1. The City of Seattle is hosting a free lecture event at Town Hall tonight in commemoration of the 61st anniversary of the signing of the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights (December 10, 1948). This is the third time the city has hosted the event; this year's lecture will focus on women's rights internationally, presented by Professor Adrien K.Wing of the University of Iowa Law School.

Tonight from 7 pm to 8:30 pm, at Town Hall. Free.

2. If you haven't been to the Grey Gallery on Capitol Hill, you should—middling-to-top-notch art from around the city (not always good , but always interesting), a gallery with a big upstairs chill-out space, and, usually, a good DJ.

Tonight is the opening reception for this collection (it looks like embroidery?) of pictures featuring sad-looking ladies and collages that are a cross between crop art and a birthday cake. Not super great, but the closer Seattle comes to being like Brooklyn the happier I am—starting with art galleries doing real avant-hipster art you can drunkenly stumble upon on a Friday night. I've been to Grey before. It's totally that.

Tonight from 5 pm to 9 pm at Grey Gallery, on 11th and Pike in Capitol Hill.

3. University of Washington Professor Daniel Chirot will be presenting on his book Why Not Kill Them All? The Logic and Prevention of Mass Political Murder.

Don't let the book's grim title turn you off—Chirot and co-author Clark McCauley examine the intellectual history, national histories, and sociological and political backdrops that have influenced the practice of genocide in the 20th century. Chirot hypothesizes that it will take greater international pressure to stop genocide in the future.

7pm, Kane Hall, Rm 225 at the UW. Free

If you don't feel like a weirdo lecture, you could probably just go to Broadway Video and rent Hotel Rwanda.

4. The Central District Council is having a meeting this evening. The council consists of neighborhood reps, a couple of Seattle University professors, and a few scattered community groups. They will be discussing funding street projects and updates on city-wide neighborhood plans.

Tonight at 6 pm, at the Douglass Truth Library at 2300 E Yesler Way.

5. Speaking of the CD: Seattle's Northwest African American Museum is free tonight. If you, like me, have never been to the NAAM before, this would probably be a good opportunity.

The museum is housed inside the Colman School building, an old Seattle landmark that was occupied in 1981 by Omari Tahir-Garrett (he of whacking-Paul Schell-with-a-megaphone fame) for the sake of putting in a museum on African American history in the Northwest.

With just a little controversy and in-fighting, and a couple of decades of aborted efforts, the museum became real last year.



Right now they're hosting a year-long exhibit on Ethiopian immigrants.

Sponsored by the weirdly turn-of-the-twentieth-century sounding National Council of Negro Women.

All day today, from 11 am to 7 pm. Admission is free.