Classical chops plus hip-hop
Ensemble Mik Nawooj, led by pianist/composer JooWan Kim, takes classical music in a new direction by mixing it with old-school hip-hop. The Oakland, California-based ensemble — which includes both an MC and a lyric soprano — will play Thursday, Feb. 3, at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts. Center executive director Jill Barnes was impressed when she saw the band perform: “There was just this wonderful electric energy coming from the stage,” she told The Olympian. The show is one of a handful the band is doing as a run-up to its “Hip-Hop Orchestra Experience,” set to premiere in August at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. at the center, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia. Tickets are $19-$49. The center requires proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test for those 12 and older.
Punk pioneer
“Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché,” a new documentary about British punk rocker Styrene (born Marianne Elliott-Said), screens Wednesday, Feb. 2, in Olympia. Styrene, the first woman of color in the U.K. to front a successful rock band (X-Ray Spex), was a driving force in punk, a fierce feminist and an inspiration for the riot grrrl movement; the film includes an interview with Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill, founded in Olympia. “Cliché” — co-directed by Styrene’s daughter, Celeste Bell — follows Bell’s journey through her late mother’s archives and illuminates Styrene’s struggles with manic depression and drugs and her legacy as a musician and as a mother. The one-time screening begins at 7 p.m. at the Olympia Film Society’s Capitol Theater, 206 Fifth Ave. SE, Olympia. Also on screen at the Capitol Theater: “In the Heat of the Night,” the 1967 police procedural that was among the defining films of the career of Sidney Poitier, who died Jan. 6. The 4K restoration of the Academy Award-winning drama will be screened at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28; 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29; and 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 6. Tickets are $11, or $8 for film society members. Proof of vaccination is required.
Poetry for all
Olympia Poet Laureate Ashly McBunch will share their words as part of Olympia Family Theater’s first All-Ages Poetry Night, happening Tuesday, Feb. 1. The event, hosted by poet and author Lennée Reid, will happen on the first Tuesday of each month and will feature a local poet and an open mic. The poetry begins at 6:30 p.m. at Olympia Family Theater, 612 Fourth Ave. E. Olympia. Admission is $5-$10, with no one turned away for lack of funds. Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test (within 24 hours) is required.
Freelance writer Molly Gilmore talks about what’s happening in Olympia and beyond with 95.3 KGY-FM’s Michael Stein from 3 to 4 p.m. Fridays.