ISSUE 356 Sept. 2026
A L W A Y S
Arts P l l a F re v da
Ju ly
t at M
adness er M ee f
·R
PG. 22
dian!) come (the lsh Wa
fu film ve Kung ter an s
Lost Woods Music Festival strays from the path
·
w ie
Cameron Mitchell · Mira John n
F R E E
BER 24 M E T P E S , Y A D R U T A S – Y A THURSD
MO AMER MIRANDA JULY
JOHN CAMERON MIT CHEL L M A N Y H A P P Y R E T UR N S BY MONICA BIL L BARNES AND C OMPA N Y
M I R A N D A J U LY Photo: © Elizabeth Weinberg
mɔ ɹnɪ ŋ
[morning//mourning] BY EL S E Y B EL L G JULIANNA BARWICK AND M AR Y LATT IMORE KASS A OVER AL L PAUL WIANCKO AND AYANE KOZA SA
PRESENTED BY HANCHER AUDITORIUM AND THE OFFICE OF PERFORMING ARTS AND ENGAGEMENT
–26
MO AMER
AN ARTS FESTIVAL CT IN G EX PL O R IN G AN D R EF LE Y THE AMERICAN STOR
PA S S E S A N D KETS IN DI V ID U A L E V EN T T IC AV A IL A B L E N O W
ABLE B U F F E T DI N N ER S AV A IL N IG H T S T H U R S D AY A N D F R ID AY
JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL Photo: Matthew Placek
HANCHER EVENT PARTNER Vernon Hein Fund
MONICA BILL BARNES Photo: Paula Lobo
LittleVillageMag.com/Support INDEPENDENT IOWA NEWS, ARTS & CULTURE Since 2001 | LittleVillageMag.com
8 Top Stories 10 Ad Index 12 Interactions 21 Fully Booked Britt Fowler / Little Village; Collage by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village
22 Lost Woods 23 A-List: Events 24 David Huckfelt 26 Porch Fest DSM 28 Miranda July 34 For Kicks 38 Little Shoppe of Horrors 43 John Cameron Mitchell 46 Reefer Madness 48 Matt Walsh 52 Rose Frantzen 56 Peak Iowa 58 Prairie Pop 61 Dear Kiki 63 Astrology 65 Album Reviews 67 Book Reviews 69 Crossword
22
43
See the forest for the trees at this Burning Man-ish music fest in Cedar Falls.
There’s more than one type of closet. This punk heroine broke free from all of them.
Follow a Fox
Hedwig at 25
46
POWERED BY
Pipe Down
CAFE DEL SOL
The scourge of Marihuana addiction is no laughing matter. Heed this play!
Little Village (ISSN 2328-3351) is an independent, community-supported 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.
SAVE, SHARE OR RECYCLE
Support Little Village Reader support helps make Little Village free & accessible. Venmo: @littlevillagemag PayPal: lv@littlevillagemag.com SUBSCRIBE! Become a $10/month subscriber and receive the issue by mail every month. LittleVillageMag.com/Subscribe DONATE! In partnership with the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation, financial gifts in support of Little Village are tax deductible. LittleVillageMag.com/Donate
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 5
PRESENTED BY
Vino Vérité is a series of thought-provoking, chance-taking, and visually-arresting films paired with hand-selected wines and dessert. Filmmaker Judd Ehrilch joins us for the Iowa premiere of a story about a famed Iowa firebrand still fighting the good fight.
JANE ELLIOTT AGAINST THE WORLD SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 7PM
Filmmaker Judd Ehrlich and Special Guests in person! Ticket includes film, reception and handpicked wine.
www.icfilmscene.org/vino-verite
LittleVillageMag.com/Support INDEPENDENT IOWA NEWS, ARTS & CULTURE Since 2001 | LittleVillageMag.com
EDITORIAL
LITTLE VILLAGE
Meet this month’s contributors!
Publisher
CREATIVE SERVICES
Ariana Martinez is a
inclusive sweep of
lived in Norway, Belgium,
Jordan Sellergren
Website design, E-commerce,
children’s and collection
the cultural brush.
Mexico and the U.S.
jordan@littlevillagemag.com
Publication design
services librarian at
creative@littlevillagemag.com
Iowa City Public Library.
K. Twaddle is an Iowa
Melody Dworak is a
Her favorite local
transplant and a lifelong
librarian at the Iowa City
Editor-in-Chief Emma McClatchey
Digital Director
hiking trail is at F.W.
book enthusiast. She lives
Public Library, juggling
emma@littlevillagemag.com
Drew Bulman
Kent County Park.
in rural Iowa with her
two to three books
partner and three cats.
at any given time.
drewb@littlevillagemag.com Arts Editor
Arlette Uribe-Gonzalez
Chuy Renteria
SALES & ADMINISTRATION
is a library assistant at
Katie Roche lives in
Mike Kuhlenbeck is
chuy@littlevillagemag.com
Jordan Sellergren
the Des Moines Public
Iowa City and spends
a freelance journalist
jordan@littlevillagemag.com
Library. She spends
her time making music,
and National Writers
her time knitting,
writing and fighting
Union member based
for public libraries.
in Des Moines.
across new hobbies
Kembrew McLeod is a
Nicole Yeager is a critical
(see: obsessions).
founding Little Village
psych nerd, freelance
columnist and the chair
writer and photojournalist
News Director Paul Brennan
Advertising
snuggling with her
paul@littlevillagemag.com
ads@littlevillagemag.com
cats, or stumbling
Graphic Designer
CIRCULATION
Kellan Doolittle
Distribution Manager
kellan@littlevillagemag.com
Joseph Servey
Britt Fowler is a Des
of Communication
from the Driftless, now
joseph@littlevillagemag.com
Moines photographer
Studies at the
based in Iowa City.
specializing in
University of Iowa.
Corrections Distribution
documentary style,
Austin Chadderdon, Elida
landscape and
Kristian Day is a
makes art and music.
Martinez, Esther Windt, Heber
portraiture. Her active
filmmaker, writer and
Sometimes she’s in
Martinez, Joseph Servey,
project Shoot Des
host of the long-running
charge of dinner,
Sept. Contributors
Oliver Booth, Van Holmgren
Moines (Shoot DSM)
radio show and podcast,
too. Buy her art at
Ariana Martinez, Arlette Uribe-
distro@littlevillagemag.com
catalogues sights and
Iowa Basement Tapes.
ramonamuselambert.com.
stories from the Mecca
Keep up with him on
of the Midwest.
Instagram (@kristianday)
Sam Locke Ward is a
or at kristianday.com
cartoonist and musician
editor@littlevillagemag.com
Gonzalez, Britt Fowler, Elisabeth
Ramona Muse Lambert
Oster, Glenn Houlihan, Jessie
OFFICES
Kraemer, John Busbee, K.
Little Village HQ,
Twaddle, Katie Roche, Kembrew
LV Creative Services
Elisabeth Oster is
McLeod, Kristian Day, Lauren
623 S Dubuque St
a freelance writer
Lauren Haldeman is a
publishes the comic
Haldeman, Lee Keeler, Mauricio
Iowa City, IA 52240
and designer, and
graphic novelist and
zines Voyage Into Misery
Ruiz, Melody Dworak, Mike
319-855-1474
collector of dad rock.
poet. She has received
and ‘93 Grind Out.
Kuhlenbeck, Nicole Yeager,
from Iowa City. He self
an Iowa Arts Fellowship,
Ramona Muse Lambert, Rob
SOCIAL MEDIA
Glenn Houlihan is an
a Sustainable Arts
Sarah Elgatian is a writer,
Brezsny, Sam Locke Ward,
Facebook @LittleVillageMag
American Studies PhD
Foundation Award and
activist and educator
Sarah Elgatian, Sara Williams,
Instagram @LittleVillageMag
student at the University
fellowships from the
living in Iowa. She likes
Tom Tomorrow, Violette Bray
Bluesky @littlevillage.bsky.social
of Iowa studying the
Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
dark coffee, bright colors
growth of cricket (yes,
and long sentences,
the sport!) in the U.S.
Lee Keeler is a film
Issue 356
Glenn is also part of the
professor for The Des
Sept. 2026
Ragers for Charity DJ
Moines Area Community
Sara Williams is a
Cover illustration by
collective in Iowa City.
College. He spins
multidisciplinary
records at Black Sheep
artist who was raised
Jessie Kraemer is a
in downtown DSM and
in Bondurant, Iowa.
Consider this issue a white
writer and artist living in
co-founded Green
She currently resides
rabbit leading you through the
Iowa City. Follow her on
Gravel Comedy in 2014.
near Amana.
fests, shows, talks and other
instagram (@jkraem).
Andy Pestotnik
can’t-miss happenings in the
She dislikes meanness.
Mauricio Ruiz is a grad
Violette Bray is an avid
months ahead. Plus: DJ Dirk
John Busbee produces
student at the Iowa
reader, crafter and
Whitebreast; a iconic horror
The Culture Buzz, a
Writers’ Workshop, the
advocate for sustainable
mag made in Iowa; and the time
weekly arts & culture
recipient of a writing
fashion. Violette co-
Jandek brought his, uh, unique
radio show on kfmg.
fellowship from Granta
hosts Lonely Cloud FM,
sound to the Grinnell campus.
org, covering Iowa’s
and the author of two
a disco house radio
arts scene with an
story collections. He’s
show on KRUI 89.7 FM.
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 7
LittleVillageMag.com
Top Stories Catch up on some of Little Village’s most-viewed headlines from the last month, and get the print edition delivered to your mailbox every month: littlevillagemag.com/subscribe.
Elon Musk plans to spend millions to put Ashley Hinson in the Senate By Paul Brennan, July 31 Musk’s America PAC is aiming its (paid) door-knockers,
After resisting pressure from Zach Nunn and RFK Jr. to drop his bid for Congress, Libertarian Marco Battaglia leaves anyway, citing medical emergency By Paul Brennan, Aug. 4
digital ads and mailers towards “low-propensity voters” likely
After publicly discussing the calls and visits he received
to vote Republican. Hinson has praised Musk’s “service to our country,”
from Republicans asking him to drop out, Marco Battaglia was kicked
despite DOGE’s documented failures and lack of documented successes.
off the ballot by a panel. His planned appeal is not moving forward.
CDC adds Iowa to list of states affected by ‘record-setting outbreak’ of intestinal disease from contaminated lettuce By Paul Brennan, Aug. 6
Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum and instructor Garth Greenwell critiques workshop model as ‘fraudulent’ By Emma McClatchey, Aug. 12
Under the Biden administration, the CDC had 11 scientists
“Workshop tempts artists into thinking that success
dedicated to tracking foodborne illnesses. Under Trump and HHS Sec.
means appealing to the largest number of people around the table,
RFK Jr., there are three. Last year, they cut $5.8 billion from the CDC
but that’s always a fool’s errand, a recipe for awfulness,” writes Iowa
program that funds state-level food safety and public health measures.
City author Garth Greenwell in a newsletter published on Aug. 12.
News, politics, environmental coverage and so much more.
Subscribe today: littlevillagemag.com/newsletters
Sign up for free!
Little Village’s 14th Annual
of IOWA CITY F U L L B A R & D I N N E R M E N U • S TA N D - U P C O M E DY SPONSORED
HOSTED
BY
BY
Aaron Pang
Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026
U ASK, P L U S , YO ER... WE ANSW
5:30 door / 6 p.m. show
at Iowa City
ReUnion Brewery
Sex & love advice from Little Village
F R E E A D M I S S I O N W I T H S U G G E S T E D D O N AT I O N 18+
A D U LT
HUMOR!
MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE THANK YOU TO THIS ISSUE’S MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE ADVERTISING PARTNERS NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE This issue of Little Village is supported by: MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE Adamantine Spine Iowa City Northside NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Moving (69) Marketplace (10-11) Autonomy Iowa —Artifacts MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE City (61) —Bluebird Cafe Black Magic —Dodge St. Tire NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Tattoo (28) —George’s Body Song —Hare Parlor Massage (55) —John’s Grocery MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE Brucemore (30) —Northside Case Group Family Dental NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Realty (50) — Oasis Falafel Cedar Rapids —Pagliai’s Pizza MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE Czech Village/ —R.S.V.P. New Bohemia —The Haunted Neighborhood (58) NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Bookshop —Indigo River & Co. —Willow & Stock —Moss —Yotopia MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE —Next Page Books Iowa City Public —Sweet Mercantile Library (18) NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE —The Daisy Iowa Public Cedar Ridge Radio (61) NORTHSIDE Distillery (44) Iowa State University M A R K E T P L A C E Cindy Clark, Museums (60) REALTOR (39) KCCK Jazz NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Cole Services (14) 88.3fm (45) CommUnity Crisis Kim Schillig, MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE Services & Food REALTOR (19) Bank (28) KRUI 89.7fm (63) NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Coralville Center for Linn County the Performing Conservation (18) Arts (68) Maharishi School (19) M A R K E T P L A C E NORTHSIDE Coralville Public Marshalltown Library (16) Arts & Culture NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Critical Hit Games (17) Alliance (50) Des Moines Art Martin Construction MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE Center (54) (17) Des Moines McCue and Mercantile (49) Associates (45) NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Des Moines Metro Mohair Pear (14) Opera (66) Musician’s Pro MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE Des Moines Shop (49) Playhouse (51) New Pioneer Food NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Des Moines Public Coop (43) Library (41) Nodo (64) Dupaco Credit Orchestra Iowa (41) MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE Union (57) Performing Arts Electric Lady (51) at Iowa (31) NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Emma Goldman Phoebe Martin, Clinic (61) REALTOR (4) MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE Erik Rosenquist (57) Polk County Field to Family (63) Conservation (18) FilmScene (60) Porchlight Literary NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Gold Cap Hospitality Arts Center (55) (39) Prairie Du Chien (66) M A R K E T P L A C E NORTHSIDE Grinnell College Prairie Lights Museum of Art (72) Bookstore & NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Hancher Auditorium Cafe (32) (2-3) Public Space Heartland Yoga (19, 63) One (33) MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE Historic Valley Refocus Film Junction (20) Festival (70) NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Hoefer Flaming (44) Riverside Theatre Hot Spot Tattoo & (18) MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE Piercing (17) Scattergood (21) Iowa City Shakespeare’s Pub NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Communications & Grill (12) Department Source Bookstore (55, 66) (43) MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE Iowa City Community Stanley Museum Theatre (35) of Art (36-37) NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE Iowa City Downtown The Atlas Collective (62) (43) MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE —Beadology Theatre Cedar —Mailboxes of Rapids (49) Iowa City The Club Car (12) NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE —Mickey’s Irish Pub The Englert —Record Collector Theater (48) MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE —Release Body The Second Act (35) Modification Tim Conroy, NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE —Revival REALTOR (33) —The Dandy Lion Vino Vérité (6) —The Green House Vinyl Cup Records M AFind RK TPLA E NORTHSIDE theEmagazine at C nearly Iowa City Downtown (35) 900 pickup spots in 50 District (71) Wig & Pen Pizza N Ocommunities R T H S I around D E Iowa. MARKETPLACE Iowa City Human Pub (64) Rights Commission xBk (60) M AA LWAY R K SEF RTE EP| LS I NAC EC2 0E0 1 N O R T H S I D E (64) Yotopia (45, 62) NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE 10 Sept. 2026 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE
Where’s my Little Village?
MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP NORTHSI MARKETP
PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE DE MARKETPLACE PLACE NORTHSIDE
MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID M A R K E T P L A C E N O R T H S Iowa I D ECItyM A R K E T P Northside N O R T H S I D E M A R K E T P L AMarketplace CE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE NORTHSID MARKETPLACE NORTHSIDE MARKETP
g n i h nc
LE LITT GE... A L L I V
P u Up
LittleVillageMag.com
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. Elon Musk plans to spend millions to put Ashley Hinson in the Senate (July 31)
e c n 01 I S 20 AND
AYS ALW EE! FR
littlevillagemag.com/support
OPEN 11-2AM DAILY
TRY OUR BREADED TENDERLOIN! SERVING FOOD UNTIL 1AM DAILY
That may not be the boost he thinks it will be. If I were Turek I’d just run an ad showing Musk screaming like a madman with a chainsaw in hand and then show ALL the damage he did with his DOGE insanity. That could actually hurt Hinson. —Kim O. This won’t work unless he tries reverse psychology and tells everyone he wants their opponent to win. —Richard D.
association putting out door hangers for Hinson. I asked him if he knew what afp was and if he supported the Republican Party. He said no he doesn’t support Republicans but the job pays him $22.00/hour! —Barbara F. Hinson is campaigning to eliminate the inheritance tax, which doesn’t even kick in for less that $15 million. In other words, she serves multimillionaires, not the public. No wonder Elon is pouring his millions into her campaign. —Jim H.
Don’t interrupt your enemy when she is making a mistake. —Syd
Apropos of nothing, I watched the hub cap fly off a cyber truck this week. Turek by a landslide. —Joe C.
Americans for Prosperity already have people out knocking on doors! I’m in Hiawatha and a young guy was in my condo
‘What did we do wrong now?’: Rural Iowa schools weigh costs of expanding ‘school choice’ (Aug. 3)
HAVE AN OPINION?
F U T I L E W R A T H
S A M LO C K E WA R D
Better write about it! Send letters to: Editor@LittleVillageMag.com It’s almost like Republicans have a plan to dismantle education or something. Hmmm almost like Project 2025 is being enacted in front of our eyes. —Adam S. Sometimes I’m tempted to say “We told you so!” The GOP agenda has been to starve public schools of funding. It makes me sad to see great rural schools have to cut local and instrumental, drama, speech, debate, and other worthwhile programs so that others (some wealthy enough to not need these subsidies) can use them to enrich private schools. I’m a firm believer that public funds should only be used to support public schools. We’ll need to change leadership at the state house and in the governor’s mansion to accomplish that goal. I’m an Independent, but, this time around, I’m encouraging people to vote Democratic. —Rose R. I’ll add libraries to your list of valuable programs that are often cut in order
P U B L I C N U I S A N C E
SARA WILLIAMS
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 13
LittleVillageMag.com
In Case You Missed It Catch up on LV’s top arts stories from August.
UI alum and icon Ana Mendieta is the focus of a new London art exhibition, joining a Frida Kahlo show with Iowa connections By Claire McKinstry, July 31
Filmmaker Drew Johnson on why his team chose to zoom in on East Palestine, Ohio — and how it reminds him of Cedar Rapids By Evan Weidl, Aug. 11
Review: In a deluge of free entertainment, Alternating Currents 2026 flowed into a loading dock, record store and the QC’s coolest venues By Broc Nelson, photos by Carly Hux, Aug. 19
I N T E R AC T I O N S
MOMBOY
LAUREN HALDEMAN
to save the core curriculum. Not only are libraries underfunded (because the school budget, overall, has been underfunded), but librarians are now working under threat of penalty for including books that the conservative GOP think are not appropriate. Our GOP legislators are fear-filled bullies. —Lisa P. Agreed. GOP underfunded public schools for a decade while passing stupid laws that made teachers targets. All so they could claim that public schools were “failing families” and divert $$$ to church school attendees already enrolled. How about this for “school choice”— parents should choose to be involved in their kids’ schools AND prioritize education over sports. —Dorothy D. After resisting pressure from Zach Nunn and RFK Jr. to drop his bid for Congress, Libertarian Marco Battaglia leaves anyway, citing medical emergency (Aug. 4) I wonder if the cited “medical emergency” is actually a reference to possible medical emergencies in the near future, such as busted kneecaps, or a hit-and-run collision. —Kirsty C. I think it’s interesting that the GOP has reached the point at which they’re finally worried about losing votes to Cool Ranch Republicans that they’re using the Democrats’ techniques of getting thirdparty candidates kicked off of ballots. Marco and I have our differences, but he deserves better than this. —A Darryl M.
T R U E L O V E
CDC adds Iowa to list of states affected by ‘record-setting outbreak’ of intestinal disease from contaminated lettuce (Aug. 6)
This is no laughing matter and shouldn’t be shrugged off. I know someone who had it and after a month still isn’t feeling well. —Sandy R.
That’s okay! The nitrates, phosphorus, and cancer-causing chemicals in our water will cancel that out. —Jo
Even more reason to purchase from your local producers, CSAs and farmers! —Lora F.
Oh, well, eh, folks? —Joe P.
DOGE caused the deaths of so many people and found no fraud and saved no
RAMONA MUSE LAMBERT
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 15
AC C O L A D E S
September is LIBRARY CARD SIGN-UP MONTH Show your library card to select local businesses this month and get a special deal! Scan the QR code for more info. We are also having pop-up musical performances! Check the schedule online! coralvillepubliclibrary.org/library-card-sign-up-month
“fuze,” a short film created by Iowa artists Sandra Louise Dyas and LeAnn Erickson, is an official entry in the 2026 MINA Film Festival. MINAFF is billed as “the longest running film festival in the Southern Hemisphere dedicated to mobile and smartphone filmmaking.” The twominute, 36-second piece of video poetry was originally created as part of Homegrown Stories, a 12-year project in which Dyas, Erickson and experimental filmmakers around the country responded to prompts and shot film as part of their everyday life. “fuze” will be screened in Melbourne, Australia on Nov. 20 as part of MINAFF, and can be viewed online now at vimeo.com/980100601. The Iowa Writers’ Workshop has awarded its inaugural Jack Galef Literary Arts Award— among the most lucrative literary prizes in the country at $150,000—to Tony Tulathimutte, a graduate of the workshop and a current visiting faculty member in residence. Tulathimutte’s 2016 debut Private Citizens was called “the first great millennial novel” by New York Magazine, while his 2024 short story collection Rejection made the National Book Award longlist. The new Galef Award will be presented every two years, and is selected by a committee of workshop faculty. I N T E R AC T I O N S
Iowa Civics, Citizenship, and Voting Learning Session
CPR and AED Safety Class
With Johnson Co Ambulance Services
Campaigning for Zach Nunn, Steve Scalise compares Sarah Trone Garriott to winning candidates in New York, Michigan (Aug. 13)
Thursday, September 17 4:00 - 5:30 pm Presented by The League of Women Voters
Movie Nights for Adults Refreshments, including fresh popcorn, will be provided.
Thursday September 3 6:00 pm
money; over time it will likely end up costing money putting things right. All it did was eliminate anything that Project 2025 (and at least one white nationalist) wanted eliminated. —Ben S.
Wednesday September 30 6:00 pm
Craft & Chat is switching to the 2nd & 4th Wednesdays of the month
What a wonderful compliment to be compared to Mamdani and ElSayed! YAY for Sarah! —Davi M.L. When scared of losing, play the Socialism card with no evidence to back it up. —Tim B. Meanwhile, Republicans represent actual fascism. —Adam S. Remember when Obama was gonna do socialism and marxism and sharia and balloon the federal debt to more than the GDP almost 20 years ago? Remember when Trump ended up doing the last one instead? Anyway, yeah we’ll still be capitalist swine without Zach Nunn. Calm
I N T E R AC T I O N S your tits Steve. You probably have lead poisoning from that one time that guy showed up to your baseball game. —Dan U. This is why it made zero sense for Dems to play towards the middle. Doesn’t matter how much you try to appeal to the right they will label you as a communist regardless. —Christopher E. What are y’all running on? The idiotic tariffs or the poorly planned war fought for another country? Maybe another billionaire tax break at the expense of healthcare cuts?
