TUESDAY, JAN. 21 2014 >>>

1. The Abigails are fixtures in the Southern California psych-rock garage scene. Thomas has been a member of bands like the Growlers and the Grand Elegance, and fellow Abigail Kyle Mullarky has been in the Starlite Desperation - all bands that occupy a sort of LSD haze. Additionally, the Abigails are members of Burger Records, the epicenter of SoCal psych-rock. Read Rev. Adam Mckinney's full feature on the Abigails in the Music & Culture section. Then, catch the band with MILK at 8 p.m. in The New Frontier Lounge in Tacoma.

2. The Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations continue as the University of Puget Sound hosts keynote speaker Dr. Carlos Munoz, professor emeritus, Department of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley for a presentation on "Victory is in the Struggle" at 6:30 p.m. in Schneebeck Hall on campus. The evening will include messages from leading Puget Sound campus members and gospel music by Navele & Friends.

3. Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in 2009, only four doctors in the country provide third-trimester abortions. With unprecedented access, the film After Tiller goes inside the lives of these physicians working at the center of the storm. Catch the film at 6:45 and 9 p.m. at The Grand Cinema. Following the 6:45 p.m. screening, a post-film discussion will be led by Rosa McLeod, Pierce County community organizer for Planned Parenthood Votes NW.

4. If you missed the stage reading of the delicious Southern-fried fiction of our own Mr. Alec Clayton at Olympia Timberland Library this past summer, you have another chance at 7 p.m. in the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch, y'all. Clayton wrote a trilogy set in the steamy Mississippi Gulf Coast: The Backside of Nowhere is the story of movie star David Lawrence who comes back home to Freedom; Return to Freedom finds its Mississippian characters reeling from the aftermath of a deadly hurricane; Visual Liberties,follows Molly as she goes to college and gets involved with her art teacher, Darren Strong, and a fellow student, Francis Gossing. Oh, you have to read the books, or not. Unwilling to settle for a mere, mundane book signing, Clayton, once again, has cast local actors in readers' theater adaptations of his scenes that, combined, reads like a half-house, one-act play. He calls his cadre of thespians the Freedom Players.

5. King's Books' R-rated Banned Book Club meets at 7 p.m. in Doyle's Public House to discuss Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, the story of a city worker plunged into a strange subterranean world after he stops in the street to help an injured girl.

LINK: Tuesday, Jan. 21 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

Filed under: 5 Things To Do, Music, Tacoma, Books, Theater, Screens, Food & Drink, Community, Holidays, Word,