It was a sweaty, 83-degree day when I went to Revival Theatre Company’s staging of La Cage Aux Folles. This was perfect weather to be spirited away to Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera and into a packed theater full of cheering, clapping and the best show I’ve seen this year. The musical is a reworking […]
Eastern Iowa Arts & Entertainment
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Review: A mile of lights turn the Figge into Iowa’s biggest public artwork — a sight to see from both sides of the Mississippi
On May 18, 2025, the city of Davenport, Iowa began to glow. Nestled amongst the downtown’s old buildings, the Figge Art Museum celebrated its 20th anniversary by unveiling Evanescent Field, an architectural art project by internationally acclaimed light artist Leo Villareal. Hundreds of onlookers gathered in the promenade to the already stunning museum designed by […]
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Fully Booked at ICPL: Books that answer ‘what can I do?’
As a librarian who works with teens, I know the job isn’t just about recommending books. It’s about making information digestible to help them formulate their own solutions. Young people are apex community members, and they have many questions right now. They’re passionate, dedicated and hungry for ways to be impactful while trying to understand […]
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Review: Ever dreamed of hiding in a store overnight? Documentary ‘Secret Mall Apartment’ makes space for the anarchist in all of us
I can’t speak for everyone, but if teenage me found out that there was a secret Playstation clubhouse in my local mall, with an access panel hidden over a toilet, I would have gone through the looking glass in a heartbeat. This is a proposition that 2024 documentary Secret Mall Apartment presents, with Providence, Rhode […]
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Review: Orchestra Iowa conjures an anti-fascist classic in masterful Coralville concert
Orchestra Iowa (previously the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra) presented their next-to-last concert of the season on Sunday, May 18 at the Coralville Center For the Performing Arts. I don’t think it was designed as a symphonic venue; the stage looks a little snug for a full orchestra. But as a venue, it has a lot going […]
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Review: Davenport horror fans cheered for iconic kills, scored live by legendary composer Fabio Frizzi
The gang at Void Church added something new to their repertoire by co-hosting Italian composer Fabio Frizzi at The Capitol Theater in Davenport on Thursday, May 8. Void Church typically aims for an audio-visual experience of goth and shoegaze based concerts complete with custom lighting, visuals, and the occasional fog machine as well as DJ-driven […]
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Review: The Sam Ross Quartet and Michael Sarian channel Miles Davis and early electric jazz at the PS1 Close House
This is the first in hopefully many reviews I will write in the near future covering local, live musical performances. I hope that sharing my experience at these shows will give people some idea of what music in our own town sounds like and feels like. I am a lifelong musician in addition to being […]
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The 25th Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival featured stories local, global and out of this world, all with an Iowa connection
Collins Road Theatres was positively buzzing the weekend of April 4-6, and not just because A Minecraft Movie had premiered. The Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival (CRIFF) returned to screen a new slate of original, Midwest-made films inside an unpresuming Marion shopping center. As the lights dimmed for my first film of the fest, I […]
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Shall we dance? The Magnetic Fields will perform all ‘69 Love Songs’ (including their accidental wedding standard) over two nights at the Englert
Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs (1999) contains two of Stephin Merritt’s most beloved numbers, “The Book of Love” and “Papa Was a Rodeo.” Both have become standards a quarter century after their release, though they represent but a tiny fraction of equally brilliant earworms that appear in that industrial-sized collection of music. When Merritt started […]
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Void Church welcomes Italian horror composer Fabio Frizzi back to the Quad Cities with his masterful ‘Zombie’ score
Quad Cities arts collective Void Church has a taste for the goth, synthy and underground side of music. It’s no surprise, then, that they’re big fans of Italian horror films, specifically the influential works of director Lucio Fulci and composer Fabio Frizzi. The two maestros paid a visit to the Q.C. in the before times […]
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Review: The Beyond Fashion Fest made a dandy impression in downtown Iowa City, showcasing streetwear, grunge, indigenous and avant garde designs
Wright House of Fashion’s latest event was a two-day showcase of art, comedy, talks on fashion and diversity, and of course, fashion shows. The first fashion show of the inaugural Beyond Fashion Festival was Jamie Sauncoci’s JS Wear, sponsored by the Great Plains Action Society and hosted in the Graduate’s ballroom. The show opened with […]
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After divorcing her bandmate, Deb Talan channeled heartbreak into a solo album
Little Village spoke with singer-songwriter and visual artist Deb Talan about the inspiration behind her recently-released solo album, I Thought I Saw You, what she loves about creating art in her chosen hometown of Iowa City, and the joy she’s found in collaborating with her fellow Iowa-based artists.