PERSONALS
In July, the Iowa City Animal Care & Adoption Center and local authorities rescued 32 dogs who were found starving and neglected in Johnson County. Now, these survivors—including 4-yearold smarty Junie B—are ready to start a bright new chapter. Like her literary namesake, Junie B is playful, curious, clever and independent. If her drool is any indication, she overflows with affection for her caretakers. Feel the love and consider donating to support ongoing rescue efforts: facf.org.
Missing Missed Connections? Submit! 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
I N T E R AC T I O N S Sounds like Iowa Last. —Brian M. Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum and instructor Garth Greenwell critiques workshop model as ‘fraudulent’ (Aug. 12) Fun read. I think the success of a workshop depends mostly on who is leading it, and the culture of the group. There can be workshops where the agreed upon purpose is not to get your peers and the instructor to say that the thing you made is super good and you rock though who doesn’t want that? - but how can we make this thing the most of itself that it could be? And it can be incredibly helpful, or harmful, to have a group of people weigh in on that. Everyone’s experience is so specific. —Sam S. Disabled / neurodivergent / mad writers have critiqued the workshop model for soooo long. I remember getting ganged up on in my MFA program in the early aughts for writing disability poetics / refusing to write for the abled gaze … Abled and NT norms in workshop are soul crushing. Much of disability poetics rejects genre convention. —Karrie H. Nonwhite writers have been critiquing the workshop model for a very long time,
20 Sept. 2026 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356
but for some reason our voices aren’t always as amplified. —D.G.C. IMHO, learning what to do with feedback is just one more skill writers need to learn. In my experience, you usually find three or four readers in a workshop group who understand your style and give feedback you find useful, and focus on them. Trying to please everyone is indeed a doomed approach. The great part about workshops, you do in fact meet great readers. —Sam T. ACLU sues State of Iowa in federal court on behalf of the Satanic Temple, alleging religious discrimination (Aug. 14) Only slightly ironic that he [Adam Steen] looks like Anton LaVey. —Joe P. No one is free until everyone is free! —Brant M. It’s the Capitol. The government has a right to refuse whatever the fuck they want. [Editor’s note: No it doesn’t.] Total waste of money. Lmfao. —Vincent B. This is why every American should support the ACLU. It defends the constitution!! —R.D.
Pete Hegseth campaigns for Nunn, uses slurs and says troops dying is the ‘cost’ of fighting ‘radical Islamist crazies’ at Iowa State Fair (Aug. 18) And illegal for Hegseth. Lawlessness seems to be the point these days. —Kathy W. The sec of defense ethically should not be campaigning for anyone. A clear violation of the Hatch Act but as we know, no rules, laws, proprieties apply to the fascist regime. —M.B.S. All those people up in arms about Clinton’s meeting with Loretta Lynch on the tarmac in 2016? STFU, forever. —Michael W. All this posturing for each other. Why don’t they just kiss and get it over with? —Mandi K. Each of these “men” has daughters. They are whooping it up over denying their own daughters opportunities. —Teresa B. All this “manly man” talk, and Kegseth can’t even do a pull up. —Dylan S. “Transgender people are mentally ill.” They’re not, but say they were. Why would you laugh at mentally ill people and call them mean names? —April M.J. Hegseth barks anti-trans slur at Iowa fair to distract from his incompetence. The defense secretary’s bigoted machismo can’t mask his inability to bring the deadly Iran war and its economic fallout to an end. —Barbara-Anne H. I asked him if it was safe to drink the water yet… he didn’t answer me. —Chrissy S.
Fully Booked: Recommendations from Local Librarians Reads for the Kid in All of Us
I
f you’re like me, you know that growing up means stretching regularly to avoid cramps and sleeping well to have energy for the whole day. What it doesn’t necessarily mean is stopping ourselves from reading books geared toward children and young adults. In fact, new juvenile fiction is published every year that catches my interest. Children’s books like Night Chef by Mika Song remind me that a book doesn’t have to have world-ending stakes to keep me on the edge of my seat. From endearing characters to an intriguing plot with a heartwarming reveal, this graphic novel is the perfect one-sitting read. On nearly the other end of the spectrum, The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer blends space thriller and love story, the desolation of space and the strength of human connection. I picked this book up after it was recommended by a friend, but I was blown away by how much I enjoyed getting to know the characters and discovering the world they belong to. Devils Like Us by L.T. Thompson captures the adventure of a classic pirate tale with a story of friendship and self-discovery. If you’d prefer books geared towards adults that capture some of the same feelings as youth literature, look no further. Speaking of pirates, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty follows a post-retirement crew who reunite for one final adventure (which turns into a few more). Chakraborty and Thompson visited DMPL earlier this year for our Authors Visiting in Des Moines (AViD) series. After listening to them talk about the research and process of writing their stories, I gained a new appreciation for all the historical details woven into both action-packed books. Finally, if you never grew out of your animal book phase, check out Cat’s People by Tanya Guerrero. Like Night Chef, this novel focuses on the importance of community and how just one creature can bring many together. It’s a lesson that all of us, limber and well-rested or otherwise, can appreciate. —Arlette Uribe-Gonzalez, Des Moines Public Library
Howl-Worthy Werewolf Fiction
I
just finished reading Rosie Danan’s Fan Service, and it has reawakened my shapeshifter-loving heart. It’s a redemption story of a washed-up child actor who once played a werewolf on TV, and who thinks he’s turning into a real werewolf (and he just might be). The only person who can save him? His biggest fan. This rom-com is filled with wit, tenderness and self-forgiveness. If you love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and slow burns, Fan Service will have you howling for more. Spice level: mid. My favorite shifter series these days is Helen Harper’s Cat Lady Chronicles. We meet unassuming cat lady Kit McCafferty and her magical moggies in Waifs & Strays (Book 1). I love all of Helen Harper’s heroines, but Kit is my favorite—a bundle of sass who secretly kicks ass. One of the most inventive and prolific urban fantasy writers out there, Harper ingeniously mixes cats, werewolves and Scottish mythology. You have time to gobble up Books 1 through 4 while waiting for A Killer Heart to arrive on Sept. 18. Low spice level. Continuing the theme of “werewolves, but make it quirky!” we have Kimberly Lemming’s romp That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf from the Mead Mishaps series, all about zany, madcap adventures. In this book, our heroine is a cheesemaker named Brie who begrudgingly gallivants with demon pirates. While attempting to throw a drink at a creep in a bar, she misses and hits the playboy werewolf standing behind him. The drink just happens to be drugged… with a love potion. Now werewolf Felix falls head over paws for Brie, despite the fact that he is lactose intolerant. But are they really fated mates? And does it even matter when he’s willing to do all the chores? Love scenes come with extra spice. I’d discuss Ali Hazelwood’s Mate and others, but this column isn’t long enough for me to be a werewolf completionist. For more beastly titles, search “werewolves” at search.icpl.org. —Melody Dworak, Iowa City Public Library
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 21
s Prev t r A iew ll a F
Salt Fox performs at Lost Woods Music Festival in 2024. Photos by Elliot Tensen courtesy of Lost Woods Music Festival; Collage by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village
Music
Curiouser and Curiouser Lost Woods Music Festival is going deeper, adding portals to the Shire, the Balkans and a rave in outer space. BY GLENN HOULIHAN AND VIOLETTE BRAY
W
e catch up with the three members of Salt Fox—the masterminds behind Lost Woods, a visionary music festival returning to the Cedar Falls forest this September—during a typically busy day. Andy Fuchtman (guitarist) is en route to the mechanic. Michael Rogers (vocals) and Jacob Pauli (synths and beats) are hanging out in the band’s multipurpose shop. In the background there are tools, friendly colleagues and Rogers’ new vocal pedal board, which Pauli is excited to show off. 22 Sept. 2026 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356
“So this is what Michael sings through,” he says, a blurry but impressive array of pedals appearing on our Zoom screen. “That has changed the sound of the band a little bit.” As we talk, it becomes clear that this space—vibrant, creative and social—is a metaphor for the whole band. They’re never still: always writing, recording or, for their day job, installing gutters in Iowa’s Cedar Valley. There is no better example of their restless urge to create than Lost Woods. For those unacquainted with the festival, what started as a labor of love (the first few iterations were unticketed and the actual location of the fest was kept secret until the day-of) is now approaching its fourth year. Pauli describes it as “a cozy dreamy music festival in the woods.” There are trails and getaways, interactive art, lights and side quests to be explored. Rogers sums it up as the Alice in Wonderland experience of Iowa. “You jump in, and you get sucked under the tree, and now you’re in this new space you didn’t know was there. Then the rest of the world kind of blurs and fades away, and you’re in this one moment with all these new people, and everyone’s happy and getting along and it’s very community driven.” They’re right. Reflecting on our first visit to the festival in 2024 for LV, we described it as “magical,” while 2025 felt “like stepping into
another dimension—a place where we could escape the chaos and stress of the real world for a single night of bliss.” Despite these and other rave reviews, Salt Fox are anything but complacent. Lost Woods 2026 is packed with new features: a second stage dedicated to electronic dance music, a Lost Woods Bazaar featuring local art vendors and a new art installation called “Magic Moon,” which is, to quote Rogers, “an interactive geodesic dome organ light display.” Or in layperson’s terms, a huge sphere with playable organs that animate LED lights. Built, of course, by Salt Fox in their workshop. Alongside returning favorites like the Ferris wheel and food truck court, this year also welcomes the introduction of Lost Woods Camp Town. It’s “a Lord of the Rings Shire-esque campground,” says Rogers. The campground comes complete with a community firepit and cooking grate, “a Jurassic Park shuttle” to the festival and a Camp Town Cafe for Sunday morning dining. Pauli’s eyes light up as he describes the Cafe. “There’s an amazing bakery out of Dubuque [Tchoupitulips] coming to make grilled breakfast sandwiches on homemade sourdough along with Sidecar Coffee.” (A Cedar Falls institution, for the uninitiated.) That’s Saturday and Sunday covered. And for those wanting to expand the weekend even further,
LittleVillageMag.com/Support
Friday sees the debut of Balkan Night. Lost Woods is hosting musicians from Bosnia and Herzegovina. “We have some friends who are leaders in the local Bosnian community, and after attending last year’s event, they had the idea of hosting an event dedicated to Balkan music and culture at Lost Woods,” Fuchtman said. “The event will occur jointly with Lost Woods, but the musical acts and food vendors are organized by our partners.” Talking of musicians, Lost Woods 2026 has another superb mainstage lineup. If you’re in the market for lush neo-soul, look no further than Daniel.Xavier & Co. Reverb-drenched collegerock? Twin Cities-based Sallyforth is waiting for you. Warm and poetic lyrics layered upon irresistible synths and beats? Iowa City’s Jim Swim is returning to Lost Woods, and this time he’s bringing friends. Introspective alt-rock is provided by FLAKE, the brainchild of Blake Loggans, while electronic jazz maestros Jack Lion will once again be performing between acts from a vantage point in the trees. And yes, we do mean that literally. Miami indie-funk darlings Magic City Hippies are the night’s inspired headliner—the second hippie to headline after last year’s euphoric performance from Hippie Sabotage. We can’t wait to hear cuts from their sparkling 2025 release, Enemies. For Salt Fox, the booking represents the intrinsic value of real communal experiences in an era increasingly characterized by recorded fragments—consumed, appreciated and immediately forgotten.
“Real experiences are hard to find.” —Andy Fuchtman, Salt Fox guitarist “I just think that they are sort of a live, forward band,” Fuchtman said of Magic City Hippies. “Their core competency is they put on an incredible live show. So for us, we really believe more and more that real experiences are hard to find. And they’re what people are really interested in. You can open your phone and see somebody play music perfectly for 30 seconds infinitely. But watching somebody play real music and do a really good job at it in real life is just a different kind of experience.” Lost Woods’ new EDM stage—headlined by the grunge-inflected electronica of Hu$H—promises to diversify the festival’s sound with a score of Midwest-based DJs. Salt Fox were initially planning to invite West Coast artists. “We had reached out, I think, to some L.A. booking agencies, and we had a whole lineup. We were going to bring in like eight artists from L.A.,” Rogers said. “[But] we realized there’s a pretty cool EDM scene here in Cedar Falls, Waterloo and the Midwest. And decided, instead of bringing acts from out of state, we’re going to
A-LIST: Sept. 2026
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/CALENDAR
Sept. A-LIST: MUSIC DES MOINES
Thu, Sept 3, 7 p.m., Joel vs Joel, De Vant, Jazzy Joel, Locals Thus, Sept 3, 7 p.m., A Night at Noce w/ Max & Napoleon, Noce Thu, Sept 3, 7:30 p.m., Ugly Kid Joe, Platinum Moon, Soulcage, Wooly’s Fri, Sept 4, 7 p.m., Half Ivory, Hookshot, The Uncollectables, Locals Fri, Sept 4, 7 p.m., Vegas 1960: Andrew Walesch w/ His Jazz Orchestra, Noce Fri, Sept 4, 7 p.m., Lakeview, Jason Cross, Wooly’s Fri, Sept 4, 7 p.m., Hayden Coffman, xBk Live Tues, Sept 8, 7 p.m., Basie Straight Ahead, Noce Sat, Sept 5, 7 p.m., Problems, xBk Annex Sat, Sept 5, 7 p.m., Silverada w/ Rambler Kane, xBk Live Sun, Sept 6, 6 p.m., Keep Flying w/ LAMP and Astro Brat, xBk Live Sun, Sept 6, 9:30 p.m., Agarron De Bandas con Banda Clave Nueva y Banda Cohuich, Wooly’s Tues, Sept 8, 6:35 p.m., Black Veil Brides, Caskets, Archers & Holy Wars, Val Air Ballroom Wed, Sept 9, 6 p.m., Wade Forster, xBk Live Thu, Sept 10, 6 p.m., The Back Alley, xBk Live Thu, Sept 10, 7 p.m., The Carson Parker Trio, Noce Thu, Sept 10, 7 p.m., Lily Rose, Adam Paddock, Wooly’s Fri, Sept 11, 7 p.m., Broadway Baby: A Night of Showtunes w/ Lauren Vilmain, Noce Fri, Sept 11, 7 p.m., Mantra of Morta, Selles, Wooly’s Fri, Sept 11, 7 p.m., All Shall Perish, Carnifex, Extermination, Dismemberment, Mauled and Reaping Asmodeia, Wooly’s Fri, Sept 11, 7:30 p.m., Caley Conway + Cathedral Becomes Tomb w/ Rutabaga, xBk Annex Fri, Sept 11, 7 p.m., Cedar Country Cobras Album Release w/ The Soul Searchers, xBk Live Fri, Sept 11, 7:30 p.m., Honestav, Val Air Ballroom Fri, Sept 11, 8 p.m., Jefferson Starship, Hoyt Sherman Place Sat, Sept 12, 6 p.m., Gurfest X ft. Dose, Druids, The Curse of Hail, Tearaway, Space, Happy Thoughts, Wooly’s Sat, Sept 12, 7 p.m., Black Magic: Napoleon Douglas Sings Nat, Sammy, & More, Noce
Sat, Sept 12, 7 p.m., Han Solo Project, Fezzik, Locals Sat, Sept 12, 7 p.m., Rhythm & Pep Presents: Lights! Camera! Glamour…and Gore!, xBk Live Sat, Sept 12, 7:30 p.m., Minus the Bear, Keep, Val Air Ballroom Sun, Sept 13, 1 p.m., Hoyt Sherman Place Celebrates 250th Anniversary of American Independence, Hoyt Sherman Place Sun, Sept 13, 6 p.m., Dead Eyes w/ Versus Me and Nyhilist, xBk Live Sun, Sept 13, 8 p.m., Pokey LaFarge, Cicada Rhythm, Wooly’s Mon, Sept 14, 7 p.m., Saeed’s Punk Nite: Alt Style Country, Maggie’s Rumble Room Mon, Sept 14, 7 p.m., Lil Skies w/ Killakam, Wooly’s Tues, Sept 15, 6 p.m., Scardust, xBk Live Wed, Sept 16, 6 p.m., Emarosa w/ VEAUX and dreamfone, xBk Live Thurs, Sept 17, 6 p.m., JMSN w/ Jim Swim, xBk Live After decades in the music scene spanning genres and bands, JMSN, the latest musical alias for Christian Berishaj, has made a name for himself as one of the leading figures of the contemporary alternative R&B scene, while collaborating with some of the biggest names in the rap game (Kendrick Lamar, Freddie Gibbs, J. Cole). This was all before his latest album, which marked a sharp shift into ’90s alt-rock. We couldn’t think of a better fit to meet the expanse of JMSN’s musical output than local alt hip-hop and indie soul artist Jim Swim. The Iowa City artist let LV know that he’s closing in on his first full-length album drop, which “runs the gamut from ’60s soul to bedroom pop to lo-fi drum and bass.”
Thurs, Sept 17, 7 p.m., Castle, Locals Thurs, Sept 17, 7 p.m., Dickie, Stoner Theater Thurs, Sept 17, 7 p.m., Mitch Towne & Co., Noce Fri, Sept 18, 7 p.m., Solburn, Morgana & The Damned Saints, Locals Fri, Sept 18, 7 p.m., That’ll Be The Day: Gina Gedler Sings Linda Ronstadt, Noce Fri, Sept 18, 7 p.m., Ensiferum, Firewind, Green Death, Wooly’s Fri, Sept 18, 7 p.m., Kevin Atwater w/ Ruby Plume, xBk Live Fri, Sept 18, 7:30 p.m., Mitchell Tenpenny, Jake Banfield, Val Air Ballroom Sat, Sept 19, 7 p.m., Muther, Doc Bullfrog, Glass Knuckles, Locals LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 23
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
really go all-in on this local scene and let them run with it.” The Boatman, a dubstep producer originally from Fairfield, embodies the scene’s atmospheric, bass-heavy sound. As for Salt Fox themselves, they’ll be delivering another performance that underlines why they headlined the festival’s first two years. New July singles—“HOLDIN ON” (featuring the ethereal vocal of Charlotte Blu, who’ll be performing at the festival’s VIP After Party stage) and “NICE AND SLOW” will get a Lost Woods premiere, entwined with older favorites like “Pink Palm Trees” and the cathartic anthem “STARS.” The band is also experiencing something of a creative zenith right now. “We’ve played less and written more and actually practiced more than I think we ever have before,” Pauli said. “Something that’s [been] going on recently with us is there’s a creative bug that’s happened within the past year. That’s different. I think we’re starting to hit our stride,” Rogers said. With a new stage, bazaar and campsite, Lost Woods is another Salt Fox project that aims to be a cozy place to gather and a joyous celebration of art, handcrafted with care. Attendees can follow the White Rabbit and get lost in Iowa’s very own Wonderland. Tickets are available at lostwoods.live. General admission passes are $45 and VIP $150, plus service fees. Parking and camping passes are also available online.
Lost Woods Festival 2026 1400 Lone Tree Rd, Cedar Falls Saturday, Sept. 27
Music
‘Money Can’t Buy it. Fame Can’t Touch It.’ When he’s not tracking ICE in Minneapolis, David Huckfelt is recording albums and paying tribute to his musical heroes.
E
BY NICOLE YEAGER
verything is crumbling, but David Huckfelt, a Midwestern folk musician and activist, is putting out a new album, just eight months after the last one—a scoop he shared with Little Village. The Spencer, Iowa native built his dexterity as a songwriter and guitarist around campfires with folks like Dave Moore, Greg Brown and Iris DeMent. His most recent album, I Was Born, But…, was a love letter to the artists who inspired him, and featured songs written up to 150 years ago. He’ll play songs old and brand-new at the James Theater in Iowa City on Sept. 18, accompanied by Jeremy Ylvisaker, who previously collaborated with John Prine, Bon Iver, Grace Potter and other icons. Iowa guitar virtuoso Dustin Busch will open for the duo.
David Huckfelt. Photo by Graham Tolbert courtesy of the artist; Collage by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village 24 Sept. 2026 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356
LV and Huckfelt kicked off our conversation with some light banter about the state of journalism, politics, the music industry and, of course, the weather, before diving into all things Iowa and its music scene, then and now. What’s life like these days? You know, Minnesota’s had a beautiful summer. I’ve done a lot of touring. Slow mornings like this [are] pretty perfect once the intensity of the heat goes away … we’re delicate flowers when it comes to heat. In the cold, we’re like Viking warriors. Hot? Start complaining. [This was the] hottest July ever recorded in Minnesota and around the planet. Cross your fingers, I guess. You grew up in small-town Iowa, right? Spencer? Yep. Northwest corner. Do you have a different view of Iowa now that you’re outside of it? There’s an earnestness to Iowans. A work ethic thing. This old feeling that if you’re a good person and you work hard this world will take care of you. Well, we handed over the reins to billionaires and corporations, and so it’s not necessarily the case. Iowans are some of the kindest, most generous people, but it’s almost like they’ve been told to be afraid of everybody, so they don’t know who to be generous toward or something. I think that work ethic has been turned against them to some degree. Like, there’s no room to just be or be yourself, however weird you are, you have to toe the line, you know. My own opinion there. I’m curious when you started to find your way as a poet, and then as a songwriter. I started writing when I was just a little kid in Spencer, making up stories and writing poems, but then I got sort of clobbered with that expectation to be an athlete and get serious. Then I moved to Iowa City to study creative writing, and... to be honest with you, I didn’t start playing guitar till I was about 20. People smile at you if you sing a song to them. If you speak a poem to them, they get uncomfortable. I was around all these campfires with folks like Greg and Dave, Dustin Busch, Joe and Vicki Price. I learned hundreds of songs. I’d love to hear a bit about Magic Dust [the 2025 all-star tribute to Dave Moore at the Englert]. I don’t mean to throw Sandy Dyas under the bus here, but she told me, “When David sat down to play, ‘I’m a Dog,’ he stole the show.” The word reverence comes to mind, and not just my reverence for [Iowa musicians], but their reverence for the craft of songwriting, the art of having music plugged into community, and acknowledging it has a role there.
LittleVillageMag.com/Newsletters
To get to play a Dave song on a night when they tricked Dave into doing his own tribute—it’s such an honor. Money can’t buy it. Fame can’t touch it. Any chance it’ll turn into a record? I’ve heard some murmurings. I know that all the artists would be for that. You know, Dave has hundreds of songs that he won’t turn into a record, even though we all want him to. How’s it been rolling out your most recent record? It’s a nightmare. There’s a great satisfaction in making a record and writing songs with your friends. And then there’s this feeling of handing it over to heartless billionaire tech companies so that they can just throw it off a bridge and sink it in the bottom of the ocean. So, that’s a little dramatic. I heard you say once that you don’t really like protest music, and yet you also are constantly, in life, pushing back. I feel some protest music can be a little subtle. And honestly, it’s not subtle at all. You listen to Nina Simone. I’ve never heard anybody chanting her songs in a protest, but it’s all there, you know? In Greg’s music and Pieta’s music and Iris’s music, certainly, it’s all there. So I think there’s a way to be authentic and still put your shoulder to the wheel. I’ve shown up places 20-below in northern Minnesota, and played my own songs by the river with the Indigo Girls [a benefit concert to support Boundary Waters protections].
