A&E

it. Do you also think on a pragmatic level that’s a better way to deal with those who hold such black-and-white views of gender roles?

SH: I was raised in the LDS faith, in a very conservative state, and conservative people are my family, my friends, my foundation. They’re not my enemy. I don’t believe in us-and-them mentality, at all. But I also know it’s so hard, in all aspects. If we can’t truly have compassion for ourselves, and our own mistakes and our own shadow selves, we can’t have compassion for others. … I understand the reaction of, “These people are literally trying to kill my children.” It is life and death, and it feels scary. But I have a very endgoal mentality. That’s why I’ve been such a prolific writer. So, what do I want to have? A world of love and unity where we all respect each other. And what’s the best way to have a society of love and compassion? You’ve got to be loving and compassionate.

CW: So where do we go from here? What feels like the best path forward for creating an atmosphere where books about and for kids of all kinds aren’t perceived as a threat?

SH: There are experts smarter than me who have really actionable plans. … I don’t love making myself a target; I don’t love being an activist. I’m really a hermit. But like with that Twitter thread, I sometimes feel like there’s something I have to say, and that it might spark curiosity in other people. … I guess I’m past the age where this wounds me personally. I’m worried about those kids out there, ashamed of being who they really are. I hope things change for their sake. CW

SHANNON HALE & DEAN HALE: THE PRINCESS IN BLACK AND THE PRINCE IN PINK The King’s English Bookshop

1511 S. 1500 East Saturday, May 13 11 a.m. kingsenglish.com

KRCL Music

Meets Movies: Meet Me in the Bathroom

KRCL’s “Music Meets Movies” series has presented a wide range of documentaries over the years, ranging across decades and genres. For this season’s closing offering, the series dives into a very particular subject of the bands that emerged from the turn-of-the-millennium New York City indie-rock scene.

In Meet Me in the Bathroom, directors Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace (the LCD Soundsystem doc Shut Up and Play the Hits) employ only contemporaneous footage (sometimes supplemented by voice-over interviews that clearly took place a bit later) to explore the years 1999 – 2003, as bands like The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol and more emerged in local clubs like the Sidewalk Café and Mercury Lounge, before finding the inevitable perils of fame. The wealth of live performance footage is bound to be a draw for fans, while Southern and Lovelace fill in the blanks with kaleidoscopic images of New York and obvious historical touchstones like 9/11 and the August 2003 blackout. There’s interesting material here about why this particular “scene” could only have happened when it did, before gentrification priced out the artists and clubs that had thrived in Brooklyn, and plenty of stuff for those who knew the bands back when.

Meet Me in the Bathroom plays at Brewvies Cinema Pub (677 S. 200 West) on Thursday, May 11 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets go on sale at 6:30 p.m. the day of the event, $10 per person or 2-for-1 with a KRCL T-shirt and free for KRCL High Fidelity members; attendees must be over 21. Visit krcl.org for additional event information. (Scott Renshaw)