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22 Pride of Place

Open seven days a week, these historic gay bars are party zones and ports in a storm.

River to River

A 189-year-old map makes an excellent case for Ioway land rights—and ingenuity.

Harmonious

LV meets the Purdies poolside as they begin their 20th summer making “mutt music.”

Little Village (ISSN 2328-3351) is an independent, communitysupported news and culture publication based in Iowa City, published monthly by Bayleaf, LLC, 623 S Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52240. Through journalism, essays and events, we work to improve our community according to core values: environmental sustainability, affordability and access, economic and labor justice, racial justice, gender equity, quality healthcare, quality education and critical culture. Letters to the editor(s) are always welcome. We reserve the right to fact check and edit for length and clarity. Please send letters, comments or corrections to editor@littlevillagemag.com. Subscriptions: lv@ littlevillagemag.com. The US annual subscription price is $120. All rights reserved, reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. If you would like to reprint or collaborate on new content, reach us at lv@littlevillagemag.com. To browse back issues, visit us online at issuu.com/littlevillage.

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Nicole Yeager / Little Village

EDITORIAL

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Jordan Sellergren jordan@littlevillagemag.com

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Emma McClatchey emma@littlevillagemag.com

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Corrections editor@littlevillagemag.com

June Contributors

Anne Wilmoth, Britt Fowler, Elisabeth Oster, Emily Slattery Phillips, Evan Weidl, Jessica Cline, Jessie Kraemer, John Busbee, Kembrew McLeod, Kevin Mason, Kristian Day, Lauren Haldeman, Malcolm MacDougall, Mary Kieffer, Nicole Yeager, Ramona Muse Lambert, Rob Brezsny, Sam Locke Ward, Sara Williams, Seth Coughlin, Sevana Dominguez, Tom Tomorrow

INDEPENDENT IOWA

NEWS, ARTS & CULTURE

Since 2001 | LittleVillageMag.com

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Issue 353 | June 2026

Cover by Jordan Sellergren and Kellan Doolittle. Photo from the 1992 Iowa Drummer Leather Contest, courtesy of Kristian Day via Blazing Saddle

Pride Month is for the punks, queens, outcasts, leather daddies, do-gooders and Jeopardy! fiends. Saddle up and get back to Basix with gay bar history, Waterloo’s gnarly alt-festival, manic Mondays in Des Moines and a Purdy good band out of Iowa City.

Meet this month’s contributors!

Anne Wilmoth is a librarian at Iowa City Public Library and is currently reading The Sea Captain's Wife by Tilar J. Mazzeo.

Britt Fowler is a Des Moines photographer specializing in documentary style, landscape and portraiture. Her active project Shoot Des Moines (Shoot DSM) catalogues sights and stories from the Mecca of the Midwest.

Elisabeth Oster is a freelance writer and designer, and collector of dad rock.

Emily Slattery Phillips currently works as a youth services librarian for the Des Moines Public Library after a career as an art educator in the public schools. An obsessive reader, books have always been a home for her, and a place to explore and learn.

Evan Weidl is a University of Iowa graduate. He enjoys music of all kinds and large sandwiches.

Jessica Cline is a Leadership and Character Scholar at Wake Forest University where she studies American politics and religion.

Jessie Kraemer is a writer and artist living in Iowa City. Follow her on instagram (@jkraem).

John Busbee produces The Culture Buzz, a weekly arts & culture radio show on kfmg.org, covering Iowa's arts scene with an inclusive sweep of the cultural brush.

Kembrew McLeod is a founding Little Village columnist and the chair of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa.

Kevin Mason, Ph.D., is the author of Retracing the Dragoon Trail in Iowa, an Assistant Professor of History

at the University of Northern Iowa and the founder of Notes on Iowa

Kristian Day is a filmmaker, writer and host of the long-running radio show and podcast, Iowa Basement Tapes. Keep up with him on Instagram (@kristianday) or at kristianday.com.

Lauren Haldeman is a graphic novelist and poet. She has received an Iowa Arts Fellowship, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award and fellowships from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Malcolm MacDougall is a writer, sewist and father living in Cedar Rapids on a small proto-farm with his spouse.

Nicole Yeager is a critical psych nerd, freelance writer and photojournalist from the driftless, now based in Iowa City.

Ramona Muse Lambert makes art and music. Sometimes she's in charge of dinner, too. Buy her art at ramonamuselambert.com.

Sam Locke Ward is a cartoonist and musician from Iowa City. He self publishes the comic zines Voyage Into Misery and '93 Grind Out.

Sara Williams is a multidisciplinary artist who was raised in Bondurant, Iowa. She currently resides near Amana.

Seth Coughlin is a multimedia journalism, magazine and brand media major at Drake university.

Sevana Dominguez is a freelance photographer for Vana Lea Photography. She loves learning about ancient occultism, making jewelry and listening to history podcasts. Her dog Miko is her best friend. She has two little girls, Belly and Zinnia Moon.

LittleObituariesVillage

online, paid in print.

For more information, email obits@littlevillagemag.com or visit littlevillagemag.com/obituaries

Interactions

LV encourages readers to submit letters to Editor@LittleVillageMag.com. Please include your name, city of residence and any relevant job titles or affiliations. Letters may be edited for accuracy and style. To be considered for print publication, letters should be under 500 words. Preference is given to letters that have not been published elsewhere.

Republican candidates for governor talk cancer, water quality, school vouchers and Rob Sand at Iowa PBS forum (April 30)

Sounds like these guys really have their fingers on the pulse. —Joseph M.

Who can out-extreme the other? —Joe P.

None of these guys have given a about the quality of Iowa’s water until running for Governor. —Lara M.

Bless their hearts. —Andrew D.

Letter to the editor: Adam Steen continues to fear monger about Satanists and ‘Sharia law’ (May 1)

Steven is a full of falsehoods. Satanist in Iowa are a very few. Sharia law is another boogeyman ploy. —Mary M.

At least the Satanic Temple looks out for citizens and are creating social programs for their community. Can’t say the same about these MAGA Republicans. —Adam S.

It’s because of fearmongers like Steen that I learned the stated mission of TST is “To Encourage Benevolence And Empathy, Reject Tyrannical Authority, Advocate Practical Common Sense, Oppose Injustice, And Undertake Noble Pursuits.” Now considering joining. —Sarah RM

HAVE AN OPINION?

Rep. Jeff Shipley is on a crusade. If you’re not with him, you might be a ‘fagtard’ (May 5)

What used to be career-ending utterances are now just another Tuesday in GOP world, led by the big bully himself. —Glenda O.

The dude literally voted to ban books because he thought words would hurt people. —Lisa P.

I bet this guy is all about how white people are the most oppressed people. I would also bet money that he probably would lose his shit if you asked him for his pronouns or called him any kind of name. —Steven G.

This man is 37 years old & talks like a 12 year-old boy that no one likes. —Daniel J.R.

SARA WILLIAMS

As the late greats Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock famously said, it takes two to make a thing go right. That’s especially true for Nami and Pluto, two bonded cats at the Iowa City Animal Center. These green-eyed beauties are a package deal: Nami, a 3-year-old dilute tortie, and her soulmate Pluto, a long-haired 5-year-old with a beauty mark on his nose. If you’ve got room for two in your home, rock on over to 3910 Napoleon Ln and meet this outta-sight duo for yourself.

IOWA CITY, MAY 6

We were at Gabe’s: You were very trashed and trying to flirt with me. I called you a “little bitch” to your face to which you told me I was now even hotter than before. Thank you for making my day. If you pay, I’ll step on your face no problem.

Submissions may be edited for clarity and length, and may appear in print or online. Think you’re the subject of one? Reach out: littlevillagemag.com/missed-connections

The bulleted list he sent to the magazine...I have no words. Bottom of the barrel, garbage stuff coming from this “representative.” —Samuel F.W.

Somehow, the stupid sonofabitch being from Naperville originally is a bit of chef’s kiss to the whole thing. —Sooz B.

There’s still a tremendous chance he wins again, unfortunately. Jeff is running against the same candidate he defeated in a landslide in 2024. Please get out and VOTE, JeffCo. —Cameron S.

I noticed several errors in your article, but I appreciate the effort. —Rep. Jeff Shipley

In Des Moines, JD Vance calls Iran war a ‘little blip in the Middle East,’ Zach Nunn compares pain at the pump to sacrifice of Gold Star families (May 6)

Republicans: You have to be respectful! Also Republicans: We’re going to make fun of a political opponent. —Steven G.

A $50 billion blip. —Chris L.

Check the mirror Vance-you’re the blip, dumb ass! —Marsha S.

So, THAT’S what that hideous smell was! Is IT going cosmetic shopping later tonight? —Belle L.J.

Even the paid attendees didn’t pack the place lmfao. —A.D.

The fact that Nunn would compare the sacrifice of high gas prices to the sacrifice of Gold Star Families (death of a service member) is so offensive. —Nancy D.

What a breathtakingly disgusting individual. I hope his endorsement goes as well as his recent, disgraceful, endorsement the murderous Eastern European dictator. —Randy K.

And look at all the po faced young men holding signs. Wonder if they even vote? wonder if they want to go fight in wars in the Middle East, after their names are automatically registered for the draft? “Bought in America.” —Barb BC

Hide your couch. —FSOA

New poll shows AG Brenna Bird just 2 points ahead of Democratic challenger Nate Willems (May 8)

Nate would be so helpful to Iowans if elected. Wild to have such a harmful AG in office right now. —Stacey W.

There is hope… —Mary L.A.

That poll is wrong. —Gary T.

I really don’t see how it will be that close, given Bird’s war chest and universal popularity among Iowa conservatives. —Dan K.

I could see Rob Sand carrying Nate Willems and other Democrats up and down the ballot across the finish line. —Christopher B.

Remember, Pate gave up our voting data to the Trump regime. They will absolutely try to mess with every election. Check your voting status to make sure you are registered and

active! Then, for godssake, VOTE! The Reynolds regime has driven our state to the bottom. Time for sweeping change! —Kandi B.

She’s enabling Trump’s data heist. —Frances F.

Bird went to New York City during Donald Trump‘s felony trial, the one that he was found guilty of multiple felonies, to be his cheerleader. Let that sink in: Iowa’s Attorney General flew to New York City to attend the trial of Donald Trump to support him when he was being accused and ultimately found guilty of felonies by a court of law. What the hell is wrong with Iowa Republicans? Honestly, I think this is a state attorney ethics violation. She also denied women the dayafter pill after getting sexually assaulted in Iowa hospitals. She also supports taking women’s rights away. She supports voter suppression as well. All of these things are unconstitutional or should be or used to be before

INTERACTIONS

Republicans had a supermajority. Iowa Republicans are some of the most disgusting people you’re ever gonna meet. —Jennifer O.

Report: Republican candidate for governor Zach Lahn flies to Kansas every six days, on average (May 14)

Hard no on this guy. —Shawn D. His commercial is disgusting. —Kristine T.D.

He can go stay in KC we will do fine without. —Erick W.

Is that Zach Lahn shaking hands with unrepentant white supremacist and former congressman Steve King? When someone lies down with dogs, they stand up with fleas… Absolutely disgusting behavior from this MAHA-esque grifter. —Zark W.

Do you know how heinous you have to be to get Steve King’s endorsement? —Jay H.

The model of ethnonationalism. —Joe P.

Do we really want a part-time Iowan as governor? —Gregory D.

Republic pedophile defender with a big fat streak of racist nationalism to flavor his policy choices. —Dave M.

Thought Iowa was for Iowans? The guy’s a total weirdo. —Scott S.

Dude’s Koch Brothers backed. He’s a fraudster. —Paul G.

Not really ...it’s actually worse....Annie and Chase Koch (multibillionaire) asked him to help run their school in Wichita... so Zach and his then wife and family went to Wichita and in less than 2 years Zach and Annie are apparently doing more than curriculum.....Zach’s wife immediately divorces him and Chase and Annie get divorced and shazam....Zach and Annie get married and Lahn becomes an instant multimillionaire...moves back to Iowa with his wife’s

Pulitzer Prizes were awarded to two University of Iowa alumni this spring: Yiyun Li, author of the memoir Things in Nature Merely Grow, and Daniel Kraus, author of the WWI novel Angel Down. Another two UI alumni were finalists for prizes in fiction and history, respectively: Torrey Peters for her novel Stag Dance: A Quartet and Scott Anderson for King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation

PBS News has selected Iowa City West High’s Emma Lai to participate in their Student Reporting Labs Academy, a competitive national journalism program at Georgetown University in D.C. Lai was the podcast editor at the West Side Story, and will take on the role of multimedia and feature editor during her junior year.

