Our music critics have already chosen the 39 best music shows this week, but now it's our arts critics' turn to recommend the best events in their areas of expertise. Here are their picks in every genre—from a Shout Your Abortion Book Release Bash to Homo for the Holidays: Jingle All the Gay!, and from the Winter Solstice Night Market and Beer Festival to the touring exhibition Light In The Attic Records: A Visual Archive. See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.
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MONDAY

FOOD & DRINK

The Annual Latkeh Cook-Off
Snack on cheese and taste wine as you participate in this competition as a latke chef putting your crispy fried potato pancakes to the test.

READINGS & TALKS

Climate Hope for the Holidays: Moving from Despair to Action in an Age of Change
If you've been keeping up on your climate news, you know things aren't looking good for Earth. This Climate Science on Tap aims to lift you from your gloomy state and empower you to engage in climate activism, from personal choices to measures to vote for in the next election. Panelists include Meade Krosby (UW Climate Impacts Group); Jennifer Atkinson (UW Bothell, Environmental Studies); Sarah Myhre (UW Oceanography); and Helene Costa (Cascadia Climate Change). 

MONDAY-FRIDAY

VISUAL ART

Kristen Ramirez
If you've ever ridden your bike all the way to Bothell on the Burke-Gilman trail, you've seen the work of Kristen Ramirez—a dazzling, 250-foot mural of zig-zags and geometric shapes that lines the inside of the Wayne Tunnel in vibrant shades of orange, purple, and gold. Ramirez is a visual artist, activist, and educator with an MFA in printmaking—a set of processes for creating multiple images by transferring ink onto paper. For her 4Culture exhibition, Ramirez will be using silkscreen, neon, and sandwich boards to explore the role of human beings in creating the dystopian epoch of the geological present. EMILY POTHAST
Closing Friday

MONDAY-SUNDAY

FOOD & DRINK

Holiday Tea at Hotel Sorrento
Instead of gazing at a virtual Yule log video, take your tea beside a real roaring, crackling hearth at Hotel Sorrento’s Fireside Room, a Mad Men–worthy mid-century vision in opulent ochre mahogany paneling. You can nosh on posh teatime fare—like freshly baked chocolate-filled croissants with butter and jam, cucumber and cream-cheese finger sandwiches, and chocolate espresso pots de creme with strawberries—as you sink into a squishy high-backed leather chair and enjoy the sounds of a baby grand piano. If you’re lucky, you might even spy the ghost of Alice B. Toklas, who is said to roam the halls of the hotel. JULIANNE BELL

Miracle on 2nd
In 2014, Greg Boehm of New York bar Boilermaker temporarily transformed the space for his bar Mace into a kitschy Christmas wonderland replete with gewgaws and tchotchkes galore. Now the pop-up has expanded to bars in 50 cities worldwide and will be taking up residence in Belltown’s Rob Roy. The specialty cocktails are no ordinary cups of cheer: Beverages are housed in tacky-tastic vessels (a drinking mug resembling Santa’s mug, for example), bedecked with fanciful garnishes like peppers and dried pineapple, and christened with irreverent, pop-culture-referencing names like the “Bad Santa,” the “Yippie Ki Yay Mother F**r,” and the “You’ll Shoot Your Rye Out.” JULIANNE BELL

PERFORMANCE

Dragon Mama
Welcome to the second installment of Sara Porkalob’s extremely well-named trilogy of plays, The Dragon Cycle. After several iterations and permutations, the celebrated local playwright’s Dragon Lady found its fullest form as a hilarious and heartwarming musical about her own badass Filipino gangster grandma and her mother’s struggle to care for the family in hard times. Part II, Dragon Mama, follows Porkalob’s mother, Maria, through 25 years of life in Bremerton. The play promises “queer love in a barren land, a dope ’90s R&B soundtrack, Filipino gangsters, and ghosts.” If Dragon Mama ends up developing the way Dragon Lady did, you’ll want to get in early to enjoy the pleasures of watching Porkalob’s genius transform the show over time. RICH SMITH
No performance Tuesday

READINGS & TALKS

Holiday Book Flood/Jólabókaflóð
Thanks in part to the Seattle-Reykjavik Sister City Association, the Nordic Museum will emulate Iceland's Jólabókaflóð, the "Holiday Book Flood," during which Icelandic publishers release a veritable tide of books for the holidays. Shop at an Icelandic lit pop-up and celebrate on Thursday with a reading featuring Margaret Wilson, Sierra Nelson, and D.A. Navoti.

VISUAL ART

This Is Our Home, Where We Belong
DinĂ©/Twana curator and contributor Denise Emerson has chosen four fellow Coast Salish women artists to elaborate expressions of "environmental justice, identity, and place": Caroline Edwards (Swinomish), Karen Engel (Shoalwater Bay), Kimberly Miller (Skokomish), and Abbey Pierson (Cowlitz). It's a great opportunity to remind yourself of indigenous peoples' connection to their homeland and resistance to ethnic cleansing. This is part of the yəhaw̓ art project partnership with the Seattle Public Library.
Closing Sunday

WINTER HOLIDAYS

WildLights
The zoo will light up with more than 700,000 (energy-efficient) LED lights that recreate wild scenes and creatures at the annual WildLights display.

