A few years ago, the Englert Theatre and FilmScene initiated a campaign to make Iowa City “the Greatest Small City for the Arts.” And that title is justified. Not only do our local arts organizations bring us incredible performances, but we also boast a highly talented home-grown community of artists and performers. As the fall […]
Eastern Iowa Arts & Entertainment
Posted inWeekender
Weekender Eastern Iowa! Chipmunk’d | Racial Reckoning through Comics | The Feralings
READ THE LATEST | SUPPORT LITTLE VILLAGE | SHOP PERKS THE WEEKENDER Your weekly editor-curated arts compendium School’s in session, Eastern Iowa! And that means that along with the myriad brilliant comedy, theater (a new Megan Gogerty show?!), music and other offerings, it’s also the golden age of learning opportunities for all. Top pick? The kick-off to the University […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
A UI student, her professor and Amanda Gorman launched Prompt for the Planet. Four years later, they have a new prompt.
When I was a kid, way back in the 1980s and ’90s, environmentalism was huge. Greenpeace was peaking. The Exxon Valdez oil spill hit when I was 11, and all of my nascent political energy in junior high and high school became focused on saving the planet. But then something shifted, culturally. Al Gore became […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
New play ‘Wings’ takes flight at the CCPA
“This play is really about gun violence,” Wings writer and director Matt Falduto told Little Village. “It was inspired by the student advocates after different school shootings that have happened.” Wings, which opens Friday, Sept. 2 at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, is set in a world “where teenagers come of age by […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Cedar Rapids brings back its ‘after dark’ farmers market this Saturday
Market After Dark is returning for its seventh year, as the Cedar Rapids Downtown Farmers Market closes out its summer season. There will be more than 100 farmers market vendor offering their wares at the four-and-an-half-hour event, which starts at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday. “We are excited to bring back entertainment, and a few other […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Watch: Claudia McGehee sketches and scratches her favorite parts of nature
Claudia McGehee’s scratchboard illustrations for children’s books, business logos, Java House cups and other freelance projects have garnered buzz. But the Iowa City artist’s ultimate goal is to reflect the beauty — and vulnerability — of the environment through her work. “I think it’s important that artists are also activists as well,” she said. “You […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The Meskwaki Annual Powwow, a century-old tradition, returns to Tama this week
The Meskwaki Annual Powwow has returned after two years of cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The four-day celebration, which commemorates the end of summer, will begin today and last through Aug. 14. This will be the 106th powwow since the event’s inception in 1913, though its roots trace even further back to the Green […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The Stanley Museum of Art’s homecoming
In 2019, the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art was celebrating its 50th anniversary. It also had been nearly 11 years without a home. The floods of 2008, which wreaked havoc across Iowa, hit Cedar Rapids and Iowa City the hardest. The Cedar and Iowa Rivers crested at 31.12 ft and 31.5 ft, respectively, […]
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Just Announced: LV and the Englert present a new Witching Hour series
Little Village is thrilled to announce this year’s Witching Hour Series, a joint presentation with the Englert. In past years, Witching Hour has been a weekend festival. For 2022, individual events spanning from late September to the end of October will all bear the Witching Hour name. They will remain focused on the ongoing Witching […]
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‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ sees Willow Creek Theatre Company bask in genderfuckery
I write this review of Willow Creek Theatre Company’s production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell, text; Stephen Trask, music and lyrics) with the music of Tomato Boy playing in the background on Bandcamp. There’s not much available; a few singles, a collection of three titled birthday demos. The earliest was added […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘The Machine Stops’ blends opera, sci-fi and rock to showcase Iowa talent, explore a tech dystopia
Not everyone sits at home dreaming of attending an opera. But it might just be time to start. The Machine Opera Company is bringing an exciting new modern opera to the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts. The Machine Stops will be staged for just two performances later this month. Librettist Cecile Goding has always […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘Make art. Shoot a video. Play in a band.’ Gen X rockers reunite in Iowa City to encourage the next generation
“At the Old Threshers Reunion this summer, you’re going to come across some old pumps, tractors and hay balers, and there’ll be too-cute nanny goats and freckled girls in pigtails,” said musician David Murray, summing up the annual festival in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa that celebrates the state’s agricultural heritage. “If you go to the Old […]
