Ed Sanders grew up in western Missouri, in the small farm town of Blue Springs. After briefly attending the University of Missouri, he hitchhiked to the East Coast in 1958 to attend New York University. “I soon was enmeshed in the culture of the Beats,” Sanders recalled in his memoir, Fug You, “as found in Greenwich Village bookstores, in the poetry readings in coffeehouses on MacDougal Street, in New York City art and jazz, and in the milieu of pot and counterculture that was rising.” He also began volunteering at the Catholic Worker, a newspaper founded by activist Dorothy Day that was dedicated to social justice.
Kembrew McLeod
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Prairie Pop: Sell your soul; you’ll feel better
Before Bart Simpson did it, though long after Faust, I sold my soul. This prank permanently cemented my status as a vaguely remembered factoid: “The guy who sold his soul […]
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Kids takeover the Englert to celebrate Iowa Rock City and the release of ‘For Kids and By Kids’ album
A celebration of kids, community and local music takes place this Saturday at the Englert to mark the release of the album For Kids and By Kids. The album i…
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Iowa City to be renamed Iowa Rock City
By order of a special “rocklamation,” the City of Iowa City will officially change its name to “Iowa Rock City” on March 28, 2015. The one-day name change was approved […]
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Read an excerpt from Pranksters: Making Mischief in the Modern World
Prairie Pop columnist, Kembrew McLeod, will be reading from his new book, Pranksters: Making Mischief in the Modern World, at Prairie Lights this…
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Vic Pasternak, Russell Jaffe and Kembrew McLeod to read at Gabe’s this Saturday
Vic Pasternak comes out of retirement for a special Mission Creek Festival reading at 2:00 p.m. this Saturday at Gabe’s.
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DOWNLOAD: The “ILLBOARD” Hot 100 playlist – Kembrew’s guide to going (instru)-Mental this Christmas
DOWNLOAD THE PLAYLIST If you’re like me, Christmas songs probably send you into a murderous rage that ends with a trail of bloody reindeer and a decapitated Salvation Army Santa […]
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Prairie Pop: The Most Unforgettable Voice You've Never Heard
Rarely has a lowly rock critic altered the course of popular music history, but Chuck Eddy did. Perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but bear with me. Back in […]
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How Copyright Law Changed Hip Hop: An Interview with Public Enemy's Chuck D and Hank Shocklee
Kembrew McLeod sits down with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Hank Shocklee.
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Prairie Pop: Big Fela
Fela Anikulapo Kuti is Nigeria’s Bob Marley. Fortunately, up to this point, he hasn’t been turned into the sort of dorm-room-poster-trustafarian-Legend caricature that Uncle Bob became. Lost in the bong haze is another Bob Marley–a global political figure who used music as a weapon, sort of like Malcolm X riding a massive wave of bass all up in your face.
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Grrrls gone mild
Paradigm shifts typically happen in the abstract–at the level of the Big Picture–not right in front of your eyes, real time. Nearly 20 years ago, I watched and heard the musical-cultural ground move under my feet in the dank basement of my next-door neighbor’s house (typically not the type of place where a shifting paradigm takes place).
“We want revolution, GIRL STYLE NOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW,” Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna howled during the kick-start of the band’s set. I was standing just four or five feet away, eyes bugged out with jaw on ground. At 21, I had seen a few memorable things in my brief semi-adult lifetime, but never anything like that.
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The Killer Apps on Little Village Live (VIDEO)
Loren Glass and Kembrew McLeod–both University of Iowa Professors–dropped by Little Village Live on Wednesday to give us a little taste of their all-mobile phone cover band, The Killer Apps. […]
