Fill up at the Fierce Ladies Beer Festival, Thursday night at Optimism Brewing (Image: Fierce Ladies Beer Fest)
With Memorial Day and potentially some warmer spring days imminent, some might want to skip the last April days and showers straight to May. However, this week has great things in store including beers from “ladies,” fresh art talent at Cornish and some good old collective gardening — or, perhaps, some Tai Chi at Cal Anderson. On Saturday, Chophouse Row’s Good Weather Café is hosting a hands-on course for neophyte (city) cyclists. They will cover how to signal, navigate train and trolly tracks, starting and stopping on a hill, tube-patching and other musts for city riders.
After, riders could attempt to bike to all 21 Seattle-area bookstores, including Hill-based Ada’s Technical Books & Cafe and Elliott Bay Book Company, participating in Seattle Independent Bookstore Day. Participants who get their Independent Bookstore “passport” stamped at all 21 stores get a champion card worth 25% off at all participating stores for a year, folks who visit 3 get a day-off discount. Plan to make the last stop at Ada’s, where local authors/comedians/storytellers such as Sarah Galvin, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Emmett Montgomery and Sierra Nelson will take the mic.
(Also, last week, we erroneously posited that Bagel-buffs would get their last chance to get a taste of Matthew Segal’s kick-ass bagels — but that’s actually this weekend. Aren’t you glad you get another last chance?) Check out this week’s to-do list below, plus find more events on the CHS Calendar.
THURSDAY, April 25: Is the craft beer scene still very male-dominated? Absolutely! (According to a 2014 study by Stanford University, 4 percent of all ‘brewmasters’ are women.) Does waiting for equality mean we’ll also have to endure the continued deployment of the epithet “fierce” for everyone who’s not a Dude™? Probably! This Thursday, Optimism Brewing Company hosts the second Fierce Ladies Beer Fest, a craft-beer fest featuring women-brewed beers. The all-gender event will showcase beer by breweries such as Stoup, Georgetown, PicoBrew, and Optimism. Sales will benefit the Pink Boots Society, an organization that helps women advance their beer careers. Optimism Brewing Company, 6 PM
PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.
Thursday also brings the start of the 2019 Langston Hughes African American Film Festival as the Central District venue kicks off with a screening of “provocative short films by emerging talent.” The annual festival The festival features films and works about the Black experience from independent filmmakers. Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, through Sunday, April 28th
FRIDAY, April 26: At last year’s Cornish College of the Arts BFA exhibition, the art world became smitten with graduating artist Anthony White, who sold all of his paintings and sculptures in the show. White is an artist of exceptional talent, but the anecdote goes to show that the yearly spring BFA exhibit, for students in art, design, film and interior architecture is the perfect moment to get to know emerging talent. Rub shoulders with the art crowd during the opening reception or pop in through May 10 for quieter viewing. Cornish College of the Arts, 6 PM – 9 PM
(Image: Maggie Pate)
SATURDAY, April 27: Synthetic dyes work to significant effect, but can also be toxic. For small batches and DIY-ers, natural dyes are a great alternative. Natural dyeing was textile artist Maggie Pate life’s calling. She uses food waste as well as flowers to create color. During various workshops at Glasswing Greenhouse, Pate will show how to dye fibers with color extracted from fresh flowers, as well as a pounding technique of ‘printing’ flowers and petals into silk scarves. Glasswing Greenhouse, 11 AM – 2.30 PM and 4 PM – 6 PM
FRIDAY, April 26 – SATURDAY, April 27: Today’s a good day to celebrate new restaurant openings on the hill. Indian street food purveyor Spice Waala is ‘soft-launching’ “with some mouth-watering Indian street food and some surprises” on Friday and Saturday. On Saturday, Poke place Aloha Cup Bap memorializes the opening of its second Capitol Hill location with “buy one, get one 50% off” poke bowls all day. Various locations and times
SUNDAY, April 28: Earth Day was last week, which means that Earth Gay! is happening this week. Queer Youth org OUT There Adventures, in collaboration with Patagonia Seattle, Friends of Colman Park and the National Parks Conservation Association, is organizing a park clean-up and restoration day at the Mount Baker park.
More restoration efforts happen the same day during Volunteer Park Trust’s Spring Restoration Day. During the annual clean up event, everyone, including kids, can join the group in weeding, removing invasive plants, improving gravel paths, and mulching garden beds for a beautiful summer. Garden experience is not necessary, and gloves and tools will be provided. Colman Park and Volunteer Park, 10 AM
MONDAY, April 29 – TUESDAY, April 30: Nationally acclaimed comedian Hari Kondabolu was born in Queens and is based in Brooklyn, but is still somewhat tied to Seattle. Still an unknown comedy talent, Kondabolu was an immigrant rights organizer here for a couple of years (while he did stand-up at night). He shot his Netflix special, Warn Your Relatives, at the Neptune. Now, he returns to the city to test out new material during four shows at 18th & Union. As the invitation says: “Some jokes will be terrible. Some jokes will be slightly better. Enjoy the process…” 18th & Union, 7 PM & 9 PM