TUESDAY

FOOD & DRINK

Vermouth Dinner at Barnacle
Need an antidote to increasingly blustery autumn days? How about quaffing some fortified wine along with a four-course dinner at Barnacle, Renee Erickson’s adorable little “jewel box” aperitivo bar tucked away next door to the Walrus and the Carpenter? Sea Creatures executive chef Bobby Palmquist and Walrus and the Carpenter head chef BJ Bresnik will design a seasonal menu accompanied by vermouth cocktails from the Barnacle crew and vermouth pairings from Leith Shenstone of spirits and wine importer Fasel Shenstone. JULIANNE BELL

READINGS & TALKS

Annual Holiday Reading with Brad Craft
Join the University Book Store's beloved used books buyer, Brad, to revel in Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory," a tale of making Christmas traditions with his older cousin "from buying illegally made whiskey for their fruitcakes to cutting down their own tree and decorating it with homemade ornaments." Have some Joe's Chocolates and Smashmallow-provided cocoa while you listen to this uncharacteristically sweet Capote story.

Richard Rothstein: Color of Law
Author Richard Rothstein explodes the myth of the equitable American city in his study of the de jure—legislated—segregation in The Color of Law. Though it's long been accepted that racism has divided up cities, Rothstein argues, apparently with overwhelming evidence, that discrimination was enforced by local, state, and national law. According to Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic, Rothstein's research on the subject is "brilliant." This is the paperback tour.

Stephanie Stokes Oliver: Black ink
Oliver, originally from Seattle, will celebrate the paperback release of her rich anthology of black writers on writing, including from such towering figures as Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Maya Angelou, Marlon James, Edwige Danticat, Colson Whitehead, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and many, many others. Hear her read and pick up a copy. 

Three Debuts: Mohamed Asem, Ashley Toliver, Lisa Wells
Three Northwest writers will present their first published works: Mohamed Asem's Stranger in the Pen, which explores what it's like to cross national borders as a person "unwelcome" for reasons of race, religion, or nationality; Portland poet Ashley Toliver's Spectra, which has won the admiration of Claudia Rankine; and Lisa Wells's Iowa Poetry Prize-winning The Fix. 

TUESDAY-SUNDAY

PERFORMANCE

Annie
This production of the classic musical is being directed by Billie Wildrick (she was the lead in the 5th Avenue’s recent Pajama Game), and she’s joined by an all-female creative team. Two young actors will switch off playing Annie. One of them is a girl of Tongan descent who happened to see 5th Avenue’s production of The Little Mermaid, in which Diana Huey played Ariel, and she turned to her mother and said, “Her skin is brown like me—that means I can do that, too.” Look at her now. Plus, Timothy McCuen Piggee will play Daddy Warbucks, and Cynthia Jones will play Miss Hannigan. CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE

A Christmas Carol
ACT Theatre's production of A Christmas Carol is a dependable, simple pleasure, with just enough variation to warrant returning year after year. For the 43rd (!) edition, Kurt Beattie will direct and Ian Bell and David Pichette will alternate as Scrooge.

In the Heights
Every decade, a musical comes around that reminds the general public that musicals can be popular, cool, and mainstream. The ’80s had A Chorus Line, the ’90s had Rent, the early ’00s had Wicked, and the teens had Hamilton. But before Lin-Manuel Miranda became a household name for creating Hamilton, he was snatching up trophies and accolades for his other hugely popular musical, In the Heights. Broadway fans will go and fall in love again, and newbies will get a chance to see Miranda's earlier work for the first time. CHASE BURNS

Our Great Tchaikovsky
Hershey Felder embodied Irving Berlin last year to the measured praise of Sean Nelson, who lightly criticized the added schmaltz while calling Felder "an astonishingly gifted vocalist and pianist." Felder's past performances have brought other geniuses to life, including George Gershwin, Beethoven, and Leonard Bernstein. This fall, Felder will return as the tragic Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, in another exploration of the musically creative mind.

VISUAL ART

Isvald Klingels: Growth
This artist and commercial illustrator has worked for Vogue, the Barbican, Sony BMG Records, Sub Pop, Absolut Vodka, Elle, Goldfrapp, Oasis, City Arts, and many more. Isvald is a self-proclaimed obsessive with a fondness for textile arts and wild, cosmic patterns. Many of the paintings and drawings in this show are inspired by the weird symmetries and asymmetries of cells.
Closing Sunday

WINTER HOLIDAYS

Enchant Christmas
Not to knock quaint community Christmas tree displays, but this inaugural event at the Mariners' home base looks like it's going to raise the standards for holiday light spectacles by a lot. Safeco Field will be transformed into a magnificent winter wonderland complete with the "world's largest Christmas light maze" (which you can explore via an ice skating trail), seasonal concessions, live entertainment, and an artisan Christmas market. 

