Working at our arts & culture desk, there are lots of unsolicited emails from new music artists about their latest project. Within the messages there is a best-case, white-whale scenario: hit play, immediately realize this is something different. Which is exactly what happened…
Chuy Renteria
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Hinterland 2025 to feature Tyler, The Creator, Kacey Musgraves, Lana Del Rey and revamped festival grounds
Hinterland announced the lineup for its 2025 festival, returning to St. Charles the first weekend in August. The announcement comes with assurances from organizers that changes will be made to improve the Hinterland experience. Reports of overcrowding and inadequate measures to deal with Iowa’s brutal summer heat, particularly in the early days of the weekend, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Peak Iowa: An 11-year-old master, ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ author and a chess-related murder
Chess, like most discernible parts of human society, saw its usage affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, in this case, the 550-year-old game saw a marked rise in interest.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Mission Creek Festival announces lineup for their 20th fest, the final with Englert at the helm
Iowa City’s premiere music and literature festival, Mission Creek Festival, just announced its 2025 lineup. Mission Creek Festival 2025 will mark the 20th anniversary of the Festival and the last iteration produced by The Englert.
Posted inCommunity/News
Peak Iowa: Behold the most mesmerizing, ‘violently Midwest’ vibes on TikTok
Who will you really miss if TikTok is banned? Not the Hawk Tuah girl, surely. Not watching oversized Stanley cups fill with colorful liquids. Certainly not the clipped content from Jubilee, Logan Paul and Andrew Tate. No, you’ll miss those moments of magic captured by everyday people: A Boston cop plunging down on a metal […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘My Father Called Us Monkeys’ by Mario Duarte
When my friend Mario Duarte asked me to read his latest book, a series of connected short stories about a Mexican-American boy growing up in western Illinois called My Father Called Us Monkeys published by Ice Cube Press, I was both excited and a tad apprehensive.
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Teller Bank$ — ‘The Pride & Glory’
Denver-born and Des Moines-based emcee Teller Bank$ brandishes a bit of verbal gunplay at the tail end of The Pride & Glory, the latest collaborative album with producer Ed Glorious, that reminded me of the movie John Wick.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Caleb Rainey and Lisa Roberts on getting ‘the leader of this generation’s spoken word’ for Mic Check Poetry Fest
The 2024 Mic Check Poetry Fest, billed as a two-day celebration of spoken word and its power to bear witness, create community and inspire change, kicks off Friday night with a showcase featuring some of the biggest names in the spoken word landscape. Little Village talked with festival organizers Caleb Rainey (recent Iowa Authors Award […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Jim Swim — ‘Unruly Automatons’ EP
Unruly Automatons by Jim Swim I thought I knew what I was getting into when I started up “Creature,” the first track on Jim’s Swim’s Unruly Automatons. Keyboard chords stutter as if a DJ is warming up a crab scratch. A drum loop kicks in that would feel at home in a Metal Fingers Special […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa City authors Rachel Yoder and Garth Greenwell discuss midlife crises, ‘re-wilding’ marriage and trusting in Amy Adams
When we learned the movie adaptation of Nightbitch — Iowa City author Rachel Yoder’s satirical 2021 novel about a new mother embracing her inner (and outer) beast — would be headlining FilmScene’s Refocus Film Festival in October, Little Village editors naturally began imagining a cover for the September Fall Arts Preview involving Yoder holding some […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The ARTery is celebrating one year since their COVID comeback, in new location
A Rock Island pottery studio and gallery space is celebrating their one-year anniversary in their current location, 3913 14th Ave. The ARTery, which prides itself on showcasing work from local artists, was co-founded by artists Jenna Isbell, Tara Malnar and the recently announced Rock Island Citizen of the Year, Carolyn Krueger. Krueger received the recognition […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Illiterati Fest brings Iowa City’s ‘miniature music scenes’ together for a cause
In pretty much all artistic endeavors there is some consideration for the rule of threes. As in, do something just once and it could very well be a one-and-done situation. Do it twice and perhaps the two will exist as a pair. But do something three times? Well, then you got yourself a series. Iowa […]
