The Stranger April 2026

30,000

ABORTION PILLS!!!

APRIL 2026 • THESTRANGER.COM

PASSING THROUGH

P.1 3

EXPLORING OUR FAVORITE LIMINAL SPACES P. 1 8 Free!

UOUHR-SOTAHT !

E SUPREME COURT IS GETTIN’ ALL SHOOK UP P.1 1 A FILM FESTIVAL FORPP. 4UN1 KS

SPRING READS FOR DESPERATE TIME5S P.4

SAD CTHLE DOOWWNNS FALL OF TEATRO ZINZANNI P.2 5

APRIL 2026

WELCOME TO APRIL ISSUE

Y

ou may have noticed that this issue doesn’t have a theme. It’s not the Spring Arts Issue or the Transit Issue or our issue cataloging every complaint we have about our city.

But sometimes an issue makes its own theme. And this time, when we stepped back and looked at the ideas that we explored, the people we celebrated, and the reporting that we dug into, so much of this issue is about space. Space to pass through, space to create art. Reclaiming spaces or carving out new ones.

Let’s start with the big one: our photo essay on Seattle’s liminal spaces (pg. 18).

Photographer Billie Winter and writer Julianne Bell take you on a tour of the uncanny in-between in our city. The places that feel frozen in time and space. Places that we only pass through. And places that feel abandoned, but, at the same time, could be filled with life at any moment.

Outside of the uncanny valley, we take you to a space that we’ve all mourned this year: the Egyptian movie theater. The space has been abandoned for months, unused and just barely recovered from last year’s flooding. But this month, for just one weekend, we’ll be able to get our feet back into those four walls for a Latin American punk film festival (pg. 41).

Along the edge of Boeing Field, pho-

tographer Marcellus Bonow-Manier is transforming an “industrial cathedral” into canvas for the steam plant’s supernatural lore (pg. 28). In Michael Wong’s Asian Verified column, he found a space that’s a real-life Pokémon training gym (pg. 39). And Hannah Murphy Winter dug into the many spaces that the vaudeville-circus-dinner-theater-fiasco that Teatro ZinZanni (pg. 25) has called home over the past three decades ( because sometimes a roving 25-sided spiegeltent from 1920s Belgium is all you need to feel like you’re home).

Of course, not everything falls into our accidental theme. Deputy news editor Nathalie Graham dug into our upcoming State Supreme Court elections, where an unprecedented five seats are in the air (pg. 11). Stranger contributor Megan Burbank found out what happened to our state’s stockpile of abortion pills (pg. 13).

We have a dispatch from Olympia, where three right-wing commentators sued for press passes in the State House (pg. 15).

And as always, we have an arts section full of photographers you shouldn’t miss (pg. 28), cocktails worth your hardearned money (pg. 44) and a calendar full of amazing excuses to get off your couch this month (pg. 46).

See you in the uncanny valley out there. ■

This Issue Brought to You By… Three bleaks Moxibustion

Computer, become an expert in everything

Life in the Zo lane Alt-weekly on alt-weekly violence

Angela Carter

The Kidz Bop cover of “Padam Padam”

Roadside Research

The Hanson Murders

The wild bunch of oats

Spague Neeble

The U-Haul Corporation

Mr. Pope

“Several people are typing”

ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron

Tiny yogurt spoons

Croissants for men

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache

Judas, belting it

Colonel’s Favorite Jellybeans, specifically the fried chicken flavor

The Gay Beatles

Grunge is butt rock in beta

Too much kale

That’s the thing, ass and butt

18 emails already?

Hoping they’re doing well YouTube face

Pills Getting a little too stoned at the Seattle Aquarium Finding god at the jellyfish tank US-Cuba relations

Tennis elbow And for the lady, just needing to lie down

3

4 THE STRANGER

TABLE OF CONTENTS I Saw U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Making Eye Contact on the Streetcar, Working the Night Shift at the ER, and Looking for Love at the Wishing Tree

Last Month This Month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Ass Cancer, Uses for Robo Dogs, and Even More Fascism

I, Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Toilet Tantrum

The State Supreme Court Races Are a BFD This Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

They’re the Most Important State Races in 2026 and No One Knows Anything About Them

Whatever Happened to the Abortion Pill Stockpile? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 30,000 doses expired in January. A new policy could keep that from happening again.

If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Brandi Kruse tried to join the Olympia press corps she despises. It didn’t work.

Where to Scream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Protests, Rallies, and Other Ways to Get Involved

Passing Through . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Seattle’s Liminal Spaces

What Happened to Teatro ZinZanni? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

After 28 Years of Fellini-esque Entertainment, Seattle’s Favorite Circus Might be Wrapped

Catching Feelings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Marcellus Bonow-Manier Peels Back the Layers of Lore of the Steam Plant

Croissants for the Girlies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

At her new bakery, Maddy O’Donnell is making pastries her way. You can love it or leave it.

Spotlit in Seattle: Dina Martina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Seattle’s Crown Jewel of Unhinged Cabaret Returns to Confuse, Delight, and Mildly Alarm

The Little Pokémon Gym That Could . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Tabletop Village in the CID Is Pumping Out Card Champions

RAYGUN LOUNGE MUST COME TO AN END, BUT AS OF APRIL 1ST, THE TILTED TABLE RISES FROM THE ASHES. OUR PINBALL BAR, ARCADE, BOARDGAME LOUNGE, AND GOOD TIMES WILL CONTINUE ON!

The Egyptian Will Reopen This Month for a Latin American Punk Film Festival Put On by a Puppet Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Yeah, You Read That Right

New Music You Shouldn’t Miss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 New Albums by Reggaeton-Punk Duo Lucha Luna and Noirish Trip-Hop Heroine Black Viiolet

The Lion’s Blood at Cafe Munir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 This Mini Cocktail Is a Fragrant Garden Pathway from Winter to Springtime

Spring Reads for Desperate Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 A Fortifying Books List that Offers a Way Forward

Things to Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Music! Art! Literature! Food! Performance! This and Also That!

Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 And a Crossword Puzzle for You Word Nerds!

APRIL 2026

Tracey Cataldo

Advertising

Editorial

Ben Demar, Katie Phoenix

PUBLISHER

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Hannah Murphy Winter MANAGING EDITOR

Megan Seling ARTS EDITOR

Emily Nokes NEWS EDITOR

Vivian McCall DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR

Nathalie Graham

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Charles Mudede STAFF WRITERS

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES REGIONAL ADVERTISING COORDINATOR

Jenna Ward

Marketing MARKETING MANAGER

Evanne Hall

EMAIL MARKETING LEAD

Andi Carmichael

EMAIL MARKETING SPECIALIST

Tonya Ray, Tyra Triche

Art & Production

PRODUCTION

David Caplan, Feedback Graphics

Social Media & Video Production SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR

Christian Parroco DIRECTOR OF VIDEO PRODUCTION

David Quantic

Technology & Development LEAD DEVELOPERS

Michael Crowl Nick Nelson

Julianne Bell, Hunter Pauli, Audrey Vann, Micah Yip

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

PHOTO DIRECTOR

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR

COPY EDITORS

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Char Harris

Grant Hendrix

Business

ASSISTANT TO BRADY WALKINSHAW

Taylor Mccormick

Bold Type Tickets

FOUNDER/CHAIRMAN

AP/AR COORDINATOR

HEAD OF BOLD TYPE TICKETS

Billie Winter

Fox Allison, Dave Segal

Corianton Hale Anthony Keo

DEVELOPER

Chaytan Inman IT MANAGER

Brady Walkinshaw

Surprise Paradisio

PRESIDENT / CFO

Noisy Creek Productions

PROJECT MANAGEMENT/CLIENT

DIRECTOR OF EVENTS

SOLUTIONS REPRESENTATIVE

Rob Crocker CRO

Dan Brown HEAD OF FINANCE & OPERATIONS

Katie Lake

HEAD OF HUMAN RESOURCES

Alia Graham

CHIEF STRATEGY AND COMPLIANCE OFFICER

Kendall Turner HEAD OF PRODUCT

Tim Neill

HEAD OF MARKETING & CREATIVE

Rou Leonard

DIGITAL STRATEGY & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT MANAGER

Allie Huska

PROJECT MANAGER

Lindsay Powers

Kevin Shurtluff

CLIENT SOLUTIONS MANAGER

Diana Schwartz

Campy Draper

CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS REPRESENTATIVE

Anita Chao

EverOut EVEROUT MANAGER

Noisy Creek Podcasts

Katya Schexnaydre

Tim Keck

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Janey Wong

MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Anthony Hecht STRATEGIC ADVISOR

Caroline Dodge

DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC PROJECTS

Luke Lamb

Patrick Kearney

Nancy Hartunian

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

Celene Ramadan

MANAGING EDITOR

DATA MANAGER/STAFF WRITER

Shannon Lubetich STAFF WRITERS

Bri Brey, Langston Thomas

30,000

ABORTION PILLS!!!

APRIL 2026 • THESTRANGER.COM

PASSING THROUGH

P.13

EXPLORING OUR FAVORITE LIMINAL SPACES P.1 8 COVER ARTWORK Free!

UH -OH! OUR STAT

E SUPREME COURT IS GETTIN’ ALL SHOOK UP P.11

A FILM FESTIVAL FOR PUNKS P.4 1

SPRING READS FOR DESPERATE TIMES

Scott Musgrove April 10–May 2 Roq La Rue

P.4 5

SAD CLOWNS THE DOWNFALL OF TEATRO ZINZANNI P.25

THE STRANGER 1101 E. Pike St., Suite 300 Seattle, WA 98122 VOICE 206-323-7101 Mon–Fri, 9 am–5:30 pm; editor@thestranger.com

5

6 THE STRANGER

I Saw U…

Making Eye Contact on the Streetcar, Working the Night Shift at the ER, and Looking for Love at the Wishing Tree ILLUSTRATIONS BY FLORA BAI

D

John the Medical Scribe John the Medical Scribe! ER night shift Swedish Edmonds. I was there with my mom (Deaf ). You’re handsome and have a great voice. Drinks sometime?

I was walking to the bus stop when everything happened.

You gave me a hug after helping the cyclist who got hurt. You talked with them while I was on the phone with 911. Thank you for being there. You were the only other person to stop and help the cyclist. Thank you for the hug. To the cyclist, I hope you are okay and have a good recovery.

Killing it at Boombox karaoke... ...and looking cute on the twins at the Torrent game. You have an incredible voice and are super cute! I was a silly goose on the loose with a green wig cheering you on.

id you recently share a ~*moment*~ with someone while riding the bus, dancing at the club, or standing in line at the supermarket? Do you want to try to reconnect? Submit your own I Saw U at thestranger.com/ isawu, and maybe we’ll include it in the next roundup! Look for a new batch of I Saw U messages every week on TheStranger.com.

Tall Lady at Walnut Cafe if you were picking up beans in a killer deck coat & can read Latin I need to learn everything else about you. Visne poculum cafei capere?

“From the other direction, [you were] calling my eye” @ Nectar, 2/27 You: dark hair, red shirt and plaid skirt. Me: beard, black shirt, tattoos. We kept making eye contact. I was mesmerized. HH @ Stampede 5pm Tuesday?

GENIUS AWARDS ARE BACK! SAVE THE DATE...

September 12, 2026 The Moore Theatre

UW ER nurse with a Boston shirt & the cute stache You: Red hair, kind eyes, great stache. Taking good care of my friend. Me: Stressed, flannel, pant leg w/ some vomit on it. Take care of me sometime?

Bait Shop Beauty @ Telehealth Show Lovely dark curly hair rocking side to side during the Telehealth show. Cackling with your friend, stashing Jell-O shots in purse.

Bum me a cig?

Cap Hill Wishing Tree Wish U: wishing @ the Wishing Tree for someone adventurous, smart & independent. Me: curious Latina by the TARDIS tiny library nearby. Universe answered?

View Ridge PCC Deli Guy Tuesday lunch rush. I scared you coming out of an aisle you made the cutest sound! Kept trading smiles :) Bump into each other again sometime?

Meet in Office Stairwell?

You see all my business’ IG stories, I guess I forgot to block you there. Should we take it to the stairwell again? Or the alley behind the hotel?

Complimentary Colors We locked eyes a few times on the streetcar in Cap Hill. I had red lipstick, you-purple shoes, baby blue beanie, orange jacket on.

Let’s color :) Skal Ballard 3/7 you ate salad at the bar With your two friends. I didn’t want to intrude. Available to date? David Byrne in BC would be too much…Something at Rabbitbox maybe

Fellow Ice Cream Enthusiast Small chat with in line at Indigo Cow on Sunday evening about best toppings with my two friends from Connecticut. Sweet Alchemy next time?

Flammable Sundays We danced at Flammable on Pres Day weekend. You couldn’t tell whether my friend’s accent was real or not (it wasn’t). When can we dance again?

Is it a match? Follow The Stranger on Instagram and leave a comment on our weekly I Saw U posts to connect!

APRIL 2026

LAST MONTH THIS MONTH

BY VIVIAN McCALL AND NATHALIE GRAHAM

Ass Cancer, Uses for Robo Dogs, and Even More Fascism

NEW COLUMN!

Robert Mueller is dead, and Donald Trump didn’t even get to kill him. The Supreme Court is sticking mail-in ballots with knives as we write this. By the time this hits newsstands, the President has probably done something even worse in Iran, or decided it was time to “liberate” Cuba. Every day we shuffle farther from God’s light toward the yawning, fiery maw of hell.

*** But if you can’t dominate a battlefield, consider baseball. Less than three months after we stole its president, Nicoláss Maduro, Venezuela beat the USA in the World Baseball Classic championship. Poetic!

Keeping in goose step with the hottest trends, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren endorsed Graham “Oops I didn’t know the death’s-head on the hat of all the villains in Indiana Jones was a Nazi thing” Platner for Senate in Maine. All he knows is finding oysters. Technically, Mr. Working Class Hero used to be the guy with the Nazi tattoo. He’s covered it up with a Celtic knot made of dogs. It’s not a hate symbol, but we hate it because it’s ugly!

E AG M

S

*** Maybe we should jog, like the French naval officer who revealed the secret location of his aircraft carrier when he logged onto Strava during an on-deck run. Oceans are now gyms; as Sun Tzu wrote, if you can dominate your step count, you can dominate a battlefield.

YI TT /GE GLOBALP

Ask A Bonobo America’s Past Pastime most. Young people keep waiting to get their bleeding holes checked out and, as they wait, the cancer progresses. It’s not hemorrhoids, babe, it’s ass cancer.

*** Joe Kent, the right-wing extremist who directed the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned his post, saying he couldn’t “in good conscience” back the war in Iran, which is going great, by the way.

Skyrocketing oil prices and destabilizing the Middle East are all part of the plan

*** This country is so ass. Wouldn’t it be great if we could just catch a flight out of here?

The Democrats are holding Department of Homeland Security funding hostage— since the department keeps taking Americans hostage—until the fascists agree to their Very Sensible Gestapo Reforms. As a result, TSA agents aren’t getting paid, or showing up to work. So the fascists are applying ICE to the wound, so they can “help” with security. This should go well.

Our recommendation is to wear loose-fitting shoes so they think you’re with the program, right, Marco?

*** Colorectal cancer hasn’t been part of the plan for young adults, but it’s now the cancer that’s killing people under 50 the

*** Seattle is not keeping the trains on time.

At a retreat, Sound Transit proposed three cost-cutting plans to keep the light

JESUS VARGAS/GETTY IMAGES

rail expansion from going hopelessly over budget (they’re already $35 million in the hole). All three of these proposals kill all hopes of trains making it to Ballard. Dan Strauss, assemble the armada. *** If only Sound Transit had the resources former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem had when she spent $220 million of American tax dollars on a weird cowgirl ad campaign encouraging immigrants to self-deport. That commercial budget was higher than every Best Picture nominee except F1, which doesn’t count because who cares? Congrats to One Battle After Another, by the way. *** And condolences to Taylor Frankie Paul, the star of a now-scrapped season of The Bachelorette. TMZ published a 2023 video that showed Paul, known for The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, putting her ex-boyfriend in a headlock and attacking

BY MADAM B

Dear Madam B, I’m really worried about all the billionaires leaving Seattle—first Bezos, now Schultz.

What should I do? Should I stay?

Or should I follow the money to Florida?

Have sex.

It looks like we’re heading into World War III. But civilization ain’t going to survive this one. The big KABOOM will blow us right back to nature and we’ll have to live just like you bonobos. Do you have any recommendations for how we should prepare for our return to the animal kingdom?

Have sex.

Hi, Madam B, l am a frequent art walk goer for years. I used to hit the cool spots, the “established” blue chips, and the down-tempo smaller galleries. I am now fairly successful in the arts and attribute it to art walk. Today, I still go to P-Square, but I barely visit any galleries. I hang out at the bar with everyone taking a break between their own tour of art... I wonder, is this just me getting older? Or do I hate art now?

Have sex.

Dear Madam B. I’m very old and had spent my whole life thinking that my funeral would happen at the Columbia Funeral Home & Crematory. But some motherfucker burned my dream to the ground last year. And for no good reason. Now what am I going to do? Any ideas?

Have sex.

Gooner Squad

MEGAN VARNER/GETTY IMAGES

CRAIG BARRITT/GETTY IMAGES

Look out for those thumbs!!!

7

8 THE STRANGER

GUMMYBONE/GETTY IMAGES

AMANDA K/500PX/GETTY IMAGES

Nobody likes Bothell. him with kicks and multiple stools. In her fury, she hit her kid, TMZ reported.

Paul pleaded guilty to aggravated assault over the incident, and accusations of abuse have flown in both directions. *** ABC is probably losing a buttload of money. You know who else is? The Washington State GOP would tell you the businesses and millionaires. But it’s not that bad, guys. The Washington State Legislature passed a millionaire’s tax, which will tax any income earned over $1 million and bring in $3.7 billion annually for our state and all those services we love. The businesses did not get their way on the tax, and won’t be off the hook for paying a B&O

Cracking a couple Chihulys with the boys. tax surcharge, like the original draft of the bill promised. They did get their way by (allegedly) killing the high-earners’ payroll tax proposed by Shaun Scott. *** The millionaires are probably not going to leave (except Howard Schultz, but good riddance). However, the crows have different ideas and left the North Creek Wetland next to UW Bothell. Something like 20,000 of these birds, which are too smart for their own good, flew to this area to roost for the night. Some suspect urban growth as the cause of their miraculous departure (more construction, more humans, more lights, more action). Where did Bothell’s birds go? God only knows.

*** To represent the suffering of Christ, Costco is encouraging anyone who buys their $100+, 10-pound chocolate bunny to smash that fucker into smithereens with a hammer, mallet, or rolling pin, or to chop it to bits with a warm, serrated knife. Thorn of crowns not included, rising again not guaranteed. If you see the Stigmata, call the Pope, actually.

That might be something. Happy Easter. *** Not happy César Chávez day? A New York Times investigation found the Mexican-American labor hero was allegedly a pedophile and serial abuser of women. *** We’re so fucking pissed, we could break

stuff. But we would never disrespect Seattle glass icon Dale Chihuly like this. A 40-year-old man was arrested for smashing an estimated $240,000 worth of colorful plant sculptures at the Chihuly Garden and Glass into bits and pieces. He attempted to stab security guards with the glass shards.

The perfect crime. *** Bloodless security guards could be all the rage soon. Robot dogs made by Boston Dynamics, which cost between $175,000 and $300,000 a pop, are guarding some data centers in the US. We hate these things, but like their slender hips. Give them a Fleshlight, and we’re there. Ethical consumption under capitalism.

APRIL 2026

I, Anonymous

Readers’ Rants and Confessions ILLUSTRATION BY STEVE WEISSMAN

To the smooth-brained bitches who thought it was so fucking funny to flush their tampon waste down the toilet of a decades-old, cash-only bar: Do you not have object permanence??

Do you really need a nasty, crumpled-up, germ-coated sign reading “Please do not flush anything other than toilet paper down these old-ass pipes” to tell you that it wasn’t okay to flush “away” your plastic period garbage instead of walking it over to the GIANT trash can outside your stall?

Is your ego so fragile that you couldn’t

handle someone telling you what not to do? Everyone is raised differently, but goddamn! Maybe it’s time for your filler-stuffed face to fill in the gaps that your parents so clearly missed?! Embarrassing to come after me for my behavior, only to then hide behind your frat pack of mustachioed meatheads who felt it appropriate to join in on your tantrum and throw profanities at a woman they’ve never spoken to... very cool, normal behavior. Not sure if you were that dumb, or that selfish, but for fuck’s sake!! Grow up or stay home.

Do you need to get something off your chest? Submit an I, Anonymous, and maybe we’ll illustrate it! Send your unsigned rant, love letter, confession, or accusation to ianonymous@thestranger.com. Please remember to change the names of the innocent and the guilty. Read more I, Anonymous letters every week at TheStranger.com.

9

10 THE STRANGER

CAN A DEGREE HELP YOU FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED?

Your Local Everyday Gift Shop In the heart of the Wallingford neighborhood

At Antioch University, we believe it can. No matter where your journey started, your next step can lead to something bigger.

Our flexible, online, and in-person bachelor’s degree completion programs are designed for transfer students, career changers, and those returning to finish their degree.

With personalized support and a commitment to social change, we help students turn their education into impact.

Because education doesn’t just change you—it helps you change the world.

