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 […]
Waterloo
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘The more aggressive we got, the more we found ourselves’: The Rumours reflect on their rise ahead of a hometown show at Octopus College Hill
When the Rumours pull into the venue Saturday and start unloading their van, it’s inevitable someone will assume they’re the “girlfriends carrying the guy’s gear.” “They don’t know that we’re the girl band that’s actually playing,” said Ela Moore, bassist and singer for the Rumours. “Yeah, it’s one of those situations. We get a lot of disrespect, so we’re just kind of pissed off about it.”
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa’s last adult movie theater attracted loners and swingers alike in Waterloo
When my friends and I turned 18 in the early aughts, we decided we were tired of our parents’ basements. We found our new hang on the north side of Cedar Rapids. Sure, Adult Shop North was the place where people in town picked up their lubricants, toys and triple-X movies, but it also had […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘You’re My Waterloo’: How a very 1982 tourism song became a Cedar Valley sensation
In 1982, the inaugural My Waterloo Days Festival was held as a celebration of the beginning of the summer. Replete with a parade, laser light shows and hot air balloons, it was a special event seeking to foster community bonding amid economic strife. John Deere was seeing mass layoffs, the Rath Packing Company was on […]
Posted inCommunity/News
A guide to Iowa nonprofits tackling the biggest issues of our time
“When Americans think of freedom, we usually imagine a contest between a lone individual and a powerful government,” writes Timothy Snyder in his treatise On Tyranny — an Antifa 101 reading assignment, if there ever was one. “This is all well and good. But one element of freedom is the choice of associates, and one […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
This Iowan attends up to 100 concerts a year. Here’s what he’s learned — and why he’s not slowing down
You meet a lot of music fans as a professional concert photographer, but over the past couple years, one has stood out to me the most. When culling through my photos from events across the state, I kept seeing the same guy, always up front by the barricade. Show after show, photoset after photoset, there […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Refuel at these restaurants within walking distance of Iowa museums
Don’t let hunger cut your museum visit short. These local eateries are mere blocks away from some of Iowa’s coolest culture centers. Listed hours are may vary. IOWA CITY Stanley Museum of Art 160 W Burlington St, Iowa CityAlso nearby: Old Capitol Museum, UI Museum of Natural History Le Gourmet Korean Restaurant 201 S Clinton […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘We are not illegal humans’: Hundreds march in Iowa City in support of immigrants
Hundreds gathered in College Green Park in Iowa City on Thursday evening for the Aquí Estamos March for Immigrant Dignity and Justice. The march, which ended with a rally on the Ped Mall, was a chance for community members to show their support of immigrants and their opposition to Trump administration policies and ICE actions, […]
Posted inEastern Iowa
Waterloo schools withdrew 1st graders from a Black History Month book event, citing Trump orders. So locals organized an even bigger version.
Acclaimed authors and readers of all ages are gathering in Waterloo for an event on Saturday, but it’s not a new book festival. It’s “a liberatory act of reading as resistance,” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Nikole Hannah-Jones, a co-organizer of Saturday’s read-in, explained on Talk of Iowa last week. “And we’re going to do […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Ron Steele is leaving KWWL after more than 50 years on eastern Iowa airwaves
After more than 50 years on the air, Ron Steele is leaving KWWL. The state’s longest-serving news anchor announced his coming departure at the end of the 10 p.m. news broadcast on Tuesday. “I have come to an agreement with, and have accepted an offer from, KWWL, which will end my career here at KWWL […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Peak Iowa: The birth of the Black Triangle and the fight for Waterloo’s soul
Responding to the prospect of decent jobs in the booming railroad, manufacturing and meatpacking industries, many Black Southerners migrated north at the start of the 20th century, hoping to escape Jim Crow — only to see a Midwestern mutation of that racist system take hold. Between 1910 to 1950, Black Hawk County’s Black population grew […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Wanted: Donations of old gas and electric appliances for Waterloo’s Habitat for Humanity ReStore
Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Waterloo has launched its Winter Appliance Drive, seeking donations of electric and gas appliances that people and businesses no longer need. “Appliances must be in working condition and free of debris,” ReStore said in a social media post on the drive. “Sorry, we can’t accept propane or vented […]
