Little Village magazine issue 305: Apr. 2022

A L W A Y S

ISSUE 305 April 2022

F R E E

EASTERN IOWA’S

NEWEST BREWERIES

ANGIE JORDAN’S NEIGHBORHOOD THE WEIRD, WILD HISTORY

OF THE TOWN & COUNTRY SHOPPING CENTER

PORCH POETRY IN COLLEGE HILL

GEORGE HALAS CHICAGO BEARS AND THE

March 19 - November 6, 2022

Gridiron Champs: George Halas and the Chicago Bears features the life and work of Czech-American George Halas: famed player, coach, and original owner of the Chicago Bears, as well as co-founder of the NFL. Featured in the exhibit are artifacts and photos from the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Chicago Bears, including uniforms and footballs from the early Chicago Bears, Dick Butkus's helmet, and George Halas's famed fedora.

Photo: Pro Football Hall of Fame

Visitors can test their football knowledge with an interactive quiz or try some NFL training camp moves. Video screens will feature footage from early games and 1985's Super Bowl Shuffle.

Learn more at NCSML.org/exhibits NCSML.org

1400 Inspiration Pl SW Cedar Rapids, IA 52404 319-362-8500

Exhibit is sponsored in part by

and Joyce Anderson.

FREE TICKETS

LIMITED TO FOUR PER PERSON

STEVE KROFT

OFF THE RECORD: HOW NEWS WORKS Wednesday, April 13, 7:30 pm Part of the Richard S. Levitt Lecture Series A collaboration with the University of Iowa College of Law Steve Kroft joined 60 Minutes in May 1989 and delivered his first report that fall. Few journalists have achieved the impact and recognition that Kroft’s work has generated on the most watched news program on television. In this lecture, he’ll discuss his long career and this current moment.

This lecture will feature an American Sign Language interpreter.

Discover more at hancher.uiowa.edu Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Hancher in advance at (319) 335-1158.

TICKETS Free tickets, limited to 4 per person.

Order online hancher.uiowa.edu Call (319) 335-1160 or 800-HANCHER Accessibility Services (319) 335-1158

$10

STUDENT & YOUTH TICKETS

JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER QUINTET LET FREEDOM SWING

TICKETS Adults $25 (Friday at 6:30 pm) $15 (Friday at 8:30 pm) $25 (Saturday) College Students $10

CLUB

Friday, April 22, 6:30 pm & 8:30 pm

Youth $10 Order online hancher.uiowa.edu

Kids

Saturday, April 23, 1:00 pm & 3:00 pm The Jazz at Lincoln Center Quintet returns to Club Hancher! Join us Friday, April 22 for Let Freedom Swing or bring the kids along on Saturday, April 23 for the Kids Club Hancher edition of Let Freedom Swing.

Discover more at hancher.uiowa.edu Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Hancher in advance at (319) 335-1158.

Call (319) 335-1160 or 800-HANCHER Accessibility Services (319) 335-1158

Photo: Rafa Cardenas

$10

LAS CAFETERAS

STUDENT & YOUTH TICKETS

TICKETS Adults $25 / $35 / $45 College Students $10 / $10 / $40 Youth $10 / $10 / $22

Saturday, May 7, 7:30 pm We haven’t quite convinced Las Cafeteras to become the Hancher house band, but we are thrilled to welcome them back to Iowa City! Committed to a creative combination of musical heritages—and to social justice—this band from East LA is a Hancher favorite of the first order. Their performances are always a joyous celebration.

Discover more at hancher.uiowa.edu Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa sponsored events. If you

areApril a person a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this 6 2022 with LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305 program, please contact Hancher in advance at (319) 335-1158.

Order online hancher.uiowa.edu Call (319) 335-1160 or 800-HANCHER Accessibility Services (319) 335-1158

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EDITORIAL

PRODUCTION

Publisher

Web Developer

Issue 305, Volume 31

Arts Editor

Adith Rai

April 2022

Genevieve Trainor

adith@littlevillagemag.com Cover photos by Adria Carpenter

genevieve@littlevillagemag.com Digital Director Managing Editor

Drew Bulman

What makes a good community?

Emma McClatchey

drewb@littlevillagemag.com

In IC’s South District, it’s relentless

emma@littlevillagemag.com

organizers like Angie Jordan. It can Videographer

also be beer, poetry, great record

News Director

Jason Smith

stores and local (strip mall) lore.

Paul Brennan

jason@littlevillagemag.com

Plus: En Español returns, and Kiki

paul@littlevillagemag.com

manages a coworker sex dream.

Marketing Analytics

Art Director

Coordinator

Jordan Sellergren

Malcolm MacDougall

jordan@littlevillagemag.com

malcolm@littlevillagemag.com

Multimedia Journalist

SALES & ADMINISTRATION

Meet this month’s guest contributors:

Adria Carpenter

President, Little Village, LLC

Tiffani Green is an Iowa City-

Kembrew McLeod is a

adria@littlevillagemag.com

Matthew Steele

based writer and Little Village

founding Little Village

matt@littlevillagemag.com

columnist. Her food column,

columnist and the chair of

The Takeaway, features

Communications Studies at the University of Iowa.

Events Editor, Design Assistant Sid Peterson

Advertising

reviews of local take-out

sid@littlevillagemag.com

Nolan Petersen, Matthew Steele

restaurants.

Rachel Tornblom is a senior

ads@littlevillagemag.com Staff Writers

Lauren Haldeman is the

at City High School, and this

Courtney Guein

Creative Services

author of Team Photograph

is her first publication. She

courtney@littlevillagemag.com

Website design, Email marketing,

(fall 2022), Instead of Dying

deeply loves her sibling and

E-commerce, Videography

(winner of the 2017 Colorado

writing.

creative@littlevillagemag.com

Prize for Poetry), Calenday,

Lily DeTaeye

and The Eccentricity is Zero.

Sam Locke Ward is a

CIRCULATION

A graphic novelist and poet,

cartoonist and musician from

Spanish Language Editor

Distribution Manager

she has received an Iowa Arts

Iowa City. He self publishes

Spenser Santos

Joseph Servey

Fellowship, a Sustainable

the comic zines Voyage Into

joseph@littlevillagemag.com

Arts Foundation Award and

Misery and ’93 Grind Out

fellowships from the Iowa

and has put out over 50

Writers’ Workshop.

music albums. In 2020 his

lily@littlevillagemag.com

Calendar/Event Listings calendar@littlevillagemag.com

Distribution

“Futile Wrath” strip for Little

Terrance Banks, Corrections

Luke Brooks

Melanie Hanson’s just trying

Village won the Association

editor@littlevillagemag.com

distro@littlevillagemag.com

to get her shite right and let it

of Alternative Newsmedia’s

all go meow.

award for cartoon of the year.

April Contributors

OFFICES

Audrey Brock, Lev Cantoral, W. Alex

Little Village

John Martinek is a visual

Kent Williams lives, works,

Choquemamani, Sarah Elgatian,

623 S Dubuque St

artist, cabinetmaker and

writes and complains in Iowa

Tiffani Green, Lauren Haldeman,

Iowa City, IA 52240

currently a part-time home-

City.

school kindergarten teacher.

Melanie Hanson, John Martinek, Kembrew McLeod, Tom Tomorrow,

Little Village Creative Services

More art at johnmartinek.com

Rachel Tornblom, Sam Locke Ward,

623 S Dubuque St

and Instagram @jnmartinek.

Sara Weiler, Kent Williams

Iowa City, IA 52240

SOCIAL MEDIA

319-855-1474

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Top Stories Daily news updates, events, restaurant reviews and videos at LittleVillageMag.com.

Gov. Reynolds will deliver the Republican response to President Biden’s

Iowa City students stage a walk out to protest Gov. Reynolds banning

State of the Union address

transgender girls from playing girls’ sports at school

By Paul Brennan, Feb. 22

By Paul Brennan, March 12

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Tuesday that

More than 150 ICCSD students walked out of classes on Friday and marched

Gov. Kim Reynolds will deliver the Republican response to President Joe

to the Pentacrest to protest the ban on transgender girls playing girls’ sports

Biden’s State of the Union speech next week. In a written statement,

at all public and private schools, as well as at colleges and universities in

McConnell praised Reynolds’ “brave, bold, and successful leadership” as an

Iowa, signed by Gov. Reynolds on March 3. Planning for the protest began

example of the work Republican governors are doing.

among five friends at South East Junior High School, but students from Northwest Junior High and from Iowa City’s high schools also joined.

Bringing back the pawpaw, Iowa’s forgotten fruit

Watch: Dan Padley, perhaps Iowa City’s most versatile

By Adria Carpenter, March 11

guitarist, has a passion for improv (and cooking eggs)

There aren’t many fruit trees native to Iowa, and as corn and soybean

By Jason Smith, March 17

replaced native plants throughout the state, even fewer remained in the

If you’ve seen an Iowa City band perform in the past few

wild. But the pawpaw tree is making a comeback. It’s small with large,

years, odds are you’ve heard Dan Padley on guitar. Trained

tapered leaves, part of the custard-apple family, and its yellow-green,

in jazz at the University of Iowa, Padley’s specialty is

potato-shaped fruit tastes like a cross of mangos and bananas, with a

improvisation—creating “mini sonic universes” of sound.

creamy sweet texture.

In this edition of Studio Visit, Padley describes Iowa City’s music scene, his own personal style and why cooking

WATCH Studio Visit: guitarist Dan Padley

breakfast food is kind of like songwriting.

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THANK YOU TO THIS ISSUE’S ADVERTISING PARTNERS This issue of Little Village is supported by: 80/35 (33) Adamantine Spine Moving (67) Arnott & Kirk (15) Artifacts (11) Brides by Jessa (57) Burger Haul (21) Cedar Rapids Czech Village / New Bohemia co-op (40-41) - Goldfinch Cyclery - NewBoCo - The Daisy - Parlor City Pub & Eatery - Next Page Books City of North Liberty (69) The Club Car (33) Collins Community Credit Union (19) Coralville Public Library (8) Corridor Entertainment Group (2) Crowded Closet (59) CSPS (63) Dodge St. Tire (54) The Englert Theatre (23) FilmScene (37) Firmstone Real Estate (34)

GDP Festival (57) Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce & Industry (19) Grinnell College Museum of Art (42) Goldfinch Cyclery (43) Goodfellow Printing, Inc. (34) Hancher Auditorium (4-6) The Highlander Hotel (45) Honeybee Hair Parlor (65) ICDD (38) ImOn (47) Iowa Children’s Museum (47) Iowa City Communications (59) Iowa City Downtown co-op (27) - Beadology - Release Body Modification - Record Collector - Yotopia - Critical Hit Games - Fix! - Merge Iowa City Northside Marketplace (66) - John’s Grocery - R.S.V.P.

- Hamburg Inn No. 2 - Pagliai’s Pizza - The Haunted Bookshop - George’s - Artifacts - High Ground Iowa City Public Library (61) Iowa Department of Public Health (38, 48) Iowa Public Radio (34) Johnson County Health Path Clinic (72) Johnson County Public Health (49) KCCK Jazz 88.3 (46, 63) Kim Schillig, REALTOR (35) KRUI 89.7fm (65) Lambda Softball Association (19) League of Women Voters Johnson County (33) Leash on Life (35) Linn County Conservation (53) Mailboxes of Iowa City (14) Martin Construction (70) Micky’s Irish Pub (65) Musician’s Pro Shop (34)

MYEP (14) National Czech & SLovak Museum & Library (3) New Pioneer Food Co-op (22) Nodo (63) Oasis Falafel (20) Perez Family Tacos (21) Phoebe Martin, REALTOR (68) Prairie Lights (19) Press Coffee (65) RAYGUN (29) Revival (61) Ricardo Rangel, Jr., REALTOR (14) Riverside Theatre (32, 50-51) Russ’ Northside Service (54) Scratch Cupcakery (75) Shakespeare’s Pub & Grill (35) True Endeavors (30, 32) Vino Vérité (31) West Music (53) Whitedog (74) White Rabbit (20) Wig & Pen (39) Willow & Stock (39) World of Bikes (76)

Little Village magazine print readership 25,000—40,000 per issue LittleVillageMag.com readership 200,000 monthly article views 74,000 unique monthly visitors

RECENT READER SURVEY DATA MEDIAN AGE: 37 18-24: 14% 25-34: 20% 35-44: 21% 45-54: 17% 55-64: 14% 65+: 10%

AVERAGE NUMBER OF CHILDREN 1.85

MEDIAN PERSONAL INCOME: $50k 23.4%: $40k—60k 20.9%: $60k—80k 15.8%: $100k+ 12%: $20k—40k 15.8%: <$20k 12%: $80k—$100k

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DEAR GOVERNOR REYNOLDS, OK. We’re both adults here and I don’t feel the need to bullshit you, so here we go.

I’m not writing this to appeal to your humanity, because I know you don’t see me as a human being. If you could see trans people of any age as actual human beings, you wouldn’t be using the legal system to commit violence against literal children and their families and friends and supporters and caregivers. If you could see trans people as human beings, you’d realize that attempting to create some legal definition of “womanhood” is not only impossible, it’s extremely harmful and marginalizing and is, again, violence. Excluding people from society is violence and also just like, shitty.

And you know what’s fucked up? I think

14 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

you know that. I think you would probably say, “Well, yes, we’re excluding them from society, but we need to do that to protect society.” No real surprises there, that’s pretty common rhetoric from people like you. “We’re excluding them from society, but we need to do that to protect society” is an excuse that’s used across the board to discriminate against (and murder!) trans people, queer people, people of color, Indigenous people, disabled people, Jews, Muslims, immigrants—basically anybody who does not look and think and act like you (you, in this case, being Kim Reynolds, paragon of Good White Christian Womanhood or whatever the fuck).

So yeah, I’m not writing this to appeal to you as a human being, I’m writing this because you’re shitty and I hate you. I’m mad at you for

F U T I L E W R A T H

S A M LO C K E WA R D

HAVE AN OPINION? Better write about it!

Send letters to: Editor@LittleVillageMag.com

doing the things that you do and I think you’re a bad person. I think everybody who supports trying to make it legally difficult or impossible for trans kids to live their lives is a bad person. Any and all reasoning you might cite to support your views and actions is just bullshit you made up to justify your dumb prejudices and your stupid petty bigotry*.

I don’t really have anything else to say here except hi, I’m trans, and you’re an asshole. So go fuck yourself, I guess? And if you feel like you wanna say anything in response to this**, I would suggest keeping it yourself.

Yours really extremely sincerely like I mean every fucking word of this, Violet Austerlitz P.S. I also hate you for other reasons, but I try to keep my letters snappy. *Although—I will admit, I’m really enjoying what a self-own some of your logic is. You’re like, “oh no we can’t let trans girls compete

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L E T T E R S against cis girls because we believe that trans girls are actually boys and everybody knows boys are athletically and intellectually superior to girls in every way and so we must protect our dumb weak daughters from being embarrassed.” Like, that’s how you sound. You sound

like a dumb idiot who hates women and thinks they suck, and it’s pathetic. **Anything that isn’t “oh shit I just realized that I’m a fucking monster and I need to rethink my beliefs and my actions,” that is.