PNW gifts & complimentary gift wrap FIND YOUR PROGRAM

APRIL 2026

11

The Washington State Supreme Court Races Are a BFD This Year

They’re the Most Important State Races in 2026 and No One Knows Anything About Them

BY NATHALIE GRAHAM ILLUSTRATION BY ALEXA PITT

S

omething unprecedented is happening in the Washington State Supreme Court. Five seats are on the ballot this year. That many seats have never been up for grabs at once in the modern court, but a wave of retirements combined with regular term limits has made for one hell of a situation. The court, which oversees the state’s entire judiciary branch and rules on legal disputes through the lens of the state constitution, has nine positions. It needs a minimum of five justices to rule on an opinion. These elections have the potential to change the majority.

And, even though they’re critical positions and the only statewide races on the ballot this year, Washington voters know little to nothing about the state supreme court.

“Judicial elections are low-information exercises,” says State Supreme Court Justice Steve González, “and people tend to default to what they think they know or to a bias if they’re not careful.” We get it, Steve.

We’re morons.

The turnout for these nonpartisan judicial races is low. Based on 2012 election data from the Secretary of State and González’s own experience running in these races, he says roughly a third of voters leave the judicial races blank. Another third vote based on whatever name sounds good.

Which leaves only the last third—those are informed voters. “You can get elected to the court with only 11 to 15 percent of the registered voters voting for you,” González says.

“That’s dangerous.”

A low-information election on this big of a scale—again, five seats up at once in the highly influential court—could create a foothold for moneyed conservatives trying to influence Washington’s government.

It’s always a bad time for fools to have the gavels and the robes, but it would be really fucking bad for that to happen when the federal government keeps encroaching on established liberties, with its threats to abortion access, gay marriage, voting rights, sanctuary policies for immigrants, etc. Plus, the inevitable legal challenge to the historic and recently passed millionaire’s tax will certainly reach this court.

“It’s such an important part of our democracy to have an independent judiciary that is careful, thoughtful, and qual-

ified to do this work,” González says.

The current court is all of those things, according to La Rond Baker, the legal director for the ACLU of Washington. “The Washington State Supreme Court is one of the strongest supreme courts in the country,” she says. She also thinks it is pivotal to protecting our rights.

Adam Glickman, secretary-treasurer of SEIU 775, agrees. “We have one of the most pro-worker, pro–reproductive health, pro– civil liberties and civil rights courts in the country.”

In recent history, this court has made influential rulings like the McCleary decision, ruling the state hadn’t been meeting its constitutional obligation to fully fund basic education in public schools. In 2018, the court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in State v. Gregory. In 2021, it struck down the state’s felony drug possession law (State v. Blake), a “huge” decision

with “immediate impact,” Baker says, as it allowed hundreds of thousands of people to have their drug possession charges vacated, though only 155,000 have since done so.

Also in 2021, in the Monschke decision, the

“Judicial elections are low-information exercises and people tend to default to what they think they know.” court found that life without parole wasn’t constitutional for offenders who are 18 to 20 years old. Last year, in State v. Gator’s Custom Guns, the court upheld a law that bans large-capacity magazines, finding

those were not constitutionally protected arms. Sorry to Gator’s.

And, since penning a letter in 2020 about its role in perpetuating racial inequality in the legal system, the court has made strides to address that systemic racism by preventing the exclusion of jurors of color, according to Baker with the ACLU. Beyond civil issues, the state supreme court will be pivotal in fixing Washington’s regressive tax code. In 2023, with Quinn v.

State, this court ruled in favor of the capital gains tax, calling it an excise tax, not a property tax—an important distinction, since a past iteration of the court ruled income was property, making it near-impossible to meaningfully change how the state funds anything.

Four justices are retiring. Justices Mary Yu and Barbara Madsen have already bowed out. Gov. Bob Ferguson appointed their CONTINUED ON PG. 15

12 THE STRANGER

Get the hole show for a hole lot of good reasons INCLUDES

S P R I N G LEC TU R ES

EVERYONE IS WELCOME! We are bringing research within reach — smart ideas, served fresh at Town Hall Seattle! uw.edu/lectures

REGISTRATION OPENS ON MARCH 10, 2026

the Savage Lovecast ad-free, the entire column archive, hang outs with Dan and more!

APRIL 2026

13

Whatever Happened to the Abortion Pill Stockpile?

30,000 doses expired in January. A new policy could keep that from happening again.

BY MEGAN BURBANK

T

hree years ago, then-Gov. Jay Inslee announced the state’s first-ever abortion pill stockpile: 30,000 doses of mifepristone, which, along with the pill misoprostol, is commonly used in medication abortions, and was then at the heart of a lawsuit brought by anti-abortion activists. In this moment of crisis, advance provision was a common tactic, but in crafting a policy to get the pills to Washington patients, lawmakers failed to take into account the needs of local health care providers.

We know this didn’t happen because they complained. In a Seattle Times op-ed published in October, Pro-Choice Washington board member and family doctor Glenna Martin said experts had tried to help the state come up with a better plan to distribute the pills, but hadn’t been taken up on it.

As a result, the stockpile went largely unused, and in January, pills from that initial batch expired, with dire headlines (including Martin’s) suggesting it might be gone forever. That was not true. The state had struck a deal with the manufacturer to replace the pills as they expired, and there are still many waiting to be handed out.

It turned out to be a classic case of the state legislature and governor kneecapping their own policy. As ever, byzantine policy and administrative hiccups kept Americans from their health care.

When the state initially cobbled together this stockpile plan, the powers that be decided that instead of donating the pills, they’d have to be sold at cost, plus a tacked-on fee of $5 for each dose to cover the dispensing costs.

This was an error and proved to be a major barrier. Pills from the state’s stockpile were a more expensive, less-practical option for reproductive healthcare clinics.

Providers could easily obtain mifepristone for less directly from the pharmaceutical companies, so that was what many did.

Ironically, a decision made in the interest of saving money on distribution costs and expanding access to mifepristone resulted in an unused supply of pills.

“We appreciate that our state thought ahead and took action to protect medication abortion access,” says Mercedes Sanchez,

ILLUSTRATION BY TIM SILBAUGH executive director of Cedar River Clinics. But after the case that triggered the stockpile was decided and mifepristone remained accessible, she says, “it was not cost-effective at the time for us to purchase the medications, and as a nonprofit organization, we did have to think about the financial implications.”

“It kind of defeated the purpose,” says Sarah Prager, a Seattle-based abortion provider.

But guess what? The Legislature actually dealt with the issue this session by

there,” she says. Now, still-unexpired pills might actually be used.

In addition to excising the fee, Bateman’s bill also lifts the requirement that the Department of Corrections obtains payment for the drugs.

The DOC? Its involvement might seem strange, but there’s nowhere else for the drugs to go. Though it doesn’t prescribe medication directly, the DOC houses the state’s only pharmacy, and it’s not unusual for the state to employ it to hold medica-

passing a law to set up a more effective distribution system for the pills—first and foremost by removing the pricing requirement and allowing the pills to be donated.

It’s a change clinicians hope will make the stockpile a practical resource rather than one that’s almost purely theoretical.

“Obviously, we don’t want to just throw away medication that can be used for reproductive health care,” says State Senator Jessica Bateman (D-22), sponsor of Senate Bill 5917, which was signed into law on March 1 and will get rid of the $5 fee and facilitate the stockpile’s distribution.

Gov. Inslee’s plan to acquire the pills was a good idea, said Prager, especially considering threats to abortion pills that could have made the drugs unavailable. “But since it didn’t become obsolete, the pills that he purchased have kind of just been sitting

tions for the Department of Social and Health Services, that said, the abortion stockpile’s scale is unusual compared to its holdings of other medications, according to

Obviously, we don’t want to just throw away medication that can be used for reproductive health care.

Samantha Grono of the Washington State Women’s Commission.

Bateman’s bill also establishes the Department of Health as a liaison between

the DOC and local healthcare providers like Cedar River. The Department of Health will identify local healthcare organizations to donate the soon-to-expire drugs to, free of charge (and of fees), and prevent the medication from being wasted in the future. (The new policy also specifies that misoprostol be included in the stockpile.)

“If we have to get an additional stockpile in the future, if this is an ongoing thing, we want to make sure that those two medications are included, and that the cost is not prohibitive, that they can actually be distributed based on need,” Bateman says.

At a hearing on the bill, Seattle family medicine doctor Ying Zhang said she hoped the changes would make it easier to distribute the pills to her own patients. “There are so many needless barriers to patients accessing this essential, lifesaving medication,” she said.

Despite its limitations, the stockpile was a logical response to a very real legal threat to abortion pills, the subject of several major ongoing cases, including a suit in Louisiana that would reclassify misoprostol and mifepristone as “controlled substances,” a category typically only applied to substances with demonstratively dangerous or addictive properties.

That’s on top of existing regulations on mifepristone, which are already stringent thanks to a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS), a set of restrictions the FDA has imposed on mifepristone in spite of its well-documented safety. Addressing an uncertain situation like this, says Grono, was “the original intention” behind the abortion pill stockpile. “We don’t know what it’s going to look like as these changes continue to happen across the country,” she says, “and so we just want to be prepared.”

Now that the new distribution policy has been signed into law, Sanchez and other providers expect the stockpile will finally serve its purpose—that it won’t just be a break-in-case-of-emergency glass box, but a legitimate resource for underfunded clinics. “I am hoping, now that the roadblocks are removed, it will be available for donation to clinics like ours and other providers in the region,” she says. “This will ensure that patients who need access to medication abortion can receive it.” ■

14 THE STRANGER

Did Microsoft help make Light Rail across Lake Washington possible?

Yes. Microsoft.

You can’t have a healthy business without a healthy community. And you can’t have a healthy community without healthy businesses. We are all in this together.

ARTWORK BY JORDAN KAY

aka.ms/CrosslakeConnection

If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em

APRIL 2026

15

Brandi Kruse tried to join the Olympia press corps she despises. It didn’t work.

T

he press corps in Olympia are the “enemies of the American people,” the Plastics in Mean Girls, and Democratic party operatives, so says right-wing podcaster Brandi Kruse. She detests them. And she wants to join them.

Early this year Kruse and two allies, Discovery Institute fellow Jonathan Choe, and 570 KVI radio host Ari Hoffman, applied for press passes to the Democratic side of the House chamber in Olympia’s Capitol dome.

That they didn’t get them was discriminatory, the trio and their attorney say.

For a long time, Kruse, a former Fox 13 reporter, said she wasn’t a journalist to justify her political actions—speaking at Republican dinners, campaigning for a Republican gubernatorial candidate, and boosting a campaign to ban trans girls from sports—but started calling herself one again when the press pass issue surfaced a year-and-a-half ago.

Choe, fired by KOMO for blasting out Proud Boys propaganda in 2022, reports for the Charlie Kirk-founded Turning Point USA on top of his Discovery Institute work.

Hoffman is a Rush Limbaugh-like Seattle

CONTINUED FROM PG. 11

replacements: Justice Colleen Melody, the former chief of the Civil Rights Division in the Washington State Attorney General’s Office when Ferguson ran the place, took over for Yu in January; Seattle litigator Theo Angelis will take Madsen’s seat in April.

Both will run for election this year. Neither served as judges before this appointment.

Associate Chief Justice Charles Johnson, who is the longest-serving justice, will age out of the court this year, since he’s hit the mandatory retirement age of 75. He’s seeing out the rest of his term, but Johnson’s seat will be open. The same goes for retiring Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis’s seat.

Chief Justice Debra Stephens’s term is up and she will run for reelection.

That’s five races, with only one elected incumbent. Hopefuls have already begun to line up.

Some familiar jokers are running, like anti-tax retired Federal Way municipal judge David Larson, who keeps running for supreme court and losing. This time, he’s running for Madsen’s seat. So far, his only other challenger (aside from the position’s appointee, Angelis) will be Thurston County Superior Court Judge Sharonda Amamilo. Another joker is David Shelvey, a family law attorney who’s running for Johnson’s seat. He has interesting views on the similarities between T. rexes and kangaroos.

“And since we know kangaroos can jump, T. rexes must also have been able to because they both have short arms,” González explains in a deadpan voice. “You can read his website. He discusses this…

BY JOHN STANG talk radio host that has campaigned for two initiatives, including the one to remove trans girls from girls sports. All three of them take strong positions on policies and bills in the Legislature, which is exactly why the Clerk denied their press passes.

ANTHONY KEO

In rejecting the trio’s applications, the clerk’s office quoted a passage from the Capitol Correspondents Association’s guidelines that a line be established between professional journalism and politicking.

issue.” (The Stranger did read it: “Although I am not a scientist, I agree with other nonscientists who have said there is circumstantial evidence of remarkable similarities when comparing the skeletons of a Tyrannosaurus Rex to a kangaroo.”) He’s raised exactly $0 as of press time.

Legitimate candidates are also vying for Johnson’s seat. Ian Birk from the Washington State Court of Appeals (not to be confused with the Seattle Police Department’s Ian Birk, who killed woodcarver John T. Williams and kickstarted SPD’s consent decree) is running. Birk was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee. He’s raised over $131,000.

Sean O’Donnell from King County Superior Court, who was appointed Chief Judge of both the Family Law and Criminal Divisions, is also vying for Johnson’s seat.

O’Donnell also served on the Green River Killer Task Force that aided in the prosecution of serial killer Gary Ridgway. He’s raised over $89,000.

Justice Montoya-Lewis’s seat only has two options so far: Washington State Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Diaz, who helped found the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights program when he was an assistant US District attorney, and Mason County Superior Court Judge David Stevens, who cites Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito as his judicial heroes.

Justice Yu’s seat is now filled by Ferguson appointee Justice Melody. She’ll be running for election to keep the seat. In mid-March, Scott Edwards, an attorney who represents people and businesses who hate taxes, entered the race against her.

Kruse and Choe did not respond to requests for interviews. Jerry Cornfield, president of the correspondents association, also declined to comment. Hoffman declined to be interviewed. “I don’t give interviews to antisemitic communist rags,” he wrote in an email. [Though he did lobby against a new levy in front of the SECB last year.]

A hodgepodge of rules governs press access to Washington’s Senate and House chambers. Anyone with a Clerk-issued press pass can freely access both the Democratic and Republican sides of the Senate chamber. But it’s fairly easy to get to either side without a pass. All a person needs is a communications staffer, a security person, or a legislator to escort them. House Republicans will escort Kruse, Choe, and Hoffman into their side of the House. But the House Democrats won’t because of the trio’s conflicts of interests.

As things stand, the trio can go where they please, unless Democrats hold a press conference on their side of the House chamber. Even then, a TVW livestream shows the action on a big television screen just outside the chamber.

After suing the Washington House and the Capitol Correspondents Association for permanent press passes in Thurston County, the trio got the case moved to federal court in Tacoma on First Amendment grounds.

At a hearing for a temporary restraining order for passes in the last three days of the session that doubled as a forum on whether the plaintiffs’ case could succeed on its merits, US District Court Judge David Estudillo ruled it was unlikely to succeed. Blurring the line between reporter and political activist would “raise questions about the motives of everyone in the press corps,” he wrote.

The trio’s attorney, Jackson Maynard of the conservative Citizen Action Defense Fund, and Kruse argued that mainstream newspapers ran editorials, and that was basically the same thing as their political work. Maynard acknowledged his clients were involved in political causes, but said they aren’t paid for and thus had no conflict of interest. Neither argument worked.

Maynard’s clients plan to pursue their case, but have not yet decided on what path they will take. ■

So far, Chief Justice Debra Stephens hasn’t drawn a challenger. But she probably will.

Former Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna has been outspoken about how much he detests the recently passed millionaire’s tax. He’s also the chair of the nonprofit Full Court Press, which grooms conservative candidates to “bring balance back to Washington’s judicial system.” Its website is a confused mix of the law and basketball lingo. The “about” page refers to board members, like McKenna, as the “coaches who help our candidates make plays, take shots, and score wins.” According to tax documents from 2024, Full Court Press took in over $100,000 that year, but they claim on

2024’s state supreme court races. Project 42, a conservative nonprofit funded by hedge fund millionaire Brian Heywood, funded David Larson’s race against Sal Mungia in 2024. The perennial failed candidate lost by less than 1 percent. Tax documents show Project 42 earned over $4 million in revenue in 2024.

With nonpartisan, low-information races like these, money could make all the difference.

“You often have situations where very conservative candidates are masquerading as moderates,” Glickman says. “There’s not that party label to distinguish anyone, and a lot of money spent by the right could really confuse people.”

These conservative candidates will likely keep on coming, and with more opportunity to change the court, in more force than usual. Meanwhile, the Trump administration keeps attacking immigrants and civil liberties, and the in-state conservatives keep waging their wars on transgender kids and taxes.

“These things are going to continue to come over the next three years,” Glickman says. He pauses. “God, there’s still three years left.” He continues: “So we need a court that will be willing—on any range of issues—to stand up to the Trump administration and stand up to right-wing forces in Washington and protect folks who are vulnerable.”

Mark your calendars: The filing deadline is May 8. The primary is August 4. The general election is November 3. Tell your friends. ■

“We know Rob McKenna is looking at the supreme court as a way to try to chip away at the progressive wins.” their filings that they do not have to disclose where their money comes from. Full Court Press did not respond to a request for comment.

“We know Rob McKenna and his friends are looking at the supreme court as a way to try to chip away at the progressive wins in legislation,” SEIU 775’s Glickman says.

Conservative money was funneled into

16 THE STRANGER

March 28–September 6, 2026

Moomins’ Sea Adventures and Tove and the Sea National Nordic Museum presents two immersive exhibitions featuring one of the Nordic region’s most beloved cultural icons.

©️Moomin Characters™️

This exhibition is produced by The Home of Moomin Museum Tampere, Finland

FUN AFFORDABLE UNFORGETABLE JOIN US AT THE FRYER GOFISHSTICKS.COM

O S T C E R R E E

AM

WH

APRIL 2026

Protests, Rallies, and Other Ways to Get Involved

BY MEGAN SELING Rapid Response Training

Apr 2 and Apr 30 For 10 years, the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network has been organizing rapid response efforts throughout the state and supporting immigrants and refugees through mutual aid and legal resources. If you’re wondering what to do if you spot ICE in your neighborhood—or think you spot ICE—catch one of WAISN’s free and virtual rapid response training sessions on April 2 or April 30. They know better than the rando in your Signal chat who just started paying attention. WAISN is also offering a Know Your Rights virtual workshop on April 15. RSVP is required to attend, and courses are offered in both English and Spanish. Learn more at waisn.org. (Virtual, 6–8 pm)

Postcards4Democracy

Apr 4 Postcards4Democracy meets every first Saturday of the month at C&P Coffee to send postcards and letters that encourage voters to participate in local elections. They provide supplies, addresses, and a script to make it easy, but you can also bring your own materials (or a little cash to help with the cost of stamps). Find more details and letter-writing resources at postcards4democracy.org. (C&P Coffee, 12:30–2:30 pm)

La Resistencia’s Solidarity Day with Jewish Voice for Peace

Apr 4 Members of Jewish Voice for Peace in Tacoma, Seattle, and Olympia are partnering with La Resistencia to host a solidarity seder to “amplify the call to shut down the Northwest Detention Center and to end detentions and deportations.”

La Resistencia regularly hosts vigils outside the detention center and monitors deportation flights out of the King County

International Airport. So far this year, 11 NWDC detainees have participated in hunger strikes, and many of La Resistencia’s calls to action are posted day of—follow them on Bluesky (@laresistencianw. bsky.social) and Instagram (@laresistencianw) to get their alerts. (NW Detention Center, Tacoma, 1–3 pm)

screaming in lowercase: A Resistance Show

Apr 11 For April’s group show at Prairie Underground, artists were “asked to explore what resistance means to them” and the list of participants includes some impressive local talent, including abstract portraitist Kate Harkins, painter and fiber artist Trisha Gilmore (I will own one of those tufted wool eyes one day, mark my words!), creature creator Sonja Peterson, and multimedia artist Joel Colvos (whose wooden sculptures are also currently hanging in CoCA’s current show, Knock on Wood).

There will also be postcards on hand during the Georgetown Art Attack event for visitors who have something to say to Washington legislators. (Prairie Underground, 940 S. Harney St., 5–8 pm, all ages)

Seattle May Day 2026

May 1 Details for Seattle’s May Day events were still coming together at press time, but the nationwide messaging is clear: no school, work, or shopping on Friday, May 1. Locally, dozens of organizations have already signed on in support, including UFCW 3000, MLK Labor, the Washington State Labor Council, Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, Seattle Education Association, and more. Last year more than 1,000 people rallied at Cal Anderson Park before marching to Seattle Center.

Surely, we can do better than that! Keep an eye on seattlemayday.org for updates.

Want to tell us about an event? Email us at WheretoScream@TheStranger.com. Find more listings on our sister site, EverOut.com/Seattle.

17

18 THE STRANGER

BY JULIANNE BELL

Seattle’s

Liminal

PHOTOS BY BILLIE WINTER

APRIL 2026

Y

Spaces

Some of the most unnerving liminal spaces are the ones that are usually packed with people when they’re empty. Like the airport terminal, it blends the familiar with the strange. You can almost feel where the bustle should be. When the gates come down at Pike Place Market and the tourists fade away, an unsettling hush falls over the market. And through it, you only hear the buzz of neon signs and the drag, somewhere in the distance, of a janitor’s broom.

19

ou’ve felt it: The chilling stillness of an empty airport terminal that should be crowded with travelers. A long school hallway, after hours and framed by seemingly endless rows of lockers for students who may or may not exist.

