Artists Cat Rocketship and Dani Awesome have created some big, head-turning work together: massive rainbow murals in the East Village and Historic Valley Junction; human-sized Iowa wildlife painted along a bike trail in West Des Moines; pop-up art markets and a pair of Etsy shops with over 7,000 sales of original prints, stickers, jewelry and […]
John Busbee
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The new About Time Theatre Company hopes Des Moines isn’t too squeamish
If you have an adventurous palate when it comes to theatrical experiences, it’s about time this seven-player troupe came into your life. About Time Theatre Company is made up of stage and creative arts veterans from across the country who converged on Des Moines. “[We] moved here from the Chicago market where I’d done a […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa Blues Hall of Fame inducts Eddie Bowles, John Resch, Turk E. Krause and Scott Long
The blues. An evocative word used more than two centuries ago by John James Audubon when he wrote to his wife that he “had the blues.” Before that, the first written reference was in English playwright George Colman’s 1798 Blue Devils, most likely a term filtering down from the 1600s referring to “intense visual hallucinations […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Poetry has a cathartic power for Kelsey Bigelow, and she’s determined to share it
“We deserve to be on the big stages the way stand-up comedians are,” said Des Moines poet Kelsey Bigelow. “We’re using our stories and our voices. It’s just in a different format.” Iowa, home of the celebrated Writers’ Workshop and the UNESCO City of Literature, is embracing a new generation of poetic voices, from Caleb […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Peak Iowa: The Clown prince of heavy metal reigns on, 25 years after Slipknot’s Safari Club debut
Since the release of their eponymous debut studio album in 1999, and the even more hellacious follow-up Iowa in 2001, the music and masked musicians of metal band Slipknot have resonated with irrefutable musical defiance for millions of “maggots,” as their fans proudly call themselves, the world over. It all started in Des Moines, hometown […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Des Moines’ Sensi’il Studios makes its cinematic debut Nov. 15 with a new kind of comic book movie
Sensi’il Studios, the brainchild of Des Moines artist Basi Affia, is the only Black comic book publisher in the states of Iowa and Nebraska. Pyramid Theatre Company, meanwhile, is Iowa’s first Black theater company. Before he founded Sensi’il Studios in 2022, Affia was a critically acclaimed performer in two of Pyramid’s stellar early productions, A […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The Slaughterhouse in Des Moines sates its fiendish fanbase with year-round haunts, escapes, ‘spookeasies’ and Slipknot-inspired scares
Driven by a voracious appetite for fright, Central Iowa fans of haunted house experiences continue to seek the best venues for adrenaline rushes. One dark destination stands apart from the others, a haunt with a novel-length backstory and themed experiences all year: The Slaughterhouse. A growing fanbase awaits the latest offering from the immersive fright […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Contact Buzz: Des Moines’ 48 Hour Film Project celebrates 20 years of frenetic filmmaking
An excited tension permeates the theater on this Friday in July. It is packed with filmmakers anticipating some fast, creative cinematography. The figurative starter’s gun will soon discharge, signaling that each team has two days — 48 hours — to conceive, script, shoot, edit and submit a short film to mark the successful completion of […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Contact Buzz: The Toon’d In pop-up art show returns to Des Moines with some nerdy new themes
Toon’d In Art Show: 50th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, The Fremont, Des Moines, Saturday, July 13, 6-10 p.m., Free A golden age for small indie art shows flourished from 2008 to 2021, when the now-defunct Des Moines Social Club was bursting with activity. It was an epicenter for all arts disciplines, including several small, […]
Posted inRecreation
Contact Buzz: Recreation is renewal
“A period recourse into the wilds is not a retreat into secret silent sanctums to escape a wicked world, it is to take breath amid effort to forge a better world.”—Benton MacKaye (1879-1975), American forester, planner and conservationist “The intellect must not be kept at consistent tension, but diverted by pastimes…The mind must have relaxation, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Contact Buzz: Creative activism helps all voices be heard, from the stage to the canvas
Jill Wells is a Des Moines-based multimedia artist whose murals confronting issues of race, history, accessibility and human experience have been seen—and felt—by thousands. She creates 3D, tactile murals designed with the disability community in mind.
Posted inCentral Iowa, Recreation
Descend into Yellow Banks Park, 576 acres of ancient history
Tucked along a panoramic stretch of the Des Moines River in southeast Polk County is a park that feels many miles away from the state’s largest metro area. Buffered from the usual traffic sounds by dense woods and isolated stretches of natural landscape, Yellow Banks Park exudes an almost zen-like allure, with 150-foot high yellow-colored […]