“There are songs that help reinforce the idea that nothing is wrong with you. Songs can actually do that. We need to be reminded that nothing fundamentally is wrong with us, you know? This phone here is gonna tell you the opposite.” —David Huckfelt I’m amazed that guitar strings can work in negative 20. Not for very long, they don’t. I’ll send you a photo. There are songs that help reinforce the idea that nothing is wrong with you. Songs can actually do that. We need to be reminded that nothing fundamentally is wrong with us, you know? This phone here is gonna tell you the opposite. Coming back to Iowa City, what are you looking forward to? Well, I never played the James. I’m going to be bringing all these new
A-LIST: Sept. 2026
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/CALENDAR
MUSIC Sat, Sept 19, 7 p.m., NOLA Jazz Band, Noce Sat, Sept 19, 7 p.m., Logan Metz w/ Trevor Sensor, xBk Annex Sat, Sept 19, 7 p.m., Joey Harkum, xBk Live Sun, Sept 20, 5 p.m., Jason Ricci & The Bad Kind, xBk Live Mon, Sept 21, 6 p.m., GUARDIN w/ kennedyxoxo and Fijimar, xBk Live Mon, Sept 21, 7:30 p.m., Gary Clark Jr., Val Air Ballroom Mon, Sept 21, 8 p.m., Saxsquatch, Wooly’s Tues, Sept 22, 6:30 p.m., Wind Walkers w/ If Not Me and True North, xBk Live Tues, Sept 22, 7 p.m., Love Cuts, Pink Flag, Sarah Tonin, Hurtquake, Locals Tues, Sept 22, 7:30 p.m., Bowling for Soup, Val Air Ballroom Wed, Sept 23, 6 p.m., Big Richard w/ Weary Ramblers, xBk Live Wed, Sept 23, 7 p.m., Icon For Hire, Elijah, Lauren Babic, Wooly’s Wed, Sept 23, 8 p.m., Yachtley Crew, Val Air Ballroom Thurs, Sept 24, 6 p.m., Everything Yes w/ FISSION, xBk Live Thurs, Sept 24, 7 p.m., Matt Carlson, Chip Albright, Randy Burk, Locals Thurs, Sept 24, 7 p.m., Jackie Myers, Noce Thurs, Sept 24, 7 p.m., Gogol Bordello, Wooly’s Manhattan-based punk rock/Latin rock/gypsy punk band Gogol Bordellow has included nearly 30 members from around the world in the three decades they’ve been active. They’re known for highenergy, theatrical performances adjacent to noted influences Manu Chao, Fugazi, Primus and Flogging Molly. Naturally, LV found an Iowa connection—lead singer Eugene Hütz co-starred in the 2005 film Everything Is Illuminated with Cedar Rapids’ beloved hobbit Elijah Wood. Thurs, Sept 24, 7:30 p.m., YG, Mozzy, Chef Boy, Val Air Ballroom Fri, Sept 25, 6:30 p.m., Hemlock, Absolute Power, John Beere, Waste Gate, Crisis Child, Wooly’s Fri, Sept 25, 7 p.m., Fly Me To The Moon: The Max Wellman Big Band Plays Sinatra & More, Noce Fri, Sept 25, 7 p.m., Lady Bleek Album Release Show, xBk Live Lady Bleek’s Addie Bolles and Kevin Neal go way back. The Des Moines musicians have known each other for years and partnered up to make music in early 2022. After a hiatus
and reconnection, the duo released their self-titled debut of blissful stripped-down Americana tunes on Redd 7 Records last month. This show at xBk Live, Lady Bleek’s full-band debut, celebrates the release with support from fellow indie-folk artists the Oswald Family Band and Tyler Tallman. Sat, Sept 26, 7 p.m., Nick Karcher & The Hot Mess, Locals Sat, Sept 26, 7 p.m., Tanner Usrey, Noah Bowman, Wooly’s Sat, Sept 26, 7 p.m., Candi Jenkins, xBk Live Sat, Sept 26, 7:30 p.m., Masterworks 1: Unity – American Mosaic & West Side Story, Des Moines Civic Center Sat, Sept 26, 8 p.m., Coheed and Cambria, The Home Team, Val Air Ballroom Sun, Sept 27, 7:30 p.m., Alana Springsteen, Erin Kinsey, Wooly’s Mon, Sept 28, 6:30 p.m., Dying Fetus & Sanguisugabog, Crowbar, Left to Suffer & Deterioration, Val Air Ballroom Tues, Sept 29, 7 p.m., Ian McConnell w/ Cherokee Social, xBk Live Tues, Sept 29, 8 p.m., Ripe, Wooly’s Wed & Thurs, Sept 30 & Oct 1, 7 p.m., Benny Benack III, Noce Wed, Sept 30, 7 p.m., Mon Rovîa, Sydney Rose, Sarah Julia, Wooly’s Thurs, Oct 1, 7 p.m., Jervis Campbell, Nathan Colberg, Wooly’s Thurs, Oct 1, 7:30 p.m., Afroman, Val Air Ballroom Fri, Oct 2, 6 p.m., King Iso w/ Taebo Tha Truth, Matt Phoenix & VenomStayDrippin, xBk Live Fri, Oct 2, 7 p.m., Pink Kodiak, Locals Fri, Oct 2, 7 p.m., Show Business w/ Max Wellman & Napoleon Douglas ft. Benny Benack, Noce Fri, Oct 2, 7 p.m., Alysha Brilla, Temple Theater Fri, Oct 2, 7:30 p.m., Lauren Alaina, Hoyt Sherman Place Sat, Oct 3, 7 p.m., Taking Back Sunday, Thrice, Saves The Day, Val Air Ballroom Sat, Oct 3, 7 p.m., Cheekface w/ Apes of the State and BanjoKat & The Sit-Ins, xBk Live Sat, Oct 3, 8 p.m., Saturn Ascends, Primustache, Wooly’s
I OWA C I T Y Fri, Sept 4, 6 p.m., Northside Friday Night: The Night Lights, Northside Iowa City Fri, Sept 4, 6:30 p.m., Friday Night Concert Series: StrumDrum and Jack Lion, Ped Mall Stage LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 25
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
songs that we just recorded. I’m really excited that Dustin Busch is opening. Time moves way too fast. My friends have children who are older. A lot of what I look forward to is relationships, and just checking in on people and seeing them face to face. Is there anything that used to be here in Iowa City that you miss? It’s pretty hard to talk about anything but The Mill. We were always trying to save The Mill. I worked there as a cook and played my first open mic there. You started playing around 2002. When did you first become involved with Indigenous causes? I met John Trudell, the poet and activist when I was 19. Seeing him speak on the Pine Ridge reservation planted so many seeds that wouldn’t really take root till later—to travel around as a folk singer and think, man, this is hard. And then to see these Native artists who were discriminated against, who were tokenized and put on side stages and never paid. Native music has been around a lot longer than anything else on this continent. So it’s resilient to the nth degree, but I like to see artists get lifted up, you know?
Juliano Dock at PorchFest in 2025. Photos by Mark
I wonder also, what was it like for you in Minneapolis during the ICE raids? I read your piece in Little Village [“Thoughts on a terror campaign from an Iowan living in Minneapolis,” published Jan. 30], which I really loved. We’re really grateful you did that, by the way. I think I’ve never been more proud to live anywhere. I mean, Minnesota’s blue, Iowa’s red, but I guarantee you that if Iowa had what was happening in Minneapolis going on in their towns, they would have felt the same because nobody would accept that brutality. It doesn’t matter if you’re liberal or conservative, you would respond to protect your neighbors. It was all over the state. It was in red counties where local law enforcement was refusing to carry out orders and things like that. It was very unifying.
Lage courtesy of PorchFest DSM; Collage by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village
Yeah, compare that with Gov. Kim Reynolds. Some of the candidates that are arising now are not afraid to express their more humanitarian version of Christianity. I think that can resonate in Iowa because that generosity is built into some people’s spiritual practice there. Hopefully.
David Huckfelt & Jeremy Ylvisaker The Englert, Iowa City Friday, Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m.
26 Sept. 2026 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356
LittleVillageMag.com/Support
Music
Get on My Lawn! Word’s gotten out about Union Park’s PorchFest—20 free house parties in one magical afternoon.
P
BY JOHN BUSBEE
orchFest DSM turns five this year, and has become a regional magnet for music lovers. The dynamic duo producing this capital city happening is Dave and Anne Ducharme-Jones, a husband-wife team originally from Austin, Texas. Their passion for music is an inclusive one. Knowing that a rising tide raises all ships, they envisioned PorchFest DSM as a flood of musical waters raising the ships of many musicians. This communal setting offers music, community and immersive bliss through a schedule of 45-minute sets presented by 20 musical acts on a myriad of porches throughout Des Moines’ Union Park Neighborhood. The “porch fest” concept was popularized in 2007 in Ithaca, New York. What started as a grassroots gathering of bands on the East Coast grew into numerous festivals across the U.S. and Canada. Little Village spoke with Anne and Dave Ducharme-Jones in the lead-up to the fifth iteration of their neighborly music festival. Can you share the origin story for PorchFest DSM? Anne: When Dave and I moved back to Des Moines, we were invited to come to Kansas City to play in their PorchFest. We really didn’t know a thing about PorchFest. We went down, we performed, we had so much fun. There were so many vibrant musicians and porches on these old Victorian houses. We were driving home from that and we said, “Why don’t we do this in Des Moines? There are so many great musicians.” That’s what started it. Dave: When we talked about it, we thought it was a great idea but we didn’t have any idea on how we could do this, how to traverse city codes or whatever hoops we had to jump through. So, we talked to our friends down at Captain Roy’s because they just opened their club and had dealt with the city. Jack Dougherty, who is the president of the [Union Park] homeowner’s association but also the owner of Captain Roy’s, said he loved the idea, let’s do it. Can you talk about the musicians participating? Anne: Everybody was so delighted to have an opportunity to perform at PorchFest.
A-LIST: Sept. 2026
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/CALENDAR
MUSIC Sat, Sept 5, 6 p.m., Northside Saturday Nights: Blake Shaw & Alyx Rush, Northside Iowa City Sat, Sept 5, 8 p.m., House of Heavy – Nu Metal + Metalcore Night, Gabe’s Tues, Sept 8, 7 p.m., An Evening with Little Hopes, Wildwood Wed, Sept 9, 8 p.m., The Browning w/ Deadlands, The Crimson Armada & Blind Equation, Wildwood Thurs, Sept 10, 6 p.m., Pleasantries, Gabe’s Fri, Sept 11, 6:30 p.m., Dan Tedesco, The James Fri, Sept 11, 6:30 p.m., Friday Night Concert Series: Diplomats of Solid Sound, Ped Mall Stage Fri, Sept 11, 8 p.m., Whitey Morgan & The 78s, Wildwood Sat, Sept 12, 6 p.m., Northside Saturday Nights: Easyfriends, Northside Iowa City Sat, Sept 12, 6:30 p.m., Wretched w/ Extortionist, Pitlord, Integument & 12 Gauge Autopsy, Wildwood Sun, Sept 13, 6 p.m., Ben Quad & Macseal w/ Aren’t We Amphibians, Gabe’s Sun, Sept 13, 6:30 p.m., Gin Blossoms, Hy-Vee Amphitheater at Centennial Park, North Liberty Mon, Sept 14, 6:30 p.m., Skitz Kraven, Wildwood Wed, Sept 16, 7:30 p.m., Punch Brothers, Hancher Wed, Sept 16, 8 p.m., New Neighbors, Camp Regret, Cat Powers & One More Hour, Gabe’s Fri, Sept 18, 6:30 p.m., Friday Night Concert Series: Stare Into the Night, Early Girl and Lipstick Homicide, Ped Mall Stage Fri, Sept 18, 7 p.m., Max Bemis of Say Anything, Gabe’s Fri, Sept 18, 7:30 p.m., David Huckfelt & Jeremy Ylvisaker w/ D. Busch, The James Fri, Sept 18, 7 & 9 p.m., Yasmin Williams, Hancher Fri, Sept 18, 8 p.m., Merkules, Wildwood Sat, Sept 19, 7 p.m., Always Here Vol. II Release Show, The James Organized by Early Girl’s Aaron Longoria, this compilation brings together submissions from trans artists in Iowa and beyond. Longoria shared that “Volume II is more ambitious than the first release, featuring 29 tracks across two discs that will be sold at the show and online on Bandcamp.” The show at the James will feature performances by Anchoress, bloodless girls, bubblehush, DEĀ EX MACHINĀ and more.
Sat, Sept 19, 6 p.m., Northside Saturday Nights: The Lonesome Thrillbillies, Northside Iowa City Sat, Sept 19, 7 p.m., VOID + PHANTOM w/ Starved & Narcotic Self, Wildwood Tues, Sept 22, 7 p.m., Sub Urban, Gabe’s Wed, Sept 23, 7:30 p.m., Daniel Donat’s Cosmic Country, The Englert Sept 23-26, Infinite Dream Festival, Hancher Auditorium How many years does it take for a new festival to truly find its identity? Hancher Auditorium is making a strong case for the third iteration of their Infinite Dream Festival, which brings some of the leading voices in the music and lit world (read an interview with Miranda July on pg. 28 and John Cameron Mitchell on pg. 43) as well cutting-edge performers in the dance and comedy scene Thurs, Sept 24, 1 p.m., Ayane & Paul at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Dey House Thurs, Sept 24, 6 p.m., Loudernow, Gabe’s Thurs, Sept 24, 9 p.m., John Cameron Mitchell Songs & Stories, Hancher Fri, Sept 25, 6:30 p.m., Leftover Salmon, The Englert Fri, Sept 25, 6:30 p.m., Friday Night Concert Series: Strangers of Necessity, Jim Swim and Ion, Ped Mall Stage Fri, Sept 25, 7 p.m., Belmont, Gabe’s Fri, Sept 25, 7 p.m., Gelsey Bell morning//mourning, Hancher Fri, Sept 25, 7 p.m., Soulfly w/ Nailbomb & Incite, Wildwood Fri, Sept 25, 9:30 p.m., Kassa Overall, Hancher Sat, Sept 26, 1:30 p.m., Ayane & Paul, Hancher Sat, Sept 26, 3:30 p.m., Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore Tragic Magic, Hancher Sat, Sept 26, 7:30 p.m., Born of Osiris w/ Soul Devour & Dead Body Diversion, Wildwood Sun, Sept 27, 7 p.m., The Appleseed Cast w/ The Casket Lottery, Gabe’s Tues, Sept 29, 8 p.m., She’s Green w/ Witches Exist and smush, Gabe’s Tues, Sept 29, 8 p.m., Alana Springsteen w/ Erin Kinsey, Wildwood Wed, Sept 30, 7:30 p.m., Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers, Hancher Wed, Sept 30, 8 p.m., King 810 w/ Guerilla Warfare, Steel Chair & Cold Strike, Wildwood Fri, Oct 2, 7 p.m., Bayway w/ Cold Steel, Two-Piece, Load Tha Nine & 12 Gauge Autopsy, Gabe’s LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 27
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
IT’S NOT AN EASY TIME TO BE ALIVE, BUT IT’S THE
PERFECT TIME TO BE OF SERVICE.
Mike V & The Rats at PorchFest in 2025. Photo by Mark Lage courtesy of PorchFest DSM
PorchFest DSM 2026 Union Park Neighborhood, Des Moines Sunday, Sept. 13, Free (Tips appreciated) 11:30 a.m. All Ages Music School at the Heritage Carousel 12 p.m. Flash in a Pan at 2423 E 9th St 12 p.m. Matt Jesson at 2123 E 9th St 12:30 p.m. Bob Pace and Steve George at 2221 E 9th St 12:30 p.m. Reliable Street Band at 2119 E 9th St 1 p.m. Beggar’s Bargain at 907 Thompson Ave 1 p.m. Casey Joe Collins at 2001 E 9th St 1:30 p.m. Zachary Freedom
A family facing an empty refrigerator. A teen struggling with a mental health crisis. An older adult on a fixed income choosing between rent or medicine. Your gift to the Resiliency Campaign will support immediate community needs and ensure essential services remain available for years to come.
builtbycommunity.org/resiliency
at 1307 Thompson Ave 1:30 p.m. Soul Searchers at 2012 E 12th St 1:30 p.m. Willie Mac and the Lost Cousins at 1920 E 13th St 2 p.m. Velvet Trio at 1820 E 13th St 2 p.m. Brother Trucker at 1704 E 13th St 2 p.m. Dusty Rose Band at 1645 Pennsylvania Ave 2:30 p.m. The Carousel at 1808 E 12th St 2:30 p.m. D. Smith at 805 E Jefferson Ave 3 p.m. Iowa Pride Ensembles at 1721 E 12th St 3 p.m. The Bad Vibes at 1701 Pennsylvania Ave 3:30 p.m. Joshua Sinclair at 1820 E 12th St 3:30 p.m. English at 1710 E 9th St 4 p.m. Tim & Jana West at 1707 E 8th St 4 p.m. Jason Walsmith (of The Nadas) at 1712 Pennsylvania Ave 5 p.m. After Party feat. Joshua Sinclair at Captain Roy’s Other Iowa Porch Fests Fort Madison Porchstock, Sept. 26 PorchFest DSM Waveland Park, Sept. 27 10th Annual Longfellow Front Porch Musical Festival, Iowa City, Sept. 27
LittleVillageMag.com/Newsletters
Every year we have tried to do new bands. We haven’t done a lot of repeats. There just are so many incredible artists. Dave: Word’s gotten out and we’re hearing from bands we haven’t discovered yet who are reaching out and would love to play. We’re making new friends. Anne: Dave and I have been producing a series [at xBk Live] called Monday Night Live, so we had gotten to know many of [the musicians] that way. When we reached out to invite them to come to Union Park, they were happy to come. The musicians come together. It feels like there is a scarcity of resources, and sometimes it feels competitive. This is one of those things where we hope to have enough spots for everybody. Our first act is at 11:30 at the Carousel. It’s usually a youth band. We have every genre throughout the afternoon. Our lineup is fantastic. It has been every year. What would you say is the community impact of PorchFest DSM? Anne: It’s been community building in so many ways. It brings the neighbors together, the neighbors in Union Park are digging this. They love what this has done for their neighborhood. Neighbors put great parties together. You’re basically walking around a few blocks and going to these house parties. You just want to come with good walking shoes. We’ll have some food trucks there and some things to sip on. Everybody is having a blast. Talk about the impact PorchFest has had with the music community. Anne: It takes a supportive community to have incredible music. In Central Iowa, now we have a listening community. They are enjoying original music, which is what we try to feature at our festival. Mostly it’s going to be original, Midwest artists. We really love to promote that music. Literature
Know Thyself Ahead of Infinite Dream, novelist Miranda July reflects on fantasies, fears and why so many women are getting spit on in bed.
S
BY MAURICIO RUIZ
he places her phone on the tripod, presses record and steps back. Standing between the camera and a large mirror, she enjoys watching the doubling effect it creates. She starts to spin, her arms lifted, improvising the movement as she goes.
A-LIST: Sept. 2026
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/CALENDAR
MUSIC Fri, Oct 2, 8 p.m., Atlus w/ Loess Hills, Wildwood Sat, Oct 3, 6 p.m., Northside Saturday Nights: Lou Sherry, Northside Iowa City Sat, Oct 3, 8 p.m., The Rocking Dead, Wildwood Sat, Oct 10, 8 p.m., Happy Enchilada! A Celebration of John Prine’s 80th Birthday, Wildwood John Prine, one of the key figures of American country-folk music, died in 2020 due to complications caused by COVID-19. A group of local musicians will come together at Wildwood to celebrate what would have been Prine’s 80th birthday. The evening sees David Zollo, Brian Johannesen, Ryan Bernemann, Marc Janssen, Brian Cooper, Dan Padley, Randall Davis and more sing from Prine’s award-winning catalogue.
CEDAR RAPIDS Fri, Sept 4, 8 p.m., The Claudettes, CSPS Fri, Sept 4, 9 p.m., RnB Night, The Ideal Theater & Bar Sat, Sept 5, 8 p.m., Kevin Burt, CSPS Iowa loves Kevin Burt for good reason— he’s a legendary performer, storyteller and a member of the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame who’s been playing for audiences around the world for three decades. This month, catch Burt performing his most recent release This Trip, an acoustic album celebrating love, resilience, pain and family at the historic CSPS Performance Hall. Fri, Sept 11, 5 p.m., First Friday Jazz, Opus Concert Café Sat, Sept 12, 7 p.m., The Opus Blues Revue, Opus Concert Café Wed, Sept 16, 7 p.m., Lee Ross, The Ideal Theater & Bar Wed, Sept 16, 7 p.m., The Mojo: Kevin Burt, Opus Concert Café Sat, Sept 19, 7:30 p.m., Masterworks I – New World Symphony, Opus Concert Café Tues, Sept 22, 6 p.m., Key Change – A Prelude to a Fugue, Opus Concert Café Fri, Sept 25, 7 & 10 p.m., Bachtoberfest, Brucemore Fri, Sept 25, 8 p.m., EDM Night, The Ideal Theater & Bar Fri & Sat, Oct 2 & 3, 7:30 p.m., CR Sings: The Music of James Taylor & Carole King, Opus Concert Café Fri, Oct 2, 9 p.m., RnB Night, The Ideal Theater & Bar
Sat, Oct 3, 7 p.m., Jared Benson w/ Drew Fry, The Ideal Theater & Bar
CEDAR FALLS/ WAT E R LO O Fri, Sept 4, 8 p.m., Astro Brat, Brenton Dean, The Dirty Pretty, The MLCs, The Loft, Waterloo Fri, Sept 4, 8 p.m., Brody Schoon & High Def Duo, Octopus, Cedar Falls Sat, Sept 5, 8 p.m., Visions of Terror, MVORROW, St. October, Speak of the Devil, The Loft, Waterloo Sat, Sept 5, 8 p.m., The Value of Human Life, I Think So Too & Sam Locke Ward, Octopus, Cedar Falls The Cedar Valley’s psych-garage-rock band the Value of Human Life’s mystical tunes and weird, thoughtful lyrics sort of make you want to wander into the night, searching the dark streets for meaning. You may just find it at the Octopus listening to VHL, indie band I Think So Too and LV’s comics darling and folk-noise-pop performer Sam Locke Ward. Fri, Sept 11, 8 p.m., Andy Juhl and the BlueStem Players, The Value of Human Life, Daisy Glue, The Loft, Waterloo Fri, Sept 11, 8 p.m., Riley Jane, The Jesuits & Carys Marie, Octopus, Cedar Falls Sat, Sept 12, 8 p.m., 10 Watt Robot & Radio Ear, Octopus, Cedar Falls Sat, Sept 12, 9 p.m., R.E.P. Presents: Bringing Down the House, The Loft Waterloo Sat, Sept 19, 8 p.m., Back to the Scene presents: Emo Nite, The Loft, Waterloo Fri, Oct 2, 9 p.m., Surf Zombies, The Deeves, The MLCs, The Loft Waterloo Fri, Oct 16, 7 p.m., Soulcage and Rapture, The Loft Kansas City’s Rapture and up-andcoming DSM rockers Soulcage stop by the Loft in Waterloo on their Midwest Madness tour. The Iowa quintet, which aims to be the catalyst for a grunge revival, kicked off their very first tour at the end of August after dropping a slew of new music last spring. True to its name, the tour sees the two hard-rock outfits swinging through Kansas, Illinois, Nebraska and Minnesota before this penultimate stop in Waterloo.