Neon signs flickering inside a dark, abandoned mall, painting soft streaks of light across the floors for no one.

I feel a kind of eerie coziness in these settings—it’s not unlike the thrill I get when watching a horror movie—and I know I’m not alone.

The internet is teeming with communities dedicated to sharing images of such locations, frequently referred to as “liminal spaces.” We’re drawn to these spaces for the simultaneous relief and anxiety of feeling utterly alone. Soothed by the solitude, but wary of the isolation.

Urban exploration, in which adventurers seek out abandoned or remote spaces, has been around for centuries, since daredevils descended into the Paris catacombs in the late 18th century. Our collective cultural fascination with liminal spaces persists in the Backrooms, which began as a creepypasta on a 2019 4chan thread about “disquieting images that just feel ‘off.’” The original, which appeared to be an infinite yellow-wallpapered office space lit by fluorescent lights, has spawned video games, fan art, and a viral series of YouTube shorts created by 20-year-old filmmaker Kane Parsons. It’s become so popular that A24 will release Parsons’s full-length feature film adaptation, Backrooms, on May 29.

Let’s get one thing out of the way: Pedants love to split hairs about the definition of “liminal,” a word that is nebulous by nature. Here, we’re talking about a place, often set between two destinations, that evokes an uncanny, dreamlike mood. And Seattle is filled with them. We have a literal underground network of passages—from abandoned city streets in Pioneer Square to transit tunnels scattered throughout downtown— and the gloomy, misty climate certainly lends itself to the possibility that we live in a locale where the veil between worlds is thin. (That’s also why the Pacific Northwest makes such a good setting for stories about horror and the supernatural: think The Ring, Twin Peaks, Twilight, etc.)

Here are some of my favorite spaces to pass through, when I want to feel like I’ve fallen through a portal into the twilight zone.

20 THE STRANGER

Elton Bennett (1910–1974) Original hand-screened silkscreen artwork from the artist’s estate THE ELTON BENNETT SHOWROOM AT WHISPERWOOD GALLERY 633 East Pioneer, Montesano, Washington 98563 Open Tuesday–Saturday and by appointment

For information call the artist’s daughter Barbara at 360-532-3235 www.eltonbennett.com

APRIL 2026

The extremely creepy and appropriately named Red Room is probably the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions Seattle’s downtown library. It feels like a lost Suspiria set and is cov-

This is one of the spots that kicked off my fascination with liminal spaces. The zombie shopping center Pacific Place is itself very liminal, filled with unfrequented stores and unused seating, but its crown jewel is undoubtedly the AMC theater. The squiggly carpets and weird photo booth recall nostalgic ’90s kid memories, while the general lack of traffic makes it feel hollow. I always get spooked when I have to go to the bathroom after drinking too much Decaf Diet Cherry Vanilla Coke from the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine and walk down the halls without seeing a soul. If you leave from a late screening, you might also emerge from the theater to see the diner Johnny Rockets, a surreal retrofuturist vision of space age silver and neon, completely uninhabited. However, my favorite part is taking the AMC escalator to the upper floor, especially at night. When you look out the windows, you can see the tops of buildings and a vast vacant parking garage, and it feels for a moment like you might be the only person in the entire city.

ered wall-to-wall in bright, glossy red. But there’s so much more here. This structure feels like it was built specifically to capture corners of peculiar emptiness. There are disappearing escalators and hidden

reading nooks. I love the top floor, with utilitarian study carrels illuminated by the glow of fluorescent strip lights and lofty glass ceilings that frame the rainy, cloudy skies. Walking out of here just before

21

closing time, in the dark with no one else around, I feel like I’m a Final Girl who just finished up a late-night session of digging through the archives to research a vengeful ghost.

22 THE STRANGER

Hovering above a stretch of I-5, Freeway Park is a threshold between downtown and First Hill. Designed by Lawrence Halprin in 1976, it’s the first park to be built over a freeway. Blocky concrete brutalist structures meet with a flourishing manmade forest, which makes the whole park feel unnatural and otherworldly, kind of like an overgrown urban space from The Last of Us.

APRIL 2026

23

The Convention Center feels like it was constructed to be a liminal space. Escalators, staircases, cavernous exhibit halls, meeting rooms with expectant tables and chairs. Perched on the precipice of the freeway, its abundance of floors and glass threatens to swallow you whole, while an LED art installation by Jenny Holzer quietly ticks by. It reminds me of the sinister Lumon Industries building in Severance.

To the tune of Lana Del Rey’s “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd”: Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Fifth Avenue? Next time you pass by the unassuming set of stairs next to the Fifth Avenue Theatre, take the staircase. You will find yourself in a subterranean pedestrian concourse, a parallel world of shops, restaurants, and escalators. Pass through this portal to traverse downtown shielded from the rain and cold. ■

24 THE STRANGER

Portland Mercury’s

April 20-26 Specially-Crafted $4 Slices & $25 Pies All Over Portland!

APRIL 2026

25

What Happened to Teatro ZinZanni?

After 28 Years of Fellini-esque Entertainment, Seattle’s Favorite Circus Leaves Their Staff Hanging

BY HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

As of the end of March, employees say that most of them have not gotten their last paychecks, which they estimate are collectively worth more than $143,000.

W

hen John Skrodenis saw a new Teatro ZinZanni billboard go up last December, his heart sank.

On a yellow background, a bald head with glasses slid into the frame from the top. According to ZinZanni’s other signs around the city, the head belonged to Mr. P.P., the center of their newest show, Mr. P.P.’s Clubhouse. From below, Mr. P.P.’s feet popped into the frame, in loafers and knee socks. And between them, in bold, red text, it read: “Head Down, Glasses Up.” The ad was puzzling on its own. Teatro ZinZanni was dinner theater meets the circus meets Las Vegas. It was ostentatious and colorful. It sparkled. And the two-toned poster felt completely disconnected from the performance. But to Skrodenis, that billboard was also a sign that Teatro ZinZanni had decided not to take his advice.

A month earlier, Skrodenis says, he’d sat down with the owners of Teatro ZinZanni, hoping to offer some marketing help. His girlfriend, Ame Corwin, was

the head of the costume department for the theater, and they both knew that the show was struggling.

The owner, Norm Langill, said that ticket sales had been “soft” through the summer, Corwin says, and on opening night, some of the theater’s longest running actors said they’d never seen the crowd that thin. “And then it just went straight into the gutter,” Corwin says. “I’m saying 50-percent capacity on a good day.”

Skrodenis runs a small marketing firm, and he was eager to help, he says. So he asked for a meeting with one of the owners.

He started with the name of the show. “We ran a really simple survey,” he says, asking for people’s reactions to the name Mr. P.P’s Clubhouse—which was technically a reference to the MC’s ping-pong ball act. “Eightyfive percent of respondents associated that name with male genitalia… in the age of Jeffrey Epstein all over the news, you’re not going to bring someone to that show.”

Skrodenis says he even told the owners that either he or his business partner

would be happy to help pro bono, but they never followed up.

Meanwhile, according to staff at the time, things weren’t looking better in-house either.

“The butts are not in the seats,” Corwin remembers telling the company’s board in a

“It went straight into the gutter. I’m saying 50-percent capacity on a good day.” plea to get the leadership to change course.

“It’s not about personal opinion. It’s just there’s no butts in seats, so there’s a problem.”

“Everybody had their own theories,” says Hannah Haddix, the show’s bar and floor manager. “A lot of people were like, ‘Oh, it’s the economy,’ or this and that. But it was very apparent. And there was talk every day about, ‘Oh, my God, where are the people?’”

As early as October, paychecks started

WALTER WILLIAMS

arriving late. According to emails provided to The Stranger, there was always a reason they were delayed—an administrative error, a holiday, a change in bank policy. But Haddix had been at a restaurant when it was about to collapse once before, and the late paychecks felt like an early warning sign.

“It was obvious to all of us that this was not a lucrative season,” Haddix says.

“December came around, near Christmas.

Those weeks were supposed to be undeniable cash cows, and it was still just crickets in the audience,” Haddix says. “That’s when we felt compelled to go to the owners and say, ‘We need some reassurances.’”

Both Corwin and Haddix told The Stranger that their concerns were dismissed. The dining room staff asked that the company sign a contract saying that they would get paid for their work, even if ZinZanni went bankrupt. “We wanted some sort of assurance that we would be compensated for our work, even in the event that the business went under,” Haddix says.

“The writing was on the wall.”

26 THE STRANGER

APRIL 2026

27

The owners eventually did sign it, Haddix show had been thriving in Seattle since “possibly the most popular form of enter- the court documents, put $3 million into says, but first, Jane Langill, the co-owner before the Monica Lewinsky scandal hit tainment going on in town right now, and the company, earning them a 30-percent share of the Woodinville-based theater. and Norm’s wife, gathered the staff and the headlines. rightfully so.” insisted that there was nothing to worry It opened in 1998, in the heyday of dinner In their first four years, they report- The funds were only allowed to be used for about. “They got up in front of us and were theater in Seattle. Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding edly sold around 280,000 tickets. And by the renovation of the new space, the dochad recently finished a year-long run, and 2011, they’d expanded to San Francisco uments say, but Langill diverted the funds like, ‘Everything’s fine,’” Corwin says.

“She said that they have things figured Late Night Catechism was still going strong. and Chicago, and launched a children’s to pay his own debts, leaving contractors out, and that they had always paid their The founder of ZinZanni, Langill, was show, and a camp for aspiring acrobats, unpaid. The lawsuit says that Crosby 2 employees in the past,” Haddix says. “She already a known quantity in the Seattle arts jugglers, and clowns. then lent the company another $1 million cited all the times that they had closed the world. He ran a nonprofit called One Reel, ZinZanni’s luck seemed to turn in to get out of that hole, which was also used business early, or that they had financial which had been presenting Bumbershoot at 2017, when they left their first home— to pay off Langill’s own debts. The suit, problems, but that paying the employees Seattle Center for 18 years, and landed him for the second time. For most of their which was filed in 2020, was settled out of first two decades, ZinZanni rented the court two years later. was the priority.”

Corwin says she made a final plea to empty lot at 222 Mercer Street from the And that wasn’t the only one. In 2018, as the board that month, telling them she Seattle Opera. They left in 2002 to pitch ZinZanni was moving across the lake, they didn’t think the show could make it past their tent in an old Cadillac dealership in hired Markus Kunz as the General Direcmid-January if they didn’t change their Belltown for a few years, and came back tor of TZ Woodinville. According to court in 2007. But in 2017, the Opera finally documents, he was hired with a salary, and trajectory, and fast. decided to sell the land so they could the promise of a $50,000 bonus at the end Corwin’s warning turned out to be spot-on. Teatro ZinZanni shut down Mr. build a new venue for themselves. of 2019. But that bonus never came. He, too, P.P.’s Clubhouse on January 24 and put the ZinZanni had had a few years to prepare sued the company in 2020, and eventually theater on hiatus, laying off most of the staff the Number Four spot on The Rocket’s list for the change. As early as 2015, they were settled out of court. and ending all of their performers’ con- of the 100 top powerbrokers in the North- offered a chance to buy the land themselves, But before the drama of the Woodinville tracts early. They originally told customers west’s music industry. All eyes in-the-know but the Opera rejected their offer because it location could fully pan out, the COVID-19 with tickets after the close date that they would have been on this project even if he was “well below market.” So when the time pandemic quashed the very idea of gatherwould issue refunds in February, but as of hadn’t raised a 25-sided spiegeltent in an came, Langill tried to save their campsite ing to see giddy, sweaty, aerosol-filled perMarch 22, their email’s auto-reply simply empty lot just north of Seattle Center. But by building public support. In a matter of forming art for years. ZinZanni reportedly says the theater will refund ticketholders the spectacle certainly helped. weeks, 1,600 people signed a letter calling laid off their performing and restaurant “as soon [they] are able.”

The interior was paneled with dark wood for them to be saved, including some of staff, and records show that they got at As of the end of March, employees say and stained glass, all made in Belgium in the Seattle arts’ most powerful, including chef least $1 million in PPP loans to maintain that most of them have not gotten their 1920s, built to be set up and broken down in Tom Douglas, KEXP’s John Richards and their core staff. (The loan documents report last paychecks, which they estimate are a matter of days as it travelled with itiner- Tom Mara, Sub Pop’s Megan Jasper, and between 14 and 89 jobs.) collectively worth more than $143,000. ant vaudeville shows. The 285-seat tent had most of the members of Pearl Jam. “It will Since lockdown lifted and we’ve slowly The Stranger saw wage sheets crept back into gathering for fun, ZinZanni has returned to its itinfrom individual employees who are owed $1,000 to more than $4,000. erant ways. It celebrated its 25th anniversary at the Sanctuary ball“Almost all of us are living paycheck room of the Lotte Hotel, and evento paycheck, and losing out on tually landed at Emerald City Tra$3,000 is an incredible hardship,” says John Bartlett, who worked in peze Arts in SoDo. It was there that the dining room. they put on what might be their last show, Mr. P.P.’s Clubhouse.

And it’s not just employees and patrons that are looking for *** what they’re owed. According to Two months after the final show, a lawsuit filed by their caterer, ZinZanni’s former staff still have a group chat. Most of them have Harried & Hungry, ZinZanni owed struggled to find a lawyer that him about $300,000 when they will represent them in a wage shut down. theft case, Haddix says, because These debts seem to have been piling onto the stack of bills that it appears too likely that ZinZanni was already under ZinZanni’s will declare bankruptcy. mattress. According to IATSE 887, IATSE 887, the union that represents the costume department, the union representing the show’s says they got wind that the show costume department, the company had been deducting employwas planning to sell their costume ees’ union dues and health insurinventory, sewing machines, and WALTER WILLIAMS ance costs, but never paid them The final show for ‘Mr. P.P.’s Clubhouse’ was January 24. supplies. “The union sprang into to the union or the benefit proaction,” says their union rep, Kelly vider. Between the two, they owed almost mirrored walls and carved wooden booths, be devastating for the company,” Langill told Caffey. “We started to file a wage lien on $7,000, and it was steadily accruing late and it was draped in red velvet curtains. The Stranger at the time. “One hundred peo- the revenue that would be made from the fees. Before that, in 2022, they settled two “This is the real thing,” Stephen Quinn, their ple will be out of work—our entire staff.” sale and went out to banner and petition lawsuits out of court—one for allegedly facilities manager, told the Everett Herald at They weren’t able to change the fate of outside the sale. Apparently, TZZ caught failing to pay an employee, and one for the time. “The genuine, handmade, one-of- the lot. (It’s now the Center Steps apart- wind of our action and abruptly canceled misusing an investor’s funds. a-kind antique.” Thanks to the destruction ments, with the Mammoth sandwich shop the sale. We arrived to an empty wareNorm Langill declined to answer a of two world wars, there were only 12 of on the ground floor.) Miraculously, that house Saturday morning.” wasn’t the show’s final curtain, but it did detailed list of questions from The Stranger. them left in the world, he said.

The fight to get paid has slowed down a “I think Teatro ZinZanni’s 28-year story And then there was the show. In its first mark the beginning of their actual roving bit. “Many of us have reached out via email, in our hometown will eventually be an year, at least two local publications compared circus era, and provided the first window phone, text message, and it’s just been cominteresting piece of a larger picture of the the experience of being in the audience to a into their financial struggles. plete radio silence,” she says. challenges facing performing arts in the Fellini film. The cast was full of aerialists and First, they moved to a temporary spot And some of the staff are still mourning mid-2020s,” he said in an email. He wasn’t jugglers and comedians. They imported tal- in Redmond’s Marymoor Park, and then the loss of a show that meant a lot to them. able to talk about the financial or legal ent from all over Europe. Heart’s Ann Wilson in 2018, they moved into the old Redhook “We don’t get paid as much, but it’s literally issues, “and alas that’s the immediate task joined the cast as a cabaret chanteuse (and, Brewery in Woodinville, across the street for the love of the experience,” Corwin says. at hand,” he wrote. “But the sun will come in the following years, Thelma Houston and from Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery.

“We’ve all been grieving a little bit of a loss up tomorrow, with any luck.”

Maria Muldaur did, too).

According to court records, ZinZanni because of how special it was.”

By August 1999, they had extended their created a separate company called TZ “It really is like lightning in a bottle when *** If Teatro ZinZanni’s owners seemed over- show five times, and were considering a Woodinville, and took on some new you work there,” she says. “It’s not like any confident, it wasn’t entirely baseless. The sixth. Seattle Gay News described it as investors. The group, called Crosby 2 in other production.” ■

“We don’t get paid as much, but it’s literally for the love of the experience.”

28 THE STRANGER

Catching Feelings

Marcellus Bonow-Manier Peels Back the Layers of Lore of the Steam Plant

BY AMANDA MANITACH PHOTOS BY MARCELLUS BONOW-MANIER

O

n the edge of Boeing Field, hemmed by runways and abandoned gravel roads, the Georgetown Steam Plant looms, blockish and impenetrable, straight out of Gotham. Inside looks like the belly of the Titanic: steel boilers, turbines, and pumps twisting through a space so immense it’s been dubbed an industrial cathedral. In 1907, the machine roared, hissed, and howled as it drew water from the Duwamish to power Seattle’s streetcars and the interurban to Tacoma. In 2026, pin-drop stillness hangs, interrupted only by the intermittent roar of jet engines taking off outside. Traces of breath hang in the air. It’s cold as a refrigerator inside.

Marcellus Bonow-Manier is dressed for the weather in a thick overcoat, boots, and a Seahawks cap. The 29-year-old photographer is the Steam Plant’s resident artist. He’s been here since September; what began as a one-month residency stretched to three months, then a year. Now it’s five.

“Last week, I discovered two new rooms that I didn’t know were here,” BonowManier says as he takes us across an elevated walkway that cuts across the vast turbine hall. “That’s what excites me about this place. There are areas I’m intentionally not going to yet—not because I’ll get bored, but because I have time to pace myself. My process is very subconscious.

I’m tapping into feelings.”

Bonow-Manier was raised in Seattle, born to a family of third-generation Seattleites. As a kid, he visited Georgetown often; his father’s friend owned Gessner Mansion—a three-story former brothel with a grievous past, also known as Georgetown Castle, that’s one of the most haunted houses in Seattle.

“Georgetown has always been the cool, historical, spooky neighborhood,” he recalls.

“It always felt like we were driving two hours to get here, even though it’s 15 minutes from where I grew up. It just always felt distinct— if you’re in Georgetown, you feel it.”

He rattles off the neighborhood lore: a murder at the morgue where the Mafia locked workers in the incinerator and lit it; a man who fell from the Steam Plant and supposedly haunts the place; the working women and infants who died at Gessner.

Then there’s the Duwamish itself. In 1907, it curved right past the plant. Once a flourishing ecosystem, the river has been straightened, choked, and trashed. Its fish are dead.

When Bonow-Manier applied for the residency, he proposed a deep dive into the supernatural lore of the Steam Plant.

“I didn’t want to just take ghost stories CONTINUED ON PG. 33

Marcellus Bonow-Manier is the Georgetown Steam Plant’s resident artist and lore aficionado.

APRIL 2026

EV

ER

T OU

THE STR

AN

GE

R

Capitol Hill NE

IGH

BORHOOD

E WE

K

April 9 - 15

EverOut x The Stranger Capitol Hill is a week-long celebration of the businesses that define your neighborhood, and make it special. We’re shining our love light on Capitol Hill, inviting locals, and the rest of Seattle, to show their love, too! With special deals from neighborhood businesses, you can spend the afternoon, the day—hell, the whole WEEK, exploring Capitol Hill, finding some new favorites, and supporting your steady go-tos.

Our neighborhoods are what make Seattle great, so lean in, and show your love!!

ADVERTISEMENT

29

30 THE STRANGER

Capitol Hill CAPITOL HILL: A GENERAL OVERVIEW

HOW TO GET AROUND CAPITOL HILL

One of Seattle’s most dynamic, densely populated, and walkable neighborhoods, Capitol Hill is the city’s hub for LGBTQIA+ culture, hosting several Pride events each June and boasting gay clubs and the city’s only lesbian bar, Wildrose. The neighborhood earned its designation as Seattle’s “gayborhood” in the 1980s, a decade when the area saw an influx of queer residents. The neighborhood is also known for its bustling nightlife scene, with weekend revelers bar and club hopping until the wee hours, ending their nights with Seattle dogs from vendors set up on the sidewalks.

Parking on Capitol Hill is generally challenging on a regular day— never mind when a big event is happening—so taking public transit is your best bet. Street parking is generally paid and/or permitted, with rates varying by time of day; it’s generally easier to find north of Aloha Street around Volunteer Park or east of 15th Avenue, though it still requires a permit until you get east of 23rd.

The Capitol Hill Station provides service to the Link light rail 1 and 2 lines. It’s located along the main thoroughfare Broadway with entrances at E John Street, E Denny Way, and on Broadway. The neighborAnchored by the verdant Volunteer Park and recreational space Cal hood is serviced by several bus lines, including the RapidRide G Line, Anderson Park, the neighborhood spans quiet residential pockets which goes downtown, and the 43, which goes up to the University and retail-lined streets—it’s also home to Seattle’s only cinematheque, District. Get up-to-date info on public transit options by putting your a legendary independent bookseller, and Elysian Brewing’s flagship destination in King County Metro’s Trip Planner or helpful apps like beer hall. Along the main Pike/Pine corridor, tourists tread rain- OneBusAway or Citymapper. Bike and scooter shares are plentiful bow-painted crosswalks to head to curated boutiques and streetwear for getting around the neighborhood itself, shops, rubbing elbows with workers at startups and Seattle University although the area is quite walkable. and Seattle Central College students. Capitol Hill offers a plethora of local restaurants and quaint cafes, but the neighborhood notably WANT TO DIVE DEEPER INTO CAPITOL HILL? boasts a high concentration of ramen spots, from Japanese chain HEAD TO OUR FULL NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDE outposts to homegrown places.

