Ed Folsom first heard Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” in 1963 on the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Folsom, now the Roy J. Carver Professor of English at the University of Iowa and editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, was in 11th grade at the time. He recounted […]
Eastern Iowa Arts & Entertainment
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa City Pride’s June celebration returns
Iowa City Pride’s 2022 celebration returns to Pride Month this weekend after two years of cancellations and delays. Festivities officially kicked off yesterday with the organization’s bar crawl and events will continue leading up to the all-day festival on Saturday. This year will mark the 51st Iowa City Pride Festival. On Wednesday evening, drop by […]
Posted inEastern Iowa
New opera ‘Orphan Train to Iowa’ brings a dark but hopeful history to the Coralville stage
A little-known piece of Iowa history is coming to the stage in a one-night-only opera from the Crescendo Children’s Choir. Child and adult singers, including professional opera stars, will perform Orphan Train to Iowa: For the Love of Pete on Saturday, June 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts. The […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Bring your own TP, and other tips from Iowa summer music festival regulars
It’s that magical time of year again! Festival season is back and that means wristband tan lines, sipping craft beer with buddies and seeing all your favorite bands onstage. Although most festivals took a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many are back this year in full force. Alongside national favorites like Coachella, South-By-Southwest, Bonnaroo […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Watch: With pixels and paint, Stacia Rain Stonerook brings both the familiar and alien to colorful life
Stacia Rain Stonerook has painted a Ped Mall bench, manages graphics and marketing at FilmScene, designs a literary magazine and, in her free time, is transposing downtown Iowa City into a pixel art world, and inventing a universe of alien flora. “If I had to use three words to describe my work I’d probably say […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Public art meets the front porch swing in Black Hawk Mini Park
The official description of Mi Casa, Your Casa 2.0 calls it an “international participatory public art installation” that “features a series of three-dimensional red frames that illustrate the warmth, comfort, and safety of our home.” But anyone walking past Black Hawk Mini Park can be forgiven if their first thought is, Oh, look, swings! The […]
Posted inWeekender
Weekender Eastern Iowa! Weekly concerts, Kolach Festival, CR Scavenger Hunt
READ THE LATEST | SUPPORT LITTLE VILLAGE | SHOP PERKS THE WEEKENDER Your weekly editor-curated arts compendium If you aren’t outdoors this weekend, what even is the point of June?! Weekly concerts are in full swing across the region, a scavenger hunt helps you explore Cedar Rapids — but the most exciting thing to get […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Ballet Des Moines announces six-show free summer tour for ‘Of Gravity and Light’
Ballet Des Moines has announced a six-stop trip across Iowa for Of Gravity and Light, a deeply immersive, science-packed show that received a standing ovation at its one-night only show on April 22. Gravity on Tour will include a mobile planetarium, Iowa State University’s FLEx Virtual Reality lab and more STEM experiences, as well as […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Mr. Softheart (formerly Hex Girls) — “Caravaggio”/“Flower of Tomorrow”
“I suppose the new direction is another pandemic story,” Nick Fisher offers as the impetus for the recent pivot of the band formerly known as Hex Girls. “I had begun writing lyrics to songs that seemed to lend themselves to a new project: The themes were darker, perhaps more complex. Personal grief, as well as […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: MEKTOUB — ‘Elizabeth’
In 2019, frequenters of Goosetown Café mingled with friends of John Rapson to delight in the new band he had assembled: MEKTOUB. It was a trio, initially — Rapson on the keys, Ryan Smith on woodwinds and Nielo Gaglione on vocals and mandole. Together, the three produced a distinct style of improvisational music they describe […]
