THE WEEKENDER
Your weekly editor-curated arts compendium
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Get your geek on, celebrate resilience, welcome back the vegan summer market and above all, don’t throw away your shot this weekend! Top pick? Travel to Coon Rapids (shuttle available) for a program from the Des Moines Metro Opera that includes a teaser for their upcoming world premiere of ‘A Thousand Acres.’
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Jasper Winery
Brother Trucker
May 19 – 6:00pm
Brother Trucker performs at Jasper Winery.
More info >>
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xBk Live
Bitch w/Coral Thede
May 19 – 7:00pm
Bitch makes witchy poet pop. The longstanding queer music icon has been performing for over 20 years. Bitch first achieved notoriety as one half of the queer folk duo Bitch & Animal.
More info >>
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Des Moines Civic Center
Hamilton
May 19 – 7:30pm
Featuring a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, R&B and Broadway, HAMILTON has taken the story of American founding father Alexander Hamilton and created a revolutionary moment in theatre.
More info >>
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Wooly’s
Mason Jennings
May 19 – 8:00pm
Mason Jennings was born on the Island of Hawaii, but at an early age his family moved to the opposite of tropical, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At 13, he started playing guitar and writing songs.
More info >>
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RAYGUNshirts
The Author Afterparty with Rachel Yoder & Bay Laurel Baking Co.
May 20 – 7:00pm
Storyhouse Bookpub presents The Author Afterparty with Rachel Yoder in Raygun’s mezzanine.
More info >>
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Iowa Events Center
Des Moines Con
May 21 – May 22 –
Get your geek on with the newest con to hit the Midwest! Des Moines Con is a celebration of comics, toys, TV, film, art, cosplay, games, and all things nerdy! Ft. Kel Mitchell, Will Friedle & more.
More info >>
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Whiterock Conservancy
The Land in Transition: Hills & Valleys
May 21 – 1:30pm
Join Des Moines Metro Opera and Whiterock Conservancy in Coon Rapids, IA for an afternoon at the intersection of art & culture and agricultural land transfer.
More info >>
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xBk Live
A Night of Resilience with Geneviève Salamone
May 21 – 7:00pm
Celebrating the one-year anniversary of her debut original album, Catharsis, this production will feature highlights and collaborations from the award-winning album.
More info >>
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Gaslamp
Colleen Green, Karen Meat, Poly Mall Cop
May 21 – 7:00pm
Colleen Green has always been cool, but on 2015’s I Want To Grow Up, she didn’t necessarily feel it.
More info >>
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Cowles Commons
Vegan Summer Market
May 22 – 12:00pm
VegLife Des Moines is excited to announce the return of their successful Vegan Summer Market series!
More info >>
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Caspe Terrace
Andrea Domenici & Francesco Cafiso
May 22 – 2:00pm
Jazz at Caspe Terrace hosts pianist Andrea Domenici and saxophonist Francesco Cafiso.
More info >>
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Beaverdale Books
Meet Children’s Author: Mark Ceilley
May 22 – 2:00pm
A modern-day gay retelling of Cinderella. A scrumptious love story with ungrateful stepsiblings, a baking competition, and a fairy godfather.
More info >>
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Writing music brought Geneviève Salamone catharsis. Now, she guides other Indigenous Iowa artists through their own ‘journey of self-discovery’
by Lily DeTaeye, May 12
In the front room of her West Des Moines home, violinist and composer Geneviève Salamone writes, produces, records, mixes and masters original music. And while the space looks almost like an ordinary front room, it’s far from it.
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Contact Buzz: Momentum Studio gives artists with disabilities space to create, relax and heal
by John Busbee, May 12
Momentum. The impetus gained by a moving object. Kelsey Kleinow does not lead a static life — she lives the life of the art studio she runs: Momentum. Her life and her mission are on the move.
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Book Review: ‘Bach and the Blues’ by Gary Kelley
by Genevieve Trainor, May 16
The third week of November, 1936. Thanks to a brief story on National Public Radio, illustrator Gary Kelley learned the odd synchronicity of that moment, and decided to spin it into a graphic novel, his second, following 2021’s Moon of the Snow Blind. |
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Book Review: ‘The Long Corner’ by Alexander Maksik
by Lily DeTaeye, May 16
Alexander Maksik’s new novel The Long Corner (Europa Editions) — out May 17, the fourth release from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop grad — skillfully explores the intersections of capitalism and dictatorship, cliché and originality, art and life.
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Expect ‘nerdy flea market meets circus’ at the first Des Moines Con this weekend
by Lily DeTaeye, May 18
Des Moines Con, a self-described “celebration of comics, toys, TV, film, art, cosplay, anime, games and all things nerdy!” takes place this weekend at Hy-Vee Hall.
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