—Violet Austerlitz

Little Village is honored to present the winner of IC Speaks’ 2022 Page Poetry contest.

My Sibling

Change that falls through the cracks of the driver’s seat Tiny pricks in my shoes that I can’t see but only feel A ripped page in my favorite book Chip bags with a tear down the side A Broken zipper in the cold Sticker residue A shirt that keeps slipping off the hanger All the mismatched socks The dust that comes off the lint trap A sweaty water bottle that makes my hand wet Smashed pages at the bottom of my backpack Broken wheels on shopping carts ––Rachel Tornblom

MOMBOY

LAUREN HALDEMAN

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I N T E R A C T I O N S

“Whatever staffers wrote Grassley’s questions must be on the edge of their seats as he throws their work into the blender of his mind.” —Charles P. Pierce (@ CharlesPPierce on Twitter), on Day 2 of Kentaji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing

Surrounded by children, Gov. Reynolds signs bill banning transgender girls from playing girls sports in all Iowa schools (March 3)

“We started looking at where do we need to cut back in this office and shove people back out into retail. Our retail stores are the heart of Hy-Vee, and some people just simply see it being beneath them to work at the retail stores. I think it’s crazy, and I think that it’s offensive.” —Hy-Vee CEO Randy Edeker in a video to staff after laying off 121 of his fellow corporate employees

She’s misappropriated funds previously, this is nothing (unfortunately) shocking.

WE MUST VOTE HER OUT. Our children’s

“The number one crisis in Iowa cascades down to many sectors.

It’s Iowa’s chronic and acute workforce crisis. … Republicans are not facing the reality. IA doesn’t have enough people to fill the available jobs and it is holding back our economy. They have done absolutely nothing to help and nothing to fix the problem. They just call Iowans lazy and take away their earned benefits.”

—Iowa Sen. Claire Celsi on Twitter (@ SenClaireCelsi) “In my opinion, that [HF 2355] is the most polite and soft way that you can tell the public they’re about to get screwed. Is the solvency of the unemployment trust fund at risk? No. And nobody’s buying the governor’s rationale that garbage policy like this will have a positive economic impact.

It’s not going to address the workforce shortage.”

—Rep. Chris Hall of Sioux City “This explains Chuck Grassley’s tweets.”

—Michael Ian Black on Julliegrace Brufke’s tweet: “Roger Stone defends Madison Cawthorn, claims orgies and drug abuse not uncommon in DC” 18 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

A bill rooted in hate and political opportunism. —Janelle B. Auditor concludes Gov. Reynolds has failed to justify almost $450,000 in pandemic relief spent on staff pay (March 4)

STRESS FRACTURES via Sen. Claire Celsi

Still from Jimmy Kimmel Live

WO RT H R E P E AT I N G

education depends on it if nothing else.

—Courtney S. Photo gallery: A small group gathered on the N Dubuque St pedestrian bridge over I-80 on Saturday morning to cheer for one of the Midwest truckers convoys driving the interstates as part of a protest, inspired by protests that occurred in Canada last month. (March 6) Freedom? After what’s happening in Ukraine, they should be embarrassed.

—Judy A. GOP: Biden is inflating gas prices! Let’s JOHN MARTINEK

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Cortado El café de tu barrio POR W. ALEX CHOQUEMAMANI

“Me dio tanto gusto verlo que le propuse tomar un café.” ––Vargas Llosa, “La tía Julia y el escribidor”

M

e dio tanto gusto verlo que le propuse tomar un café.

Vargas Llosa, “La tía Julia y el escribidor” Los cafés, o también llamados coffee shops, son lugares que funcionan muy temprano por la mañana. Algunos de estos tienen buena iluminación, pero también están los que tienen una luz suave y tenue, la cual brinda un aire de intimidad, algo ideal para conversar con alguien especial o, simplemente, para leer un libro. Y, por supuesto, siempre acompañado de una buena taza de café.

Los baristas son una especie de artesanos de esta bebida negra y agridulce. Ellos constantemente están revisando el molido y el sabor del café, la temperatura y la espuma de la leche, la presión de la máquina Marzocco, etc., para así conseguir el resultado deseado: extraer cafeína, combinarla con otros ingredientes (leche, chocolate, syrup) y servirla según las recetas tradicionales (macchiatos, lattes, cappuccinos, cortados) o la creatividad del local.

El público que acude a los coffee shops, es uno de los más diversos.

Están aquellos vinculados al mundo de la literatura que prefieren ver personas a su alrededor, en vez de una biblioteca tranquila y silenciosa.

No faltan aquellos que eligen el coffee shop para cerrar un negocio. O los que prefieren trabajar desde estos lugares aromatizados de cafeína.

Y también están aquellas personas que acuden al coffee shop en busca de un espacio alternativo, relajado, amigable, para hacer vida social y comunitaria.

“Lo que pasa es que hay personas que no toman alcohol, pero quieren divertirse en un lugar distinto al bar, entonces el coffee shop es una buena alternativa para ellos”, me dijo de modo muy acertado, Stacy Webster, músico y barista de Iowa City. Entonces, escuchar a músicos locales; asistir a recitales de poesía, especialmente de escritores emergentes; ver una exhibición de pintura o fotografía; participar en un conversatorio abierto sobre temas que conciernen a los vecinos de una ciudad, últimamente, ya no son actividades ajenas de un coffee shop.

Me pregunto, ¿cuántos propietarios de coffee shops de Iowa se animarían o, más bien, se atreverían a promover comunidad y vida social en su ciudad? Conozco experiencias en otros lugares que demuestran que la actividad lucrativa de un coffee shop es perfectamente compatible con la idea de construir una comunidad amigable e inclusiva. Por ejemplo: el “Café Zeit” de Tacna, Perú, quienes por varios años fueron uno de los faros de cultura y arte de Sudamérica, esto gracias al ingenio y a la tenacidad de su dueño, Claus Ranke. También está el caso del “Brewer’s Cafe” de Richmond, Virginia, cuyo dueño, Ajay Brewer, le ha cambiado el rostro a su barrio, dándole un aire más amigable, divertido y seguro para todos.

Y también le ha dado una lección a la industria del café, en el sentido que siempre se puede hacer, “Más que un café”, tal como lo indica su eslogan.

20 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

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April 2022 23

L E T T E R S

&

I N T E R A C T I O N S

go Brandon! Also GOP: Let’s drive the least efficient possible vehicles as much as possible and consume as much gas as we can in protest against nothing. Also libs are dumb and don’t understand basic economics like supply and demand. Let’s go Brandon! —John C.

/LittleVillage READER POLL: What’s in that pelican’s mouth?

Jason Momoa’s scrunchie 46.7%

When I drove by, there were Confederate flags too. Also have your free speech but you aren’t permitted to park on the I—80 on ramp and over the curb on the grass.

Why weren’t they told to relocate their vehicles?? —Katherine O.S. What are they protesting again? —Ali N. I’m not sure even they know. —Tania D.

Elijah Wood’s cigarettes 13.3% Grassley’s ‘Marmaduke II’ 20%

Mask and vaccine mandates. Iowa had neither. —Julie J.

MY WEED!!!

20%

Iowa City students stage a walk out to protest Gov. Reynolds banning transgender girls from playing girls’ sports at school (March 12) Remember this, whoever you are, however you are, you are equally valid, equally justified, and equally beautiful. —Jenni R. UAY is proud of local youth for once again leading the way and using their voices to speak up. Adults, we would do well to listen. —United Action for Youth Young people making us all look stupid.

Again. Good for them. —Tyler A.

B R O C K

A B O U T

24 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

As a fellow Reuben fanatic, this is the kind of journalism I’m looking for! —Emmylane L.P. Deidre DeJear, the sole Democrat running for governor, discusses how to win in Iowa City (March 15) This woman is an intellectual and could lead us in a very positive forward way…a way where we won’t cringe telling someone we’re from Iowa when asked.

—Jordan S. Deidre needs to come out for legal weed.

She can get the independent vote and get young people to turn out. It’s also a simple way to see if she has good judgment.

Eventually it’s republicans will legalize weed, they will get and deserve credit for it. —Ofer S. Little Village Studio Visit ft. Dan Padley (March 16) Dan is a national treasure. —Andy B.

The kraut-er in the rye: Five (more) local Reubens, graded (March 15)

What a stud. Seriously one of the best musicians. And best humans. —River B.

That’s a lot of As this year! —Leather B. Thoma’s Meat Market has a dope Reuben... their Cuban is fire too. —Prafasi

Dan slays. One of the tastiest guitarists this side of the Mississippi. —Trevor P. A prince. —Tyler J.

New Pi has an amazing turkey Reuben.

At least when they used to have a deli.

Maybe the Coralville of C.R store has a deli that makes it still. —Nathan W.

T O W N

WHILE I’M SURE some of you imagine me as a Baba Yaga-type figure that sits in a tree on College Street, judging people and collecting Natty Light cans for the five-cent redemption fee, I actually do have a day job. Every morning, I drive almost an hour to a public library which will here remain nameless, because the one five minutes down the street from my house would be too easy to get to.

When I got the job, the hiring manager asked me if I enjoyed working with the public. I said yes, because I did not know what I was talking about.

This week, I cleaned up the aftermath of a “cake fight” between two

LittleVillageMag.com

I need an entire Dan Padley biopic but until then I’ll just watch this on a loop.

—Aly R.

middle-aged men and had an hourlong conversation with a teenage boy about censorship after I suggested he not watch porn on the library computer, three feet from his grandma. Every morning, the same elderly man comes to my desk and provides me—an hourly, part-time employee at the very bottom rung of the totem pole— with a list of grievances about our policies, our collection and the way the magazine room smells like cough medicine. Once, a lady made me look up reviews of half the books in our romance section, because she only wanted to read the ones that “really knock your socks off.”

AUDREY BROCK

And you know what annoys me more than that? All the people who aren’t coming to the library. Seriously, people. You’re not doing yourself any favors by spending $24.99 every time you get the urge to “read the classics.” Get yourself to the library and check out a book. If you can’t read, check out a DVD. If you, like everyone else, torrent all your movies, just come hang out. It’s the coolest place on Earth.

Print is personal.

Little Village readers hold this magazine close to their hearts—and it’s not just because that’s where it’s easiest to read.

To get up close and personal with your community, contact Little Village today: Ads@LittleVillageMag.com (319) 855-1474

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LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305 April 2022 25

INTERACTIONS

Community

LittleVillageMag.com En Español

Ah yes, the Senator from Schleswig. I do so want to know how theists reconcile the idea of being anti—authoritarian while also believing a celestial dictator knows if your pregnancy is terminated or if you masturbate etc. If you’re anti— authoritarian wouldn’t you stop worrying about a reproductive system besides your own? —@stargazer_ jasmine on Instagram This is some elite level bull shittery. —Ben S. I’ve learned a lot over the past two years about how we combat the virus. But how do we protect ourselves from Republicans?

—Randy K. ‘A middle finger to hardworking Iowans’: Iowa House and Senate approve bill to cut unemployment benefits (March 24) The way to bring people into the job market is to pay fair wages, offer full— time with benefits, and address the issues of child care and health care. — Sharon T. This bill is coming back to the House. There’s still time to beat it. Contact your Representatives.

Iowa House switchboard#: 515.281.3221. —Rep. Liz Bennet (@LizBennettIowa on Twitter)

Una introducción POR SPENSER SANTOS

H

ola y bienvenidos a En Español, una columna renacida.

Antes de describir el futuro de la columna quiero presentarme a ustedes.

Me llamo Spenser Santos, y he vivido en Iowa City durante diez años. Llegué a Iowa City en 2012 y asistí a la Universidad de Iowa hasta 2019. En este tiempo, yo estudiaba literatura medieval y la traducción literaria. Me enamoré de los poemas Beowulf y El Cantar de Mio Cid, y tengo la intención de traducirlos.

En 2016, traduje unos artículos a inglés por En Español. Nunca olvidaré un artículo especifico, escrito por mi amiga Helena Mariño, sobre la reacción en España a la nominación de Donald Trump en 2016. El refrán de <<¿qué pasa con los estadounidenses?>> resona ahora más que nunca. Les amigues de Helena le preguntaban cuestiones como esta a ella porque ella estuvo en Iowa y creyeron que ella tuviera una respuesta que tuvo sentido.

Iowa tiene más que 100.000 hispanohablantes, y no creo que haya ninguna falta de historias desconocidas a nuestros vecines anglófones. Como editor de En Español, solicitaré historias de una variedad de perspectivas y experiencias. Quiero amplificar las voces de les latines en Iowa y presentar la diversidad de nuestras experiencias a todes iowaneses.

Una nota antes de termino esta introducción. Quizás, lector, usted ha visto que yo uso formas de género neutral como vecines y latines. Como una persona trans y cuir de género, el lenguaje inclusivo me importa mucho. En español, uso los pronombres elle o ella. En inglés, uso they o she. La familia de mi padre es de Puerto Rico, y yo aprendía español como estudiante porque mi padre no habla el idioma.

Por esa razón, excúsame por favor

26 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

de las peculiaridades cuando escribo en español.

Vuelvo a mi visión de la columna.

Busco historias de estudiantes, de la gente joven y vieja, de Iowa y de países extranjeras. Busco poesía, opiniones sobre los últimos acontecimientos, historias de la vida cotidiana en Iowa como hispanohablante, e información que se refiere a las pruebas y luchas de nuestras comunidades. Voy a contactar a unas personas, pero si usted quiere escribir un artículo, mándame un email a <<spensersantos@uiowa.edu>>. Gracias, y nos vemos el próximo mes.

An Introduction

H

ello and welcome to En Español, a column reborn.

Before describing the column’s future, I’d like to introduce myself.

My name is Spenser Santos, and I’ve lived in the Iowa City area for 10 years. I came to Iowa City in 2012 and attended the University of Iowa until 2019. In this time, I studied medieval literature and literary translation. I fell in love with the poems Beowulf and El Cantar de Mio Cid, and someday I plan to translate them.

In 2016, I translated some articles into English for Little Village.

I’ll never forget one piece in particular, written by my friend Helena Mariño, about how Spaniards reacted to Donald Trump’s nomination in 2016. The refrain “What’s going on with the Americans?” resonates now more than ever. Helena’s friends asked her questions like this because she was in Iowa and they thought she’d have an answer that made sense.

Iowa has more than 100,000 Spanish speakers, and I don’t think

courtesy of Spenser Santos

State senator calls COVID-19 vaccines ineffective before committee approves bill to ban vaccine requirements in schools and daycares (March 17)

there’s any lack of stories unknown to our English-speaking neighbors.

As editor of En Español, I Will solicit stories from a variety of perspectives and experiences. I want to amplify the voices of Latine people in Iowa and introduce the diversity of our experiences to all Iowans.

One note before I finish this introduction. Reader, maybe you have noticed that I use gender neutral forms like “Latines.” As a trans and non-binary person, inclusive language matters a lot to me. In Spanish, I use elle/ella pronouns, while in English I use they/she. My father’s family comes from Puerto Rico, and I learned Spanish as a student because my father doesn’t speak the language. Because of this, please excuse any quirks when I’m writing in Spanish.