QUAD CITIES Thurs, Sept 3, 6 p.m., Little Hopes, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Fri, Sept 4, 7 p.m., Back to the Scene Emo Nite, Raccoon Motel, Davenport LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 29
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
For Miranda July, what matters is discovering what she doesn’t know. She moves back and stumbles, finding awe in the process of creating something she hasn’t planned. She dances every day, often on Instagram, trying different outfits and unusual angles. It’s never the same. On Sept. 24, July will be a guest at Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City as part of Infinite Dream, a multidisciplinary arts festival exploring the shape, depth and complexity of the American story. She will speak with Melissa Febos, a renowned essayist and professor in the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program. July is a Guggenheim Fellow and one of Time’s “100 most influential people of 2025.” Her latest novel, All Fours, was a finalist for the National Book Award. I’d read July’s collection No One Belongs Here More Than You, and watched her film Me and You and Everyone We Know, but it wasn’t until 2012, when I listened to David Sedaris read her story Roy Spivey on The New Yorker Fiction Podcast that I realized the magnitude of her wistful quirkiness. The narrator bonds with a famous person on a plane and thinks they might see each other again. She conveys a twisted fascination I’d never seen before: “I asked myself if I would kill my parents to save his life, a question I had been posing since I was 15. The answer always used to be yes. But in time all those boys had faded away and my parents were still there... In this case, however, I had to say yes. Yes, I would.” On a rainy August morning, I spoke with July about All Fours, AI, sex, porn, climate change and more. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Last year you had your first ever solo gallery show at the Fondazione Prada in Milan. What was it like to see 30 years of your work? Each thing you make is so urgent and present in the moment and you never imagine looking back at all those things together. It was a little sobering to see just the sheer amount of labor and relentlessness and, not desperation, but certainly seeing that this young woman was hellbent on creating performance art. There was something about it that it did almost slightly disturb me. I was proud, but I also thought, I’m in the middle of my life now; what do I want it to look like for the second half? And nothing I had done appealed to me, which I think is appropriate. You don’t want to keep repeating, but that was sort of unexpected. There was a kind of eye-opening sobering quality to it for me that hopefully no one else had. Hopefully everyone else was enjoying it just as art.
A-LIST: Sept. 2026
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/CALENDAR
MUSIC Fri, Sept 4, 7 p.m., Sababa 5 w/ Verndon, Rozz-Tox, Rock Island Sababa 5 is a Paris-based band known for mesmerizing audiences with Middle Eastern psychedelic sounds, Mediterranean instrumental funk and haunting vocal collaborations with artists from around the world. Solemnity is fused with a good party; it’s a celebration of humanity, liberation and the weird world we inhabit. Sat, Sept 5, 6 p.m., Emily How w/ Blist Her & Liv Carrow, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Sun, Sept 6, 6 p.m., Bragolin w/ Carrellee, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Mon, Sept 7, 6 p.m., Robert Lester Folsom w/ Oscar Lindsey, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Tues, Sept 8, 6 p.m., She Returns From War w/ Conor Donohue, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Thurs, Sept 10, 6 p.m., Bob Log III w/ Husky Martinez, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Wed, Sept 16, 6 p.m., Lissie, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Rock Islander Lissie (discovered by Lenny Kravitz on MySpace in 2008) returns to the Quad Cities. The singer-songwriter is coming off her latest EP, Promises, and an acting role opposite Cedar Rapids native Ron Livingston in Loudermilk. Thurs, Sept 17, 6 p.m., Alma Russ w/ Tender Mercy, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Fri, Sept 18, 7 p.m., Ages and Ages, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Sat, Sept 19, 8 p.m., Phonotropism w/ Treepunk, Roxx-Tox, Rock Island Mon, Sept 21, 6 p.m., Dave Ross w/ Zach Peterson, Stu Cline & Donny Townsend, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Tues, Sept 22, 6 p.m., The Takes w/ Dolly Creamer, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Wed, Sept 23, 6 p.m., Pig w/ Cyanotic & Apology Kink, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Fri, Sept 25, 7 p.m., Patrick Sweany w/ Spencer Thomas, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Fri, Sept 25, 7 p.m., Yea Big, Drazek Fuscaldo, Roxx-Tox, Rock Island Sat, Sept 26, 7 p.m., Deceits w/ Computer Kill, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Sun, Sept 27, 6 p.m., Basic, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Mon, Sept 28, 6 p.m., Kindred Valley, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Tues, Sept 29, 6 p.m., Forrest McCurren w/ Candi Jenkins, Raccoon Motel, Davenport
Wed, Sept 30, 6 p.m., The Saint Cecilia w/ Big Fun, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Thurs, Oct 1, 6 p.m., Moony w/ Colin Bracewell, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Thurs, Oct 1, 7 p.m., Reading is a Listening w/ Apri Orion, Rozz-Tox, Rock Island Fri, Oct 2, 7 p.m., Jervis Campbell w/ Nathan Colberg, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Sat, Oct 3, 6 p.m., Iced Wrist w/ Cold Glock, Phantom Threat, Ate Up & Cold Strike, Raccoon Motel, Davenport Sun, Oct 4, Lowland IX, RozzTox, Rock Island
PERFORMING ARTS.UIOWA.EDU
PERFORMING ARTS AT IOWA SCHOOL OF MUSIC DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE ARTS DEPARTMENT OF DANCE HANCHER AUDITORIUM PERFORMING ARTS PRODUCTION UNIT
DUBUQUE/ M AQ U O K E TA Thurs, Sept 3, 5:30 p.m., Maquoketa Summer Concert Series: The Matt Fuller Band, Ron Tegeler, Glovik Community Park Thurs, Sept 10, 5:30 p.m., Prelude to the Season DSOL Fundraiser, Voices Studio Fri, Sept 11, 8 p.m., Rock Steady, Diamond Jo Casino Mississippi Moon Bar Sat, Sept 12, 7 p.m., Bell Tower Alumni Show: A Cabaret Performance, Bell Tower Theater Sun, Sept 13, 5 p.m., Music in the Gardens: Anthem, Dubuque Arboretum Thurs, Sept 17, 5 p.m., River Nights at the Loft, Riverview-2nd & Court St. Thurs, Sept 17, 5:30 p.m., Maquoketa Summer Concert Series: The Ridgerunners, Lori Schnoor, Glovik Community Park Sat, Sept 19, 7:30 p.m., Rock & Roots Series: Music of Laurel Canyon ft. Buffalo Rome, Five Flags Theater Sun, Sept 27, 7 p.m., mr. phylzzz, The Lift Sun, Sept 27, 8 p.m., Langhorne Slim, Codfish Hollow, Maquoketa Fri, Oct 2, 8 p.m., The Dream Syndicate, The Claudettes, Codfish Hollow, Maquoketa By the time this event at Codfish Hollow takes place, the Maquoketa venue will have gone on a run of sold-out shows that include Sleater-Kinney and actor Michael Shannon playing R.E.M.’s Lifes Rich Pageant. No slouches themselves, The Dream Syndicate are an L.A. altrock band that was part of the Paisley Underground movement of the ’80s. Sat, Oct 3, 1 p.m., Dubuque Latinx Fiesta, Millwork Historic District Sat, Oct 3, 7:30 p.m., Dubuque Symphony Orchestra: Classics 1: The Fire Within, Five Flags Theater
We embrace a spirit of creativity that lives at the heart of everything we do–including our collective commitment to supporting the creation of new work. Together, we are making the University of Iowa a destination for the performing arts.
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
LittleVillageMag.com/Support
Find Little Village on
Bluesky cial @littlevillage.bsky.so
Miranda July. Photo by Jonah Primiano courtesy of the artist; Collage by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village
In 2014, you conceived an app that made users interact with strangers. What made you think of it? I’m occasionally just wrestling with a new technology, which is always changing. At one point the new technology was websites, but around the time of this project it was apps. Everyone was saying, “If you could make an app, what would it be?” I thought, this experience of having an intimate moment with a stranger is so valuable to me and how would I create that on a mass scale for other people? The idea was that you could send a friend a message and that message would be delivered by a stranger standing in as a surrogate pretending to be you, and you could give directions to the surrogate. The tagline was, “When you can’t be there… Somebody can.” The app was called Somebody. I researched it and realized, this is actually a very expensive app, especially back then. A few months later, Miu Miu asked if I wanted to do a short film and I thought, I’ll do that, but it’s going to be a film about this fictional app and I’d like us to make the app. There was the sense that technology could make everything be easier and seamless, you wouldn’t even have to leave your home for groceries. This app was kind of built to be inefficient. You could just text your friend or call them on the same device. It was laborious but it put people into interaction. What has been your artistic experience with AI? I don’t want everything to become bland and terrible, and especially writing is dear to my heart. I have a teenager, and the process of struggling with something is obviously very useful.
That said, I don’t really approach technology in a judgmental way. I’m not an activist, I’m not going to stop AI from happening or put my time into that. The way I feel I have something to offer is by being curious about the technology, maybe misusing it or pushing against it or just even thinking about it. Engaging with it spiritually: what is the implication here? I’ve used AI but not in a generative way. What I hope is that young people and artists will wrestle with it. I’m not sure there’s a useful position in just being “No AI at all costs.” I don’t think that’s the most powerful way to approach it, even if that is the right approach. I don’t see a way to fight it that doesn’t involve some creative engagement because it’s already part of our imaginations. I read one of the realizations you had while writing All Fours was that what you thought was you was maybe really other people. How so? For some reason with my creative work, I’ve always done it my own way even though I’ve seen all these other examples of how it should be done. I never thought there was anything odd about doing all the different mediums or being kind of self-taught or whatever. I felt very free and exploratory. But I have not been that way in the rest of my life. I believed I would know I was fully mature and wise because I would be sort of aligned with other people’s expectations. I had a lot of self-judgment that I wasn’t quite there yet, like I needed to work on myself more in order to be the right way in a relationship. And that was never going to happen that way just by striving to be like other people.
A-LIST: Sept. 2026
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/CALENDAR
LIT & COMMUNITY D E S M O I N E S /A M E S
I OWA C I T Y
Sun, Sept 6, 10:30 a.m., Music, Movement + Stories: Musical Storytime w/ Pied Piper Studios, Reading in Public Tue, Sept 8, 7:30 p.m., Sussman Lecture: Brian Goldstone, Sheslow Auditorium, Drake University Fri, Sept 11, 6:30 p.m., Meet the Poet: Aaron D. Wiegert, Beaverdale Books Sat, Sept 12, 3 p.m., Meet the Author: Liane Moriarty, Franklin Event Center Mon, Sept 14, 6:30 p.m., Meet the Author: Heather Mylan-Mains, Beaverdale Books Tues, Sept 15, 7 p.m., Meet the Author: Shadley Grei, West Des Moines Library Thurs, Sept 17, 5 p.m., Meet the Author: Ari Weinzweig, Beaverdale Books Wed, Sept 23, 6:30 p.m., Meet the Author: Jodi Picoult, Franklin Event Center Thurs, Sept 24, 4:30 p.m., Meet the Author: Jaime Zollars, Beaverdale Books Fri, Sept 25, 6:30 p.m., Meet the Author: John Henkels, Beaverdale Books Sun, Sept 27, 4 p.m., Strange Company Book Club, Reading in Public Fri, Oct 2, 6:30 p.m., Meet the Author: William Kent Krueger, Central Library Sun, Oct 4, 10:30 a.m., Music, Movement + Stories: Musical Storytime w/ Pied Piper Studios, Reading in Public Mon, Oct 5, 6:30 p.m., Meet the Author: Deborah Svec-Carstens, Beaverdale Books Fri, Oct 9, 7 p.m., Open Mic Poetry Night, Beaverdale Books
Sundays, 4 p.m., IWP Sunday Afternoon Reading Series, Prairie Lights Fri, Sept 4, 7 p.m., Author Reading: Giano Cromley, Prairie Lights Sat, Sept 5, 1 p.m., Flash Forward, Porch Light Literary Arts Center Tues, Sept 8, 5:30 p.m., Porchlight + PromptPress present: Happy Hour at the Green House, Green House Tues, Sept 8, 7 p.m., Author Reading: Chris Vinsonhaler, Prairie Lights Wed, Sept 9, 7 p.m., Tabatha Leggett in conv w/ Jan Steyn, Prairie Lights Thurs, Sept 10, 7 p.m., Patricia Albers in conv w/ Garth Greenwell, Prairie Lights Fri, Sept 11, 7 p.m., Lizzie Buehler in cov w/ Julia Conrad, Prairie Lights Sat, Sept 12, 10:30 a.m., Poetry Exchange, Porch Light Literary Arts Center Sat, Sept 12, 1 p.m., Queer Writers’ Check In, Porch Light Literary Arts Center Sun, Sept 13, 2 p.m., Author Reading: Emily Galvan Almanza, Prairie Lights Wed, Sept 16, 7 p.m., Luis Muñoz in conv w/ Garth Greenwell & Idra Novey, Prairie Lights Thurs, Sept 17, 7 p.m., Camille T. Duby in conv w/ Donika Kelly, Prairie Lights Sun, Sept 20, 10 a.m., Writing Grief, Porch Light Literary Arts Center Sun, Sept 20, 5:30 p.m., The Free Gen: Ren Arcamone, Porch Light Literary Arts Center Mon, Sept 21, 10:30 a.m., Write Now: Community supported writing group, Porch Light Literary Arts Center Tues, Sept 22, 7 p.m., Katie Bennett in conv w/ Nina Lohman & Alisha Jeddeloh, Prairie Lights Wed, Sept 23, 7 p.m., Book Matters Event: Kathy Lavezzo & William Rhodes in conv w/ Sarah Bond, Prairie Lights Fri, Sept 25, 7 p.m., Porchlight Rooftop Music & Reading Series, 202 N. Linn St Sat, Sept 26, 6 p.m., Miranda July, The Englert Wed, Sept 30, 7 p.m., Kyle McCarthy in conv w/ Kevin Brockmeier, Prairie Lights Thurs, Oct 1, 5:30 p.m., Author reading: Katie Holten, Old Capitol Museum Fri, Oct 2, 7 p.m., Nicholas Russell in conv w/ Tony Tulathimutte, Prairie Lights
Wed, Oct 14, 6:30 p.m., Meet the Author: Annastacia Stegall, Beaverdale Books Former Des Moines resident Annastacia Stegall visits Beaverdale Books to talk about her latest work Tears, Bra, and All. Described as a memoir spanning lyric essay, childhood games, assemblage and traditional poetic form, Stegall reconfigures a haunting memory of her past into autobiographical collage. Stegall will be joined in conversation with Des Moines poet BJ Soloy, author of Birth Center in Corporate Woods. Fri, Oct 16, 6:30 p.m., Meet the Author: Josef Benson, Beaverdale Books Mon, Oct 19, 6:30 p.m., Meet the Authors: Tom Lin & Bonnie Jo Campbell, Beaverdale Books Thurs, Oct 22, 6:30 p.m., Meet the Author: Debra Landwehr Engle, Beaverdale Books Sun, Oct 25, 4 p.m., Strange Company Book Club, Reading in Public
CEDAR RAPIDS Sundays, 10 a.m., Sunday Vendor Market, NewBo City Market Sundays, 12 p.m., Sunday Bingo, NewBo City Market
IOWA CITY REALTOR M: 319-321-3679 E: TIM@TIMCONROY.COM BLANK & MCCUNE REAL ESTATE 506 E. COLLEGE ST. IOWA CITY, IA 52240 LICENSED TO SELL REAL ESTATE IN IOWA
LittleVillageMag.com/Newsletters
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
Rather late in the game I realized, oh, my job is to know myself, to communicate that well and to create situations or commit to situations where the way I actually am is fine. One of the topics in your 2017 story “The Metal Bowl” is porn. So much traffic on the internet is coming from adult sites. What does it say about our society? I always forget about porn because I’m so good at supplying my own fantasies. It’s literally my job and I’m great at it. [Laughs] It seems to be almost like a wellness practice, not using porn. Occasionally I’ll dip in and I’ll be like, “Whoa, this is kind of intense.” And I’ll be surprised to realize that all my friends use it all the time. Talking to a friend recently about it I’m starting to get the picture. I always just assume people are watching porn with their partner and getting turned on together and just making of it what they will, but no. It’s mostly men alone who, when they are with women, want it to be like that, which is fine if you talk about it. I have a lot of friends who are just getting spit on a lot all of a sudden. And it’s like, wow, really? It’s something that’s not even discussed. That does seem like it could have only come from porn. I’m hesitant to scold about anything that involves sex because I feel like every single person watching has not had a helping hand in that area, has not had a great sex education or introduction to sex. There’s just so much shame on top of an already shaky foundation.
Eugene Thomas in Ninja Batallion. Courtesy of Sea Fahey; Collage by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village
34 Sept. 2026 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356
Maybe one reason why I write about sex is I believe in its healing capacity to be just kind of open and curious. In your film The Future, Jason goes door to door soliciting tree purchases to stop global warming. This was back in 2011. How is global warming informing your artistic creation and sensibility? At the time of writing The Future I thought, at least I have to acknowledge that this is happening. I think it was right around then that we began to conceive of, there might not be a future. I’m just making that connection now that you ask me this question. Now of course the issue is so much louder. It’s in every single thing. Everyone’s constantly pledging or denying or whatever, but it feels like the same again. No, more. It is unusual to be asked [if there might not be a future] because it takes so much energy to block it out all the time, and so to be asked to think about it is almost an insult to the work you’re doing to keep it at bay. That’s sometimes how it feels even to me. I think I’m putting it in those works to try and break through that feeling. I think about it in terms of my teenager. It’s really grim to have a child whose conception of the future is really up for grabs. I don’t even know what they’re thinking, but it’s not what I would be thinking.
When you dance you feel things in ways that bypass your intellect. Can you elaborate? You can’t do anything unless it catches your interest, and it’s a matter of something catching your interest through something other than your mind, which takes a second. When I first am outside in nature it’s done nothing to me yet. But if I spend a little more time I begin to shift, and that’s not happening intellectually. It’s the same thing with dance. Initially you’re focused on how you look or if you’re doing things right. Your mind is like, “I’m the boss here.” But after a while your body is like, “Oh, I can be here, this is for me.” It’s kind of surprising what the body does on its own, as the leader of the person.
Infinite Dream: Miranda July in conversation with Melissa Febos The Englert, Iowa City Saturday, Sept. 26, 6 p.m.
Film
Black Belts An ass-kicking new documentary is set to premiere at FilmScene, presented by an original American ninja warrior.
T
BY CHUY RENTERIA
here’s one scene in writer-director Sea Fahey’s film For Kicks that I can’t stop thinking about. The documentary by the Iowa City transplant covers a pair of Black martial artists who broke into the overseas kung fu movie market in its hey-day: Eugene Thomas, a native Chicagoan, and Ron van Clief out of Brooklyn, New York. The scene in question stars Thomas, who appeared in about a dozen ninja movies filmed across Southeast Asia in the ’80s and ’90s. (He almost always played bad guys—more on that later.) Thomas’s henchman character is instructed to kill a guy, which for some reason involves walking up and rapid-fire punching him in the stomach for, and I counted, 14 seconds straight. It’s ridiculous—why does the dude just stand there!?—and everything I could ever want out of a 1985 ninja flick. For Kicks follows Thomas and van Clief as they reflect on their careers as Black martial arts actors, contrasting the bombastic fight scenes they performed with the relatively quiet life they lead offscreen. When Fehey first struck up a friendship with Thomas, he had no idea the man was an action star.
A-LIST: Sept. 2026
LIT & COMMUNITY Wednesdays, 6 p.m., Wednesday Trivia Night, NewBo City Market Saturday, Sept. 5 at 8 p.m., Kevin Burt, CSPS Sat, Sept 5, 10 a.m., Saturday Vendor Market, NewBo City Market Sat, Sept 12, 10 a.m., Young-Entrepreneurs Market, NewBo City Market Sat, Sept 19, 10 a.m., Saturday Vendor Market, NewBo City Market Sat, Sept 26, 12 p.m., AsianFest, NewBo City Market Sunday, Oct. 4 at 6 p.m., Swan Lake, Paramount Theatre
QUAD CITIES Sat, Sept 12, 9 a.m., Quad Cities Queer Coffee, The Atlas Collective, Moline Thurs, Sept 24, 5:30 p.m., Book Club: What Does the Constitution Actually Say?, The Atlas Collective, Moline Fri, Sept 25, 9 a.m., Ask Anything: Mental Health Resources w/ Bloom Therapy, The Atlas Collective, Moline
DUBUQUE Mon, Sept 7, 6 p.m., Convivium Cookbook Club: Appetites, Convivium Urban Farmstead Thurs, Sept 10, 6 p.m., Slightly Creepy Book Group, River Lights Thurs, Sept 10, 7 p.m., Dubuque Pride Book Club, River Lights Sun, Sept 13, 10:30 a.m., Writers’ Network Group w/ Cathy Borders, River Lights Wed, Sept 16, 12 p.m., Lunch & Learn: Cover Crops for Vegetable Gardens, Convivium Urban Farmstead Wed, Sept 16, 7 p.m., Freadom Book Group, River Lights Thurs, Sept 17, 6 p.m., Middle Eastern Mezze Cooking Class, Convivium Urban Farmstead Thurs, Sept 17, 6 p.m., Graphic Content Book Group, River Lights Sat, Sept 19, 6 p.m., Drag Show & Pizza Night, Convivium Urban Farmstead Mon, Sept 21, 6:30 p.m., TBR Book Group, River Lights Tues, Sept 22, 6 p.m., Harvest Soups Cooking Class, Convivium Urban Farmstead Wed, Sept 23, 4:30 p.m., Classic Novel Book Group, River Lights Fri, Sept 25, 5:30 p.m., Adventure Awaits Book Group, River Lights Mon, Sept 28, 5:30 p.m., Smut, Screams. And Plot Twists Book Group, River Lights Tues, Sept 29, 6 a.m., Threshing Day Release Party, River Lights Judgment at Nuremberg is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc www.condonrdtheatricals.com
LittleVillageMag.com/Support
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
“We’d always say hi and chat,” Fehey said in an interview with Little Village. “We’d occasionally have lunch together. I’ve always loved kung fu films, but I had no clue Thomas was involved in that world in any way. I’ve also practiced various martial arts throughout my life, so it’s always been something I’ve been attracted to.” Fehey was near the start of his filmmaking career, working as an assistant editor in Chicago. “One day [Thomas] asked if I’d be comfortable editing together a martial arts reel for him … I figured he was going to hand me some DV tapes of himself training in his garage or backyard or something,” the filmmaker explained. “Instead, he comes with a plastic bag filled with VHS tapes. His face was on the cover of all of them, usually in some striking pose, in his early 20s, looking like a total badass and fighting ninjas. My jaw dropped. My friend was this lowkey international movie star back in the ’80s and ’90s, and I had absolutely no idea.” Fahey, who went to film school at Columbia College Chicago, edited the reel for his friend while continuing to pursue his career, which would entail gigs at production and post-production companies like OddMachine, Blueyed Pictures and Bow & Arrow. Fahey followed the production work to the coasts while also pursuing independent films. Credits over his two-decade career include The Tractor Builder, which won Best of Fest at the Chicago International Film Festival; Message from the East; and Ba Ne Jek Mal (We meet in peace), a short film made in South Sudan. As it often goes with friendships and careers, the two lost touch for a while before reconnecting during the pandemic. Thomas agreed to make a short film with Fahey. “I found a location, picked up some gear from rental houses in Chicago and we did this beautiful rooftop interview,” Fahey said. “It was supposed to last an hour. It lasted three.” The conversation revealed there was much more to explore. “These Black actors … instead of going to L.A. to try to break into the industry, did something completely different,” Fahey said. “They arrived at this fascinating intersection. In the West, the film industry had realized there was a strong market for Black films, while at the same time there was this huge attraction to Hong Kong martial arts cinema that had proliferated throughout Asia. These Black martial artists became part of this new genre—Blaxploitation meets the martial arts film.”
