The Iowa City Jazz Festival kicks off at 5 p.m. on Friday as the city’s annual Summer of the Arts continues. Like all Summer of Arts festivals, the jazz fest is free and open to the public. The three-day music event in downtown Iowa City will feature local and international jazz artists and performances covering […]
Arts & Entertainment
Posted inArts & Entertainment
This weekend in Iowa: Shakespeare, skateparks, music fests and more
Established 2001 | Always free! It’s a hot one this weekend, literally and metaphorically. AACTFest 2025 is just warming up in Des Moines, and Gabe’s in Iowa City is bringing the heat. The Cedar Basin Music Festival kicks off tomorrow in Cedar Falls, while Dubuque shreds on guitars and boards at OllieWoodStock 2025, a music […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Little Big Screen: From ‘F1’ to an iconic video-game trailer, watch these Marshalltown native’s movies this month
Nobody makes a Maid-Rite, they’ll tell you, like Taylor’s in Marshalltown. That “they” includes the director of Top Gun: Maverick, Joseph Kosinski, who hails from the home of the last best loose-meat sandwich.
Posted inCommunity/News
The Downtown Block Party is bringing live music, human checkers and a lot more to Iowa City on Saturday
From volleyball to hula hoops to a sand pit for the kids, the Iowa City Downtown District (ICDD) is bringing a bit of the beach to the streets on Saturday for the eighth annual Downtown Block Party. The Iowa City summertime staple will cover 14 blocks with art, music, culture and activities for all ages. […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: At a unique CSPS show, silence, sound baths and Cerebro-like tech create a group trance — no rave or holy ghost needed
I show up about 15 minutes early to Concentric: Transcultural Resonance in Sound Practices on Tuesday, and the room’s already packed. There’s 50, maybe 60 people packed into the tiny CSPS Black Box Theatre when I arrive and slink towards the back into one of the chairs lining the walls.
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Plain Clothes Hamburglar’ by Sean Moeller
Sean Moeller’s debut poetry collection Plain Clothes Hamburglar (Rejection Letters Press) is a tightly compressed collection of vignettes that are laden with beat, location and nostalgia to create an anthemic volume of poems that, despite their playful dressing, ask to be taken seriously. Divided into sections by ingredients in a hamburger (bun, pickles and onions, […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Joytrip — ‘Leaving State’
Leaving things never has a natural conclusion. Leaving things means unresolved relationships, passion projects and bucket lists. And maybe, just maybe, that place, or person, or thing left behind is incomplete now. Maybe, the feeling is mutual. And maybe indie folk band Joytrip is leaving state, like their album title suggests, or maybe they are […]
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This weekend in Iowa: a new museum dedicated to burlesque opens in Davenport, The Soul Rebels bring their New Orleans sound to DSM and more
Established 2001 | Always free! Even though, after the holiday, this seems like the most Monday of Friday’s, we still have a slew of events to share in today’s Weekender. MC Animosity and an all-star University of Iowa music ensemble hit up Gabe’s in Iowa City. Soulcage celebrates their debut album release (which dropped today) […]
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Review: Riverside serves ‘Romeo & Juliet’ straight up for their 40th Free Summer Shakespeare show
The mini Globe Theatre in Iowa City’s Lower City Park reopened grander than ever on Friday, July 13 for the premiere of Riverside’s 40th Free Shakespeare show and 25th season on the festival stage.
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: GooD Cal-El — ‘Buried Talents’
Buried Talents by GooD Cal-El Spirituality in hip hop comes in many forms, far from the image of clean language and repackaged praise music the idea conjures in my brain. Killah Priest, Brother Ali, Lupe Fiasco, Yasiin Bey, Chance the Rapper, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole have all spit religious bars over beats while balancing […]
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Juneteenth 2025 events in eastern and central Iowa
Juneteenth is this Thursday, June 19, and there will be commemorations, celebrations, forums and other events marking the historic holiday in Iowa both on and around the day. Here are 20 events worth checking out. Iowa City area Monday-Friday, June 16-20, Juneteenth 2025 presented by The Black Voices Project, South District Market parking lot Thursday, […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: The Shining Realm — ‘Talismandala’
Talismandala by Shining Realm “Welcome to the Hallucination we call Home,” beckons a calm, steady voice in its echoes and layers of slithering percussion and Eastern-influenced stringed instrument tapestries. Where is home? Well, at least for these 40-odd minutes, that home is the Shining Realm — both an Iowa psychedelic supergroup and a state of […]