Iowans in the news

A New York Times producer journeyed to Riverdale, Iowa for The Opinions audio piece, “In a Small Iowa Town, a Solution to a National Crisis” (May 1). Mayor Anthony Heddlesten showed Jillian Weinberger the alarm system he’s set up on Duck Creek to predict flash floods, after DOGE eliminated the federal employees, funding and equipment that had previously monitored the stream.

The Times London contributor Louise Callaghan focused on the Iowa communities of Marshalltown, West Liberty and Ottumwa for the article “Migrants revived these Midwest towns. Will ICE undo it all?” (May 16). Among those interviewed and photographed for the piece were Wade Dooley, Antonio Sosa, Father Dennis Martin and the Renteria family, Irene, Juan and Chuy (the latter Little Village’s arts editor).

The New York Times article “Waiting for the Best Seller: Inside the Pipeline That Stocks the Stacks” (May 18) includes an interview with Iowa City Public Library Director Anne Mangano. The article by Thalassa Raasch notes ICPL, “which serves 100,000 residents in Iowa City and its surrounding, mostly rural communities, typifies the challenges most libraries face” when trying to acquire new materials.

INTERACTIONS

multimillions or billions ..buys farmland and tries rebranding himself as a farmer ....and runs for governor having accomplished nothing himself .....so I guess in a roundabout way he is getting Koch money through his now wife... anyway…he’s a scumbag. —Tim S.

Looking to save his own money by using Kimmie’s plane, you know, the one she bought for “official business”! —Glenda O.

‘Honestly, it’s disgraceful’: Turek, Wahls spar over voting records on abortion in Dem Senate candidate forum (May 15)

Republicans are never going to vote to codify Roe. It’s incredibly naive to think otherwise, and women deserve a Senator who knows that we have a fight on our hands. That’s Wahls. —Andrew R.

Letter from V Fixmer-Oraiz: A new jail costing $90 million or more isn’t best for Johnson County (May 19)

If the local police and Sheriff’s offices had agreed to reforms that have been asked for by the public for decades they could have had a new jail long before now. But since they never want to have any officer face accountability for their actions, I think they should get nothing. —Randy P.

V has the right idea! Previous efforts effectively said “I dunno, figure it out on your own”, and then voted no when they didn’t like it. Let’s make an -actual- plan with public input from more than .01% of the population. Don’t just set up listening posts and send mailers, have staff attend public events and poll people. Many of us would rather an alternative to a jail, but in lieu of

JESSIE KRAEMER

that, most have agreed that a new one is necessary so long as the old one is irreparable and a hazard. Get us a jail that’s as big as the current one, stop locking people up in it for superfluous reasons and petty crimes so it stops filling unnecessarily, and build in off-ramps so it can be repurposed as needed. —David S.

The county has needed a new jail for over 20 years. Countless constituents during that time have provided insight about their views on the replacement facility. At some point a decision must be made. This letter reads like a child’s wish list to kick the can down the road for another decade. And perhaps, that’s the goal. —Francisco O.

Frankly, as a taxpayer, I’m getting tired of using the jail as a political football. This is a public expense that should have been taken care of years ago. More delay caused by more quibbling only raises the cost for all of us! —Jim C.

Yes, ergo we need a proposal from someone other than the sheriff; one that isn’t wasteful but addresses need and includes other program funding (because the jail is an inseparable part of a system). I don’t think any county resident is happy with the years of nonsense. But that frustration should not result in willingness to vote for a bad plan. —Lisa M.

Keep delaying the inevitable and it will just cost more. —Julie J.

Particularly if the building is condemned and they have to retrofit rental space while they wait for new construction. People don’t fully understand the looming threat of structural failure, its relative costs and the timing of such a scenario. —Ryan O.

Iowa Ag Sec. Mike Naig endorses Randy Feenstra for governor (May 22)

All out of state funding. These

people don’t care about Iowa. Just power. They dont even care about Americans. —Brett E.

Lmao at an ag secretary barking about “socialism.” I know of a farm operation that has averaged $600k per year (I sh!t you not!!) In subsidies for the last decade. This family owns tons of fancy vehicles, a new combine, and they are always posting about great vacations. Thanks, taxpayers!! —Julie J.

It’s really kind of pathetic. Did this idjit get stuck in the Cold War and never see the world changing around him? —Edward K.

Naig’s a hilarious reminder that we still have paranoid John Birch Society nutters in Iowa. “THE COMMIES ARE COMING!” How does anyone take these loons seriously? The same tin foil hat folks are begging Trump for yet another $50 billion farm welfare bailout because they wrecked everything with their illegal tariffs and Iran wars. —Jamie S.

In Case You Missed It

Catch up on LV’s top arts stories from May.

A project led by two Iowa City filmmakers, 13 years in the making, is welcome in both art galleries and film fests

By Andrea Truitt,

May 1

Playwright Emily Bohannon on trusting Riverside Theatre with ‘The Fiancé,’ inspired by her broken engagement

By Jessica Cline,

May 7

An Iowa ukulele player interviews a Hawaiian ukulele god ahead of their show at the Englert

By Chuy Renteria,

May 7

fourth Coralville

brought together singers, dancers, drummers and dragons

Review: ‘natchez’ shows romanticized history, while sometimes comforting, is far creepier than the truth

By Ariana Martinez,

May 19

The

Asian Festival

Paul Brennan, photos by M.T. Bostic; May 19

Fully Booked: Recommendations from Local Librarians

You’re a Winner, Baby!

Last year, I prioritized reading books that were nominated for literary awards as a way to diversify my reading. I was pleased to see that LGBTQ+ authors and stories were well-represented, and encouraged by this, I committed to reading books from a variety of prize lists.

Last year was an outstanding year for LGBTQ+ representation in literary prize winners. Some 2025 winners include: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine (National Book Award for Fiction), We are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara and translated by Robin Myers (National Book Award for Translated Fiction), The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden (Women’s Prize for Fiction), Small Rain by Garth Greenwell (Pen/Faulkner Award), Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang (Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction), The Slip by Lucas Schaefer (Kirkus Prize) and Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell (Nebula Award).

This year is also seeing quite a LGBTQ+ fiction gems on the prize lists. Two of my favorite reads of this year made it to the Booker International Shortlist. She Who Remains by Rene Karabash and translated by Izidora Angel is a beautifully written

Pride Picks for Kids

It’s Pride Month, and a great time to introduce the kids in your life to quality titles on LGBTQ+ history, highlighting the struggles and triumphs of queer icons while offering inspiration and courage for the future. A great primer for 9- to 13-year-olds is the graphic novel The Stonewall Riots: Making a Stand for LGBTQ Rights by Archie Bongiovanni, a volume in the popular History Comics series. I used this book with a tween comic book club last year, and kids were captivated by it. (“Wait, this is REAL?!” one reader said.) The book succinctly and powerfully, yet sensitively, conveys the events of the Stonewall Riots for a tween readership.

For young children excited to attend Iowa City’s Pride festivities, picture books celebrating self-expression and supportive communities abound, including This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman, Twas the Night Before Pride by Joanna McClintock, and It’s Pride, Baby! by Allen R. Wells. My personal favorite is Pride Puppy by Robin Stevenson, about a family who loses their dog at a Pride parade. As an alphabet book that rhymes, it reinforces literacy concepts in addition to being a fun read-aloud.

I love picture book biographies! There are several recent gems that pair a visual feast with a tender story for elementary-age readers, highlighting little-known trailblazers in queer history. Andre

Bulgarian novel in experimental prose set in an Albanian village ruled by Kanun customs, where Bekija chooses to become a “sworn virgin” renouncing her womanhood to live under her own free will as a man. Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zî and translated by Lin King is a sapphic love story complicated by the dissonance created between colonizer and colonized. It also is an enthusiastic celebration of Taiwanese cuisine and culture.

I’m currently reading the incredible What I Know About You by Éric Chacour and translated by Pablo Strauss, shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. This novel follows the tragic love story of two Egyptian men and the trauma that ensues in the aftershock of its discovery. Additionally, I am thrilled to see two of my favorite books of last year by LGBTQ+ authors also included in the shortlist, The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong and Gliff by Ali Smith.

What's next for me? Cannon by Lee Lai (graphic novel shortlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction) and Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly (shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction). Then I will await the fall prize lists, hoping more LGBTQ+ books are represented in the National Book Award and Booker Prize.

—Emily Slattery Phillips, Des Moines Public Library

Leon Talley: A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders traces Talley’s life from the Jim Crow South to the highest echelons of the fashion world. Talley’s story serves as encouragement for young readers who are searching for a place to belong. Good Books for Bad Children by Beth Kephart gives past-due recognition to Ursula Nordstrom, perhaps the most influential children’s book editor of all time, who famously said “there are all kinds of children who need all kinds of books.” Where the Wild Things Are, Goodnight Moon and Harriet the Spy were among the many classics Nordstrom helped bring to life (all by LGBTQ+ authors, by the way). In addition to highlighting her impactful career, the book quietly provides a model of a queer woman who spends life alongside her female partner.

The Mother of a Movement: Jeanne Manford –Ally, Activist, and Co-Founder of PFLAG by Rob Sanders is a particularly moving biography. The book explains how Manford fought for LGBTQ+ rights by the side of her gay son Morty in the early 1970s. In addition to writing, demonstrating and speaking publicly, Manford founded PFLAG, an organization that encourages families to love and affirm their LGBTQ+ children.

These titles count toward your reading goal for ICPL’s Summer Reading Program, too; celebrate Pride and earn prizes by signing up for the program at icpl.org/srp.

—Anne Wilmoth, Iowa City Public Library

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Pop the Corn, Feed the Children

From transcendent drag shows to nightmare election nights to Tuesday potlucks, Basix has been a queer sanctuary for nearly three decades.

BY MALCOLM MacDOUGALL

Since late 1997, just off of 1st Ave, you can look out your window and pick out Basix, Cedar Rapids’ only gay bar (as of now), with ease. It’s been out and proud from the start. The first day it was open, original owner David Thompson hung a string of Pride flags around the entire roof.

“I boarded up that middle window in the front to put the logo and sign up there. And everyone’s like, ‘oh good, you’re covering all the windows?’ And I'm like, ‘No, just that one.’ ‘But you’re on 1st Avenue. Why aren’t you scared of what’s going to happen?’” Thompson recalled. “I’m like, ‘it’s the late 1990s, it’s time.’”

Thompson had been on the lookout for potential locations for his gay bar, and had cash on hand for a deposit. One day while driving down 1st Ave, he saw workers getting ready to unfurl a “For Rent” sign over the 1968 building that would become Basix. He pulled over.

“They had a ladder up there, so I climbed halfway up the ladder and was talking to them. And I’m like, ‘Would you bring that down and then roll it out on the ground for me, far enough for me to get the number?’ … I rented it right then.”

Over the next weeks, Thompson called on everyone he knew to get the bar in a suitable enough state to open by Labor Day weekend. It was a massive effort, as nearly all the building’s component parts had been stripped and auctioned off, from the kitchen to the restrooms.

“The original bar was there, and that was it. The sinks, the plumbing under the bar … they had sold them and the people had just left holes in the ceiling,” Thompson said. “There was literally nothing. No toilets, no sinks, no nothing, it was empty.”

It wasn’t long before the bar went from an abandoned shell to a lively new nightclub. Wednesday was Dime Draw night, and the lines were out the door for the drag shows. Fridays

were Stripper Nights. The strip shows were at 7 and 9, so in between shows the male exotic dancers would slip away for a sit-down dinner.

