Celebrating all things documentary again this year, SIFF's DocFest includes screenings of recent festival faves like the Berlin Film Festival’s 2024 Golden Bear Winner Dahomey. There's a lot to love about this year's festival lineup. I'm jazzed for Yintah, a "riveting thriller recounting an Indigenous nation’s fight for sovereignty," Nesa Azimi's Driver, which follows the lives of female long-haul truckers, New Wave, a moody glimpse at Vietnam's '80s new wave music scene, Searching for Amani, in which a 13-year-old aspiring journalist "investigates his father’s mysterious murder within one of Kenya’s largest wildlife conservancies," and Wilding, based solely upon this photo of a little piglet. LC
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown, Thursday–Sunday)

HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

MEXAM NW Festival 2024 Remind Like List
Hispanic Heritage Month runs from mid-September to mid-October, a period during which many Latin American countries celebrate their national independence days. MEXAM NW Festival is an exhilarating multi-event, multi-venue festival curated by the Consulate of Mexico in Seattle that showcases the vibrancy of Hispanic and Mexican American culture. The festival concludes in mid-October with a Día de los Muertos concert. Expect tons of Latin American food, mariachi bands, folk dancing, arts and craft markets, and community joy. SL
(Various locations, Thursday–Sunday)

LIVE MUSIC

Bonnie Raitt: Just Like That...Tour 2024 Remind Like List
Last year, 73-year-old blues rock legend Bonnie Raitt won the coveted Grammy for Song of the Year, beating out pop radio heavies like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Lizzo, and Adele—and for good reason! Although some of her most popular songs weren’t penned by her ("Angel From Montgomery" and "Something to Talk About"), Raitt's albums have included original music since the start—my favorite being "Thank You" off her 1971 debut. After a long career of her covered material taking center stage, it was amazing to see Raitt's songwriting talents finally get the recognition they deserve. She will support the award-winning album Just Like That... for two consecutive nights at the Paramount alongside blue-eyed soul maven James Hunter. AV
(Paramount Theatre, Downtown, Friday–Saturday)

PERFORMANCE

Guards at the Taj Remind Like List
Rajiv Joseph's Obie Award-winning play follows two Imperial Guards in 17th-century India, where from their morning post, they gaze upon the newly completed Taj Mahal. Okay, just pause for a moment and imagine that. Here's an image if you need help. Got it? Now meet me back here. The narrative grows complicated when the pair are ordered to perform an "unthinkable task"—per the New York Times review of the production, Guards at the Taj "raises potent questions about the human price paid throughout history." LC
(ArtsWest, Junction, Monday–Sunday)

LIZZIE: A Rock Musical in 40 Whacks Remind Like List
I know what I like, and what I like is musical theater based on legendary murder mysteries. This one's so well-known there's a devilish children's song named after it. Lizzie Borden was put on trial (and acquitted—she was Teflon Don in the courtroom, I guess) for taking an axe to her mother and father in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892. LIZZIE explores the heated days leading up to and following the murders with a "guitar-driven rock score," "fake blood and gore," and enough "implied sexual abuse/incest" to warrant a trigger warning. Proceeds from the production benefit Legal Voice, which works in Pacific Northwest courtrooms, legislatures, and communities to "create and enforce strong, equitable laws and empower people to know their rights." LC
(Broadway Performance Hall, Capitol Hill, Friday–Saturday)

Mouthwater Festival: A Disabled Dance Festival Remind Like List
Envisioned as the "beginning of an arts hub by and centering Black and Indigenous disabled artists to present, collaborate, and get uplifted for their crafts," the Mouthwater Festival espouses values we can get behind, anticapitalism and antifascism among them. The fest brings together artists with disabilities from across the country for solidarity, community-building, and over a dozen artsy events. I'm looking forward to Vanessa Hernández Cruz's experimental piece Soul Seeker and the Mouthwater Cabaret, featuring performances by India Harville, Saira Barbaric, Mx. Pucks A’Plenty, and others. LC
(Various locations, Saturday–Sunday)

