Wire Watch Apr. 23-29

Gillian Mackay-Brown, Managing Editor
April 20, 2023

Sunday, April 23

Little Watts Family Series: Duke Otherwise

2 p.m., Gesa Powerhouse Theatre

In a continuation of the Little Watts Family Series, Gesa welcomes Duke Otherwise: a playful wordsmith, a spirited performer, a skilled guitarist and captivating tap-dancer. Using his distinct baritone, he sings his hilarious and imaginative songs that all ages will delight in together.

Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for youth 12 and under. Reserve tickets online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.

Monday, April 24

The Marian Anderson String Quartet: On Being Enslaved

7 p.m., Chism Recital Hall

The Whitman Music Department is excited to present the inaugural event for the recently-endowed Pickett Performing Scholar Series. Funded by Michael and Eva Murr in honor of Susan Pickett, Catharine Chism Professor of Music, Emerita, the series aims to combine performance and scholarship to highlight the work of historically underrepresented musicians.

Open to all.

Tuesday, April 25

Queer Bel Arabi: Stories of Belonging, Queerness, and Islam

5 p.m., Hunter Conservatory

Queer bel arabi translates to “Queer in Arabic.” Queer bel Arabi is a collection of poems that dive into the joys, desires, sorrows, and the complexities of being a queer Arab/North-African Muslim person. The themes of this talk will include stories of living, loving, and belonging for Queer Arab/North-African Muslim individuals, acceptance, identity crisis, exile, and dislocation. There will also be a poetry reading and a discussion about the creative process. This presentation is part of the Adam Dublin Award.

Open to all.

Wednesday, April 26

Piano Area Showcase

7 p.m., Chism Recital Hall

Come enjoy a celebration of student successes from across the piano and collaborative piano areas. Students from the studios of Laura Curtis, Carissa Cox, and Tom Hicks will perform as soloists. There will also be vocal and instrumental duos, piano duets, and pieces for six hands on one piano, with a focus on music by Rachmaninoff to mark the composers’ 150th year. The piano faculty joins in with a six-hands performance of their own!

Open to all.

Screening: Being Michelle

7 p.m., Gesa Powerhouse Theatre

“Being Michelle” follows the astonishing journey of a deaf and disabled woman who survived incarceration and abuse under unimaginable circumstances by a system that refused to accommodate her needs as a deaf person with autism.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students. Reserve tickets online or by calling the box office at 509-529-6500.

Thursday, April 27

Visiting Writers Series: Rachel Heng

7 p.m., Hunter Conservatory

Rachel Heng is the author of the novels The Great Reclamation (Riverhead, 2023) and Suicide Club (Henry Holt, 2018), which has been translated into ten languages worldwide. Rachel’s short fiction has been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Glimmer Train, Best Small Fictions, Best New Singaporean Short Stories and elsewhere. She is currently an Assistant Professor in English at Wesleyan University.

Open to all.

2023 Skotheim Lecture: Russia, the Destruction of the World’s Whales, and the Nature of the Twentieth Century

7 p.m., Olin Auditorium

Russians killed more than 600,000 whales in the twentieth century, many of them secretly and illegally. This slaughter nearly drove some whale species to extinction. The story of how and why Russia destroyed so many whales, presented by Dr. Ryan Tucker Jones, the Ann Swindells Professor of Global Environmental History at the University of Oregon, reveals crucial features of the course of the Soviet Union, the history of the world oceans, and the nature of the twentieth century.

Open to all.