“They’d go across the street and get one of those little call buttons, you know, from Outback,” Thompson said. “And that would light up… And they’d walk over there for their table and then

“If youʼre outside smoking, youʼre going to be yelled at. I mean, it was kind of just a common joke.”

—ANDY “PRETTY BELLE” HARRISON

come back for the second show.”

Many gay bars were and are established on second floors or tucked into alleys. Not Basix. Facing a busy street, the bar has been egged and shot with BB guns (two pellet marks can still be seen on a window). Verbal harassment is by far the most common homophobic nuisance.

“If you’re outside smoking, you’re going to be yelled at. I mean, it was kind of just a common joke,” said Andy “Pretty Belle” Harrison, the third owner of the bar.

Especially when the bar first opened, and really up until Grindr arrived, it wasn’t uncommon for small-town Iowa LGBTQ+ people to make a multiple-hour journey down to Basix. Harrison is from Troy Mills, and found out about the bar from the “Iowa M4M” AOL group of “about 25 people.”

David Tollefson, who’s been tending bar at Basix for 26 years, would drive two hours some nights just to check out the scene. “I’d be home in Decorah helping my brother on the racetrack and races got done at 10 o’clock. I’m like, ‘I can be down there by midnight,’ so I’d race home instead of spending the night up there because you never know, Mr. Right might be inside the building that night.”

Basix changed ownership in 2001. Rita Wahl and Terry Stevenson purchased the bar, and after some internal disagreements, Wahl bought Stevenson out and ran it solo for 11 years.

Wahl passed away in June 2017. One of her innovations as owner was starting a darts league, which brought a new crowd to the bar.

“The darts thing was kind of what saved the bar for Rita back then,” said Tollefson. “But then you had the gay community that were like, wow, we’re not coming in there because there’s all these straight people in darts.”

Sonny No-Belle Jenkins lip-syncs to “Copacabana” at Club Basix in Cedar Rapids on Friday, May 8. Sevana Dominguez / Little Village

Gay Bars, LGBTQ+ Third Spaces and Pride Events

Looking for a place to party, see a show, meet your people or just fit in? Check out these bars, cafes and events around Iowa.

Pride Events

IOWA CITY

Big Gay Bar Crawl, Tues, June 16, 5 p.m., Shakespeare’s Pub & Grill

Iowa City Pride Festival, Sat, June 20, 12-9 p.m., Downtown Iowa City Castration Movie Anthology

Volume II: The Best of Both Worlds, Tues, June 2, 6:30 p.m., FilmScene

Paris is Burning, Tues, June 9, 7 p.m., FilmScene

Mickey, Tues, June 16, 7 p.m., FilmScene

Working Girls, Tues, June 23, 7 p.m., FilmScene

A Body to Live In, Tues, June 30, 7 p.m., FilmScene

CEDAR RAPIDS

Madame Mystery’s

Hypnosis Cabaret, Fri, June 5, 10:30 p.m., Basix

Kickoff to Pride Drag Brunch, Sat, June 6, 12 p.m., Kickstand Doggie Drag show, Sat, June 6, 3 p.m., Kickstand Kickoff to Pride Drag Dinner, Sat, June 6, 5 p.m., Kickstand Pride & Summer Market, Sun, June 7, 12 p.m., Basix

Mr. Ms. Mx Raisin CRPride Fundraiser, Sun, June 7, 8 p.m., Basix

Pride Festival, Sat, June 27, 11 a.m., NewBo City Market

Pride After Show, Sat, June 27, 8 p.m., CSPS Hall

DES MOInES

Capital City Pride Ride, Thurs, June 4, 6:15 p.m., SingleSpeed Brewing Co.

Mr. Mx. Ms. Pageant, Sat, June 6, 5 p.m., The Garden

Clue, Sat, June 6 & Thurs, June 11, Fleur Cinema

The Birdcage (30th Anniversary), Opens June 7, Varsity Cinema

Pridefest Kickoff Drag

Brunch, Sun, June 7, 10

a.m., Tonic Court Ave.

Jennifer’s Body, Tues, June 9, 7 p.m., Varsity Cinema Stop! That! Train!, Opens June 12, Varsity Cinema

Capital City PrideFest, Fri-Sun, June 12-14, Historic East Village ICubs Pride night + Tailgate, Fri, June 19, 5 p.m., Principal Park

Serial Mom, Fri, June 19, Sat, June 20 & Wed, June 24, Fleur Cinema

LGBTQ+ Game night, Sun, June 21, 5 p.m., The Rook Room

Pride night at the Museum, Thurs, June 25, 5:30 p.m., Science Center of Iowa

Iowa Menace Pride night, Sat, June 27, 7 p.m., Mediacom Stadium

Waiting for Guffman, Sat, June 27 & Wed, July 1, Fleur Cinema

The Watermelon Woman with Community Leaders, Tues, June 30, 7 p.m., Varsity Cinema

LGBTQ+ Game Night, Sun, July 19, 5 p.m., The Rook Room

Rainbow Safari, Thurs, July 30, 5:30 p.m., Blank Park Zoo

QUAD CITIES

Rent, Thurs, June 4, 6 p.m. Figge Art Museum, Davenport Quad Cities Pride Festival, Fri-Sat, June 5-6, Schwiebert Riverfront Park, Rock Island, IL MCC Annual Pride

Worship Service, Sun, June 7, 11 a.m., Metropolitan Community Church of the Quad Cities, Davenport Pride in Motion Kickball, June 7, 14, 21 & 28, Junge Park, Davenport

Quad Cities Queer Coffee, Sat, June 13, 9 a.m., The Atlas Collective, Moline, IL Pride night with The River Bandits, Thurs, June 18, 6:30 p.m., Modern Woodman Park, Davenport

Pride 5k: Walk, Run & Roll, Sat, June 27, 8 a.m., Bass Street Landing, Moline, IL Pride Party, Sat, June 27, 3 p.m., Bass Street Landing, Moline, IL

Intergaylactic Dance Party with Pride in Motion, Fri, July 17, 7 p.m., Ecdysiast Arts Museum, Davenport

Iowa Gay Bars

Blazing Saddle, 416 E 5th St, Des Moines Club Basix, 3916 1st Ave NE, Cedar Rapids

Deadwood (semi-officially), 6 S Dubuque St, Iowa City

The Garden, 525 E Grand Ave, Des Moines Kings & Queens, 3128 US-75 BUS, Sioux City

Mary’s on 2nd, 832 W 2nd St, Davenport OhZone, 852 Washington, Burlington

Studio 13, 13 S Linn St, Iowa City

Studio 13 Waterloo, 304 W 4th St

The Locust Tap, 434 E Locust St, Des Moines

Diversions Tabletop Game Lounge, 119 2nd St #300, Coralville Rook Room Game Lounge & Cafe, 300 SW 5th St, Des Moines

Rita was at the helm on April 3, 2009, when the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in Varnum v. Brien that same-sex marriage was legal. It’s one of Harrison’s fondest memories of Basix.

“The bar didn’t open until 4, but everybody, for some reason, wanted to be at the bar. So people just started showing up,” he recalled. “We just went in there, and then I remember we went to Michael’s and got a wedding arch … just decorating the bar for a wedding. People were bringing flowers in. I mean, it was just, it was one of the most joyous days ever.”

Harrison bought the bar in 2011, officially becoming the new owner on Feb. 1, 2012. He rebranded it Belle’s Basix in honor of his drag persona Pretty Belle. Between rent, payments on the loan he’d taken out to pay for the building, and a series of needed updates—mostly electrical work and plumbing fixes; one night, a sewage pipe burst directly over his drag wardrobe—it was often a financial challenge to keep the club open.

“There were a couple of times that I didn’t charge covers because I didn’t have enough money to fill up like the $5 bag, you know, to give change out. I didn’t have any money.”

Still, Basix was home to some major events for the gay community during that time, most notably hosting CR Pride Fest in their parking lot in 2014 after Club CO2 shut down and Greene Square Park closed for a remodel. Basix would host CR Pride for two more years afterwards; it continues to throw CR Pride fundraisers, afterparties and other events throughout the year.

Basix frequently held viewing parties for major political events. Harrison said up to 70 people packed the bar to watch the 2016 presidential debates. Earlier that year, the bar held a vigil for the 49 people killed and 58 wounded in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. Harrison installed a panic button behind the bar for his staff in case of an emergency, but it hasn’t been used.

While there have been no violent incidents, Basix has seen renewed harassment during the Trump years. Harrison recalled a November 2020 pro-Trump parade in Cedar Rapids. “A whole bunch of trucks with the MAGA flags … made

a point to make a loop through our parking lot, and I was the only one inside the bar,” he said. “I was literally scared for my life.”

The bar worked with Linn County Public Health to offer nighttime HIV testing, allowing patrons to learn their status and return to the dance floor within a minute. Despite struggling financially during the COVID-19 pandemic, Harrison donated 60 six-packs of beer to area healthcare workers.

In August 2020, the derecho hit Cedar Rapids, knocking out power for most of the city. Basix regained power within a couple of days, and Harrison announced on Facebook that the ice machines were working.

“And then people started bringing stuff in, and we had tables and tables and tables of supplies and stuff. And then I started making sandwiches, and then people started bringing sandwich supplies in… At one point, I had 15 people in there making sandwiches and going out, passing them out,” Harrison recounted.

“That went on for two weeks, three weeks … So, when I made sandwiches, it was probably for a full week, and then it was to the point where I needed to sleep.”

In 2022, Harrison announced on Facebook that Basix would close if it did not find a new owner. Running the bar for 10 years had taken a toll, although Harrison got sober in October 2020.

“Sitting there, you know, every day just stressing about what to do, I was drinking a lot,” he said. “I don’t think there was one day I didn’t have any alcohol.”

Fortunately for the business and Harrison’s health, Spectrum Hospitality bought the bar in 2022. With Harrison’s eager endorsement, Belle’s Basix became Club Basix.

“I’m focused on preserving LGBTQ spaces in as many places as possible around Iowa,” Jason Zeman, the owner of Spectrum Hospitality, told Little Village via email. “Gay bars are where the gay liberation movement started and continue to hold a special place as safe spaces for our community. I didn’t want to see Cedar Rapids’ only remaining LGBTQ space disappear and thought a refresh and injection of new energy could be just what was needed.”

Spectrum Hospitality also owns Studio 13 in Iowa City—an enduring LGBTQ+ club in a city that, like Cedar Rapids, boasted three to five times as many gay bars in the late 20th century. Spectrum is also in the process of opening Studio 13 locations in Waterloo and Ames. While there was always cross-pollination between the CR and IC drag scenes, they have never been more in sync.

“We get a lot of the performers from Iowa City up here now, and so that’ll bring some of the people from Iowa City up here, where that wasn’t necessarily always happening,” Tollefson said.

Above: Morgan and Haley P. excitedly wait for the show to start at Club Basix. Below: Beep Beep works the crowd during her performance. Sevana Dominguez / Little Village

A Club Basix print ad from the Gazette, June 2004. (For Little Village ad inquiries, email ads@littlevillagemag.com.) The Gazette, 2004

Today, the night crowd is a diverse mix— something that’s been in Basix’s DNA since its inception.

“We’ve hosted Miss Iowa pageants here before, we’ve hosted, gosh, all the different kinds of pageants, prelims, things of that nature,” Tollefson said. “We’ve had porn stars here before, RuPaul’s Drag Race people… We love Dragula queens here. So we’ve had a lot of people that have come through the doors.”

The last couple years at Club Basix have seen TV drag stars Auntie Heroine, Onyx Ondyx,

of queens emcee Thursday open stage nights, and employee Nikkie runs Monday karaoke contests and organizes the Basix Food Pantry. Club Basix opens its space to seasonal art markets, “What is Consent?” workshops and other programs sponsored by the CRANDIC Leather Social Club, a Trans/NB Support Group, a Black History Extravaganza, the Mr./Miss/ Mx. Basix Pageant, trivia nights, open mics and theme parties galore.

No matter who I talked to in my interviews, their love for Basix was obvious.

“Gay bars are where the gay liberation movement started and continue to hold a special place as safe spaces for our community. I didn’t want to see Cedar Rapidsʼ only remaining LGBTQ space disappear and thought a refresh and injection of new energy could be just what was needed.”

