Concert

Vince Staples

If it weren’t for Kendrick Lamar’s monumental record To Pimp a Butterfly, Vince Staples would have dominated all the Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2015 lists. The Long Beach rapper’s debut LP, Summertime ’06, touches on the same issues of being black in America but on an even rawer, more personal level. Catch him on the rise at the Neptune before he graduates to much bigger venues.
Mar 2  Neptune Theatre, vincestaples.com

Visual Art

Buddhist Art of the Silk Road Caves

For nearly a millennium, the Chinese city of Dunhuang thrived as a hub for the Silk Road, connecting the West with East and Central Asia. In 1943, photojournalists James and Lucy Lo traveled to the former cultural gem to document the stunning ancient artwork found in Dunhuang’s caves. Asian Art Museum’s Journey to Dunhuang: Buddhist Art of the Silk Road Caves brings together their black and white photographs, manuscripts, and colorful artist renditions of the murals to preserve and showcase the spirit of the Silk Road.
Mar 5–June 12  Asian Art Museum, seattleartmuseum.org/visit/asian-art-museum

Comedy

Lisa Lampanelli

“Donald [Trump], tonight people will make fun of your looks. #$%! ’em! You’ve always gotten beautiful women. You’ve ruined more models’ lives than bulimia. You’ve disappointed more women than ‘Sex and the City 2’. ” —Lisa Lampanelli

The Queen of Mean made her name by crossing the line on Comedy Central’s roasts, so expect anything but a tame night.
Mar 12  Moore Theatre, insultcomic.com

Books & Talks

Implementing an 'Urban Revolution' with Janette Sadik-Khan

City planning can sometimes seem like an unsolvable puzzle. How can you make streets safer for bicyclists without drastically altering existing roads? Former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation Janette Sadik-Khan remedied the problem by repainting the streets, which had instant, dramatic effects. She heads to Town Hall to converse with mayor Ed Murray and detail the plans for urban revolution laid out in her new book, Street Fight.
Mar 21  Town Hall Seattle, townhallseattle.org

Theater

Stephen Sondheim's Assassins

There’s music in all of us, even those with homicidal tendencies. Stephen Sondheim explores this darkness in the musical revue Assassins. From an initial carnival shooting gallery setting, the show stitches together scenes that assemble a selection of our country’s successful (John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald) and failed (“Squeaky” Fromme) assassins to analyze the psyches that led them to pull the trigger.
Thru May 8 ACT Theatre, acttheatre.org

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