Shook Twins shake up Open Space
The Shook Twins, a nationally touring band from Portland that is fronted by identical twin sisters, will present a concert at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 13, at Open Space for Arts & Community. The sisters are multi-instrumentalists, and their act includes a golden musical egg as well as a backing band with Barra Brown on bass, Niko Slice on guitar and Sydney Nash on bass. This will be the group’s fifth appearance on the island, where they have an enthusiastic fan base. Tickets to the show are $15 in advance, $18 at the door and $30 for a table seat. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit openspacevashon.com.
Student photographers wax eloquent
Students from a Vashon Artists in Schools (VAIS) program are currently showing their work in the atrium of Vashon Center for the Arts. During a VAIS residency with local photographer Ray Pfortner, the students at McMurray Middle School learned about composition and the craftsmanship of photo transfer onto beeswax. The results are now for sale at VCA. All the works were created by the students of Katie Lewandowski’s photography class at McMurray.
Jazz heats up at VCA
Pearl Django, a noted jazz group, will take the stage at Vashon Center for the Art’s Kay White Hall at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 11. The show will mark the opening night of Vashon Lit Con. Although the band’s roots are firmly in the music made famous by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, its extensive repertoire includes traditional jazz classics and original compositions. Pearl Django has performed at festivals, dances and nightspots throughout the U.S. and abroad. Advance tickets, on sale at vashoncenterforthearts.org until two hours before the performance, are $10 for students, $20 members, $22 senior and $24 general. All tickets at the door cost $24.
Next up in VCA’s jazz series will be a concert by Max Hatt on lyrical guitar and vocalist Edda Glass at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 18. In their first visit to Vashon, the duo will be joined by Seattle bass virtuoso Clipper Anderson.
Kids storm the stage
“Julius Caesar,” by William Shakespeare and edited by Aimée Nicole Lewis van Roekel, will be performed by The Vashon Island ShakeKIDS! performance ensemble at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, April 20, at Open Space for Arts & Community. This will be the 13th production by the group, which was formed in 2012. Company members, all local teens, composed an ensemble performance in response to current day realities. “Julius Caesar” explores the morality and ramifications of political assassination as well as the intersection between leadership and free will, and intuitive moral compasses and loudest majority opinion. Admission is free to the show, with free-will offerings accepted. For more information, visit vashonshakes.org.
Vashon author wins prize
Local writer Catherine Johnson’s memoir, “Finding Mercy in this World,” has been named as a gold winner in the annual Sarton Women’s Book Awards. The awards are presented by the Story Circle Network, an international nonprofit community of women writers. The book, published by Endicott and Hugh Books, tells the story of Johnson’s journey through guilt, grief and forgiveness after being the teenage driver in an accident in which her friend was killed.
