Flat Black Studio (Long Play Records) was voted Best Local Record Label or Recording Studio in Little Village’s 2020 Best of the CRANDIC awards. Flat Black founder Luke Tweedy and second-in-command Dana T have been cranking out phenomenal records from their Lone Tree oasis for years now. They lure in the best local and regional […]
Genevieve Trainor
Genevieve Trainor lives in Iowa City, Iowa. Passions include heavy music, hoppy beer, and hidden rooms.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Best of the CRANDIC Spotlight: Bart Carithers, Next Page Books
Bart Carithers was voted Best Entrepreneur in Little Village’s 2020 Best of the CRANDIC awards. The Best Local Entrepreneur of the CRANDIC, Bart Carithers, celebrated five years of ownership at Next Page Books (which first opened as NewBo Books in 2012) this December. That also marked his five-year anniversary as a businessman. “I had no […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Best of the CRANDIC Spotlight: Camp Wapsie
Camp Wapsie was voted Best Summer Camp in Little Village’s 2020 Best of the CRANDIC awards. If you’ve ever felt that gentle pull of nostalgia while watching Wet Hot American Summer (or its brilliant serial reboot), the Babysitters’ Club “Hello, Camp Moosehead” finale, either version of The Parent Trap or, say, anything in the Friday […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Best of the CRANDIC Spotlight: Andrew’s Bar Exam
In 2014, Andrew Juhl attended a bar trivia event at Old Capitol Brew Works. The organizer was planning to step down after the next event, so Juhl offered to take over, and Andrew’s Bar Exam was born. Over the next six years, it grew to weekly shows at 21 venues and monthly shows at another […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Best of the CRANDIC Spotlight: Theatre Cedar Rapids
Theatre Cedar Rapids was voted Best Community Music or Theater Group in Little Village’s 2020 Best of the CRANDIC competition. Theatre Cedar Rapids traces its history back nearly 100 years, to a small group of players in 1925 producing sporadic shows in Grant Wood’s studio apartment at 5 Turner Alley. Out of that was born […]
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Best of the CRANDIC Spotlight: Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey
Caleb Rainey was voted Best Poet/Spoken Word Artist in Little Village’s 2020 Best of the CRANDIC awards. “The oldest poem I can think of was one in elementary school. Obviously, it rhymed,” Best Poet of the CRANDIC Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey said in a recent phone call, laughing. “But the poem that I count […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Best of the CRANDIC Spotlight: Iowa City Police Log
Iowa City Police Log was voted Best Local Twitter Account and Best Local Facebook Page in Little Village’s 2020 Best of the CRANDIC awards. Long before there was Iowa City Police Log the book (published by Little Village), there was the Iowa City Police Log social media presence (@IC_ActivityLog on Twitter, IowaCityPoliceLog on Facebook), a […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Love and Corn and Whatnot’ by John M. Donovan
Hillsboro Publishing Parker Graham is uncertain in the ways that only a recent high school graduate can be. In Love and Corn and Whatnot, John M Donovan revisits the world of his earlier novel Trombone Answers, but the arc of the main character’s coming of age stands alone and cohesive for new readers. As Parker […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture’ by Anaïs Duplan
Published by Black Ocean When Center for Afrofuturist Studies founding curator Anaïs Duplan first launched that initiative in Iowa City in 2016, he told Little Village, “It’s about making it safe to feel uncomfortable and then trying to make it better.” That philosophy echoes throughout the twists and turns of his latest work, Blackspace: On […]
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Video premiere: Jim Swim, ‘Softee Boy’
Two years ago, LV reviewer Lucas Benson described Jim Swim’s In It With You EP as “a blend of hip hop, Nick Drake bootlegs, a book of poems by Rumi and a cold Arnold Palmer spiked with a little bit of whiskey.” It’s striking that, if you squint, those are all things you can imagine […]
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Video premiere: Elizabeth Moen, ‘Eating Chips’ lyric video
Since her first album dropped in 2016, Little Village reviewers have been heaping praise on Iowa City chanteuse Elizabeth Moen. Kent Williams said of her self-titled debut, “this initial burst of ‘I can do this!’ creativity is remarkable for being so good so quickly.” In Paul Osgerby’s review of her sophomore release That’s All I […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Artist Jordan Weber explores the intersection of climate and racial violence in collaboration with Cedar Rapids museums
Jordan Weber first began meditating when he was a junior in high school, with visions of professional basketball in his future. He read the book Sacred Hoops by long-time NBA player and coach Phil Jackson, which in turn led him to seminal Western practice text Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. “I was extremely lucky to find […]
