TUESDAY, MARCH 31 2015 >>>
1. Gypsy is an origin story, as blunt and deliberate as you'll find in any comic book. Super-stripper Gypsy Rose Lee gets her full powers when she finally stands up to Mama Rose, who pushed her daughter into vaudeville first and then into the seedy bump-and-grind world of burlesque. Supposedly, Lee was such a jammin' stripper that she would take 15 minutes to remove a glove and all the dudes in the audience would still be slobberin' for more. Lee and her actress sister, June Havoc, were made immortal in the play and subsequent movie. Their real lives, however, were far more colorful than anything Hollywood could dream up. Gwen Whiting will tell all at a noon lecture in the Washington State History Museum.
2. Oct. 7, 1998, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left to die because he was gay. Years later, Michele Josue, a close friend of Matt's, revisits the shocking case with never-before-seen photos, rare video footage, as Matt's all-too-brief life is remembered through the vivid testimonies of those whose lives he touched, from the friends and family who knew him best to the bartender who saw him on the night of the attack. New revelations emerge in one of the most notorious hate crimes in US history, leading to a searing, poignant, and multi-layered biographical and sociological portrait. Catch the film Matt Shepard Is A Friend of Mine at 1:50 and 6:35 p.m. in The Grand Cinema.
3. New York Times best-selling author J.A. Jance will discuss and sign her latest book, Cold Betrayal at 7 p.m. in the University Place Pierce County Library. The tenth book in the Ali Reynolds series, Cold Betrayal features a Taser-carrying nun who rushes to help young pregnant woman running away from a polygamous cult.
4. Kevin Seconds has never been a slave to expectations, even as his immensely influential band, 7 Seconds, helped to foster the West Coast hardcore scene in the early '80s. Today, Seconds is on his own as an acoustic singer-songwriter. Extricated from the context of the hardcore frontman, Seconds blossomed as both a writer and a performer. The man always possessed one of the best voices in punk, but his true range was given the spotlight once everything else was stripped away. Seconds will perform 7:30-9:30 p.m. at the Lacey Timberland Library.
5. A powerful and widely celebrated voice in contemporary fiction, Haitian-American best-selling author and social activist Edwidge Danticat is a MacArthur Fellow and recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Story Prize, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. She is the author of numerous books, including Claire of the Sea Light and Brother, I'm Dying, as well as Breath, Eyes, Memory and her upcoming novel Untwine. Her work has been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times. Danticat drops by for an 8 p.m. chat at Schneebeck Concert Hall as part of the University of Puget Sound's Susan Resneck Pierce Lecture in Public Affairs and the Arts series.