MAP LEGEND 1 CAPITALE PIZZERIA

426 BROADWAY E, SEATTLE, WA 98102

2 RIOT HAIR SOCIETY 401 BROADWAY E 101 STUDIO 207, SEATTLE, WA 98102

3 POST PIKE

212 BROADWAY E, SEATTLE, WA 98102

4 LOST LAKE CAFE & LOUNGE

2

12 ATELIER MADRONA

1424 11TH AVE SUITE 110M, SEATTLE, WA 98122

13 BUTTER HOME

1424 11TH AVE, SEATTLE, WA 98122

14 CAKE SKINCARE

1424 11TH AVE G, SEATTLE, WA 98122

3

15 MEETEA CAFE

1505 10TH AVE, SEATTLE, WA 98122

1424 11TH AVE STE F, SEATTLE, WA 98122

5 COMET TAVERN

16 THE CLOUD ROOM

922 E PIKE ST, SEATTLE, WA 98122

6 RETAIL THERAPY

905 E PIKE, SEATTLE, WA 98122

7 THE RUNAWAY

1425 10TH AVE, SEATTLE, WA 98122

8 BIG MARIOS

1009 E PIKE ST, SEATTLE, WA 98122

9 RETROFIT HOME

1103 E PIKE ST, SEATTLE, WA 98122

10 TAILWIND CAFE

IN THE ALLEY, 1424 11TH AVE, SEATTLE, WA 98122

11 POPROX DANCE

1429 12TH AVE, SEATTLE, WA 98122

1

9

11

12 13

1424 11TH AVE, FOURTH FLOOR, SEATTLE, WA 98122

17 XOM

17 10

19

15 16

14 20

1424 11TH AVE SUITE A, SEATTLE, WA 98122

18 COLIBRI MEXICAN KITCHEN

1429 12TH AVE, SEATTLE, WA 98122

19 OSTERIA LA SPIGA

1429 12TH AVE, SEATTLE, WA 98122

20 PACIFIC SUPPLY CO.

1417 12TH AVE, SEATTLE, WA 98122

4 5

21 TAVERN LAW

6

1406 12TH AVE, SEATTLE, WA 98122

7

8 21

22 8 PING YANG

1412 E UNION STREET, SEATTLE, WA 98122

ADVERTISEMENT

18

22

APRIL 2026

Capitol Hill Amazing Deals.

One Week Only.

APRIL 9–15

POST

l ol Hil e Capit oadway Br 212a

PIKE $2 0ff Al

l sandw

iches

Retail Therapy Clothing • Gifts • Jewelry

ADVERTISEMENT

31

32 THE STRANGER

Capitol Hill

8 PING YANG 8 Ping Yang, opened April 2025, is a contemporary Thai restaurant specializing in “Imaginative Thai Cuisine”. It combines traditional Thai flavors with French techniques creating dishes with bold, imaginative flavors, like Satay Fondue and Chiang Mai Sausage Pasta. It’s authentic, and unexpected.

(1412 E Union Street, Seattle, WA 98122)

community, we’re proud to share the rich heritage of Mexican cuisine with every guest who walks through our doors. Come hungry, we’ll save you a seat!

(1429 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122)

15% OFF ORDER

bar where drinks, music, sports, and dancing all come together. Whether you’re coming through for a weekend dance night, a midweek day drink, or a stop before your next Capitol Hill Block Party set, it’s a spot to hang, see friends, and be part of what’s going on in the neighborhood.

(922 E Pike St, Seattle, WA 98122)

ATELIER MADRONA Atelier Madrona is a Seat-

tle-based fragrance studio crafting custom and private label scents through original scent design.

(1424 11th Ave Suite 110M, Seattle, WA 98122)

FREE FRAGRANCE WITH PURCHASE OR APPOINTMENT BIG MARIO’S PIZZA Big Mario’s first location opened up on Capitol Hill in 2010 and has been a mainstay in the community ever since. From late night bites after a night out on the hill or a quick stop by for lunch, Big Mario’s is serving up the best NY Style slice in the city.

(1009 E Pike St, Seattle, WA 98122) $10 RAINIER + CHEESE/ PEPPERONI SLICE COMBO BUTTERHOME Butter Home specializes in fun and

functional items for you and your home. Discover sweet housewares, hand printed paper goods, independently made jewelry, and lovely gifts all while supporting independent design and local makers.

(1424 11th Ave. Seattle, WA 98122)

CHANCE TO WIN $50 GIFT CARD CAKE SKINCARE At Cake Skincare, beauty is never

confusing or complicated. Our skilled aestheticians offer bespoke facials, brow shaping, lash services, waxing and sugaring, all in a quiet, luxurious studio in Chophouse Row. (1424 11th Ave G, Seattle, WA 98122)

FREE GIFT WITH APPOINTMENT CAPITALE PIZZERIA Capitale is an upscale pizzeria

redefining pizza with a global twist. Combining traditional Neapolitan techniques with city-inspired and multicultural creations, it uses premium ingredients to craft bold, unique flavors. Focused on quality and creativity, Capitale delivers an elevated dining experience that turns pizza into a true culinary journey.

(426 Broadway East, Seattle, WA 98102)

FREE ITALIAN GELATO COLIBRI MEXICAN KITCHEN Colibrí serves family-inspired Mexican flavors, fresh tortillas, vibrant salsas, and warm hospitality. Nestled in the heart of the

COMPLIMENTARY QUESO COMET TAVERN Comet Tavern is a Capitol Hill

$4 HORNITOS MARGARITA SLUSHY BACK LOST LAKE CAFE & LOUNGE Lost Lake Café &

Lounge is a longtime Seattle diner and bar with a mid-century modern feel, right in the heart of Capitol Hill’s Pike-Pine corridor. Whether you’re stopping in for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, or a late-night bite, our menu full of comfort food will have you covered.

(1505 10th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122)

POST PIKE Post Pike is Capitol Hill’s favorite all day bar and cafe . Grab a coffee or your favorite cocktail whether its morning, noon or night! We make all of our sandwiches fresh to order, and our soups are made in house daily. Looking for something different? We have salads and breakfast bagels too!

(212 Broadway E, Seattle, WA 98102)

THE CLOUD ROOM The Cloud Room is a creatively designed coworking space and lounge with desks, meeting rooms, and a members-only bar in Capitol Hill. Perfect for teams, remote workers, and professionals seeking an inspiring environment to work, meet and collaborate.

(1424 11th Ave, Fourth Floor, Seattle, WA 98122)

$2 OFF SANDWICHES

FREE COWORKING DAY PASS

RETAIL THERAPY Look good, smell good, feel good.

Retail therapy is an independent woman owned boutique with a focus on art driven gifts, clothing and jewelry.

(905 E Pike, Seattle, WA 98122)

THE RUNAWAY The sister bar to the iconic music venues Neumos and Barboza, The Runaway offers a casual atmosphere and a full bar for anyone in need of a drink in between sets, or looking for a lively escape any day of the week. Expect great music, anime on the TV, and an ever-evolving cocktail menu in Capitol Hill’s coolest bonus room.

(425 10th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122)

15% OFF! RETROFIT HOME Visit Retrofit Home for unique, modern, and vintage inspired furniture, home decor, and gifts! Celebrating 20 years of inspiring shopping and home design. Open daily, 11am-7pm.

(1103 E Pike St, Seattle, WA 98122) 20% OFF ANY SINGLE PIECE OF IN-STOCK FURNITURE

MEETEA CAFE Meetea Cafe, founded in 2019, is a

RIOT HAIR SOCIETY Riot Hair Society is a private, appointment-only studio in Salon Republic on Capitol Hill. With two stylists in a gorgeous upstairs window unit, we provide the perfect relaxing environment to explore new styles or get a touch-up. We are a safe space for anyone LGBTQ+, POC, disabled, neurodivergent, or anyone who’s just a little different!

(401 Broadway E 101 Studio 207, Seattle, WA 98102)

FREE BOBA WITH ANY DRINK

20% OFF ANY SERVICE FOR NEW CLIENTS USING THE CODE “STRANGER” IN BOOKING

$2 OFF LOST LAKE’S SIGNATURE COCKTAILS locally founded, women-owned café serving organic loose-leaf teas, bubble tea, and handcrafted coffee.

Open daily from 9AM–8PM. 1424 1(1th Ave Ste F, Seattle, WA 98122)

OSTERIA LA SPIGA Osteria La Spiga’s menu pays homage to Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region with the finest seasonal Italian ingredients (1429 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122) ALL NIGHT HAPPY HOUR PACIFIC SUPPLY CO. Pacific Supply, Capitol Hill’s last independent hardware store, offers expert advice and thousands of products through our Do It Best/True Value co-op. Trusted service for 20+ years.

(1417 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122)

TAILWIND CAFÉ Tailwind Café is a cozy café/

bar with indoor and outdoor seating located in ChopHouse Alley serving local espresso, house cold brew, tea, cocktails, draft beers, and wines alongside breakfast, sandwiches, soups, and evening snacks.

Counter service, great vibes, tip-free.

(In the Alley, 1424 11th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122)

BREAKFAST SAMMY AND COFFEE FOR $11

POPROX DANCE PopRox Dance Studio is Seattle’s judgment-free dance community, offering confidence-building classes in K-Pop, Hip-Hop, Sensual Jazz, Heels, Contemporary, and more.

(1429 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122)

TAVERN LAW Tavern Law is a Capitol Hill cocktail bar known for thoughtfully crafted cocktails, housemade cordials, custom bitters, and a warm, welcoming atmosphere. Our new Coast menu explores Exposed Coast, Sheltered Waters, and Living Shore, bringing a story-driven approach to every drink, alongside elevated bar food and an upstairs speakeasy, Needle & Thread for an intimate night out.

(1406 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122)

$20 OFF ANY PUNCHCARD WITH CODE: THESTRANGER

MENTION THE STRANGER FOR A BAR SNACK ON US

10% OFF PURCHASES OF $25 OR MORE

ADVERTISEMENT

$5 SLUSHIES & DRAFT COCKTAILS XÓM Xóm is a vibrant Vietnamese kitchen and

cocktail bar in Capitol Hill that celebrates the spirit of community and togetherness through the joy of shared meals. Enjoy eggrolls, wings, spring rolls, and craft drinks in a lively neighborhood setting.

1(424 11th Ave Suite A, Seattle, WA 98122)

HAPPY HOUR, $10 COCKTAILS

ALL THE DEALS, ALL THE DETAILS HERE

APRIL 2026

Above: From 13th & Greely (showing at the Steam Plant August 8–21).

CONTINUED FROM PG. 28

and recreate them,” he says. “I’m thinking more about world-building, about making a mythology. I don’t want to say ‘fan fiction,’ but this is almost my weird fan fiction of the Steam Plant and the entire area. I’ve been coming at this through the lens of Aesop’s Fables, Frankenstein, Lord of the Rings, or Doom—where there’s so much lore that helps complete immersion.”

The path from boyhood trips to Georgetown to Steam Plant seer was circuitous.

Bonow-Manier came to photography through his love of fashion. He enrolled to study clothing design but quickly dropped out. In 2021, he picked up a camera to document a friend’s clothing collection.

Capturing fashion imagery hooked him— especially fast-paced street photography.

Since then, Bonow-Manier has developed a photographic style that is energetic, graphic, and intuitive, almost exclusively rendered in stark black and white. Alongside a portfolio

“My process is very subconscious. I’m tapping into feelings.” of fashion photography and curatorial projects, he founded the Emerald City Dispatch, a collaborative platform for photographic storytelling showcasing imagery from Seattle and the surrounding areas. As the residency extended in scope, his approach to photographing the site shifted as well—less runand-gun action, more methodical investigation. “I’m wanting to photograph in a subconscious way,” he says. “Not looking or thinking, just shooting based on feeling.”

As he makes his way through the plant, he clutches a compact Ricoh GR digital camera. Its screen is fully busted, he explains, so he can’t see the picture in frame before shooting it, nor review the images until he uploads them. That’s why it’s his favorite. When something catches his attention—the traces of a note scribbled on the wall, a patch of paint peeling off steel, a bird’s bones crumpled on a window sill—he shoots. Sometimes it’s just a frisson in the air that coaxes him to take a picture, like a divining rod for 21st-century spirit photography. The results are, in his words, “some really weird, bizarre, crazy photos.”

He leads us up a maze of metal staircases

to a tiny room that doubles as a makeshift studio. The walls are dusty yellow. There’s a small sink with a tarnished mirror. Narrow doorways open to storage closets and more tiny rooms. A row of lockers hold an assortment of cameras dangling from straps.

Because the site is a historic landmark, nothing can be hung on the walls. Instead, prints are arranged across a table, a window ledge, and the concrete floor. Some blackand-white images depict shadowy figures; others are Risograph reproductions of archival photos and Steam Plant schematics printed in soft cyan or brown. Another grouping consists of wide-angle instant photos shot on a medium-format camera with an instant back. Each image is a vignette, teetering between abstraction and recognizable object: errant bursts of flash, dreamy blurred color, forms that could be ectoplasm or just strange shadows.

Bonow-Manier is currently working on four projects at the Steam Plant. 13th & Greely, named for the abandoned intersection where the Steam Plant stands, will be the first series on display in August, with a zine release planned next year. Two of the projects are collaborative: INTERCESSION, with designer Dan McLean and Sid Grogan, and What’s Growing, with artist Mack Greene. One Best Way is another solo project combining Bonow-Manier’s photos and archival material with inspiration from Frank Bunker Gilbreth—of Cheaper by the Dozen fame—who designed the Steam Plant.

Since being decommissioned in 1977, the plant’s future has remained uncertain.

In 2019, the Georgetown Steam Plant Community Development Authority formed to oversee operations on behalf of Seattle City Light, opening the site to public SHTEAM (science, history, technology, engineering, art, math) programming. The CDA signed a 60-year lease in 2021, and the plant has since hosted science fairs, new media festivals, music performances, immersive art and theater, and, of course, the residency program. It could become one of the world’s iconic arts institutions, but restoration and compliance upgrades will cost an estimated $20 million. Funding—in one of the richest cities in the nation—remains uncertain.

In the meantime, Bonow-Manier will be there, documenting the building and its lore. “I’m probably being a complete psycho, but the lease is for 55 more years,” he says. “If I could push it till the end, I would.

I might still be alive by then.” ■

Above and below: From INTERCESSION, (in collaboration with Dan McLean and Sid Grogan).

33

34 THE STRANGER

Croissants for the Girlies

At her new bakery, Maddy O’Donnell is making pastries her way.

You can love it or leave it.

BY MEGAN SELING PHOTOS BY BILLIE WINTER

A

t first glance, Maddy’s Bakeshop is tiny. Itty bitty. Almost too small to be a bakery, in fact. The pocket-sized storefront is tucked into the corner space of a strip mall painted an unremarkable blue-gray color on Western Avenue, right where Belltown, Interbay, and Lower Queen Anne collide, aka Nowheresville, and it’d be easy to miss when driving or even walking by. But once you step inside, you become engulfed by Maddy O’Donnell’s world, a dramatic, colorful place where sweet pastries are topped with fistfuls of rainbow sprinkles, stunning white sheet cakes are decorated with big, fresh flowers, and savory croissants are finished off with decorative wooden toothpicks skewered with pepperoncinis or cornichons.

The walls are pink with green and white squiggly lines. The day’s menu is handwritten on a giant roll of butcher paper, stretched out taller than the average man.

In one corner, under a large mirrorball (obviously Maddy’s Bakeshop has a mirrorball), there’s a thoughtful selection of gifts and foodie items—Fishwife’s tinned seafood, Flouwer Co’s artisanal crackers dotted with dried flower petals, Maeve chocolate bars, Pistakio pistachio spread.

In another, there’s a small coffee station, two serve-yourself dispensers offering Kuma drip coffee and hot water for Miro tea. Just minutes into her tour of the space, owner Maddy O’Donnell makes it clear that Maddy’s Bakeshop will never, ever be a coffeehouse.

“I don’t want to do anything unless I really love it, and I couldn’t hate something more than the thought of me making espresso,” she says with a laugh, as she walks me back to the kitchen. In fact, she didn’t even want a storefront, as cute as it is. “My dream was to have a window.

I never was gonna have a front-of-house space, but it’d be dumb not to with this weird little room.”

O’Donnell’s love-it-or-leave-it attitude permeates Maddy’s Bakeshop’s walls. That weird little room is just the tip of the icing berg. Because behind that too-small-tobe-a-bakery bakery is where the real pastry magic happens. The kitchen, which is closed off during business hours, is a 2,500-square-foot space that O’Donnell has designed and outfitted into a full-size, fulltime croissant factory.

One room houses several refrigerators (the previous owners removed the walk-in before O’Donnell moved in) filled with local produce, various types of cheeses, and so much butter. In another area, there are three ovens and a proofer. The main event

Don’t tell Maddy O’Donnell how to make her croissants. is the big room, with a killer view looking out onto Myrtle Edwards Park on the water, lined with rows of work tables and a sheeter, allowing ample space for rolling and shaping and filling and topping croissants in

“I love making ‘trashy food’ with the bougiest ingredients.” flavors like sour cream and onion potato, grilled cheese, French onion soup, strawberry crumble, almond funfetti, and jalapeño popper. She could’ve turned that space into a dining area, a coffee shop, or a bakehouse with a view, but she kept it for herself.

The mechanical sheeter is a new addition, she says. Before opening her storefront, she worked in a commissary kitchen

and used a Brod and Taylor countertop dough sheeter that had to be cranked by hand—an incredible feat when you consider just how many croissants O’Donnell makes in an average week. Between nearly a dozen wholesale spots, the Ballard Farmers Market on Sundays, and the new bakery (open Friday through Sunday), she estimates she goes through about 180 pounds of butter and about 200 pounds of flour a week. And that’s just for the croissants. Last year, on a busy summer day, she’d easily sell 900 pastries at the Ballard Farmers Market, and these days, she moves anywhere from 1,200 to 1,500 a week.

And yes, she’s loyal to her butter brand, as many croissant makers are. But not in the usual gatekeeping way that often comes with monotone lectures about butterfat and melting point. When I hesitantly ask about her butter preferences, I brace myself for a monologue about trade secrets and blah

blah blah… Instead, she immediately says, “I use Darigold!” and shrugs. No big deal.

No snobbery. Darigold. Like the kind you buy at QFC when it’s on sale, two for $5 with a loyalty card.

“I don’t like the inconsistency of quality of Plugrà,” she says. “My dream is Kerrygold, but I can’t afford that.” She used Crémerie Classique for years, but found it inconsistent, too, so she tried Darigold, and, she says, “Everyone was like, ‘Your croissants are so much better!’ It has a good price point, it’s local.”

O’Donnell is used to people questioning her methods. People have said a lot of dumb things to her since she started selling pastries via pop-ups in 2022. She’s been given unsolicited business advice and unwanted baking tips. Some have commented on her branding, while others have criticized her presentation. Instead of getting mad, she gets creative.

“Anxiety and rage are what fuel me,” she says. “All of the decisions I make are because someone’s pissed me off. The pink walls—a guy, another vendor, told me once my stuff was too girlie. He said I was alienating a group of people, aka men. So I was like, ‘I’ll show you!’ I got a pink tent. My branding is so much pink because, fuck you.

“Someone told me two weeks ago that my ham and cheese croissant looks stupid because it had a pepper on it, and that it needed to be put inside [the croissant].

I said, ‘Do you work in the food industry?’

And he said, ‘No,’ and I said, ‘Great, so you know it’d get soggy?’ Just shut up! It’s cute!

Let a girl live!”

Maddy’s stands out in a city where so many bakeries and coffee shops play it safe. I think of the complaint that Stranger staff writer Julianne Bell made in our 2025 Complaints Issue, that coffee shops specifically have adopted increasingly sterile, cold design, seemingly to not offend potential customers. But the way O’Donnell sees it, trying to please everyone is boring. Being herself—loudly, with sprinkles on twicebaked croissants—feels like a radical act these days.

“I also love making a ‘trashy food’ with the bougiest ingredients,” she says. “Like a jalapeño popper. I do a jalapeño popper croissant, but the jalapeños are from local farms, I’ll use really expensive cream cheese, and my flour is from a local mill. I feel like that’s me—a little trashy, but…”

“Locally sourced trash?” I ask.

She laughs. “I kind of love that!”

Indeed, the ham for her ham and cheese croissant comes from Olsen Farms. She gets berries from Hayton Farms, rhubarb

APRIL 2026

O’Donnell says she uses 180 pounds of butter and 200 pounds of flour a week.

The grilled-cheese croissant is slathered in hot honey and everything bagel seasoning and topped with a cute little cornichon. from Sidhu Farms, and works with Collins Family Orchard all the time, she says.

The flour comes from Cairnspring. And, of course, the butter from Darigold. Which is a local dairy! People forget!

O’Donnell is “not a bread girlie,” she says, but she recently hired another baker, and the two are plotting out a new menu item for the summer: focaccia sandwiches. She shows me a photo of a cross section of a test bake, and I gasp.

