Red Ribbon's new record is indie via doom metal producer.
Photo: Courtesy Kelsey Hart

Happenings & Releases

Scarecrow Video Is Properly Back
Now the city’s last video shop, Scarecrow Video reopened on June 15 for in-store browsing. The nonprofit will continue to run phone orders through its pickup window, but the city’s film buff community can rejoice: You can once again actually browse the physical store's vast collections, physically. Scarecrow Video

Planet X by Red Ribbon
In an unlikely pairing that turned out very well, former Seattleite Emma Danner made her second album with doom metal producer Randall Dunn. The results tilt Danner's indie rock and folk sensibilities toward ominous grandeur. 

 

This Week Only

Jun 15–20
Fremont Summer Solstice Art Week
While the typical Fremont Summer Solstice shenanigans will be dialed back this year, a slew of self-guided art walks, mural painting, and the return of the Fremont Sunday Market combine to make things feel normal-adjacent. Fremont, free

Jun 17–18
Father’s Day Popup at Dahlia Press
The teeny boutique print studio in Portage Bay rolls out a selection of handcrafted Father’s Day cards also available for curbside pickup. Dahlia Press, free

Jun 18–20
Studio East’s Shakespeare in the Park: The Twelfth Night
Rife with intricate romantic entanglements, conspiracy, and hijinks, The Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s best. If you filter all Shakespeare through rom-com reincarnations, this is the one that inspired 2006’s She’s the Man with Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum. Here, Studio East carries it off in more traditional style at Juanita Beach Park. Kirkland, free

Sat, Jun 19
Juneteenth Celebration with Donna Moodie
In this virtual cooking class, Donna Moodie of Marjorie leads viewers through culinary traditions enmeshed in Juneteenth. The Jamaica-born chef will prepare jerk chicken and mashed yams that harken back to her childhood, and she’ll discuss the significance of the color red on the Juneteenth table as she shares a recipe for a hibiscus cooler. Proceeds go to Byrd Barr Place and Mentoring Urban Students and Teens. Online, $35

Sun, Jun 20
Timothy White Eagle Open House Performance
Town Hall Seattle Artist-in-Residence Timothy White Eagle presents a six-hour performance open house infused with reflections on Indigenous beliefs and practices surrounding death versus a white Christian lens on mortality and loss. He explores how one might decolonize a space (Seattle Town Hall itself, formerly a Christian Science church), which was constructed as a bastion of whiteness. Town Hall Seattle, $5

Thu, Jun 24
Intiman Presents Under Big Piney
Written by John Jiller and directed by Corey Atkins, Under Big Piney follows the story of a quixotic white New Yorker who ventures into a deep Southern town to petition for the removal of a Confederate statue. He’s quickly derailed by his developing feelings for the town’s conservative Black mayor. The cast of voice actors includes Tim Blake Nelson of O Brother Where Art Thou and Watchmen, and ER alum Gloria Reuben. Online, $25

 

 

Ongoing Events

Apr 15­–Jun 30
Book-It Repertory Theater Presents: The Effluent Engine, by N.K. Jemisin
N.K. Jemisin is one of the most celebrated sci-fi novelists of her generation, coming at a genre historically dominated by straight white men from a queer, Black perspective. Book-It adapts Jemisin’s steampunk spy-thriller set in New Orleans, The Effluent Engine, into a full-length audio play available through June 30. Online, $15

May 11–Jun 30
Sundance Institute Indigenous Short Film Tour
Rich with reflections on nature and community, this 85-minute program incorporates seven shorts by Indigenous filmmakers. On screen, the story of a Hawaiian slam poet joins a philosophical study of lichen and a typical elementary school day on an Oklahoma reservation. Online

May 22–Aug 15
Black Refractions: Highlights from the Studio Museum in Harlem
Since 1968, the Studio Museum in Harlem has welcomed artists and activists of African descent to collaborate and vanguard the work of Black artists in New York City. This summer, the Frye Museum will host nearly a century’s worth of art in varied mediums, representing the voices of 80 artists, including Seattle’s Jacob Lawrence. Frye Art Museum, free

May 28–Jun 26
Saya Moriyasu: Spooky Actions at a Distance
The J. Rinehart Gallery exhibits the eerie, playful creations of local ceramics artist Saya Moriyasu. Moriyasu, the daughter of a Japanese father and an Oregon-born mother, takes inspiration from the “wrongness” of chinoiserie, and her work has a particular droll, uncanny bent that reflects this. A virtual opening reception will be livestreamed on May 28. J. Rinehart Gallery, free

May 29–Jun 27
2020–21 University of Washington MFA and MDes Thesis Exhibition
The Henry hosts the UW’s annual exhibition of its fine arts and design graduates. Theses from the classes of 2020 and 2021 will be on display and span a variety of mediums. Henry Art Gallery, free

Jun 3–26
Ko Kirk Yamahira
The local visual artist meticulously deconstructs canvases and creates stunning geometries with arcs and draped curves of thread hanging between untouched shapes. These are the sorts of works that a screen can do no justice to. Soil Gallery, free

Jun 12–19
HUE Festival
The Seattle Public Theater hosts a reading series featuring plays crafted by BIPOC women writers. The plays span a broad range of themes and genres, from mystery to the supernatural to familial bonds, and each spotlights the imaginative capacities and storytelling prowess of a local woman of color. Online, donations encouraged

Jun 12–19
Seattle International Dance Festival
The annual dance festival founded in 2006 is cautiously in person once again, with livestream tickets also available. You can, as in previous years, expect performances from across the spectrum of dance traditions and sensibilities, from ballet-influenced modern to folk and break. Broadway Performance Hall or online, $18–$25