From Lorde to “A Wrinkle in Time,” our Seattle Times writers recommend next month’s most buzzworthy arts and entertainment events.
Whether your preference is for the intimacy of an author reading at Third Place Books, or for joining tens of thousands at Emerald City Comic Con, there’s a huge variety of arts-and-entertainment events to choose from in March. Go forth and have fun!
BOOKS
Tyehimba Jess
The winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for poetry (for his book “Olio”; he also published an earlier collection, “Leadbelly”), Jess is currently a professor at the College of Staten Island — and a veteran of many poetry slams.
Most Read Entertainment Stories
7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 4; Nesholm Family Lecture Hall, McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., Seattle; $20-$80; 206-621-2230, lectures.org
Ijeoma Oluo
Everyone’s talking — and rightly so — about this Seattle-based author’s new book, “So You Want to Talk About Race.” Her Seattle Arts & Lectures event, as part of the Women You Need to Know Series, was sold out last month; if you didn’t get in, now’s your chance.
7 p.m. Wednesday, March 7; Elliott Bay Book Co., 1521 10th Ave., Seattle; free, 206-624-6600, elliottbaybook.com
Temple Grandin
Grandin, a Colorado State University professor, is a best-selling author and a well-known authority on autism (she did not speak until she was 3 ½ years old) and animal behavior. She appears as part of the University of Washington’s lecture series “Equity & Difference: Rights.”
7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 8; Kane Hall, University of Washington campus, Seattle; $5, currently sold out, any empty seats will be released to standby line at 7:15 p.m.; 800-335-7323, grad.uw.edu
Philip Margolin
The best-selling author of 20 crime-fiction novels — and a former criminal defense attorney — comes to town with his latest thriller, “The Third Victim,” in which a legendary defense lawyer takes on a seemingly unwinnable murder case.
7 p.m. Thursday, March 8; Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, 17171 Bothell Way N.E., Lake Forest Park; free, 206-366-3333, thirdplacebooks.com
Jamie Ford
Author of the popular “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” (soon to be made into a movie), Ford returns with his latest set-in-Seattle historical novel, “Love and Other Consolation Prizes,” for three local events.
12:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, Bellevue College, Bellevue; bellevuecollege.edu. 7 p.m. Thursday, March 8, Carco Theatre, 1717 S.E. Maple Valley Highway, Renton; 206-775-8600, carcotheatre.org. 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 9, Edmonds Library Plaza Room, 650 Main St., Edmonds; sno-isle.libnet.info. All events are free.
Sarah McBride
McBride, a transgender activist and national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, is the author of the memoir “Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss and the Fight for Trans Equality.”
7 p.m. Tuesday, March 13; Seattle Public Library’s Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Seattle; free, 206-386-4636, spl.org.
Stephen Pinker
Harvard psychology professor Pinker follows up his previous book, “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” with the timely “Enlightenment NOW: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.”
7 p.m. Friday, March 16; University Temple United Methodist Church, 1415 N.E. 43rd St., Seattle; $35 (includes copy of book), 800-838-3006, brownpapertickets.com
Aminatta Forna
Forna, an award-winning novelist currently on the faculty of Georgetown University, begins her newest novel, “Happiness,” with two strangers colliding on London’s Waterloo Bridge.
7 p.m. Wednesday, March 21; Seattle Public Library’s Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Seattle; free, 206-386-4636, spl.org.
Bruce Holbert
A former Washington State Book Award winner (for “The Hour of Lead”) and a resident of Nine Mile Falls, Hulbert will speak in conversation with Seattle author Richard Chiem about his new novel, “Whiskey.”
7 p.m. Thursday, March 22; Elliott Bay Book Co., 1521 10th Ave., Seattle; free, 206-624-6600, elliottbaybook.com
Kory Stamper
Stamper, a lexicographer (should you need to look this up, that’s a writer/editor of dictionaries) at Merriam-Webster, will speak about the ever-changing English language — a topic explored in her new book, “Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries.”
6 p.m. Sunday, March 25; Campion Ballroom at Seattle University, 914 E. Jefferson St., Seattle; $5, 206-652-4255, townhallseattle.org
Laura Lippman and David Simon
Wouldn’t you love to eavesdrop on this married couple’s breakfast conversations? Both former crime reporters, she’s now the acclaimed author of numerous smart, soulful crime-fiction novels (her latest, the noir-y “Sunburn”); he created HBO’s “The Wire,” “Treme,” “The Deuce” and more.
7:30 p.m. Friday, March 30; Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle; tickets begin at $20, 206-621-2230, lectures.org.
