Tonight:

The Anti-3 Strikes campaign Justice Works! presents an evening with legal scholar Michelle Alexander, whose new book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness explores the rebirth of a racial caste system through mass incarceration.

Proceeds from the evening will benefit the Justice Works! campaign, which points out on its website that a disproportionate 40 percent of prisoners held under Washington’s 3 Strikes law are African American, in a state with an African American population under 4 percent.

Tonight, from 6:30 to 9 pm, at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center (3515 S Alaska Street). Tickets are $6.

Tomorrow:

The new Elliott Bay Book Company location on 10th Avenue is now officially open, and the Pike/Pine neighborhood is getting together to celebrate the opening with a free block party tomorrow afternoon.

EBBC says there will be food and drinks. And Capitol Hill rock band Let's Get Lost will be playing some tunes. Besides getting hyped for Elliott Bay, it sounds like a sweet way to welcome Spring, and also to get drunk in the afternoon. It's supposed to be in the mid-60s and sunny tomorrow.

According to Capitol Hill Seattle, the entire party is being bankrolled by Hunters Capital, the real estate project of local entrepreneur Michael Malone that owns a lot of real estate in the Pike/Pine corridor , as well as the building that now houses Elliott Bay Books.



Thursday from 4 to 7 pm, at 10th Ave. between Pike and Pine. Free.

Tomorrow's Full Calendar:

The Seattle LGBT Commissio n, a city-appointed commission that advises the Mayor and City Council on issues relating to sexual identity, will meet tomorrow for its monthly meeting.

Thursday night at 6:30 at City Hall (600 4th Avenue).

At the Chapel Performance Space, Cuong Vu, a Grammy-winning contemporary jazz trumpter, and Heatwarmer, a band Cola MusicNerd Anand Balasubramanyan once said "traces the common yet lost emotional potential of USA uncool."

Thursday at 7:30 pm, at Chapel Performance Space (4649 Sunnyside Avenue N). Tickets are $5 to $15.

Local food bank Food Lifeline is having a picnic party tomorrow at their warehouse tomorrow that also features "foot-stompin' bluegrass music."

Thursday from 5:30 to 8 pm at Food Lifeline's Seattle Distribution Center (4011 6th Avenue S).