On the first Friday of every month, something incredible happens at 900 Keosauqua Way. Creativity spills from every floor of Des Moines’ Mainframe Studios, transforming the city’s largest artist hub into a vibrant, open-door celebration of local art, music and community spirit. Inside, over 180 artists open their studios to the public, revealing an ecosystem of expression.
Central Iowa
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Ukulele maestro Andrew Hoyt is ‘bringing the fancy wine to the party’ with his new EP, Wooly’s release party
Des Moines singer-songwriter Andrew Hoyt isn’t letting the stress get to him. Not the stress that comes with debuting (and having entirely paid for) his first all-original EP of music, Kind of Paradise. Or the anxiety in planning the upcoming album release show at Wooly’s, the first time he’s headlined said venue. Sure that stress […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Fully Booked at DMPL: Nonfiction for nature lovers
I have always loved learning about the natural world. As a kid, l adored Sylvia Earle and kept my backpack full of Ranger Rick magazines. Even now, when I see a good natural sciences book come through the library, I get just as excited as I used to when I was a kid. Environmental themes […]
Posted inRecreation
Spikes happen upside-down in Sepak Takraw, a popular sport among Des Moines immigrant communities
Last summer in Linnan Park, I came across a group of people volleying a hard yellow plastic ball to one another across a net. Instead of bumping and spiking the ball with their arms, they were mostly using their feet. From a bench some distance away, I could hear the crack of the ball as […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Des Moines locals fight to save Birdland Pool and prove the North Side isn’t ‘a path of least resistance’
Generations of Des Moines residents have flocked to their neighborhood swimming pools for fun and to find relief from the heat, especially during potentially deadly heat waves. For almost 90 years, destinations have included the historic Birdland Pool at 300 Holcomb Ave in Highland Park, which opened to the general public on May 31, 1936. The […]
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
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, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Fully Booked at DMPL: Dystopian tales taking on new meaning in 2025
Recently, I’ve found myself falling back into my middle school routine of reading every dystopian book I can find. Whether it’s prompted by the dystopia-themed escape room I’ve been working on at Des Moines Public Library, or the fact Parable of the Sower was one of the most requested books at DMPL in January — […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: A family flails as a 50-year marriage fizzles in ‘Grand Horizons’ from Iowa Stage Theatre Company
The crowd’s perspective of the play shifts to the unfamiliar when the man coyly bends over to reveal his skimpy thong. Don’t get your hopes up; the near-nudity ends there.
The Iowa Stage Theatre Company recently presented Bess Whol’s Grand Horizons at the Stoner Theater in the Des Moines Civic Center from March 14 to March 23, 2025.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
DSM Book Festival returns with four headlining authors, each with an Iowa counterpart
In an increasingly digital world, connecting over a common interest in real life is even more meaningful. “It’s person to person. It’s getting recommendations. It’s finding out from your friends or people you admire what they’re reading,” said C.J. Box, the author behind the Western mystery series Joe Pickett. “You just got to get out […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Gov. Tim Walz says at Iowa town hall he is ‘soul-searching’ after 2024
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told Iowans on his first stop of a national town hall tour that he wanted to give a voice to people who feel unheard by Republicans in Washington. But he said there was another motive for these events: he is “soul-searching” following the 2024 general election, when he and Vice President […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
80/35 officially canceled after nearly 20 years in Des Moines
In October, the future of 80/35, one of Iowa’s biggest annual musical festivals, was “not currently determined,” but even at that time it seemed unlikely the festival would return. That’s because the statement about 80/35’s future was part of the Greater Des Moines Music Coalition’s (DMMC) announcement that it was shutting down, and the coalition […]
