‘Before the Wind’ is 2017 Community Read

The Port Townsend Public Library has selected the critically acclaimed work of fiction “Before the Wind” for its 2017 Community Read.

March events kick off with a film screening, followed by public readings and discussions, a juried art show and personal appearances by the author. The book is available now to check out from the library. Extra copies of the book, which are free to the public, are to be available at the end of February.

Seattle author Jim Lynch’s “Before the Wind” was named by the American Library Association and Canada’s National Post as one of the best books of 2016. It followed his award-winning titles “The Highest Tide,” “Border Songs” and “Truth Like the Sun.”

“Jim is a master storyteller and writes beautifully captivating novels about the Pacific Northwest, and his love of sailing and maritime culture are palpable,” said Melody Sky Eisler, library director. “He is a joy to work with and to hear speak, and he truly treasures his visits to Port Townsend. The richness of this book has helped the library plan a wonderful lineup of programs with community partners in March, the library’s traditional month of community focus on just one book.”

Look for a full schedule of events in the Feb. 22 edition of The Leader.

Dinner theater staged at Alchemy Bistro

Key City Public Theatre presents two evenings of dinner theater Sunday and Monday, Feb. 19-20 at Alchemy Bistro and Wine Bar, 842 Washington St. The event features a staged reading of “Love AllWays” and a quartet of four plays featuring actors Consuelo Aduviso, Rosaletta Curry, Dillon Porter and Connor Zaft.

Every ticket comes with a four-course meal designed by the Alchemy staff.

Tickets are $58 for the dinner and show (gratuity included; beverages not included,) and are available online at keycitypublictheatre.org or by calling the box office at 385-KCPT (5278).

‘Identity’ performance inspired by ‘I Have a Name’ show

The Northwind Arts Center and the Mandala Center for Change collaborate once more for a special public event: “Identity,” featuring a playback improvisational performance from the Poetic Justice Theatre Ensemble.

This free participatory event takes place at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 21 at Northwind, 701 Water St.

“Identity” is in response to an exhibit of photography currently on display in the Northwind Arts Center’s Artist Showcase. “I Have a Name: Identity and Belonging in Small Town America” is a series of photographic portraits by Raymond L. Ketcham of individuals who frequent The Boiler Room in PT.

The evening’s performance explores themes of identity with the photographs as a backdrop, and includes theatrical reflections of audience story sharing that center on what it means to have “identity.”

Stringology plays at Arts to Elders

The Arts to Elders program, in conjunction with the Northwind Arts Center and sponsored by the Port Townsend Arts Commission, welcomes back Stringology for a concert from 2:30 to 4 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 21 at Discovery View Retirement Apartments, 1051 Hancock. Admission is free.

Stringology, featuring Eric Bogart (solo guitar), Terianne Stratton (ukulele) and Tracy Grisman (string bass), performs Gypsy swing and classic American jazz from the 1930s and ’40s. Music inspired by Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and others is performed in the style created by the Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt of France, and his Quintette du Hot Club de France.

Lake Toba performs Concert in the Woods

Concert in the Woods presents Lake Toba of Eugene, Oregon, for its third February concert, set for 3 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 19 at Laurel B. Johnson Community Center, 923 Hazel Point Road, Coyle.

“When I first heard their song samples, I thought, this is a duo that I must have on our Coyle schedule,” said concert organizer Norman Johnson.

“They play in an old-timey style, but with a quality and vibrancy that makes it fresh and alive.”

Lake Toba features Kyle McGonegle and Liat Tova Lis performing original songs on guitar, banjo and mandolin.

Visual arts, poetry collide

Poet Shin Yu Pai discusses the history of artist-poet collaborations and creative innovation in American literature in a talk set for 7-8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 17 at the Port Townsend Public Library’s Carnegie Reading Room.

During the presentation, titled “The Written Image: Blending Poetry with the Visual Arts,” Pai is to show her work as a writer, her commissions for both art and cultural museums, and her collaborative work with painters, photographers, installation artists, composers and video artists.