—JASON ZEMAN, CLUB BASIX OWNER

Widow Von’Du, Dahli and Saint grace the Basix dance floor. Frisbee Jenkins, Iowa City’s preeminent drag mother, the drag daughter of Pretty Belle and a RPDR alum, is also a Basix regular, hosting a weekly drag competition/game show this spring called The Weakest Twink. When new seasons air, fans can gather at the bar for RPDR and Dragula watch parties.

Cedar Rapids queen Cecelia Monroe Cavalier hosts Sunday bingo nights, Tollefson does Tuesday poker bingo potlucks, a rotating cast

“If I ever moved away and came back and Basix wasn’t here, I’d be like, what the hell?” said Tollefson. “I just expect it to be here, you know? And I think that’s kind of the problem sometimes with our community, is they just expect it’s going to still be there. So I wish they’d come out and support more. Even if it’s just once a month, stop in and have a drink.”

Club Basix is open seven days a week, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Follow Basix on Facebook and @clubbasix on Instagram for upcoming events.

Giddy, Not Uppity

Many gay bars have come and gone in the capital city, but the Saddle has stuck around by putting the people first.

BY KRISTIAn DAY

The Blazing Saddle is open 365 days a year, but a Thursday afternoon at the bar is very different from a Friday or Saturday night. The doors open at 2 p.m., and the bar quickly fills with men, most at retirement age or approaching it. They’ll drink a few beers, or a cup of coffee, and watch the news. At 3 p.m., Jeopardy! comes on, and it is nearly a contact sport. Everyone, including the bartenders, is engaged and yelling out answers at the various TVs hanging throughout the building.

Sitting at one end of the bar in his designated seat is Bob “Mongo” Eikleberry, founder and co-owner of the Blazing Saddle. He is wearing a button-down shirt with the American flag covering the front and back. His sleeves are cut off, and a pack of cigarettes rests in his front shirt pocket. When he opened the bar in 1983, Eikleberry considered naming it Albatross—“the bird that hangs ’round my neck,” he quipped. Instead, a friend suggested he pay tribute to the source of his nickname, Mongo: Alex Karras’s character in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles. He liked it, though Eikleberry has more of a taste for black patent leather than cowboy nubuck.

The Saddle has hosted many raucous leather nights under Eikleberry’s watch, but it has also brought out his softer side. “Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’d cook from home and bring a big spread down here. Anyone can eat for free. It really meant something to me,” he recalled in our interview for my 2024 documentary series The Last American Gay Bar on OUTtv. “Mom used to get so mad at me: ‘Why don’t you come with your own family?’ And I said, ‘I’ve got a bigger family, Mother, and these people need something.’”

Behind the bar is Greg Chamberlain, who retired after 28 years as postmaster in Johnston, Iowa. He was a regular Saddle-goer in the early days, but would often get claustrophobic in the crowded building. He hopped behind the bar for some breathing room one night, and has been there ever since. Chamberlain bartends the day shift on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

At the other end of the bar, with a cup of coffee in his hand, is Bryan “Stinky” Smith. He has co-owned the Saddle with Eikleberry since 2011. “We will always be at our core a gay bar,” he assured me. “Owning a gay bar is less of a money-making [venture] than a stewardship.”

To the right of the bar is a painting of the East Village, with all the buildings—except the State Capitol—looking like log cabins. “That was painted before we had the bar. When we were renovating and making updates, we had an art teacher come in and add pink to the sky like it was sunrise,” Chamberlain explains. “We repainted the Capitol, so it looked more modern.”

The sun has yet to go down on the Blazing Saddle, the oldest gay bar in Iowa to remain in continuous operation, and the center

Vintage photos found in the basement of Blazing Saddle, the oldest gay bar in Des Moines, located at 416 E 5th St. Courtesy of Kristian Day via Blazing Saddle

of central Iowa’s LGBTQ+ community. Capital City Pride, host of Des Moines’ PrideFest, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year; the org began right here on the Saddle’s barstools with conversations between Smith, Chamberlain, Steve Egbert and Brian “Beasley” Ohrberg.

“Blazing Saddle is a community bar,” according to Chamberlain. “It’s also a community home base. Every organization comes through there, every org has had fundraisers through there.”

There wasn’t a reliable place for LGBTQ+ people to gather socially for drinks, trivia, drag shows and Pride planning in the 1960s and ’70s. Gay bars tended to cater to gay men, often to the exclusion of lesbians, transgender people and straight people. The elder members of the Saddle community can remember well their weekends cruising the “gay loop” of Des Moines bars that bumped until 2:30 a.m.—not to mention the all-hours adult bookstores,

place,” he said. “There was also Thumbs, which had bad pizza and cheap beer. Thumbs was a two-level band bar on Welch Avenue in Ames. It was gay-ish, but I only ever picked up anyone from Dugan’s.”

Pride Incorporated had been hosting Pride celebrations in Des Moines for decades before Capital City Pride took over in 2001. Chamberlain has fond memories of those early events.

“The first Pride parade was in 1978, I think. I was still in college. There wasn’t much publicity because we were all scared to be seen on the news. It was small, improvised and volunteer-driven. Maybe 100 people showed up. Everyone lined up over by the Capitol, and we would walk to Nollen Plaza,” which is now called Cowles Commons. “Later we could change it up and walk to the Simon Estes Amphitheater.”

“Pride Incorporated used to meet right next door to the Blazing Saddle,” he said.

“We will always be at our core a gay bar. Owning a gay bar is less of a moneymaking [venture] than a stewardship.”

—BRYAN SMITH, CO-OWNER OF THE BLAZING SADDLE

bathhouses and cruising hotspots, one of which was Margo Frankel Park. The bacchanalia belied the fear; robberies, police stings and violence targeting gay men were not uncommon.

“There were two loops. There was the upper loop and the lower loop,” Chamberlain explained. “The upper loop was for drinking, drugs and hanging out. The lower loop was for pickups and cruising. If you go back closer to the late 1960s, there was just one loop that went around American Republic and Veterans Auditorium.”

Even with queer folks commuting in from around the state, the bar scene grew competitive. Three beloved gay bars were destroyed in fires regarded as suspicious. The businesses were almost certainly targeted for destruction by rival bar owners or the owners themselves, at least one of whom, Chuck Brooks, was eventually arrested for intent to distribute crystal meth. Brooks, a gay man himself, was also the chaotic personality behind bars like Corn Parlor, Boardwalk, Country Cove, City Disco and Barbell Athletic Club.

Chamberlain was an undergrad at Iowa State University in the late ’70s. He and his friends used to meet at Dugan’s Deli in Campustown, he said. It was one of the few queer-friendly businesses that wasn’t a gay club.

“Dugan’s Deli became well known as a place to hang out. It was near Tork’s Pub, which had peanut shells on the floor. I swallowed a goldfish at that

Before he founded the Saddle, Bob Eikleberry was drafted to serve in Vietnam, as was Gary Moore, who would go on to become a local LGBTQ+ activist and Blazing Saddle employee. Moore was originally from Dubuque and Eikleberry from Des Moines. Neither believed in war, but both loved their country.

Moore said his first days in Des Moines included utilizing a glory hole in the bathroom of the Merle Hay bowling alley. Facing his service in December 1970, he turned to a local gay bar for comfort. The Malebox was new at the time, but burned down a year later.

“I stopped by during a snowstorm when hardly anybody was out and about. I was on holiday leave after infantry training at Fort Ord in Monterey Bay, California, and had my orders for Vietnam,” Moore recalled. “I was scared and trying to shut out any thought of where I would be in a few days. I went out hoping to meet someone—and I did.”

Moore and Eikleberry would make it home from the war, and finally met. Moore became a bartender at the Saddle while also taking on duties as decorator.

Like Chamberlain, “Stinky” Smith started working at the Saddle in the mid-1990s. Smith moved to Des Moines in the ’80s from the rural southwest Iowa town of Hamburg, which had a population of around 1,500 people. While studying to become a pharmacist at Drake University, he joined the Alpha Xi chapter of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

Saturday, June 27 from 5-10 p.m. at Little Village. DJs, drinks, food, friends... and a dunk tank for journalism. Want to get involved? Email publisher@littlevillagemag.com.

Queens take the stage at Blazing Saddle in 1997. Courtesy of Kristian Day via Blazing Saddle

“Everybody came to me asking me for cardigans because I had like 20 of them. Back then, if you were going out to the bars, gay or straight, you dressed up. You put on your khaki pants, buttondown shirt and nice shoes.”

When I asked if there were any gay groups at Drake, Smith said, “Are you crazy? No, we didn’t have anything like that. My photo was featured inside The Gay Rag once. I opened it up and sure enough there I was, front and center, with a beer in my hand. It made me anxious. If they didn’t know before, they knew now.”

The Gay Rag was a Des Moines-based queer newspaper published in the 1980s. Before The Gay Rag, photos were often forbidden inside gay bars; many patrons were desperate to keep family, employers and colleagues in the dark about their same-sex attractions. But Iowa overturned its sodomy law in 1978—the same year anti-gay activist Anita Bryant was pied by a protester in Des Moines, a point of pride for many LGBTQ+ folks in the city—and it was becoming more common for people to live as openly gay across the U.S.

In October 1983, Eikleberry opened the Blazing Saddle in a former straight bar in the East Village, which at the time was mostly known for drug deals and army surplus. (Other gay bars operating at the time included Brass Garden—formerly Annie’s, now known simply as The Garden—and Le Cage on 6th Avenue, where Beechwood Lounge now stands.) It was dingy. Eikleberry put metal bars on the windows to protect customers. The bar itself was held up with cinder blocks, and Eikleberry was the handyman for everything. He painted the exterior purply pink, and included two upside-down pink triangles on the bar’s sign—a symbol of LGBTQ+ Pride that predates Gilbert Baker’s rainbow flag from 1978. The Saddle doesn’t charge a cover.

“When we opened the bar, we had to chase out the straights,” Eikleberry said. “It was a man’s bar, and that was by request of our main customers. It wasn’t until several years later that I finally said this place is for our sisters, too.”

Des Moines had several lesbian bars over the years, though most survived only briefly before closing. There was Dally’s, owned by Darrell Vreeland, and Diesel’s, owned by Ann Mathe.

While Halloween could unite the queer community for costume parties once a year, it wasn’t until the AIDS crisis hit Iowa in the late 1980s that queer men and women truly came together. Underground hospices were set up in private homes around Des Moines, and women stepped up to help facilitate them.

“Man, I lost a lot of friends. I kept three suits always clean ready to go to another funeral,” Eikleberry recalled. “I just got to the point where I’d become numb.”

If Mongo was numb, he certainly wasn’t paralyzed. Near the peak of the AIDS epidemic, Eikleberry started the All Iowa AIDS Benefit, an annual variety show in Des Moines raising money for HIV/AIDS-related causes around the state. “It became the social event of the year,” according to Moore, who grappled with his own HIV diagnosis in the ’90s.

After so much loss, the Saddle community doesn’t take the wins for granted. In April 2009, Iowa became the third state to legalize same-sex marriage after the unanimous Iowa Supreme Court decision in Varnum v. Brien. Eikleberry immediately got himself ordained, and married 26 couples in rapid succession, gay and straight. The Saddle was a frequent wedding venue in the months and years after Varnum

The bar eventually became a political hotspot, with candidate visits during caucus season. That wasn’t always the case.

“When this place opened, Reagan was president, and he was a tyrannical president of this country. He was coming down hard on us, but Iowa politicians were quietly tolerant,” Eikleberry said.

Chamberlain rebukes the people in power today working to “split into factions” Iowa’s LGBTQ+ community and allies, and ban books on queer and trans people from schools. The Saddle maintains the motto, “We accept everyone as long as they accept and respect us.”

The purple paint and window bars came down during a 2000 renovation. Eligh Cade, a Marine vet and trans man on the Saddle’s security team, said it’s the safest place in the city on a Friday or Saturday night. “We are all on radios and we are in constant communication. If anyone gets out of line, they are out. We also have an emergency switch that is directly connected to the Des Moines Police Department, but we have never had to use it.”