Back to my vision for the column: I’m looking for stories from students, young people and older people alike, from Iowa and abroad.

I’m looking for poetry, opinions on current events, stories about daily life in Iowa as a Spanish speaker, and information relevant to the struggles and fights facing our communities. I’m going to reach out to some people, but if you want to write a piece, send me an email at spenser-santos@uiowa.edu. Thank you, and see you next month.

Call for submissions!

To submit a story idea to En Español, reach out to spenser-santos@uiowa.edu

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Community

No More Missing Middle There’s a lot of moving and shaking happening on Iowa City’s southside.

BY ADRIA CARPENTER

A

ngie Jordan believes every neighborhood has doers. But Iowa City’s South District is chock full of them.

“This is a daily grind,” said Jordan, president of the South District Neighborhood Association.

“This isn’t something one person did or one organization did. This was a forever commitment that started in the neighborhood with those who wanted change.”

Jordan was born in Iowa City, and like a “true Iowa Citian” she left and came back several times. In 2015, she settled in the South District where she began getting involved in different community organizations, like the Grant Wood Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) and later the Alexander Elementary School PTO, which she co-founded. Three years after Jordan moved to the South District, Iowa City Neighborhood Outreach Coordinator Marcia Bollinger suggested Jordan join the neighborhood’s new association, which had just started to coalesce.

The South District Neighborhood Association (SDNA) was formed in 2018, when four neighborhoods on the city’s southeast side— Pepperwood, Wetherby, Grant Wood and South Pointe—banded together to share resources and work together. The neighborhood association is a volunteer-run, no-dues organization that helps residents, business owners, nonprofits and others stay informed about their community and work towards common goals to improve it. The group hosts events like National Night Out, the Fall Harvest, winter gear drives and neighborhood clean-up efforts. SDNA also organized efforts to paint community murals and plant Little Free Libraries.

“We have our ideas, and we express them, and we create action around them. But we weave them together, so that anytime we’re working on one thing, we’re actually working on all the things in the neighborhood,” Jordan said.

Jordan and Jessica Bovey are co-founders of SDNA. It has four current committees—leadership, neighborhood engagement, arts initiative and neighborhood event—with three others planned for the future.

“Our goal is really to be a vehicle of 28 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

Angie Jordan, president and co-founder of the South District Neighborhood Association.

Adria Carpenter / Little Village

information exchange. And that’s between the residents, but it’s also between anyone who lives, works or plays on this side of town,” Jordan said.

“We want to make sure that information goes both ways, that folks are learning about different resources and opportunities and exciting cool things happening throughout Iowa City and Johnson County. But we also want our residents to become comfortable and confident in sharing their ideas and sharing their feedback.”

The South District is changing, with new developments like the Diversity Market, the SelfSupporting Municipal Improvement District (SSMID) and the change to a form-based zoning.

But for years the southeast side has carried a reputation for violence and crime.

“You look back and you Google ‘Southeast side of Iowa City.’ It’s all crime, and it’s not safe,” Jordan said. “That narrative has been so challenging to shed.”

LittleVillageMag.com

Just south of Highway 6, Pepperwood Plaza, highlighted in yellow, will be the new home of the South District’s outdoor Diversity Market, which provides dozens of minority-owned and women-owned businesses a venue to sell merchandise, foods and services. © Google Earth

Tasha Lard, owner of JD Beauty Supply in Pepperwood Plaza, believes that SDNA is changing the narrative and bringing a positive light to the South District. Lard, along with Jordan and Marlén Mendoza, helped pilot the Diversity

store is also known for the “business corner,” where other small entrepreneurs can display their business cards and promote themselves.

“I feel like the South District has grown significantly. I also know that the South District has

“YOU LOOK BACK AND YOU GOOGLE ‘SOUTHEAST SIDE OF IOWA CITY.’ IT’S ALL CRIME, AND IT’S NOT SAFE,” JORDAN SAID. “THAT NARRATIVE HAS BEEN SO CHALLENGING TO SHED.” Market, a pop-up outdoor market that began last summer. The market brought eyes to around 30 minority-owned and women-owned businesses, featuring food vendors, products, services and family friendly activities.

This year’s Diversity Market won’t change much from last year. It will just have more.

The market will move locations from Kingdom Center to Pepperwood Plaza for more space and visibility, operate for 10 weeks instead of five and have double the vendors from last year.

“This allows all of those small business owners in the area, those entrepreneurs, those BIPOC owners, to come out and show the world, and show Iowa, who they are and what they stand for,” Lard said. “We are changing the way the foundation has been for years.”

Lard moved to Iowa City eight years ago from Illinois. While she doesn’t live in the South District, JD Beauty Supply has been a staple of Pepperwood Plaza for the past two years. Her

changed, and is changing, in a great direction,” she said. “It takes a village, and I want people to know that the South District is a village. And we’re helping each other to grow in every avenue, in every aspect.”

Lard also helped with the creation of the SSMID, a self-imposed taxing district that collects a dedicated property tax and reinvests the funds to support marketing and business retention, improve livability and infrastructure and to hire an executive director.

The SSMID, which covers Pepperwood Plaza and the surrounding area, levies a tax of $5 per $1,000 assessed taxable value, or around $104,000 annually. The Iowa City Council unanimously approved the SSMID last January. It will begin at the start of the new fiscal year in July and will last for the next five years. The city council may renew it after that period.

This is the second SSMID in Iowa City. The Iowa City Downtown District has had their own LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305 April 2022 29

Community

LittleVillageMag.com

Nancy Bird (ICDD), Jason Jordan, (South District resident), Angie Jordan, Todd Means (Midwestone Bank), Tasha Lard and Eric Harris (a South District resident) at MidWestOne Bank on collecting signatures for the SSMID petition that passed unanimously by the City Council in October 2021. courtesy of Angie Jordan

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30 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

SSMID since 2012, which successfully pushed for first-hour free parking, a grant program for building renovations, public art and increased lighting. It also allowed small businesses to collectively bargain for group rates on core services, essential goods, marketing and joint investments.

The first meeting to begin forming the South District SSMID board is April 18. The board will have 11 voting members with spaces for property owners, business owners, nonprofits and local residents. Other organizations can join the board as non-voting members.

“I’m personally really excited about our South District SSMID,” Jordan said. “For a successful SSMID to work, it requires everybody who it touches—the commercial property owners, the businesses, the churches, the schools—it requires all of them to have to play a role.”

Funds generated by the tax could be used for creating and maintaining a market plaza space, an open-air market structure for events like the Diversity Market or improving the streetscape with public art, greenery, painted crosswalks, lighting, signage and public furniture. The SSMID could also bring more entertainment to the south district, Jordan said.

Elly Hofmaier, marketing coordinator for the Englert Theatre, said that the SSMID might help people discover businesses. While she isn’t a resident of the South District, she followed the SSMID’s progress closely, even speaking before city council in December about the visibility it

would bring to local restaurants in Pepperwood Plaza.

“When I was in college, you know, I probably just went to Taco Bell for all my tacos. And then it wasn’t until a year or two post-grad, then it’s like El Paso, Acapulco, real tacos,” Hofmaier told Little Village. “So yeah I’m like, ‘Wow, maybe if I had known about this sooner, I would be much more woke on tacos,’ and that’s where the SSMID might come in. Help people get woke on the good tacos in town. That’s all I can ask for in this whole city.”

Hofmaier first learned about SDNA and the SSMID last June, when she interviewed Jordan and Mendoza for the Englert’s Best Show Ever podcast.

“Angie and Marlén and Tasha Lard, I just think are the role models like everyone would want their child to have. Just so positive, so hardworking, so selfless. The community building that they are doing together is so inspiring to watch,” she said. “What they’re doing is totally the blueprint for what community building can look like.”

SDNA began working on the SSMID in 2020 and workshopped their proposal with residents in the South District, as well as the Iowa City Downtown District.

“I’m very grateful for the residents that live in the South District that came forth and just created an opportunity that is now a reality,” said Mayor Bruce Teague. “I’m just super excited to

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Community

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see what will come out of our South District.”

All eyes are on the South District with hope and aspiration, Teague said, partly thanks to Jordan, who he has known for at least 15 years.

“She has the heart of an angel. She loves to work and uplift people, give them motivation and help them realize their potentials,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing all the great things that she will continue to do within this community.

She’s phenomenal. She is what I would call awesome and amazing.”

In addition to the SSMID, Teague is looking forward to seeing how the form-based zoning for the South District the city council approved in October will reshape the area. Unlike traditional zoning which focuses on the use allowed for sections of land, a form-based code prioritizes the physical character of a community.

Because form-based codes emphasize how a building fits in, rather than the use of the building, it offers more flexibility for mixed-use zones, which can lead to more corner stores and local businesses within walking distance, instead of isolated suburban neighborhoods. Traditional zoning tends to discourage walkable communities and alternative forms of travel, like biking and public transit, in favor of auto-oriented travel.

Since the 1940s, traditional zoning codes have prohibited building multi-family housing types—like duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhouses, etc.—within single family or transitory neighborhoods. The form-based code will allow for these “missing middle” units, which will give future residents more housing options.

“Our population on this side of town is gonna double,” Jordan said. “There’s gonna be a lot more people on this side of town, and I’m always excited. I love meeting new people, helping folks feel like they belong in a community.”

The form-based code will include around 900 acres of undeveloped land just below the South District. Half of that land is in unincorporated

JUNE 27 | PARAMOUNT THEATRE

32 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

LittleVillageMag.com

Johnson County, but Iowa City plans to annex it.

“The form-based code provides for a mix of types of buildings, all at good neighborhood scale. So that means walkable, pedestrian friendly, bikeable connected neighborhoods,” said Councilmember Laura Bergus. “It provides kind of templates for a scale of development that is neighborhood oriented, and should therefore mean that it can be relatively smaller homes, relatively higher density. And those are both things that are really important for affordability in housing.”

Bergus is a longtime resident of the South District. She grew up on Regal Lane and attended Grant Wood Elementary. In 2003, she bought a home in South District where she has continued to live and raise her kids.

While the South District remains a working class, lower-income community, demographics have shifted as more students are moving into The Quarters, which was formerly a multi-family apartment complex called Rose Oaks, Bergus said. The opening of Alexander Elementary, as well as improvements to parks and green spaces, have been welcome developments.

“It’s changed a lot over my whole, you know, four decades plus,” she said.

Bergus first met Jordan at a Grant Wood Elementary PTO meeting. As one of the relatively few white families at the school, she didn’t know the best way to connect with other families. But Jordan offered her a hand.

“I always credit Angie with being someone who very gently, very kindly, helped challenge sort of what a PTO could be, should be,” she said. “When Angie works on something, it is given an energy, and a light, and an excitement, that is unlike just about any other community organizer I’ve ever met.”

Bergus said that SDNA has been “a force of positive change” in the South District and Iowa City over the past four years.

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Community

“The South District Neighborhood Association has consistently held events to bring neighbors together, to clean up the neighborhood, to help people feel connected and be connected,” she said. “Show me another neighborhood in Iowa City that gets that kind of really just grassroots, honest engagement from people.”

Bergus said she wants to see more grassroots neighborhood associations like SDNA throughout Johnson County.

“Not everybody has an Angie, but you know, put enough people together and you do,” she said.

Jordan feels deeply rooted to Iowa City. Her husband of 12 years is a first responder for the Iowa City Fire Department. Her sister and parents all live in the area, too. She’s also a mother of two: a third grader and a fifth grader.

Oftentimes, she’s worried not just for her family, but the people around her.

“My motivation is I’m scared. I’m scared that those kids crossing this street are going to get hit by a car. Why isn’t there a stop sign there? Or I’m worried that everybody thinks this side of town is shady, and they’re not going to shop here. And we need to have thriving businesses,” she said.

“When I engage my fear, I like to do it in a way that is supported by my curiosity, ’cause in my curiosity I feel powerful.”

“I fail a lot. I fail most of the time, and in that failure, if it’s coupled with my curiosity, I get to learn all the time constantly about the world around me and myself,” she said. “Continuing to be really aware of my inner compass, my fear that says something is not right, because that activates creativity and energy. And that’s personally how I have always gotten through my life at a very young age.”

Jordan is a doer, but she sometimes wants to do less and enjoy the little things in her neighborhood. She believes the entire community has

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to carry the load, not just one person or one organization.

“This is no one’s job. Everyone part of this is volunteering, so that balance of managing, dreaming and action with reality, that in itself has been a challenge,” she said. “It’s important to span out and see that we’re just part of the web and the network that we created. And the other piece to that is, how do you maintain that network?”

Jordan recently founded Banjo Knits Empowerment, a knitting instruction business that she uses to help contract some SDNA work.

Transitioning from volunteer to businesswoman is “a work in progress,” but she needs a sustainable structure to hold herself accountable and prevent burnout.

“It can be challenging. It’s also a lot of fun, so much fun, to do community developing and organizing … I also love gardening and knitting and being in my backyard. That’s my happy place,” Jordan said. “For me a lot of times, it doesn’t feel like work because whatever it is that I’m hoping to create, or I’m a part of a team creating, I benefit from. My family benefits from.

My extended family benefits from. So, it feels like, you know, those things aren’t necessarily chores. They’re creating access to opportunity, and I think it’s fun.”

But when the “daily grind” restarts—the behind-the-scenes routine of waving at neighbors, helping them shovel snow, clean-up efforts, grant writing and mural painting—the neighborhood could use a few more doers.

“We need all the help we can get,” she said.

“And we need the folks who live here to feel like this is their home, and that when they speak up and say something, they will be heard.”

Adria Carpenter is a multimedia reporter at Little Village.

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Community

LittleVillageMag.com History

Legends of the Hidden Bowling Alley Cedar Rapids’ Town & Country Shopping Center has changed over the decades, but the mythology, (and a few key stores and restaurants) remain.

BY MALCOLM MACDOUGALL

A

nyone living in Cedar Rapids or Marion has more than likely found themselves needing to get to the other, and, most likely, has made the trip by way of First Avenue.

On their way, they’ve probably seen an unassuming strip mall just a couple minutes into Cedar Rapids past the Marion border: an L-shaped series of shops with a squat silhouette that creeps up the slight rise of the parking lot. The Town & Country Shopping Center is, in fact, the oldest shopping mall in Iowa.

That margin for “oldest” is slim—in the 1950s, newly widespread car ownership led to an explosion of malls across the United States. Iowa’s first enclosed shopping mall was the Park Fair Mall, which opened in Des Moines, also in 1956.

The Lindale Plaza, another enclosed mall only a couple minutes’ drive from Town & Country, opened only four years later.

In 1955, the brothers Martin, Maurice and Matthew Bucksbaum, property developers from Marshalltown, decided to buy the lot that would become the shopping center. They initially planned to use it for a Sun-Mart, a store similar to Fareway, but expanded the idea to a full-on shopping mall.