WEDNESDAY

PERFORMANCE

Lady Bunny's 'Hung With Care'
The infamous Bunny, extravagantly coiffed haunter of New York nightclubs and deliverer of tawdry jokes, will make another visit to our humble Northwest.

READINGS & TALKS

Shout Your Abortion Book Release Bash
When Congress tried to defund Planned Parenthood in 2015, Amelia Bonow logged on to Facebook and did something radical: She talked openly and positively about her abortion. Writer Lindy West shared the post on Twitter with the hashtag #ShoutYourAbortion, and their movement to destigmatize and demythologize abortion began. Now Bonow and Tacocat frontwoman Emily Nokes are publishing a new book of personal essays (and cool photos!) from Angela Garbes (Like a Mother), El Sanchez, Viva Ruiz, and other brilliant women and nonbinary artists who have expanded the movement using their own particular talents and strengths. Grab a drink, listen to some of those stories, and enjoy music from SYA's “house band.” RICH SMITH

WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY

PERFORMANCE

Bon Iver & TU Dance: Come Through
This sounds like a feast for the eyes and ears. Bon Iver’s music is delicately lovely, lushly orchestrated, and classily experimental—chamber folk-pop with an electronic beating heart driven by the silky, emotive, falsetto-reaching vocals and creative musical abundance of singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. He collaborated on a project with Saint Paul’s contemporary TU Dance troupe, and the result, Come Through, marries new Bon Iver music with the choreography of Uri Sands to beautiful effect. There’s a new mini-doc about the making of the work by Twin Cities PBS that includes video of three movements from the program. It brought tears to my eyes. I imagine the full program will inspire more awe (and maybe some joyful weeping) when the two-date run lands in Seattle. LEILANI POLK

SHOPPING

South Lake Union Winter Market
If you couldn't make it to Urban Craft Uprising and you're still on the hunt for crafty holiday gifts, stop by this market to shop from a couple dozen local vendors.

WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY

PERFORMANCE

Fefu and Her Friends
One of the finest directors in town, Stranger Genius Award winner Valerie Curtis Newton, will direct a play by one of the best American playwrights, María Irene Fornés. Fefu and Her Friends is a play about a group of ladies preparing for a charitable event in Fefu's country house. The women reveal bold characters constrained by antiquated characterizations of feminine nature, and we catch glimpses of their love, loneliness, and internalized oppression.

Hollywood & Vine
Enjoy a vintage and magic-filled tribute to Tinseltown with the 20-year-old circus troupe Teatro ZinZanni as they open their new home in Woodinville.

Homo for the Holidays: Jingle All the Gay!
At this point, we can call Homo for the Holidays a Seattle institution. After a decade of successful shows and a dramatic changeover in the cast this spring, Kitten N’ Lou are producing a "new chapter" and bringing the children a revamped gay holiday burlesque wet fever dream. Performers include Cherdonna Shinatra, Mr. Gorgeous, Markeith Wiley, Randy Ford, Abbey Roads, and lots of other talented queerdos. CHASE BURNS

My Ántonia
Look, Willa Cather is a literary lesbian prairie goddess and My Ántonia is one of her most famous masterpieces. Published in 1918, My Ántonia is a story of an orphaned boy from Virginia who befriends a bunch of bohemian immigrants in Nebraska. The play version of the novel is lyrical, pretty, and very American in a way that will make even a depressed, sapphire-blue liberal cry patriotic tears. Usually, American prairie shit gives me hives, but My Ántonia is good stuff. CHASE BURNS

Wonderland
There are few cuter Seattle nights than those spent at the Can Can. Divided into three short acts that make up a brisk 90-minute show, each part of the Can Can’s wintertime cabaret Wonderland gets progressively naughtier, although the most scandalous thing you’ll see is a jock-strapped ass and bare tits covered by pasties. The show has danger, but it’s often found in the cancan lines that occur mere feet from audience members’ dinner salads. I once saw an athletic duet at Wonderland nearly knock over a birthday girl’s wine glass. But it didn’t. Everyone whooped. Pro tip: Get the beignets. CHASE BURNS

THURSDAY

FILM

Night Heat: The 41st Film Noir Series
They proliferated in anxious postwar America and still occasionally return to brood and smolder onscreen: films noirs, born of the chiaroscuro influence of immigrant German directors and the pressure of unique American fears. Once again, the Seattle Art Museum will screen nine hard-boiled, moody crime classics like tonight's Heat.

Westworld
My interest in the new HBO Westworld has been tepid. Sure, it has a fancy look and all, but the premise (an adult theme park that is more than just a theme park—a place where rich men go to fuck and kill androids) seems very limited. So why watch the original Westworld? Because it has historical or archeological value. Made in 1973, and starring Yul Brynner, the film presents androids as completely mechanical. Behind an android’s face: wires, screws, circuit boards, and the like. This is a pre-biotech world. By Blade Runner (1982), the mechanical robot was in decline, replaced by bioengineered monsters. CHARLES MUDEDE

FOOD & DRINK

Bifrost Winter Ale Release Party
Elysian's Bifrost Winter Ale will return to the brewery for the season, and they're celebrating with a gingerbread house competition, an ugly sweater contest, and a Toys for Tots toy drive.

