Mission Creek Festival’s namesake is a ghost river in San Francisco. It once connected the center of the city to Mission Bay, though during the past two centuries it has largely been filled in and redirected through subterranean channels. Over the years, parts of the land that Mission Creek ran through have experienced soil liquefaction, […]
Mission Creek Festival
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 inArts & Entertainment
Mission Creek Festival announces lineup for their 20th fest, the final with Englert at the helm
Iowa City’s premiere music and literature festival, Mission Creek Festival, just announced its 2025 lineup. Mission Creek Festival 2025 will mark the 20th anniversary of the Festival and the last iteration produced by The Englert.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘The you is a door’: Abdurraqib sets high bar for Mission Creek 2024
Iowa City’s Mission Creek Festival (which just kicked off its 19th year) has always fundamentally been about two things: creative place-making and wild moments of synchronicity. As such, it could have had no better opening than Thursday night’s reading by author and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Culture critic and Mission Creek Festival presenter Hanif Abdurraqib is examining an American obsession: basketball
At just 40 years old, poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib has covered a hell of a lot of ground in his career. A 2021 MacArthur fellow, his work has earned him an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence (for A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance) as well as landed him on […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Strangers of Necessity — ‘Vibe Theory’
Mission Creek Festival: Strangers of Necessity/Anthony Worden/Armand Hammer, Gabe’s, Iowa City, Friday, April 5 at 7:30 p.m., $65-215 Vibe Theory by Strangers Of Necessity I miss ’90s hip hop. A lot. And that’s no dig against today; I just miss that sound. Lucky for me, and you too, Strangers of Necessity have us covered. Their […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Making noise: Three Iowa musicians and trans activists discuss arrests, protest art and keeping the faith during a dire legislative session
Sarahann Kolder is an Iowa City-based artist working primarily with writing, music and video. She works at Prairie Lights. m (emma) denney is a sound artist, electronic musician, writer, and sometimes lies about being a composer. She makes noise, drone music, and long-form experimental art. Harry Manaligod (she/her) is a rapper, producer, painter, local fool, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Photo Gallery: Mission Creek Festival 2023
Mission Creek, the beloved three-day Iowa City festival focused on music and literature, returned on April 6-8 for its 18th year. Over 20 national and local music acts performed at various venues downtown across three days. The weekend saw performances by Cat Power, Black Belt Eagle Scout, Snail Mail, Kevin Morby, Greg Wheeler & The […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Camonghne Felix on calculating love and prose in her new book, ‘I want Black women to feel empowered by it’
Reading Camonghne Felix’s 2023 memoir Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation is a gut punch over and over and over again. It’s one of those books I had to put down every couple of pages to catch my breath. Felix’s innate ability to create empathy in her readers is unparalleled. I want to emphasize […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Q&A: Snail Mail talks break-ups, Paramore, gay ’80s fiction and the ‘sad girl’ stereotype ahead of Mission Creek
Lindsey Jordan’s music is sometimes soft and innocent, sometimes loud and gut-wrenching, but always heartfelt. In the six years since the release of her first EP, the singer-songwriter and guitarist has cultivated an intimate sound, reminiscent of bygone days. Jordan — performing under the name Snail Mail — started playing guitar at 5 years old. […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Meet the three queer women of color headlining Mission Creek Festival’s lit section this year
Camonghne Felix, Shelley Wong and Michelle Zauner are among the most innovative writers working today and all happen to be queer women of color which, historically, may have kept them from the spotlight. Zauner, frontwoman for the band Japanese Breakfast and guitarist for Little Big League, became a household name in the literary world with […]
Posted inEastern Iowa Arts & Entertainment
Q&A: mars hojilla talks Mission Creek, indie music and importance of representation
Between biomedical engineering classes at the University of Iowa, Myles Evangelista has made time for his first Mission Creek Festival. Performing under the name mars hojilla—the title of Evangelista’s recent musical project—the alt-rock artist spoke with Little Village about learning to read out of spite, falling in love with music, and what performing at MCF […]