“The advice they got was, don’t just put a Sun-Mart there, why don’t you actually create a shopping center?” said Mark Hunter, a Cedar Rapids historian. “I mean, this is really radical, of

Top: The shopping center in 1956 including the entry to the bowling alley, center frame. Gazette, May 21, 1956 via Cedar Rapids History-Original Facebook page. Bottom: the last remaining muraled wall from the Town & Country Bowling Alley during construction of the Fareway. via Cedar Rapids History-Original Facebook page, photographer unknown.

walk to a city center, in Cedar Rapids’ case, or use public transportation.”

At first, there was concern that the shopping center would pull business away from the downtown area, where Smulekoff’s and other large

THE NAME OF THE SHOPPING CENTER WAS LITERAL. TO THE FRONT OF THE SHOPPING CENTER, RESIDENTIAL AREAS HAD ALREADY SPRUNG UP BEHIND THE ROWS OF FIRST AVENUE BUSINESSES. BEHIND THE SHOPPING CENTER WAS STILL “COUNTRY.” course, at this time in American history. Because up until the 1950s, most Americans didn’t own their own automobile … So what’s really pushing the concept of the shopping center is the incredible rate of automobile ownership, that people can actually drive to a location rather than having to 36 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

stores were the heart of local commerce.

“The downtown Cedar Rapids area was initially a little bit concerned. But then when they realized that they weren’t doing department stores there, there were no movie theaters there, [they realized] there were no major competitors to pull

revenue away from the downtown C route,” explained Hunter.

The name of the shopping center was literal.

To the front of the shopping center, especially in the later 1950s as the Collins factory drew workers to that area of Cedar Rapids, residential areas had already sprung up behind the rows of First Avenue businesses. Behind the shopping center was still “country,” with an open field and the Old Milwaukee rail line running behind the center until the 1980s.

In the early ’80s, the shopping center underwent a remodel that included the addition of a restaurant in the parking lot. Originally, it was a Sambo’s, a chain restaurant started in the 1950s whose name and vaguely West Asian mascot were, even at the time, considered insensitive. By 1982 the chain had folded; several tenants later, a Bandana’s Barbecue is now in that space.

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On the other hand, a Town & Country fixture that’s lasted since the ’80s is the snug RG Books, a dark, charming cocktail bar with hundreds of books lining the walls, which connects through an open archway to the Italian date night destination Vino’s. The books, which patrons can read at their leisure, were obtained from a Cedar Rapids Library book sale when they moved from the space that currently holds the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. The basement of the T&C has become local legend. It initially served as space for area residents to use as community rooms, but the most well-known of the basements was the one that hosted the Town and Country Bowl bowling alley until the late ’90s. In the 1950s, bowling became popular after the invention of the AMF automatic pinsetter in 1946, removing the need to hire staff to manually reset the pins. The craze got to Iowa shortly after the mall was built, and the space underneath the original Sun-Mart was turned into a bowling alley.

The bowling alley was literally underneath the sidewalk—a glass section covered the set of stairs that led down into the alley. It stayed open until 1997 when fire code regulations forced its closure. The stairwell down to the alley was filled with concrete, but a popular piece of Cedar Rapids lore asserts the alley itself stayed, preserved as it had been when it closed.

The bowling alley would, unfortunately, be permanently destroyed—except for one wall that still lies buried underneath the mall—in 2017, when the addition of a Fareway in the space that had originally held the Sun-Mart required the destruction and rebuilding of the basement area.

Hunter was able to go into the bowling alley one last time in 2017, just before the alley’s destruction, confirming the legend. “All the bowling lanes ha[d] been removed but it still look[ed] like the bowling alley. And no one had been in there for like 15 years—it was really eerie down there ... But you could still see the cafe, you could still see the pro shop, and you could still see the staircase. Really, you could walk up the staircase, but then if you walk too far, your head would hit the ceiling of the sidewalk.”

Despite its construction necessitating the removal of a piece of Cedar Rapids history, Hunter was optimistic about Fareway’s addition to the Town & Country Shopping Center.

“I’m loving the fact that it’s coming full circle—that we’re right back to a supermarket again,” he said. “After all these years, you know, it really has stood the test of time.”

Malcolm MacDougall is Little Village’s marketing analytics coordinator.

38 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305 April 2022 39

Bread & Butter

Hops, Skip and a Jump

T

via BIT Brewery

hough many things ground to a halt during COVID, the opening of local breweries was not one of them. Despite opening shortly before, or in the midst of, the pandemic, these four breweries managed to gain a footing and expand Eastern Iowa’s craft beer scene to new communities.

A BIT Brewery 26 N 4th St, Central City, Bitbrew3.com Opened July 2020

Housed in a beautiful brick-façaded building, BIT was founded by three friends who bonded

over home brewing and eventually decided to turn their hobby into a B business. The acroBremer nym BIT stands Brewing for Best in Company Threes and A D is a referBIT Brewery Maquoketa ence to the Brewing C friendship beHouse Divided tween co-ownBrewery ers Jason Levenhagen, Scott Whitson and Jeff Hempstead. BIT opened in July 2020 and has *Please travel with a lived to tell about it— designated driver another victory in the face of a business climate dramatically altered

by COVID. The inside of the brewery is a bright wood and brick space with two dining rooms separated by a sliding barn door, cheery blue chairs lined up at the bar and an array of musical instruments on the wall as a nod to Levenhagen’s day job as a music teacher. There are 13 taps that feature a cast of beers that rotate on a two-week cycle and always includes two ciders and two sours. Additionally, if you stop by on Thursdays you can sample that week’s small-batch keg, a special one-off from the imaginations of the brewers. BIT also has a kitchen serving appetizers, desserts and specialty pizzas that you can see being made in the brick oven in the corner behind the bar.

Beers are available in 4 oz tasters, 16 oz glasses or 13 oz tulips for some varieties, and 32 and 64 oz growlers. I wanted to sample a few things so I opted for the 4 oz tasters and tried the Black Betty Stout, the Oofda Imperial Red Lager and the guava cider. Stouts are one of my favorite styles of beer and Black Betty didn’t disappoint with toasty chocolate and coffee notes and a

robust but balanced flavor. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the imperial red ale, but it was my favorite. They say you eat (or drink) with your eyes first, and the Oofda draws you in right away with a beautiful amber color. It’s pleasantly sweet but not cloying and has a light and clean flavor profile. Lastly, I tried the guava cider. I often find ciders to be sugar bombs but this one surprised me. It was refreshing, and it offered a balanced sweetness that doesn’t overwhelm other flavors and really, truly tastes and smells like guava.

At 4.6 percent ABV, it is the perfect option for lightweights like myself and could be paired with almost any food option. —Tiffani Green

Emma McClatchey / Little Village

LV Recommends

B Bremer Brewing Company 102 & 104 W Bremer Ave, Waverly bremerbrewingcompany.com Opened November 2021, Closed Mon.-Wed.

I am convinced some of the Iowaiest bars in Iowa can be found in Waverly (located about 20 miles

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JOHN@NEWBO.CO • (319) 382-5128 40 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

LittleVillageMag.com/Dining

D Maquoketa Brewing

Opened October 2019

The moment you pull up in front of House Divided in Ely, it exudes charm. You pass through a large patio, illuminated by string lights and featuring two igloos. Once inside, you’re greeted by the fermentors to your right and a beautiful bar made from reclaimed doors and a

Emma McClatchey / Little Village

C House Divided Brewery 1620 Dows St, Ely, housedividedbrewery.com

tasters, 64 and 32 oz growlers and 16 oz crowlers. I got two of the crowlers and brought home the Promises in the Dark Baltic Porter and the Golden Years Belgian Strong Ale. Promises in the Dark delivered on classic porter flavors with a rich mouthfeel, notes of burnt sugar at the front and a finish that tasted of coffee and woodsmoke.

The Golden Years strong ale was light but still packed with flavor, boasting a slight fruitiness and a perfect balance of sweetness and tang.

—TG

Emma McClatchey / Little Village

lacquered live edge bar top. The brewery opened in November 2019, a mere four months before everything would change, so its survival is a true success story. The name and tagline “Beer even your rivals will love” is a cheeky reference to the owners’—husband and wife Cal and Lisa Corrin’s—own divided household, with Lisa being a University of Iowa alum and supporter of the Iowa Hawkeyes, while Cal attended Iowa State and supports the Cyclones.

House Divided makes the most of a deceptively small space. There are 12 taps, all but one being occupied by a housemade brew. In addition to what’s on tap, the menu features an impressive selection of canned items, including a local seltzer and 10 (!) local ciders. There are also two local wine options from Cedar Ridge and Millstream root beer on tap. No matter what you have a taste for, House Divided can satisfy it. There are also snacks at the bar and a kitchen offering an array of bar food classics.

Tap beers are available in 13 oz drafts, 5 oz

north of Waterloo): the Pour House, the Wooden Foot, Joe’s Knight Hawk, the swanky Waverly Area Veterans Post. What Waverly was always missing, though, was a microbrewery.

Enter Jade and James Heine, who recently opened Bremer Brewing Company in the former Waterstreet Grill (RIP), on the corner of Bremer and Water streets. The building was constructed in 1916 as a Heiberg beer brewery, but switched to soda and near-beer during Prohibition. When Bremer Brewing Co. opened fall 2021, the historic building came full circle.

Bremer feels like a long-established brewery, from its full, eclectic beer list to its plentiful merchandise. Roasted and Toasted—their cold brew coffee stout made in collaboration with Waverly coffee company Get Roasted—was a standout. The three kettle sours are mouthwateringly fruity, while the hazy IPAs feature hops blends that both confuse and delight my taste buds.

Super Cooper 2.0, however, is a stripped-down IPA perfect for a summer afternoon. Lager fans will find a favorite in the 50610.

There isn’t a full food menu yet, but the brewery does serve flatbread pizzas and a variety of pretzel bites (the latter sourced from Waverly bakery The Mixing Bowl) that hit the spot. A coffee stout and plate of cinnamon sugar bites softened the blow when my mother killed me at Yahtzee. —Emma McClatchey

110 S Main St Suite A, Maquoketa, maqbrew.com Opened January 2021

Maquoketa Brewing is the town’s first brewery since Prohibition, and it’s a positive sign of progress after Maquoketa’s Main Street was devastated in a 2008 fire. Indeed, co-owner Mark Lyon said he read a magazine article listing a craft brewery as one of 11 indicators of a thriving city,

NEXT PAGE BOOKS 319.247.2665 | npb.newbo@gmail.com 1105 Third Street SE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305 April 2022 41

Emma McClatchey / Little Village

LittleVillageMag.com/Dining

BAX2022 BACHELOR OF ARTS EXHIBITION APRIL 22 - MAY 23, 2022

Bucksbaum Center for the Arts, 1108 Park Street, Grinnell, Iowa 50112 Hours: Tuesday—Friday, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Saturday, noon-5 p.m.

Minors under age 18 need to be accompanied by an adult. Grinnell College is not responsible for minors on campus or at College sponsored events. Image from BAX 2019: Martin Chamberlin, Sphere 2.0, 2019.

Wood and Casters.

and pitched the idea of opening one to his wife Judy. Judy agreed on two conditions: they serve cider on tap and install purse hooks in the taproom. Maquoketa Brewing launched in January at 110 S Main St. Beer flights come sitting in an Iowa-shaped wooden board. The Lemon Drop pale ale is surprisingly subtle with light, citrusy hops, and the Belgian Tripel has all the body of a classic Oktoberfest. My friend Katelyn, an avid sour beer fan, gushed over the Orange Sour, which she nicknamed the Beermosa. I was fascinated by the London Calling, an English bitter that combines the style’s signature English hops and malts with marshmallow and caramel notes to create a reddish beer worth savoring.

The atmosphere inside was clean and stylish, with a dozen large Edison bulbs dangling above the bar to create an eyecatching industrial chandelier. But if it’s nice out, I’d recommend sitting on the small patio out front: the perfect place to relax after a long day spent at Maquoketa Caves State Park. —EM

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Culture

LittleVillageMag.com Prairie Pop

Mr. Cacciatore Down on Linn Street When he’s not in the recording booth, Good Morning Midnight’s frontman can be found behind the counter at an iconic Iowa record store.

BY KEMBREW MCLEOD

“I

went to Catholic school in Des Moines, and I guess my way of rebelling was to be a total snob about records,” said Good Morning Midnight frontman Charlie Cacciatore. “Some people are in debate and others play tennis, and me and my friends survived in that ecosystem by taking on that kind of identity. Every weekend, we all went to ZZZ Records and Jay’s CD & Hobby, and we’d go to record shows. We were totally obsessed. At that time, the idea of working at a place like that was such a lofty notion that it seemed out of reach, like being a rock star.”

Born in 1997, the soft-spoken guitarist is a third generation Italian American whose great-grandparents immigrated to Des Moines, where his family owns Italian restaurants and a grocery store. But it was the record store life that sparked his imagination. One path into music was through his father, who Cacciatore described as a Gen X new wave kind of guy who had a tape collection that he dove into while growing up.

“WE WERE SOME OF THE FIRST PEOPLE AT FLAT BLACK, AND IT DIDN’T EVEN HAVE AIR CONDITIONING YET.” “I got super into U2, and I had a friend I met in first grade who I played with through high school, until we graduated,” he said. “It was Andrew’s dad who introduced me to the Pixies, Replacements and Paul Westerberg’s first solo album, 14 Songs, which was like the first ‘cool’ album that I was into when I was 12 or 13.”

After discovering Elliott Smith and Bright Eyes, Cacciatore gravitated to left-of-center indie rock groups like Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo, along with Black Flag and other early 44 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

Sara Weiler

hardcore punk bands. Finding a Reagan Youth compilation album whose cover featured the Pope shaking Adolf Hitler’s hand felt like a radical experience while shopping at a record fair in a Des Moines Holiday Inn—especially because their Catholic school bishop would praise certain football players by name during mass and a new teacher was fired days after being hired because he was gay.

Cacciatore played in a Des Moines group named Grand Champ, and some of those songs made their way into the first Good Morning Midnight album, Basket of Flowers, released in 2017.

“When I graduated,” he said, “I didn’t know where I wanted to go to college, or if I wanted to go to college, but I knew I wanted to set out on my own. I ended up enrolling at the University of Iowa, mainly as a way to get from one place to the next, but I didn’t stay in school for long.”

“The main reason I wound up in Iowa City was because we recorded Basket of Flowers at Luke Tweedy’s Flat Black Studios, just outside of town in Lone Tree. We were some of the first people at Flat Black, and it didn’t even have air conditioning yet. It was July and I was kind of like a snotty kid about it, but Luke was literally in

the process of building the studio. Looking back, a really interesting aspect of those sessions was being sweaty and cranky, but being OK with it despite being uncomfortable, because it was my first time in a recording studio.”

Cacciatore returned to Flat Black to record

Good Morning Midnight @ GDP Festival, Gas Lamp, Saturday, April 23 at 7 p.m., $18 festival pass

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305 April 2022 45

Culture

LittleVillageMag.com

the second Good Morning Midnight album, Both Neither and Both, as well as the group’s most recent album, Songs of Violence, which was released on vinyl in early 2022. Through those experiences, he began developing a relationship with the people at Flat Black, which gave him a peek into the wider regional music scene that developed around the recording studio. The more Cacciatore recorded there, the more he felt that

develop their own voice and their own style. As a young person creating music, which is a very vulnerable process, working with an experienced engineer like Luke, who is from an older generation, has helped me come into my own skin, and there’s no doubt others feel the same way.”