This new phenomenon—American Black actors starring alongside their Asian counterparts, mostly by playing against them in hand-to-hand duels— could lead to some unknown and complicated territory. For Kicks presents a clip from the 1986 Taiwanese film Ninja: The Final Duel in which the character Wang Chi Chung confronts a monk played by Thomas (credited as “The Black Monk” on IMDb), throwing out the line, “You Black son of a bitch.” Thomas replies in an overdubbed voice that is very much not his own, “You must be jivin’.” Thomas said he would nudge the studios away from racial stereotypes, particularly in the English dubs. “A lot of times when we got through filming, they would go to the studio and I would race to try to … put my voice on there. Couldn’t catch them a lot of times,” Thomas says with a laugh in For Kicks. “But I realized what they were doing. So I guess, like, the question is, were they exploiting me?” Fahey said he approached this fraught question with “frankness, honesty, and more than anything, empathy for what my friends went through.” “They were confronting stereotypes, although sometimes different stereotypes than the ones they were accustomed to in the West. There’s a nuance to it—a sort of ‘prove yourself’ mentality and a learning curve that they had to understand, adapt to and ultimately thrive within. “The reality is that opportunities like these largely weren’t available to them in the United States,” Fahey continued, “and that’s sad to say. So in a way, they were pioneering a new form of representation for Black actors on film.” Thomas says as much in For Kicks: “They were allowing me to show my skills. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t have had that opportunity here in the States. Because at that time, in the ’70s, there was nobody doing that. We were having a hard time just from being Black.” Fahey said his friendship with Thomas has only deepened since cracking the clapperboard on their first interview more than four years ago. “Eugene and I jump on a call every couple of weeks just to check in. He’s like a brother to me now. The same goes for Ron van Clief.” Fahey beamed as he shared photos of the 83-year-old van Clief receiving his black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu after years of training with Relson Gracie in Hawaii. “He called me to tell me about it! That was such a cool thing. These relationships have gone far beyond making the documentary.” Sea Fahey, Eugene Thomas and Thomas’s wife Lenora will join movie-lovers at FilmScene in
Iowa City on Sept. 16 for a Q&A and double-bill screening of For Kicks and Ninja: The Final Duel. It’ll also be an opportunity for Fahey to show his friends around the place he now calls home. “I moved to Iowa City because I needed to come up for some air. Los Angeles was feeling a little suffocating,” Fahey said. “I’m grateful not to be stuck in L.A. traffic. I love the vibe of Iowa City, and I feel like it’s a great place for a creative person to find a home and do the good work.”
Filmmaker Spotlight: For Kicks FilmScene at the Chauncey, Iowa City Wednesday, Sept. 16, 7:30 p.m.
Film
Prince of Darkness This Iowan set the standard for horror fanzines, lifting the lid on classic films and their scary, seductive villains.
T
BY KRISTIAN DAY
his spring, in a small house in the Beaverdale neighborhood of Des Moines, Dick Klemensen typed away at a final editorial to his readers. Since 1972, he has published a world-famous magazine called Little Shoppe of Horrors, dedicated to classic British monster films. This summer, he laid it to rest. Before the internet, fanzines were the lifeblood of genre fandom. Produced by enthusiasts rather than professional publishers, these homemade magazines connected horror, science fiction and fantasy fans. They were written on typewriters, assembled with scissors, glue and photocopiers, and distributed through conventions, specialty bookstores and snail mail. Klemensen began picking up Famous Monsters of Filmland, Castle of Frankenstein and other niche horror zines while growing up in Mason City. When his family moved to Waterloo in 1963, he held onto his copies. In September 1969, while recovering from mono, Klemensen attended a triple feature that included the Hammer Films production Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. He described the ending with Dracula
A-list events in your inbox every Thursday. Subscribe today: littlevillagemag.com/newsletters
A-LIST: Sept. 2026
FILM DES MOINES Opens Fri, Sept 4, The Sun Never Sets, Varsity Cinema Sun, Sept 6, 7 p.m., Norma Rae free screening, Varsity Cinema Tues, Sept 8, 7 p.m., sex, lies, and videotape, Varsity Cinema Thurs, Sept 17, 10 p.m., Reefer Madness, Varsity Cinema Opens Fri, Sept 18, Resident Evil, Varsity Cinema Wed, Sept 23, 7 p.m., Jury of Her Peers, Varsity Cinema Opens Fri, Sept 25, Primetime, Varsity Cinema Sun, Sept 27, 1 p.m., 2026 Manhattan Short Film Festival, Varsity Cinema Tues, Sept 29, 7 p.m., Silent Movie Day: Battleship Potemkin ft. a new score by Pet Shop Boys, Varsity Cinema Sat, Oct 3, 12 p.m., The Met: Live in HD: Così fan tutte, Varsity Cinema Wed, Oct 7, 7 p.m., Iowa and the Broken Circle, Fleur Cinema Opens Sat, Oct 10, Gone with the Wind, Fleur Cinema Sat, Oct 17, 12 p.m., The Met: Live in HD: Macbeth, Varsity Cinema Thurs, Oct 22, 10 p.m., The Rocky Horror Picture Show w/ Live Shadow Cast, Varsity Cinema
I OWA C I T Y Fri, Sept 4, 6:30 p.m., Live music + The Artist & the Pervert screening, FilmScene Sat, Sept 5, 12 p.m., Hamlet (2026), FilmScene Sat, Sept 5, 7:30 p.m., Jules and Jim, FilmScene Sat, Sept 5, 10 p.m., The Florida Project, FilmScene Sun, Sept 6, 4 p.m., The Grapes of Wrath, FilmScene Mon, Sept 7, 7 p.m., Welcome II the Terrordome, FilmScene Tues, Sept 8, 7 p.m., Water Lilies, FilmScene Thurs, Sept 10, 6:30 p.m., Dear Lara, FilmScene Sat, Sept 12, 4 p.m., The Piano (1993), FilmScene Sat, Sept 12, 10 p.m., Sorry to Bother You, FilmScene Sun, Sept 13, 7:30 p.m., Videodrome, FilmScene Mon, Sept 14, 6:30 p.m., La Cocina, FilmScene Tues, Sept 15, 7 p.m., The Piano (1993), FilmScene
CINDY CLARK
REALTOR® / OWNER URBAN ACRES REAL ESTATE
IOWA CITY’S ORIGINAL HOMEGIRL
Residential Specialist New Construction & Commercial Licensed to sell Real Estate in the State of Iowa
A lifetime of Iowa City experience! 319 - 530 - 8091 • CINDYCLARK@URBANACRES.COM
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
LittleVillageMag.com/Newsletters
A-LIST: Sept. 2026
FILM
Dick Klemensen, Little Shoppe of Horrors publisher. Kristian Day / Little Village
impaled on a cross atop his castle, accompanied by James Bernard’s score, as completely transformative. He returned to the theater the next night with a tape recorder to capture the soundtrack. Founded in 1934, Hammer Film Productions became one of the most influential studios in horror by reinventing classic monsters for a new generation. Beginning with The Curse of Frankenstein followed by Horror of Dracula, Hammer infused Gothic stories with vivid color cinematography, graphic violence, sensuality and charismatic performances from actors like Peter Cushing, Oliver Reed and Christopher Lee. Klemensen enlisted in the Army during the war in Vietnam, his excellent typing skills earning him an assignment stateside as an induction clerk. While stationed in Richmond, Virginia, he discovered a growing network of fanzines. Publications such as Photon, Gore Creatures and Cinefantastique felt personal—the editors talked about their lives, their friendships and their passions alongside film analysis. He returned to Waterloo in January 1972, taking a job at Esco Auto Supply. He started drag racing, and was hired to serve as drag editor for the National Hawkeye Racing News. Race weekends became a family affair, with Klemensen’s father and brother helping sell newspapers while he covered the action from the timing tower of the Cedar Falls Raceway. Six months after returning home, they published the first issue of Little Shoppe of Horrors—written and edited by Klemensen, printed by two brothers in nearby Janesville, and assembled by hand. Klemensen and his mother sat on the floor of his bedroom, collating pages one by one. The first print run was only 200 copies, sold for 75 cents each, but it marked the beginning of a 54-year saga. 40 Sept. 2026 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356
In 1973, he attended his first World Science Fiction Convention, then another major convention in D.C. the following year, where he met filmmakers, writers, collectors and historians who shared his fixation on classic horror cinema. One was a young Jim Wynorski from New York, his pen pal in the monster magazine scene. Wynorski would later become one of the most prolific directors in independent genre cinema with Chopping Mall, The Return of Swamp Thing and dozens of cult horror and sci-fi features. “I was playing some spaghetti Western music … and [Klemensen] says, ‘What’s that?’” Wynorski recalled to Little Village. “I said, ‘Oh, it’s Morricone music.’ And he fell in love with it. At any convention we were at together, Dick would ask, ‘Did you bring any new spaghetti Western music?’ And I would make a seven-inch reel and I’d just give it to him. I said, ‘Here you go, here’s some more stuff.’” Klemensen found himself fascinated by the people behind the Hammer films—the directors, makeup artists, actors and craftspeople who had created the studio’s distinctive Gothic style. He tracked down call sheets (the production company’s daily schedule of what was being shot), memos between studios and sometimes even the catering menus. Before Joe Dante made a career directing films like Gremlins, The Howling and The ’Burbs, he wrote for a horror fanzine called Castle of Frankenstein. He recognized early that Little Shoppe’s attention to detail was next to none. “I don’t think I saw the first one, but I did maybe the third or fourth one, and I can’t remember where. I might have seen it at a convention because it wasn’t like, you know, next to the Ladies’ Home Journal like Famous Monsters was,” Dante said. “Dick’s affection for British horror in general, and Hammer in particular, made it the go-to magazine to get information on this kind of stuff … He talked to all
Wed, Sept 16, 7:30 p.m., For Kicks, FilmScene Sat, Sept 19, 10:30 a.m., Autism Society of Iowa Screening: Monsters, Inc., FilmScene Sat & Sun, Sept 19 & 20, 11 a.m., Monsters, Inc., FilmScene Sat, Sept 19, 7:15 p.m., Wall-E, FilmScene Sat, Sept 19, 10 p.m., Clockwatchers, FilmScene Tues, Sept 22, 7 p.m., Bombshell (2026), FilmScene Wed, Sept 23, 7 p.m. & 9:40 p.m., Hedwig and the Angry Inch, FilmScene Thurs, Sept 24, 3:30 p.m., Monsters, Inc., FilmScene Sat, Sept 26, 10 p.m., Teorema, FilmScene Sun, Sept 27, 7:30 p.m., Bridget Jones’s Diary, FilmScene Tues, Sept 29, 7 p.m., The Room That Leaves the House: 16MM Shorts w/ Christian Flemm, FilmScene Sat, Oct 3, 12 p.m., All My Sons (2026), FilmScene Sat, Oct 3, 7 p.m., Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Director’s Cut), FilmScene Sat, Oct 3, 10 p.m., Ginger Snaps, FilmScene Mon, Oct 5, 7 p.m., Hollywood Shuffle, FilmScene Tues, Oct 6, 7 p.m., Weekend (2011), FilmScene Sat & Sun, Oct 10 & 11, 11 a.m., Corpse Bride, FilmScene Sat, Oct 10, 10 p.m., Cat People, FilmScene Thurs, Oct 15, 3:30 p.m., Corpse Bride, FilmScene Sat, Oct 17, The Fly, FilmScene Oct 22-25, Refocus Film Festival 2026, FilmScene FilmScene’s big annual film festival celebrating adaptation returns for their fifth iteration. Although an official lineup has not been revealed at the time of this writing, it’s a safe bet that the FilmScene team will bring a celebration of cinema and storytelling in its many forms. Sat, Oct 31, 10 p.m., Candyman, FilmScene
QUAD CITIES Opens Thurs, Sept 10, Practical Magic 2, The Last Picture House Tues, Sept 15, 5 p.m., Quad Cities Latino Cinema Series: In the Heights, The Last Picture House Wed, Oct 14, 5 p.m., Quad Cities Latino Cinema Series: La Bamba, The Last Picture House
ORCHESTRA IOWA MASTERWORKS
I
NEW WORLD
SYMPHONY
A N TO N Í N DVO Ř Á K
09.19.2026 Paramount Theatre
09.20.2026
Voxman Concert Hall
SCHOOL
MUSIC LESSONS! STRINGS, WOODWINDS, BRASS, PIANO, AND VOCAL
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
Collage by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village
42 Sept. 2026 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356
the surviving cast, talked to as many crew members as he could. He’d print call sheets… budgets… all sorts of arcane stuff that you would think would have narrowed the audience for the magazine, but it didn’t. Instead, it created a sort of underground need for more information.” The mid-1980s marked the lowest point in Klemensen’s life. As farms failed and banks struggled amid the Farm Crisis, the ripple effects reached businesses in every corner of the state. Klemensen lost his job. Then, without warning, his wife told him she was leaving him. Little Shoppe of Horrors, which had always been a labor of love rather than a source of income, took a back seat for four years. “I moved to Des Moines, got a little efficiency apartment. I finally had a good job, and this had been in December of ’87. I started over from scratch. Thank God for ramen noodles because I had like $5 a week to eat on while I fought the divorce.” “And when that was over I decided, OK, I’d like to do a Little Shoppe again.” Klemensen was employed full-time at Midwest Wheel, where he sold parts for 18-wheelers. He traveled to England regularly to visit friends and immerse himself in the world of Hammer films. Each issue of Little Shoppe required years of research and production. Wynorski often wrote for the legendary horrormovie magazine Fangoria, but “You don’t learn anything from reading Fangoria,” he said. “You learn a lot from reading Little Shoppe of Horrors. Klemensen is going to give you every last fucking detail.” After nearly three decades, Klemensen was only on his 15th issue. A collapse in the comic book market in the ’90s raised costs and forced him to shrink his magazine down from 134 pages to 96. Just as he was contemplating closing up Shoppe, Nancy Emdia entered his life. They met through mutual friends in 2001, and lo and behold, she was into everything he was. Klemensen would have proposed on the second date, he said. “Where the hell has this woman been all my whole life?” With help from his new wife, Klemensen increased production of Little Shoppe to two issues a year. Emdia proofread articles, helped evaluate photographs and layouts, assembled issues, handled countless behind-the-scenes tasks and served as Klemensen’s most trusted editor. “She loves these films,” he said. “We did two issues a year for, like, 15 years. It didn’t slow down.” The pair have retired from their careers over the past decade, Klemensen from selling truck parts and Emdia from working as a third-shift nurse. They published a book, Witches, Bitches and Banshees: The British Films of American International Pictures, and Klemensen began contributing commentary tracks and interviews to various restorations of Hammer films, both from the newly revived company in the U.K. and U.S.-based
LittleVillageMag.com/Support
distributors such as Severin Films. His sister Kris has supplied all of the layouts from her home in Clarion. After 54 years, Klemensen published the final issue of Little Shoppe of Horrors this July. Issue #53 centers on the making of The Abominable Snowman (1953) and The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), as well as Little Shoppe history. The back cover illustration by Paul Watts depicts Klemensen and Emdia smiling arm in arm, surrounded by levitating issues of their magazine. Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein stalk them from the background. Klemensen is “locking the doors” on his creation. He doesn’t want to sell it off, or go back to publishing sporadically. All 53 issues can be ordered from their old-school website, littleshoppeofhorrors.com, but he and his family are ready to rest. “It’s my magazine. It started with me and it ends with me.” Film
Miss Midwest Midnight Checkout Queen Hedwig and the Angry Inch is “a story of trauma, abuse and the government deciding what you are,” according to its creator.
F
BY ARIANA MARTINEZ
or John Cameron Mitchell, the writer, director and star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, punk rock has to be in the moment. Currently on tour for the film’s 25th anniversary, Mitchell will stop in Iowa City on Sept. 23 and 24 for a musical performance as part of Hancher’s Infinite Dream Festival, as well as a film screening and Q&A at FilmScene. “Our tour, in effect, is talking about Hedwig, a Midwestern bitch trying to find her way to wholeness,” Mitchell said. Punk, as a perspective, aesthetic and music genre, must be deeply entrenched in a sense of geography, a collective response by members within a community to provoke action in a specific place. In the film, Hedwig first discovers her star persona in rural Kansas, the same state where Army brat Mitchell came of age.
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
Hedwig and the Angry Inch began as a successful Off-Broadway show, in which Mitchell originated the titular role of the genderqueer punk singer from East Berlin who needs to undergo sexual reassignment surgery to flee the country with her male lover. The procedure leaves her feeling fragmented in more ways than one, a pain that is only exacerbated further after Tommy Gnosis breaks up with her and finds fame by stealing her songs. In thinking about Hedwig’s cult legacy, Mitchell is filled with tremendous gratitude and admiration for how the story has continued to resonate with audiences. “When I meet people along the way with Hedwig tattoos, it’s very humbling. Bigger hit movies or Oscar winners don’t necessarily elicit that kind of reaction. You don’t see a lot of Argo tattoos.”
“When I meet people along the way with Hedwig tattoos, it’s very humbling. Bigger hit movies or Oscar winners don’t necessarily elicit that kind of reaction. You don’t see a lot of Argo tattoos.” —John Cameron Mitchell While Mitchell has only passed through Iowa, it did play a small role in the making of his musical. Mitchell shared that Hedwig co-creator Stephen Trask, who composed the music, lyrics and also appears in the film as Skszp, wrote the song “Wicked Little Town” in Grinnell, Iowa. Trask was visiting friends and wrote the song in their home, which was so close to the road he could feel it shake when trucks passed by. “I don’t think of Grinnell as a wicked little town, but he [Trask] was thinking about Junction City where I lived,” Mitchell said. The autobiographical song plays a key role in the film, as it sheds light on the isolation of being queer in a small, conservative town. It is the first song the character Tommy sees Hedwig sing, before the two strike up a creative and romantic relationship that will eventually lead to heartbreak and betrayal. One of the first times Mitchell conceptualized Iowa City, aside from the vague home of the Writers’ Workshop, was also bound up with queerness. “I actually learned about it from Andrea Lawlor’s book Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, which if you haven’t read, is brilliant, and it takes place, at the beginning, in Iowa City.” Lawlor, a nonbinary author and University of Iowa alum, crafts a tale about a 23-year-old in 1993 who can shapeshift their body and gender expression. It’s a refreshing image of fluidity briefly set in a state whose leaders no longer
LittleVillageMag.com/Newsletters
consider gender identity worthy of protection in the Iowa Civil Rights Act. But no matter how hard legislation tries, many queer people continue to call Iowa home. Hedwig and the Angry Inch is vital to the growing tapestry of genderfluid media, despite not being a straightforward gay or trans comingof-age liberation story. “It’s a story of trauma, abuse and the government deciding what you are,” Mitchell said. He’s frustrated to see rightwing ideology flourish in the Midwest, a place he always saw as using common sense as a force for progressivism. For Mitchell, those on the far right “don’t want to read the fine print; they just want to trust daddy. It’s weird that this [Trump] is the daddy they’re trusting. Daddy, who just seems to want to eat the world, is not very Iowa, you know.” The story of Hedwig, inspired by Plato’s Symposium, is one about the process of discovering your other half, but coming to terms with the fact that feeling “complete” can only come from within. When asked if Mitchell himself has found wholeness, he said he has, thanks to art. “It allowed me to investigate parts of myself that I wasn’t comfortable in; exercising or exposing sides of me that we might think of as ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ and realizing that we’re all a mix of all these energies, and if we suppress them, then we’re a closet case in some way. You can be a closet case in many ways. If you’re crushing your artistic creative side, you’re also a closet case.” Hedwig as a character becomes a vessel for self-awareness and self-love. Pondering what might have happened to Hedwig later in life, Mitchell jokes, “She just wants to tell her story, and eventually maybe she’s telling other people’s stories. I imagine a sequel would be that she’s teaching writing and philosophy in Iowa.” Now 25 years old, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a love letter to the misfits, the neglected and hated who are brave enough to keep living and keep making change through art. In the true spirit of the road movie, Hedwig advocates for moving forward through the mess and finding the humor in it all. “I love that the story is universal, that it travels, that it will continue to travel after I’m gone,” Mitchell said. “It’s the unloved who changed the world.”
Infinite Dream: Hedwig and the Angry Inch Film Screening and Q&A FilmScene on the Ped Mall, Iowa City Wednesday, Sept. 23, 7 p.m. & 9:40 p.m. Infinite Dream: John Cameron Mitchell, Songs & Stories Hancher Auditorium, Iowa City Thursday, Sept. 24, 9 p.m.
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
The infamous opening scroll text in Reefer Madness (1936) The motion picture you are about to witness may startle you. It would not have been possible, otherwise, to sufficiently emphasize the frightful toll of the new drug menace which is destroying the youth of America in alarmingly increasing numbers. Marihuana is that drug—a violent narcotic—an unspeakable scourge—The Real Public Enemy Number One! Its first effect is sudden violent, uncontrollable laughter; then come dangerous hallucinations—space expands—time slows down, almost stands still.... Fixed ideas come next, conjuring up monstrous extravagances—followed by emotional disturbances, the total inability to direct thoughts, the loss of all power to resist physical emotions... leading finally to acts of shocking violence... ending often in incurable insanity. In picturing its souldestroying effects no attempt was made to equivocate. The scenes and incidents, while fictionized for the purposes of this story, are based upon actual research into the results of Marihuana addiction. If their stark reality will make you think, will make you aware that something must be done to wipe out this ghastly menace, then the picture will not have failed in its purpose.... Because the dread Marihuana may be reaching forth next for your son or daughter... or yours... or YOURS!
via G and H Productions
Members of Iowa Stage Theatre Company loosen up during a choreography rehearsal for Reefer Madness. Britt Fowler / Little Village; Collage by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village
Performance
DrugCrazed Abandon Reefer Madness at the Stoner Theater. The jokes write themselves.
I
BY JOHN BUSBEE
n two years, the top-notch talent at Iowa Stage Theatre Company have managed to craft a distinct programming style. From classics (such as the Shakespeare on the Lawn franchise and The Glass Menagerie) to the cutting-edge (2024’s Witch), to their current take on a campy classic, ISTC has gained a reputation for dark, daring, actor-centric theater in central Iowa’s already rich theater scene. 46 Sept. 2026 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356
Reefer Madness promises to give their audiences a special high while undoubtedly drawing in new fans. The new ISTC production will run from Oct. 2 to 11 at the Des Moines Civic Center’s Stoner Theater. First released in 1936 as a low-budget anticannabis morality play financed by a church group and chock-full of racist subtext, it was bought by Dwain Esper in 1938 and redistributed. In the 1970s, Reefer Madness became a massive late-night cult classic on college campuses. Its original overthe-top melodrama was irresistible satire, brimming with outlandish exaggeration and outright fantasy. In 1998, it was adapted as a musical that skewered the original film’s moral grandstanding. With Reefer Madness: The Musical Des Moinesbased artist Michael Tomlinson is making his ISTC directorial debut. In addition to his role as manager of artistic operations for Ballet Des Moines, he teaches musical theater, jazz, ballet and Muller Technique in the area, as well as choreographing numerous musical productions for the Des Moines Playhouse and DMACC Ankeny Theatre. Little Village caught up with Tomlinson to extract his feelings about ISTC’s latest joint.
