The artist known as Jandek emerged with a divisive singer-songwriter sound in 1978. Dropping the needle on his debut album Ready for the House — which came with no liner notes, nor any accompanying concerts or interviews — you hear the unsettling moans of an acoustic guitar playing atonal, dissonant chords, the plucking of steel […]
Iowa history
Posted inCommunity/News
Hate behind opposition to school desegregation remains today, say civil rights icons who faced it
Carmen Jungbluth drove from Boone to eastern Iowa on Thursday to hear two pioneers of school desegregation from the American South speak to a crowd of 120 rapt audience members in the lead-off event to a three-day tour of Iowa dedicated to barrier-breaking events that civil rights icons Dr. Leona Tate and Carlotta Walls LaNier […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption’ by Paige Towers
It’s a thing of beauty when a piece of nonfiction can educate without demeaning, be pointedly scathing without catching the undeserving and inspire the reader to review their community with a fresh lens. Paige Towers accomplishes all of this with What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption (University of Iowa Press). I have […]
Posted inCommunity/News
From 2001: How we lost the war
E.C. Fish, a former ICON contributor and founding Little Village columnist, wrote this opinion piece for the 10th issue of Little Village, published December 2001 — less than three months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The news from Afghanistan has been good. The Taliban — who will do as an enemy since […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa’s largest population of Pacific Islanders are the Marshallese, ‘a very loving people’ displaced and sickened by U.S. nuclear testing
On May 23, government officials from the Republic of the Marshall Islands traveled 6,000 miles to commemorate their country’s Constitution Day in Dubuque. The Iowa city has gathered to mark the Marshallese holiday since 2005. “Today is more than a national celebration,” Isaac Zackhras, Vice Speaker of the Marshall Islands’ parliament told the crowd in […]
Posted inFood & Drink
How a Des Moines inventor made the modern American hot dog possible
A little over 100 years ago, hot dogs were just cheap sausages stuffed into buns and sold for a few cents on street corners, at fairs and sporting events. By the 1970s, hot dogs, still cheap sausages stuffed into buns, were such an iconically American food that a leading car company invoked them to give its […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Former Little Village publishers and editors reflect on 25 ‘wild, beautiful and sometimes scandalous’ years in print
Comments from Little Village publishers and editors, former and current, were compiled by editor-in-chief Emma McClatchey and edited for length and clarity. 2001 Icon publishes its last issue on Jan. 25. Five months later, former staffer Todd Kimm begins publishing Little Village along with Icon alumni Beth Oxler, Andria Green and Steve Horowitz. Todd Kimm: […]
Posted inCommunity/News
The 2026 Quad Cities Juneteenth Festival celebrated a long-running local tradition in a new location
The sun was shining on Saturday as people gathered on 2nd Street in downtown Davenport for the Quad Cities’ annual Juneteenth Festival. The location was different this year — it’s traditionally been held in LeClaire Park, closer to the river — but the celebration was the same as always, with music, dance, speeches, food and […]
Posted inCommunity/News
An Ioway map drawn in 1837 offers a treasure trove of historical insight
The Báxoje (Ioway) leaders Na’je Nine (No Heart of Fear) and Ñiyu Mañi (Moving Rain) arrived in Washington D.C. at the end of September 1837 with two sheets of paper, stitched together by hand — careful work with needle and thread meant to create a canvas large enough to hold a world. The leaders, accompanied […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Club Basix has brought gaiety to Cedar Rapids since 1997, from dime draws and darts league to drag shows and derecho aid
Since late 1997, you can drive down 1st Ave and and pick out Cedar Rapids’ only gay bar with ease. Club Basix has been out and proud from the start. The first day it was open, original owner David Thompson mounted Pride flags around the entire roof. “I boarded up that middle window in the […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
A free festival for punks of all ages, Chroma63 returns to Waterloo with a local lineup, pop-up skate park and 40 years of Iowa show flyers on display
On the website for the Waterloo Center for the Arts, you’ll find a list of perennial outdoor festivals hosted in the museum’s RiverLoop Amphitheatre. You may notice one of the events is not like the others. Nestled amongst the likes of Cedar Valley Stem & Stein and the Holiday Arts Festival is the Chroma63 Arts […]
Posted inCommunity/News
The Blazing Saddle is home to leather daddies, lesbians, cowboys, queens and queer elders who can remember a Des Moines before Pride
The Blazing Saddle is open 365 days a year, but a Thursday afternoon at the bar is very different from a Friday or Saturday night. The doors open at 2 p.m., and the bar quickly fills with men, most at retirement age or approaching it. They’ll drink a few beers, or a cup of coffee, […]