“Oh, shit!”

“Yeah, dude!”

“Are you gonna fill those nooks with pesto?”

“And aioli! I am such a slut for aioli,” she says. “I love a good herby mayo. We’re gonna do a veg [sandwich] that’s super, hyper local—my goal, my dream, is to go to the farmers market in Wallingford on Wednesdays and pick up all the veg and sell it Friday through Sunday so it’s so fresh.

And then I’ll also have an Italian [sandwich], an herby, oily, meaty… a really good sandwich.

“I live up the street from here. I wanted

to be in this neighborhood,” she adds. And I suddenly feel bad for thinking of the area as Nowheresville. I always assumed this intersection of neighborhoods was a pedestrian dead zone—people were always either going down to the water or up to Lower Queen Anne, circumventing Western Ave entirely. But O’Donnell saw the magic immediately—and she saw how her fun, delicious food could fit right in.

“I think of a lot of ideas at that park,” she says, pointing at Myrtle Edwards. “Sometimes I’ll take a bottle of wine, some cookbooks, and I’ll sit there and think of fun ideas. This is a dream, where I am. We’re going to do sandwiches and wine and beer, so it’s a picnic-y vibe.

“I’m trying so hard to make things that will also bring someone joy,” she says, but acknowledges, “my stuff is definitely not for everyone. It’s leaning in on the femininity of it all, because I don’t know, everyone hates women and hates anyone who’s not a straight man. That’s mainly my customer base. My customer base is the girlies, and that’s not gendered.” ■

35

36 THE STRANGER

S

eattle knows we’re lucky to have an entertainer as unique and side-splitting as the one and only Dina Martina. Self-described as a “tragic singer, horrible dancer, and surreal raconteur,” she’s become an international sensation and built a cult following that spans decades with her iconic shows. If you haven’t yet, you must take the next opportunity to experience her drag genius (literally—she won The Stranger’s 2012 Genius Award for Theater), bizarre and ingenious songs, stories, fashion, and signature way of speaking. She’s known for her winter holiday productions, but I was lucky enough to catch up with her ahead of her upcoming spring shows at the Triple Door.

APRIL 2026

SPOTLIT IN SEATTLE

Dina Martina

Seattle’s Crown Jewel of Unhinged Cabaret Returns to Confuse, Delight, and Mildly Alarm

BY NICO SWENSON

If you bumped into someone who had never seen or heard of Dina Martina before, how would you describe yourself and what you do?

I would describe myself as a benign, well-intentioned, mannish lady who wants nothing more than to bathe the world in pomp and mirth and song and wonder.

You had your big debut, Pearls Before Swine, at Seattle’s CoCA in 1989. If you could go back and talk to yourself then, is there anything you’d want to say?

I would say, “It gets better.”

Your holiday shows are such a special tradition for so many people. What do the holidays mean to you?

The holiday season is a magical six-week window of giving, of course, but people often forget that it’s also a magical window of taking. The holidays mean so many things. They mean singing carols and looking at pretty lights and wrapping presents and enjoying pumpkin spice enemas and spending time with people you don’t want to be around. I think more than anything, though, the holidays mean adorable Norelco ads with Santa driving around the slopes in an electric razor.

Can you tell me a little bit about your upcoming shows? Should audiences expect some classic Dina? Any new surprises you’d like to tease?

I could definitely tell you about it if I had already written it, but that hasn’t happened yet, so at this point you know as much about it as I do. I mean, what I do know

At that time, did you have any sense that your career would grow into what it is today?

I thought I did, but it turned out to be shingles.

“So many people really need to be cheered up, so lately whenever I’m onstage I feel like I’m in the USO.”

Over the span of your career, what have been the best things and worst things you’d like to share?

Oh, so many best things. Performing at Wigstock—twice!—was so much fun and a huge honor. Also, performing at Café Carlyle with a live trio, which I’ll be doing again in May… what else? Performing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that was a definite highlight. And as far as the worst things, the only thing that comes to mind is Dharma & Greg.

I heard in an interview once that you fully create your shows in the 48 hours beforehand? Is that still true? If so, what are those 48 hours like?

Was the interview with me? I mean, I suppose I could be considered an 11th-hour

I know you also split your time in Provincetown. How does it compare to Seattle? Are there any other places or venues you’ve visited that have been favorites of yours?

Well, it’s apples and oranges, really. I mean, there’s so much history in Provincetown, whereas in Seattle there’s none. You know, except for Pike’s Place Market and Pioneer Squares.

The world is… having a rough patch, to say the least. Thank you for bringing so much joy to it! How does it feel to be an entertainer in this current global backdrop?

It’s kinda surreal, really. The world is in such an odd place right now and so many people really need to be cheered up, so lately whenever I’m onstage I feel like I’m in the USO.

What’s a day in the life of Dina Martina?

Well, I’m always up and moving by 11, and I start every day with a vanilla Carnation Instant Breakfast and a can of sardines.

Then I do two leg lifts, one for each leg, two arm lifts, and then I go back to bed.

Where do you get inspiration for your incredible shows and songs? Are there specific icons or people in your life who’ve helped shape your creative voice?

Well, some of my biggest singing idols are Florence Foster Jenkins, Mrs. Elva Miller, and Dora Hall, whom you may remember as the wife of the CEO of the SOLO Cup Company. And lately I’ve been very inspired by plaster of paris.

37

Nothing a little sun won’t fix. prepper, but we are living in the end times, so it makes sense, right? Plus, it keeps the shows fresher and keeps me on my toes.

You have such a distinctive and wonderful way of speaking. Where does that come from?

Well, my mother was a real “good-time Sally” who often slurred her words, so I think a lot of it stems from that.

Your work brings up a lot of nostalgia for Seattle’s past. Is there anything you miss the most that is no longer a part of the city?

I still love Seattle, but there’s so much

DAVID BELISLE

I miss from when I was little and my mother and I would visit. I miss Marie’s on Greenwood (now Baranof ), which is where Marie’s Salad Dressing started, back when it was still delicious. I miss Manning ’s on 15th & Market in Ballard, which a lot of people only remember from when it was a “Googie” Denny’s. I also miss Joy’s 21 on Lower Queen Anne and the Joker on Westlake, which was 24 hours.

And I’m one of those people who misses the Viaduct. But one of the things I miss more than anything is the Jones’ Fantastic Museum, which was the coolest place EVER, and it always will be.

is it’s going to be an all-new show, so that means it’ll have new songs, new stories, new video, and new costumes on my body.

My favorite new dress I actually found at a shop in Joshua Tree, which was a surprise because Joshua Tree used to be great, but that was before it was overrun by tourists.

Now it’s all snow globes and hookers.

Finally, is there anything else you’d like to say? Anything you’d like to share with your fans? This is a space for you to say anything else you wanted to bring up that I haven’t asked.

Sure. I know this is totally unrelated, but I want to make sure everyone knows that if you order a patty melt without cheese and grilled onions, it’s not a patty melt; it’s just a hamburger on rye.

See Dina Martina at the Triple Door April 29–May 3, times vary.

38 THE STRANGER

DESTINATION

ROADHOUSE APRIL 14TH

7-9PM JAZZ JAM NIGHT

Live jazz. Open jam. No cover.

No commute. Just steps from Angle Lake Station.

APRIL 25TH

7-9PM

MUSIC AROUND THE WORLD Experience talented musicians and vibrant rhythms from Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and more.

FREE—ALL AGES

THE ROADHOUSE

19955 28th Ave S, SeaTac, WA 98188 at Angle Lake Link Light Rail Station

APRIL 2026

39

The Little Pokémon Gym That Could Tabletop Village in the CID Is Pumping Out Card Champions

BY MICHAEL WONG ILLUSTRATION BY ERICK M. RAMOS

T

G

I

AS

D

IE

M

hese days, you can throw a dart and hit a Pokémon.

The mofos are everywhere. But what started as an innocent game has mutated into a global frenzy, namely with the cards. Right now, somewhere in America, grown men are fistfighting outside Pokémon vending machines at grocery stores. People are committing literal crimes for cardboard.

And yet, at the outer edges of the CID, there’s a place that could be considered a real-life Pokémon gym, one that’s pumping out dozens of champions at official Pokémon tournaments around the world. Once just a neighborhood card shop, Tabletop Village has quietly evolved over the past decade into one of the most feared Pokémon training grounds on the planet.

Since opening in 2017, this single room has produced dozens of top-eight finishers and more than 20 official championship titles, including the 2025 Pokémon saw a vision for its namesake. “I told him International Finals where Tabletop siblings Annabelle and Kenji Oono I liked how it says ‘village,’” he explains.

“Because it really does take a village. And faced off for a $7,000 purse.

Tabletop Village is a sprawling open room that’s what we have.”

Before Tabletop, Myers was on the that rejects the cramped chaos of most ERI path to becoming a social worker. card shops. Painted Pokémon V F AN He spent the early 2000s as murals line the walls. Instant a youth counselor in White noodle dispensers stocked Center during what he calls with Shin Bowls keep players “the banging days.” Myers was fueled for the long haul. Only the guy trying to keep kids off a small corner is actually for IC the street by giving them someretail. The rest belongs to long HAEL WON where to be. He realized trading utilitarian rows of tables that cards were an effective Trojan horse make the place feel less like a store and more like a classroom with the energy for emotional regulation and mentorship.

For him, Tabletop Village is an act of of a boxing gym.

This dojo is for everyone, provided you’re community stewardship, cloaked as retail. willing to put in the work. The game is “I also needed a village to be a part of,” he simple enough: two players (“Trainers”) admits. In the CID, that sense of belonging face off head-to-head, each using 60-card is as historical as it is sentimental. Myers is decks of Pokémon and supplemental cards Filipino and Native American, an intersecto knock out their opponent’s team. Brian tion of heritage that carries a long history Myers, the man behind Tabletop Village, of displacement in the Pacific Northwest. has a simple strategy for sharpening skills: His presence in the neighborhood feels like a “The players learn to play against the best cosmic echo of the late Seattle activist Uncle from day one.” On any given night, Juniors Bob Santos, the leader once known as the (younger players, some of whom are barely unofficial Mayor of the CID, who coincidentall enough to see over the play mats) play tally was also Filipino Native American.

Myers jokes that he’s the “Uncle Bob against established Masters, and somehow both players often walk away having learned of Pokémon.” Where Bob used cardboard protest signs, Myers is using cardboard something new.

When Myers bought the business—at the cards, but the mission is the same: commutime, “Tabletop Village” was simply a guy nity. With Uncle Bob on his shoulder, Myers selling Pokémon cards out of his trunk—he is teaching his players how to hold a seat at

a table the rest of the world is constantly trying to flip over.

Myers has currently exported the “village” ideology to 40 after-school programs, stretching from the CID to Title I schools in South Seattle, and as far as Florida and New Jersey. “The former occupant, Master Li, used to teach tae kwon do where Tabletop Village lives today,” Myers says, “but kids weren’t into tae kwon do anymore. Video games were taking over.” So Myers simply swapped the martial arts mats for card mats, using the game as a delivery system for the kind of community-building the modern world often ignores.

Parents who can’t clear their schedules for the demanding tournament circuit don’t pull their kids from the roster, they simply trust

He realized trading cards were an effective Trojan horse for emotional regulation and mentorship. the Village to ferry their children across the world. “I’ve sent my son several times with other parents,” Myers says. “I’ve sent my son to Melbourne without us.”

It’s the manifestation of Myers’s original dream: a place where the group’s well-being fuels individual excellence. It’s why winners come from Tabletop. Without the fear of falling, the players are free to fly.

During one such high-pressure tournament, a young player had his entire competitive deck stolen, a loss that usually ends a season on the spot. “The community didn’t even hesitate,” Myers recalls. “Many people came together and were like, ‘What’s the deck list?’” In 20 minutes, while the kid was still in shock, the traveling Tabletop community was already pulling rare cards from their collections and rebuilding the deck from scratch so a competitor, and teammate, wouldn’t have to stand there alone. “That kid is going to remember that for the rest of their life,” Myers reflects.

“That everybody rallied behind them so they could keep playing… even without knowing if the cards would ever come back.

But they would do it anyway, for each other.”

In a moment when shiny cardboard is turning neighbors into enemies, this little Pokémon gym at the edge of the CID knows that the real game is learning how to sit across from another person, shuffle up, lose with grace, and try again. It’s a room full of people ready to have your back when the world takes your deck away.

Getting better doesn’t just mean beating everyone else. It means bringing them with you. ■

40 THE STRANGER

APRIL 2026

41

The Egyptian Will Reopen This Month for a Latin American Punk Film Festival Put On by a Puppet Company Yeah, You Read That Right

R

ight now, the Egyptian Theater feels a bit like the doors to the Oz’s Emerald City, with a mustached doorman telling us reporters to get the hell out, that “nobody can see the Great Oz.” The long-running theater closed its doors back in the fall of 2024 after a busted pipe caused excessive flooding damage, followed by SIFF ending its lease with the historic building. Now, the theater, which has been owned by Seattle Central College since 1992, will reopen for three days only, for the brand-new film festival FIN de FEST, showcasing independent, contemporary Latin American cinema.

Dustin Curtis is the man with access to the Wizard. He’s the holder of the titles Events & Rentals Coordinator for Seattle Central College, and Executive Producer at Socks on My Hands Productions (which is producing the festival)—permitting him one-off use of the vacant theater. Curtis explained to me over the phone that when SIFF pulled out of the Egyptian, it left the building in the hands of the college, which is still deciding whether to sell the building or rent it out. “There’s the potential of running a rental program in the Egyptian,” Curtis says. “I’m working with my department, the Seattle Auxiliary Services theater department, to do a test of concept, because the building is not commercially rentable right now.”

As it stands, the theater is in rough shape—stripped of decor and full of equipment and water-damaged furniture that SIFF is temporarily storing. “We thought,” says Curtis, “how can we test a proof of concept in this space without disappointing a paying renter? This agreement allows us to see things from both a client and production viewpoint—to see what’s possible and what’s needed.” So, much like the punk houses and DIY venues featured in the festival’s documentaries, the SOMH team will push the musty furniture to the side and create a space for art.

Socks on My Hands Productions is a nonprofit arts organization that produces community events, including the annual Puget Sound Puppetry Festival. “It’s very puppet-centric,” Curtis tells me, “because that’s what my background is.” But, not wanting to be limited to puppets, SOMH launched the New Project Playground, funding event ideas from folks without the infrastructure or production experience needed to produce their own. The first edition kicked off last November with Idol Dreamscape, a celebration of the Japanese pop idol fanatics in the Pacific Northwest.

Artistic director of FIN de FEST Danette

BY AUDREY VANN

ANTHONY KEO

Newcomb Cotera, moved to Seattle seven years ago from Mexico City, where she worked in film and art production. “While living there,” she explains, “I developed a deep appreciation for Latin American independent cinema—work that is often raw, experimental, and deeply human, a sharp contrast to the stereotypical Latinx narratives that are commonly circulated in the US.” Fueled by the desire to see a wider range of Latinx cinema in the PNW, she developed the idea of an indie film festival

It’s an immersive experience with workshops, speakers, art installations, and vendors. to fill this void in the city’s programming. “I believe audiences in Seattle and across the Pacific Northwest would appreciate the opportunity to encounter this other side of Latin American culture,” says Cotera.

Cotera knocked on doors last year in search of funding and support with no luck. Finally, in the fall of last year, she approached Curtis and the New Project Playground board with the idea. “When

she pitched this idea to me, I thought it sounded really cool, and the board was pretty enthusiastic, too,” says Curtis. By January, the team quickly got to work on the inaugural festival, booking two independent documentaries centered on Mexico City’s thriving punk scene, past and present, and how lifestyle and philosophy shaped Mexican counterculture—Tutti Frutti: The Temple of Underground, an ode to one of Mexico City’s most iconic venues in the ’80s underground punk scene, and Sex Panchitos, which follows three members of the legendary ’80s punk gang Los Panchitos.

Established in 1985 by 19-year-old Brisa Vázquez and 21-year-old Danny Yerna, DIY punk venue Tutti Frutti got its start in the back of a restaurant, with a mission much like FIN de FEST: to carve out a space in the city for rarely seen art and music. Over the years, the Tutti Frutti stage hosted trailblazing Mexican punk bands like Las Insólitas Imágenes de Aurora (who later became Caifanes), Café Tacvba, and Maldita Vecindad, allowing a space for artists to experiment, collaborate, and showcase their work. Laura Ponte and Alex Albert’s 2022 documentary traces the history of the venue as told by fellow patrons, whom they found on a 10k+ member Facebook group dedicated to the long-defunct venue. The film is a fitting testament to how important

small-scale, DIY art spaces are in cultivating art and culture.

Curtis wants it to be known that this is not just a film festival, but an immersive experience with workshops, speakers, art installations, and vendors set up throughout the Egyptian. The directors of both films will be present for filmmaking workshops: Ponte (Tutti Frutti), teaching guerrilla filmmaking, Gustavo Gamou (Sex Panchitos), hosting a “DIY Protagonist Lab,” and public artist Hernan Paganini leading the “Inner Landscapes” workshop, walking participants through “returning to a primitive and ludic state.”

“As a new program, we’re doing it small and not running a full week,” says Curtis. But moving forward, both Curtis and Cotera hope to expand their programming and become a “reference point for Latin American cinema in the Pacific Northwest,” while maintaining the festival’s independent identity. “SOMH always approaches its programs one at a time,” he continues. “That way, if Danette wants to do it differently, she can walk away. But we’re hoping that we can work together and make it an annual festival.” As for the vacant theater, the future is still uncertain. “I really wish I could just turn on the lights and be like, ‘Come and rent it!’” says Curtis. “It’s a beautiful space, and I really love it.” ■

42 THE STRANGER

APRIL 2026

SUPER SEATTLE SONICS

New Music You Shouldn’t Miss

New Albums by Reggaeton-Punk Duo Lucha Luna and Noirish Trip-Hop Heroine Black Viiolet

BY DAVE SEGAL

Lucha Luna

Brilla Brilla (Self-Released) One of Seattle’s most interesting new groups, Lucha Luna consists of vocalist Eva Vazquez and percussionist/synth manipulator Thomas Arndt. You may know Arndt as percussionist for exceptional eclecticists Day Soul Exquisite and Vazquez for her time in Toxic Tears and Savi. On their debut album, Brilla Brilla, they team up for a tantalizing fusion of reggaeton, punk, cumbia, and EDM. In a 2024 Slog post on Day Soul Exquisite, Arndt revealed their immersion in Brazilian music, and the intro to opening track “Ritmo Eternal” appears to contain an arresting riff on berimbau, a single-stringed Afro-Brazilian instrument that produces a wonderfully warped twang.

Eventually, a beautifully eerie keyboard melody sparkles over a menacing yet celebratory rhythm and synth bass, as Vazquez sings in Spanish with steely resolve.

Throughout these seven songs, she’s a commanding presence on the mic, ranging from punkish agitation to heart-fluttering featheriness. “Manzana Prohibida” is as exhilaratingly tense as PiL circa Metal Box, as Vazquez sings with a gripping urgency.

On “Camino por la Noche,” unusual, metallic percussion timbres and ill Roland 303 blurges cohere into a vibrantly dirge-y cumbia white-knuckler. With its superb dynamics and arrangements, interesting

array of instruments, and extranjero percussive timbres, “Camino por la Noche” exemplifies Lucha Luna’s specialness.

A lot of Latin-diaspora music sounds cloyingly cheerful (I know, it’s a me problem), but Lucha Luna add a welcome degree of edginess and distortion to these styles. They excel at threading post-punk darkness with Latin American rhythmic sabor. There just isn’t much in Seattle that sounds like Lucha Luna. ¡Respeto!

Black Viiolet

Dark Blue (Adrenalin Fix) Nicole Laurenne plays organ and sings with the Darts, a femme-powered Seattle quartet who kick garage rock into vibrant new life with fishnet-stocking-clad legs, as evidenced by their new album, Halloween Love Songs. But moonlighting as Black Viiolet, the multi-instrumentalist/songwriter goes off on a radical tangent into torchsong trip-hop.

Like an American Amy Whitehouse fronting a jazz-loving Morcheeba, Black

Viiolet traipses into familiar territory, but she imbues Dark Blue’s songs with alluring mystique and lyrics informed by the ache of being away from your new lover while you’re doing something you love, i.e., touring. Laurenne wrote these 13 tracks in the Darts’ van while on the road, and you can feel the longing in them. Absence makes the words burn brighter.

Laurenne’s nuanced singing—which would make the late David Lynch stub out his cigarette with gusto and pay close attention—dominates, but her deft keyboard playing and beatmaking elevate the music to the top 10 percent of this overcrowded field. Drummer Gregg Ziemba, double bassist Evan Strauss, trombonist Basile Conand, trumpeter Jean-Gatien Pasquier, and saxophonist Paul Cadier fill out the noir-ish portraits with restrained, impressionist daubs and a soupçon of funk. The result makes any listener feel way more sophisticated and rich than they have a right to. Even Dwarves’ notorious hell-raiser Blag Dahlia appears on vocals and arrangement on a remix of the elegantly lubricious “One” and can’t break the enchanting spell.

Seattle-area musicians can send music to NewSeattleMusic@TheStranger.com for possible coverage.