LittleVillageMag.com/Support
A-LIST: Sept. 2026
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/CALENDAR
THEATER & PERFORMANCE D E S M O I N E S /A M E S Opens Sept 2, Wicked, Des Moines Civic Center Sat & Sun, Sep 4 & 5, 7:30 p.m., American Elton, The Ingersoll Mon, Sep 7, 7:30 p.m., The Big Silly: Improv Comedy Jam, xBk Annex Thurs, Sep 10, 7 p.m., Tig Notaro: Out of Nowhere, Hoyt Sherman Place Opens Sep 11, Come From Away, Des Moines Playhouse Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s Come from Away, first produced in 2015, follows the night a small town in Newfoundland took on thousands of diverted travelers from around the world on Sept. 11, 2001. The DM Playhouse production, Directed by Katy Meriman, will play 25 years after the September 11 attacks and aims to highlight the endurance of seemingly small connections made in the backdrop of national tragedy.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. How did Iowa Stage bring you to Reefer Madness? Reefer Madness is a show that’s been on my radar since 2008. When [Iowa Stage Theatre Company Artistic Director] Alex Wendel floated the idea by me to direct and choreograph this show, I was already interested. I love this show—-it’s kooky in all the best ways. I have choreographed many shows and felt I was ready to take on the added role as director. It couldn’t be more perfect. For the uninitiated, what is the storyline? We follow this young boy, Jimmy, who is navigating romance with his love interest, Mary. He is coerced to a house of ill-repute and is given a stick of reefer and goes on this wild journey of becoming addicted to the “devil’s lettuce.” The whole story, especially the musical, is super high camp. You have to think about taking this exploitation film from the 1930s, that was all about, “Reefer will turn you into a monster, a zombie.” What is your vision for this musical? The concept I’m going for is, this almost cartoon-like
Sat, Sep 12, 7 p.m., Rhythm & Pep Presents: Lights! Camera! Glamour…and Gore!, xBk Live Mon, Sep 14, 6 p.m., Improv Comedy Graduation Showcase, xBk Live Fri, Sep 18, 7:30 p.m., Whose Live Anyway?, Hoyt Sherman Place Sun, Sep 20, 7 p.m., John Crist Live!, Hoyt Sherman Place Tues, Sep 22, 7 p.m., Dave Ross and Zach Peterson Do Des Moines, xBk Annex Sat, Sep 26, 6:30 p.m., Unhinged! Stand-Up Comedy Show, xBk Annex Thurs, Sep 29, 7 p.m., Tell It Like It Is: Iowa Storytellers Project: Voyages, Hoyt Sherman Place Thu, Oct 1, 6 p.m., Happy Accident: Absurdist-Surreal Puppet Show, xBk Live Opens Fri, Oct 2, About Time Theatre: Building the Wall, Opens Fri, Oct 2, Iowa Stage Theatre Company: Reefer Madness, Stoner Theater Sat, Oct 3, Bluebird Improv, Temple Theater Opens Tues, Oct 6, Hold On To Your Butts, Temple Theater Opens Tues, Oct 20, Spamalot, Des Moines Civic Center Tues, Oct 27, 7 p.m., Ailey II, Des Moines Civic Center
I OWA C I T Y Wed, Sep 9, 7:30 p.m., Tig Notaro, Hancher Opens Thurs, Sep 10, I, Will: A Late Romance, Riverside Theatre Wed, Sep 16, 7:30 p.m., Whose Live Anyway?, The Englert
Sun, Sep 20, 7:30 p.m., Alok: Eat Pray Leave Tour, The Englert Thurs, Sep 24, 7 p.m., Monica Bill Barnes & Company: Many Happy Returns, Hancher Thurs, Sep 24, 9 p.m., John Cameron Mitchell: Songs & Stories, Hancher Fri, Sep 25, 7 p.m., morning// mourning by Gelsey Bell, Hancher Sat, Sep 26, 9 p.m., Mo Amer, Hancher Sun, Sep 27, 6 p.m., Now Clap! Bob the Drag Queen’s On Tour, The Englert Best known for winning Season 8 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, this tour is a chance to see Bob outside the usual TV and streaming clips, bringing a full live show to the stage. Opens Fri, Oct 2, Iowa City Community Theatre: Judgment at Nuremberg, The James Fri, Oct 2, 7:30 p.m., Bluebird Improv, The Englert Fri, Oct 9, 7:30 p.m., John Waters Let’s Take Over The World!, The Englert Sunday, Oct. 11 at 6 p.m., Little Village’s 14th Annual Roast of Iowa City, Iowa City ReUnion Brewery Food, drinks, comedy and always free—but this one’s a fundraiser. Bring your thousand dollar bills and get ready to laugh sincerely and awkwardly as local standups take the stage for the 14th year in a row and talk trash about the City of Literature. Hosted by Aaron Pang and sponsored by Romantix Boutique. Oct 16-17, Floodwater Comedy Festival 2026, Willow Creek Theatre Opens Fri, Oct 16, Crooked Path Classics: William Shakespeare’s Richard III, The James Sat, Oct 17, 7:30 p.m., Alonzo King LINES Ballet: Legacy and Ode to Alice Coltrane, Hancher Sat, Oct 17, 8 p.m., Hokus Pokus Live!, The Englert Opens, Fri, Oct 23, The Turn of the Screw, Riverside Theatre Sat, Oct 24, 7:30 p.m., Randy Feltface: Gimmick!, The Englert Wed & Thurs, Oct 28 & 29, 7:30 p.m., Alex Tatarsky Sad Boys in Harpy Land, Hancher
CEDAR RAPIDS Fri & Sat, Sep 11 & 12, 8 p.m., SPT Theatre: Good, Bad, & Ugly, CSPS Opens Oct 2, CSPS and Revival Theatre Company present: 1776, CSPS LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 47
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
world where we can play; with props coming out of posters, ensemble members becoming pieces of furniture or the set. I like to build my shows from the ensemble, especially from scene to scene. It all feeds into the campiness of the show, and almost lends itself into being a political satire about how people used to view people who smoked marijuana. In researching this show, I watched the original film and it is quite funny. I think that’s why it had that resurgence in the ’70s, because of how comical it was. What I like about it becoming a musical is that you get to expand on that, the comedic side of the story. As a dancer, being a musical, I wanted to create something highly choreographed [where] I can bring in those elements of comedy. I have a really great cast who embraces my background as a dancer, as they explore how this character walks, or how this character makes his entrance, or in dancing numbers in how to make it really characterized. This allows us to pull out parts of the story that make sense through movement. As a mover and choreographer, I think movement always plays a big part of how I like to tell a story, even in the moments that are simply blocking or characters on stage speaking dialogue. I have tons of ideas about how this character comes into the space, how they present themselves throughout the show, or how they just move from an internal place. Is there a message beyond the entertainment? There’s so much research now about how marijuana can be helpful for people with certain illnesses or mental health issues. One of the things about this show that is important to me is shining a light on how crazy some of the mindsets around marijuana can be and why that is absurd, especially for something that is now almost akin to drinking liquor. I don’t want to get on a soapbox or get political, but there’s so much research out there and we can open people’s eyes.
Reefer Madness Stoner Theater, Des Moines October 2-11
Matt Walsh. Public Domain; Collage by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village
LittleVillageMag.com/Newsletters
Performance
Keep a Straight Face TV’s funniest ginger is also an improv godfather, with plans to entertain Iowans personally in October.
C
BY LEE KEELER
omedian Matt Walsh is a natural calming agent; he has a voice of chamomile and the eyes of a tired hound. These are the features of a man who has made a career out of playing fuddyduddies, cops and deadpan dads. He’s that guy. You’ve seen him do it on Veep, or a random episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, or creeping around a copy machine in Old School. He’s given us a lifetime of these roles, providing a base of sanity from which any of his scene partners can propel. As a co-founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade, Walsh is a quiet titan in the world of improvisational comedy. The group formed in Chicago in 1990 and moved to New York, where they invaded the improv scene and, in turn, the shape of modern comedy as we know it. Where Second City and Improv Olympic established improv as a viable medium, UCB expanded the reach of the movement into campuses, punk circles and indie communities. To this day, people talk about taking improv classes like they talk about doing yoga or joining a gym. Walsh was part of that.
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
A-LIST: Sept. 2026
THEATER & PERFORMANCE
Opens Fri, Oct 9, The Exorcist, Theatre Cedar Rapids Kick off spooky season with this adaption of The Exorcist. Directed by Matthew Weedman, the battle between good and evil stars Iowa theater mainstay Ron Clark as Father Merrin, while Lauren Steelman and Maya Lapan-Islas take on the roles of Regan MacNeil and the Demon who takes ahold of her.
THEATRE CEDAR RAPIDS 2026-2027 SEASON
Thurs, Sep 24, 6:30 & 8:30 p.m., Final Thursdays Comedy, The Ideal Theater
CEDAR FALLS/ WAT E R LO O Tuesdays, Sep 8, 15, & 22, 7 p.m., Cabaret Series: Open-Mic Nights, Cedar Falls Community Theatre Opens Oct 2, Puffs, Cedar Falls Community Theatre Thurs, Oct 22, 7 p.m., Mom’s Unhinged Standup Comedy Show, Cedar Falls Community Theatre Fri-Sun, Oct 23-25, Young Frankenstein, Cedar Falls Community Theatre
QUAD CITIES Through Sep 5, The Wizard of Oz, Circa ‘21, Rock Island Fri, Sep 4, 8 p.m., Viva La Divas, The Speakeasy, Rock Island Sat, Sep 5, 8 p.m., Laugh Hard First Prelim, The Speakeasy, Rock Island Sat, Sep 12, 8 p.m., Laugh Hard Second Prelim, The Speakeasy, Rock Island Opens Sep 16, Rock of Ages, Circa ‘21, Rock Island Sat, Sep 26, 8 p.m., Laugh Hard Finals, The Speakeasy, Rock Island Thurs, Oct 1, 6 p.m., Jukebox Live Evening Cabaret, The Speakeasy, Rock Island Fri, Oct 2, 8 p.m., Bellyween, The Speakeasy, Rock Island Sat, Oct 3, 8 p.m., Nightcaps Shots n Giggles, The Speakeasy, Rock Island Fri & Sat, Oct 9 & 10, 8 p.m., Kitty & Red Burlesque, The Speakeasy, Rock Island Sat, Oct 17, 8 p.m., Nightcaps Improvmania, The Speakeasy, Rock Island
DUBUQUE Sat, Sep 12, 7 p.m., Bell Tower Theater Alumni Show 2026, Bell Tower Theater Opens Fri, Oct 9, The 39 Steps, Bell Tower Theater
BOOK NOW FOR THE BEST SEATS! www.theatrecr.org
102 THIRD STREET, DOWNTOWN CEDAR RAPIDS
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
He’s now a member of Bluebird Improv, an all-star group that also features comedy vets Marc Evan Jackson (The Good Place), Brad Morris (The Bear) and Joe Canale (Second City), who will all be making their way to Iowa City’s Englert Theatre on Oct. 2 and Des Moines’ Temple Theater on Oct. 3. Little Village jumped on a call with Walsh to dish on improv tips, what it was like cleaning condoms out of a theater wall, and how his crew of entertainers entertain themselves on the road. Every Bluebird show incorporates the audience in some way. How do you format this type of storytelling? We go out into the audience and talk to individual people about their jobs, their lives, their strange vacation stories, something they’re looking forward to, secrets of marriage. We ask about the town. It’s whatever strikes us, and if something is interesting, we dig a little deeper. Have you ever had an audience member catch feelings over a bit? Not if we’re doing our jobs. We don’t make fun of them; we use their stories as information and then once we’ve gotten a few people interviewed, we then take the stage over for 20 minutes of inspired long-form improvisation … hopefully it’s goddamn funny. Usually it is.
EXPERIENCE
Marshalltown
UNLOCKING
REAL ESTATE OPPORTUNITIES David Pederson: (319) 594-3224 Teague Case: (319) 321-6824 SALES@CASEGROUPREALTY.COM
Bluebird has toured all over the world. Can you talk about the impact of your style in other countries? In London there’s a very strong long-form scene. Even in Spain there’s a smaller scene starting to grow, so what strikes me is that there’s this thing that grew out of Chicago and has now started populating all these cities around the world. And it’s really cool. In a lot of countries people aren’t used to being asked to participate in the show, so in a way they feel like they’re being rude if you ask them a question and they answer. So they’re not used to being pulled through the fourth wall like that. There’s a Bluebird Diner in Iowa City, famous for its omelettes. Are you guys planning some kind of cross-promotional cook-off? Or a Bluebird turf war? We took our photo in front of it last time we were there! Then we actually ate there. It’s our namesake. We had to. And we had a lovely time. I feel like we were in the middle of some cold, sleet weather. That’s when we need improv the most. Improv and gravy. These are scary times. How do you think Veep’s Mike McLintock would be handling the second Trump administration? That’s a great question. Weirdly, Mike was mostly honest. He did bend the truth for Selina, or obfuscate the
LICENSED TO SELL REAL ESTATE IN THE STATE OF IOWA 316 E. COURT ST, IOWA CITY, IA
LittleVillageMag.com/Support
truth. But to work for this guy, I think you constantly are lying. So I don’t know if Mike would make it. Yeah. Like if Mike got left in Iran again, I don’t know if we’d ever see him again. I think him and Gary would still be on the bar cart, just drinking to survive. Going deeper into your stable of characters: how would Captain Lunatic from the Upright Citizens Brigade TV series handle all of these modern vices, with all these dispensaries and Draft Kings? [Pause] Is anyone gonna know that you have a passion for a character from 30 years ago? [Laughs] Hey! We have at least, like, five readers who remember UCB when it was on TV! Oh, Lunatic would have a brain aneurysm just by seeing the legalization of marijuana and online gambling. He’d lose it completely. Are there any plans for a UCB reunion tour or show? No, but I’m working on a book that describes my journey inside the explosion of long-form improv that happened when we had the theater in New York. We had taken what we had learned in Chicago and expanded upon it, which was crazy in 1996. The irony of the UCB movement is that the original theater hosted nudie shows, is that right? It was. We found this old strip club but had to tear it all down and start fresh. Paul Scheer told me you guys found used condoms in the walls. The things we found in there were crazy and gross. And I actually lived above that theater for several years, on the top floor. So it was very much a part of my life. It was a tiny little space, but it’s where New York discovered us and the scene started to grow. The legacy of what came out of that tiny little space is wild. It slowly attracted really funny and intelligent people, many who have gone on to wonderful writing and television and movie stuff. Donald Glover, Kate McKinnon, Bowen Yang and many, many more. When can we expect the book? It should be out by fall or winter of next year. You came up in the Midwest. Are you guys stopping to see family between shows? If we get time, we dig up a museum, even if it’s an obscure one. Just to see what kind of archives are being celebrated in any area around the world. And I think driving is interesting, just seeing America and what people are like out here.
LittleVillageMag.com/Newsletters
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
Visual Art
Portrait of a Lady on Fire This world-renowned Iowa artist has a special way of seeing, and immortalizing, her subjects. BY NICOLE YEAGER
M
Rose Frantzen. Nicole Yeager / Little Village
We end up around a lot of academic institutions, so there’s campuses we can check out or walk around. Keeping in touch with college culture is invigorating. I teach at that level. What do you teach? I have a screenwriting class at the Des Moines Area Community College. Half of my job is to make sure that the students have some technical skills that can get them an actual job. [Laughs] It’s a very disrupted industry for all of us, it’s true. We increasingly lean towards corporate and commercial writing versus the narrative thing. I don’t know. It can still be done. Just write something that maybe exists in one room and only has four actors, if you’re starting out and it’s a feature. Like, if your dad runs a mechanic’s garage, write a movie about two brothers who run a garage, you know? Keep the cast low and own the location. 52 Sept. 2026 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356
Solid advice. Any tips for any improv performers out there? Stay psyched about meeting crowds and doing good shows and finding the best restaurant. It’s a pretty safe formula, besides maybe arguing about the restaurant with good soft-serve or good steak. We comb whatever town we’re in and seek that out. Is the Bluebird thing going to expand into a show for the Food Network? Um, Food Network if you’re reading this, I am available to pitch the Bluebird Diner show.
The Englert Theatre and Little Village present: Bluebird Improv Englert Theatre, Iowa City Friday, Oct. 2, 7:30 p.m. Bluebird Improv Temple Theater, Des Moines Saturday, Oct. 3, 7 p.m.
aquoketa artist Rose Frantzen was recently awarded one of the highest honors in portrait painting. Out of 2,200 submissions, Frantzen’s piece Last Light won the Grand Prize in the Portrait Society of America’s 2026 International Portrait Competition. When Frantzen accepted the award on April 11 in Atlanta, she described Last Light as “a love letter to all of the people who have ever taken the time to pose for her.” According to Frantzen’s peers in the PSA—who have voted to give her the People’s Choice Award three times, including this year—“her work consistently honors the individuality of her subjects while revealing something universal about the human experience.” Some of that work is currently on view as part of a Dubuque Museum of Art group exhibition entitled “What Now?” The show includes eight Midwestern artists who were among the first to show their work at the Voices Warehouse, the temporary home of DuMA as construction crews work to expand the museum. Frantzen has been commissioned to paint USDA Sec. Tom Vilsack, Iowa Gov. Chet Culver and George Washington Carver mentoring future Vice President Henry A. Wallace at Iowa State University. But she’s best known for her portraits of everyday Iowans. Portrait of Maquoketa, a series of 180 12”by-12” portraits of Frantzen’s neighbors in her small Iowa hometown, was selected for display at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in D.C. in 2009 and ’10. With the project, Frantzen sought to “democratize the portrait,” painting anyone who volunteered. “The fact that show actually wound up in the Smithsonian says, ‘You never know what’s possible and where something can go,’” Frantzen told LV. “And it can come from Maquoketa, it can come from Dubuque. Right? We can hit heights that we don’t know.”
A-LIST: Sept. 2026
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/CALENDAR
ART & EXHIBITION AMES Opens Tues, Aug 25, Christian Petersen: Memory in Metal, Christian Petersen Art Museum Opens Tues, Aug 25, Wood for Function and Expression Exhibition, Brunnier Art Museum Opens Tues, Aug 25, Create and Replicate – Single Object Focus, Brunnier Art Museum Opens Tues, Aug 25, Luis Jiménez: The Mythic Southwest, Christian Petersen Art Museum Opens Tues, Aug 25, Midwest Maker Series: Mary MerkelHess, Brunnier Art Museum Sun, Sept 13, 2 p.m., Mary Merkel-Hess Gallery Walk, Brunnier Art Museum Thurs, Sept 17, 12 p.m., The “Morrill” of the Story, Farm House Museum Sun, Sept 27, 2 p.m., Curator’s Tour: Memory in Metal, Christian Petersen Art Museum Wed, Sept 30, 12 p.m., Art Walk: Ceramic Conservation on Campus, Food Science Building Wed, Oct 14, 3:10 p.m., Art Walk: Sweeney Hall, Sweeney Hall Wed, Oct 21, 6 p.m., Culture, Ecosystems and the Art of Social Change: Favianna Rodriguez Artist Lecture, Memorial Union Wed, Oct 28, 12 p.m., Art Walk: Metals Mastery, Morrill Hall
DES MOINES Through Sept 20, “Topographies Mapping and Belonging,” Des Moines Art Center Through Sept 24, The Friday Group group collective exhibit, Polk County Heritage Gallery Through Oct 3, Summer Group Show, Moberg Gallery Opens Sept 5, “Artists on Fire” exhibit, Des Moines Art Center Opens Thurs, Sept 10, Valentin Noujaïm “La Défense” exhibit, Des Moines Art Center Sat, Sept 12, 1:30 p.m., Conversation w/ Artist Artist Elle Pérez and Associate Curator Ashton Cooper, Des Moines Art Center Opens Sept 17, Abstract Expressionists: The Women, Grinnell College Museum of Art After closing for the summer for renovations to its HVAC system, the
Grinnell College Museum of Art reopens with this exhibition curated by art historian, writer and curator Ellen G. Landau that looks at the contributions of U.S. women painters to the Abstract Expressionist movement, 1936-1977. Featuring the work of 32 artists pulled from the Christian Levett Collection and FAMM (Female Artists of the Mougins Museum), the collection not only challenges the narrative that women were absent from the art movement, but provides ample evidence that they were innovators at the forefront of the scene. Sat, Sept 19, 6 p.m., 2026 Art Center Gala, Des Moines Art Center Tues, Sept 22, 6 p.m., Artist Lecture: Valentin Noujaïm, Des Moines Art Center Opens Sept 30, “By the Blade: Defining Collage,” Polk County Heritage Gallery Thurs, Oct 1, 6:30 p.m., “By the Blade” Opening Reception, Polk County Heritage Gallery Sun, Oct 4, 1:30 p.m., 2026 Fingerman Lecture: Alison Saar, Des Moines Art Center
I OWA C I T Y Thurs, Sept 17, 5:30 p.m., Lecture: Modern and Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia, Stanley Museum of Art Through Oct 25, Richard Diebenkorn in a New Light, Stanley Museum of Art
CEDAR RAPIDS Opens Sept 4, “Lost Again, But Not All Is Lost”, Main Gallery, CSPS Opens Sept 4, “Finding Light in Every Story”, Commons Gallery, CSPS Closes Sun, Sept 13, “Visions of America: The Nation at 250,” Cedar Rapids Museum of Art Thurs, Oct 1, 5 p.m., Exhibition Reception, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
QUAD CITIES Opens Aug 29, “Ana Mendieta: Traces,” Figge Art Museum As of Aug. 29, there’ll be at least two places to see the work of trailblazing artist Ana Mendieta. London’s Tate Modern has a major exhibition dedicated to the University of Iowa alum and trailblazer in video and multidisciplinary arts. And if you can’t make the trek to the U.K., Davenport’s Figge Art Museum
presents this exhibition of Mendieta’s photography and films, which includes works from her Silueta series. Opens Sun, Sept 5, Rock Island Art Guild Fine Arts Exhibition, Figge Art Museum Thurs, Sept. 10, 6 p.m., Rock Island Art Guild Fine Arts Exhibition Opening Reception, Figge Art Museum It’s hard to properly state the significance of the Rock Island Art Guild Fine Arts Exhibition. The collaboration between the guild and the Figge Art Museum presents its 44th iteration this year and features works from a selection of artists living within 200 miles of the Figge. The parameters of the exhibition result in a true celebration of local artists in a major museum space, which is becoming increasingly rare. Opens Sat, Sept 12, “Mexican Roots: Masks, Prints and Traditional Arts of Mexico”, Figge Art Museum Closes Sun, Sept 20, “A Golden Age for Whom?” Figge Art Museum Closes Sun, Sept 27, “Corn Zone,” Figge Art Museum
DUBUQUE/ M AQ U O K E TA Closes Sept 20, “What Now? A Reunion of Artists from the First Voices from the Warehouse District” Exhibition, Dubuque Museum of Art Catch this exhibition before it closes on Sept. 20. More than two decades after the original “Voices from the Warehouse District” exhibition, DuMA brings together eight of the original 10 artists from that landmark event. Check out LV’s interview with one of those artists, Rose Frantzen, on the opposite page. Fri, Sept 4, Talking About Art: Women Religious Artists in the Dubuque Area, Bluff Strokes Art Center Fri, Sept 18, 6 p.m., 2026 Dubuque Museum of Art Gala, Dubuque Museum of Art Sat, Sept 19, 9 a.m., Fundamentals of Urban Sketching: Seeing Dubuque One Sketch at a Time, Bluff Strokes Art Center Opens Oct 3, “Entre Tonos” Exhibition, Dubuque Museum of Art Opens Oct 3, “Echoes of Time and Place: Sauk Art and Culture,” Dubuque Museum of Art
FA L L A R T S P R E V I E W
Last Light. Courtesy of the artist
For the people who sat for Frantzen, perhaps it was just a few hours of posing, but for her it was months of afternoons and late nights. “Even in this kind of homogeneous population where most of the people had somewhat the same background … I found, again and again, sitting across from anybody, for hours, with an open posture and really just meeting them in the moment as much as you possibly can, you actually experience an individual,” Frantzen shared at a DuMA art talk this year. “You’re just kind of blown away that no matter what their story is, everybody is unique. Everybody has value, and everybody has dignity, and some ache, or some need, or some wish, or some desire to be seen.” Later purchased by Davenport’s Figge Art Museum, Portrait of Maquoketa was first displayed at the Voices Warehouse in Dubuque. Since the first Voices show in 2005, with 60some paintings placed upon pillars in the large and then-dusty warehouse, the district has found new life, shifting from dilapidated, abandoned buildings into a vibrant district on the National Register of Historic Places. It now offers incredible restaurants, businesses and studio apartments, all with beautiful brick walls. It’s fair to say that the first Voices show kickstarted the revitalization around the district, Frantzen said. Our interview took place in the gallery Frantzen shares with her husband C.A. Morris, who is also featured in the “What Now?” exhibition. The Portrait Society of America wrote that Frantzen’s oil paintings “remind us that portraiture is not simply about likeness, but about connection and storytelling. It’s likely that being rooted to her hometown created space for the depth of her work, allowing her to challenge assumptions and biases
LittleVillageMag.com/Support
on each canvas and show us that lofty dreams and tremendous skill can emerge from the valleys of the Heartland.” Even after winning the Grand Prize, Frantzen said she approaches every painting with self-doubt and open questions. “I ask these questions and I try to put it on canvas and I’m gonna fail. And I think I failed, and I fail, and I fail. But I’d rather be in the mix of trying to ask those questions. What happens when you’re putting it on the easel is you’re allowing that question to kind of open itself up to more and more layers than your first question might have actually started.” When she finishes a piece and finds she hasn’t failed, she reflects on how or what it was that made the painting work. “You don’t quite know how you get there. Then you hold it as a beacon for you to figure out; what did you learn? Like, how did I get there?” One portrait Frantzen regards as a beacon is Held in Brambles, a painting currently in private collection I recall her working on in the middle of winter in ’98. The portrait is of my mother, wrapped in red velvet, eyes on Frantzen, space heater just out of frame. It is striking the way the morning light dapples her brown curls, the misty hue of driftless hills and valleys. “I just happened to have your mom’s [painting] around long enough to actually have it teach me,” she said. “Not that long, because it sold.” While the painting is of my mother, it also is not. “I am in all of the paintings I do,” Frantzen explained.
