6-Pack of Things To Do: Tuesday December 8 2020

While the holidays are not beginning to crowd the calendar, there still are plenty of other illuminating activities — both online and in person — to enlighten your days. Lighten your pantry by supporting the Emergency Food Networks at eight local breweries and cideries. Now on to a 6-Pack of Things To Do!

MEET ME AT PROCTOR’S PEPPERMINT PLACE: If you moved to Tacoma within the past decade, you probably know Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium’s Zoolights as the city’s premier holiday hot spot, but you may be less aware of another yuletide illumination tradition that’s been ramping up: the Proctor District. Proctor District is nestled nicely in a residential neighborhood with a longtime charm, including Washington state’s longest operating bowling alley, a movie theater, a Saturday farmers’ market, a kickass craft beer bar, and all the other 70+ businesses that are uniting under the holiday banner, “Meet Me At Proctor’s Peppermint Place,” which includes a merchants holiday window competition. Take a stroll tonight. North 26^th and Proctor Street and surrounding environs

BEER FLIGHTS: Every holiday season — while the bartenders close down our Proctor District craft beer bar, bottle shop and restaurant for the night — Peaks & Pints co-owner Pappi Swarner grabs three holiday beers, heads upstairs to his office, cranks his computer speaks to an 11 and watches holiday Youtube videos. Obviously, he can’t perform his holiday tradition this year … at Peaks & Pints. No, his holiday happiness now takes place inside his home, much to the chagrin of his wife and daughter. In the spirit of giving, we offer you the chance to share his joy. Today, he pairs the three Belgian Christmas season beers with Nelvana. A few years before they cozied up to American Greetings and started raking in the bucks with Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake and Ewoks, this Canadian animation studio had one hell of a freak streak going as you’ll witness in A Cosmic Christmas on our website. 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., 3826 N. 26th St., Basecamp Proctor, Tacoma

BALLET: Celebrating 32 years of dancing, the Metropolitan Ballet of Tacoma had to cancel this year’s Nativity Ballet. But the story of Jesus’ birth told through classical ballet lives on — specifically Metropolitan Ballet’s 2019 Nativity Ballet performance on Youtube. The ballet describes the prophecy and birth of Jesus, from perspectives of Mary and her family, Joseph, the Holy Spirit, the Angel Gabriel, as well as the beloved shepherds and wise men.

GRIT CITY THINK AND DRINK: In the summer of 2013, after George Zimmerman’s acquittal for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the movement began with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Porno producers quickly created the video “Black Wives Matter” and declared that “Civil rights have never been this dirty.” In solidarity with the BLM movement, pornography companies called for “an end to racist marketing practices and films that rely on stereotypes and ignorance.” Using a content analysis of more than 6,000 front and back covers of adult DVDs featuring Black performers, University of Washington-Tacoma’s Dr. Carolyn West will explore the racist tropes that have been depicted in pornography during the past 20 years in tonight’s virtual Grit City Think and Drink. Grab a Crucible Brewing Bropocalypse Hazy IPA from the Peaks & Pints cooler and join the PG-13 rated discussion of the implications of turning contemporary social justice movements into X-rated material. 6:30-7:30 p.m., Grit City Think and Drink Zoom Room

TOUR: Social justice is the equal access to wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. The concept arose in the early 19th century during the Industrial Revolution and subsequent civil revolutions throughout Europe because of the stark stratifications between the wealthy and the poor. By the mid-20th century, social justice had expanded from being primarily concerned with economics to include other spheres of social life to include the environment, race, gender, and other causes and manifestations of inequality. Tonight, Pretty Gritty Tours will explore instances of social justice in Tacoma’s history. Learn how this city has overcome and grown beyond its past to endeavor towards a brighter and most just future. 8 p.m., Pretty Gritty Youtube, free

FILM: Filmmaker David Osit subtly — and with a keen eye for black humor — explores the absurdities of Musa Hadid trying to turn his city into a Middle Eastern Amsterdam while in the midst of a geopolitical storm in the film, Mayor. Follow the mayor of Ramallah — de facto capital of the Palestinian people — and you’ll see him greeting grateful constituents on the street, planning the town’s neon-bright Christmas celebrations, mulling “city branding” slogans with his aides in an effort to boost tourism … or dodging gunfire from an Israeli army fracas in The Grand Cinema’s Virtual Screening Room. $10 rental