The Top Things to See and Do in Seattle: January 2017
Image: Courtesy Mark Woods
Visual Art
The Pig Went Down to the Harbor at Sunrise and Wept
Jan 21–Apr 16 Ever a peddler of the surreal oddities of the mind, Seattle illustrator and creator of the Frank comics series Jim Woodring employed a larger-than-life artistic implement to create his new Frye-commissioned exhibit, The Pig Went Down to the Harbor at Sunrise and Wept. The psychologically explorative and trippy black-and-white, framed images of abstract dreamscapes were inked by Woodring using his gigantic, five-foot-long handcrafted dip pen. Mightier than the sword indeed. Frye Art Museum, fryemuseum.org
Concert
Windborne's The Music of David Bowie
Jan 10 It’s still hard to fathom that David Bowie was mortal, but his songs still feel transcendent. On the one-year anniversary of the death of the experimental, glamorous, and boundary-pushing rock icon, join the Seattle Symphony, guest conductor Brent Havens, and singer Tony Vincent for a public celebration of Bowie’s music and its lasting impact on our collective creative psyche. Benaroya Hall, seattlesymphony.org
Image: Heidi May
Books & Talks
Henry Rollins
“Pain is personal. It really belongs to the one feeling it. Probably the only thing that is your own. I like mine.” —Henry Rollins
Jan 2 The punk polymath (former Black Flag frontman, writer, comedian, actor, radio host) heads to the Neptune for a viciously unvarnished spoken word performance. Neptune Theatre, stgpresents.org
Dance
Shot
Jan 19–Feb 4 Complacency isn’t in acclaimed Seattle choreographer Donald Byrd’s vocabulary. His Spectrum Dance Theater opens its 2017 season (American: Identity, Race, or Culture?) with the world premiere of Shot, an examination and critique of the police’s use of lethal force against black people. Byrd’s “theater of disruption” style—which mixes dance, music, text, and sound—provides an unflinching look at the issue. Seattle Repertory Theatre, spectrumdance.org
Image: Tino Tran
Theater
Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie
Jan 6–29 Woody Guthrie built the template for the American protest song. With “This Machine Kills Fascists” scrawled across his guitar, the folk singer-songwriter blended rebellion and sincerity in songs like “This Land Is Your Land” and odes to the plight of Dust Bowl workers. Seattle Rep shares his homespun legacy via the musical Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie. Seattle Repertory Theatre, seattlerep.org