She also plans to discuss developing hybrid works that bring together her creative practices as a writer, photographer and museologist.

Pai is currently the poet laureate of the City of Redmond and has also served as a poet-in-residence at Seattle Art Museum.

Michelangelo’s Sistine shenanigans explored

George Hastings presents “The Evolution of Consciousness According to Michelangelo” at 2 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 18 at Unity Church of Port Townsend, 3918 San Juan Ave. The event is free; donations are appreciated.

“Pope Julius II wanted Michelangelo to paint pictures of the apostles on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel,” Hastings said in a press release.

“Michelangelo had a better idea. Since the church had originally been built as the new Solomon’s Temple, why not paint scenes related to the original temple, the place where, according to the Bible, God dwelled?

“The pope agreed, but what Michelangelo didn’t tell him was that, using the same pictures, he would also tell his version of the ‘new temple.’”

“According to Michelangelo the new temple had more to do with a state of higher consciousness than a brick-and-mortar church. If Julius had been savvy to Michelangelo’s shenanigans, the outcome would have been much different,” Hastings said.

Inquiring Mind delves into white privilege

Sociology professor Teresa Ciabattari is to present “White Privilege: The Other Side of Racial Inequality” at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 22 at the Jefferson County Library, 620 Cedar Ave., Port Hadlock.

The talk is the first of three 2017 Inquiring Mind lectures presented at the library, and is cosponsored by the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau.

Ciabattari initiates an interactive conversation that explores what white privilege is by using a variety of examples of privilege for individuals and institutions. She then provides tools for learning how to address it.

Participants gain knowledge and resources to foster inclusion and racial justice in their own communities, according to a press release.

Ciabattari is a sociologist at Pacific Lutheran University, where she teaches about race and racial inequality and writes about how economic, social and historical conditions contribute to diversity.

Fastest fiddler to play

Port Townsend Friends Meetinghouse presents Frankie Gavin, listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s fastest fiddle player, in a solo concert set for 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 23 at the meetinghouse, 1841 Sheridan St.

Tickets can be purchased in advance for $20 each through brownpapertickets.com.

Gavin has played for four American presidents. As a 7-year-old, he played for John F. Kennedy on his 1962 visit to Ireland, and he also played for Presidents Clinton and Bush, and more recently for Barack and Michelle Obama, when that former president visited his ancestral home in the village of Moneygall in County Offaly.

At 17, Gavin won two all-Ireland competitions, and in the mid-1970s, founded DeDannan, a globally renowned traditional band, according to a press release. After a short break in the 2000s, he restarted the band with a new, young lineup. In September 2010, he played a traditional Irish tune, the foxhunter’s reel, at a breath-taking 150 beats per minute. The concert is produced by Sevensense Productions. For more information, call 379-3136.

‘Surface Design’ opens at PTPL on Feb. 24

Port Townsend Public Library’s newest Art in the Library show, “Surface Design at the Carnegie,” celebrates a wide variety of works by local artists. An opening reception takes place 6-7:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 24 at the library, 1220 Lawrence St.

The exhibit, which continues through June 16, features original artwork from 29 members of the North Peninsula chapter of the Surface Design Association of Washington.

According to the organization’s website, surface design “encompasses the coloring, patterning and structuring of any fiber and fabric. This involves creative exploration of processes such as dyeing, painting, printing, stitching, embellishing, quilting, weaving, knotting, felting and papermaking.”

Port Angeles artist Barbara Houshman has curated this colorful and varied surface design exhibit. In addition to individual pieces created by the artists, the exhibit features a special group installation, “The ABCs of Surface Design,” encompassing 32 pieces created by 22 artists. The piece is to be installed in the library’s first-floor recessed ceiling. The show is presented in collaboration with Northwind Arts Center.

(Leader writer Katie Kowalski compiled these stories.)