THE WEEKENDER
Your weekly editor-curated arts compendium
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It’s the great summer wind down, with the last Summer of the Arts Friday Night Concert of the year, a chance for doggies to paddle at City Pool and the final weekend of outdoor kids’ spectacular “Frog and Toad.” Make the most of the late summer sun!
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The Weekender is sponsored by:
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Northside Neighborhood (Iowa City)
Mission Creek Summer Session: Tasha & Akwi Nji
Sep 9 – 6:30pm
The fourth and final Mission Creek Summer Session will not only be a celebration of music, literature & community but a sendoff for executive director Andre Perry after 11 dedicated years.
More info >>
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Peggy Boyle Whitworth Amphitheater
‘A Year with Frog and Toad’
Sep 9 – 6:30pm
In this Theatre Cedar Rapids production, Arnold Lobel’s treasured characters hop from page to stage in a story of friendship and adventure!
More info >>
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FilmScene—Chauncey
‘Love & Basketball’
Sep 9 – 7:30pm
FilmScene in the Park presents “Love & Basketball, FREE and open to the public outdoors at the Chauncey.
More info >>
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The Treehouse
‘Melancholy Play’
Sep 9 – 7:30pm
Tilly’s melancholy seems to have a strange power of attraction on everyone she meets in this Sarah Ruhl farce presented by Willow Creek Theatre Company.
More info >>
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Public Space One
Drill Team! workshop
Sep 10 – 5:30pm
Pick up or spiff up your hand drilling skills with this two-session workshop all about the cordless drill with teaching artist Hannah Givler.
More info >>
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Hancher Auditorium
Wellspring Dedication
Sep 10 – 5:30pm
Hancher hosts WorldCanvass on Sept. 10 for an outdoor celebration of community. IC Mayor Bruce Teague joins Chuck Swanson of Hancher, Russell Ganim of International Programs & a host of performers.
More info >>
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Coralville Public Library
Free Community Meal
Sep 10 – 5:30pm
This year’s Global Community Dinner will be served in to-go containers. Take your dinner home or bring a chair and enjoy outside on the library’s front lawn.
More info >>
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The ArtiFactory
The Flag Project Opening
Sep 10 – 6:00pm
The Flag Project photos were taken in the days and weeks following Sept. 11, 2001.
More info >>
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NewBo City Market
Rock the Block 2021: Lowdown Brass Band
Sep 10 – 6:00pm
FREE music at NewBo City Market!
More info >>
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Downtown Pedestrian Mall
Sweetie and the Toothaches ft. Chase Garrett
Sep 10 – 6:30pm
Summer of the Arts presents the final Friday Night Concert of 2021! Iowa City native Chase Garrett returns with his wife and band, Sweetie and the Toothaches.
More info >>
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Chauncey Swan Ramp
Kids Market
Sep 11 – 9:00am
Iowa City Farmers Market presents the Annual Kids Market, where kids get to be a vendor for a day. Kid vendors will set up outside of the ramp and offer items that they have made, grown & produced.
More info >>
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Public Space One
Drill Team! workshop
Sep 11 – 10:00am
Pick up or spiff up your hand drilling skills with this two-session workshop all about the cordless drill with teaching artist Hannah Givler.
More info >>
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Hancher Auditorium
Step Afrika!
Sep 11 – 7:30pm
Step Afrika! returns with a tale of resistance, resilience and reclamation.
More info >>
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McGrath Amphitheatre
Festival Latino of Cedar Rapids
Sep 12 – 9:00am
Festival Latino is a celebration of Latin culture that has been hosted in Cedar Rapids to bring community together to enjoy music, dancing, food & more!
More info >>
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Mary’s Farm Sanctuary
Art For Animals
Sep 12 – 12:00pm
Mary’s Farm Sanctuary presents an art fair to raise awareness for their work raising neglected and abused horses, donkeys, mules, goats, dogs and cats.
More info >>
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Big Grove Brewery
Big Grove ‘Brary Birthday Bash
Sep 12 – 12:00pm
Iowa City Public Library celebrates 125 years. An absolutely electric way to end your weekend!
More info >>
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City Park Pool
Dog Paddle
Sep 12 – 12:00pm
Before the City Park Pool is drained for the season, attend this once-a-year opportunity for your dog to take a dip in the pool!
More info >>
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RavenWolf Stage
Blame Not The Bard
Sep 12 – 3:30pm
Come dance, clap and sing as Blame Not The Bard plays some fabulous traditional and not-so-traditional tunes. BYO seating + refreshments. $10 suggested donation.