Though they have a good relationship with DMPD, cops are a last resort, Smith said. During the racial justice protests of 2020, Saddle staff prepared backpacks of first aid supplies, and wound up treating teargassed protesters.

Blazing Saddle employs a stable of drag queens—the Saddle Gurls—who stage dynamic shows five nights a week. Queens also host bingo, brunches and trivia nights.

“Holidays come up, people get very sad, they can’t see family, but you can come here,” Karma Kills told me for The Last American Gay Bar “You’ll be accepted, you can hang out, do whatever, and the girls here, the cast here, the owners, the bartenders are just genuine people. They have regulars, but you can become a regular by just one conversation.”

I asked Eikleberry why he thinks so many gay bars have come and gone while the Blazing Saddle endured.

“If you don’t change and adapt, you won’t make it,” he responded. “I always put my community first and me second. After I am gone, this place will still be here.”

The Blazing Saddle is open seven days a week, 2 p.m.-2 a.m. Mon-Fri, noon-2 a.m. Sat & Sun. Find upcoming events at theblazingsaddle.com and @theblazingsaddle on Instagram.

Blazing Saddle Events

Saddle Happy Hour, weekdays, 2-8 p.m.

The Saddle Gurl Show, Fridays & Saturdays, 11-11:55 p.m.

Capital City PrideFest 2026, Friday-Sunday, June 12-14

The Last American Gay Bar

Screening Des Moines Art Center, Saturday, June 13, 11:30 a.m.

Thoughts on Pride from Greg Chamberlain, longtime Saddle bartender. Written for PrideFest 2025.

We love our queerness all year long, but Pride is a time when we see, experience and celebrate ourselves more loudly. That Pride isn’t gone, but rather complicated by current events this year. Let’s face it: “This year, Pride is scary.”

Shame was such a part of gay identity in the 1970s and ’80s. We had “roommates.” Now we have role models and openness about our gayness. Now we have husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends. Now we choose our own pronouns.

The LGBTQ+ community went from hiding in the closet to marching in Gay Pride parades—from standing on the sidelines to standing together in protest and walking side by side in solidarity.

Baby boomers played a significant role in advancing the gay rights movement and changing societal attitudes toward homosexuality. They were the first to embrace a gay identity and push for social and legal change. They founded LGBTQ+ organizations and used activism and protests to change our public perception from “mental illness” to “legitimate human diversity.” Boomers witnessed the devastation of HIV firsthand, and they redefined how we grow older as proud LGBTQ+ individuals. They were Marsha P. Johnson, and they were Sylvia Rivera.

But then what happened? Generation X is what happened! Generation X played a significant role in the evolution of Gay Pride, moving us from individual acceptance to a broader societal significance. They began to build supportive networks through youth groups and LGBTQ+ centers. Generation X found its voice and shed the shame that kept us in the closet. They stood up to bullying in the face of adversity and were galvanized with activism and a focus on rights. Generation X paved the way for the next generations of LGBTQ+ activism and progress toward greater acceptance and inclusion for all.

And now, our organizations, our bars and our activism are being led by millennials, who are driving greater acceptance and representation in mainstream society. By identifying as LGBTQ+, with proactive engagement and advocacy for our rights and increased visibility, millennials have fueled a more inclusive society and had a crucial role in changing societal attitudes.

And now, as we continue to pass the torch, Generation Z is also becoming a social force driving change, vocalizing expectations and actively shaping the movement and influencing the future.

I personally would like to thank each and every one of you for taking the reins and leading the way toward a community of solidarity and a family of self-respect! You are all Pride! You are the future!

The civil rights movement was seeking change for all people, as did the women’s movement and the gay rights movement. One thing they have in common is that collectively, they make the 14th Amendment—“Equal rights, under the law”—more fully recognized.

I wish you all a Happy Pride, and thank you all for being my family.

I would like to end with a quote from Carl Kemp: “Bigotry and prejudice end because gradually they become stupid. That is when the fear dies.”

Top: Scenes from the 1992 Iowa Drummer Leather Contest at Blazing Saddle. Bottom: A patron enjoys an indoor smoke in 1993. Courtesy of Kristian Day via Blazing Saddle

Map made by Ioway Chief Na’je Nine. National Archives at College Park / Public Domain

No Heart of Fear

There’s no X on this historical map of Iowa, but it’s still full of hidden treasures.

BY KEVIn MASOn

The Báxoje (Ioway) leaders Na’je Nine (No Heart of Fear) and Ñiyu Mañi (Moving Rain) arrived in Washington D.C. at the end of September 1837 with two sheets of paper, stitched together by hand—careful work with needle and thread meant to create a canvas large enough to hold a world. The leaders, accompanied by three more members of the tribe, were in D.C. as representatives of the Ioway at a council of tribes living west of the Mississippi, called by U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs C.A. Harris. The commissioner wanted to clear the path for greater trans-Mississippi immigration and U.S. land claims.

The Ioway delegates had carried the map from the Missouri River valley to the marbled corridors of American power, a journey of some 800 miles undertaken at enormous risk for a single purpose: to show the young republic what it was about to destroy. On the map, rendered with quill and ink, lay 51 rivers, nine lakes, 23 villages and a web of trails that threaded through hundreds of miles of homeland.

The delegation presented the map to Commissioner Harris during the 1837 inter-tribal congress in the hope that a government fluent in paper and ink might finally hear what the land itself had been saying for centuries.

“This is the route of my forefathers,” Na’je Nine pleaded with Harris and the other gathered officials. “It is the lands that we have always claimed from old times. We have the history. We have always owned this land. It is what bears our name.”

Paper represented something else entirely. Marked with pen and ink, stamped and signed by clerks, paper was a tool of enforcement by U.S. courts, treaties and land offices. But if American officials trusted paper, then paper was what the Ioway would present.

gunpoint. For the Ioway, the map was a preemptive argument against the same fate. It asserted the doctrine of “effective occupation,” a popular legal justification for European colonialism. Their world was not a vague, undifferentiated wilderness, nor terra nullius (empty land) available for the taking—it was known and occupied, farmed and fished.

Within a decade, the Ioway had been removed from Iowa entirely, relocated first to a reservation in Kansas and later divided between what are now the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska and the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma. Meanwhile, the state of Iowa quickly became—and remains—the most altered landscape on the continent, more than 95 percent of its tallgrass prairie and wetlands destroyed.

The 1837 Ioway map, also known as the No Heart of Fear map, is a treasure trove of historical information that was largely lost on U.S. officials at the time. Reappraised after nearly two centuries in storage, a new book from the former state archeologist at the University of Iowa finds worlds of meaning in the map’s lines, dots and circles. Indigenous communities throughout North America had long made maps, though rarely on paper. Animal hides worked well enough, stretched and scraped smooth, their surfaces holding charcoal, dyes and eventually ink with the same fidelity they’d once held warmth. A peel of birch bark or a patch of cleared earth smoothed with a hand or a stick could serve to diagram an entire river system in minutes.

The form was colonial, but the execution was not: there is no compass rose, no state lines, no grid of surveyed townships pressing the land into tidy, saleable squares on this map. Thick black lines spread across the page in branching currents, tracing the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the vast web of tributaries that shaped the Midwest. Rivers dominate the composition because rivers governed life; the Wisconsin, Cedar, Skunk, Platte, Kansas and dozens more appeared with geographic precision, each rendered as part of a living network. Dashed lines crossed between them, marking at least 26 overland trails that threaded the Ioway world together. Small circles, more than 20 in number, mark village sites.

The Ioway delegation arrived in Washington under enormous pressure. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 had been in force for seven years; the Five Civilized Tribes were being marched west at

The Ioway sought to press their claims over those of the Sauk and Meskwaki. The rival nations had encroached from east of the Mississippi, recent arrivals by any measure of Ioway memory, and they carried no comparable claim to the ground mapped by No Heart of Fear. When the council convened in D.C., Na’je Nine did not speak in abstractions. He pointed out the villages, the dots, the “route of my forefathers.” He referenced the map throughout the council session, anchoring each claim to a specific marking.

The Sauk leader Keokuk looked on unmoved. When his time came, his response was brief and brutal: his people had driven the Ioway out. That was that. Whatever the map showed, whatever the dots represented, the outcome of the contest had already been decided on the ground, in his telling, long before anyone started journeying toward Washington or set ink to paper.

The U.S. officials chose to agree with Keokuk. The Ioway delegation returned home without the protections they sought. Within a decade, the Ioway had been removed from Iowa entirely, relocated first to a reservation in Kansas and later divided between what are now the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska and the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma. Meanwhile, the state of Iowa quickly became—and remains—the most altered landscape on the continent, more than 95 percent of its tallgrass prairie and wetlands destroyed. After the treaty negotiations ended, the government kept the Ioway map. Officials penciled in some English place names, then placed it in a box. On Feb. 20, 1838, clerks entered it into official files as “Map made by Iowa Chief Non chi ning ga,” Record Group 75, Central Map File 821.

Indigenous-made, paper-based documents produced for a colonial audience and preserved in a federal archive are extremely rare. Time and repeated handling eventually made the map too

No Heart of Fear (Na’je Nine) painted in 1837 by Charles Bird King. Smithsonian American Art Museum / Public Domain

fragile for casual examination. Archivists sealed it in protective mylar. Without it, the delicate document would risk crumbling.

Most scholars who wanted to study it turned to reproductions, printed plates or photographs. The original stayed mostly out of reach, receiving far less attention than it deserved. Scholars noted its existence, cited it occasionally, and moved on.

William Green decided to look closer. His new book, This Is the Route of My Forefathers, published by the University of Iowa Press in February, is the first full-length attempt to reckon with the No Heart of Fear map on its own terms.

The Ioway had worked out the geometry of the landscape long before anyone else thought to try.

Green, state archeologist at the University of Iowa from 1988 to 2001, spent years assembling a long-fragmented puzzle from three main sources: Ioway oral traditions preserved by tribal historians, including the recently deceased Lance Foster; archaeological site records that helped locate villages and travel corridors; and government archives containing treaty transcripts and the correspondence of officials who had negotiated, argued and eventually prevailed against the people whose world the map recorded.

The method is patient and precise. Green matches each village circle on the map with documented Ioway settlement sites from the 19th century, aligning the drawn trails with known historical routes. Generations of careful observation had taught the Ioway where to establish villages based on which elevations stayed dry when the rivers rose and which lowlying stretches turned to marsh each spring. Euro-American settlers arrived without that knowledge and proceeded without seeking it. They built on the floodplains the Ioway had deliberately avoided, and they lost crops and homes to floods the Ioway might have warned them were coming.

The trails told a similar story. Twenty-six overland routes reflect the optimal pathways through a landscape of rivers, marshes, prairies and oak savannas, refined over generations

Left: William Green via the author; Right: Lance Foster. via Effigy Mounds National Monument

for speed, safety and the demands of seasonal travel. Surveyors and engineers who arrived later, working from their own instruments and surveys, eventually reached most of the same conclusions.

Many of Iowa’s earliest wagon roads grew from Indigenous pathways long carved into the soft soils of the land. Some of those wagon roads became state highways. The Ioway had worked out the geometry of the landscape long before anyone else thought to try, Green demonstrates.

In This is the Route, readers coming to the No Heart of Fear map for the first time will find careful context, patient reconstruction and rich illustrations. For the specialist, including this UNI history professor, the rewards run deeper. Green’s historiographical analysis is exacting, his reading of the map’s individual elements meticulous, and his appendices thorough enough that most any question is preemptively answered. It is rare for a book to genuinely serve both audiences. This one does.

Green’s collaboration with Lance Foster, the late Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, gives the book a layered quality that no single scholar could have achieved alone. The volume carries what appears to be Foster’s final published academic contribution, the capstone of a lifetime devoted to recovering and preserving the Ioway perspectives on their own history. Foster spent years documenting Ioway place names that had been stripped from official maps and recovering oral traditions that predated European settlement.

Green carries that legacy forward, weaving Foster’s insights into a broader reconstruction of the 1837 map and using them to anchor the Ioway world more firmly within the state’s historical record. Green openly acknowledges that some of his identifications remain tentative, but his atlasstyle approach is unparalleled among previous studies of the map. This Is the Route of My Forefathers stands poised to become the standard reference on the No Heart of Fear map, joining a growing body of scholarship that treats Native cartography as evidence of complex knowledge systems rather than historical curiosity.

