Zoie Taylor has owned two houses, across the street from one another in her Des Moines neighborhood, for a while now. They’re hers outright, mortgages paid off. And for a while, she rented them out in the typical fashion. Until she met Em Cariglino. When Cariglino moved into the three-bedroom house across the street from […]
Genevieve Trainor
Genevieve Trainor lives in Iowa City, Iowa. Passions include heavy music, hoppy beer, and hidden rooms.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Label Profile: 5CM Recordings, founded by Mathias Timmerman
“In 2013, I played my first solo set (as Underwater Escape From the Black Hole) at one of the Zeitgeist fests that were held in Boone,” Mathias Timmerman, of Des Moines label 5CM Recordings, said in an email. “And I ended up meeting a lot of other folks who were running little DIY labels, putting […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Plants, pets, pandas, brews and boos: Halloween festivities for a cause in Des Moines
Back in the Iron Age, the holiday we now celebrate as Halloween was Samhain, a Celtic festival acknowledging the end of summer and marking the turning of the year. The themes of death and rebirth have persisted in our understanding, the notion of the thinning between worlds, the playing of tricks, the appearance of the […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Tiny pianos, big ideas: Witching Hour and FEaST bring playful creatives to Iowa City this fall
When Lucy Yao and Dorothy Chan began collaborating with each other and creating as Chromic Duo, both were already experienced educators and performers, looking for a way to foster community and lift up the Asian American diaspora in New York, which at the time was increasingly the target of racist violence. “I think eventually, when […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with Mirrorbox Theatre founder Cavan Hallman ahead of their first season in a new space
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, one of the first and most enduring adaptations allowing Iowans to continue experiencing the arts was young Cedar Rapids company Mirrorbox Theatre’s Out the Box series. Founder and artistic director Cavan Hallman brought together local and national performers for Zoom readings, creating community and comfort while hewing to the theater’s […]
Posted inCOVID-19
Take a survey, boost local art: The Englert’s Katie Roche on why Johnson County is participating in the Americans for the Arts study for the first time
Roughly every five years, Americans for the Arts, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit founded in 1960, conducts a nationwide impact study on how individual communities are affected economically by the arts programs they foster and support. This year, the sixth of the study, Englert Theatre Development Director Katie Roche made sure that Johnson County would be […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
FilmScene’s Refocus Festival announces slate of features, from a VR documentary to a ‘secret’ animated film
As the start date for single ticket purchases quickly approaches, FilmScene has announced the lineup of films for its inaugural Refocus Film Festival, which runs Oct. 6-9 across Iowa City. (Ticket sales begin Sept. 16; passes are on sale now and range from $65 public/$60 members for a five-show pass to $230/$195 for all access.) […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
A UI student, her professor and Amanda Gorman launched Prompt for the Planet. Four years later, they have a new prompt.
When I was a kid, way back in the 1980s and ’90s, environmentalism was huge. Greenpeace was peaking. The Exxon Valdez oil spill hit when I was 11, and all of my nascent political energy in junior high and high school became focused on saving the planet. But then something shifted, culturally. Al Gore became […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The Stanley Museum of Art’s homecoming
In 2019, the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art was celebrating its 50th anniversary. It also had been nearly 11 years without a home. The floods of 2008, which wreaked havoc across Iowa, hit Cedar Rapids and Iowa City the hardest. The Cedar and Iowa Rivers crested at 31.12 ft and 31.5 ft, respectively, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ sees Willow Creek Theatre Company bask in genderfuckery
I write this review of Willow Creek Theatre Company’s production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell, text; Stephen Trask, music and lyrics) with the music of Tomato Boy playing in the background on Bandcamp. There’s not much available; a few singles, a collection of three titled birthday demos. The earliest was added […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Endlessly Ever After’ by Laurel Snyder, ill. by Dan Santat
Poet Laurel Snyder, an Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum, is a Geisel Award-winning children’s book author. Endlessly Ever After is her first collaboration with Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Dan Santat (beloved in my home for his work on Corey Rosen Schwartz’s The Three Ninja Pigs). It is not, however, her first pick-your-path book. Her first published work, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Album Review: William J Locker — ‘BRAINWASH’
BRAINWASH by William J Locker Those of us of a certain age who spent any time on the rave or club scenes during their heyday are familiar with that distinct sensation of coming out the other side of a night of partying, with the sun starting to rise and the DJ lifting the music along […]
