The Des Moines Playhouse is about halfway to their goal of raising $3,500,000 to create a new facility for the Kate Goldman Children’s Theatre. The “Tomorrow Begins Today” capital campaign is accepting donations that will be used to upgrade theater technology, equip the theater with more comfortable and accessible seating, and expand dressing rooms to […]
Central Iowa
Posted inCentral Iowa
Thriftmart, Joppa’s nonprofit thrift store, to open in Des Moines on Thursday
There’s almost nothing more satisfying to a shopper than when money from your purchases goes towards supporting a cause — especially when that cause is hyper-local, benefitting folks that live right in your community. Luckily for Des Moines residents, a new thrift store is opening on Euclid Avenue that offers just such an opportunity. Thriftmart […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
The City of Des Moines wants to know what places residents value as they update Historic Preservation Plan
Although Des Moines was incorporated as a city in 1851, the very first Historic Preservation Plan was created for Des Moines in 1995. Implementation of the 1995 plan included the maintenance of several brick streets, new zoning rules for infill development in historic neighborhoods, the nomination of several districts into the National Register of Historic […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with author Adib Khorram, who explores queerness through the lens of a boy band in his latest YA novel
If you thought you left young adult novels in your past, Adib Khorram is going to make you rethink your choices. The Kansas City native is the bestselling author of the YA series Darius the Great and a 2021 picture book, Seven Special Somethings: A Nowruz Story. His 2022 release, Kiss and Tell, is a […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
DMPL and five other Iowa libraries to offer free digital literacy workshops, funded through national program
Des Moines Public Library (DMPL), along with 159 other American libraries will join the Public Library Association’s (PLA) Digital Literacy Workshop Incentive cohort supported by AT&T. DMPL is one of six Iowa libraries that will join the cohort. The others are Letts Public Library in Letts, Ericson Public Library in Boone, Columbus Junction Public Library […]
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Pieper Lewis case reignites conversations about sex trafficking in Iowa: ‘I think things are going to change’
Pieper Lewis’s case became national news when the 17-year-old was sentenced last month for the June 2020 killing of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks, who allegedly bought her from a sex trafficker and repeatedly raped her. Lewis was arrested when she was 15 and spent two years in jail before her sentencing. According to the Des Moines […]
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Five questions with: storyteller and speech pathologist Mama Edie Armstrong
On Saturday, Oct. 8, the Des Moines Public Library will hold its first Community Table Storytelling and Local Food Festival at three different locations around Des Moines. Alongside food vendors and activities, the festival will feature a lineup of acclaimed storytellers from across the country. One of these performers is Mama Edie Armstrong. The Chicago […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Buy books, support reproductive education at the 60th Planned Parenthood Book Sale
Autumn is here and you may be looking forward to cozying up with a few books as the weather gets colder. But if your bookshelves are in need of an update, you’re in luck. The Planned Parenthood Book Sale at the Iowa State Fairgrounds is back again this fall. The event celebrated its 60th anniversary […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with: Andy Colpitts, touring cast member in Bread and Puppet Theatre
Founded in 1963 as a way to tell neighborhood stories of New York City’s Lower East Side, Bread & Puppet Theatre is considered one of the oldest, non-profit, politically-driven theater companies in the country. In 1974, the company moved its home-base to Glover, Vermont, where it now operates a museum of retired puppets in an […]
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Christ on a bike! ‘Dixie’s Tupperware Party’ comes to Des Moines for all your storage and entertainment needs
Since 2004, Dixie Longate has been taking her Tupperware party to stages across the country, beginning off-Broadway. Until Oct. 2, you can catch Longate and her many plastic bowls at the Temple Theater in Des Moines. But if you haven’t yet been acquainted with Longate’s presentation, allow me to fill you in. The fast-talking, larger-than-life […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
A beekeeper is born: Kara Kelso harvests honey and explains why Des Moines has ‘some of the healthiest bees around’
“Look at this pollen pocket! Look at this girl!” Kara Kelso, co-owner of The Slow Down Coffee Co., excitedly directs my attention to one of her 210,000 bees who is crawling across the frame with big (relative to her size, of course) yellow pockets bursting with pollen. We are in Kelso’s backyard in the Highland […]
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Five questions with Sharon Isbin, the ‘high priestess of the guitar,’ ahead of her Des Moines concerts
Sharon Isbin has been called “the pre-eminent guitarist of our time,” “finer even then Segovia,” and “the high priestess of the guitar” by news outlets across the world. The Minnesota native has received four Grammy nominations and two wins and has released 30 albums in her impressive classical guitar career. Working with composers and artists […]