Moira Macdonald: mmacdonald@seattletimes.com
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Seattle Symphony with Thomas Zehetmair
The Symphony launches March with Mozart, and violinist/conductor Thomas Zehetmair will be heard in the sublime Violin Concerto No. 3. Other gems: Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony (No. 8), Haydn’s “La passione” Symphony (No. 49) and a dip into the 20th century with Arvo Pärt’s 1977 “Fratres” (“Brothers”).
7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 1, 8 p.m. Saturday, March 3, 2 p.m. Sunday, March 4; Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle; $22-$122; 206-215-4747, seattlesymphony, org
Seattle Opera presents “Beatrice & Benedict”
The company’s first production of this Berlioz rarity (based on Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”), which opened Feb. 24, is an unmissable collaboration with ACT Theatre, as part of Seattle’s citywide Shakespeare celebration. Ludovic Morlot conducts.
7:30 p.m. March 3, 7, 9 and 10, Marion Oliver McCaw Hall at Seattle Center; $25-$308, 206-389-7676; seattleopera.org
Roomful of Teeth
This celebrated vocal ensemble is both venturesome and versatile, with a repertoire that includes yodeling, Broadway belting, Inuit throat singing, multicultural works and Death Metal. Whatever they’re going to present, it’ll widen your musical horizons.
7:30 p.m. Friday, March 9; Seattle First Baptist Church, 1111 Harvard Ave., Seattle; $15, $20, strangertickets.com
Beijing Queer Chorus
The chorus will join two Seattle-area vocal ensembles, Captain Smartypants and Sensible Shoes, in a concert collaboration, thanks to a six-year relationship with Seattle director/composer/pianist Eric Lane Barnes.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 10; East Shore Unitarian Church, 12700 S.E. 32nd St., Bellevue; $25 ($40 per couple or family), 425-747-3780, esuc.org
Jerusalem Quartet
The acclaimed quartet, founded nearly 25 years ago, has such a great blend that The New York Times recently described the Jerusalem’s sound as “a single instrument with 16 strings.” Catch them in a Czech-accented program of Janáček (“Kreutzer Sonata” Quartet, No. 1) and Dvořák (G Major, Op. 106), plus an early Beethoven quartet from his Op. 18.
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 13; Meany Theater, University of Washington; $40-$48, youth 5-17 free (two per paying adult), 206-543-4880, meanycenter.org
Northwest Sinfonietta
The excellent violinist/conductor Joseph Swensen performs both those roles in works from the tumultuous interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s. On tap: Holst’s very English “St. Paul’s Suite,” Stravinsky’s colorful “Pulcinella” Suite (based on paintings of Botticelli) and Ravel’s gypsy-themed “Tzigane.”
7:30 p.m. Friday, March 16; Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall; 200 University St., Seattle; $21.50-$46.50, 206-215-4747, seattlesymphony.org/BenaroyaHall
Seattle Symphony presents John Luther Adams’ “Become Desert”
This is the world premiere of Adams’ sequel to his “Become Ocean,” which won Pulitzer and Grammy awards and was the talk of the symphony world back in 2013. Ludovic Morlot conducts, with a side of Beethoven: the great “Emperor” Concerto with one of today’s most thought-provoking pianists, Jeremy Denk, as soloist.
7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 29, and 8 p.m. Saturday, March 31; Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle; $22-$122, 206-215-4747, seattlesymphony, org
Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@gmail.com
DANCE
“Director’s Choice”
Pacific Northwest Ballet presents a grab bag of contemporary ballets, including William Forsythe’s relentlessly athletic “One Flat Thing, reproduced” (otherwise known as “that dance with all the tables”) and his brief pas de deux “Slingerland Duet,” Ulysses Dove’s mesmerizing “Red Angels,” and a world premiere work choreographed by PNB corps member Ezra Thomson.
Friday, March 16-Sunday, March 25, Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., Seattle; $30-$187, 206-441-2424, pnb.org
Alice Gosti: “Material Deviance in Contemporary American Culture”
As the old saw goes, “writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” But the relentlessly curious, Italian-born choreographer and performer Gosti dances about philosophy. In “Material Deviance,” she investigates the phenomenon of clutter and asks: “Do objects imbued with so much of our worth start to take over and take on a life of their own?”
Thursday, March 29-Sunday, April 1; On the Boards, 100 W. Roy St., Seattle; $23-$30, 206-217-9886, ontheboards.org
Moira Macdonald: mmacdonald@seattletimes.com; Brendan Kiley: bkiley@seattletimes.com
FESTIVALS/CONVENTIONS
Emerald City Comic Con
Get your cosplay on! The 16th annual Northwest convergence of all things comic book and pop culture includes writers, artists, comic-book creators and celebrity guests including David Tennant and Billie Piper of “Doctor Who.”