Soon after Cacciatore finished the first Good Morning Midnight album, Tweedy sent him a cryptic text asking about his employment situation. He had been working as a seasonal painter for the Iowa City Community “I WAS EXCITED ABOUT THE IDEA OF School District—a job he hated—so the musician was elated when he got HAVING A RECORD COLLECTOR AD IN the news that a job was waiting for him MY RECORD. I THINK THAT’S REALLY at Record Collector. Before he knew COOL, AND I’M VERY PROUD OF IT.” it, Cacciatore was standing behind the counter with his mop of long curly brown hair spinning Built To Spill rehe was part of a community, which was really cords, and he remembers thinking, “All right, that’s it. I’ve made it. My life begins and ends important to him.

“There’s an environment at Flat Black that now.”

“Working there has been a huge influence on encourages bands to make the exact record they want to make, on their own terms, without the in- me,” he said, “but more importantly, I think when fluence of an outsider trying to assert their idea of I moved to Iowa City, I was really looking for what the music should sound like,” he said. “This community. It was like a dream come true having is a really good environment for a young artist to the guy who owns a studio where I was recording

hook me up with this awesome job where I can sort of do band stuff and run a miniature record label between ringing up customers and filing away records. Record Collector has been a really supportive place for me in that way.”

Good Morning Midnight put out Basket of Flowers and Both Neither and Both on independent labels, but Cacciatore decided to self-release Songs of Violence because going the indie route still required him to cover most of the costs involved in making records. To get that album pressed on vinyl, he received some help from Record Collector’s owners, who gave him a loan in exchange for including an advertisement in the LP’s insert sheet.

“What’s ironic is that this is the first one that I’ve self-released, but it’s also the only one I’ve had financial help with,” he said. “Plus, I was excited about the idea of having a Record Collector ad in my record. I think that’s really cool, and I’m very proud of it.”

Cacciatore characterizes being a record store employee as a cross between attending a school where you learn about a wide range of music and being a sounding board for the eccentric customer-characters who gravitate there.

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“Honestly, sometimes working there is like being a therapist,” he said. “Which is sometimes great and is exactly what I want to do, and sometimes it’s pure torture. I guess it just depends on the person and the kind of day I’m having.”

Record Collector’s other two employees also play in bands, and Cacciatore sees it as a place that gives back to the community by sponsoring cool things around town. In his experience, the store provides a support beam for young musicians by helping them make a living and by serving as a gateway into the infinite, mysterious world of music—a vastness that is echoed in Good Morning Midnight’s swirl of influences.

Songs of Violence distills Cacciatore’s knack for hooky melodies, fuzzed-out guitar riffage and moody melancholia in ways that contain traces of his inspirations without sounding derivative.

It is probably no accident that some of his favorite acts, like Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo, are populated by record collectors whose music is more than the sum of its parts, something that is reflected in his group’s playful bio: “Good Morning Midnight began spontaneously, like a trip for ice cream or human combustion, when a record store in Iowa became sentient and began immediately devouring itself. The psychedelic folk music was gnashed to bits with every mouthful, the country records ended up smeared in dissonance from a stack of 90s rock albums someone set aside but never bought, the expensive Brian Eno reissues tried to sneak out with the barrelhouse piano LPs before they became their own snack.”

Cacciatore is pretty sure that the person he hired to write that prose didn’t even know that he worked at Record Collector, so it was flattering to have that aesthetic come through to a total stranger—especially because record stores are such a big part of his identity as a musician and fan.

“Working at Record Collector kind of goes back and forth between being like, ‘Oh, this is a retail job’ and ‘Wow, I’m a member of the community.’ Yes, it’s a store and they pay rent and have to meet the bottom line, but at the same time, that doesn’t mean that it can’t be a place where people genuinely connect with one another.”

Fun fact: Kembrew McLeod’s first job was as a bag boy at Big Star, a Southern grocery chain that inspired the name of a ’70s cult band beloved by music geeks, and just before his 16th birthday in 1986, he was offered a job at his local record store—which can be seen as a cosmic lateral move.

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Market St

Culture A-List

Poetry on the Breeze

Jeferson St

Not all who wander downtown Iowa City are lost, especially during Poetry al Fresco.

Washington St

C

Chauncey Swan Park

H Summit St

Governor St

Lucas St

Dodge St

Johnson St

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Burlington St

Iowa City Poetry Alfresco, College Hill Neighborhood, Iowa City Saturday, April 30 at 5 p.m. (rain date May 7), Free

Reading locations (additional locations and route TBD)

H River City Housing Collective, 200 S Summit St

A Chauncey Swan Park

D Perez Family Tacos, I 1024 Woodlawn Avenue

630 Iowa Ave B New Pioneer Food Coop, 22 S Van Buren St C Iowa City Catholic

E 613 E College St

J 1034 E College St

F College Green Park

K 1036 Woodlawn Avenue

Worker house, 113 S Johnson St

G 715 E College St

L PorchLight, 1019 E Washington St

COVID. Also: spring! Outside readings felt so right for so many reasons.”

The inaugural event was held in May 2021 in Iowa City’s Northside neighborhood. Roberts estimates that, all told, around 400 audience members attended the dozen 20-minute readings.

“Some people brought camping chairs and took

“I LOVED THE IDEA FROM THE START BECAUSE IT’S SO TRUE TO OUR MISSION HERE AT IOWA CITY POETRY, OF BRINGING ALL DIFFERENT TYPES OF POETS IN OUR COMMUNITY TOGETHER TO LEARN FROM EACH OTHER AND CELEBRATE TOGETHER.”

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College St

Van Buren St

Gilbert St

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College Green Park

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A

to facilitate the kind of programming Duer was proposing.

“I loved the idea from the start because it’s so true to our mission here at Iowa City Poetry, of bringing all different types of poets in our community together to learn from each other and celebrate together,” she said in an email. “Also:

K

Woodlawn Ave

B

BY GENEVIEVE TRAINOR

s anyone who has attempted it can tell you, organizing poets can be like trying to herd cats. They wander off; they follow their whims; they get distracted by the beauty of that one water droplet on the dented garbage can and the way it contrasts with the empty water bottle balanced aspirationally atop the lid in the hopes that someone will recycle instead of toss it.

So it’s no surprise that a couple of the region’s deftest hands at organizing poets are behind an event where wandering and distraction are part of the point.

Iowa City Poetry al Fresco was launched in 2021 by poet David Duer, a former English teacher at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, who for years advised their award-winning Washington Literary Press and produced the PAM Slam showcase. Duer sits on the advisory board of Iowa City Poetry, an organization founded by poet Lisa Roberts, an educator, advocate and performer who is herself uniquely adept at harnessing poetic energy.

“In the fall of 2020, Lisa had challenged [the advisory board] to come up with programming ideas,” Duer said in an email. “As was true of all of us, I was missing that sense of artistic community that Iowa City has always been so good at providing. Inspired by two other successful local events—the Mission Creek Lit Crawls and the Longfellow Neighborhood Front Porch Concerts—I proposed a series of short, outdoor, socially distanced readings that would take place in a neighborhood over the course of an evening.”

Roberts leapt at the chance for Iowa City Poetry

I

D Iowa Ave

them from site to site. Others plopped right down on the grass, sidewalks, curbs or walls. Some hosts put out chairs from their homes, which was incredibly sweet. But most people just lolled and listened,” she said. “Some listeners came for favorite poets or to support specific friends. But a good number of people were in for the entire

evening.”

Iowa City Poetry volunteers were assigned at each site, responsible for handing out maps and schedules, implementing safety protocols (including wiping down the mic between poets) and introducing the readers. Portable sound equipment was carried between sites by other volunteers, and there was always an abundance of masks and hand sanitizer available.

This year, the logistics will remain the same, but the entire enterprise will shift from the Northside to College Hill.

“David argued, and I agreed, that to stay true to the spirit of the event, we won’t want to call on the same hosts and the same readers each year,” Roberts said. “Sites sometimes come with homeowners as readers, so to truly be more inclusive of the whole community, we need to bring Iowa City Poetry al Fresco to new neighborhoods.”

Roberts and Duer were drawn to the idea of neighborhoods rather than business districts in part to offer audiences more room to spread out.

LittleVillageMag.com

But the distinct character of each neighborhood and the specific locations within it were a consideration as well.

“One of the beginning sites will be at the Alley Orchard behind New Pioneer Co-op. One of the ending sites will be the new PorchLight literary center near the end of East Washington Street.

Another site will be College Green Park, the site of Occupy Iowa City 10 years ago,” Duer said.

“Each venue adds personality to its reading.”

As they did last year on the Northside, the readings will begin at the edge of downtown and venture outward, deeper into College Hill. The progressive nature of the readings offers the feel of a pilgrimage, giving audiences time between each stop to engage with one another, to strengthen bonds.

“I’ve always gravitated to the idea of writers and artists as a supportive community,” Duer said.

He first moved to Iowa City in 1975 and fell in with the Actualists, who made him feel welcome as a young writer and who he still cites as an inspiration. Poetry has always been about community for him, starting with poems shared with peers around the school lunch table when he first started writing seriously, as a high school senior. He’s also an alum of the 1970s Iowa City band Pink Gravy, describing the experience of reciting pieces between songs as “poetry as kinetic energy.”

And one of his most powerful poetry memories is seeing Adrienne Rich read at Phillips Hall at the University of Iowa in the late ’70s.

“I was sitting in the aisle, the place was packed.

My future wife, Pat, was sitting in the middle section with her young son Sierra, who would eventually become my son,” Duer said. “He was fussy, and Pat was getting dirty looks from people sitting around her, so she decided to get up in the middle of the reading to leave. Rich saw this happening, stopped her reading, and asked her to sit back down. She was not going to let a young mother leave her reading because others were being inconvenienced.”

This is exactly the sort of community cultivation Roberts aims for with Iowa City Poetry, which is affiliated with the James Gang and sponsors youth poetry org IC Speaks. As the website says, Iowa City Poetry is all about “creating spaces where we can all grow as writers, learning with and from some of the most talented poets around.”

Although different stylistically and in terms of content, Roberts and Duer both write poems that are less monologue than conversation. And the way they are building this poetic community is a poem all in itself.

2022

PLAY PLAY MAKE

YOUR YEAR TO

INDIVDUAL AND GROUP LESSONS, ALL AGES

Genevieve Trainor started writing poetry in second grade and hasn’t gotten any worse.

Play now. Play for life.

319-351-2000 westmusic.com/lessons

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/CALENDAR

EVENTS: April April 2022

Public Domain

Planning an event? Submit event info to calendar@littlevillagemag. com. Include event name, date, time, venue, street address, admission price and a brief description (no all-caps, exclamation points or advertising verbiage, please). To find more events, visit littlevillagemag.com/calendar. Please check venue listing in case details have changed.

Saturday, April 9,

Misson Creek Festival (MCF): Vinyl Brew’s Oh Boy Road Show Big Grove Brewery, Iowa City, at 3 p.m., Free to enter Oh Boy Records, the Nashville-based label founded in 1981 by

the late, great John Prine, is hitting the road with stacks of wax this spring for a collab with Vinyl Brew: a run of record shows that kicks off at this year’s Mission Creek Festival. Attendees can indulge in the joys of crate digging for used records; there will also be new records for sale, including exclusive releases. Tré Burt, an Oh Boy artist performing at Riverside Theatre later that night as part of Mission Creek, will be on hand for signings. Tour producer Luke Dickens (owner of the growing regional micro-chain Vinyl Cup Records) told Iowa Public Radio that the events are all about forming connections among fans of music and beer.

Community Connections

54 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

Thursday, April 7 at 7 p.m. Put a

Friday and Saturday, April 8 and

Poem On It Candle Craft, Iowa City

9. Iowa City Darwin Day: Science

Public Library, Free (registration

Fest, University of Iowa, Various

required)

Venues, Free

EDITORS’ PICKS: April 2022

PRESENTED BY IOWA CITY DOWNTOWN DISTRICT

AROUND THE CRANDIC

Saturday, April 9 at 10 a.m. Underwater Egg Hunt, Robert E.

Saturday and Sunday, April 16-17. Women/Trans*/Femme

Lee Community Center, Iowa City, $10

Bike Touring, Iowa City Bike Library, Iowa City, Free

Saturday, April 9 at 12 p.m. Springtime Eggstravaganza w/

Thursday, April 21 at 3 p.m. Behind the Big House –Preserv-

Sally Chai, Iowa City Press Co-op, $10-100

ing & Interpreting the Material History of Slavery in the U.S.,

FIND MORE EVENTS

Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, Online, Free Tuesday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m. Chris Voss: Negotiating In Their World—Learning to Never Split the Difference, Hanch-

Sunday, April 24 at 2 p.m. Art Chat w/Kathy Schumacher

er, Iowa City, Free

and Akwi Nji, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, Free

Wednesday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. Steve Kroft: Off the ReFriday, April 29 at 5 p.m. Anne Frank Tree Planting Ceremo-

cord—How News Works, Hancher Free

ny, University of Iowa Pentacrest, Iowa City, Free Friday-Sunday, April 15-17 at 10 a.m. Great 80-Acre Easter Egg Hunt, Wilson’s Orchard & Farm, Iowa City, $10

Sunday, May 1 at 10 a.m. 38th Annual Red Shoe Run & Walk 5k, Lower City Park, Iowa City, $30

Saturday, April 16 at 10 a.m. Exiled in Iowa: A Doctor Who Fan Event, ICPL, Free

Friday, April 29, An

Evening of Chinese Performing Arts Coralville Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m., $10-14 The

Iowa City Area Chinese Association offers this presentation of dance and music in the lead-up to Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May). Some pieces are presented in memory of Chinese ancestors in the U.S. The program includes music from West High Cadenza Music Club and ICACA Youth String Ensemble, dances from the Chinese Classic Dance Club and Chinese Folk Dance Club, performance by the ICACA Children’s Choir Club and much more.

Via Iowa City Area Chinese Association

Theatrical Thrills Wednesday and Thursday, April

Giving Tree Theater, $20-23

$15-40

Sanctuary Pub, Iowa City, $10

Hancher Auditorium, Iowa City,

Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 23 at 9:30 p.m.

Opening Friday, April 29. The

$30-79

Chowdown: An Improv Feast,

Geoffrey Asmus, Joystick Comedy

Sound of Music, Theatre Cedar

Willow Creek Theatre Company,

Bar & Arcade, $10

Rapids, $22-46

6-7 at 7:30 p.m. The Band’s Visit,

Friday and Saturday, April 8 and

Iowa City, $15 Sunday, April 24 at 1 p.m. National

Opening Friday, April 29. Youth

Comedy Bar & Arcade, Iowa City,

Wednesday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m.