Nearly 200 years ago, Na'je Nine and Ñiyu Mañi carried two hand-stitched sheets of paper 800 miles to make an argument they believed, with justification, could help reassert Ioway claims to Iowa. The stitching on the map still holds. So does the argument.

“This is the Route of My Forefathers”: The 1837 Ioway Map with archaeologist and author William Green Monday, Oct. 5, 4-6 p.m., Luther College, Decorah, Free

TOPOGRAPHIES TOPOGRAPHIES

MAPPING BEING AND BELONGING

ON VIEW

JUNE 13 – SEPTEMBER 20, 2026

ANNA K. MEREDITH GALLERY

OPENING CELEBRATION

THURSDAY, JUNE 25 | 5 – 7 PM

DOCUMENTARY FILM SCREENING

SATURDAY, JULY 11 | 12 PM | LEVITT AUDITORIUM

POWWOW PEOPLE, 2025 | DIRECTOR: SKY HOPINKA

GALLERY TALK WITH ASSOCIATE CURATOR ELIZABETH GOLLNICK

SUNDAY, JULY 19 | 1:30 PM | ANNA K. MEREDITH GALLERY

FREE GUIDED TOURS

SATURDAYS | 1 PM | AUGUST 15 AND SEPTEMBER 19

ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO ALL FREE ADMISSION DESMOINESARTCENTER.ORG

SUPPORT FOR TOPOGRAPHIES IS PROVIDED BY THE HARRIET S. AND J. LOCKE MACOMBER ART CENTER FUND

THE HARRIET S. AND J. LOCKE MACOMBER ART CENTER FUND

JACQUELINE AND MYRON BLANK EXHIBITION FUND

SUSTAINING SUPPORT MADE POSSIBLE BY THE ANNA K. MEREDITH ENDOWMENT TRUST

Raise the Black Flag

What happens when a bunch of punks, skaters and alt-kids grow up to be key players in a city’s art scene? Chroma63, it seems.

BY CHUY REnTERIA

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 and Music Festival, which debuted on June 14, 2025.

That day saw the amphitheatre amped up a notch for a lineup of Iowa punk, metal and hardcore bands, playing for a free audience. There was also 35 artist vendors and an entire section dedicated to skateboarding, complete with an official Best Trick contest. It was a Waterloo affair that, frankly, seemed to come out of nowhere—but as usually is the case, Chroma63 was the result of years of work from Waterloo Center for Arts (WCA) and key partners in the Cedar Valley area.

alternative music scene, seemed destined to connect with Chroma63. This year’s fest will feature a “40 Years of Punk” exhibition. Amanda Simmons, director of marketing and development at the WCA, said the first Chroma63 was a raging success.

“We saw over 2,500 visitors of all ages in attendance,” Simmons said. “It was a really big eye-opener how many people really wanted to see something new like Chroma. Everyone from the attendees to vendors and bands all had a great time and were very eager to come back.”

Simmons had envisioned something like Chroma63 since she started at WCA in 2019. “I felt that we had the potential to create something very unique that focused on some of the more hidden crevices within the local arts community.”

“The ethos is kind of punk and a little bit rebellious. The bands that they have are not playing the county fair ... They’re writing their own music, which already goes against the grain.”

—MATTHEW HUNDLEY

With its follow-up iteration set for Saturday, June 13, Little Village talked with some of the team behind the fest, each with their own punk origins.

Musician, journalist and music historian Matthew Hundley is the creative lead behind “40 Years of Punk,” a curation and pop-up installation featuring four decades worth of Iowa-based music flyers, posters and ephemera, which will be exhibited at Chroma. He grew up in Cedar Falls, and played in a local punk band in the ’80s when one of the genre’s top acts swung through the area.

“1986 was the year that Black Flag came and played Cedar Falls. So it was a pivotal moment,” he told Little Village. “But it wasn’t just Black Flag. That year we had BGK from the Netherlands come and play UNI, along with another band from Germany. They were in, like, one of the dorm ballrooms. Social Unrest, who were on the same label as Dead Kennedys, came through.”

Hundley, with his encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the Cedar Falls and Waterloo

“40 Years of Punk” will exhibit Iowa concert flyers, posters and ephemera at Chroma63 2026. Courtesy of Matthew Hundley / Chroma63

She began working with local promoters to host a series of metal, hardcore, punk and rock shows at the WCA. A few years later, Simmons “found those shows to be packed with passionate local arts supporters and a full community of likeminded individuals not only interested in music but in visual arts, film and other avenues.”

Simmons relayed this to WCA Director Chawne Paige, who saw the same potential in a larger festival that supported these alternative arts communities It also helped that Paige had a history of embracing alt-music scenes himself, according to Hundley.

“Twenty years ago, [Paige] had a program called Loud, where he was trying to bring punk, rap, metal people together to do things. And I like that spirit.”

“The ethos is kind of punk and a little bit rebellious,” Hundley continued. That same mindset underlies Chroma63. “The bands that they have are not playing the county fair. They’re not [covering] Boston and Peter Frampton. They’re writing their own music, which already goes against the grain.”

Hundley praised the visual art components of the fest as well. “What’s cool to me is to see artists that are in their 20s and 30s exhibiting their work and selling their work, not artists that are my age or my parents’ age, you know, in their 50s to 70s. It’s allowing a new generation to step up and use creativity as a means of getting their message out.”

JUNE 6 Them Coulee Boys w/ Molly Brandt & Simon Cropp

JUN 12 DeVotchKa: Tribute to the Music of Little Miss Sunshine w/ Weary Ramblers

JUNE 24 Old 97’s w/ The Shakeltons

JUL 1 The Heavy Heavy w/ Lunde

JUL 3 An Evening w/ The Jayhawks

JUL 9 Pert Near Sandstone w/ Arkansauce

JULY 17 Drivin N Cryin w/ Laid Back Country Picker

JUL 23 Pokey LaFarge w/ Cedar County Cobras

JUL 26 Nick Shoulders

AUG 8 The Talbott Brothers w/ Wolfskill & The Wild

AUG 22 G. Love & Special Sauce: Lemonade 20th Anniversary Tour

SEP 16 Sleater-Kinney

SEP 24 Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy and Friends play R.E.M.’s Lifes Rich Pageant SOLD OUT!

MAQUOKETA, IOWA codfishhollowbarnstormers.com

Another aspect of the fest attracts a multigenerational crowd: skateboarding. Last year organizers partnered with the CedarLoo Skateboard Association to designate a section of the RiverLoop Amphitheatre and Expo Park for a free skate and trick competition.

“It was great to see older punks and metal fans with their kids and others coming out to enjoy the day and being unapologetically themselves while enjoying the music, art and skating,” Simmons said. “I saw members of the bands going to skate in between sets and kids trying to skate for the first time.”

When asked about the inclusion of skateboarding, Simmons joked that it may have come about because, like a lot of ’90s kids, her first time hearing many punk bands was while playing games in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series.

“Punk music played a huge role in shaping skate culture,” she added. “The fast tempos and DIY attitude of punk matched the energy and independence of skating, especially in its early days when it existed outside the mainstream. Together, the two cultures grew side by side, sharing a spirit of anti-authority, self-expression and constant innovation. To me, they go handin-hand.”

The skate space returns for this year’s fest, with the addition of roller derby tracks and an appearance by members of the Cedar Valley Roller Derby League.

The second annual Chroma63 is poised to be bigger in almost every regard, but the organizers remain focused on local, grassroots punk. The headlining band is Waterloo’s very own kick-ass punk group the Rumours. The rest of the 2026 lineup—from Des Moines’ Greg Wheeler & the Poly Mall Cops and Mr. Softheart to the Quad Cities’ Skip Greer-fronted Running Man—would

be spot-on answers to the question, “Who are the artists making the most noise across Iowa today?”

The sound of the mainstage is likely to reverberate through the distinguished Waterloo Center for the Arts. Simmons said the WCA team wouldn’t want it any other way.

“Our committee is comprised of avid music enthusiasts, punk magazine authors, musicians, artists, skaters and everyone in between,” she said. Additional input and representation came from local venue The Loft, the music production co-op DCK Unlimited Productions, production company Solid Light and Sound, and IPR Studio One.

“Each person shares a wild passion for art and that’s what really fueled the creation of Chroma.”

Chroma63

RiverLoop Amphitheatre, Waterloo, Saturday, June 13, 12-9 p.m., Free

Top: Pretty Good Co, a letterpress and design studio based in Waterloo, tables at the inaugural Chroma63 in 2025. Above: St. Joseph, Missouri punk band Radkey performs at the fest. Courtesy of Chroma63

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISTS THE WOMEN

September 17 – January 2

Drawn from the Christian Levett Collection and the FAMM (Female Artists of the Mougins Museum), France, Abstract Expressionists: The Women features nearly 50 paintings by 32 important women artists between

WORLD MUSIC SERIES

WONTEN

Jun 25 @ 7PM

Blending soul, subtle gospel influence, and the calm pulse of Afro rhythms

INNER SPACES

Jun 28 @ 7PM

A fusion of ancestral and futuristic, acoustic and electronic, local and global

Lightning in a Biker Bar

Saeed’s Punk Nite is a fun time for the whole family, and the soundtrack is always choice.

BY SETH COUGHLIn

Walking through the yellow-tinted double doors of Maggie’s Rumble Room, you’re likely to see a multigenerational Des Moines clientele purchasing drinks and crowding around pool tables. At the far end of the room hangs a sheet with a shag carpet beneath. Atop the carpet sits a chair, a speaker and a microphone.

Before long I clock a man wearing what I’ve learned is his signature red fez adorned with a lightning bolt “N” atop his head. He is Saeed Tokhi, and every second Monday of the month over the last year he’s orchestrated a full-on takeover of this retro biker bar. With the help of his wife Jen, bar co-owner Maggie Senn and a rotating stable of sponsors, Tokhi hosts a series titled Saeed’s Punk Nite.

Each iteration sees the fez-wearing Tokhi hit play on a “traditional, proto, post and punk adjacent playlist” to accompany whatever themed activity the crew cooked up for that month. There was a Draw Your Own Black Sheep contest during the Minor Threat-themed “Banned in DC” night, and a Design Your Own Skateboard activity during the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater night, which consisted solely of songs from the game’s iconic soundtrack. Senn and the Maggie’s staff would brew up some on-theme food and drink specials.

“I believe punk is an attitude and not a genre,” says Tokhi. He describes the series as a mash-up of Nardwuar and interactive pub quiz nights, like those thrown by fellow DSM artist Ramona Muse Lambert.

Last month, Saeed’s Punk Nite celebrated its one-year anniversary with “Metal Mowing May,” which boasted lawn games and nü-metal tunes curated by a sponsor, C & M Mowing. That night, Little Village had the privilege of speaking with Tokhi about his Punk Nite, plans for the future and how he got Rob Sand to be his featured guest.

The following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

How did Punk nite start? It’s a funny story; my friend was doing a Grateful Dead night in the

basement of Val Air. As a joke, I said, “What about a Dead Kennedys night?” My buddy, who owns the bar, said, “Yes.” It didn’t end up being in that venue, but that’s how it started. Sort of like a foil to the Grateful Dead Night.

How did you end up using Maggie’s Rumble Room as your venue? I was without a venue. I came in here. I didn’t know her [Maggie Senn]. I just said, “I promised everyone this thing, and I don’t have a venue.” And she’s like, “Sure,” and told me I could do whatever I want.

It was great that she said I can do whatever I want, but I wonder if that’s like the best thing for someone like me, who needs a lot of structure. But Maggie is great because she’s so flexible. We have meetings every month about what the feature cocktails and the feature pizza are going to be. She’s very hands-on. She’s very invested in Punk Nite. So that’s great when a venue is just as committed and motivated as the host.

You do specialty menu items? Yeah, for example, because it’s nü-metal for May, we’re

going to do a play on the word corn and have an elote pizza, or maybe a Limp Biscuit and gravy pizza? It’s kind of funny and it’s cringey, but I’m all for not being a snob or a gatekeeper about something that should be fun.