Thursday-Sunday, March 1-4; Washington State Convention Center, 705 Pike St., Seattle; $30 Thursday only, $40 Friday only, Saturday and Sunday tickets and four-day passes sold out, emeraldcitycomiccon.com
Moisture Festival
Aerialists, acrobats, jugglers, dancers and more return for another year of what organizers tout as the “world’s largest comedy/varietè festival.”
Thursday, March 15-Sunday, April 8; venues include Hale’s Palladium, 4301 Leary Way N.W., and Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway, Seattle; $20-$30, with discounted youth and senior tickets, 888-377-4510, moisturefestival.org
Janet I. Tu: jtu@seattletimes.com
MOVIES
Tickets are already on sale for the following movies:
“A Wrinkle in Time”
Haven’t we all been waiting forever for this one? Acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay (“Selma”) gets a big Disney budget for her take on Madeline L’Engle’s beloved 1962 children’s book. The starry cast includes Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Mindy Kaling, Zach Galifianakis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and talented teen Storm Reid as heroine Meg Murry.
Opens in theaters Friday, March 9; tickets available through fandango.com
“Vertigo”
An endlessly rewatchable movie — and I should know, as I’ve endlessly rewatched it — Alfred Hitchcock’s dark tale of romantic obsession is a glorious hall of mirrors. Though nothing about this film, including the achingly vulnerable performances by James Stewart and Kim Novak, ever grows old, it’s turning 60 this year, and in celebration will briefly return to theaters with a filmed introduction from TCM’s Eddie Muller.
Special screenings March 18 and 21 only; see fathomevents.com
Science Fiction Fantasy Short Film Fest
This popular annual event, now in its 13th year, has already sold out its Cinerama screenings (March 24 at noon, if you want to try standby), but an encore screening has been announced. It will include all 20 of the festival’s entries, made by filmmakers from around the world.
Noon Sunday, March 25; SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle; $15, 206-324-9996, siff.net
Moira Macdonald: mmacdonald@seattletimes.com
MUSIC
Wolves in the Throne Room
Olympia’s black metal kings returned to their atmospherically skull-crushing ways with last year’s immaculate “Thrice Woven,” the follow-up to 2014’s ambient curveball “Celestite.” An opening slot for Norwegian vets Enslaved brings one of Washington’s best metal bands back to Seattle.
7 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, El Corazon, 109 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle; $25-$30, 206-262-0482, elcorazonseattle.com
Barrett Martin Group: “Transcendence” album release
The Screaming Trees beatkeeper is back with his jazz fusion ensemble’s first album since 2012. Martin and Co. also play an Easy Street Records in-store the day before the official release party, the latter also serving as a showcase for Martin’s label, Sunyata Records & Books.
8 p.m. Thursday, March 8, Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave., Seattle; $12, 206-441-4618, thecrocodile.com
Lorde
After the Grammys made her the only album-of-the-year nominee not offered a solo performance, Lorde — notably the only woman up for the marquee award — invited any doubters to watch her “murder a stage” along her current North American tour. The last laugh will almost certainly be hers. Fellow stage assassins Run the Jewels make for cool, unlikely tourmates.
7 p.m. Friday, March 9, KeyArena, 305 Harrison St., Seattle; $40-$100, 206-684-7200, keyarena.com
Pussy Riot
After past musical theater dates, the decade’s most infamous protest punks come to Seattle on what’s being billed as their first North American tour. Expect a combo of live music and performance art that could give Trump a week’s worth of tweet fodder.
9 p.m. Thursday-Friday, March 22-23, Chop Suey and Vera Project, 1305 E. Madison St. and 305 Harrison St., Seattle; sold out, chopsuey.com and theveraproject.org
Naked Giants
Before hitting the road with Car Seat Headrest, the Seattle garage rockers squeeze in a club gig the night before dropping their highly anticipated debut full-length, “SLUFF” — an acronym for an unprintable term for South Lake Union’s techie inhabitants (use your four-letter imaginations), among other things.
8 p.m. Thursday, March 29, Chop Suey, 1305 E. Madison St., Seattle; $12-$14, chopsuey.com
Fisherman’s Village Music Festival
Fifty-plus bands and artists storm downtown Everett for the fifth annual fest heavy on West Coast talent. Indie-rock mastermind Kevin Morby and Fruit Bats (solo set) are joined by Northwest faves Shabbazz Palaces, Mount Eerie and dozens of local up-and-comers.