Eggnog-Off
The Sun Liquor team will brew up a batch of their buzzy and beloved eggnog alongside Brimmer & Heeltap's own special version. Try them both by the warmth of a fire pit, and get some s'mores and hot cocoa while you're at it.

Ivar’s Northwest Winter Beer Tasting
Sample regional winter brews paired with onion-roasted pork poutine, waffle fries, Uli's jalapeno sausage-and-mushroom puff pastries, mini chicken pot pies, and more comfy bites from Ivar's Chef Garr. Featured breweries include Bad Jimmy’s, Diamond Knot, Georgetown, Ghostfish, Maritime, Peddler, Pike, Pyramid, Rainier, Reuben’s, Silver City, and Tieton Cider Works.

Katipunan
“Katipunan” is a Filipino word meaning “gathering” or “association,” and this event will gather chef Melissa Miranda of the Northwest-inspired Filipino pop-up Musang, chef Domingo Ramos of East Trading Company, and chef Jasper Rei Balinas of the Filipino pulutan pop-up Asin for a dream-team dinner of “Filipino greatest hits.” DJ Phosho and DJ Marty Holbus will soundtrack the evening. JULIANNE BELL

READINGS & TALKS

Atlas Obscura Society: 'Life and Death of Stars' by Dr. Anand Thirumalai
Do you know where you come from? The stars. As the famous theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss once said, the stars are exactly like Jesus: They lived and died for you. The secret of your body and mind is found in the main sequence that occurs in the heart of stars. The main sequence is the formation of heavier and heavier elements by nuclear fusion. When this sequence reaches iron, the star can’t take it anymore and explodes into something like nothing else. New, heavier elements are fused in this explosion, which we call a supernova. These heavy elements form clouds, and parts of these clouds collapse into new stars and planets. On one of these planets, the heavy elements leaped from normal matter into matter that behaves bizarrely. This microscopic life mixed and complexified into larger cells. These large cells, called eukaryotes, became the communities of beings we call animals. One of these animals evolved a brain that can see and record and discuss the life and death of stars. CHARLES MUDEDE

Black Jaw Literary Series
Hear new work by graduate students, faculty members, and undergraduates from the University of Washington's MFA Creative Writing Program.

Holiday Book Flood Reading
Pay homage to the Icelandic tradition of Jólabókaflóð, or "Holiday Book Flood," wherein Icelandic publishers release an onslaught of new books, at this reading with local poet Sierra Nelson, fiction writer and essayist D.A. Navoti, anthropologist and writer Margaret Wilson, Seattle's first Youth Poet Laureate, Leija Farr, and poet Andy Meyer. The event will double as a benefit for Mary's Place, so bring new or gently used children's books to donate. 

Karen Finley: Grabbing Pussy
Poet and performer Karen Finley presents her new politically charged book of poetry and prose, Grabbing Pussy, in which she recounts the various "deeds and misdeeds of various public figures," including those of the current president.

Makers of the Now: Contemporary Native American and First Nations Artists Lecture Series
Five Native American and First Nations artists from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska will discuss how they explore indigenous culture of the past and present in their work. For this week's final event, welcome mixed-media artist Nicholas Galanin.

Poetry for the Public: Claudia Castro Luna and Kim Stafford
Portland poet Kim Stafford, son of the poet laureate William Stafford, will join State Poet Laureate Claudio Castro Luna for a night of lovely, perhaps elegiac poetry. (One of Castro Luna's books is Killing MarĂ­as, dedicated to the memories of murdered women; Stafford's 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do is an ode to his deceased brother.)

Randy Shaw: Generation Priced Out
The lack of affordable housing for low- and middle-income people will not stop being a hot subject while homeownership is limited by race and class lines. Randy Shaw, the director of San Francisco's Tenderloin Housing Clinic, will present his book about the housing crisis, Generation Priced Out. According to press materials, "Generation Priced Out criticizes cities for advancing policies that increase economic and racial inequality. Shaw also exposes how boomer homeowners restrict millennials' access to housing in big cities, a generational divide that increasingly dominates city politics. Defying conventional wisdom, Shaw demonstrates that neighborhood gentrification is not inevitable and presents proven measures for cities to preserve and expand their working- and middle-class populations and achieve more equitable and inclusive outcomes."

VISUAL ART

Pioneer Square Art Walk
Once a month, Seattleites flock to the streets in Pioneer Square for a chance to stroll, sip on booze, and attend as many art openings as possible at First Thursday. It's the city's central and oldest art walk, and takes place in a historic neighborhood known for its abundance of galleries. Wine and hobnobbing will steal the scene for some, but at its core, it's an impressive communal unveiling of new artwork. In December, check out 8X8: The Drawnk Show, artsy shopping opportunities at the 57 Biscayne Holiday Extravaganza, Party Hat's Gift Hole, and Art Walk: Holiday Market Edition, and opening receptions for Fast Forward: Skateboards and Paddles, Sara Long: Building a Body of Light, Arthur Luiz Piza, Laura Castellanos: Bodega (Love Materials), and Sarah McRae Morton.