So you said you didn’t know Maggie when you initially talked with her. How did you first find Maggie’s? I’ve been to Maggie’s before and I would come to the restaurant that was here previously, called Sambetti’s. So I’ve been to both and thought of Maggie’s because I really think it’s our only punk-rock bar. I mean, right now they’re playing country music, but it’s because I’ve been pushing this forever. I really feel like punk rock is an attitude and not literally power chords, so when I was thinking of a venue, this was my number-one choice. I’m so lucky I got it.

How has Punk nite evolved since you started? Originally, it was going to be just the Dead Kennedys night, and it was my friend Don, who was doing the Grateful Dead night, who told me, “Don’t just do one band. Do different regions

Wearing his signature fez, Saeed Tokhi hosts Punk Nite on May 11. Britt Fowler / Little Village

and different eras. Then it’s always fresh.” So it evolved in that way, every single month it’s either punk or punk adjacent. I am curious about how I can evolve it into proto punk, and even in the fall, I’d like to do an alt-country night to push the boundaries as well.

What’s your hope for the series and its future? I think third spaces are really important, something people can go to that’s consistent, that they can rely on. That’s really important. I didn’t really know it was going to turn into a variety show with games and stuff. I thought it was going to be just listening to music and maybe some trivia questions. I guess I’m trying to evolve it into something really entertaining and engaging. I’m just as curious to find out how it’s going to evolve as well.

What has been your favorite Punk nite so far? We had Rob Sand in November, the state auditor [and Democratic candidate for governor]. I thought that was unreal/surreal, and it was packed. It was probably 100 people in here and there was a lot of energy. People were really excited to see him, so that’s hard to top. I’m always trying to reach that again.

How did you get Sand to come out? I’m lucky enough I happen to know his sister. I did get his campaign contacts, so I reached out to them. I talked to one person and talked to a second, pitched the idea. She liked it. She thought Rob would be into it. It came down to Rob asking his sister, “Can I trust this guy? Is this something I should do?” and she gave me the OK, which is huge.

Over the past year, do you feel you’ve expanded people’s knowledge of punk? The interesting thing about Punk Nite is I don’t think our audience is these die-hard, jaded punkrock people. I think they actually kind of hate this thing because I don’t take myself seriously and I don’t think of punk-rock as a religion, so I don’t think there’s anything I can do that’s sacrilegious. Ironically, I think that the demographic is people who are looking for an entertainment community or even having a pizza dinner with their family, with a good soundtrack.

Do you see a lot of families? There’s always at least one or two regulars that bring their kids and then, because kids are so entertaining, I’ll have them judge the activities. For last month, the sponsor was Piney Ridge Greenhouse. So, we gave everyone these miniature Dixie cups. We filled them with edible rocks, then we gave them pipe cleaners to make flowers. My friend’s son got to judge his favorites, so he’s always fun on the microphone. Just gold.

From politics to water quality to punk rock to nobodyopera... does it like Little Village.

An Awful Long Time

Wish it was easier to get your busy friends together? Consider starting a folk band.

BY KEMBREW McLEOD

Awful Purdies are a group of five women who joined forces like an Americana Voltron. For the past 20 years, they have been rocking the region with their

beautiful blend of folk, honky tonk, bluegrass and a little bit of soul.

This synthesis is achieved through an amalgamation of instruments that range from

cello, mandolin and bass to guitar, banjo and some washboard rhythms thrown in for good measure. Oh, and they all sing—fabulously. Those harmonies!

Prairie Pop

Nicole Yeager / Little Village

The group doesn’t have a designated frontwoman, so they all take turns singing lead on traditional folk songs, covers and their own originals. Awful Purdies mostly do their own songs, which makes sense because their songwriting bench is stacked with all-stars.

Their next album, Begin Again, will include 18 songs they wrote for the group’s 20th anniversary, plus two covers. This past Mother’s Day, I caught up with the group while they were recording with Luke Tweedy at Flat Black Studios in Lone Tree. We talked about art, activism, motherhood and the background hum of misogyny that women in music learn to tune out.

For the past 16 years or so, the group’s lineup has consisted of Sarah Cram, Katie Roche, Kate Rowe, Marcy Rosenbaum and Nicole Upchurch. Previous members include Annie Savage (of The Savage Hearts), Amy Harron (formerly Amy Finders, currently playing with Ms. Amy and the Jet Set) and Gabrielle Kouri (of Big Begonias).

there was a group of nursing mothers sitting in a circle talking to each other. Poets were out in the backyard around the fire, and the hot tub was lit.”

And Roche means lit—so much so that the tub had overflowed. The mass of bodies displaced so much water that there were only dregs left by the end of the night.

‘leader,’ so one way that this group is sustainable is that we’re all making the decisions together.” Being able to express themselves within a collective is a key reason why Awful Purdies keep on rockin’ in the (un)free world. They all work as individual artists outside of the group, but come together in a musical mind meld. It’s the best of both worlds.

“Part of what happens with us is that it’s not just making art. It’s supporting each other as friends and women. There is no ‘leader,’ so one way this group is sustainable is that we’re all making the decisions together.”

Marcy Rosenbaum recalled that the Purdies’ began after Savage and Harron discussed in 2006 how they had mainly played in bands with men. Between their jobs and kids and partners, that didn’t leave much room for other women in their lives.

“They thought, ‘You know, the only way we’re going to get to hang out with women is if we form an all-women band with our friends,’” Rosenbaum said. “They approached Katie Roche, Gabrielle Kouri and I—and it kind of just happened that way. I remember we had our first practices in my backyard under a pine tree. So, that’s how we started.”

The current version of the band came about after Roche threw an all-women party at her house in Iowa City in 2009.

“Over 100 women came to my house that night, and it was beautiful,” she said. “In my bedroom,

—MARCY ROSENBAUM

Nicole Upchurch had just moved to the Midwest, and had been gifted a banjo.

“It was so inspiring,” Upchurch said. “I went home that night and I played the banjo for three hours in my bathroom so my kids wouldn’t wake up, and because the acoustics are great. I just stayed up and started figuring out my instrument.”

One thing led to another, and after a few musical chair shuffles, Awful Purdies’ current lineup congealed.

“We get together every week,” Sarah Cram said. “As you go through life, it gets hard to sustain hanging out with friends on a regular basis. So, it helps us do that weekly. Maybe we’re not making music together, but we’re doing something and getting together, and that’s what is important.”

“Part of what happens with us is that it’s not just making art,” Rosenbaum added. “It’s supporting each other as friends and women. There is no

“I always joke that Awful Purdies is my longest relationship,” Kate Rowe said. “It’s actually been part of my entire adult life. I was one year out of college when I joined this band and I’ve been through two divorces, a kid, all of this stuff. I can think of moments in time where each person in this group has shown up for me, or where we’ve shared a moment where I really saw them and they saw me. That is very impactful.”

“One of the ways we have supported each other is through childrearing,” Roche said. “You know, it’s not easy to have small kids and instruments and jobs and that whole thing. There was never a question of whether someone’s child could be present at a practice. Having a kid coming out in their pajamas asking for something to drink was par for the course.”

Friendship is the glue that binds Awful Purdies, but the other thing that keeps the group dynamic new and fresh is that they all come from such varied musical backgrounds.

Awful Purdies Upcoming Shows

Sunday, June 7, 3 p.m., Iowa Arts Festival, Downtown Iowa City Saturday, July 18, 1 p.m., Turkey River Cabin Concerts, Elkader

July 21, 6:30 p.m., Bunker Mill Bridge, Kalona

“My other little secret,” Rowe said, “is that I’m not a connoisseur of folk music. I grew up listening to heavy metal and electronica. Outside of Purdies, I’m a techno DJ, but I love playing music with the group. It makes it so worthwhile to do it, even though it’s not technically my jam, because they make it fun and exciting.”

“I had just been in a punk band and a blues band,” Cram said of the period before she joined, “and I was traveling a lot. I knew that I wanted to play with women and I kind of wanted to settle in a little bit. I just felt like being with them was going to be so much cozier, and I was kind of ready for this softer lifestyle.”

Begin Again will be the group’s fifth and sixth album. It was originally going to be a double album, but then William Elliott Whitmore (who produced their previous record) suggested they release the 20 songs as two separate records. Think Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, but less grandiose.

It takes a village to sustain a musical collective. In addition to the tireless support of friends and

family, funding for the Awful Purdies’ 20th anniversary project was provided by the Iowa Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and Iowa City’s Rapson Collaborative. This was essential in helping to cover the costs of recording those 20 songs.

“I was just listening to the mixes last night with Benj,” Upchurch said, referring to her husband. “He was listening and was like, ‘What would you call this genre?’ And I couldn’t really say. I mean, we go all over the place because we all have different musical backgrounds. It’s interesting to see what kind of mutt comes out of it. And I mean that in the most endearing way. I love mutts.”

“Yeah, it’s mutt music,” Roche chimes in. “Or maybe goulash is a more apt metaphor.”

Whether they prefer to think of their songs as goulash or mutt music, to me, Awful Purdies will always be Iowa’s Americana Voltron.

The Awful Purdies perform at The Mill.

Courtesy of Mara Cole

June A-LIST: MUSIC

DES MOINES/AMES

Wed, June 3, 7 p.m., Jazz on the House w/ Tyler Utter & Co., Noce Wed, June 3, 6 p.m., Terror with Pain of Truth, End It, Start Today, Wooly's Thurs, June 4, 6 p.m., Steffen Heins, xBk Annex

Thurs, June 4, 6 p.m., Public Opinion and Squint w/ Display Case, xBk Live Thurs, June 4, 7 p.m., Failure Drill, Iron Bar, Locals

Thurs, June 4, 7 p.m., Jazz on the House w/ KC Percussionist John Kizilarmut & Co., Noce

Thurs, June 4, 6 p.m., The Last Dinner Party w/ Automatic, Val Air Ballroom

Fri, June 5, 7 p.m., DJ Greaze, Locals Fri, June 5, 7 p.m., KBong & Johnny Cosmic, xBk Live

Fri, June 5, 7 p.m., Satsang with Joey Harkum, Wooly's Fri, June 5, 8 p.m., Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, Hoyt Sherman Place Sat, June 6, 1 & 7:30 p.m., Shaun

Sings Country, The Ingersoll

Sat, June 6, 7 p.m., Waylo, Geezy, Locals

Sat, June 6, 7 p.m., Tommy Doggett and Ben Mars, xBk Annex

Sat, June 6, 8 p.m., Anders Colsefni, Wooly's Sun, June 7, 6 p.m., Season to Risk w/ Procedure and Quade, xBk Live

Sun, June 7, 7 p.m., King Kaleidoscope w/ Hollyn, Wooly's Mon, June 8, 6 p.m., More Cheese, Sarah Tonin, Momzilla, xBk Live Mon, June 8, 7 p.m., We Are The Asteroid, Locals

Mon, June 8, 6 p.m., Citizen Soldier: Secret Songs Tour II, Wooly's Mon, June 8, 7 p.m., Saeed’s Punk Nite: The New Traditionalists, Maggie’s Rumble Room

Tue, June 9, 7 p.m., Flowpoetry, Derrick Jones, Locals

Tue, June 9, 6:30 p.m., Marques Morel & Simon Cropp, xBk Annex

Wed, June 10, 6 p.m., Cory Waller & The Wicked Things w/ Collin Donley, xBk Live Wed, June 10, 6 p.m., Paisley Fields w/ Adam Bruce, xBk Annex Wed, June 10, 7 p.m., Jazz on the House w/ Trombonist & Composer Levi Temple & Co., Noce Thurs, June 11, 6 p.m., The Bones of J.R. Jones w/ Tall Tall Trees, xBk Live Thurs, June 11, 7 p.m., Jazz On The House w/ Napoleon Douglas & Co., Noce

Thurs, June 11, 7 p.m., Dexter and the Moonrocks, Fox n Vead and High June, Wooly's Thurs, June 11, 7:30 p.m., The Austin Brown Trio, xBk Annex