VISUAL ART

Boren Banner Series: Samantha Wall Remind Like List
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, Monday–Sunday; closing)

Charles Peterson’s Nirvana: On Photography and Performance Remind Like List
Charles Peterson’s photographs of Seattle’s music scene through the late ’80s and early ’90s have long been celebrated as jarring and captivating snapshots from one of the Pacific Northwest’s most pivotal eras in modern history. But Peterson’s work is about so much more than being in the right place at the right time. He’s a fucking great photographer! And this fall, the Tacoma Art Museum has curated his work, not just as vital music history but as the works of art they truly are. The show will also feature work from artists Sylvia Plachy, Nicholas Galanin, Jeffry Mitchell, and Peterson’s photographer professor, Paul Berger, to “draw out visual and contextual nuances of Peterson’s photographs.” Intriguing. STRANGER MANAGING EDITOR MEGAN SELING
(Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Saturday–Sunday; opening)

Garden of Our Time: Vanishing Species, Imminent Communities Remind Like List
As the specter of ecological collapse looms, Garden of Our Time: Vanishing Species, Imminent Communities emerges as a poignant reflection on our fragility and interconnectedness. Hosted by Sunday Kitchen in the lobby of 9th and Thomas, the exhibition unites a kaleidoscope of art stars from Washington, California, NYC, and Seoul, including Yoko Ono, Shin Yu Pai, Rob Rhee, and Francesca Lohmann. It's not every day that one can view a Yoko Ono work at a boutique office building, so stop by to meditate on our ever-shifting ecological web, vanishing species, and the erosion of our collective memory. LC
(9th and Thomas, South Lake Union, Monday–Sunday)

Hayv Kahraman: Look Me in the Eyes Remind Like List
In her largest solo museum exhibition yet, the Iraqi-born artist Hayv Kahraman uses her signature motif—heavily lidded eyes—to examine how surveillance and erasure shape experiences of othering. Featuring paintings, sculptures, and a "deeply personal" audio installation, the show references Kahraman's upbringing as an Iraqi/Kurdish refugee in Sweden. Disembodied eyes act as a not-so-subtle stand-in for Western oppression, from government iris scans to racist plant classifications, while Kahraman’s marbling technique reflects the unpredictability of identity, resisting forced assimilation with each piece's unique patterns. LC
(Frye Art Museum, First Hill, Saturday–Sunday; opening)

Recent Acquisitions Remind Like List
Centering artists with "deep connections" to the Pacific Northwest, the Frye's latest exhibition features born-and-raised Portlanders, Seattle transplants, and others who have shaped the artistic scene in our neck of the woods. I'm excited to hear that personal fave Ellen Lesperance's paintings informed by knitting patterns are part of the mix, as well as Margie Livingston's "paint objects," Natalie Ball's assemblages, Olympia-born group Tracy + the Plastics' digital video, and other multimedia works. LC
(Frye Art Museum, First Hill, Wednesday–Sunday)

Too Much to Carry Remind Like List
Iran-born, Washington-based artist Mana Mehrabian and Seattle-based artist Mary Coss band together in this exhibition, which "investigate[s] personal and ancestral migrations" through a blend of sculpture and installation art. Too Much to Carry feels spare and pensive, yet materially well-considered; I'm interested in Coss' tangled metal forms positioned alongside Mehrabian's curious metal storage shelving units and wire baskets. LC
(The Vestibule, Ballard, Thursday–Saturday; closing)

what you bring to the table Remind Like List
Slip Gallery's latest group exhibition cooks up a medley of food-themed artworks from every corner of the creative kitchen—think glassblowers, video makers, and collage creators. In what you bring to the table, a dozen artists will dish out pieces that explore how food intersects with our "basic needs, relationships, memories, and societal expectations." Imagined as a communal visual feast, the show includes interactive works, including a closing potluck on October 5. LC
(Slip Gallery, Belltown, Thursday–Saturday; closing)