Music! Comedy! Theater! A freakin’ circus! The sky’s the limit in greater DSM this weekend, whether your teen angst bullshit has a body count or you’re looking to learn more about the use of black bodies in classical art. Top pick? Snuggle in your couch and catch the virtual opening of the new exhibit at Liz Lidgett Gallery + Design. “Terrain” features Jimmy Navarro from Des Moines, Iowa; Karin Olah from Charleston, South Carolina; Rachel English from Dallas, Texas; & Shelby Monteverde from Memphis, Tennessee. Beauty is everywhere; even in your own computer!
Racoon River Park
Bindlestiff Family Cirkus
Jul 21 – 11:00am
Learn to Juggle, Walk a Wire, Clown Around, Ride a Unicycle, March on Stilts, Build a Human Pyramid
American Apollo is a new opera based on a story forged at the crossroad of celebrity, class, race, and power in America, giving voice to a pivotal figure in American art.
Help us improve our water quality, diversify our woodlands, and UPCYCLE our invasives into food and fun for Blank Park Zoo’s birds, reptiles, primates, and mammals.
Don’t miss Music in the Garden, the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden summer concert series presented by EMC Insurance Companies. Concerts will be held live and in person in the outdoor Koehn Garden
Liz Lidgett Gallery and Design announces their next art exhibit with a virtual opening. The show titled ‘Terrain’ can be viewed online on Friday, July 22nd.
One of the most popular artists in modern country music, Vince Gill is famous for his top-notch songwriting, world-class guitar playing and warm, soaring tenor, all wrapped up in a quick and easy wit.
‘The Machine Stops’ blends opera, sci-fi and rock to showcase Iowa talent, explore a tech dystopia
by Laura Johnson, Jul 13
Not everyone sits at home dreaming of attending an opera. But it might just be time to start. The Machine Opera Company is bringing an exciting new modern opera to the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts. The Machine Stops will be staged for just two performances later this month.
Five questions with West Des Moines’ Samantha Daily, two-time ‘MasterChef’ competitor
by Courtney Guein, Jul 15
A West Des Moines cooking enthusiast with a penchant for comfort food has found her way onto the summer’s top-rated food show, featuring award-winning chef Gordon Ramsay, chef Aaron Sanchez and renowned restaurant owner Joe Bastianich — for the second time.
Book Review: ‘Endlessly Ever After’ by Laurel Snyder, ill. by Dan Santat
by Genevieve Trainor, Jul 15
Poet Laurel Snyder, an Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum, is a Geisel Award-winning children’s book author. Endlessly Ever After is her first collaboration with Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Dan Santat (beloved in my home for his work on Corey Rosen Schwartz’s The Three Ninja Pigs). It is not, however, her first pick-your-path book.
Book Review: ‘A Playbill For Sunset’ by Dan Campion
by Sarah Elgatian, Jul 15
Formulaic poetry seems to be simultaneously under- and overrated, something force-fed us by teachers and then never seen again — as though only the archaic men of our textbooks were allowed to use the respective forms. Truthfully, formulaic poems have never actually left the literary milieu.
