Seth David’s appearance at Gabe’s was part of The Englert’s Track Zero initiative, a concert series launched in the fall of 2023 designed to “introduce Englert audiences to fresh, rising artists who are defining the next wave of alternative music.” The brainchild of The Englert’s former Programming Coordinator, Elly Hofmaier, Track Zero has already delivered some memorable shows to Iowa City.
Eastern Iowa
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Englert programmer Grace Merritt: ‘The arts are the exact antithesis to what’s going on nationally’
Grace Merritt came to Iowa City for college and stayed for the vibrant arts scene. “Growing up, I didn’t have that kind of music community,” she said. “Music in my hometown is like, ‘Do you want to go see the high school’s band?’” Merritt describes her hometown of Naperville, a western suburb of Chicago, as […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Physical media is (still) king at The Source, Davenport’s storied two-story used bookstore
Started by George Pekios and passed down through several generations to longtime owner Dan Pekios, The Source has recently been moving out of the family’s ownership. Briefly owned by a loyal employee, it has now been sold to Stephen Zbornik and Anne Brown, a couple who’s passion for doing things has carried them through many walks of life.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Reimagining the Black Midwest with a new exhibition at the Stanley Museum of Art
Curated by Reynolds and supported by a five-person curatorial cohort of advisors, “it’s a fine thing” explores the rich and often overlooked landscape of the Black Midwest, including the Rust Belt.
Posted inCommunity/News
UI’s International Writing Program makes drastic cuts after Trump administration terminates grants
The International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa announced on Thursday it is having to make drastic cuts, because vital grants awarded to the program by the U.S. State Department are “being terminated.”
Posted inArts & Entertainment
David Lynch’s Iowa odyssey
David Lynch, who was called “America’s first surrealist filmmaker” by actor Dennis Hopper, died in Los Angeles at age 78 on Jan. 16, four days shy of his 79th birthday. Known for films such as Mulholland Drive (2001), he gained a new audience during the COVID pandemic as the internet’s favorite weatherman, streaming daily reports from “Here in sunny L.A.” on his YouTube channel.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: A fence between neighbors sparks polite, passive aggressive chaos in Riverside’s timely ‘Native Gardens’
Native Gardens opens to the strains of “Las Casitas del Barrio Alto” by Victor Jara. Keen-eared listeners will recognize the melody of Malvina Reynolds’ “Little Boxes” and while the Spanish iteration was written to critique socioeconomic disparities in Chile, it contains the same critique of upper middle class posturing as it’s sister song.
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Change happens from the ground up’: Oliver Weilein wins the special election in Iowa City District C
Oliver Weilein won the special election for the Iowa City Council seat in District C in a landslide on Tuesday. Weilein received 60 percent of the vote. The other candidate in the race, Ross Nusser, finished with 40 percent of 6,902 votes cast.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
On the Big, Big Screen: Five movies you’ve gotta go see in local theaters this month
LV film columnist Benjamin McElroy recommends five screenings happening this month at Iowa’s independent movie theaters.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Interview: Lady Igraine’s interpretation of what the fuck just happened
Working at our arts & culture desk, there are lots of unsolicited emails from new music artists about their latest project. Within the messages there is a best-case, white-whale scenario: hit play, immediately realize this is something different. Which is exactly what happened…
Posted inEastern Iowa
Polls open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday for the special election to fill the Iowa City Council seat in District C
Election Day for the open Iowa City Council seat in District C is Tuesday. Unlike the primary election on Feb. 4, in which only residents of District C could vote, all registered voters in Iowa City will be able to vote in the special election on Tuesday.
Posted inBook Reviews
Plain Spoken: Casual lust and barbaric violence mingle in the minds of Horacio Castellanos Moya’s narrators
Horacio Castellanos Moya is one of the writers Iowa City is luckiest to have. He was born in Honduras but raised in El Salvador, where he lived and worked for many years—in addition to Mexico City, his address during the Salvadoran civil war of the 1980s—as a journalist and influential newspaper editor.
