February 1, Wednesday
Looseleaf Reading Series Tonight’s Looseleaf Reading Series features a slate of up-and-coming writers including Tamiko Nimura, Renee Simms, Natalie A. Martínez, featured reader C. Rosalind Bell, and music by Kristin Allen-Zito, whom you may know as the lead singer for the Trucks. Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison St., 324-8005, chopsuey.com. Free. 21 and over. 7 p.m. PAUL CONSTANT
Presidential Power in 2017 This impeccably well-timed panel discussion seeks to answer a question Americans likely posed countless times last week: Exactly how much power does a president have? The University of Washington School of Law has organized a group of scholars to try to elucidate exactly how far Trump’s power reaches, and how citizens can engage with and challenge that power post-election. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, townhallseattle.org. $5. All ages. 6:30 p.m. KELTON SEARS
February 2, Thursday
While Glaciers Slept Reading In her new book, M. Jackson intertwines the history of climate change with a personal story about cancer striking her family. Now that we live in a time when climate scientists are being silenced by our own government, this book is even more important. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhallseattle.org. $5. All ages. 7:30 p.m. PC
The Design of Dissent Seattle design agency Civilization is opening a new gallery, Non-Breaking Space, “devoted to showcasing important works of graphic design.” Tonight they kick things off with an exhibit very appropriate for the times—a survey of 50 design works from the past 50 years that critique the social and political climate of the day. Civilization, 532 First Ave. S., builtbycivilization.com. Free. 5:30–9 p.m. KS
Let the Right One In Following on the awe-inspiring local productions of Black Watch (2013) and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Heart (2016), the National Theater of Scotland graces Seattle again with this adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s conversely chilling and enchanting vampire story about a young boy and the undead girl next door. The Moore, 1932 Second Ave., 467-5510. $30–$75. 7:30 p.m. Ends Feb. 12. MARK BAUMGARTEN
February 3, Friday
Homesick for Another World Reading Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel Eileen was a word-of-mouth success story; booksellers can’t stop raving about it, and David Sedaris fell so hard for it that he brought Moshfegh to town during his annual visit to Benaroya Hall. Tonight, Moshfegh debuts her first, much-anticipated collection of short stories. Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave., 624-6600, elliottbaybook.com. Free. All ages. 7 p.m. PC
Adam Ant Last week, Adam Ant’s guitarist, Tom Edwards, died of a heart attack while on tour with Ant. But the show must go on, and Ant—of “Goody Two Shoes” glam-rock fame—has announced that his band will continue with the tour, as Edwards would have wanted. That means they’ll be calling port in Seattle Friday. The band will be playing its 1980 album Kings of the Wild Frontier in its entirety. The Neptune, 1303 N.E. 45th St., 682-1414. 9 p.m. $31.50. All ages. DANIEL PERSON
February 4, Saturday
Fire Safety and Other Stories Author John Mullen is a graduate of a recent class of Jack Straw writers that included big names like Jane Wong and Claudia Castro Luna. Barbara Earl Thomas is a painter who has been part of the fabric of Seattle for decades. Tonight they’ll tell stories, with music by Kate Farrell. Royal Room, 5000 Rainier Ave., 906-9920, theroyalroomseattle.com. Free. All ages. 6 p.m. PC
Twerk Contest: Battle of Seattle 2017 There’s ass-shaking, and then there’s twerking—the dance that turned booty-bouncing into a hallowed 21st-century art form. Tonight, a slew of competitors will gather at a studio on Airport Way to engage in a $500 cash prize butt-bumping challenge. The rules are simple: “Only twerking, no dance moves, no cheerleading moves.” Whose rump shall reign supreme?! “Twerk celebrity judges” shall decide. Studio 206, 3100 Airport Way S., 388-3836, studio206.co. $25. All ages. 9 p.m. KS
Kimya Dawson This local singer/songwriter is best known for her lo-fi twee hits, which made their way into the Juno soundtrack and Sesame Street. But as the political climate has grown increasingly dire, so has her music. Last year’s “At the Seams” found Dawson repurposing her twee style into a Black Lives Matter anthem, a simple piano arrangement layered below a seven-minute treatise on racial justice. Dawson performs tonight to raise funds for Skate Like a Girl; with the continuously distressing political atmosphere we find ourselves in, don’t be surprised if she continues to merge her music and her politics. With Wimps, Acapulco Lips, Fine Prince. The Vera Project, 305 Harrison St., theveraproject.org. $10–$15. All ages. 7 p.m. KS
February 6, Monday
Margin Shift The Seattle poetry collective hosts four poets: Steven Karl (sample line: “You were not petted or chatted to. You drank alone,”) erica lewis (“the past/has ruined/our entire future,”) Jamaica Baldwin (none of whose poems are online yet), and Amber Nelson, who until recently was the publisher of the late, great Alice Blue Books. Common AREA Maintenance, 2125 Second Ave., 253-224-0746, commonartspace.com. Free. All ages. 7 p.m. PC
Nue One-World Dinners: Syria In a time fractured by such intense othering, celebrating global cultures through food seems both a welcome reprieve from all the bad news and a delicious antidote to it. Capitol Hill’s Nue, known for its eclectic palate of global street eats, launched a monthly series in January that invites diners to squeeze together on long benches and try course after delectable course from a single destination. Next up: Syria, with a menu that includes flaky pastry stuffed with cinnamon-spiced lamb, pine nuts, and feta and melty marinated eggplant with garlic and tomato. Nue, 1519 14th Ave., 257-0312, nueseattle. com/world-dinner. $55 per person. Also Feb. 7. SARA BERNARD
February 7, Tuesday
Ross Gay Seattle Arts and Lectures brings the prolific poet and editor to Seattle to discuss poetry as a means to expand your imagination. Last spring, Gay published a terrific short poem in The New York Times that compared flutes and humans: “a man/sings by opening/his lungs by/turning himself into air… a flute lays/on its side/and prays a wind/might enter it.” McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., 733-9725, lectures.org. $15. All ages. 7 p.m. PC
Ghost in the Shell This 1995 cyberpunk anime classic, which inspired everything from The Matrix to AI: Artificial Intelligence and Avatar, is soon getting remade into a live-action film. If Hollywood’s whitewashed casting of Scarlett Johansson in the lead role has you feeling cold, tonight for one night only, the original animated masterpiece will be shown on the big screen once again, accompanied by a 15-minute bonus feature. Guild 45th, 2115 N. 45th St., landmarktheatres.com. $15. 7:30 p.m. KS
Run the Jewels El-P and Killer Mike, the veteran duo who make up Run the Jewels, have turned the urgent rhetoric of Black Lives Matter into an incisive art form. “Ballot or bullet, you better use one,” Killer Mike raps in the opening verse of their new album, Run the Jewels 3. It’s a Malcolm X reference, and it feels terribly ominous in today’s political climate. Showbox SoDo, 1700 First Ave. S,, 652-0444. 8 p.m. $30. DP