Friday-Sunday, March 30-April 1, multiple locations, Everett; $55 3-day pass, $15-$25 single-day pass, kids 12 and under free; thefishermansvillage.com
Michael Rietmulder: mrietmulder@seattletimes.com
THEATER
“Hir”
Nobody puts Taylor Mac — playwright, actor, MacArthur “Genius” grantee and performance artist whose preferred gender pronoun is “judy” — in a corner. In “Hir,” directed by Intiman’s new artistic director Jennifer Zeyl, a U.S. soldier returns from a war zone to a household of extreme family chaos — piles of stuff, a near-catatonic father in drag, a transgender sibling, a mother who’s let everything slide — but with, as The New York Times puts it, “flawed and real humanity that simmers beneath all the surreal comedy.”
Feb. 28-March 25; ArtsWest, 4711 California Ave. S.W., Seattle; $17-$38, 206-938-0339, artswest.org
Evan Flory-Barnes: “On Loving the Muse and Family”
When bassist and composer Evan Flory-Barnes plays, it looks like it’s just him and the music. Now Flory-Barnes hits On the Boards with his autobiographical, music and story-driven show, featuring a full orchestra and local performers from The True Loves to Seattle Girls Choir.
March 1-4; On the Boards, 100 W. Roy St., Seattle; $23-$30, 206-217-9886 or ontheboards.org.
“Ride the Cyclone”
A musical about choir kids from a Saskatchewan high school who all die in a horrible roller-coaster accident, wind up in a “Glee”-like purgatory and have to compete to sing their way back to life? Sign me up. This coproduction with the 5th Avenue Theatre features some out-of-town actors and reliable locals, and critics in Chicago and New York have described it as delightful and bizarre.
March 10-May 20; ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle; $20-$80, 206-292-7676, acttheatre.org
“Feathers of Fire: A Persian Epic”
Technically, “Feathers of Fire” is a shadow-puppet play, adapted from a Persian epic involving an outcast boy, a majestic bird and a forbidden romance that results in the birth of Rostam, a Hercules-style hero of Iranian myth. But for a U.S. audience, its focus on movement and imagery sets it in the weird zone between dance, concert and what the Los Angeles Times describes as “a cinematic, hourlong spectacle.”
8 p.m., Wednesday, March 14; Meany Center, University of Washington, Seattle; $44-$63, 206-543-4880, meanycenter.org
“Ironbound”
The promo-copy description of this play by Martyna Majok is enigmatic (to distill: an immigrant in a Jersey factory town meets a man, kicking off a two-decade working-class drama about people fighting dirty to feel safe), but the artist roster is impressive. Majok has made some weirdly wonderful plays (including “reWilding”), Seattle theater favorite Kelly Kitchens directs, and it features the excellent actor Alexandra Tavares.
March 23-April 15; Seattle Public Theater, 7312 West Green Lake Drive N., Seattle; $17-$34, 206-524-1300, seattlepublictheater.org
Brendan Kiley: bkiley@seattletimes.com
VISUAL ARTS
Klara Glosova: “Life on the Sidelines”
Czech-born, Seattle-based artist Klara Glosova has a keen nose for finding hints of poetry behind the familial and the familiar. She’s made ceramic children’s underwear, and is the founder of NEPO 5k Don’t Run, where people walk (or hop or pogo or whatever doesn’t involve running) through an eccentric gauntlet of art on sidewalks and performances in public parks. Her latest exhibition depicts parents watching their children play sports.
March 1-31; Linda Hodges Gallery, 316 First Ave. S., Seattle; free, 206-624-3034, lindahodgesgallery.com
Tavares Strachan: “Always, Sometimes, Never”
Critic Gary Faigin writes in The Seattle Times that Strachan is “nothing if not ambitious. His theatrical, packed-to-the-gills exhibition … aims to supplant the outworn heroes and cultural assumptions of the Western canon with new heroes, histories and paradigms.”
Through April 15; Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., Seattle; free, 206-622-9250, fryemuseum.org
“Figuring History: Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, Mickalene Thomas”
Seattle Art Museum brings together three black painters whose works have toyed with, subverted and commented on art history. The paintings, critic Gayle Clemans writes in The Seattle Times, are massive and powerful and “really must be experienced in person.”
Through May 13; Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., Seattle; $14.95-$24.95, free for children under 12, 206-654-3100, seattleartmuseum.org
Brendan Kiley: bkiley@seattletimes.com