Theatre Live: The Book of Dust,

One Acts, Giving Tree Theater, $18

$5

Henry Rollins, Englert Theatre,

FilmScene—Chauncey, $13.05-

$15-39

15.93

of Nature, Giving Tree Theater,

Thursday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m.

and Spencer Loucks, Joystick

Marion, $23

Kathleen Madigan, Englert The-

Blue Man Group, Paramount The-

Comedy Bar & Arcade, $5

atre, Iowa City, $20-50

atre, $55-80

sea Handler, Paramount Theatre,

Opening Friday, April 22. Natasha,

Thursday, April 28 at 6:30 p.m.

Cedar Rapids, $49.50-219.50

Pierre, & The Great Comet of

Red Room Comedy Showcase,

9 at 8 p.m. Brett Hiker, Joystick

Friday and Saturday, April 29 and 30 at 9 p.m. A.J. Grill w/Eric Smith

Friday-Sunday, April 8-10. Farce

Thursday, April 14 at 8 p.m. Chel-

1812, Riverside Theatre, Iowa City, Saturday, April 16 at 7 & 9:15 p.m.

GTT Comedy Night: Tim Harston, LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305 April 2022 55

EDITORS’ PICKS: April 2022

PRESENTED BY IOWA CITY DOWNTOWN DISTRICT

AROUND THE CRANDIC

Saturday, April 9 at 3

Saturday, April 16 at

Saturday, April 23 at

p.m. MCF: Collide-

8 p.m. Jamey John-

7 p.m. Them Coulee

scope, Peel Dream

son & Randy Houser,

Boys, The Wild-

Magazine, Ohmme,

Paramount Theatre,

woods, Flash In A

Facs, Trumpet Blos-

Cedar Rapids, $49.50

Pan, Codfish Hollow

som Cafe, Iowa City,

- $126.50

Barnstormers, Maquoketa, $20-25

Free Saturday, April 16 at Saturday, April 9 at

8 p.m. Jon Wayne &

Saturday, April 23

7 p.m. Mac Lethal,

The Pain w/Reggae

at 9 p.m. Feed Me

Wildwood BBQ & Sa-

Rapids, Gabe’s, $15

Weird Things: Daniel Wyche and Chris

Public Domain

loon, Iowa City, $20 Sunday, April 17 at 7

Dingman, Trumpet

Saturday, April 9 at

p.m. Smokin Joe w/

Blossom Cafe, Iowa

7:15 p.m. MCF: Ramo-

It’s Really Nice and

City, $10-15

na and the Some-

Fishbait, Gabe’s, Free Wednesday, April 27

times, Tré Burt, Aaron

Friday, April 29, Taste

of Jazz

2022 Hotel at Kirkwood Center, Cedar Rapids, at 6 p.m., $65-600

Celebrate spring with this annual collaboration between KCCK Radio, 1st Avenue Wine House and the culinary and hospitality arts departments at Kirkwood College. Wine, beer and food intertwine with music from 10 of Soul and the Open Strings in this fundraiser for KCCK’s jazz education programs. A single ticket is $65, with a reserved table for eight running $600. The event has run since 2013, with a two-year pandemic hiatus in 2020 and 2021. The station’s Jazz Edu initiative includes the Schoolhouse Jazz program, Jazz Band Camp and the Corridor Jazz Project. The Taste of Jazz event aligns with Jazz Appreciation Month in April.

Dilloway, Riverside

Tuesday, April 19 at

at 6 p.m. Megadeth &

Theatre, $50-100

8:30 p.m. Yak Attack,

Lamb of God. Alliant

Gabe’s, $10

Energy PowerHouse, Cedar Rapids,

Saturday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. MCF:

Friday, April 22 at

Arooj Aftab, Soccer

6:30 at 8:30 p.m.

Mommy, Ric Wilson,

Club Hancher: Jazz

Wednesday, April 27

Englert Theatre,

at Lincoln Center

at 7 p.m. Alyx Rush,

$50-100

Quintet, Hancher Au-

MINKA, ADE, Ahzia,

ditorium, Iowa City,

Gabe’s, $10

Saturday, April 9

$10-25 Thursday, April 28

at 8:30 p.m. MCF: DYRAD, Cadence

Friday, April 22 at 7

at 7 p.m. Diplomats

Weapon, Dos Santos,

p.m. Primus, McGrath

of Solid Sound EP

Gabe’s, $50-100

Amphitheatre, Cedar

Release Party w/the

Rapids, $35-75

Uniphonics, Liquid Locals, Wildwood

Sunday, April 10 at

Musical Marvels

$39.50-69.50

8 p.m. Thelma and

Friday, April 22 at 8

BBQ & Saloon, $15-

the Sleaze w/Penny

p.m. Overtime & The

20

Wednesday, April 6

Thursday, April 7 at

Friday, April 8 at 7:15

Peach, Death Kill

Blue Collar Soldiers

at 7 p.m. The Talbott

7:30 p.m. MCF: KMR,

p.m. MCF: Lex Leto x

Overdrive, Casual

Band, Wildwood BBQ

Saturday, April 30 at

Brothers, Gabe’s,

Fennesz, Riverside

The Christine Burke

Disasters, Gabe’s, $12

& Saloon, $20-40

7 p.m. Okey Dokey

Iowa City, $17

Theatre, Iowa City,

Ensemble, Haley

$30-100

Heynderickx, Squirrel

Tuesday, April 12 at

Friday, April 22 at 9

Flower, Riverside

7 p.m. Smokepurpp,

p.m. Armchair Boogie

Theatre, $50-100

Gabe’s, $25

w/Dodge Street Duo,

Saturday, April 30

Gabe’s, $10

at 8 p.m. Mild High

Thursday, April 7 at

w/Lou Sherry, Gabe’s, $15-25

6:30 p.m. MCF: Alyx

Thursday, April 7 at

Rush, Elizabeth Moen,

8 p.m. Red Hot Chilli

Tennyson, Englert

Pipers, Elray’s Live &

Friday, April 8 at

Friday, April 15

Theatre, $30-100

Dive, Iowa City, $30

7:45 p.m. MCF: Ahzia,

at 7:30 p.m. The

Saturday, April 23

Codfish Hollow Barn-

The Body, Kassa

Magnetic Fields w/

at 1 p.m. Kids Club

stormers, $25-30

Club w/JW Francis,

Thursday, April 7 at 7

Friday, April 8 at

Overall, Gabe’s, $50-

Jake Xerxes Fussell,

Hancher: Jazz at Lin-

p.m. Jeffrey Foucault,

6:30 p.m. MCF: Good

100

Englert Theatre,

coln Center Quintet,

Sunday, May 1 at 7

CSPS Hall, Cedar

Morning Midnight,

$20-47

Hancher Auditorium,

p.m. Lorna Shore w/

Rapids, $20-25

Son Lux, Beach Bun-

Saturday, April 9

$10-25

Signs of the Swarm,

ny, Englert Theatre,

at 2:30 p.m. MCF:

Friday, April 15 at

$50-100

Maaaze, Wave Cage,

8 p.m. Dickie, CSPS

Saturday, April 23 at

7:15 p.m. MCF: Lake

Willy Tea Taylor, Adia

Hall, $17-22

4 p.m. Dogs on Skis,

Villain, Corridor, Tem-

Victoria, Big Grove

Raven Wolf Produc-

Sunday, May 1 at

pers, Gabe’s, $30-100

Brewery, Iowa City,

Saturday, April 16 at

tions, Williamsburg,

8 p.m. Transviolet

Free

7:30 p.m. Shade of

$10

w/Lorelei Marcell,

Thursday, April 7 at

Blue, Englert Theatre, 56 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

$25

Wildwood BBQ & Saloon, $20-30

Gabe’s, $15

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305 April 2022 57

EDITORS’ PICKS: April 2022

PRESENTED BY IOWA CITY DOWNTOWN DISTRICT

AROUND THE CRANDIC

Friday, April 15, Fashion

Show & Zine Release Party Trumpet Blossom Cafe, Iowa City, at 9:30 p.m., $7 The first issue of Iowa City DIY

fashion zine Fashion Is Murder is about to drop, and it’s got the party of the season to back it up. DJ CEO of Fashion Is Murder and MC Jarrett Hilarious host a bevy of local models showing off the looks. Because of the number of performers, the audience will be at low capacity, so grab your tix soon. A copy of the zine is included in the ticket price. Masks required, all ages.

Literary Luxuries Thursday, April 7 at 7 p.m. MCF:

Saturday, April 9 at 3:30

Reading w/Sasha taqwšəblu

p.m. MCF: Mistranslation for

LaPointe, Prairie Lights, Iowa City,

Non-Translators: A Generative

Free

Workshop w/Kristen Renee Miller, Iowa City Public Library,

Friday, April 8 at 5 p.m. MCF: Lit

Free

Walk, Various Venues, Iowa City, Free

Saturday, April 9 at 4:45 p.m.

MCF: Conversation w/Reneice Charles, Tameka Cage Conley,

Writers’ of Color Reading Series,

John Elizabeth Stintzi, Tuesday

Prairie Lights, Free

Agency, Free

Saturday, April 9 at 11 a.m. MCF:

Saturday, April 9 at 6 p.m.

Small Press & Literary Magazine

MCF: Keynote Reading: Eve L.

Book Fair, FilmScene—Chauncey,

Ewing, Fariha Róisín, Golden,

Iowa City, Free

FilmScene—Chauncey, Free

Saturday, April 9 at 11 a.m. MCF:

Sunday, April 10 at 1 p.m. 508

Ice Cream: Iowa City Expo for

Press Outdoor Poetry Mara-

Wednesday, April 20 at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, April 27 at 7 p.m.

Comics and Real Eclectic Alterna-

thon, PS1 North Art Gardens,

Robin Hemley w/Patricia Foster

Letter to a Stranger Reading, Prai-

tive Media, PS1 Close House, Iowa

Iowa City, Free

and David Hamilton, Prairie Lights,

rie Lights, Online, Free

Via Fashion is Murder Zine

Friday, April 8 at 5 p.m. MCF:

Free

City, Free

Thursday, April 28 at 7 p.m.

Tuesday, April 12 at 7 p.m.

Saturday, April 9 at 1 p.m. MCF:

Sarah Fay w/Jen Percy, Prairie

Thursday, April 21 at 7 p.m. Caite

Michelle Huneven w/Lan Saman-

Reading w/Sarah Gerard and Ka-

Lights, Online, Free

Dolan Leach, Prairie Lights, Free

tha Chang, Prairie Lights, Online,

Wednesday, April 13 at 7 p.m.

Saturday, April 23 at 10 a.m.

Saturday, April 9 at 2 p.m. Where

Tisa Bryant and Sarah Minor,

Writing Historical Characters w/

Saturday, April 30 at 10 a.m.

World and Skin Meet: The Embod-

Prairie Lights, Free

Gail Kittleson, Cedar Rapids Public

Independent Book Store Day, Next

Library, Free

Page Books, Cedar Rapids, Free

Free

veh Akbar, Prairie Lights, Free

ied Poem w/Hannah Soyer, Iowa City Poetry, Online, $25

Thursday, April 14 at 7 p.m.

Bob Dylan, Literature & the

Sunday, April 24 at 1 p.m. Art in

Saturday, April 30 at 10:30 a.m.

Saturday, April 9 at 2:15 p.m.

Poetry of the Blues w/Michael

the Afternoon: Poetry Month w/

Reptile Meet & Greet and Book

MCF: Conversation w/Sarah Minor,

Gray, Iowa City Public Library,

Cory Hutchinson-Reuss and Kath-

Drive Launch, Sidekick Coffee &

Daniel Khalastchi, Caryl Pagel,

Free

leen Maris Paltrineri, Artifactory,

Books, Free

Online, Free

Tuesday Agency, Iowa City, Free

Saturday, April 30 at 5 p.m. Iowa

Tuesday, April 19 at 7 p.m.

Mary Helen Stefaniak w/Bruce

Tuesday, April 26 at 7 p.m. Daniel

City Poetry al Fresco, College Hill

Brown, Prairie Lights, Free

Khalastchi and Marc Rahe, Prairie

Neighborhood, Iowa City, Free

Lights, Free 58 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM

Shopping green at the Closet ...

SHOP DONATE

Friday, April 22,

Earth Day Love Your Mother!

Wednesday, April 20 at 4 p.m. Earth Day Crafternoon, Rock Island Public Library, Free

VOLUNTEER

grows greens!

Conservation agriculture training in Lesotho

Friday, April 22 at 10 a.m. Earth Day Clean Up, Cedar Falls Downtown District, Cedar Falls, Free

851 Hwy 6 E, Iowa City 319-337-5924 crowdedcloset.org

Crowded Closet MCC THRIFT SHOP

Where every purchase is a gift to the world

Friday, April 22 at 12 p.m. Earth Day Rally, Cowles Commons, Des Moines, Free Friday, April 22 at 5 p.m. Artist Reception: The Gaia Project—A Climate Crisis Dialogue, Artisan Gallery 218, Des Moines, Free Saturday, April 23 at 10 a.m. EcoFest 2022,

Little Village 1/3 Page (4.8” x 4.8”) publish April 2022

Newbo City Market, Cedar Rapids, Free Saturday, April 23 at 10 a.m. Earth Day at the Garden: Free Admission, Des Moines Botanical Garden, Des Moines Saturday, April 23 at 12 p.m. IRL Earth Day Pickup, Iowa River Landing, Coralville, Free Saturday, April 23 at 12 p.m. Good Neighbor Iowa Earth Day Picnic, Hope Martin Park, Waterloo, Free

For questions, contact: Julie Birky Crowded Closet cell 319-325-7591

A day of fun for all ages

Live music Quilt show Food trucks Indoor rollerskating and more!

Sunday, April 24 at 10 a.m. South District Neighborhood Team Up to Clean Up, Wetherby Park, Iowa City, Free Sunday, April 24 at 11 a.m. Earth Day Cleanup & Spring Clothing Swap, Thew Brewing Company, Cedar Rapids, Free Sunday, April 24 at 3 p.m. Earth Day Storytime w/LENA, Sidekick Coffee & Books, Iowa City, Free LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305 April 2022 59

EDITORS’ PICKS: April 2022

PRESENTED BY IOWA CITY DOWNTOWN DISTRICT

AROUND THE CRANDIC

Saturday, April

30, The

Collins Story: Steps to the Moon CSPS

Hall, Cedar Rapids at 2 p.m., Free

Long before becoming Collins Aerospace, long before even Rockwell Collins, the now-anchor employer of the Cedar Rapids economy opened in 1931 as Collins Radio Company, in the basement of Arthur Collins’ Cedar Rapids home. In 1934, Adm. Richard E. Byrd’s second Antarctic expedition set sail with a Collins shortwave broadcasting station aboard, and in 1961, the company’s reach extended even further, providing the systems by which astronaut Alan Shepard radioed mission control to state, “What a beautiful view.” This documentary explores the path that brought Collins Radio to space.