More info >>
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Trumpet Blossom Cafe
FMWT & Record Collector present: Mind Maintenance w/ Ross Clowser
Sep 13 – 6:30pm
Mind Maintenance dodges genre-defining with their new album/meditative experience with elements of jazz, world music and dance music.
More info >>
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Five questions with: Tiffany Biehl, Codfish Hollow
by Genevieve Trainor, Sept. 9
Maquoketa music venue Codfish Hollow is renowned regionally and nationally for its iconic experiential events, starting with a tractor ride across the property from the parking to the barn. Musicians love the hospitality there, too, as much as audiences love the performances. Like many venues across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down Codfish Hollow for over a year. As audiences and performers alike began making their way back to some sense of normalcy over the summer, there was hope for performances in the barn as well. But then the Delta variant hit with a vengeance, and owner Tiffany Biehl had to start making hard choices. READ MORE >>
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‘A Year With Frog and Toad’ is a warm and fuzzy start to fall
by Celine Robins, Sept. 9
A Year With Frog and Toad, presented by Theatre Cedar Rapids and Brucemore, is a cozy tale of amphibious friendship. Wise and responsible Frog and somewhat neurotic Toad, in all their adventures over the course of a single year between hibernations, enact Mr. Rogers-levels of neighborliness. READ MORE >>
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Mirrorbox Theatre staging the story of Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis, beyond his infamous LSD no-hitter
by Rob Cline, Sept. 3
This Is Not a Game of Baseball takes as its jumping off point the no-hitter thrown by Pittsburgh Pirates righthander Dock Ellis on June 12, 1970. Ellis accomplished this impressive feat (one of only four that season) under the influence of LSD. He himself could hardly remember the game at all.
That game, as the play will illustrate, was hardly the end-all-be-all of Ellis’s life. There is a much more complex and human story to bring to life for audiences—baseball fans or not. READ MORE >>
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New documentary explores Storm Lake, Iowa and its intrepid family of journalists
by Kembrew McLeod, Sept. 2
Art Cullen’s storied career in journalism began when he was a young man stumbling his way through school. “I flunked accounting,” he said, “and realized the only requirement to get into the journalism program at the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul was the ability to type 25 words per minute. It was 1975, post-Watergate. Woodward and Bernstein inspired me.” Forty-two years later, he joined the ranks of his heroes when he won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing after unearthing a conspiracy between Big Agriculture and local county officials in Northern Iowa. READ MORE >>
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Book Review: ‘Beyond Sacrifice’ by Alicia Dill
by Jon Burke, Sept. 7
Beyond Sacrifice, Dill’s second novel, tells the story of Concepcion Chapa, a woman of many identities. Chapa is an orphan, an Army veteran and a special agent working for the FBI. She even has ties to the CIA due to her parents, both CIA agents, having been killed in the line of duty. However, when Chapa learns that her parents might still be alive and operating undercover, she forges a new identity and joins the CIA as an assassin-for-hire in order to find her parents and get the answers she needs. READ MORE >>
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Album Review and Q&A: Alex Ramsey — ‘Bonsai’
by Michael Roeder, Sept. 7
Alex Ramsey has been a mainstay of the collective of Eastern Iowa’s folk and country blues community, either as a member of the Pines (who seem to be on a sabbatical) with his brother Benson and David Huckfelt or contributing his keyboard prowess on releases from acts like Mason Jennings and Ryne Doughty, as well as Wildwood Calling, the most recent album from his father, Iowa guitar legend Bo Ramsey. READ MORE >>
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Album Review and Q&A: Traffic Death — ‘Judas Curse of the Iron Sabbath’
by Genevieve Trainor, Sept. 7
Look, it’s no surprise to anybody that I nearly broke the internet trying to get my hands on the new Traffic Death album. I’m not going to pretend that I’m anything other than a fan. I’m also not going to pretend that Judas Curse of the Iron Sabbath is anything less than pure fire. READ MORE >>
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Album Review and Q&A: Good Morning Midnight — ‘Songs of Violence’
by Melanie Hanson, Sept. 7
Good Morning Midnight’s latest album is expansive. Songs of Violence is an aural road trip down county highways in an unfamiliar wood. It is a definitive Midwestern rock album. Singer-songwriter Charlie Cacciatore explained the sound over a pilsner at George’s Buffet on a recent summer afternoon. READ MORE >>
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Album Review and Q&A: ENGLISH — ‘Mona Lucy’
by Avery Gregurich, Sept. 7
They’ve chosen to describe their sound as “tater-tot casserole rock,” which probably gains them automatic billing at the State Fair. As English says, “you throw in all kinds of good stuff but no two dishes are ever the same.” After listening to this EP, that seems to be as good a description as any. READ MORE >>
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