Start the week with chocolate and wine, and finish up with some hot stuff in a Valentine’s Day planetarium show. Not bad at all.
Feb. 9
POTLATCH — The third annual Wine, Chocolate and Poetry event will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 9 at the Potlatch Public Library.
The evening will feature poetry readings by authors Robert Wrigley of Moscow and Michael Riley of Potlatch, as well as samples of chocolate and wine.
Wrigley is an award-winning poet and professor of English at the University of Idaho in Moscow. He served as the state of Idaho’s Writer-in-Residence from 1986-88.
Riley teaches at Lincoln Middle School in Pullman.
The adults-only event is free but donations are welcome.
Feb. 10
LEWISTON — The third annual Spaghetti Feed to benefit Helping Hands Rescue will be held Feb. 10 at the Salvation Army here.
Dinner will be served from 4 to 7 p.m. and the silent auction closes at 8:30 p.m. All proceeds benefit the animal rescue group.
Cost is $10 regular price, $7 for ages 5 to 12, free for ages 4 and younger, and $30 for a family of four.
Helping Hands Rescue is a nonprofit, all-volunteer group based in Lewiston and it assists, rescues, fosters and provides medical care for homeless animals in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, according to the group’s website.
The Salvation Army is at 1220 21st St.
Feb. 10
MOSCOW — The 15th annual Shades of Black Show will begin at 6 p.m. Feb. 10 in the International Ballroom of the Bruce M. Pitman Center at the University of Idaho here.
The multicultural performing arts showcase will feature a variety of student performances. Admission is free, and some performances may contain strong language or sensitive content. Doors open at 5 p.m.
Feb. 12
MOSCOW — Colson Whitehead, winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for his novel “The Underground Railroad,” will give the keynote address Feb. 12 as part of the University of Idaho’s Black History Month observance.
Whitehead’s free talk, “Revisiting the Underground Railroad,” will begin at 7 p.m. in the International Ballroom of the Bruce M. Pitman Center on the University of Idaho campus here. A question-and-answer session and book signing will follow.
“The Underground Railroad” chronicles the adventures of Cora, a teenage slave, as she seeks freedom in the South in the years before the Civil War. Historically, the Underground Railroad was a network of safehouses used to help slaves escape to freedom in the northern states and Canada. In Whitehead’s novel, engineers and conductors operate a secret system of underground tracks and tunnels for this purpose.
A panel of UI faculty members will put the book into context during a discussion on “The Underground Railroad in Law, History, Literature and American Society,” at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 8 in the College of Law courtroom, 711 S. Rayburn St. The panel consists of Kristin Haltinner, assistant professor of sociology and director of UI’s minor in Africana studies; Dale Graden, professor of history; Jan Johnson, clinical assistant professor of English; and Aman McLeod, assistant professor of political science and affiliate faculty in the College of Law.
Whitehead, the author of six other books, lives in New York City. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and has taught at seven institutions of higher education.
Feb. 14
PULLMAN — “Some Like it Hot,” a special Valentine’s Day event, will be shown at 7 and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Washington State University planetarium here.
The show is all about the various extreme temperatures in the universe. The planetarium is in Room 231 of Sloan Hall on the WSU campus. Cost is $5 in cash or check only.
