After Taylor Bergen saw a show put on by Legion Arts at CSPS Hall in 2011, he decided he wanted to work for the Cedar Rapids arts organization. He called the next day to see if they were hiring. They weren’t. But a little over three months later, Bergen was hired as a program associate, and worked for Legion Arts for almost four years. Now, Bergen is back at CSPS. He was named interim director of Legion Arts on Wednesday. […]
Legion Arts co-founder F. John Herbert announced on Saturday he is stepping down as executive director of the Cedar Rapids nonprofit after 28 years. His resignation took effect on Sunday, Sept. 29. […]
Mirrorbox Theater is ready to ask some tough questions with its Iowa premier of ‘Sender’ this weekend. Questions like, “What really matters?” and “How do we define ourselves and our relationships?” […]
It was always expected that Sen. Elizabeth Warren would receive a warm welcome in Cedar Rapids from the Linn Phoenix Club. The group works to elect progressive Democrats at the county level, and Warren is one of the most progressive Democrats running for president. What wasn’t expected was the size of the welcome. The Thursday […]
The day after Bernard (Matthew James) and Ellen (Angie Toomsen) are caught making passionate love on the college green, they are informed they must apologize publicly for their display or face termination. The play opens when Bernard takes the stage, lecturing on the ecstasy that is Blake’s poem “Infant Joy” from Songs of Innocence; Ellen’s final class centers on “The Sick Rose” from Songs of Experience. Both characters spend the bulk of the the play connecting the poems to their lives and their 20-year long relationship. […]
Most reviews and interviews with Gordon mention that he spent time attending the Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa in the late ’80s getting his Masters in Poetry. But during this time he was also performing his music around eastern Iowa. […]
Forty-nine years ago this week, a relatively unknown young woman took the stage at perhaps the seminal cultural event in U.S. history. Melanie Safka-Schekeryk was only 22 when the Woodstock Music and Art Fair — “3 Days of Peace & Music,” the posters read — took over a farm in upstate New York and changed the course of music. […]
In 2008, he had been considering retirement. Now, he’s curating two major shows, both opening June 7. One is of his own post-flood work (running through July), and will be held at CSPS Hall, the renovated New Bo building that houses his studio and Legion Arts, both of which suffered great losses due to the flood. The other (running through June 16) is a look back at the 2x2xU exhibit that was hanging all around New Bo when the flood came through. […]
Analog Vault, the Cedar Rapids independent record store, is moving from the space it’s occupied in on the second floor of the converted bank building that’s now home to the Chrome Saloon & Slop House in the New Bo District. […]
When delightful East Coast songstress Nellie McKay makes a tour stop in Cedar Rapids this weekend, she won’t be alone. “She will be coming to Iowa, her first time in Iowa,” McKay said in a phone call of her travel partner, her beloved rescue dog Bessie. “She’s looking forward to lots of skips and rolls.” […]
Elkader native Alan Webber is back in Iowa for two presentations of his Rural Route Film Festival — tonight, April 19 at CSPS Hall in Cedar Rapids (tickets are $10) and Sunday, April 22 at Luther College in Decorah, as part of the Oneota Film Festival. […]
The newest addition to the Eastern Iowa theater scene, Mirrorbox Theatre, opens its inaugural production this weekend. The play, Ike Holter’s “Exit Strategy,” runs Thursday, April 5 through Saturday, April 7 in the C Space at CSPS Hall in Cedar Rapids’ NewBo District. […]
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