With the Nov. 1 release of their debut album, Gone West, the Bernemann Brothers Band finally provides their fan base with a set of songs that show how far they’ve come in the past five years. The band started with a single performance, when musical brothers and veteran musicians Matt (drums) and Ryan (guitar and […]
Arts & Entertainment
Weekender, Dec. 3: Virtual Holiday Thieves Market, Midwest Writers Potluck and more to do this weekend

The Weekender Cozy up with the editor’s pick of this weekend’s can’t-miss virtual events from local artists and venues! This weekend’s lineup features the virtual Holiday Thieves Market, a ukulele Christmas concert, a discussion for the “podcast-curious” and much more. Online A Christmas Carol Nov 27 – Dec 13 – Begins streaming Fri. 11/27 at […]
Best of the CRANDIC 2020: Arts & Entertainment

The results are in! Browse the winners of Little Village’s 2020 Best of the CRANDIC competition in the Arts & Entertainment category, representing voters’ favorite artists, groups, venues and organizations in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City area. Best Local Band: Elizabeth Moen elizabethmoen.com Her stage presence is as beautiful as her voice, if you can believe […]
Sparse and exquisite, Riverside’s production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ is exactly what we need

With its opening this past weekend, Riverside Theatre’s production of Paul Morella’s A Christmas Carol adaptation has officially brought the holiday season down upon us. The pandemic takes the loss this time — it can’t rid us of the magic, charm and lessons we cherish from stingy old Ebenezer Scrooge. Nestle in front of your […]
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 […]
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 […]
Best of the CRANDIC Spotlight: KRUI 89.7 FM

KRUI 89.7 FM was voted Best Radio Station in Little Village’s 2020 Best of the CRANDIC awards. Things are constantly changing in Iowa City as students move in and move on and familiar parts of the landscape disappear, replaced by new apartment buildings. Sometimes nothing seems permanent except the flocked wallpaper at George’s. But at […]
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 […]
In memoriam: Everyone who knew John Hopkins has a ‘John story’

John Hopkins died on Nov. 21, 2020. By Ian McCuskey, Nashville For JH In the late fall of 2005 I had just started working at New Pioneer Co-op in Coralville. One afternoon at a local Indian buffet, I was discussing my newfound and still shaky employment with an acquaintance. She reassuringly told me she had […]
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 […]
Album Review: Ben Driscoll — ‘Unseen Danger’

UNSEEN DANGER by Ben Driscoll I don’t know if it’s a conscious influence, but the music and moody atmosphere of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks come immediately to mind listening to “Muleville,” the lead-off track on Ben Driscoll’s Unseen Danger. The tremolo guitar is an Angelo Badalamenti favorite, and the cooing backing vocals from Katherine Ruestow […]
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 […]