THURSDAY-SATURDAY

COMEDY

Bill Bellamy
Bill Bellamy (The Bounce Back, Def Comedy Jam), supposedly the coiner of the term "booty call," will swing round to Seattle with some delicious new collocations. See the man about whom Charles Mudede once wrote: "Just look at the fine brother. That skin, those eyes, those lips—to use the words of Dr. Dre: 'Make a ho's panty wet.'"

PERFORMANCE

Veils
Lia Sima Fakhouri directs Tom Coash's play about a black American Muslim who, during a study-abroad trip to Cairo, starts a blog about the practice of veiling with a non-veiled Egyptian woman. Protests related to the coming Arab Spring, different approaches to feminism, and pretty shocking acts of violence—one of the characters is forced to take a "virginity test"—strains the burgeoning friendship and the hopes of finding common ground between US and Egyptian Muslims. RICH SMITH

VISUAL ART

Artifacts from the Multiverse
Filmed partly in the Hoh Rain Forest and partly in Seattle, sci-fi flick Prospect transformed the luscious Pacific Northwest into an alien landscape. Following a father and daughter hunting for valuable gems on a distant moon, the duo encounters danger and the threat of total isolation as they scavenge for these precious objects. Glassbox Gallery will be exhibiting props, costumes, and “alternate realities” from the award-winning film. Let your imagination run wild and picture yourself walking through Cal Anderson Park in a futuristic space suit, digging under the plastic turf looking for gems that will fetch a high price at any intergalactic market of your fancy in some reality parallel to this one. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Opening Thursday

Laura Hamje: 53 Views of the Alaskan Way Viaduct
When the Alaskan Way Viaduct closes next year, the city’s most accessible elevated westward view goes with it. I’ve been practicing nostalgia for that loss over the past couple of years, not minding when traffic slows and I’m stuck staring at Elliott Bay and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. Seattle artist Laura Hamje’s paintings in various mediums—from oil on linen to gouache on paper—are snapshots of all the different swoops, curves, and pillars of the 65-year-old roadway. Based in part on Japanese artist Hiroshige Ando’s early-19th-century woodblock series 53 Stations of the Tokaido, the series captures the structure in its many moods—from the darkened and rainy, to the bright flashes of light puncturing shadows. All of the views are from the perspective of how we will remember the viaduct the most: through a windshield. KATIE KURTZ
Opening Thursday

Sanctuary: Design for Belonging
The winners of the "Displaced: Design for Inclusive Cities" reveal their ideas for solving the problems facing immigrant and refugee communities and the urban areas that welcome them. The exhibition is organized along the themes of  "Social innovation, Shelter, Resource Hubs, Gathering Spaces, and Story Telling" and seeks to draw attention to the 60 million people who have been driven from their homes.
Opening Thursday

THURSDAY-SUNDAY

COMEDY

A(n Improvised) Christmas Carol
You may think you know the story of A Christmas Carol, but you have no idea. Watch a team of improvisers re-create Dickens's tale based on audience suggestions.

Crabgrass Productions' 'The Judy Garland Christmas Special'
This is an imaginary dress rehearsal for Judy Garland's doomed 1963 television Christmas special. Garland drinks and snarls her way through loathsome Christmas television treacle. It doesn't have as much to do with the holidays as it does with the frightening fantasies of her drink-addled mind, but there's terrifically bad singing, comically inept dancing, and Garland shoots Santa dead. You'll leave feeling drunk, abused, and forgotten—just like Liza!  PAUL CONSTANT

FOOD & DRINK

Big Wood Festival
This festival exclusively featuring barrel-aged beers and ciders will boast 50 barrel-aged creations on tap.

PERFORMANCE

Acrobatic Conundrum: The Fig Tree Waltzes
The rigorous athletes/dancers of Acrobatic Conundrum will revive The Fig Tree Waltzes with a new score by Finnish composter Petteri Rajanti and choreography by Costa Rica's Jimmy Ortiz. As the company describes it, "strong women hang from lofty trapezes and bearded men spin in hoops wearing skirts" in a drama about human striving.  

Dina Martina Christmas Show
If you think you know what drag is, if you think you know what humor is, if you think you know how the English language works, I heartily encourage you to throw your “knowledge” out the window and go see the Dina Martina Christmas Show. There is no one like Dina Martina. And there is no one like her diehard, inside-joke-obsessed, constantly laughing crowds. Her dedicated fans include Whoopi Goldberg, John Waters, and Kevin Costner. I’m not kidding. CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE

Okwui Okpokwasili: Poor People’s TV Room
Okwui Okpokwasili just won a MacArthur genius grant for "creating multidisciplinary performance pieces that draw viewers into the interior lives of women of color, particularly those of African and African American women, whose stories have long been overlooked and rendered invisible." The experimental Igbo American performer-artist-writer straight out of the Bronx presents more of the same in Poor People’s TV Room, which illuminates connections between the work of Nigerian women activists in the 20th and 21st centuries. Okpokwasili's dancing is mesmerizing, almost ecstatic at times, as if she's channeling movements from different people across time and space. When asked in a recent ICA Boston interview about this show, she said, "The audience should expect to see, I hope, ghosts." RICH SMITH

