While an author reads, she cannot know that three people are filming her: husband, daughter and granddaughter. It’s a moment to remember. That was the level of intimacy felt on Friday, April 4 during Mission Creek Festival’s Lit Walk. As much a part of the mythos of the Festival as the long list of past music headliners, the Lit Walk, as the MCF website states, gives festival-goers an opportunity to “…hear an unexpected variety of work from a mix of talented local and out-of-town writers.”
Arts & Entertainment
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: From rapt silence to cathartic screams, Mission Creek’s Day 2 performers crowd-surfed the line between rage and joy
Night two of Mission Creek, in contrast with the first night’s containment at Hancher, encompassed many venues around the downtown area, a return to previous years’ mad dash of “Creekers” around Iowa City looking for the show that will change their lives, whether that be a new-to-you music act or a local literary hero at the […]
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Author Rachel Kushner describes writing ‘an ideas novel that’s not boring’ in conversation with Kim Gordon
The American woman watches people standing in line and waiting to pay at the cash register. It’s a highway travel center in France and the woman observes customers walk in and out. She’s at the same time bored and fascinated. People buy dried truffles or lavender oil or glass jars of something resembling cat food. […]
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Review: Mission Creek 2025 kicks off with the glorious Kim Gordon, Rachel Kushner and LA LOM
Opening night of Mission Creek! At Hancher! My last Mission Creek was 2019, officially the Before Times of Iowa City public culture. Venues have closed, or been torn down. Hancher was buzzing with people with their lanyards and wristbands, anticipating a deep dive into live music and culture. There is a Mission Creek feeling, shared […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Lex Leto x Christine Burke Ensemble — ‘I am here but I must go’
I am here but I must go by Lex Leto x The Christine Burke Ensemble Lex Leto has released their highly anticipated second studio album, I am here but I must go, in collaboration with the Christine Burke Ensemble. Beautiful yet jarring, all six tracks are extremely well-ordered and create an enchanting story. The album […]
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The Iowan-produced ‘Bob Trevino Likes It’ premieres at Varsity Cinema, FilmScene Friday
What does it mean to foster a chosen family? To find a community so welcoming, it becomes another unit of intimacy altogether? For film producer Edgar Rosa, it meant cultivating a hub of artistry at an early age. Born in California, but raised in Iowa, Rosa was involved with the Des Moines Playhouse by age […]
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This weekend in Iowa: Mission Creek, Molly Nova & The Hawks and Mainframe’s First Friday
Established 2001 | Always free! April kicks off the spring festival season with the return of two long-running fests: Mission Creek Festival in Iowa City and the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival in Marion. No need for any FOMO in our other reader regions, though. In Des Moines, musician/historian Seth Hedquist will present his ode […]
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Review: The Acting Company stages August Wilson’s ‘Two Trains Running’ — set in a 1969 diner — with cinematic precision
The Acting Company’s recent production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, presented by Hancher Auditorium in collaboration with Riverside and the Englert Theatre and performed on the latter’s stage March 28 and 29, is a solid and heartfelt rendition of one of Wilson’s most meditative plays.
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Plain Spoken: This ever-evolving American anthem recalls Iowa’s abolitionist glory days
In keeping with tradition, one dramatic beat of the presidential inauguration in January was the Naval Academy Glee Club’s performance of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” While it was standard inaugural fare, it was also, of course, a nauseating co-optation. A song of solidarity, bravery and liberation — an alternative national anthem — was […]
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Spring brings a shower of music releases from Mission Creek performers, a family band in Des Moines and more
Last week saw a slew of new singles, fresh videos and premiering music projects from local artists. Is it the spirit of spring? Artists capitalizing on the build-up to festival season? Whatever the reason, it’s left a lot to catch up on. Let’s round it up!
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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 […]
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As xBk expands, Tobi Parks is doubling down on her mission to uplift local talent
When Tobi Parks opened a 250-capacity music venue in Des Moines’ Drake neighborhood in 2019, she was enacting her plan B. “I think it always goes back to this idea: I was a musician [and] when I first started it was always like, yeah, you can be a musician but always have a plan B, […]