Courtsey of CSPS

Films In Focus Wednesday, April 6 at 10 p.m. Late Shift

Tuesday, April 12 at 7 p.m. Bijou Horizons:

the Grindhouse: Reefer Madness, FilmScene—

at the Grindhouse & Peter Bogdanovich: In

A*P*E, FilmScene—Chauncey, Free-$7

Chauncey, $7

Thursday, April 14 at 3:30 p.m.The Picture

Thursday, April 21 at 6:30 p.m. Pride at Film-

Show: Chicken Run, FilmScene—Chauncey,

Scene: Tove, FilmScene—Ped Mall, $8.50-11

Memoriam: Targets, FilmScene—Chauncey, Iowa City, $7 Thursday, April 7 at 7 p.m. MCF: Every-

Free-$5 Saturday, April 23 at 10 p.m. Bijou After Hours:

thing Everywhere All At Once + Son Lux, FilmScene—Chauncey, $9.50-12, Free w/

Thursday, April 14 at 7 p.m. Man With A Movie

MCF Pass

Camera, FilmScene—Chauncey, $13.05-15.93

Friday-Wednesday, April 8-13, Various

Friday, April 15 at 7 p.m. Bijou Open Screen

Times. In Memoriam: Sidney Poitier, Various

2022, FilmScene—Chauncey, Free

The Freshman, FilmScene—Chauncey, Free-$7 Tuesday, April 26 at 7 p.m. Bijou Horizons: Shin Godzilla, FilmScene—Chauncey, Free-$7 Wednesday, April 27 at 10 p.m. Late Shift at

Films, FilmScene—Chauncey, $7-12 Saturday, April 16 at 1:30 p.m. Science on

the Grindhouse: Disorienting Dick, FilmScene—

Screen: Sapient_2.021, $5

Chauncey, $7

Saturday, April 16 at 10 p.m. Ferris Bueller’s

Thursday, April 28 at 7 p.m. A Decent Home,

Day Off, FilmScene—Chauncey, Free-$7

FilmScene—Chauncey, $9.50-12

Hours: Sing Street, FilmScene—Chauncey,

Tuesday, April 19 at 7 p.m. Human Trafficking

Saturday, April 30 at 10 p.m. Bijou After Hours:

Free-$7

Documentary Screening and Discussion, Iowa

The Social Network, Free-$7

Friday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m. Science on Screen: Picture A Scientist, FilmScene— Chauncey, Free Saturday, April 9 at 10 p.m. Bijou After

City Public Library, Free Sunday, May 1 at 6:30 p.m. Vino Vérité: Sirens,

Saturday and Sunday, April 10 and 11 at 11 a.m. The Picture Show: Chicken Run, Film-

Tuesday, April 19 at 7 p.m. Bijou Film Forum:

Scene—Chauncey, Free-$5

Kusama: Infinity, FilmScene—Chauncey, Free-$7

FilmScene—Chauncey, $10-20 Tuesday, May 3 at 7 p.m. Bijou Film Forum:

Wednesday, April 20 at 10 p.m. Late Shift at

60 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

Between the Lines, Free-$7

CELEBRATIO THDAY N BIR

Wednesday, April 13

5 - 7pm | Mercer Park, Iowa City Join ICPL in celebrating five years of Bookmobile service!

Don't miss a special family event featuring the ICPL Bookmobile for a special appearance at Mercer Park along with other community vehicles, crafts, and lots of fun!

With music by SloMoBop (319)356-5200 icpl.org/calendar LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305 April 2022 61

EDITORS’ PICKS: April 2022

PRESENTED BY IOWA CITY DOWNTOWN DISTRICT

DES MOINES

Friday, April 22,

Of Gravity and Light Ballet Des Moines, Des Moines Civic Center t 7 p.m., $22.50 $71.50 Beau Kenyon, director of education

Courtsey of DSM Ballet

and outreach at Ballet Des Moines, premieres his newest composition with the company for a one-night-only performance. Artistic director Tom Mattingly choreographed the piece. The interdisciplinary work is also accompanied by a video installation by Boston-based artist Yu-Wen Wu. Of Gravity and Light is exemplary of the power of art to capture abstract concepts in accessible ways, exploring the wonders of space through sound, imagery and movement.

Dynamic DSM Friday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m. Wolf Alice, Wooly’s,

Friday, April 15 at 8 p.m. Laugh Tracks Comedy

Thursday, April 21 at 6 p.m. Hawthorn Hill’s

Des Moines, $25

Show, The Station on Ingersoll, Des Moines,

13th Annual Art & More for Shelter, Curate—

$12-15

East Village, Des Moines, $60

Friday, April 15 at 8 p.m. Zap Tura w/Skyscrap-

Friday, April 22 at 5 p.m. Artist Reception: The

er, xBk Live, $10-13

Gaia Project—A Climate Crisis Dialogue, Artisan

Friday, April 8 at 8 p.m. Bad Bad Hats w/Nectar, The Maintenance Shop, Ames, $10-15 Sunday, April 10 at 1:30 p.m. Immersive Film

Gallery 218, Des Moines, Free

Series: The Lighthouse, Des Moines Art Center,

Saturday, April 16 at 7 p.m. The Blake Shaw

Des Moines, Free

Big(ish) Band, Noce, $12-50

Monday, April 11 at 6 p.m. Corsets and Con-

Sunday, April 17 at 4:30 p.m. Reframing Racial

versations w/Tirzah Price, Dog-Eared Books,

Justice in Creative Communities: Jordan W.

Ames, Free

Brooks, Mainframe Studios, Des Moines, Free

Monday, April 11 at 6:30 p.m. Three Poets:

Thursday-Monday, April 21 to 25. Planned

Gaslamp, Teehee’s Comedy Club, The Cave, Des

Laura Johnson, Hannah Soyer, Dawn Terpstra,

Parenthood Book Sale, Iowa State Fairgrounds,

Moines, $18

Artisan Gallery 218, Des Moines, Free

Des Moines, Free-$20

Opening Friday, April 22. Pippi Longstocking: The Musical, Des Moines Community Playhouse, Des Moines, $14-19 Saturday, April 23, at 4:30 p.m. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) All-Iowa Music Fest,

THE WEEKENDER YOUR WEEKLY EDITOR-CURATED ARTS COMPENDIUM, A.K.A.

st uf f to do IN YOUR INBOX EVERY THURSDAY LittleVillageMag.com/Subscribe

62 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305 April 2022 63

EDITORS’ PICKS: April 2022

PRESENTED BY IOWA CITY DOWNTOWN DISTRICT

QC & CF/WATERLOO

Sunday, April 10, Quad Cities Radical Study Group: Radical

Education As Praxis, Quad Cities DSA, Virtual, at 7 p.m., Free This interactive

workshop, led by AJ Reed, will explore the concept of “praxis,” or putting one’s philosophy into practice, through the lens of education. Reed will explain the concept of “radical education” and the importance of using different approaches to teaching when executing community education programs. Examples will include the work and actions of Paulo Friere, bell hooks and Sonia Borges.

Quintessential QC Friday, April 8 at 8

Tuesday, April 12 at

Sunday, April 24 at 2 p.m.

p.m. Roaring Rhetoric

6 p.m. Aromatherapy

Microplastic Madness Film

Poetry Open Mic ft. Just

Workshop with Gilda’s

Screening, Figge Art Museum,

Jennifer, Rozz-Tox, Rock

Club, Muscatine YMCA,

Davenport, $5

Island, $5-10

Free

Friday, April 8 at 8

Wednesday, April 20

p.m. Nick Offerman and Jeff

p.m. My Posse In Effect

at 6:30 p.m. The Artsy

Tweedy, Moline Public Library,

Beastie Boys Tribute

Book Club: The Year Of

Virtual, Free (registration

River Music Experience,

Magical Thinking, The

required)

Davenport, $15-75

Artsy Bookworm, Rock

Courtsey of Love Girls Magazine

Wednesday, April 27, 7

Island, Free Saturday, April 9, 7:30

Thursday, April 28 at 7 p.m.

SPECTRA Reading Series,

p.m. *The Captive*,

Saturday, April 23, all

Rozz-Tox, Free —Sarah Elga-

Blackbox Theater, Augus-

day. Record Store Day,

tian

tana, Rock Island, $5-15

Ragged Records, Rock Island and Davenport

Friday, April 22, John

Conlee, Electric Park Ballroom, Via Electric Park Ballroom

Waterloo, at 7 p.m., $37.50-57.50

Country staple and long-time Grand Ole Opry member John Conlee didn’t start his professional life as a musician. Sure, he started singing and playing guitar at age 10. But life led him to careers as a mortician and then a disc jockey before commanding the country charts with a total of 21 top-10 singles, seven of which hit number one. He brings his current tour through Iowa for two stops, starting at the historic Electric Park Ballroom before traveling to Ottumwa for an April 23 show at the Bridge View Center.

Wildest W’loo + more!

Saturday, April 9 at 10 a.m. Rod-

Friday, April 15 at 9 p.m. The

Opens Thursday, April 21. Day Zero,

Friday, April 29 at 7 p.m. Vertigo 2022

Con 2022, University of Northern

Rumours w/ Knubby, the Slow

UNI Interpreters Theatre, Lang 040,

| Performance Art Series: Isaiah Pat-

Iowa Rod Library, Cedar Falls, Free

Retreat, Octopus College Hill,

Cedar Falls, Free

ton, Waterloo Center for the Arts, Free

Cedar Falls, $10 Friday, April 22 at 7 p.m. Vertigo

Sunday, May 1 at 2 p.m. Dino Egg

That Glitters, Kings and Queens

Saturday, April 16 at 9 p.m.

2022 | Performance Art Series: Cor-

Hunt, Waterloo Center for the Arts,

Club, Waterloo, $5

Easter Weekend w Dead

bett Fogue, Waterloo Center for the

$4-8

Presidents, Screaming Eagle

Arts, Free

Saturday, April 9 at 6 p.m. All

Thursday, April 14 at 6 p.m. A Cat

American Bar & Grill, Water-

Named Fatima: Book Talk With

loo, Free

Monday and Tuesday, May 2-3, 7 p.m.

Thursday, April 28 at 4:30 p.m. Char-

Blue Man Group, Gallagher Bluedorn

James Kenyon, Hearst Center for

ity and Charcuterie, Isle Casino Hotel

Performing Arts Center, Cedar Falls,

the Arts, Cedar Falls, Free

Waterloo Ballroom, Waterloo, $25

$33.75-96.75

64 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305 April 2022 65

IOWA CITY NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE

George’s

est. 1939

312 E Market St | 351-9614

IC’s original northside tap, serving up cold brews, lively conversation, & our award-winning burgers.

BEER GARDEN

Mon-Sat 11am-midnight Sunday noon-midnight 66 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

DEAR KIKI

LittleVillageMag.com/DearKiki

H

i Kiki, Well, there’s no easy way to say this, but I had a very steamy dream about a coworker the other day. We work in the same office and have a friendly relationship, and yes, I do think they’re kind of attractive. On the other hand, we’re both happily married and it’s not something I’d ever really go for in real life. It was very vivid and I can still remember images from it, so now I don’t know how I’ll face them

over the last couple of years, because of the pandemic. Work relationships are sometimes the only ones we’ve been able to maintain, because there’s no choice but to spend time together. So lean into that, Dreams. Don’t squander a chance at true intimacy (which, unlike sex, is rare).

However, I definitely don’t want to sleep (heh) on your revelation that these steamy, vivid, memorable sex scenes were, you said, “creative.”

That’s something to explore WE’RE FRIENDLY, BUT NOT THE “HEY, I HAD A DREAM in a different light. Are you ABOUT MAKING INTIMATE, CREATIVE LOVE TO YOU” craving some LEVEL OF FRIENDLY, SO I CAN’T JUST EXPLAIN WHY specific types I SUDDENLY CAN’T MAKE EYE CONTACT WITHOUT of physical interaction that SOUNDING LIKE A TURBO-PERVERT. you’re not getting from your when I’m in the office next. We’re friendly, but spouse? This could be an opportunity to request not the “Hey, I had a dream about making inti- a bit of experimentation with the person you are mate, creative love to you” level of friendly, so I comfortable having actual sex with. It could be can’t just explain why I suddenly can’t make eye that you’ve been wondering about expanding contact without sounding like a turbo-pervert. your repertoire for a while, but weren’t sure your spouse would accede to your wishes, so your What do I do?

—What Dreams May Come? mind cast someone else in the role. Don’t ignore that creativity; utilize it! Thank your subconscious for providing you a template for potential ear Dreams, Sad to say, this is something you’re pleasure.

Ultimately, though, it’s up to you to continbest off just keeping to yourself. I, for one, would love it if our society could be a place ue treating your coworker like a human being. where these kinds of conversations could be off- Your dreams are your business, not theirs. Make hand, humorous, inoffensive and, most impor- that eye contact. Shake off your embarrassment. tantly, non-binding. But even the most casual Connect. xoxo, Kiki workplace is not the context to indulge in that level of witty banter. No matter how close the two of you are, “sounding like a turbo-pervert” is the least of your worries. You could face workplace harassment charges or, if there’s a power differential, worse.

But, Dreams, there’s no reason at all to be embarrassed. Fantasies happen; they’re natural, normal and fun! I’m no dream analyst, but a (cough) quickie internet search confirms my instinct that dreaming about a friend likely reveals a desire to connect with them more deeply in a non-physical way. Has work been rough lately, making you feel glad of their support and eager for more? Did a recent conversation make you Submit questions anonymously feel like “friendly office mates” could blossom at littlevillagemag.com/dearkiki into “true friendship”? or non-anonymously to We’re all human beings here (last I checked). dearkiki@littlevillagemag.com.

Connection with others like us isn’t just a desire, Questions may be edited for clarity and it’s a need. If we lack a network of companionlength, and may appear either in print or ship, it makes it harder for us to thrive in all aronline at littlevillagemag.com. eas of our lives. And the fact is that’s been tricky

D

KIKI WANTS QUESTIONS!

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68 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

AST R O LO GY

Bunny Clue Trail April 9, 10 a.m. to noon Discover clues hidden among fairy gardens for treasure.

Shed Hunt April 9, 1 to 3 p.m.

Explore nature in search of spring antler sheds.

Free Comic Book Day May 7, 1 to 3 p.m.

Celebrate the art, artists and stories of comic books.

Remarkable Rigs May 14, 10 a.m. to noon Meet the trucks and the people who keep the city going.

Playground Crawl May 21, 2 to 5 p.m.

Special activities help you explore the city’s playgrounds.

Ranshaw House Concert Series June & July, 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Catch up with friends amid live music each Friday.

Event details and more at northlibertyiowa.org/cityslate

Every City Slate event is free to attend thanks to our sponsors: MidWestOne Bank | Veridian Credit Union Hills Bank | Adam Schechinger State Farm Shive-Hattery | Eastern Iowa Airport – CID GEICO Philanthropic Foundation South Slope Cooperative Communications Centro, Inc. | University of Iowa Health Care

ARIES (March 21-April 19): To provide the right horoscope, I must introduce you to three new words. The first is “orphic,” defined as “having an importance or meaning not apparent to the senses nor comprehensible to the intellect; beyond ordinary understanding.” Here’s the second word: “ludic,” which means “playful; full of fun and high spirits.” The third word is “kalon,” which refers to “profound, thorough beauty.” Now I will coordinate those terms to create a prophecy in accordance with your astrological aspects. Ready? I predict you will generate wildly positive transformative consequences for yourself by adopting a ludic attitude as you seek kalon in orphic experiments and adventures.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Normally I love your steadfastness, your intense focus, and your stubborn insistence on doing what’s right. Your ability to stick to the plan even when chaos creeps in is admirable. But during the coming weeks, I suggest you heed the advice of martial artist Bruce Lee: “Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it.