The Twilight Zone: Live!
In sixth grade, I was in a short school production of “To Serve Man” (“It’s a cookbook!”). I played one of the aliens. That particular Twilight Zone episode is also adapted for the stage in Theater Schmeater’s traditional holiday presentation, which also features adaptations of “The Shelter,” “Death’s Head Revisited,” and “The Changing of the Guard.” Rachel Delmar directs. LEILANI POLK

FRIDAY

COMEDY

Flowers
An all-star cast of indie improvisers, including Michael Castillo, Anthony Householder, Tony Morse, Cailey Nickerson, Jeffrey Nickels, Kristine Ota, Amanda Walker, and Adisa Williams, is ready to entertain you after tutelage by Bandit Theater's Annie Barry. 

Rock Bottom: The Farewell Show
Say good-bye to this delightful alliance of multicultural improv talent as they make theater together one last time. Stay on for a party. 

PERFORMANCE

Bard In A Bar: Much Ado About Nothing
Shakespeare would no doubt approve of Bard in a Bar: rowdy, crowdsourced, and boozy presentations of the great playwright's works, in this case the snappy comedy Much Ado About Nothing. They'll provide the scripts and props, and you'll lend your voice to the immortal verses.

Crooners & Queens: Holiday Edition
Join some lovely queens for a cozy night of nostalgic drag featuring Better Wetter, Butylene O'Kipple, Cannoli, and others. The organizers say, "Be taken to a time when men were men, and then watch those men put on dresses and subvert gender norms!" Sounds like the spirit of the holidays.

Nice Package: A Holiday Boylesque Show
Samuel L. JackYouSon will preside over this extravaganza of boylesque talent including Waxie Moon, EmpeROAR Fabulous, Buck Reynolds Chippendale, Chandler Svelt, Ginger Elixir, Gams Galore, Fosse Jack, and Nip Slip Cheerio. Sounds like just what you want under your tree. 

So You Think You Can Dance Live!
Watch So You Think You Can Dance's Top 10 finalists when they swing through Seattle on their national tour.

READINGS & TALKS

Martha Brockenbrough: Unpresidented
One of the most annoying recurring questions spurred by Donald Trump's presidency is "How do I tell my kids about X! Or Y! Or pussy grabbing?!" Seattle-based YA novelist Martha Brockenbrough's Unpresidented, a new biography of the president, will go some way in helping answer those questions. Her history of Trump's life, which is aimed at younger readers, goes all the way back to the Drumpfs. She follows the family's immigration to the United States and tracks their crooked rise to power. She chronicles the dark days of 2016, and the even darker days that have come since, creating a useful timeline of rage-inducing events that are difficult to remember because they keep getting eclipsed by other rage-inducing events. RICH SMITH

FRIDAY-SATURDAY

COMEDY

Uncle Mike Ruins Christmas
Mike Murphy (Uncle Mike, on Saturdays), Graham Downing (Cousin Graham, on Fridays), and Jet City cast members re-enact and trample over your fond Christmas memories in a happily vulgar performance. Not necessarily for squeamish types.

FOOD & DRINK

Winter Solstice Night Market
The official first day of winter is just around the corner, and it's officially freezing outside. Stay warm at this two-day indoor holiday night market, where over 100 local pop-ups will serve up their tasty food and drink offerings. While you're there, enjoy live holiday performances and shop for gifts for your loved ones. Plus, check out the market's Beer Festival, where a separate ticket gets you 32 ounces' worth of beer from local breweries.

VISUAL ART

Daniel Carrillo: Daguerrotypes
In the back gallery, check out Carrillo's mysterious photographic impressions, which focus in part on the paraphernalia and tools of visual artists like Kimberly Trowbridge, Kelly Bjork, Jeffry Mitchell, and Paul Komada. 
Opening Friday

Thuy-Van Vu and Samantha Scherer: New Work
Seattle-based artists Thuy-Van Vu and Samantha Scherer seem like an intuitive pairing for a gallery show. Presenting new work at the G. Gibson Gallery, both artists get at the tender underbelly of their subjects. With Vu, inanimate objects like typewriters, quilts, and piles of wood take on a human, alive quality in a rather quiet way. Scherer’s watercolor subjects seem to just surface against the background—craggy, aching, and vulnerable. Whatever these two artists put out is thoughtful, contemplative, and a “don’t miss” in every way. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Opening Friday

FRIDAY-SUNDAY

FILM

Holidays on Ice
This series will be dedicated to movies about sports on the ice, including this week's I, Tonya, Mystery, Alaska, The Cutting Edge, Goon, and Youngblood. Whether you want something heroic, dramatic, or downright silly, you can find something to suit your mood.

PERFORMANCE

Buttcracker IV... The Final Countdown!
This festive and raunchy holiday show promises glittery professional dance and holiday satire set to a hair-metal soundtrack. Wade Madsen will play God in this edition, replete with new choreography.

