Community Calendar

Sponsored by KNKX. Join award-winning NPR journalist Ari Shapiro for an evening of conversation about his memoir and tales from his storied broadcast career.

The beloved host of All Things Considered is known for his adventurous spirit and insatiable curiosity, which has served him well whether he’s traveling on Air Force One with President Obama, navigating war-torn countries, or following community leaders fighting for social justice. His new memoir, The Best Strangers In the World, details all of this and more in captivating essays and is a true love letter to journalism.

Dan Shapiro, an innovative entrepreneur, and five-time CEO has dedicated his career to helping people bring their ideas to life. With accomplishments spanning software, board game design, and laser technology, Dan’s pursuits are fueled by curiosity and inventive problem-solving.

There is also a livestream option for this event.

Presented by NWAA, KNKX, and The Stranger. After a more than five-year absence, America’s favorite storyteller returns to Seattle’s Benaroya Hall for Seven Things I’ve Learned: An Evening with Ira Glass. In this unique talk, the star of This American Life shares lessons from his life and career in storytelling. Using audio clips, music, and video, he shares his creative inspirations, the things that drive his passion, and how his many failures and successes have informed his decisions.

Did he not want to wait a bit longer so he could learn more and round it up to 10? “I feel like with 10, you feel the audience ticking them off,” he says, hyperconscious as always about the interplay between story structure and the listeners’ interest levels. With the live content, however, he’s more relaxed: “The seven things change depending on my mood. So it’s a mix of some things that took me a long time to figure out, like how to tell a story on the radio, and then some things that just seem like fun things to tell an audience.”

Bellevue Arts Museum (BAM) presents Strange Weather: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, an exhibition featuring contemporary artworks which explore the relationships and boundaries between bodies and the environment. Co-organized by UC Santa Cruz Institute of the Arts and Sciences Director Dr. Rachel Nelson and Professor Jennifer González, Visual Studies, Strange Weather will be on view in our 3rd floor galleries from March 25 through August 20, 2023.

The artworks in Strange Weather span five decades, from 1970-2020, and include works by some of the most influential artists in the United States today, including Lorna Simpson, Edgar Heap Of Birds, Kehinde Wiley, Carlos Amorales, Kiki Smith, Hung Liu, Julie Mehretu, Leonardo Drew, Joe Feddersen, Wendy Red Star, and Alison Saar, among others.

Presented by KNKX. (Check availability for March 28 and 29 at 7:30 p.m.) Preserving her musical past, Sona Jobarteh innovates to support a more humanitarian future. The spirit of Sona Jobarteh’s musical work stands on the mighty shoulders of The West African Griot Tradition; she is a living archive of the Gambian people. With one ear on the family’s historic reputation, one on the all-important future legacy and her heart in both places, she is preparing a place today for the next generation. Her singing and kora playing while fronting her band, spring directly from this tradition. The extent of her recognition today is evidenced by more than 23 million+ viewers on YouTube and considerable numbers on other digital platforms.

Sona Jobarteh has performed to crowds from the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles to Symphony Space in New York, and she’s sold out the Barbican in London, Cologne’s Philharmonie, and the Seine Musicale in Paris. These performances are under-pinned by her skills as a composer arising from early days at London’s RCM and Purcell School of Music.

Sona Jobarteh scored the film Motherland in 2010 & in 2022 the Hollywood blockbuster Beast, starring Idris Elba. She co-wrote a track on LL Cool J’s latest with Q Tip, and filmed several of her live shows for NBC’s 60 minutes.

Sona’s dedication to spreading powerful humanitarian messages through her songs and her stage performances makes her much more than a musician; she is active in social change and leads by her own example. Sona single handedly set up The Gambia Academy, a pioneering institution dedicated to achieving educational reform across the continent of Africa. This Academy is the first of its kind to deliver a mainstream academic curriculum at a high level, whilst also bringing the culture, traditions and history that belong to its students, to the front and center of their everyday education. These efforts have gained her invitations to deliver speeches at high profile events around the world – including summits for the UN, the World Trade Organization and UNICEF.

Presented by KNKX. Maria Muldaur is best known world-wide for her 1974 mega-hit “Midnight at the Oasis,” which received several Grammy nominations, and enshrined her forever in the hearts of Baby Boomers everywhere; but despite her considerable pop music success, her 55-plus year career could best be described as a long and adventurous odyssey through the various forms of American Roots Music. During the Folk Revival of the early '60s, she began exploring and singing early Blues, Bluegrass and Appalachian “Old Timey” Music, beginning her recording career in 1963 with the Even Dozen Jug Band and shortly thereafter, joining the very popular Jim Kweskin Jug Band, touring and recording with them throughout the '60s.

The Black Night Market invites you for an alluring experience of Black culture and community through art, fashion, live music, poetry, food and more!

You can shop with 80 Black-Owned Businesses.

Enjoy a night of live performances. two fashion shows, poetry and cocktail hour, saxophonist Marcel E.C. Augustin, and live music curated by DJ Reggie B and DJ Afreesha.

