Generally, life is a laughing matter — and death (while not off the table for the talented) remains more of a punchline than a set up. Dave Maher dodged a bullet in 2014, surviving a month-long coma by pulling out of it before they pulled the plug — but that experience provides the set up to his show rather than the punchline. Rather than killing his career, his coma rekindled his comedic interests. […]
PromptPress ignores traditional boundaries with a quiet defiance. It began in 2014 with founding editor Jennifer Colville; her brother, Christopher Colville (photography editor); and Susan Goslee (poetry editor), creating an outlet for artists who wished to play at the boundaries. Jennifer did the bulk of the work until Kalmia Strong (book arts […]
As a fan of jazz — and especially of Nina Simone’s hauntingly beautiful songs — I am interested in seeing reputable artists do justice to her music. Putting that together with Counterfeit Madison becomes a dream come true. […]
Crucet’s work promises to illuminate the struggle of belonging, the power of paying attention and the necessity of beauty and art in portraying problems. I want to hear how a narrative about something I wrestle with is understood by someone from a very different life experience. […]
Jason Everett will exhibit an incredibly timely photography series that originated in a project entitled “More Friends Than the Mountains.” He developed the project as a way to gather community members, national art suppliers, international non-profit organizations and Kurdish government entities together to conduct art […]
Creative Tools for the Apocalypse: Workshop Merge — Saturday, Nov. 2 at 1 p.m. In this series, local arts critic (and Witching Hour participant) Daniel Boscaljon provides a guide to his choices for the most thought-provoking parts of the 2019 Witching Hour Festival. Monday: Talks and resentations; Tuesday: Theater, film and performance. Today: Workshops Narrowly […]
Composer Rachel Grimes’ folk opera/film amalgam epitomizes the sort of critical and creative engagement that that invites Witching Hour audiences to life-changing, mind-bending beauty. […]
Marcelo Mena kicks off Englert activities at Witching Hour with a Friday night lecture titled From Impossible to Inevitable: How Climate Action is Mainstreamed Globally. […]
‘Lucy in the Sky’ (dir. Noah Hawley) opens with astronaut Lucy Cola (Natalie Portman) looking from the outside to the world she left behind. It appears as a sphere strung with lights of connection. She’s told to come in, but she asks for another moment. The vast vista is exchanged for a view from earth, a fast-moving amalgam of cars and faces and
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Lauren Lessing began serving as the eighth director of the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art in July 2018, and less than nine months later, presided over the ceremonial groundbreaking of the new site for the museum. UI’s renowned art collection (arguably one of the top university collections in the United States) was displaced by […]
In ‘Monos,’ the lack of a centralized, framing point of view, the young children who lack a fixed identity and the absence of much context make the film difficult to predict. Choices that lead to unexpected consequences are less revelations of character than witnesses to forces that alter our sense of what life and survival mean. […]
Aquarela is shot at 96 frames per second, four times faster than most film. And, at last Friday’s opening, Iowa City’s FilmScene — Chauncey is the only theater in America where you can see it in its intended format. Combined with the new 7.1 surround sound system and the new chairs, the space itself is […]
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