It’s high July and you’re probably ready for anything that can beat this heat. Fear not! The options this weekend are endless, whether you want to slather on the sunscreen and go berry picking or experience music, literature, film and more while relaxing in A/C comfort. Top pick? You don’t want to miss the chance to commune with nature by exploring Walt Whitman’s “green poetics” and its relationship to your own writing with This Compost!, a collab between Backyard Abundance and IC Poetry nestled in the welcoming Whitman’s Grove at Harvest Preserve.
The Weekender is sponsored by:
Ladd Library
Fossil Dig Day
Jul 21 – 1:00pm
Learn all about fossils and do some digging of your own.
Comedy with headliner Reena Calm. Living out of a tricked out Prius, this pun-slinger travels the country on her signature #Calmedy tours. She’s on a mission to make people laugh in all 50 States.
Itâs Becoming A Lot More Difficult To Feel Unchanged: Adam Edelman Chapbook Release Reading. Featuring Eric Roalson, Micah Bateman, Danielle Wheeler and Sarah McGuirk
The Ross Clowser Ensemble, Lex Leto x The Christine Burke Ensemble, Alyx Rush, Ion Alexakis
Jul 22 – 8:00pm
Get ready for a local bill like no other, STRANGE MEETING, featuring some of the most in demand, most odd, most interesting, most soulful music in Iowa City.
Young, hot-blooded, and free as a bird, but possessing a not-fully-developed frontal lobe guarantees youâll have some killer summertime stories to tell later in life.
Relax into the calming energy of Whitman’s Glade at Harvest Preserve as you participate in a guided discussion of Walt Whitman’s ecological consciousness and journey into your own writing experience.
âMake art. Shoot a video. Play in a band.â Gen X rockers reunite in Iowa City to encourage the next generation
by Kembrew McLeod, Jul 11
âAt the Old Threshers Reunion this summer, youâre going to come across some old pumps, tractors and hay balers, and thereâll be too-cute nanny goats and freckled girls in pigtails,â said musician David Murray, summing up the annual festival in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa that celebrates the stateâs agricultural heritage. âIf you go to the Old Thrashers Reunion, youâll see a lot of old grumps, hackers and nay-sayers with good intentions.â
The org tables are the stars at CCAN-Con, a volunteering and activism fair taking over the Ped Mall Saturday
by Sumner Wallace, Jul 18
Corridor Community Action Network will host its second-ever CCAN-Con on Saturday at the Ped Mall. The convention, last held right before the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020, is a community engagement and volunteer fair founded by CCAN Director Mandi Nichols. Local organizations will be tabling, as well as providing various workshops and training.
Book Review: âA Playbill For Sunsetâ 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 â 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.
Book Review: âEndlessly Ever Afterâ by Laurel Snyder, ill. by Dan Santat
by Genevieve Trainor, Jul 15
Poet Laurel Snyder, an Iowa Writersâ Workshop alum, is a Geisel Award-winning childrenâs 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 Schwartzâs The Three Ninja Pigs). It is not, however, her first pick-your-path book.