For adults.
An abbreviated version of Seattle Historical Theatre’s original play explores the impact of Japanese American Incarceration through the lens of young people in Seattle.
Extensively researched and built from personal interviews, primary sources and other historical material, the play is designed to teach about the Incarceration while examining themes of friendship, injustice and resilience.
Please register at kcls.org.

Seattle Opera favorites Martin Bakari (A Thousand Splendid Suns) and Ellaina Lewis (Blue) team up with Tacoma pianist Joe Williams (last here with tenor Joshua Stewart in 2022) for a special night of opera, classical art song, and jazz. The program will feature music from Richard Thompson and other composers, including settings of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poetry, which has resonated with and inspired artists for generations across many musical genres.

Presented by KNKX. Eric Krasno is a founding member of Lettuce and Soulive and Stanton Moore is a founding member of Galactic and Garage-a-Trois. The two met each other in the mid nineties. Through their work with their respective bands they have crossed paths and shared the stage together countless times over the past 25 years. Both are Grammy award winning artists who together have worked with a vast array of both classic and current musical artists.

During New Orleans Jazz Fest in May of 2022 these two established artists discussed the possibility of working together on a more regular basis with a consolidated project in mind. Together, they came up with the concept of making an organ trio record of covers that would be a tribute to women in music. The record would focus on female artists and the endless amount of incredible music they have gifted the world.

With out wasting any time, this new dynamic duo started picking songs and working on demos with accomplished organist Eric Finland. They decided that the perfect studio to record this project would be the magical Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock New York. Having both worked there before they knew that Levon’s vibe-drenched barn would provide a wonderful environment to bring this project to life. After recording the record in July they brought the record to California to be mixed by the legendary Jim Scott in early August of 2022.

The result is a collection of nine songs covering the works of Amy Winehouse, Nina Simone, Billie Eilish, Sharon Jones, H.E.R, Kacey Musgraves, Brittany Howard, Peggy Lee, and Aretha Franklin. The record sounds classic, yet fresh... at once vaguely familiar, yet quite unlike anything you've ever heard. Krasno and Moore are joined by musical legends Branford Marsalis, Cory Henry & Robert Randolph on 3 of the tracks.

“Songs in the Key of Life” is an upbeat jazz, funk & soul tribute to Stevie Wonder! Jacqueline Harmon & Mercedes Nicole will be singing those songs that made you fall in love with love and made you dance the night away! All of his greatest hits: “Isn’t She Lovely,” “Superstition,” “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing,” “My Cherie Amour,” “Higher Ground,” and many more.

Appearing on stage with these brilliantly gifted vocalists is an all-star band: Antonius Mulia (piano), Darrius Willrich (baby grand piano & vocals), Osama Afifi (electric bass), Alexey Nicolave (tenor sax), Mason Hargrove (electric guitar), and Dale Catlett (drums). This is a walk back in time when life was simply beautiful.
“The Power, and Rich Resonance of these vocalists will have you transported back in time, to when you just felt vibrant and alive!” –Norman Darwen, United Kingdom

Experience a musical tribute to the ancient tradition of the Passover Seder like never before. Join us at The Royal Room for an interactive night of music, storytelling, and celebration.

Guitarist, composer, and founder of The Music Factory, Ari Joshua, and Artist-In-Residence at Temple De Hirsch Sinai, Chava Mirel, will bring the story of Exodus to life through a jazz quartet interpretation. Join us for a one-of-a-kind musical experience as we celebrate the age-old tradition of the Passover Seder with a unique twist. Together, these two celebrated local artists will take you on a musical journey of exploration, innovation, and tradition. With their unique style, they'll immerse you in a reimagined version of the story of Exodus, bringing new insights to one of the oldest stories of all time.

After over a decade of relentless touring and recording in all but complete obscurity, the Texas-bred quasi-collective suddenly found itself held up by the press and public as one of the major figures in the jazz world. But as the category names for all five of the band’s Grammy® awards would indicate (Best R&B Performance in 2014, Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2016, 2017, 2021, and 2023), Snarky Puppy isn’t exactly a jazz band. It’s not a fusion band, and it’s definitely not a jam band. It’s probably best to take Nate Chinen of the New York Times’ advice, as stated in an online discussion about the group, to “take them for what they are, rather than judge them for what they’re not.”

Snarky Puppy is a collective of sorts with as many as 20 members in regular rotation. At its core, the band represents the convergence of both black and white American music culture with various accents from around the world. Japan, Argentina, Canada and the United Kingdom all have representation in the group’s membership. But more than the cultural diversity of the individual players, the defining characteristic of Snarky Puppy’s music is the joy of performing together in the perpetual push to grow creatively.

Their latest Grammy® winning album - Empire Central - was released in September 2022. Its sound is big and bold, chill and laid back, rooted in its native culture while reaching outward, forward bound. With 16 new compositions, the group looks fondly at where it’s come from, confident in the polished power from which its members continue to build the unique Snarky Puppy sound.