George Balanchine's 'The Nutcracker'
If you haven't seen this Christmas classic since you were a kid, give it a go this year. In 2014, PNB replaced its beloved Maurice Sendak set with one by Ian Falconer, who did the Olivia the Pig books, and I'm glad that they did. The new set is gorgeous in a Wes Anderson-y way, and it reflects the genuine weirdness and beauty in the story. I mean, the last 45 minutes of this thing is a Katy Perry video starring dancing desserts and a glittery peacock that moves like a sexy broken river. Bring a pot lozenge. RICH SMITH

Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker
The 13th annual Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker is a lascivious holiday show experience with sugar plum fairies, exciting, clothes-dropping times, and who knows, maybe some "woody" jokes.

Murder on the Mistletoe Express
Cafe Nordo will return to its perennial Christmas heroine, Becky-June Beasley-Jones, whom we last saw in 2017's A View from Santa’s Lap. This time, Becky-June races home for "Grandma's last Christmas," but all sorts of sinister events disrupt the trip on the Mistletoe Express. Seattle playwrighting treasure Scot Augustson (Penguins) writes and directs, and Butch Alice stars as Becky-June. As with Nordo's other productions, the show will be accompanied by a four-course meal.

Scott Shoemaker's War on Christmas
Scott Shoemaker (Ms. Pak-Man) and illustrious friends like Mandy Price, Waxie Moon, Adé Conneré, and Faggedy Randy will lead a fearless investigation into the War on Christmas. Their weapons: "comedy, songs, dance numbers, amazing videos and partial nudity!"

VISUAL ART

Claire Partington: Taking Tea
The British ceramicist elucidates the history hidden in the Porcelain Room, a beloved permanent installation in the museum. Incorporating or evoking Baroque painting, fragments from centuries-old shipwrecks, human figures, and factory production, Partington delves into the Eurasian China trade. Luxury, culture, exploitation...all lie behind the seeming anodyne dishes and vessels.
Opening Friday

D. Allan Drummond: Curiosity
I remember when I first watched The Mummy as a child, I was completely terrified by the scenes of bewitched scarabs crawling under some unfortunate person’s skin and eating them alive from the inside. Yuck. And even though I know scarabs and prehistoric trilobites have basically nothing to do with each other, looking at D. Allan Drummond’s bronze-cast rendering of the now extinct marine creature brings up a lot of childhood body horror for me—and fascination. In the University of Chicago professor’s first show, Drummond will be presenting a mounted installation of his 3-D printed trilobite sculptures, which visitors are encouraged to remove and inspect for themselves. Careful they don’t crawl under your skin, though. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Opening Friday

SATURDAY

COMEDY

The Dare Show
Comedians Elena Martinez and Haley Beglau will challenge each other to a series of dares and a handful of truths. 

FILM

Pr0n 4 Freakz
ScumTrust Productions and Northwest Film Forum are partnering to bring you queer and trans smut every two months. Arrive early to hang out with freaky new friends and shop the “sexy witch market.” Stay on after the dirty movie for a Q&A on sex, pleasure, queerness, and gender.

FOOD & DRINK

CookieFest
This annual cookie bake sale pop-up benefiting the Seattle Milk Fund offers a smorgasbord of gooey, crispy, chewy delights from a variety of vendors, including beloved Scandinavian bakery Byen Bakeri, Capitol Hill cookie purveyor Hello Robin, the late-night cookie delivery service Midnight Cookie Co., and Greenwood plant-based dessert shop Cookie Counter. Guests are encouraged to tote along their own “cookie vessels” or grab a bakery box and load up on as many confections as they like. JULIANNE BELL

Holiday Candy and Confections
Learn to make six different kinds of festive holiday candies and confections like velvet fudge, chocolate bark, toffee, and more. You'll go home with gift bags, boxes, ribbon, and paper with which to wrap up your creations for holiday gifts. 

Holiday Cookie Extravaganza
Add gumdrop cookies, cold dough cakes, snowflake cookies, and other sweet treats to your holiday baking repertoire. Gift-wrap materials (including boxes, ribbon, and paper) are included in the class.

Midnight Mecca Masquerade
Chef Tarik Abdullah and Damon Parle of Brown Liquor Cocktail Co. have culled their greatest culinary hits of the year from all of their Midnight Mecca dinners and will serve them all in a nine-course tasting menu with cocktail pairings, along with music and "special surprises."  Guests are asked to dress in their finest formal attire with a masquerade mask and a gold, black, and/or white palette.

PERFORMANCE

20,000 Cuccis Under the Sea
It's a very Cucci show (Seattle's beloved drag hostess-with-the-mostess) that promises to be just as nuts as its lineup: "Hosted by: Cucci Binaca. Featured Entertainer: Cucci Binaca. Performances by: Cucci Binaca. Cucci Binaca. Cucci Binaca. Cucci Binaca. Cucci Binaca."

Theater Anonymous: It's a Wonderful Life
Thirty actors take an oath of secrecy as to their role in this surprise-filled theater production of It's a Wonderful Life by 14/48. On the day of the show, they sit in the audience until it's time to deliver their first line. They're all seeing one another onstage for the first time—they'll be just as amazed as you!