43

44 THE STRANGER THE LAST WORD

LAKE CITY RECORD SHOW

The Lion’s Blood at Cafe Munir

Saturday April 25, 2026 – 10am-4pm

ALBUMS, 45s, 78s, SHEET MUSIC, MEMORABILIA, 8-TRACKS, POSTERS, ETC

This Mini Cocktail Is a Fragrant Garden Pathway from Winter to Springtime

BY MEG VAN HUYGEN

NOW WITH FOOD, BEER & MORE FUN! 14625 15th Ave NE Shoreline G

Since 1984!

OPEN HOUSE MEMBERSHIP – HOSTED BY SHORELINE ELKS CLUB

ILLUSTRATION BY JAYA NICELY

CO-SPONSORED BY

S

eems like when I ask a chef their favorite Seattle restaurant, half the time, they say Cafe Munir. Which isn’t to say it’s not a fave of local un-chefs too, but I get it. This place ticks all the foodie boxes: It’s in a little residential alcove within a larger neighborhood, it’s teeny-tiny, it has a tasting menu.

Everything ’s immaculately fresh.

And the UX is loaded with delicious surprises.

One of these is the beverage menu, which includes both a lovingly curated whiskey list and a Lebanese/Palestinian wine program. Owner Rajah Gargour, who opened Munir in 2012, says, “We’ve always served whatever bottles we could get from Arabic countries, plus Washington wines.” However, he’s recently dropped the domestic stuff. Availability can be spotty, he adds, especially Palestinian wines, “but it’s all Arabic wine now.”

I could write a book of sonnets on Munir’s extensive Scotch collection, and the wine list is impressive too—particularly the citrusy white Hamdani Jandali by Cremisan Winery in the West Bank. There’s also half a dozen varieties of Lebanese and Jordanian arak.

As for cocktails, Gargour tends to improvise them whimsically, and the one he’s got right now is exactly what I like.

The Lion’s Blood comprises a big juicy red wine from Lebanon, licorice-tinged arak, rose water and orange blossom water,

The combined effect is sharp and juicy at once, with a little floral mist on the surface. and a drop of pomegranate molasses. It’s served in a cute four-ounce sherry glass and looks like an aperitif for a doll or a cat.

When he spies it on my table, Gargour deadpans: “If you can get past the first couple sips, it’s a lot more interesting than… some other cocktails out there.”

He’s not kidding—that first sip’s a doozy. At 53% ABV, the triple-distilled Ksarak here is designed to be louched

with water, and Gargour has done so; it’s just been infused with flowers, then doused with sweet-sour pomegranate syrup. The base is a cherry-strawberry-ey Lebnani Ahmar by Mersel Wines. Alongside the dark fruit, I taste clove and black pepper, even through the wall of arak.

The combined effect is sharp and juicy at once, with a little floral mist on the surface. Like taking a walk down a garden path in the cold rain, while picking berries and shoving them in your mouth.

Perfect for this wacky yes/no transitionary weather: arak to warm you up in the winter, wine and fruit and flowers to lead you into springtime.

Before I go, I get another miniature doll’s beverage, the house cordial #1, made from figs and arak. “There’s a Lebanese guy who lives in Lake City,” Gargour explains. “His whole backyard is terraced, all different fig trees. He calls himself the Fig King, and he always advertises on Craigslist or something when the figs are ripe. I get green figs from him and then I soak them in arak for a year.”

Naturally, the fig cordial’s spectacular, unique, and made with careful, thoughtful intention. Like everything they serve here. Of course it is. ■

APRIL 2026

45

Spring Reads for Desperate Times A Fortifying Books List that Offers a Way Forward

BY KATIE LEE ELLISON

W

e’re riding this fire horse of a year, and I, for one, am needing to pull references for how to keep up, keep going, keep growing. My book recommendations for this spring— some old and some new—are not always easy, but always deeply enriching: a hearty full plate of a meal we need in these spiritually anemic times. These books are lessons in how to look at the dark and continue on. They are gifts from lives we don’t often get to live or touch. They’ll smack you awake, they’ll ease your spirit, they’ll tell you when to fight, and they’ll teach you how. They are my offerings to you as the light returns.

From the always fab independent press Semiotext(e) comes the first release of Tosquelles: Healing Institutions by Joana Masó in English, translated by Robert Hurley and Mara Faye Lethem. This book is a record of the psychiatric hospital SaintAlban-sur-Limagnole in Nazi-occupied France, where psychiatrist Francesc

Tosquelles created a commune and refuge.

Doctors participated in what we might now call holistic treatments alongside patients with soul-enriching activities like gardening, singing, and producing their own newspaper. Healing Institutions is a beacon of hope, showing us what mental health care could be, and has been. Available April 28.

The next rec is Solmaz Sharif ’s Look, which was released by Graywolf in 2016.

Sharif is Iranian, was born in Turkey, grew up in Los Angeles; she’s a brilliant writer with the accolades to prove it, if you need that sort of thing. Look teaches us how to

radically respond to—and fight against—the horrors of our American government and its treachery. Once you’ve read it (or reread it), pass it around; it’s essential reading, and it’s as stimulating and provocative in craft as it is compelling and devastating in subject.

This next book came out last year and is a fantastic read. Black Genius: Essays on an American Legacy by Tre Johnson is the celebration it sounds like it is. It’s also personal, researched, historical, and timely.

Johnson is a journalist to his core, which means he knows how to wrap you up in a sentence and spin you until suddenly you’re

at the end of the book and you don’t know how you got there so fast.

Stories about playing Nintendo with his cousins sit alongside his learning of the death of Dick Gregory (which took place while he sat at a Chappelle show soon after the comic’s return from obscurity).

Black Genius is a modern and profound take on the richness of Black culture in this country.

Steven Pfau’s Say Nephew: On Boyhood, Unclehood, and Queer Mentorship invites us into his family, providing a warm and complex portrait of what it feels like to be loved and nurtured in your queerness (in this case, by Pfau’s absolute ideal of a “guncle”) before you even know it’s there. Imagine being seen so deeply, so early.

Pfau also brings in cultural and literary references for historical context on examining the complexities in gay culture. In these many micro and macro points of criticism, he reaches to understand his own role and responsibility in having received such rare early and loving guidance. A radical comfort in these times. Available May 26. ■

46 THE STRANGER We do our best for accuracy, but please check venue websites for updates and more information, as event details may have changed since press time!

$

Housekeeping note: We have ceased to include pricing information, unless the event is free or sliding scale. (This is mostly due to third-party ticket vendors, like Ticketmaster, who have a monopoly on pricing that is not only unfair, but also confusing, due to varying fee structures. We hate them, and so should you.)

Shabazz Palaces Apr 25, Nectar Lounge

STEPHAN GRAY

MUSIC Go Kurosawa, the Ocean APR 5 As drummer for Kikagaku Moyo, Go Kurosawa helped guide Japan’s greatest 21st-century psych-rock group to astronomical heights, until they went on “indefinite hiatus” in 2022 while at their peak. Whereas Kikagaku Moyo traded in fiery and flowery songcraft as majestic as Mt. Fuji and as intimate as a yurt, Kurosawa’s 2025 debut solo album, Soft Shakes, veers into quirkier terrain. Playing all the instruments—including clarinet, wood block, chimes, and cowbell—Go channels oddballs such as electronic-music maverick Haruomi Hosono and folkadelic cult faves the Beta Band, his slinky rhythms, weird timbres, and mesmer-

izing melodies transporting you to far-flung, imaginary locales. But then “Jungle Cooking” flexes ’60s James Brown funkiness, so you never know. The Ocean— saxophone/synth gurus Morgan Henderson (Fleet Foxes) and Joel Cuplin (Constant Lovers)—improvise spacey jams that often pulsate with wonderfully hypnotic grooves. Strangely, one of Seattle’s most compelling bands has no web presence... so go see ’em! (Neumos, 7 pm, 21+) DAVE SEGAL

Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra Presents: The Music of Sun Ra APR 11–12 Acclaimed pianist and SRJO guest director Orrin Evans will lead the orchestra in a cosmic medley of compositions by Sun Ra, a jazz pioneer remembered for melding big band, avant-garde, free jazz, and

Afrofuturism. The program will feature selections from Sun Ra’s expansive catalog, from high-energy pieces composed for his 1974 film Space Is the Place to the delightfully relaxed “Hour of Parting,” along with other favorites that reflect Evans’s history in New York City and Philadelphia. (Benaroya Hall, times vary, all ages) AUDREY VANN

Throwing Muses APR 15 Excuse me while I get on my soapbox for a moment: I am confused and concerned why Throwing Muses’ 1991 song “Honeychain” is not more well-known.

Not only should it be the band’s number one hit, but it should be known as one of the best songs of the ’90s. Its infectious riff deserves “Smoke on the Water” level fame. It should be played on classic rock radio.

It should be on video game soundtracks and in those greeting cards that sing when you open them. (Please help me educate the masses.) The band was started

by stepsisters Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly (the Breeders, Belly) while both were still in high school, and quickly became known for their dreamlike lyrics and unusual song structure. In 1991, Donelly left the band to start Belly, and the band has lived on ever since through Hersh with drummer David Narcizo and bassist Bernard Georges. The trio will return to Seattle to support their new album, Moonlight Concessions, which Hersh has described as a return to the band’s original sound, which predates their 1986 self-titled album. (Crocodile, 8 pm, 21+) AUDREY VANN

Devin the Dude APR 17 Devin the Dude will always hold a special place in the hearts of the legions of millennial teenagers who count sparking a pop can weed pipe in their basement and watching their best friend work out the whammy bar intro to “Doobie Ashtray” as an indelible part of their childhood development. Emerging from the

APRIL 2026

1990s Houston rap scene, Dude, born Devin Charles Copeland, struck a perfect chord between West Coast G-funk swing and breezy Southern soul. His relatable blue-collar rhymes played directly into the stoner-rap craze of the moment, and his change-ofpace rap-singing proved to be an irresistible feature for artists from Scarface to Dr. Dre. Indeed, Copeland’s music has provided many high times and life lessons, and, haters move on, his most recent album, 2021’s Soulful Distance, is not to be slept on. The same goes for opener (and local weed rap royalty) Jarv Dee, who has had a moment of late with some breakout dance tracks. (Nectar Lounge, 8 pm, 21+) TODD HAMM

Voltaire transformed into a slick house/techno unit, disappointing some early loyalists. Regardless, given our current technological hellscape, with its chronic surveillance tension, Cabaret Voltaire’s decades-old music sounds visionary. The band is reuniting for one final tour, which is a fantasy come true for US fans, some of whom have been waiting nearly 50 years to see these legends. (Moore Theatre, 8 pm, all ages) DAVE SEGAL

More

Health, Desire, Dark Chisme, DJ Atticus Apr 2, Showbox, 8 pm, 21+

CMAT, Blond in Car

FKA twigs, Brutalismus 3000 Apr 2, WAMU Theater, 8 pm, all ages

APR 22 The scarlet-haired, gold-toothed singer and musician Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, better known by her stage name CMAT, is the people’s princess of Ireland, or, as she puts it, “Dunboyne Diana” (a reference to her humble hometown). Since receiving a boost from a little-known artist named Charli XCX, she’s won over the girls and gays with her witty, acerbic lyrics and playful ethos. CMAT doesn’t pull punches—her hit single “Take a Sexy Picture of Me” takes direct aim at pedophilic beauty standards and misogynistic trolls, so much so that I felt deeply uncomfortable listening to its satirical lyrics for the first time: “And make me look 14, oh / Or like 10, or like 5 / Or like 2, like a baby / Whoever it is that you’re gonna love / So you’ll be nice to me.” The delightful TikTok stoner mom, omnichordist, and self-described “groovy aunt of dream-pop” Robin Schorr, aka Blond in Car, will also perform.

(Showbox, 8 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

Sunn O)))

47

CHARLES PETERSON

APR 24 Earth walked so that Sunn O))) could run. Guitarists Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson treated the granite monolith known as Earth’s pioneering 1993 drone-metal opus Earth 2 (Special Low Frequency Version) as their bible. Drawing on this uncompromising touchstone, the former Seattleites have accrued many fans and accolades over the past 28 years by putting subtle variations on Dylan Carlson’s “metal as slow-motion annihilation ceremony” blueprint. As solid as Sunn O)))’s many records are, though, they pale in comparison to their live shows. Obscured by dry ice while robed, hooded, and stationary, Sunn O))) erect forbidding mushroom clouds of down-tuned distortion and diabolical feedback that make your internal organs ripple. This enveloping and invasive sound embodies that sensation when pain morphs into enlightenment. If you ever wanted to know the feeling of entering Satan’s substation, Sunn O))) can help you. Now toiling for Sub Pop in a full-circle development (see Earth 2), the duo releases the new Sunn O))), whose six tracks feature 80 minutes of elephantine death cries and lawn-mower sonorities cut at Woodinville’s Bear Creek Studios. Hallefugginlujah! (Showbox SoDo, 8 pm, all ages) DAVE SEGAL

Through Her Window: Part II APR 24 Inspired by the expression “Art is a window to the soul,” the Seattle Symphony’s principal oboist, Mary Lynch VanderKolk, started Through Her Window as an ongoing project to counteract the historic silencing of women’s voices. By spotlighting some of the most influential women of classical music, past

Hockey Teeth, Poached, Wiseacre Apr 2, Hidden Hall, 7:30 pm, 21+ Jeff Tweedy, Macie Stewart Apr 2, Moore Theatre, 7:30 pm, all ages Listening Session: Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters Apr 2, Shibuya Hi-Fi, 5 pm, 21+

Mirah, Naomi Wachira

SHERVIN LAINEZ

APR 26

Witch Ripper, Dust Moth, Izthmi Apr 3, Sunset Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+ Stella Standingbear Apr 3, Vera Project, 7 pm, all ages Sex Mex, Sux, Taste Testors Apr 3, Clock-Out Lounge, 8:30 pm, 21+

I first discovered Mirah when I was in elementary school— my best friend shared an iTunes account with her Elliott Smith–loving teenage brother, who had downloaded Mirah’s debut album, You Think It’s Like This but It’s Really Like This, after hearing about it on Mark Hoppus’s podcast in 2004. And that’s how I learned about Murphy beds (although I didn’t understand the line “tie me to the Murphy bed / Let’s do all the things we said,” until I relistened with adult ears). Mirah’s albums continued to soundtrack my life, with 2004’s C’mon Miracle comforting me through the rest of elementary school, 2009’s (a)spera holding my hand on the way to middle school, and Thao & Mirah keeping me company through high school lunch breaks. Unsurprisingly, as I approach 30, Mirah’s latest album, Dedication, continues to resonate, using her earnest, diaristic songwriting to approach grown-up themes like grief, motherhood, and marriage. She will support the album after an opening set from local folk singer-songwriter Naomi Wachira.

(Ballard Homestead, 7 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

Microwave, Anthony Green, Hunny, Pure Hex Apr 3, Showbox SoDo, 7 pm, all ages

and present, VanderKolk aims to “expand the canon, share stories, reflect on life in the world today.” The second edition of the program will showcase Seattle Symphony commissions curated by renowned composer, flutist, and founder of Imani Winds Valerie Coleman. (Benaroya Hall, 7 pm and 9 pm, all ages)

The Builders and the Butchers, the Shivas, Jared Mees & His Grown Children Apr 9, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+

to the stage. What followed was a bacchanalia of warped reimaginings of their records that materialized as an entirely independent work. The opening acts are always a Black Constellation roll call, which translates to you fucking up if you show up late. (Nectar Lounge, 8 pm, 21+) TODD HAMM

Tomo Nakayama, Maita, Plash Apr 3, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+ April Flea’s Day: Black Ends, Beautiful Freaks, CASI, Catica, A-Ron Gubbe & the Zips Apr 3, Quality Flea Center, 7 pm, all ages Father John Misty, Damien Jurado Apr 3–4, Paramount Theatre, 8 pm, all ages Cass McCombs, Hand Habits Apr 4, Tractor Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+ Emi Pop, Chipped Nail Polish, Schmutz Apr 4, Baba Yaga, 7 pm, 21+ Girl in a Coma, Skating Polly, Lovely Colours Apr 4, Funhouse, 8 pm, all ages The Original Sapphic Soiree Apr 4, Asylum Collective, 9 pm, 18+ Nick Lowe Apr 5, Neptune Theatre, 7 pm, all ages Sweet Pill, Heart to Gold, Spaced Apr 6, Neumos, 7 pm, all ages Ratboys, villagerrr Apr 7, Neumos, 7 pm, 21+ Listening Session: Guns N’ Roses’s Appetite for Destruction Apr 7, Shibuya Hi-Fi, 6 pm, 21+ True Loves, Nigel Hall Apr 8–12, Jazz Alley, times vary, all ages Ononos, Bijoux, Profit Prison Apr 9, Baba Yaga, 8 pm, 21+

AUDREY VANN

Cabaret Voltaire, I Speak Shabazz Palaces, Stas Thee Machine Boss, JusMoni MAY 4

APR 25 The city of Seattle owes Ishmael Butler a fucking lot for keeping the town so hip. A sci-fi visionary and intra-world seer, he seems to have realized early on that when the powers that be fail to deliver adequately, it becomes necessary to divine something cooler. The driving force behind Shabazz Palaces, and of course, before that, Digable Planets, Butler and the Juan de Fuca plate both hold tectonic sway in this corner. Shabazz shows have become rituals of sorts, ones that have naturally taken on their own conventions. When they last played Nectar, a headlining set as part of 2024’s Freakout Fest, Butler and his live band took the opportunity to begin the concert on the sidewalk, then march, bearing drums,

Sheffield’s Cabaret Voltaire reigned as the UK’s most riveting electronic group from 1979–1984. Previously, Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder, and Chris Watson had experimented with tape loops and analog-synth bleeps to give you the creeps. Their early recordings delved into academic minimalist composition and proto-industrial, but also included Velvet Underground and Seeds covers; Mal played bass and Kirk guitar, after all. But in the ’80s, CV really hit their stride, with Red Mecca, 2X45, Fools Game/Gut Level, and The Crackdown, which filtered funk, dub, noir soundtracks, and William Burroughs’s sinister sci-fi worldview into tracks that made you break into the coldest sweat while looking paranoiacally over your shoulder. In the late ’80s and ’90s, though, Cabaret

CMAT

Apr 22, Showbox SHANE ANTHONY SINCLAIR/GETTY IMAGES

48 THE STRANGER Young Fresh Fellows, Acapulco Lips, the Tammy Shine Apr 10, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+ Monsterwatch, Forty Feet Tall, Kill Buzz Apr 11, Baba Yaga, 8 pm, 21+ Audioasis Live: Dark Chisme, Lucha Luna, TeZATalks Apr 11, KEXP Gathering Space, 5–11 pm, all ages

STRANGERTICKETS.COM

UPCOMING FEATURED EVENTS

DRAG & BURLESQUE CABARET AT OBEC

WOMXN & BLUES: HOW IT WOULD FEEL TO BE FREE

4/5 | OBEC BREWERY SEATTLE, WA

4/9 | ROYAL ROOM SEATTLE, WA

DRAMA QUEENS! FLAMY GRANT + HEATHER MAE

SILENT READING PARTY (OVER BRUNCH)

4/10 | ROYAL ROOM SEATTLE, WA

4/18 | HOTEL SORRENTO SEATTLE, WA

Fishbone, Bite Me Bambi, Kimya Dawson Apr 11, Crocodile, 6 pm, 21+

Bushwick Book Club: Music Inspired by William Goldman’s The Princess Bride Apr 11, Hugo House, 7:30 pm, all ages Weedeater, Conan, Telekinetic Apr 12, Crocodile, 7 pm, 21+ Ari Lennox Apr 12, WAMU Theater, 8 pm, all ages PinkPantheress Apr 14, WAMU Theater, 8 pm, all ages

Zookraught’s Two-Night Album Release

BRITTNE LUNNISS

MAY 1–2

SEATTLE EROTIC ART FESTIVAL 2026

SPRINGO BREAK 2026

5/1 - 5/3 | SEATTLE CENTER EXHIBITION HALL SEATTLE, WA

5/2 | BALLARD ODD FELLOWS HALL SEATTLE, WA

FAT BOTTOM PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS THE MILF BRUNCH

CHINOOK FEST

5/3 | OBEC BREWERY SEATTLE, WA

6/18 - 6/21 | JIM SPRICK COMMUNITY PARK NACHES, WA

HAVE AN EVENT? CONTACT US!

(888)377-4510 • SUPPORT@BOLDTYPETICKETS.COM

Zookraught are meeting the moment. Reading the room.

Picking up what we’re putting down. Stephanie Jones, Sami Frederick, and Baylee Harper are breathing in our collective rage and spitting it back at us in pulsating, raucous post-punk songs that provide an empowering soundtrack for anyone needing to dance on the bones of their enemies until they’ve turned to dust. Their new single, “Fly Fly,” throbs with a confident swagger that’s reminiscent of Black Eyes and Q and Not U, two bands who reached their artistic peaks during George W. Bush’s presidency. And as much as I’m looking forward to getting my hands on Zookraught’s new album, Pressure (out April 17), I’m even more excited about their twonight album release. Because those two nights at the Sunset won’t just be about releasing a record, it will be an opportunity for us to release our demons, too. On Friday, May 1, they play with Help, Ogre, and Miscomings; Saturday’s festivities feature Black Ends, LOOLOWNINGEN, and All of Our Cornbread.

