A live and local example of the creative partnership between art and skate culture is realized in “The Skate Deck Art Show,” a collaborative exhibit brought to life by the Dubuque Area Arts Collective and Olliewood Action Sports. Over 100 artists, skaters and non-skaters alike, across all ages, channeled their energy into creating original works of art on skate decks.
Eastern Iowa Arts & Entertainment
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Peak Iowa: Ana Mendieta’s aching, unsettling absence
In Árbol de la Vida (1976) Ana Mendieta covered herself in mud and foliage and pressed her body against a tree, blending into it as if becoming part of it. It is simultaneously body art, sculpture and performance. I am stunned by the absolute physicality of her work, the bodily engagement with the land itself: […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Peak Iowa: The LDS Church is not happy about ‘Heretic,’ the latest film from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been on damage control recently. A Nov. 4 news release on the Church’s site, posted just days before the opening of A24 film Heretic, doesn’t mention the psychological thriller by name, but aims to “assist journalists and the public with questions and concerns regarding the safety […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
What does it mean to be seen? New play ‘Myocardium; Graphite’, staged by Dreamwell, draws the audience into an art class
Myocardium; Graphite, a new work by MFA Playwright, Eli Campbell, offers a poignant and immersive experience that grapples with the complexities of human vulnerability, trauma and connection.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Mission Creek Festival announces lineup for their 20th fest, the final with Englert at the helm
Iowa City’s premiere music and literature festival, Mission Creek Festival, just announced its 2025 lineup. Mission Creek Festival 2025 will mark the 20th anniversary of the Festival and the last iteration produced by The Englert.
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First-of-its-kind Iowa City Madrigal Dinner is raising yuletide spirits, funds for UAY this weekend
The Iowa City Madrigal Singers are set to celebrate the Yuletide season with a dinner to support United Action for Youth this coming weekend. The event consists of a-cappella and instrumental music and a four-course dinner with wassail.
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Tom Tomorrow wins Berryman Award for This Modern World comic strip
On Friday morning, the National Press Foundation announced Dan Perkins is this year’s winner of the Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons. The name Dan Perkins may not instantly ring a bell, but Little Village readers definitely know his work. For almost 40 years, Perkins has been writing and drawing This Modern World using his pen […]
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The Englert and ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ cast celebrate 20 years of unabashedly odd entertainment
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Englert Theatre’s nonprofit status. Coincidentally, it also marks the 20th anniversary of the 2004 independent film Napoleon Dynamite.
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The importance of being Colleen Ernst
Colleen Ernst did not blend in, even in 1980s Iowa City. She was imposingly tall, with brightly dyed red hair, multicolored plastic glasses and homemade earrings. I met her because my sons were in a home daycare with her son Max, named for the surrealist artist Max Ernst. She’s best known now for striking up […]
Posted inEastern Iowa Arts & Entertainment
Q.C. punk supergroup Running Man are launching their self-titled album in style at Raccoon Motel
Punk rock and the DIY scene are a labor of love, but when that labor and dedication converge in their most radiant ways, great things can happen. For the Quad Cities, the moment of this convergence is now with Running Man.
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Caleb Rainey and Lisa Roberts on getting ‘the leader of this generation’s spoken word’ for Mic Check Poetry Fest
The 2024 Mic Check Poetry Fest, billed as a two-day celebration of spoken word and its power to bear witness, create community and inspire change, kicks off Friday night with a showcase featuring some of the biggest names in the spoken word landscape. Little Village talked with festival organizers Caleb Rainey (recent Iowa Authors Award […]
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‘The audience will not be spectators — they will be witnesses’: Helmed by two Black women, UI’s ‘for colored girls…’ is a rare, timely production
Choreopoem. That’s the word author and playwright Ntozake Shange invented to describe her seminal masterpiece, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. The collection of twenty poems about seven African American women characters first came to life in 1974 at The Bacchanel, a lesbian bar near Berkeley, California.