READINGS & TALKS

Lecture: Betelhem Makonnen & Anna Gallagher-Ross
Ethiopian visual arts curator Betelhem Makonnen, who helps organize the programming at the annual art and performance festival Fusebox in Austin, Texas, will be joined in conversation by fellow Fusebox curator Anna Gallagher-Ross. 

Surreal Storytelling with Strange Women #3
Fond of literary surrealism? Join local writer Shelley Minden (Shape Shift), local singer-songwriter and zine-maker Symone La Luz, G.G. Silverman (a nominee of the Best Small Fictions anthology prize for best short fiction), and Kait Heacock (editor of Joyland and author of Siblings and Other Disappointments) for an evening of bewitching readings.

Write-O-Rama
Get the maximum amount of instruction from Hugo House's excellent prose writers and poets at this annual event featuring five hours of hourlong mini-workshops and talks. Teachers include Paul Mullin, Susan Meyers, Waverly Fitzgerald, Nicholas O'Connell, Joe Ponepinto, and many others.

VISUAL ART

5 Year Anniversary Bash!
The enjoyably weird gallery/shop/artist collective Push/Pull will create some extra fun for its fifth birthday, including music by Helen America and Aaron J. Shay, $20 mystery gifts, "AND more, probably, to be announced."

Georgetown Art Attack
Once a month, the art scene of the tiny airport hamlet of Georgetown ATTACKS all passersby. In more literal terms, it's the day of art openings and street wonderment. If the westerly locations are too far, there's a free Art Ride! In December, check out Art Under $100, Everyone's Floored, Equinox Studios' Very Open House, and the opening of Warren Dykeman: Attention Span.

Inscape Open House
Shop a makers' market and open studios for art, "hand-knit hats, ceramics, jewelry, clothing, and more" and stop by Vichayapai's soft sculpture installation Permeable Moment, which she's been preparing all through her artist's residency. The "High Wall reception," usually with video projected on the high wall, will be from six to eight with Che Sehyun. Among the many other things to see are works by Jo Ellen Wang, Victor Devlin, Maggie Argiro and Sanwal Deen, Jessica Hoffman, and Mya Kerner with dancer Paige Barnes.

Light In The Attic Records: A Visual Archive
One of the world's most interesting reissue labels, Light in the Attic Records has been responsible for bringing back into circulation records by under-recognized legends such as Last Poets, Betty Davis, Karen Dalton, Rodriguez, Lee Hazlewood, Haruomi Hosono, This Heat, and Annette Peacock. Now, in commemoration of 16 years of outstanding archival digging, the Seattle/LA company is hosting a touring exhibition of photographs featuring rare and unseen prints of their esteemed roster of artists. Some of the subjects will include Karen Dalton backstage at Montreaux circa 1971, Baron Wolman's photos of Betty Davis in 1969 during her brief marriage to Miles Davis, Stephen Paley's Sly Stone portraits, Townes Van Zandt on the set of Heartworn Highways, Mark Lanegan (shot by Charles Peterson), Texan skate-punks Big Boys in the frame with Glenn Danzig, and a series of pics taken by Mark Guthrie during D'Angelo's Voodoo tour. DAVE SEGAL

SATURDAY-SUNDAY

PERFORMANCE

A Very Die Hard Christmas
Marxiano Productions, who most recently created the hit show Bohemia, will stage a merry holiday musical from a script by the top-notch sketch comedy outfit the Habit, which peppers the rip-roaring action with songs, jokes, and more.

VISUAL ART

12th Anniversary Show with Jeremy Eaton
Underground comix artist/painter Jeremy Eaton classifies his art as "energetic," and his pop-surrealist grotesques and abstracts certainly testify to a wild and abundantly weird imagination. We don't know exactly what he's showing here, but recent works have included a depiction of an infernal David Bowie head floating in a crowded solar system and a series of misshapen, hairy, demonic pinups.
Opening Saturday

SUNDAY

FOOD & DRINK

addo Themed Brunch: Grinch Who Stole Christmas
If Whoville had five-course holiday tasting menus (who's to say they don't?) they might resemble Chef Eric Rivera's brunch inspired by How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

READINGS & TALKS

Z-Sides: Poetry Tastemakers
Jekeva Phillips has been all over the place. Earlier in the fall, she helped run Lit Crawl Seattle, which was well attended again this year. A few months before that, she ran Bibliophilia, a summer festival that pairs Seattle writers with improv performers to create a series of readings you actually want to attend. And now she's launching a new TV series, produced by Word Lit Zine (which she also runs) and Seattle Colleges Cable Television (which is maybe the only thing she doesn't run). At Northwest Film Forum, she'll be hosting a screening of the show, which features Washington State poet laureate Claudia Castro Luna, Seattle civic poet Anastacia-ReneĂ©, and youth poet laureate Lily Baumgart. Phillips promises that each show will present "Seattle’s best and brightest as you have never seen them before." RICH SMITH