Bumbershoot announces performing-arts lineup

Advice columnist and gay activist Dan Savage, pioneering hip-hop writer Nelson George, Book-It Repertory Theatre and Spectrum Dance Theater were among the individuals and groups announced Wednesday on the performing-arts lineup for this year's Bumbershoot festival.

The annual celebration takes place Sept. 3-5 at Seattle Center.

The performance program is divided into three components: Words & Ideas, Performing Arts/Dance and Theatre.

Words & Ideas, an expansion of the festival's literary arts program, offers panel discussions and talks, including spoken word by the teenage and young adult collective Youth Speaks Seattle, with nationally recognized poet Andrea Gibson; a poetry slam pitting Youth Speaks Seattle against the Seattle Poetry Slam team; and readings by gothic novelist Anne Rice's son, author Christopher Rice, and the queen of the hippie chicks, Pamela Des Barres ("I'm With the Band").

Panel discussions feature five artists chosen by the Stranger for "Genius Awards" (to be announced); a Battlestar Galactica panel featuring screenwriter/producer Ronald Moore; authors who've worked in music (film composer Nathan Larson, Throwing Muses lead singer Kristin Hersh and George); Dublin novelists (Chris Binchy, Kevin Holohan and Claire Kilroy); and a panel led by Vegan Black Metal Chef (gonzo cooking instruction with music and comedy); a lecture series, "Why This? Why That?" overseen by former rap battle champion turned theater director Astronautalis; and The Decemberists' Colin Meloy and his wife, Carson Ellis, talking about Wildwood, their book collaboration.

The Performing Arts/Dance program features Spectrum; Hersh; Whim W'Him, Olivier Wevers' company performing the triptych "presentMonster"; and choreographer Trey McIntyre.

Theater is represented by Theatre Puget Sound, curating local artists and productions; Book-It Repertory Theatre's reading of Grace Linn's children's book, "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon"; Western Washington University improv group Dead Parrots Society; "100 Heartbreaks," a tongue-in-cheek work about a country singer seeking authenticating pain, written by and starring Joanna Horowitz; "Bonnie & the Robberie," Marya Sea Kaminski's one-woman show of songs and monologues; a puppet musical, "Manos: The Hands of Felt," presented by Puppet This; Wing-It Productions' "The Lost Folio," a Shakespeare spoof; and a fourth wall-bashing performance by Gesamtkunstwerk titled "Bit(e), Tear, Gnaw, Gulp!"

In addition to the performance roster, Bumbershoot also announced six late additions to its music lineup: Big Boi, with Kendrick Lamar; Eisley; Dom; Motopony; and Fly Moon Royalty.