(Sunset Tavern, 9 pm, 21+) MEGAN SELING

APRIL 2026

Throwing Muses Apr 15, Crocodile, 8 pm, 21+ AFI, Choir Boy Apr 15, Showbox SoDo, 8 pm, all ages An Evening With Maya Hawke Apr 16, Triple Door, 7:30 pm, all ages

Joost Klein

Apr 21, Showbox SoDo

Babes in Canyon, Small Paul, Juliet Daniel Apr 17, Hidden Hall, 7 pm, 21+ Gus Baldwin & the Sketch, Abby Jeanne & the Shadowband, Chico Detour Apr 17, Clock-Out Lounge, 8:30 pm, 21+ Midpak, Bendre the Giant, SuperMother Apr 17, Add-a-Ball, 9 pm, 21+ Tsunami Bomb, Crimewave 66, Berzerk, the Scoffs, Fleamale Apr 18, El Corazón, 7:30 pm, all ages Record Store Day Apr 18, various locations, times vary Summer Cannibals, Divers, Lemon Boy Apr 18, Sunset Tavern, 9 pm, 21+ Art Brut Apr 19, Sunset Tavern, 8 pm, 21+ Joost Klein Apr 21, Showbox SoDo, 8 pm, all ages

RUUD JANSSEN

Teen Suicide, Cloud Nothings, Anthers May 8, Crocodile, 6 pm, all ages

STEBMO, THC.XLR Apr 22, Royal Room, 8 pm, all ages until 10 pm

Just Mustard, Miss Grit May 8, Tractor Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+

Die Spitz Apr 22, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Florence + the Machine May 12, Climate Pledge Arena, 7:30 pm, all ages

Wednesday, Gouge Away Apr 23, Moore Theatre, 8 pm, all ages Damien Jurado, St. Yuma, Ray Wolff Apr 24, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+ Dead Bars, M.O.S.S., Benzo, Bad Optics Apr 25, Baba Yaga, 8 pm, 21+ Dolour, Subways on the Sun, NOONMOON Apr 25, Sunset Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+ Alice Phoebe Lou, John Andrews & the Yawns Apr 28, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages Listening Session: Perfume Genius’ Set My Heart on Fire Immediately Apr 29, Shibuya Hi-Fi, 8 pm, 21+ Queens of the Stone Age, Libby Grace Apr 29, Paramount Theatre, 7:30 pm, all ages Xian Conducts Mozart Apr 30–May 3, Benaroya Hall, times vary, all ages Blvck Hippie, Candy Cigarettes Apr 30, Funhouse, 8 pm, all ages Ghost Fetish, Pansy, Stargazr Apr 30, Baba Yaga, 8 pm, 21+ Adam Noble Bass Memorial Show: Great Falls, Filth Is Eternal, Githyanki, Nosretep, Paralysis Expletive May 2, Clock-Out Lounge, 5 pm, 21+ Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman May 3, Paramount Theatre, 7:30 pm, all ages

Early Warning

Rick Ross with the Seattle Symphony May 6, Benaroya Hall, 7:30 pm, all ages Northwest Terror Fest VIII May 7–9, Neumos and Barboza, 21+ Snail Mail, Sharp Pins, Armlock May 8, Moore Theatre, 7:30 pm, all ages The New Pornographers, Will Sheff May 8, Showbox, 8 pm, 21+

Echo & the Bunnymen May 12, Showbox SoDo, 8 pm, 21+ Joyce Manor, Militarie Gun, Teen Mortgage, Combat May 12, Showbox, 8:30 pm, all ages Alex G May 13–14, Showbox, 8 pm, all ages Telehealth, Coral Grief, Buddy Wynkoop May 14, Neumos, 7 pm, 21+ The Music of Jane Austen with the Seattle Symphony May 15, Benaroya Hall, 8 pm, all ages Tripping Daisy, Jumprope May 15, Crocodile, 6 pm, 21+ Scott Yoder, Alicia Amiri, Chris Costolupes May 22, Add-a-Ball, 8 pm, 21+ The Last Dinner Party May 22–23, Showbox SoDo, 8 pm, all ages Supersuckers, Scott H. Biram May 31, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+ Jeff Rosenstock, Star 99 June 4–5, Neumos, 8 pm, all ages Bob Dylan June 6–7, Chateau Ste. Michelle, 6:30 pm, all ages Hunx and His Punx, Slippers June 10, Clock-Out Lounge, 8:30 pm, 21+ Beverly Crusher, Cosmic Kitten, Killbuzz June 13, Add-a-Ball, 8 pm, 21+ Belle and Sebastian, Quasi June 14, Woodland Park Zoo, 4:30 pm Blitzen Trapper Jun 5–6, Tractor Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+ Jimmy Eat World, Motion City Soundtrack, Illuminati Hotties Jul 18, WAMU Theater, 7 pm, all ages Capitol Hill Block Party Aug 7–9, Capitol Hill Iron & Wine, Ken Pomeroy Oct 13, 5th Avenue Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Devin the Dude Apr 17, Nectar Lounge

MARCUS INGRAM/GETTY IMAGES

49

50 THE STRANGER

VISUAL ART

hand-carved from ash are tall as humans. Above the gallery, Dirkse’s design company has built out an experimental space that blurs the line between art installation and interior design, where they will host events with a variety of creatives, from ceramicists and painters to independent furniture makers.

(Dirkse/Prim Gallery) AMANDA MANITACH

Joe Rudko: Meditations in an Emergency

More

THROUGH APR 25 Joe Rudko—best known for his meticulous, hand-cut photo collage pieces that starburst, splay, and weave—has turned to a medium that seemingly could not be farther from those X-Acto-made bouquets.

In his new solo at Winston Wächter, oil pastel takes the stage. It’s thick and primal and emotional: color studies caked on paper, a riot of cream and smear aching to articulate through the shattered language of lines. That shattering creates patterns at times reminiscent of past work, but it doesn’t fully bridge the two—and that’s okay, because the break feels febrile and fresh. When rearranged and pieced back together, the broken fragments form cryptic half-hieroglyphs full of longing, perhaps only fully legible to the artist, but potent enough to seep like low-grade fever to the viewer. (Winston Wächter Fine Art) AMANDA

Norman Lundin: Landscapes, Mostly, Other Things Too Apr 2–May 16, Greg Kucera Gallery Donald Cole: Troughlines Apr 2–May 23 with artist open house Apr 18, ArtX Contemporary In Practice: Work by PCNW Faculty Apr 2–June 7, Photographic Center Northwest June T Sanders: Prairie Psalm Apr 2–May 2 with opening reception Apr 2, Solas Gallery, Preston Singletary Apr 4–25, Traver Gallery Ad-Lib Apr 4–May 17 with opening reception Apr 4, AMcE Scott Musgrove: Useless Animals, and Kris Kuksi: New Works Apr 10–May 2, Roq la Rue Modern American Masculinity Apr 10–June 12, Base Camp Studios 2

MANITACH

Best of the Northwest Spring Art Show 2026 Apr 11–12, Hangar 30 at Magnuson Park, times vary

Moomins’ Sea Adventures & Tove and the Sea

Monsen Photography Lecture: Deana Lawson Apr 23, Henry Art Gallery, 6 pm The 2026 Seattle Erotic Art Festival May 1–3, Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, times vary

THROUGH SEPT 6 I’ve long dreamt of visiting Finland to visit the Moomin Museum in Tampere, but in a wild twist of events, selected exhibitions from the museum will travel across the Atlantic for the first time to Ballard’s National Nordic Museum. Taking inspiration from her life beside her partner, artist Tuulikki Pietilä, on a small Finnish island, Tove Jansson created entire worlds in tiny packages, from charming comic strips to pocket-sized novels, often surrounding the whimsical world of Moominvalley. If you are unfamiliar with the Moomin trolls—I don’t know what to tell you—they are a family of hippo-shaped creatures that go on adventures and get into mischief with their friends Little My, Sniff, Snufkin, Snorkmaiden, and more. Since they were introduced by Jansson in 1945, the Moomins have been adapted into numerous television series, video games, and theme parks. Designed for visitors of all ages, this exhibit will showcase original Moomin illustrations, an interactive island, and a brand-new photo exhibition of Jansson and Pietilä’s life together.

This exhibit is a must for anyone obsessed with cute little guys, queer history, and Nordic magic. (National Nordic Museum, times vary) AUDREY VANN

You’ve Had It in You All Along APR 1–JUNE 7 Last month, Avery Barnes announced the evolution of the gallery formerly known as TASWIRA, now rebranded as the eponymous Avery Barnes Gallery.

Barnes has proven a force in the arts since launching her first brick-and-mortar gallery in Seattle at the tender age of 22. In the ensuing years, she has showcased work by an outstanding roster of artists.

The first group show to celebrate the rebrand is no exception, with a selection of the city’s crème de la crème: work by Barbara Earl Thomas, Tariqa Waters, Cristina Martinez, Robert Wade, Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes, and Nahom Ghirmay, each of whom explores themes of “resiliency and truth found within the feminine.” (Avery Barnes Gallery, times vary) AMANDA MANITACH

Brandon Bye with Lisa van Dam-Bates and Nate Gowdy APR 16 We must first wonder at the fact that it has taken so long for a book of this kind, a book about Seattle’s graffiti culture, to make an appearance and some waves.

But as the old saying goes, better late than never.

Brandon Bye’s More Paint contains photographs of

Ongoing

Indira Allegra: The Book of Zero Through Apr 4, Jacob Lawrence Gallery, free Santos Shelton: Vida Futura Through Apr 5, Gallery Ergo Boren Banner Series: Camille Trautman Through Apr 12, Frye Art Museum, free Service/Symbiosis Through Apr 18, Actualize AiR and SOIL COURTESY OF FRESH MOCHI ART

Moga

Anila Quayyum Agha: Geometry of Light Through Apr 19, Seattle Asian Art Museum

APR 18

Fresh Mochi is an IYKYK DIY space on Beacon Hill that you absolutely should know, as it boasts some of the best underthe-radar exhibitions, as well as magnificent karaoke afterparties—should you be cool enough to befriend Elizabeth Jameson, the artist and curator behind the space. Moga—a 1920s Japanese portmanteau for modan gāru, or “modern girl”—is the name of the spring exhibit, which showcases work by six celebrated artists of Japanese and Japanese American descent, including Jameson, Patti Warashina, Catherine Cross Uehara, Hanako O’Leary, and Sakura Davis. Each artist puts their spin on the iconoclast moga who bucked traditional Japanese social norms by embracing Westernized fashion and lifestyle. (Fresh Mochi, 5–8 pm, all ages) AMANDA MANITACH tags and throw-ups taken by Bye between 2023 and 2025, the years when Seattle’s former mayor, Bruce Harrell, was in the middle of his doomed war against one of the defining urban activities: graffiti. Bye’s images also capture a city that’s rapidly expanding. In the space of two years, Seattle added nearly 36,000 new residents and now has an estimated population of 816,000. Graffiti, however, is not an indication of increasing economic stress (which is truly the case for homelessness), but of the refusal to surrender urban spaces to the logic and determination of those who own and accumulate capital. (Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free) CHARLES MUDEDE

Priscilla Dobler Dzul: Water Carries the Stories of Our Stars Through Apr 19, Frye Art Museum, free

While the Garden Overgrew: Mya Kerner & Zak Helenske APR 17–MAY 31 Welcome new kid on the (Madrona) block! Founded by designer Michelle Dirkse and artist Jeremy Prim, Dirkse/Prim Gallery is gearing up for a year-round program of solo and two-person exhibitions rooted in painting and centered on abstract and processdriven practices informed by the natural world.

The inaugural exhibition aims high with the pairing of abstract-landscape painter Mya Kerner and Zak Helenske, whose statuesque, oversized flowers

Joe Rudko: Meditations in an Emergency Through Apr 25, Winston Wächter Fine Art Everything, Everywhere, All at Once Through Apr 25, Foster/White Gallery Knock on Wood Through Apr 25, CoCA Figure/Ground: New Criteria Through Apr 26, Henry Art Museum Lauren Boilini: The Good Death and Eva Funderburgh: Herd Through Apr 29 with opening reception Apr 2, J. Rinehart Gallery Any Body: An Exploration of the Body in Abstract and Figurative Art Through May 2, Magnuson Park Gallery Holland Cunningham: Fleeting Through May 2, Spectrum Fine Art, free Project NW: Ralph Pugay Through May 17, Tacoma Art Museum Wallflowers Through May 17, Frye Art Museum Haunted Through June 7, Tacoma Art Museum Aimee Lee: Tethered Through June 14, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art Crafting Futures: Emerging Artists Invitational Through June 13, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art TADAIMA: I’m Home Through July 12, Museum of History & Industry Beyond Mysticism: The Modern Northwest Through Aug 2, Seattle Art Museum Woven in Wool: Resilience in Coast Salish Weaving Through Aug 30, Burke Museum Chloë Bass: Soft Services Through Aug 2026, Volunteer Park Let There Be Light Through Sept 30, Cannonball Arts Samantha Yun Wall: What We Leave Behind Through Oct 4, Seattle Art Museum

Jonathan Lasker: Drawings and Studies Through Oct 11, Frye Art Museum, free Eric-Paul Riege: ojo|-|ól Through Oct 25, Henry Art Museum A Room for Animal Intelligence Through Jan 2027, Seattle Art Museum Ten Thousand Things Through spring 2027, Wing Luke Museum Pioneer Square Art Walk Every first Thursday Capitol Hill Art Walk Every second Thursday Georgetown Art Attack! Every second Saturday Chris Kallmyer: Song Cycle Ongoing, Seattle Art Museum Gossip: Between Us Ongoing, Tacoma Art Museum Legacy: Highlights from the Permanent Collection Ongoing, Tacoma Art Museum Qiu Zhijie: Map of the History of Science and Technology Ongoing, Olympic Sculpture Park, free Ash-Glazed Ceramics from Korea and Japan Ongoing, Seattle Art Museum

LITERATURE Nonfiction for No Reason APR 5 Nonfiction for No Reason is back, baby. After an almost year-long hiatus, this local reading series is opening up their season at the ANTiPODE Art Gallery.

Founded and curated by Stranger contributor Katie Lee Ellison, NFNR is a rare place to connect to the local literary scene, and hear “writers you love, and the ones you will soon.” This month, you can see Seattle poet laureate Dujie Tahat, experimental poet Sullivan Forderhase, speculative fiction writer Naomi Day, public historian Tamiko Nimura, and essayist Aileen McGraw. It’s a comeback worth catching.

(ANTiPODE, 7 pm, all ages) HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

George Saunders

ZACH KRAHMER

APR 7

IMHO, George Saunders is one of the greatest short story writers alive today. His work is often a blend of a disconcerting fabulism and satire that is as sharp as it is subtle. Stories move through shifting perspectives and fractured points of view; common themes include consumerism, morality, and the struggles of ordinary people within absurd or dystopian settings. You can’t go wrong with any of his collections—start with Tenth of December, Pastoralia, and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, in that order.

His more recent novels, Lincoln in the Bardo and this year’s Vigil, don’t stick in my mind in quite the same way as his shorter works do, but Saunders is still one of the most distinct and empathetic voices of his generation. Plus, he seems like one of those large-aura types who’d make you feel better just by being in the same room. (Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm, all ages) EMILY NOKES

APRIL 2026

51

52 THE STRANGER

Seattle, it’s time for a thaw.

Get all the info on all Seattle events.

APRIL 2026

Lore and Luster Romance and Fantasy Con

teens Ellie and Rachel, who are determined to spread the gospel of Avril by putting on the best damn pop-punk jukebox musical this town has ever seen.

The whimsical company Dacha Theatre will host its West Coast premiere, directed by Kate Drummond.

(Dacha Theatre, times vary) JULIANNE BELL

APR 18–19 The world is a flaming trash heap right now, so it’s not surprising that more and more people are turning to

Cameron Esposito

the escapist comforts of romance, fantasy, and the rapidly rising hybrid “romantasy.” This Tacoma event

APR 10

gives readers a chance to live out their fae dreams and

Chances are, you first learned about Cameron Esposito from their 2010s TV show, Take My Wife, with their then-spouse River Butcher. Or perhaps from their podcast, Queery. Or one of my personal favorites, her early stand-up talking about her queercoded “side-mullet.” But a lot has happened in the last decade. They got divorced, got remarried, found out they had bipolar disorder, got treatment, played Greta Strobe in A Million Little Things, went through pregnancy, and became a parent. As a comedian, they don’t shy away from any of the complexity of those 10 years, and it makes their standup feel richly human.

If you haven’t caught them live yet, now’s the time.

(Crocodile, 5:30 pm, 21+) HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

meet like-minded fans, featuring over 80 authors and vendors, plus signings, panels, and workshops. There’s also a cosplay contest with prizes and a Romantasy Ball, so it’s a perfect excuse to wear the flounciest ball gown you can find. (The Tacoma Armory, times vary) JULIANNE BELL

Marcus Kliewer with Sadie Hartmann APR 24 Last fall, I binge-read Marcus Kliewer’s debut horror novel We Used to Live Here, which follows a queer

The Orca Show

woman who is fixing up a strange, remote house with her girlfriend and encounters some eerily persistent

APR 16–19

guests who refuse to leave. Even the novel’s origin story is irresistible: Kliewer began writing it in installments on Reddit’s r/nosleep, and it sold film rights to Netflix and was acquired for publication before the novel was even completed. Now, Kliewer is back with his highly anticipated follow-up, The Caretaker, a gothic tale about a young woman who accepts a mysterious three-day caretaking gig from

Rory Scovel

Craigslist to make extra cash and ends up having to

APR 10

perform strange rites in order to save all of humanity.

Rory Scovel’s a middle-aged cis-het white comedian/actor who lives in LA, and, yes, we’ll never have a shortage of those. But this one might be the best. The 45-year-old South Carolina–born comic uses his normcore looks to slyly slip subversive absurdity and absurd subversiveness into his stand-up. His strong material about the most profound and mundane subjects is exponentially boosted by his thespian verve for performing in various characters; training in improv has lent his act a mercurial quality, with a high risk quotient that almost always pays off. Scovel’s commitment to his unconventional bits is serious. For instance, he once did a whole set while standing on an audience member’s seat armrests. Adding to the laugh factor are his hilarious send-ups of stand-up’s tired tropes and meta-commentaries on his act in progress—kind of like Todd Barry, but with the volume turned way up. And if anyone’s told a better road-head joke, I’ve not heard it. (Neptune Theatre, 7 and 9:45 pm, all ages) DAVE SEGAL

No big deal! Kliewer will discuss the book with Sadie Hartmann, aka Mother Horror, at this talk cosponsored by the Horror Writers Association. (Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free) JULIANNE BELL

Melissa Auf der Maur APR 24 In her debut memoir, Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A ’90s Rock Memoir, bassist Melissa Auf der Maur chronicles her life in and out of the spotlight, from taking tickets at local venues to playing giant shows with her bands, Hole and the Smashing Pumpkins.

(Auf der Maur first joined Hole in 1994 for their Live Through This World Tour, just months after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and former Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff.)

Approaching her memories with rare but necessary nuance, Auf der Maur writes about Courtney Love in a way I wish everyone would—as an artistic genius, complicated person, and American icon. She will stop by Seattle to promote the new book, which she describes as “part coming-of-age autobiography, part travel diary, part psychedelic scrapbook.” (The Wyncote NW Forum, 7:30 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

More

Ashley McGirt with Marcus Harrison Green Apr 1, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free Teenage Dream by Logan Rylie Release Party Apr 3, Beguiled Books, 6:30 pm Minh Nguyen with Charles Mudede Apr 5, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free V.E. Schwab and Cat Clarke with Moira Macdonald Apr 6, Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm Lily Brooks-Dalton Apr 6, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free The Gravewood by Kelly Andrew Release Party Apr 7, Beguiled Books, 6:30–8:30 pm One Book, One Coast: Frank Abe Apr 8, Seattle Central Library, 7 pm, free Moira Macdonald with Thomas Kohnstamm Apr 8, Third Place Books Ravenna, 7 pm Silent Reading Party (Over Dinner) Apr 8, Hotel Sorrento, 6:30–8:30 pm, 21+ Emma Straub Apr 9, Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm

53

Gabor Maté Apr 13, McCaw Hall, 7:30 pm Rainbow Rowell: Cherry Baby Apr 13, Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm Salon of Shame Apr 14, Theatre Off Jackson, 8 pm Maria Semple with Ken Jennings Apr 18, Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm Lore and Luster: PNW Romance and Fantasy Con Apr 18–19, Tacoma Armory, times vary Patrick Radden Keefe Apr 22, Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm Lori Matsukawa with Mimi Gan Apr 23, Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm Molly Olguin Apr 23, Seattle Central Library, 6:30 pm, free David Szalay Apr 27, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free Silent Reading Party (Over Dinner) Apr 29, Hotel Sorrento, 6:30–8:30 pm, 21+

PERFORMANCE The Best Damn Thing THROUGH APR 18 My introduction to Avril Lavigne was when my friend received a CD copy of Avril’s seminal 2002 album Let Go at her 12th birthday party. It was the turning of a tide in my angsty tween years, this arrival of a bold new Canadian musician who piled on the dark, smudgy eyeliner and thumbed her nose at the pop industry. I began poring over her interviews in YM magazine and raiding my dad’s closet for neckties.

Hanna Kime and Sara Geist’s new meta-musical, The Best Damn Thing, aims to capture this spirit of youthful rebellion, telling the story of gay Midwestern

The premise of The Orca Show caught my eye, but not for good reasons. “A perimenopausal comedy cabaret with killer whales,” read the promotional poster.