“I am in all of the paintings I do.” —Rose Frantzen Despite living in an obscure Midwestern town on the Mississippi, Frantzen is well-known by representational painters worldwide. Her painting demos have packed as many as 700 of her peers in one room. She continues to offer workshops and mentor other artists, both across the world and within her own hometown at the Maquoketa Art Experience, which emerged after her Smithsonian exhibition. “What Now?” (Frantzen notes it could also have been called “Now What?”), will be on view through Sept. 20. Next up at DuMA, “Entre Tonos,” with art from Indigenous and Hispanic artists within 300 miles of Dubuque, will emerge, as well as “Echoes of Time and Place: Sauk Art and Culture.” Each exhibition will run from Oct. 3 to Feb. 27.
“What Now?” On view through Sunday, Sept. 20, Dubuque Museum of Art
Porchlight Literary Arts Center
Iowa City’s Community Writing Hub 1019 E Washington St | porchlightliterary.org
Peak Iowa
The Outsider On Oct. 6, 2007, a “mysterious musician” hailing from Houston, Texas performed to a full house on the Grinnell College campus.
T
BY MIKE KUHLENBECK
he artist known as Jandek emerged with a divisive singer-songwriter sound in 1978. Dropping the needle on his debut album Ready for the House—which came with no liner notes, nor any accompanying concerts or interviews—you hear the unsettling moans of an acoustic guitar playing atonal, dissonant chords, the plucking of steel strings lingering with a hypnotic twang. Tension builds and never settles, and a ghostly voice wanders into the room, singing about visions, cowboy boots, “big time in the city” and going “naked in the afternoon.” It’s a genre that music critic Douglas Wolk deemed “half-decomposed blues,” and it paired well with Jandek’s reputation as a recluse. Describing himself as “an inordinately private person,” he didn’t play his first live show until 2004, and didn’t divulge his real name, Sterling Smith, until 2014. All of Jandek’s albums—more than 100 in 47 years, plus dozens of live recordings—have been released by the enigmatic Corwood Industries (P.O. Box 15375, Houston, Texas). “It’s refreshing to hear something idiosyncratic and authentically unique,” said Daniel Furuta, who became “captivated” with Jandek while studying music at Grinnell College in the mid-aughts. “To me, the biggest misconception about Jandek—and I think about unusual artists in general—is the sense that knowing the artist’s biography would somehow make the music fit, so to speak, or alternately that the strangeness of the music must imply something unsavory about the artist making it. Clearly, the whole project was heavily invested in anonymity, and to me it’s best to take it at that and focus on the music.” In December 2006, Furuta went with two friends to a rare Jandek performance in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Harrison Center for the Arts. “It was a weird experience,” he recalled to Little Village. “I thought the dynamic between the performers seemed strange, and the vibe in general was very odd. The music was excellent.” Within months, Furuta had booked Jandek for a concert at Grinnell’s Sebring-Lewis Hall in the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts. “Sebring-Lewis is really interesting because it’s such a formal setting,” said Grinnell professor Eric McIntyre, who teaches music composition classes and conducts the college’s orchestra. McIntyre 56 Sept. 2026 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356
was Furuta’s advisor, and first introduced him to Jandek’s music. Grinnell students are required to take a Tutorial in their first semester. McIntyre, who is coming up on his 23rd year at Grinnell, taught the first iteration of his “Weird Music Tutorial” in 2005, primarily inspired by artists appearing in Irwin Chusid’s 2000 book Songs in the Key of Z—The Shaggs, Frank Zappa, John Cage, Daniel Johnston, even 16th century composer Carlo Gesualdo. “Weird Music,” or “Outsider Music,” as defined by Chusid in a 2008 interview, is, “Music that exists outside the mainstream, done by people who are often self-taught.” Jandek is his book’s “greatest enigma. His music is something that a lot of the people who first encounter it can’t handle it.” Jandek’s prolific output is quite staggering in its range, from the hauntingly angelic vocals of an unnamed singer on “Nancy Sings” from Chair Beside a Window (1982), the lowkey but charged electric blues of You Walk Alone (1988) which was hailed by Forced Exposure as a “celebratory exorcism,” the ethereal soundscapes of Maze of the Phantom (2012) and even spoken word albums known as the “acapella” records. “I think the early albums could be called blues or folk, mostly, but they’re unusually dissonant and stark for the genres,” said Furuta, who is partial to Jandek’s first four releases. “Later there’s a range of different influences and styles. There’s a sense of humor in there that’s often overlooked.” His work has influenced bands such as Nirvana, Sonic Youth and Low. He filmed and released a televised one-act play called Kooken in 2014 and was the subject of two documentaries, Jandek on Corwood (2003) and I Know You Well (2015). Jandek published two books through Corwood in the 2020s, The Rays of Light That Did Not Illumine and The Element of Nothing. Even with this content out in the world, intrigue around the artist and his music has never faded. Back in 2007, a friend suggested to Furuta that he should try to organize a Jandek concert at Grinnell, so he wrote a letter to Corwood. “The college was willing to provide some musician’s fees and such, so I just asked them if they would be interested in the gig,” he said, adding that “the representative” he spoke to at Corwood was “polite and personable.”
Jandek performs at Window Jane Mine in Rosendale, New York on July 20, 2024. Photo courtesy of Christopher Bruno; Collage by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village
“He was interested, so we discussed what needed to happen and I made the necessary arrangements, with the cooperation and support of the college and music department. There were no particularly unusual demands.” Jandek would handle his own travel and accommodations, but Furuta was tasked with hiring musicians and organizing the live audio recording. He formed a backing band, following some recommendations from McIntyre. Jandek was on piano, Olivia Muzzy on double bass, Jennifer Wohlenhaus on English horn (though Corwood’s album notes call it an “oboe”) and Skye Carrasco on violin. “They were of quite diverse backgrounds, people who knew going into this that this was not going to be like any other gig they played,” McIntyre said. Jandek arrived a few days ahead of the performance, blocking time to practice in the rehearsal hall at Sebring-Lewis. He was joined by the rest of the ensemble the day of the performance. During the artist’s visit, students “followed” him around town. “He went to the farmers market in Grinnell,” McIntyre said. “They reported that he bought a bunch of Brussel sprouts. That’s the part I find so amusing, because there were sightings around town. It’s not like he tries to hide. It was interesting to get updates on the sightings.” A day before the show, the student-run newspaper The Scarlet and Black ran a preview under the headline, “Mysterious musician to intrigue Grinnellians Sat[urday].” “For fans of Jandek, attending live shows, unlike most concerts, doesn’t involve singing along with
LittleVillageMag.com/Newsletters
familiar songs,” writer Vicky Diedrichs notes. “Purposely mistuning the instruments, playing no legitimate or discernible notes and generating most of the music on the spot: that’s what to expect heading into Jandek’s show this weekend.” She wasn’t wrong. The night of the show, “There was no talking or singing,” McIntyre recalled, “and it was all performed attacca [without pause]. Each segment flowed to the next, so it was an entire journey.” The recording of the concert wasn’t released until 2020. Grinnell Saturday is a double-disc album, a copy of which was graciously provided to Little Village by Corwood. There are six unnamed tracks, all over 14 minutes in length. The applause from the audience is almost deafening. “Those of us who were involved are very proud,” McIntyre said. “I think for all the students who went to the Tutorial, that was a defining moment when that performance happened.” McIntyre says he has a copy of the album, but had not listened to it, “Probably for a lot of reasons.” “Honestly, a lot of my focus was on making sure everything worked out—the logistics of it, the recording, and so on,” Furuta said. “I was very relieved by how well everything went.” In April 2009, McIntyre showcased four of his compositions at Sebring-Lewis for the recital “Music from the Mind of Eric J. McIntyre.” Among them was “Lament,” which McIntyre described as a “scream of grief.” The 2006 work featured a sextet, plus a guitarist off-stage randomly playing what McIntyre calls the “Jandek Chord.” “The ‘Jandek Chord,’ for anyone who knows Ready for the House, would note it’s essentially the same guitar chord the entire time,” McIntyre explained. “It was my way of paying homage to the artist himself, the sonic realm he captures with just that one sound of a guitar.” McIntyre sent the artist from Corwood an invitation to the premiere, leaving a pair of tickets at the hall. He didn’t go, but did call the professor and tell him he was coming back to Grinnell. They went to Saints Rest Coffee House, enjoyed mint tea and discussed music. Out of respect for the artist, McIntyre has kept that conversation to himself, except for a couple takeaways. “One is the idea of getting lost in the music,” McIntyre said. “That’s a key aspect of it for any artist. The other, at the beginning of the conversation, was essentially, ‘We’re here to discuss music, right?’ For someone that is an artist like him who has done all these things, to have a music professor who conducts orchestras and appreciates his work was a great opportunity for both of us.” McIntyre’s favorite Jandek album is “probably” When I Took That Train (2005). He mentioned the album during their conversation, and says Jandek kind of laughed and replied, “We’ve all taken that train one time or another.”
Guiding you home. Life is full of moments that matter—big and small. Whether you’re buying a home, managing your money or figuring out what’s next, the right guidance can make things feel a whole lot simpler.
See what’s possible at dupaco.com
Prairie Pop
Broadening the Broadcast This lifelong metalhead and Indigenous DJ is “in love with Greenland music right now.”
B
BY KEMBREW McLEOD
roadcast DJ Dirk Whitebreast has made Whitebreast spent most of his adult life working Whitebreast also got his foot in the door at the a career of sharing hidden treasures in gaming and hospitality management, including nationally renowned KEXP, which he discovered over the airwaves, notably through at his tribe’s casino. But at a certain point, “I years before. his work with Daybreak Star Radio started reevaluating and reexamining things,” he “I was living in Marshalltown at the time,” in Seattle and as the cohost of the KEXP radio said. “Basically I thought, ‘Well, if not gaming, he said. “My commute to the casino was about show Sounds of Survivance, which features music then what?’ A few weeks later when I’m looking 15 minutes. When I would drive to work in the “from people whose connection to a land goes back for a job, I saw a posting for the Daybreak Star morning, I would listen to KEXP. During that time, before colonization, and in most cases as far back Radio general manager position … I just threw Gabriel Teodros was the host of the early morning my name in a hat, crossed my fingers, and was show, and it was just the perfect way to get going. as time itself.” The 46-year-old developed his broad musical fortunate enough to be selected.” So, yeah, KEXP was what started my days when palate while growing up in Iowa. I was going into the casino.” “I was born in Waterloo and spent a good When Whitebreast first started in radio, he portion of my life in Tama and the Meskwaki “We were natural diggers. That’s how my wasn’t quite as versed in Indigenous music, settlement,” Whitebreast said. “Driving into though he was certainly familiar with some archeological mind, or whatever you key artists. town with my grandma, the radio was always “My music preferences were a little bit on. Or when we got close enough to Waterloo, would call it, formed. We were always different. I’m a metalhead. I’ll always say you could turn on KBBG. My grandma raised driving to record stores around Iowa ... My me on oldies, my mom exposed me to Black that. I love being a metalhead, always have.” superpower is discovery and unearthing music and I fell in love with that, and I was As he expanded his own repertoire, he a metalhead as a kid, which I still wear as a things. It’s what I’m naturally good at, and broadened the stations’ as well. When he badge of honor.” at Daybreak, it heavily featured there’s a real reward that comes with that.” arrived After first getting into metal around the age music from U.S. and Canadian First —Dirk Whitebreast Nations artists, along with a handful of of 8, he and his friends engaged in friendly competitions to dig up new music and introduce Latin American sounds. it to others, trying to one-up each other. “I didn’t get the impression that there was Daybreak was founded in 2021 as a project more of a global perspective,” he said. “We knew “We were natural diggers,” he said. “That’s how my archeological mind, or whatever you would of the Seattle-based United Indians of All that we had global listeners, but I did not think that call it, formed. We were always driving to record Tribes Foundation, with a goal to “indigenize the music outside of the Western hemisphere was stores around Iowa or mail ordering from [metal the airwaves.” represented as much as the United States. Because indie label] Nuclear Blast. Iowa City was like an “We just celebrated our five-year anniversary of the way that I listened to music, I knew that that island where culture thrived, and obviously Des on July 10 of this year,” Whitebreast said, “and stuff was out there. “You know, I trained myself to be a digger,” Moines as well. I mean, the Hall Mall in Iowa City it’s been pretty awesome because its emphasis used to be such a big thing for me and my friends, is to provide a platform for Indigenous artists, he continued. “So naturally, I set out to find those and we used to spend so much time at the record Indigenous storytelling, language, culture, all sounds. I added a strong focus on Australia, New store that was in there.” those things.” Zealand, Greenland—I’m in love with Greenland
CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW B NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH V CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW B NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH V CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW B Cedar Rapids N E WCzech BO HEMIA /CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH V Village/New Bohemia C Z E C H Neighborhood VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW B NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH V CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW B NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH V CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW B NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH V
LittleVillageMag.com/Support
music right now. I’ve got colleagues who are probably better versed with South America than I am, so I’m tapping into my network now.” Whitebreast started sharing a biweekly DJ slot as the host of Sounds of Survivance on KEXP, a Saturday morning program that highlights Indigenous and underrepresented voices. “As far as the music I play, it runs the gamut because there’s just so much music out there,” he said. “As my cohost Kevin Sur has said, my superpower is discovery and unearthing things. It’s what I’m naturally good at, and there’s a real reward that comes with that. For instance, I am really into finding new wave and dark wave type stuff made by Indigenous artists. Like, I love Wire Spine. They’re Canadian and fronted by a woman who I think is Cree.” For Whitebreast, radio matters because nothing can replace a real human connection. Listening to radio is a constant reminder that there is someone on the other side of that microphone who is living their own life, has their own styles, preferences and unique ways of thinking. “So, when you listen to a DJ, you’re hearing someone who is thinking, ‘You know what? I like this. I’m going to play this and it’s my hope that somebody else likes this, too.’ To be able to connect with people on a musical level, that’s what I love about radio. I hope that it never goes away. And at Daybreak Star Radio, we’re doing everything to make sure it doesn’t.”
Sounds of Survivance Saturdays, Live 7-9 a.m. ET KEXP.org/Shows/Sounds-of-Survivance
Dirk Whitebreast. Via KEXP; Collage by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village
o
u
!sr
s!
en
ne
r
w
u
w
o
f
f
OHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAG VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/Nn EdW Bt O H E M I A win a e l O H E M I A / C Z E C H V I L L A G E / N E W B O H E M I Aa/l C Z E C H rVh I L L A G VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA OHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAG VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA OHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAG : V I L L A G E / N E W B O H E M I A / C Z E C H V I L L A G E / Starting N E September W B1 O HEMIA Mondays- Closed O H E M I A / C Z E C H V I L L A G E / N E W B O H E M I A Tuesdays-Thursdays/ C Z E C H12-7pmV I L L A G Fridays & Saturdays-12-8pm VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NE W BOHEMIA Sundays-12-7pm OHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAG VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA/CZECH VILLAGE/NEW BOHEMIA st
SPONSORED BY BARB MCFADDEN & TOM ROCKLIN
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
SUN, SEP 6, 4PM
DEAR LARA
THU, SEP 10, 6:30PM
LA COCINA
MON, SEP 14, 6:30PM
BOMBSHELL
TUE, SEP 22, 7PM
ICFILMSCENE.ORG
LittleVillageMag.com/DearKiki
Hey girl. I enjoy sex and I am horny a lot, but I always struggle with staying in the mood during sex or even getting aroused enough that it feels somewhat good. Hookups terrify me, and in all of the relationships that I have been in, my partner always dumps me after we get to the sex part. Do I suck at sex? My partners have always wanted me to do more with my body, but if I focus on my movements, my brain goes into work mode and I dry up. For me, sex is a performance and I am the center-stage actrex. I am a wonderful actrex, don’t get me wrong, but it’s exhausting. Kiki, what do I do?
D
ear Center Stage, It sounds like there are a couple of different layers to your issues here. I’m curious about the conflict between the idea that you are a wonderful actrex, yet you wonder whether you suck at sex. You’re caught between the questions of whether you’re capable or you’re willing, and in order to solve your problem, you need to decide which problem you want to address. Sex is work, just like relationships are work. Now, this isn’t some bullshit “lie back and think of England” argument. Of course you should be having fun and getting off just as much as your partner should. But the performance aspect is absolutely real, and can easily lead to you getting stuck in your head. Since we’re comparing it to acting, though, it’s worth remembering that acting is telling the truth. In order to put on a show, you genuinely need to get vulnerable and intimate. That’s easier said than done, of course. But getting out of your head isn’t antithetical to performing, it’s intrinsic and vital. If movement is tripping you up, try some non-bedroom tricks to help your body and mind align: dance, martial
There should be plenty of opportunity during an evening of intimacy for both you and your partner to be satisfied, multiple times and in a wide variety of different ways. arts and yoga all explicitly help you confront and overcome the sense of division you describe. That’s why going out dancing is a great date option: Not only does it help you sync your own mind and body, but it allows you and your date to figure out how you move together. If your performance anxiety is deeper than that, it might be worth talking with a sex therapist about ways to conquer it. Willingness is another thing entirely. One thing that stands out to me is that when you talk about “sex,” you seem to be talking about a single oneand-done sex act, presumably single-session PIV. If that’s the case, it’s no wonder you’re not willing to sacrifice just so your partner can get theirs! You say you enjoy sex, but the kind of sex you’re having doesn’t seem to be bringing you much joy. Center Stage, you need to diversify your portfolio. There should be plenty of opportunity during an evening of intimacy for both you and your partner to be satisfied, multiple times and in a wide variety of different ways. It’s a nice feeling to cum at the same time, but it’s not the be-all, end-all. If you’re putting on a show, your partner damn well be willing to do the same. Trust and intimacy are crucial (yes, even just with a hookup), and those can’t happen if your partner is content to roll over and go to sleep after they’ve gotten off, knowing that you haven’t. Hell, have them please you first, as part of the anticipation for the blown mind they’re about to receive. Get creative, get curious and demand they do the same. Just because sex is work doesn’t mean you can’t love your job. You’ve got to fight for the good time you deserve! ––xoxo, Kiki Illustrations by Lani Krull / Little Village
KIKI WANTS QUESTIONS! Submit questions anonymously at littlevillagemag.com/dearkiki or non-anonymously to dearkiki@littlevillagemag.com. Questions may be edited for clarity and length, and may appear either in print or online at littlevillagemag.com.