Fri, June 12, 6 p.m., High Fade, Turning Jane, Wooly's Fri, June 12, 7 p.m., Graveripper, Ourbouros, Holy Vestige, Locals Fri, June 12, 7 p.m., The Hannah Marks Quartet, Noce Fri, June 12, 7 p.m., Otis Julius, DJ Strawstone, Space to Play, Forest, xBk Live Fri, June 12, 7:30 p.m., Jennifer Lyn & The Groove Revival, Temple Theater Sat, June 13, 6 p.m., Joel Sires and River Glen, xBk Annex

Sat, June 13, 7 p.m., Pink Flag, Bhagwan, Toon Smokes, Locals

Sat, June 13, 7 p.m., Druids and The Curse of Hail, xBk Live

Sun, June 14, 8 p.m., The Wallflowers, Hoyt Sherman Place

Mon, June 15, 8 p.m., Racing Mount Pleasant, xBk Live

via the artist

Tues, June 16, 6 p.m., Sawyer Fredericks, xBk Live

Wed, June 17, 7 p.m., Dorothy w/ The Rumours, Wooly's Thurs, June 18, 6 p.m., Gannon Fremin & CCREV, xBk Live

Thurs, June 18, 7 p.m., Tigers Jaw, Pool Kids, Bleary Eyed, Wooly’s Thurs, June 18, 7:30 p.m., Christopher Cross, Hoyt Sherman Place

Fri, June 19, 5 p.m., Dance Gavin Dance with Special Guests, Val Air Ballroom Fri, June 19, 7 p.m., Motel Pheromones, Longbottom, Leaf, Locals

Fri, June 19, 7 p.m., Kate Kristine, xBk Annex

Sat, June 20, 6 p.m., The Acacia Strain with THE CALLOUS DAOBOYS, fromjoy, Mask, Wooly's Sat, June 20, 5 p.m., Wyatt Flores: Drive All Night Tour w/ Shelby Stone, Val Air Ballroom

Sun, June 21, 5 p.m., Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials, xBk Live

Mon, June 22, 6 p.m., Weary Ramblers, Ducharme-Jones, Chip Albright, Sam Pattison, xBk Live

Tues, June 23, 6 p.m., Elijah Scott, xBk Live

Tues, June 23, 6 p.m., Edwin McCain, Five For Fighting, Val Air Ballroom

Tues, June 23, 7 p.m., Brody Schnek, Chris Falcon, Banjo Cat, Locals

Wed, June 24, 6 p.m., East Nash Grass, xBk Live

Wed, June 24, 7 p.m., Acute Inflections, The Shop DSM Thurs, June 25, 6 p.m., Bat Problem, Sundogs at Midnight, TV Cop, xBk Live Thurs, June 25, 7:30 p.m., MJ

The Illusion, The Ingersoll Thurs, June 25, 8 p.m., The Robert Cray Band, Hoyt Sherman Place Fri, June 26, 12 a.m., Broadway Baby:

A Night of Showtunes w/ Lauren Vilmain & Her Jazz Orchestra, Noce Fri, June 26, 7 p.m., Early Girl, The Value of Human Life, Toon Smokes, Locals

Fri, June 26, 7 p.m., Kensett album release party w/ Lady Revel, xBk Live

Fri, June 26, 7 p.m., Mike Sherm, Wooly's Fri, June 26, 7:30 p.m., MJ The Illusion, The Ingersoll

Sat, June 27, 6 p.m., Kolby Cooper, Wooly's Sun, June 28, 7:30 p.m., I’m With Her, Hoyt Sherman Place

Mon, June 29, 7 p.m., School of Rock Concert, Locals

Tues, June 30, 7:30 p.m., St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Hoyt Sherman Place Wed, July 1, 6 p.m., Carolina Liar w/ Andrew Hoyt, xBk Live

Fri, July 3, 7 p.m., Sparta, xBk Live

Fri, July 3, 7 p.m., Charlie & The Tropicals, Noce

IOWA CITY

Thursdays through June, Farm Sessions, Wilson's Orchard

Wed, Jun 3, 6 p.m., MO'YNOQ, Valletta, Necrotic Theurgist, & Starved, Gabe's Thurs, June 4, 6:30 p.m., Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives, The Englert Thurs, June 4, 7:30 p.m., Willi Carlisle, The James

Thurs, June 4, 8 p.m., Cory Waller & The Wicked Things w/ Collin Donley, Wildwood

Fri, June 5, 10 p.m., VCTMS w/ Mirrorcell, Waste, Catsclaw & 12 Gauge Autopsy, Wildwood

MUSIC

Sat, Jun 6, 6 p.m., 156/Silence w/ Abstract Forms & Piss Nuke, Gabe's Sat, June 6, 6 p.m., Northside Saturday Nights: Joel Worford, Iowa City Northside Sat, June 6, 8:30 p.m., Sullivan’s Daughter and Jake Stack, Trumpet Blossom Wed, June 10, 6 p.m., Burlington Street Bluegrass Band, Wildwood Fri, June 12, 8 p.m., Dexter and The Moonrocks w/ Cigarettes @ Sunset and High June, Wildwood

Sat, June 13, 6 p.m., Northside Saturday Nights: Jack Lion, Northside Iowa City

Sat, June 13, 6 p.m., Shallow Side w/ Embers Rise, Gravel Switch, Wildwood Sat, Jun 13, 8 p.m., Isles w/ Born For Nothing, Gunk Lung & On Hiatus, Gabe's Sat, June 13, 8 p.m., Stephanie Catlett record release w/ Freegrass Trio, Trumpet Blossom Sun, June 14, 3 p.m., Sunday Funday: Country Biscuits, Wilson's Orchard Sun, Jun 14, 7 p.m., Buzzkill, Gabe's Sun, June 14, 7 p.m., Marques Morel & Simon Cropp, Wildwood Thurs, June 18, 7 p.m., The Wallflowers w/ Early James, The Englert Fri, Jun 19, 7 p.m., Greg Mendez - Beauty Land Tour w/ Scarlet Rae, Gabe's Sat, June 20, 6 p.m., Northside Saturday Nights: The Feralings, Northside Iowa City Sat, Jun 20, 7 p.m., Throne w/ Fungal Mass & Oroboro, Gabe’s Sun, June 21, 6 p.m., COLD - Goodbye Cruel World, Wildwood Sun, June 21, 7 p.m., Marisa Anderson w/ Grain Bin Operettas, The James

Sun, June 21, 7 p.m., Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue w/ DJ Punkadelic, The Englert Wed, June 24, 7 p.m., Burlington Street Bluegrass Band, Wildwood Fri, June 26, 8 p.m., Silverada w/ Kelsey Waldon, Wildwood Sat, June 27, 7 p.m., NITE w/ Panic Priest, Gabe's Sat, June 27, 8:30 p.m., Neptune, Sinner Frenz, Active Trash, Trumpet Blossom Sun, June 28, 7 p.m., Smile Empty Soul, Wildwood Mon, Jun 29, 8 p.m., Linnea's Garden, Gabe's via the artist

CEDAR RAPIDS

Fri, June 5, 4:30 p.m. & 7:15 p.m., Blake Shaw, Opus Concert Café

Fri, June 5, 8 p.m., R&B Night: Summer Breeze Series, The Ideal Theater & Bar

Wed, June 10, 8 p.m., Gunshine w/ SaintSix, The Ideal Theater & Bar

Thurs, June 11, 7:30 p.m., Josh Turner, Opus Concert Café

Sat, June 13, 5 p.m., Orchestra Iowa Presents:

A Maestro Milestone, Opus Concert Café

Wed, June 17, 6:30 p.m., Luke Sanders Trio, Opus Concert Café

Thurs, June 18, 7:30 p.m., Carson Parker Trio ft. Aviana Gedler, The Ideal Theater & Bar

Sat, June 20, 8 p.m., Wayne Hancock, Sam Joens, The Ideal Theater & Bar

Thurs, June 25, 7 p.m., Wonten, CSPS Hall

Fri, June 26, 7 p.m., Ill Omen, CSPS Hall

Sat, June 27, 7:30 p.m., Amber Hansen, Opus Concert Café

Sat, June 27, 7:30 p.m., Old Crow Medicine Show, Paramount Theatre Sat, June 27, 8 p.m., CR Pride Late Show, CSPS Hall

Sun, June 28, 7 p.m., Inner Spaces, CSPS Hall

CEDAR FALLS/ WATERLOO

Fri, June 5, 8 p.m., Tsushimamire & Bagel Steak, Octopus, Cedar Falls Fri, June 5, 8 p.m., The Summer Awakening, Project 10-44, Agony of Defeat, In My Blood, Death by Dream, Clowns Around Town, The Loft, Waterloo

Sat, June 13, 9 p.m., Leftover Crack, Sad Plant, Guilty as Charged, The Loft, Waterloo Fri, June 19, 7 p.m., Apollos Death, Slime Monsters From Outer Space, Dogs of Chernobyl, The Loft, Waterloo

Sat, June 20, 6 p.m., Cedar Valley Extreme Music Fest III, The Loft, Waterloo

Fri, June 26, 7 p.m., Doppelganger, SIFYN, Spectrum, Phoenix Curse, The Loft, Waterloo

QUAD CITIES

Thu, June 4, Public Figure w/Party Cove, Company Dimes & Camp Regret, Raccoon Motel

Fri, June 5, Willi Carlisle, Raccoon Motel

Sat, June 6, Tsushimamire w/We Are The Asteroid, Raccoon Motel

Sat, June 6, 7 p.m., Hieroglyphic Being w/ Samuel P., Rozz-Tox, Rock Island

Sat, June 6, Late Night With Maggie, Raccoon Motel

Mon, June 8, Season To Risk, Raccoon Motel

Tue, June 9, Ellis Bullard, Raccoon Motel

Wed, June 10, Spiral Fracture w/ Vale End, Raccoon Motel

Thu, June 11, Obsidian Reign Pride

Drag Takeover, Raccoon Motel

Fri, June 12, 7 p.m., Derya Yildirim & Grup

Simsek w/ Idpyramid, Rozz-Tox, Rock Island

MUSIC

Sat, June 13, Joe Jordan w/ Jd Aguilera, Raccoon Motel

Sat, June 13, The Bones of J.R. Jones, Raccoon Motel

Mon, June 15, Decide Today w/Klasskamp & Woodlake, Raccoon Motel

Mon, June 15, 7 p.m., Midwife + Amulets, Rozz-Tox, Rock Island

Wed, June 17, 6 p.m., Moneyball w/ Mazu. & Born for Nothing, Raccoon Motel

Thu, June 18, Griffin William Sherry, Raccoon Motel

Fri, June 19, Scott Wolverton, Raccoon Motel

Sat, June 20, Thee Marloes, Raccoon Motel

Sat, June 20, Marisa Anderson w/ Liv Carrow, Rozz-Tox, Rock Island

Sun, June 21, Dinner Time, Raccoon Motel

Wed, June 24, Linus w/Lulled, Raccoon Motel

Thu, June 25, Night Moves w/ Feems, Raccoon Motel

Fri, June 26, Julie Doiron & Carson McHone, Raccoon Motel

Sat, June 27, Neptune’s Core w/ Uniflora, Raccoon Motel

DUBUQUE/ MAQUOKETA

Mon, June 6, 8 p.m., Them Coulee Boys, Molly Brandt, Simon Cropp, Codfish Hollow

Wed, June 10, 8 p.m., Todd Albright, The Lift

Fri, June 12, 7 p.m., River Glen, Maquoketa Brewing Company

Fri, June 12, 8 p.m., DeVotchKa: Tribute to the Music of Little Miss Sunshine w/ Weary Ramblers, Codfish Hollow

Sat, June 13, 7:30 p.m., Joe & Vicki Price, The Lift

Tues, June 16, 8 p.m., Bob Log III, The Lift

Wed, June 24, 8 p.m., Old 97’s, The Shackletons, Codfish Hollow

Fri, June 26, 8 p.m., Logan Metz, The Lift Wed, July 1, 8 p.m., The Heavy

Heavy, Lunde, Codfish Hollow

Fri, July 3, 8 p.m., An Evening with the Jayhawks, Codfish Hollow

Tuan Rio, via the artist