My eyes rolled. My blood curdled. As with many women in their mid-40s, my social media algorithm has devolved into an endless stream of lymphatic drainage tips and bad comedy by women making perimenopause their entire personality. (Despite my best efforts to only like, share, and interact with brain-massaging pressurewashing videos and dog memes! What gives?!) That said, it sounds like The Orca Show may be a salve to my overinundated, aging brain. It’s written and performed by Aysan Celik, who is a member of Obie Award-winning companies, co-created and directed by KJ Sanchez, and recommended for fans of “Fleabag, Everything Everywhere All at Once, My Octopus Teacher, and Hannah Gadsby.” Consider my curiosity sufficiently piqued. Besides, what’s there to lose other than $37 for a ticket and a night of doomscrolling through an algorithm that doesn’t understand me anyway? But if there’s one single mention of the “health benefits” of a vibration plate, I’m leaving.(Erickson Theatre, times vary, 21+) MEGAN SELING

More

Heather Kravas: RoCoCoCoCo Through Apr 4, 12th Avenue Arts, times vary, all ages Mother Nature: The Farewell Tour Through Apr 5, Erickson Theatre, times vary, 21+ Moisture Festival 2026 Through Apr 12, Broadway Performance Hall, times vary Hurricane Diane Through Apr 12, Seattle Public Theater, times vary Mary Jane Through Apr 19, Leo K. Theater, times vary Ain’t Misbehavin’ Through Apr 25, Taproot Theatre, times vary, 16+ Gabriel Rutledge Apr 2–4, Emerald City Comedy Club, times vary, 21+ Springshot 2026: Bloom Apr 2–18, Seattle Open Arts Place, times vary Man of La Mancha Apr 3–18, Theatre Off Jackson, times vary Lashes Cabaret: Ladie Chablis, Londyn Bradshaw, Miss Texas 1988, Amora Namor, LüChi Apr 3 (every Friday), Unicorn, 7:30 pm, 21+, free The Stranger Presents: The 2026 Undisputable Champions of Comedy Apr 4, Washington Hall, 7:30 pm, 21+ Les Misérables Apr 7–19, Paramount Theatre, times vary Joketellers Union Apr 8, Clock-Out Lounge, 8 pm, 21+ Alyssa Edwards Apr 9, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, 18+ Hotel Gatsby Apr 9–12, Erickson Theatre, times vary, 21+

54 THE STRANGER

FILM

Ain’t Misbehavin’

Through Apr 25, Taproot Theatre

Gumby in 4K APR 1–5

ROBERT WADE

Walden Apr 9–May 3, ArtsWest, times vary

NW New Works 2026 June 4–6, On the Boards, 7 pm

Appropriate Apr 9–May 10, Bagley Wright Theater, times vary

Disappearance at the Rocky Mountain Leatherdyke Snowpicnic June 5–20, Annex Theatre, times vary

Pacific Northwest Ballet Presents: Giselle Apr 10–19, McCaw Hall, times vary, all ages

Frida... A Self-Portrait June 5–28, Union Arts Center, times vary

Jim Jefferies Apr 11, Moore Theatre, 7 pm, all ages

The Play That Goes Wrong June 11–28, Bagley Wright Theater, times vary

Steven Ho Apr 12, Neptune Theatre, 7 pm, ages 12+ recommended Tush with Pupusa, Dante Vanity, Pussy Willow, and Betty Wetter Apr 12, Clock-Out Lounge, 8 pm, 21+

Leslie Jones July 10–12 Emerald City Comedy Club, times vary, 21+

Gumby, the son of Gumbo and Gumba, is a little green guy obsessed with milkshakes and ice cream, which he begrudgingly orders with “no ice” or else it will freeze him solid. Luckily, he has his trusty sidekick, Pokey, and his emergency Gumbometer in times of crisis (like when an evil blockhead slips a frosty ice cream cone into his shake). This, people, is what I love about old children’s television shows—it’s all silliness with no moral messaging. It’s mildly psychedelic.

It’s painstakingly handmade. The soundtracks are examples of early electronic music. If you’ve never had the delight of watching the original 1950s Gumby shorts, run, don’t walk to catch this 4K restoration.

(Northwest Film Forum, times vary) AUDREY VANN

Truth to Fiction: Suburban Fury APR 2 “There comes a point where the only way to make a statement is to pick up a gun,” says Sara Jane Moore, the woman who attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in San Francisco in 1975.

Leche: Hosted by Queen Andrew Scott Apr 15 (every third Wednesday), Unicorn, 7 pm, 21+ Meow Meow Apr 15–16, Triple Door, 7:30 pm, all ages As Many Weirdos as Possible with John Roderick, Sheryl Wiser, Steve Manning, Susan Silver, Dejha Colantuono, and more Apr 17, Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm, all ages

Jet City Improv at ArtsWest: An Improvised Musical Apr 19, ArtsWest, 7:30 pm

A Dirty Shame Apr 3 and Apr 7, Beacon Cinema, times vary

Ben Schwartz & Friends Apr 25, Paramount Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Sister Act Apr 3–8, Central Cinema, times vary Palestine 36 Apr 3–9, Beacon Cinema, times vary

To the Root: A Solo Show Apr 25, Kerry Hall, 7 pm

Roman Holiday Apr 5–6, Beacon Cinema, times vary

Dina Martina: Mature Plantings Apr 29–May 3, Triple Door, times vary (See preview, pg. 37)

Feat: Velocity Bash 2026 May 6, Washington Hall, 6 pm Fauxnique: How Do I Look? May 7–9, On the Boards, 8 pm Barefoot in the Park May 13–June 20, Taproot Theatre, times vary Aviatrix May 15–June 7, Seattle Public Theater, times vary Corey O’Brien May 18, Emerald City Comedy Club, 7:30 pm, 21+ The Insidious Trilogy May 20–24, On the Boards, times vary Pacific Northwest Ballet Presents: All Lang May 29–June 7, McCaw Hall, times vary My Straight Friends May 27, Emerald City Comedy Club, 7:30 pm, 21+

Agnès Varda’s landmark 1962 French New Wave classic Cléo from 5 to 7 follows the French pop singer Florence, who goes by the stage name “Cléo,” on a day where she is anxiously awaiting the results of a biopsy for possible stomach cancer. The blackand-white film chronicles Cléo’s evening in real time from 5 to 6:30 pm on June 21, so the viewer feels her existential dread like a ticking clock as she shops for hats and wanders through Paris. This movie has comforted me through melancholy moods and health scares, and Cléo’s dreamy apartment, which features a swing, a canopy bed, and an assortment of wriggling kittens, lives in my mind rent-free. Join SIFF Cinema Club for a screening, then head to the nearby bar and lounge the Traveling Goat to discuss the film’s themes of death, loneliness, and femininity. (SIFF Uptown, 6:30 pm) JULIANNE BELL

The Room and Big Shark Hosted by Greg Sestero Apr 2, Central Cinema, 8 pm

Jonathan Van Ness Apr 24, Moore Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Neil deGrasse Tyson May 5–6, Paramount Theatre, 7:30 pm, all ages

Apr 6

Divine Hammer Apr 2, Beacon Cinema, 4:30 pm

Mae Martin Apr 23, Neptune Theatre, 7 and 9:45 pm, all ages

Early Warnings

Cléo from 5 to 7

Emma Mae Apr 1, Beacon Cinema, 4:30 pm

Margaret Cho Apr 19, Moore Theatre, 7 pm, all ages

Jesus Christ Superstar May 2–17, 5th Avenue Theatre, times vary

Suburban Fury is directed by Robinson Devor, the same guy who brought us Zoo, with a little help from The Stranger’s own Charles Mudede. Devor gains historic access to Moore, who sheds light in an unpolished, often unreliable interview on how she went from a conservative suburban housewife to an FBI informant on radical political groups to an almost assassin. Suburban Fury tells Moore’s story at the same time it paints a picture of a decade of radical politics, braiding in footage of the Black Panthers, the Gay Liberation movement, the Attica Prison Rebellion, the United Farm Workers movement, and Patty Hearst’s kidnapping. Moore becomes convinced that killing Ford will expose the machinations of a government not for the people and inspire a revolution.

While it centers on the 1970s, the political moment it captures doesn’t feel far off in 2026. (Northwest Film Forum, 7 pm) NATHALIE GRAHAM

No One Gets Laid Until We Finish Our Movie: Late Era John Waters Through Apr 7, Beacon Cinema, times vary

The Aves Apr 18–May 3, Union Arts Center, times vary

Seattle Opera: Carmen May 2–17, McCaw Hall, times vary

55

More

Zarna Garg Apr 18, Neptune Theatre, 4 and 7 pm, all ages

Orlando: A Literary Burlesque May 1–9, Theatre Off Jackson, times vary

APRIL 2026

Casino: 30th Anniversary Apr 8, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 7:30 pm

The Children’s Hour APR 19–20

Based on the 1934 play of the same name by Lillian Hellman, this 1961 film directed by William Wyler follows two former college classmates, Karen (Audrey Hepburn) and Martha (Shirley MacLaine), who open a private boarding school for girls. When one of their students misconstrues an overheard conversation, a pernicious rumor begins to spread that the two women are lesbian lovers, leading to devastating consequences. Though the film appears on its surface to be a straightforward critique of gossip—MacLaine said in the 1996 documentary The Celluloid Closet that she and Hepburn never discussed their characters’ sexuality—it also serves as a prescient exploration of moral panic and homophobia that’s (unfortunately) still relevant today. Prepare to sob and to feel more hatred for a child than you ever thought possible.

(Beacon Cinema, times vary) JULIANNE BELL

Freaked Apr 9, Central Cinema, 8 pm FIN de FEST Apr 9–11, Egyptian Theatre, times vary (see preview pg. 41) Seattle Deaf Film Festival Apr 10–12, Northwest Film Festival, times vary Best in Show Apr 10–15, Central Cinema, times vary On Cinema Live Apr 11, Neptune Theatre, 4 and 8 pm, all ages Seattle Scare Society: Get Out Apr 12, Central Cinema, 7 pm Collide-O-Scope Apr 13 (second Mondays), Clock-Out Lounge, 7 pm, 21+ Social Justice Film Festival Apr 16–19, Pacific Tower, times vary Cadence Video Poetry Festival Apr 17–19, Northwest Film Festival, times vary Seattle Taiwanese Eco Film Festival Apr 18, SIFF Film Center, times vary Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival Apr 18–19, SIFF Cinema Uptown, times vary HUMP! Film Festival: Spring Lineup Apr 23 and 30, Lumber Yard Bar, 7:30 pm Steal This Story, Please! Opens Apr 24, SIFF Cinema Uptown, times vary Staff Selects: Nocturama Apr 24–26, Northwest Film Forum, times vary

56 THE STRANGER

APRIL 2026

Mourning Sickness: Heathers Apr 25, Northwest Film Forum, 8 pm

I’ll be there in a heartbeat. That’s exactly what this Mariners event promises: Knitters, crocheters, embroiderers, and stitchers of all stripes are invited to come make some progress on their WIPs (works in progress) while cheering for Big Dumper et al. Better yet, there will be a small fiber vendor fair on the rooftop boardwalk, so you can browse and buy more yarn you definitely don’t need, and ticket holders will receive a kit with everything you need to make your very own tiny Mariners Moose. I am normally indifferent to the Ms mascot, but I feel intensely maternal toward his cute little crocheted likeness. (T-Mobile Park, 1:10 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

Community Screening: Meet Me in St. Louis Apr 26, SIFF Cinema Downtown, 11 am Silent Movie Mondays: Faust Apr 27, Paramount Theatre, 7 pm, all ages Cadence Video Poetry Screening: ceaseless, of the earth Apr 30, Frye Art Museum, 6 pm

FOOD & DRINK

Spring Plant Sale

Plate of Nations

APR 26

THROUGH APR 12 More than 50 restaurants are participating in this year’s Plate of Nations, where, for three weeks, South Seattle restaurants offer specials for about $20 to $40 that are big enough to share. At Alem in Columbia City, you can snag their special platter (loaded with doro wot and lamb tibs) and enough injera, shiro, and salad for two for a very reasonable $30. At Bang Bang Kitchen, $35 will get you chips and queso, chicken wings or fried brussels sprouts, two enchiladas, two tacos, and a side of both rice and beans. Other participants include Fonda La Catrina (chicken enchiladas with mole, flan, and margaritas!), Maa Kiin (khao soi!), and Spice Waala (chicken or veggie thali, corn chaat, and aloo methi all for $20!). And because everything is more fun when turned into a competition, download a Plate of Nations passport and collect stamps from every eatery you visit through April 12. If you get five, seven, or 10 stamps, you can enter to win prizes! Who doesn’t love prizes? (Various locations) MEGAN SELING

JUNE CANEDO

Author Talk: Ifrah F. Ahmed, Soomaaliya APR 13

Somali-born chef, writer, recipe developer, and artist Ifrah F. Ahmed came to Seattle as a child in 1996. She and her family quickly became enmeshed in the local Somali community, and food was one of the biggest ways they connected to their culture. Today, Ahmed works to preserve these traditions and pass them on to future generations via her writing and her pop-up MILK & MYRRH, which has sold out in Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York. In her debut cookbook, Soomaaliya: Food, Memory, and Migration, she highlights Somali chefs, restaurateurs, herders, agricultural workers, and entrepreneurs from all over the world, accompanied by gorgeous photography and recipes for staples like xawaash (a spice blend) and bur (sweet fried beignets). Ahmed will discuss the book with local author and former Stranger writer Angela Garbes. (Book Larder, 6:30 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL Give the man a pastry Pulitzer already! (Book Larder, 6:30 pm, all ages) MEGAN SELING

More

Author Talk + Demo: Edd Kimber APR 8 How lucky are we that Great British Bake Off alum Edd Kimber is coming to the US on tour for his new cookbook, Chocolate Baking, and of the nine stops in the country, two of them are right here in Seattle.

His April 11 event with the Seattle Baking Club, where everyone picks a recipe from the book to make and share with fellow participants, has long been sold out (I should know—I’ve been on the waiting list for weeks), but, as of press time, there were still tickets for his April 8 author talk and baking demonstration at Book Larder. There, he will no doubt be a fountain of culinary knowledge, worth the price of admission ($49, which includes a signed copy of the book). This is the man who has taught us the importance of roasting vanilla bean pods, developed a recipe for one perfect emergency cookie using only one tablespoon of butter, and invented cheese skirt scones, aka scones baked on a pile of shredded cheese that melts and crisps up in the oven, resulting in a golden ring of crunchy perfection.

57

THIS & THAT

Spring Afternoon Tea Apr 1–3, Cafe Flora, times vary, all ages

Pop Cats

Bread & Roses Pop-Up Apr 5 and 19, Raised Doughnuts & Cakes, 6 pm, all ages

APR 18–19

J. Kenji López-Alt and Tessa Lark present: Tasting Notes Apr 2, Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm Soup Club Apr 4, Book Larder, 11 am Fika Apr 8, Swedish Club, noon–2 pm, all ages My Dinner with SAM: Kevin Smith Apr 8, Seattle Art Museum, 6:30 pm Author Talk: Roxana Jullapat, Morning Baker Apr 12, Book Larder, 11 am Swedish Pancake Breakfast Apr 12, Swedish Club, 8 am–1 pm, all ages Seattle Restaurant Week Apr 12–May 2, various locations Seattle Chocolate Week Apr 17–26, various locations Make a Latte with Caffe Vita Apr 18, Caffe Vita at KEXP, 10–11:30 am, all ages Laminated Pastries Intensive Apr 23, Pastry Project, 3–7 pm, all ages Seattle Cocktail Week Carnival of Cocktails Apr 25, Pacific Place, noon–7 pm, 21+

Let’s face it, we live in a dog’s world. They are allowed in our parks, our stores, our restaurants, our gyms. They even have their own order at Starbucks.

This can be alienating if you are more feline-inclined.

What about the cats? There is a place for us, too. It is Pop Cats, the cat convention. There, you can revel in all things kitty. You can learn how to craft a wand toy, or cover yourself in temporary cat tattoos. You can dress up like a cat. You can even bring your cat.

If you don’t have a cat, you can adopt one at the con.

It’ll be a real who’s who of the Seattle cat world. And maybe you’ll even meet Mr. Right there. After all, Seattle and Portland have the highest percentage of single men with cats out of the most populous US cities. (Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, times vary, all ages) NATHALIE GRAHAM

The Washington Park Arboretum’s annual spring plant sale is your chance to make all your at-home arboretum dreams come true. There will be dozens of different varieties of bushes, flowers, and foliage available, including boxwoods, roses, native ferns, all kinds of edible plants, and flowering specimens like cyclamen and trout lily. If you get there early enough, you might be able to grab some young shrubs and trees propagated from the arboretum’s very own collections. Cool! And so you know how to best care for all your new friends, gardening experts will be offering demonstrations throughout the day, covering everything from how to sharpen pruning tools to building an edible mushroom growing kit. (Washington Park Arboretum, 10 am–2 pm, all ages, free)

More

Mariners 50: Community & Baseball Through Aug 19, MoPOP, times vary Skagit Valley Tulip Festival Apr 1–30, various locations in Skagit Valley, times vary, all ages Sakura-Con 2026 Apr 3–5, Seattle Convention Center, times vary, all ages Isaac Mizrahi Apr 9, Triple Door, 7:30 pm, all ages Seattle Cherry Blossom & Japanese Cultural Festival Apr 10–12, Seattle Center, times vary Edible Gardening: Pollinators, Pests, and Beneficial Insects Apr 12, Shoreline Tool Library, 10 am, all ages After Hours at the Seattle Aquarium Apr 16, Seattle Aquarium, 5:30–8:30 pm, 21+ Professional Portrait Day Apr 18, Charlie’s Queer Books, 1 pm, free Seattle Cherry Blossom Run Apr 18, Seward Park, 7:30 am, all ages Oddmall Emporium of the Weird Apr 18–19, Evergreen State Fairgrounds, times vary, free, all ages Top Pot Doughnut Dash 5K Apr 19, Green Lake Community Center, all ages Duwamish Longhouse Native Art Market Apr 25–26, Duwamish Longhouse & Cultural Center, 10 am–5 pm, all ages Uncovering Our Concrete Jungle: National Geographic Live Apr 26–28, Benaroya Hall, times vary, all ages Find all these listings and more on our sister site, EverOut Seattle! EverOut.com/Seattle

Mariners Stitch ’n’ Pitch APR 19 I’ll admit my main motivation in going to a baseball game is eating hot dogs, but throw in fiber arts and

Don’t peek! Puzzle on p. 59.

58 THE STRANGER

APRIL 2026

59

ALI FITZGERALD

ELEANOR KLOCK

DOWN

35. Wishful fantasy

44. “Well, when you ___ it that way ...”

1. Suffix with Oktober or snooze

36. Debtor’s letters

4. Droop, like a flower in the heat

48. Seattle ___ Society (horticultural organization established in 1913)

14. Nobel Peace Prize city

40. Shucked ears

5. Belief system suffix

41. “A long time ___ in a galaxy far, far away ...”

6. Peruvian pack animal

19. Far from verbose

58. Alkali and Western bumble, for two

20. “The Martian” actor Damon

59. Some British nobles

10. Knight’s protective gear

22. Based ___ true story

61. Mary Poppins or Mrs. Doubtfire

26. Ump’s call at T-Mobile Park 28. Fury

3. “Let’s see what you’ve got” 4. Was dressed in

8. Congregation leader

29. Cassette tapes’ successors

63. Short-lived opening in the Seattle clouds ... and a feature of 16-, 24-, 38-, and 50-Across 65. Whipped ___ (pie topping) 66. “Voila!”

31. Sworn promise

67. Consumed, like fish sandos from Local Tide

9. Swelled head 11. “The Matrix” actor Reeves 12. Four-door car 17. “¿Cómo ___ usted?”

21. “I didn’t need to know all that!”

46. “I’m cool with that” 47. “Later!”

49. Fly high 50. Pairs via Bluetooth 51. Wonder Woman’s headpiece 52. Word before circle or peace 53. Outperforms 54. Same old, same old 56. Fill with joy

24. Blacken on the grill

59. Online auction site

25. Home for an Anna’s hummingbird

60. Distort, as data

27. Enemy

64. Confidentiality contract, for short

34. Rotisserie rod

68. Boot camp boss, informally

38. Mid-June through August, for Seattle Public Schools

69. Defeat, as a dragon

30. Defective firecracker

70. Pokémon with a catlike appearance

33. Meat on a Hawaiian pizza

42. Creative spark

37. Explosive initials 39. ___-presenting (like some nonbinary people)

57. Yang’s counterpart

24. Annual upriver migration of certain Pacific fish

50. Glazed sweet roll, like one from Cinnamon Works in Pike Place Market

2. Animated Aussie dog with a sister named Bingo

7. Pitch-related, like many Asian languages

23. Up to now

45. Cry noisily

55. Sappho’s “___ to Aphrodite”

15. Concur 18. More than just irritated

43. Urban haze

1. Justice Dept. agency with the acronymic motto “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity”

16. Clark Kent’s alter ego

ACROSS

13. “A Nightmare on ___ Street”

Cloudy With a Chance of ... BY NATE CARDIN

8. High points of Rainier and Adams, for example

29. CBS forensic drama

62. Pester persistently

32. Sports bar screens Answers on p. 57

MAY 1–3, 2026 • SEATTLE CENTER

SEA TTLE E ROTI C A RT F ESTI V A L ART SALES • STAGE SHOWS • WORKSHOPS LIVE EXPERIENCES • DANCE PARTIES FILM SCREENINGS • AND MORE! TICKETS AND INFO AT SEAF.ART/TICKETS