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 61
D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D O W N T OIowa W NCityI O W A Downtown D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA D OW N TOW N I OWA
CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY
DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN
I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA
CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY
DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO DOWNTO
OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN OWN
I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA I OWA
CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY CITY
D OW N TOW N I OWA C I T Y D OW N TOW N I OWA C I T Y A S T R O L O G Y By Rob Brezsny D OW N TOW N I OWA C I T Y VIRGON (Aug. 22): N The coming a IPISCES DOW T23-Sept. OW I Omonths Wcould A be C T Y(Feb. 19-March 20): The Sargasso Sea is the only legendary turning point you will celebrate in the future: a pivotal sea on Earth without a land boundary. It’s defined entirely by DOW N you T finally O outsmart W Nan oldIadversary OW A C T strong Y Atlantic Ocean currents that circle it. Its edges time when and untangle a Ifour knotted inheritance, clearing the way to pursue your true calling aren’t solid walls but slowly shifting rivers of water. I think DOW N T devotion. O WOr, onNthe other IO A aheadC IthisT anomalous Y with undiluted hand,W the days body of water is always a vivid symbol could be another round in the long saga of “almost”: a decisive of your world, Pisces, and even more so these days. Your DOW N T O W N I O W A C I T Y phase when you avoid a challenge that has been begging for boundaries are currents, not coastlines. You hold your shape your full shiningA clues for DOW Nbrilliance, T Oleaving WyourNfutureIwithout OW C Ithrough T Ymovement, not through rigid definition. This is more how to further decode the ancient riddle. Which destiny will you challenging to maintain than solid borders, but it’s also a DOW N TdearOVirgo? WWill N IO Wto adventure? A C Igreat T potential Y strength. Use it with aplomb! accomplish, you answer the call Or ignore it until it fades away? ARIES D O W N T O W N I O W A C I T Y(March 21-April 19): On the sci‑fi TV show Stargate LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Some of my most useful revelations SG‑1, benevolent aliens known as the Asgard visit Earth to DOW Tdark. OOnce, Wwhile NhikingI inOa wooded WA T assistance Y arriveN in the canyon C at Iseek from a secret U.S. government team. The dusk, I lost the trail and had to feel my way forward by the sound ultra-advanced, hyper-intelligent Asgard have been unable DOW O blind Wdescent, N anIinsight OW C ItoTdefeat Y their great nemesis, another alien species called of theN creek.TIn that about aA personal riddle I’d been pondering for months appeared unbidden, as if the Replicators. Their hope is that their primitive partners, DOW N T O W N I O W A C ItheThumans, Y might stumble onto some basic, straightforward it had been waiting in the shadows for me. As I followed the stream safety,W I celebrated Leonard DOW NbankTto O N byIsinging OW ACohen’sC Ianswer T Ythat their own sophisticated minds can’t see. The song “Hallelujah.” The moral of the story is that some lessons gamble pays off. One of Earth’s leading physicists, who’s DOW ObyW I theObody,WintoA C Ia TnaiveYamateur by Asgard standards, devises a rough, can beN bestT learned going N down: into confusing feelings, into the rich compost of mysteries we may be hesitant strategy that works wonderfully. Treat this DOW NT N InImyOprofessional W Aopinion,C Iunsophisticated to explore. How O aboutW you, Libra? asTyourYparable, Aries: Put your faith in simple, uncluttered your next pivotal breakthroughs are lurking in the fertile DOW N T O W N I O W A C Iapproaches, T Y and don’t underestimate “beginner-level” fixes. darkness rather than the brilliant heights. I hope you’re brave 20-May 20): During one of my visits to enough treasure treasure DOW Nto descend. T OTheW N is buried, I Oas W Aoften is.C ITAURUS Tannual Y(AprilBurning the Man festival in the Nevada desert, I SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In 1912, Scorpio meteorologist Alfred encountered a prankster named Mother Very Superior. This DOW N T O W N I O W A C Inonbinary T Y performer was dressed like a nun and wore a Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift. It’s the idea that Earth’s continents were once joined in a single supercontinent prominent DOW N T O W N I O W A C I T Y chastity belt. Wielding a toy whip, they gently and have gradually drifted apart to their present positions over lashed me on my shoulders and prayed over me, saying, “I millions MostW scientists rejected hypothesis DOW Nof years. TO Ninitially IO Whis A C Iabsolve T Yyou of all your sins. Therefore, you are now free to because he couldn’t explain how the movement occurred. He commit a raucous slew of new sins.” I hope you get a similar DOW T enough OW N vindication, I O but Wdecades A later,C Idispensation, T Y Taurus. To be fully available for the rollicking didn’tN live long to receive his novel hypothesis was fully accepted. I’m pleased to report that delights you’re eligible for, it would be wise to reduce your DOW N T O W N I O W A C Ikarmic T Ydebt. your wait will be far shorter, Scorpio. Please keep your faith in the novel N ideas T and perceptions DOW O W that NothersIdon’t Ounderstand W Ayet. TheC IGEMINI T Y(May 21-June 20): Archaeologists studying ancient world’s almost ready for your innovations. Roman shipwrecks found that sailors deliberately made their DOW N T O W N I O W A C Ivessels T Yheavier by stowing rocks in the hull. This reduced SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): There is a kind of lightning called a “sprite.” It’s a ghostly red discharge that blossoms the their voyages, since it reduced their cargo DOW N T O W N I O W A C Icapacity. Tprofitability Y On theofother high above thunderstorms. I suspect you may soon experience hand, it meant they wouldn’t capsize your own of this Iwonder. FleetingA insights DOW N personal T Oversions WN OW C Iduring T Ystorms. An excellent trade-off! Let’s use this scenario may appear in unexpected places. Emotionally rich revelations as a metaphor for your life right now, Gemini. I’m going DOW WN W could A passC ItoTsuggest Y that you will benefit from adding more ballast. could N arriveT outO of nowhere. BecauseItheO moments quickly, it will be crucial to notice them when they arrive. They Seemingly burdensome elements could keep you steady if DOW TO OWA C Iconditions T Y become unruly. Consider this: Not everything could N stimulate majorW shiftsN in your Iunderstanding. Keep your perceptive powers highly attuned. heavy is holding you back. Some of it is keeping you strong D O W N T O W N I O W A C IandTstable. Y CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Fertility clinics store frozen DOW Nembryos. TO W inNthe hundreds I O ofW A theyC ICANCER T Y(June 21-July 22): During the Baroque era, Cancerian human Numbering thousands, are suspended in a long, chilly pause, awaiting instructions artist Artemisia Gentileschi painted powerful biblical and DOW N T O W N I O W A C Ihistorical TY from the people who created them. This accumulation of women who killed tyrants and delivered their people potential makesN me think of you. you would DOW N lifeTonOholdW IO WIf A C Ifrom T violent Y domination. By channeling her creative passion thaw and reclaim the neglected, untouched regions of your into figures of righteous fury, she transformed her personal DOW N T OyouW A C Itrauma T Yinto psychological power. I invite you to be inspired own imagination, would N become IanO even W more formidable generator of focused creative power. The encouraging news is by Gentileschi as you reconfigure your own story in the coming DOW Ncoming TO I Ofavorable W Aphase C T YCancerian. Wouldn’t it be fun and potent to transform that the weeksW will beN an unusually to Iweeks, expedite this process. the way you imagine both the past and future plot threads of D O W N T O W N I O W A C Iyour T destiny? Y AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Some earthquakes unleash energy in DOW TbutOothersW N IO W that A unfoldC ILEOT (July Y 23-Aug. 22): In traditional sourdough baking, a violentN bursts, are incremental commotions gradually over days or even weeks. The way they reorganize the small portion of fermented dough called a starter is saved DOW N T O W N I O W A C IandT refreshed Y regularly. Some bakeries maintain the same Earth’s crust is kinder and gentler. Let’s regard these slow quakes as anN apt T metaphor for theN initially Idisruptive ultimately DOW OW O Wbut A C Ilineage T Yfor years. The starter is a living culture of wild constructive transformations underway in your beautiful life, yeasts and lactic acid bacteria that feed on flour and water, DOW N YouT may OnotW N IO WthatAchangeC Iproducing T Y acids and gases that leaven the dough and create Aquarius. see spectacular evidence is percolating, but I guarantee that it is. Old structures are in bread with complex flavor, aroma and texture. Let’s use this DOW N Tphase O ofW Ndisarray,I O Wconditions A forC IasTa metaphor Y for your life, Leo. What long-running resource a transitional subtle creating new dispensations you can’t imagine yet. My prediction: The can you use to help create situations that will empower you DOW N T O W N I O W A C ItoTthriveYin interesting ways during the coming months? rearrangement of your landscape will be healing. D OW N TOW N I OWA C I T Y Sept. 2026 63 D O W N T O W N I O W A C I T LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Y D OW N TOW N I OWA C I T Y
ALBUM REVIEWS
CEDAR COUNTY COBRAS Sinners & Saints CEDARCOUNTYCOBRAS.COM
T
here’s a moment in Cedar County Cobras’ “Bessie Smith’s Last Ride” when nearly a century of American history collapses into a few verses. The song takes as its starting point Smith’s death following a car accident on Highway 61 near Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1937, a tragedy long surrounded by the persistent but inaccurate story that Smith was turned away from a whitesonly hospital. While that account has been debunked, the Cobras use the myth to consider racial inequality, drawing a line between Smith’s story and contemporary police violence. “Since 1937, nothin’s really changed,” Tom Spielbauer sings, connecting Smith’s story to Minneapolis and contemporary state violence. The result is one of the most pointed tracks on Sinners & Saints, the new album from the Eastern Iowa duo of guitarist Spielbauer and April Dirks on upright bass and mandolin. Out Sept. 4 by Memphisbased Overton Music, the album draws from Delta blues, early country, folk and rural Americana while sounding unmistakably like the band that has spent more than a decade developing its own loose, lively musical language. The Cobras have played together for 12 years and more than 800 shows, and that experience is central to their sound. Their live performances blend humorous banter and improvisation; they rarely use a set list, with Spielbauer shifting among multiple guitars and open tunings while Dirks adjusts on the fly. That spontaneity followed them into the studio. Working with
Submit albums for review: Little Village, 623 S Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 54420
engineer Bryan Vanderpool at Golden Bear Studios in Des Moines, the duo resisted the impulse to overproduce the record, instead preserving the chemistry that happens when they play together in the same room. Guest musicians, including saxophonist Heath Alan, keyboardist Tanner Taylor, Dave Moore on harmonica, and back-up vocals from Monica Faye and Krista Guillaume, add color without overwhelming the Cobras’ rootsy core. The album also marks an evolution in the duo’s creative partnership. Spielbauer had been developing “Bessie Smith’s Last Ride” for years, while Dirks helped shape it into its final form. Four songs feature significant contributions from Dirks, a marked change from their earlier records. That collaborative spirit gives Sinners & Saints its emotional range. “Ruby Red,” written by the late Iowa banjo player Lonnie Bowden, tells of a Vietnam veteran returning home and searching for the woman he left behind. Dirks, who had long requested that Bowden play the song at gatherings, completed the lyrics after his death, with his blessing, and sings it on the recording, her first appearance as a vocalist on a Cedar County Cobras album. Elsewhere, “Motorbike” turns a small Yamaha and a gravel road into an escape route from small-town life, accented by Iowa’s own Dave Moore, a local legend and longtime friend of the Cobras, whose haunting harmonica gives the song the feeling of cruising down a gravel road on a motorcycle, while “Matches & Gasoline” transforms gossip and a volatile relationship into combustible blues. “Guitar Zero” celebrates oldschool musicianship with a healthy dose of humor. For all its heavier themes, Sinners & Saints is ultimately an album meant to make you move. Dirks hopes listeners “find that boogie,” a chance to breathe, feel the music and get a little reprieve from everyday life. The Cedar County Cobras have spent years building that feeling one live show at a time. Sinners & Saints captures it in a bottle. —Katie Roche
PIETA BROWN Dreamin’ Of PIETABROWN.COM
T
welve years ago on Pieta Brown’s seminal album Paradise Outlaw, the folk songstress sang a tender duet with Amos Lee about desperately trying to get to the morning “after the longest night,” when the world awakens with birds and church bells and school buses. Four albums later, Brown and Lee revisit their collaboration on her newest release, Dreamin’ Of, except this time around the urgency for tomorrow is slowed. On their new duet “Drinkin’ Side,” the plea instead is for time to stop, paused in present moments: “Please don’t ask me / To let you go today,” Brown soulfully pleads. The singer is embracing in the night; the darkness is less threatening now, instead offering a reprieve, just as folk music does. “It’s the time of the night when the world is full,” Brown wistfully drawls on the opening track of Dreamin’ Of. The time of night when people are dancing in candlelight, highways dotted with shimmering headlights. But eventually, even Brown knows day must resume, as well as the prickly realities of life in 2026. As much as the album speaks of past lives and love letters, it also gnaws at the constant churn of tragic war and all-encompassing news cycles. The night might be for dancing in the backyard, but the day brings the morning news to your feed. The title track and core of the album was inspired by a news story Brown read about a father losing his children to war, and yet “somehow urging love and tenderness.” The album’s production emerged from a quest for respite. Brown found
that solace in a 12-hour drive to the studios of Mike Lewis and S. Carey (producers on this album and Bon Iver bandmates) in brisk Minnesota and Wisconsin. On “Someday Someday,” you hear the sound of far-off chimes blowing in the wind and the creak of the chair one imagines Brown rocking back and forth in, plucking at piano keys— hammer to string, poetry to music, war to love. Musically, each track is richly realized, whether it’s the warm ache of the strings on “Time of the Night,” the dirtied-up wailing guitar breaks on “Once I Was,” or the dainty and whimsical “la la las” and “do do dos” that roll in from Carey and Lewis in harmonies. Each production choice (with contributions from the likes of Bo Ramsey and Jeremy Ylvisaker) is anchored by Brown’s tender, honeyed vocals, striking a balance between soothing lullaby and delicate warbles that carry a history of lived experience.
Musically, each track is richly realized, whether it’s the warm ache of the strings ... [or] the dirtiedup wailing guitar breaks. Even in its marvelous evolution of sound and thoughtful production, fostered by years of creative collaborators, Brown’s message stays steadfast across her oeuvre: All that we have to give and respond through in this world is love. Or as the title track puts plainly, “The war is never over / Neither is my love.” —Elisabeth Oster
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 65
Wednesday Events 1:30 Bingo at Hoffman Hall Recreation Center Thursday Events 1:00-7:30 Lederhosen Games Euchre and Chase the Ace Tournaments Friday Events 6:00 Tapping of Oktoberfest Keg Party featuring Barefoot Becky Band at Backwater Bar & Grill Saturday Events 7:00 Disc Golf Tournament 9:30 Beer Stein Street Race 10:00 Parade begins 11:00 PDC HS Band & Boy Scouts Pledge of Allegiance 11:30 Children Activities in Children’s Tent Authentic German Food Oktoberfest Beverages Hammerschlagen 11:30-1:30 Car Show Guttenberg German Band 12:00 Star Power Dance Team 12:30 Corn Hole Tournament Children’s Rootbeer Stein Holding Contest 1:30 Button Box with Fred and Schulplutter/Hotzhacker Sauerkraut Eating Contest 2:00-3:30 Gary Breuggen Family Band 3:00-3:30 Beer Stein Holding Contest 3:30 Button Box with Fred 4:00-6:00 LaCrosse Oktoberfest Singers 4:30 Men and Womens Keg Toss Rotary After Party 5:30 More food, beverages & fun 6 p.m. Area’s Largest Beer Pong Tournament $5 Button Admission. Tickets available at City Hall, Hoffman Hall, Tricor Insurance, Sawmill Saloon, Hall of Fame Steaks, Peoples State Bank, Starks, Backwater Bar, Piggly Wiggly, Eagles Club & Mississippi Meats
For more info call 608-412-4556, 1-800-732-1673 or visit prairieduchien.org
2027 FESTIVAL SEASON JULY 2 - 25
THE TALES OF HOFFMANN OFFENBACH ORPHÉE GLASS BILLY BUDD BRITTEN Experience world-class opera in a theatre that brings you within arm’s reach of the action onstage. Find out for yourself why audiences from around the world make Iowa their summer arts destination! For more information and to order tickets, visit dmmo.org/tickets or call (515) 209-3257
SAT 26 SEPT NOON – 9 PM ON THE PED MALL IN DOWNTOWN IOWA CITY
AFRICAFESTIOWA.COM
BOOK REVIEWS
PAIGE TOWERS What They Stole UNIVERSITY OF IOWA PRESS
I
t’s a thing of beauty when a piece of nonfiction can educate without demeaning, be pointedly scathing without catching the undeserving and inspire the reader to review their community with a fresh lens. Paige Towers accomplishes all of this with What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption. I have known four families with adopted children. It was only after reading Towers’ book that I realized the consistencies across these adoptive situations: namely, the devout religiousness of the parents and international birthplaces of the children. Like many, I grew up hearing a narrative about those adoptions—how important parenthood was to some people, how adopting from other countries saved infants from disease, abuse, or death. I had never been pushed to interrogate this narrative, but Towers clearly lays out how such stories needed to be examined. What They Stole chronicles two families and the historical, legal and social components that built them. Towers writes about Bertha and Harry Holt, an evangelical couple who adopted eight Korean children after the Korean War. Harry’s misguided sense of selfimportance, and the religious fervor that guided many of the Holts’ decisions, ultimately resulted in the Holt Adoption Program. Under the guise of providing necessary care
Submit books for review: Little Village, 623 S Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 54420
to orphans, it facilitated thousands of improper and illegal adoptions starting in the 1950s. A half-century later, the Suepple family utilized the Holt Adoption Program to adopt four Korean children, building an idyllic life in Iowa City. This came to a tragic end when Steven Seuppel, the head of the family, murdered his wife, children and finally himself in a family annihilation event directly tied to his exposed financial crimes. Towers is meticulous in her examination of the connection between the Seuppel murders and adoption practices shaped by the Holt Adoption Program. Every chapter of her book is painstakingly constructed, with extensive evidence and citations. She is skillful in integrating fact with narrative, preventing any one section of the book from feeling too dense. It would be easy, especially with heavy subject matter such as this, to immerse the reader in statistics. Towers shows impressive restraint and a gifted eye for story. She knows when to lean in, putting pressure on the reader to be critical and reflective; and when to lean back, letting her descriptive language carry her argument. This is seen most potently in her use of news article titles contrasted with the lived experience of adopted children; creating a perfect tension in the juxtaposition. Towers ends her book with questions that no one can possibly have the full answers to. In doing so, she acknowledges the complex and still-developing nature of intercountry adoption, raising concerns with power and politics under the ever-growing shadow of declining birth rates. While many of her questions circle an unknowable future, the most haunting questions circle the buried past: how to locate the victims of child laundering, including the many babies who died of neglect and negligence within the adoption complex. What They Stole is angry, mournful, cutting and excellently crafted. Towers sheds light on a dark facet of American history that threatens to continue unfolding. —K. Twaddle
KATIE BENNETT She Was Wild Grass BRINK BOOKS
P
art personal essay, part biography, I found myself luxuriating in the prose of Katie Bennett’s She Was Wild Grass (releasing this month), slowing down my own reading to sit in the sentences when the narrative moved faster than my ability to appreciate the language. This first full-length publication from Iowa City’s Brink Books meets the bar set by their literary journal. Bennett’s language is arresting, the content non-linear and compelling, and the story moves surprisingly quickly. Billed as a hybrid memoir, She Was Wild Grass braids Bennett’s own personal history of emerging adulthood and vignettes of commonplace trauma with the life of Joan Vollmer, who was murdered by her husband, writer William S. Burroughs. The stories don’t parallel one another, but make conversation. In Bennett’s search for information about Joan, she sketches a portrait of the woman framed in mystery. Joan’s story is the carrot dangling before us as we shift through vignettes of the cities each woman lived in: Philadelphia, New York, Mexico City, New Orleans. Bennett’s past and present bleed into the unearthed fragments of Joan’s life. The book’s opening presents the culmination of Bennett’s research and lays the thematic groundwork of erasure and narrative.
“After William S. Burroughs killed his wife Joan Vollmer, he threw away all her possessions. I see him hastily scanning their apartment in Mexico City, grabbing her floral housedresses… her annotated copies of Capital, Either/Or, and her diaries, stuffing them into a garbage bag. I see him hoisting the bag into the dumpster and wiping his hands on his khakis as he practices his defense speech.” Joan is the vessel through which we, as readers, learn to understand our own place in the greater narrative. And it is arranged deftly: we examine documents, we watch a scene from Bennett’s life, we see a Beat scholar question whether “evidence exists” to suggest Joan was intelligent. Then we shift to Bennett’s own family line in which relatives witnessed murders at the hands of Nazis, but without a paper trail to serve as evidence. This is not the kind of story I am drawn to—memoir or celebrity drama—but every page was a surprise, not in tone but in what was revealed. Bennett makes us fall in love with Joan despite openly showcasing her flaws. I think that might be the point. She also turns our attention to the moments of sidelining, showing us that this is a constant in our cultural milieu (for women and other marginalized populations). She asks us to allow a woman to be as problematic as a man and still worthy of the adoration given to him. She leads us there, reminds us that language and its absence are functional parts of a narrative. She Was Wild Grass folds together prayers of reverence and fear, makes us sit in our discomfort but doesn’t make us do it alone. Bennett is respectful of her subject, never losing sight of the human cost of probing. Throughout the book, and the concurrent lives it shares, Bennett maintains a baseline vulnerability which helps her to elevate both the stories she highlights and the experience of her readers. —Sarah Elgatian
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 67
W I L D WAY S 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
14
15
16
17
18
19
20 23
21
27
32
28
29
33 37
42
12
30
31
34 38
39
43 47
40
44
13
48
35 41
45
49
46 50
51 54
11
25
26
53
10
22
24
36
LittleVillageMag.com/Support
BY VAL MELIUS, EDITED BY BEN TAUSIG
52
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
65
66
67
68
69
70
ACROSS 1. They may require a subscription 5. Late tourney match 9. Patent details, briefly 14. Server farm stuff 15. Where things get heated? 16. SUV whose name means “big water” in Washoe 17. Waddler with poise 18. Seasoning blend
that may include Scotch bonnet pepper 19. What introverts might like to be (for a while, anyway) 20. “Not looking good at all ...” 23. The old you? 25. Nurses the flu, say 26. High-stress situation, as it were 32. Barber’s obstacle
33. He commissioned Stormbreaker 34. Possessive name on many a pizza box 36. Major tanker port 38. (Spoiler!) The Giving Tree character, ultimately 41. Zip, to Zorro 42. Determined about 44. Cuban clam? 46. The only people who could enroll at
62
63
64
Harvard, until 1977 (!) 47. Vintage gemstone style 51. Excited scream in a casino 52. Pillow structure 53. Take a new tack, or a hint to filling this puzzle’s sequences of shaded letters 59. Old Testament minor prophet whose book is referenced by the novel Pachinko
60. Sauce-thickening veggie in succotash 61. Sonic Rumble game company 65. Red carpet folk 66. Like some fish or old rags 67. “Stop it, Spike!” 68. So last year 69. Minus 70. Succulent skincare solution source
28. Hang out in the compost bin, perhaps 29. Make like Mauna Loa 30. Captivate, perhaps 31. Capybara, e.g. 35. Word with blast or castle 37. Snoopy trait 39. Pill, e.g., briefly 40. Greek letter resembling a trident 43. Old London lockup 45. Lugs 48. Olympic middledistance runner Sebastian 49. So last year 50. Title teen played by Brandy 53. Bristol fella 54. Spanish-language celebrity magazine 55. Garage sale stipulation 56. What Merle Haggard sang he was proud to be, although he was in fact from California 57. Addresses since 1991 58. Things to catch at the beach 62. Shredded hitsumabushi ingredient 63. Nat ___ (cable channel) 64. Stout alternative
DOWN 1. Certain livestream disruptions 2. Furbaby’s foot 3. One Battle After Another director, familiarly 4. Some old digital cameras and plasma TVs 5. Drink paired with tteokbokki or samgyeopsal 6. “Never have I ___ ...” 7. “A ___ technicality!” 8. Part of an octopus’s escape plan 9. Defunct magazine for sci-fi buffs that sounds like a captain’s record 10. It might burn easily 11. Popular DIY website 12. Construction zone marker August ANSWERS 13. Mum-to-be, say A S K S BO Z O B T S S N E A K WA X E N Y AM 21. Expel, as a H A NG I N T H E R E L Y E shitty ruler A P B WH A T Y OUW I L L P U P I L E S P A N O L 22. AFL partner ME R E BMS V E R Y C A N I C O M E I V Y 23. ___ Joe’s A S S BOXO J OE DON 24. Legalese P D F WE N T SO F T A P S E L S D I NCH for “regarding P A P R I K A RUN T O this point” C L A UD E R A I N S QU A HO T R A Y B R A D B UR Y 26. Matar EMU I NN I E A R I S E MA P S E X T R T E S 27. Cousins of ers
LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV356 Sept. 2026 69