If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.”

By Rob Brezsny

Davis, he was a Hall of Fame-level trumpeter and composer. You may be less familiar with Tony Williams. A prominent rock critic once called him “the best drummer in the world.” In 1968, those three superstars gathered in the hope of recording an album.

But they wanted to include a fourth musician, Paul McCartney, to play bass for them. They sent a telegram to the ex-Beatle, but it never reached him. And so the supergroup never happened.

I mention this in hopes it will render you extra alert for invitations and opportunities that arrive out of nowhere in the coming weeks. Don’t miss out! Expect the unexpected.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Poet Anne Carson claims that “a page with a poem on it is less attractive than a page with a poem on it and some tea stains.” I agree. If there are tea stains, it probably means that the poem has been studied and enjoyed.

Someone has lingered over it, allowed it to thoroughly permeate his or her consciousness. I propose we make the tea-stained poem your power metaphor for the coming weeks, Scorpio. In other words, shun the pristine, the spotless, the untouched.

Commune with messy, even chaotic things that have been loved and used.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini-born basketball coach Pat Summitt won Olympic medals, college championships, and presidential awards. She had a simple strategy: “Here’s how I’m going to beat you. I’m going to outwork you. That’s it. That’s all there is to it.” I’m recommending that you apply her approach to everything you do for the rest of 2022. According to my analysis, you’re on course for a series of satisfying victories if you nurture your stamina as you work with tenacious focus and relentless intelligence.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian author Martha Beck articulated the precise message you need to hear right now. She wrote, “Here is the crux of the matter, the distilled essence, the only thing you need to remember: When considering whether to say yes or no, you must choose the response that feels like freedom. Period.” I hope you adopt her law in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. You should avoid responses and influences that don’t feel liberating. I realize that’s an extreme position to take, but I think it’s the right one for now. Where does your greatest freedom lie? How can you claim it?

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In Britain, 70 percent of the land is owned by one percent of the population. Globally, one percent of the population owns 43 percent of the wealth. I am hoping there’s a much better distribution of resources within your own life. I hope that the poorer, less robust parts of your psyche aren’t being starved at the expense of the highly functioning aspects. I hope that the allies and animals you tend to take for granted are receiving as much of your love and care as the people you’re trying to impress or win over. If any adjustments are necessary, now is a favorable time to make them.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I’m glad you have been exploring your past and reconfiguring your remembrances of the old days and old ways. I’m happy you’ve been transforming the story of your life. I love how you’ve given yourself a healing gift by reimagining your history. But make sure you don’t get so immersed in bygone events that you’re weighed down by them. The whole point of the good work you’ve been doing is to open up your future possibilities. For inspiration, read this advice from author Milan Kundera: “We must never allow the future to collapse under the burden of memory.”

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): TV show creator Joey Soloway says, “The only way things will change is when we’re all wilder, louder, riskier, sillier, and unexpectedly overflowing with surprise.”

Soloway’s Emmy Award-winning work on Transparent, one of the world’s first transgender-positive shows, suggests that their formula has been effective for them. I’m recommending this same approach to you in the coming weeks, Leo. It will help you summon the extra courage and imagination you will need to catalyze the necessary corrections and adjustments.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Aquarian historian Mary Frances Berry offered counsel that all Aquarians should keep at the heart of their philosophy during the coming weeks. She wrote, “The time when you need to do something is when no one else is willing to do it, when people are saying it can’t be done.” I hope you trust yourself enough to make that your battle cry. I hope you will keep summoning all the courage you will regularly need to implement its mandate.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain,” wrote mythologist Joseph Campbell. I don’t think his cure is foolproof. The lingering effects of some old traumas aren’t so simple and easy to dissolve.

But I suspect Campbell’s strategy will work well for you in the coming weeks. You’re in a phase of your astrological cycle when extra healing powers are available. Some are obvious and some are still partially hidden. It will be your sacred duty to track down every possible method that could help you banish at least some of your suffering and restore at least some of your joie de vivre.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You know who Jimi Hendrix was, right?

He was a brilliant and influential rock guitarist. As for Miles

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): What’s the main cause of deforestation in Latin America? Logging for wood products?

Agricultural expansion? New housing developments? Nope. It’s raising cattle so people can eat beef and cheese and milk. This industry also plays a major role in the rest of the world’s ongoing deforestation tragedy. Soaring greenhouse gas emissions aren’t entirely caused by our craving for burgers and milk and cheese, of course, but our climate emergency would be significantly less dramatic if we cut back our consumption. That’s the kind of action I’m inviting you to take in the coming months, Pisces. My analysis of astrological omens suggests that you now have even more power than usual to serve the collective good of humanity in whatever small ways you can. (PS: Livestock generates 14.5 percent of our greenhouse gasses, equal to the emissions from all cars, trucks, airplanes and ships combined.)

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LO C A L A L B U M S

Sinner Frenz Separation from Church and State SINNERFRENZ.BANDCAMP.COM

M

usic has done a number on Luke Tweedy.

He was a record store guy with a uniquely acerbic bedside manner. He taught himself electronics and audio engineering and built his recording studio, Flat Black, from scratch. He’s documented (in first-rate commercial recordings) adventurous music from Iowa and beyond. He founded the infamous ft(The Shadow Government), whose punk anti-music weirdness was a hallmark of the 2000s Iowa City experimental music scene. He founded the Grey Area Music Festival, which takes place on the grounds of Flat Black Studios.

So what does Tweedy do when he gets a day off? Most recently, he teamed up with Brendan Spengler and Ed Bornstein.for the Sinner Frenz project. Together, they assemble songs out of modular synthesizer sounds, guitar pedals and drum machines. Bornstein (Foul Tip, Be Kind To Your Mother) provides percussion. There are also vocals from Tweedy and Jenny Hoyston of Erase Errata. Tweedy adds sounds from his idiosyncratic noise gizmos, effects and studio magic. It is raw electronic music with occasional distorted vocals.

Separation from Church and State (out April 20) is a studio production, but each song begins as a live performance on modular synthesizer.

Spengler adds occasional live keyboards. It’s a cliche to call music unique, but I don’t know anyone else making this particular thing—equal parts outsider industrial music like

Submit albums for review: Little Village, 623 S Dubuque St., IC, IA 52240

Coil and bleak, mechanistic punk rock like Suicide.

“Sin Comin On” is a key track. It’s wrapped on an armature of a heavy, distorted drum loop and filthy, distorted bass. Over this, Tweedy yells/ sings “I can feel a sin coming on.”

The embrace of distortion and noise is so finely worked it’s paradoxically almost elegant.

Techno influences the repetitive beats, but techno is usually aimed and producing dance floor ecstasy.

This is dark, mechanical music, driven by the relentless clock of the modular synth. In the context of Iowa, it has a different vibe. You can hear the wind over the flat land of rural Iowa, stirring up and making something new from musical concepts first imagined in Berlin, London and downtown New York.

The fat synth lead in “Disconnect” recalls Gary Numan’s “Cars”; the vocals seem to float into the song like pirate shortwave radio signals.

Brendan Spengler’s love of techno pop is evident in his previous work, but “Disconnect” is a purer expression of that love, a perfect machine of a song, as shiny as it is bleak. It echoes the no nonsense electro of Neil Young’s Trans and the more dystopian side of Devo.

The chief animating force for Sinner Frenz is the raw experimentation with minimal gear that goes on in dank Iowa basements. They seek a dark lushness, where every sound’s sensual texture stands on its own. Flat Black Studios is full of vintage microphones and boutique audio processors, but they remember what it’s like to struggle with a broken Casio to make something true and vital. It’s music made with an extreme economy of extravagant means.

Separation from Church and State goes all in on its punk electronic aesthetic, which means that it may not be for everyone. But for those who like Kraftwerk as much as stoner metal, who connect viscerally with the raw beauty of square waves and overdriven filters, this record will do the job.

—Kent Williams

evoke reaching out or looking across distances through time and/or space.

It’s appropriate that one of the earliest tracks—titled “Wyoming”— slips between easy-going pop-rock and sprawling strings that conjure the image of a strong, independent woman pulling away from a curb because she’s sick of someone’s shit (“A childhood home set on fire”).

Song narrators focus on movePictoria Vark ment and the strange confidence The Parts I Dread of the wondering wanderer; that is, striding toward the unknown, PICTORIAVARK.BANDCAMP.COM sure-footedly unsure. She tells us obody sounds like Pictoria there’s “more to be than in Demarest Vark. She’s a classic punk / More to live for than I know yet.”

Tracks like “Demarest” and “Out” balladeer and veritable witch of the North. Her melodies are cool don’t neglect the corresponding urge and ethereal. It’s the lyrics that to break free; from an ode to escapare warm, and when she sings, her ing New Jersey’s suburban air to the voice is naked: wholly unadul- delightfully forthright, “I wanted out terated and unpretentious. Carrie / I wanted out / This fucking house / Brownstein would be a fan if she I wanted out.” isn’t already.

The artist’s history of travel and wanderlust is a critical influence. By day, Pictoria Vark is bassist Victoria Park, touring THE SONG “TWIN” SEEMS with Squirrel Flower DESTINED TO OPEN A and schooling Twitter FUTURE CULT CLASSIC, (@pictoriavark) on everything from workCOMING-OF-AGE DARK ers’ rights to life on the COMEDY DRAMA road. She’s a citizen of the world, having lived in folk aesthetic microcosms like Wyoming In fact, there are moments in (of course) as well as cultural hubs Pictoria Vark’s latest album, The like Paris and NYC. Currently setParts I Dread, that sound like organ- tled in Iowa City, we should enjoy ic, unprocessed Sleater-Kinney. You her company while we can. This can picture her recording instrumen- summer, she’ll tour and promote The Parts I Dread, which arrives on April tal tracks in a garage studio.

Play The Parts I Dread on a 8 for streaming and download.

The vinyl release from Get Better cloudy afternoon. As you listen to the opening bars of “Twin” for the Records is available on Aug. 12— first time, feel free to imagine you’re for now; press issues (read: supply the main character in a ’00s-era in- chains) have pushed back the release die film. The song seems destined to date multiple times. Regardless, it open a future cult classic, coming-of- will be worth the wait. This is an age dark comedy drama, as Pictoria album made for vinyl. The rocking Vark effortlessly intones over a clas- guitar that closes out “I Can’t Bike” sic, understated bass: “Born on the simply must blast from two giant, same fateful day in June / I was an wooden speakers. hour ahead of you.”

—Melanie Hanson While accessible, the album is highly introspective. The themes

N

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LO C A L B O O KS

Candice Wuehle Monarch SOFT SKULL

J

essica is an ex-child pageant queen with an awful memory.

In fact, she can’t remember her childhood nearly at all outside of the pageants she participated in.

The daughter of Dr. Clink, chair of the Boredom Studies department at a nameless Midwestern university, and Grethe Clink, a Norwegian beauty who hosts not-quite-Tupperware parties, Jessica has always had a strange life. It begins to get stranger when she starts waking up regularly with odd bruises and deduces she must be sleepwalking.

But when Jessica develops a series of gruesome crime scene photos while working at the university’s photography shop, she suddenly unlocks a jumbled chain of dreams (or are they memories?) that send her on a journey of self-discovery.

University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Candice Wuehle (who was also raised in Iowa City) pulls out all the stops with this bizarre delight of a debut novel. Wuehle has released three collections of poetry, but Monarch is her first foray into fiction, melding true crime, ’90s culture, child beauty pageants and science fiction. There’s much to pique a reader’s interest.

As we follow Jessica through the novel, we are dipped into the worlds of both the mundane and the supernatural to raise questions about identity, memory and the connection between the two: Is identity something we form internally, or is it decided for us? How

Submit books for review: Little Village, 623 S Dubuque St., IC, IA 52240

much control do we actually have over our lives?

In addition to these big questions, the book also poses plenty of opportunities to create stunning mental pictures. Wuehle’s poetic background rears its head consistently throughout the novel with beautiful descriptions: “If I listen to her albums now, they possess the polyphony of a whipped dessert, too sweet for teeth, too sugar for earth.” These descriptions take us into familiar underworlds and suburban hellscapes that come alive while reading. Her knack for abjection as well as short chapters with plenty of white space make Monarch a natural page-turner.

While Wuehle does an excellent job of sowing seeds of dysfunction and mystery throughout the novel, everything is pretty much wrapped neatly into little bows by the end, leaving us with no questions about where Jessica or the supporting characters end up. For a book that starts out very cryptically, it’s certainly a change of pace. By the same token, Jessica’s first-person narration guides us confidently

CANDICE WUEHLE PULLS OUT ALL THE STOPS WITH THIS BIZARRE DELIGHT OF A DEBUT NOVEL. through the chaos so even when the story gets complicated, it is never confusing.

These factors make the novel perfect for readers who love clean endings. Personally, I prefer both mystery and resolution. I like to balance on the edge of my seat throughout, but I also like to end the book with an idea of what happened to my favorite characters. Monarch turned out to be the perfect novel to keep me rapt for the two days I spent reading it, and I will be eagerly waiting for Wuehle’s next release.

—Lily DeTaeye

Eric Gapstur Sort of Super ALADDIN | SIMON & SCHUSTER CHILDREN’S PUBLISHING

H

e had to have known it was coming.

There is no way that a competent publicist didn’t prepare Eric Gapstur for the eventuality that his graphic novel about 11-year-old Wyatt Flynn and his family coming to terms with his newly-acquired superpowers in the wake of his mother’s disappearance would draw comparisons to the Netflix show Raising Dion (based on the 2015 comic and short film from Dennis Liu), which just dropped its second season this February, and follows the story of 10-year-old Dion Warren and his mother navigating his emerging superpowers after the death of his father.

Raising Dion is about a Black family in an urban setting, with an only child, a mother who works in the arts and a big bad rooted in questions of scientific ethics.

It feels custom-designed for me.

Sort of Super centers on a white rural family, explores sibling dynamics and features a father who works in law enforcement. In other words, it could be argued that I am the furthest thing from a “target audience” that this book could possibly have. That Gapstur wrote this for exactly not-me.

Well, too bad. I fell in love anyway.

There’s something about that age. It wasn’t yet called “tween” when I was experiencing it, but somehow that stretch between 10 and 14 has come to offer something incredibly meaningful and

relatable. There’s a whole lot of becoming that happens in those years. And while the Raising Dion comparison may have been inevitable, Gapstur might be caught off guard as I continue by likening it to the Babysitters Club series and the recent film Finding Red. Wyatt Flynn is navigating that same delicate territory of balancing his responsibilities to himself and to others. When his little sister, Adeline, expresses surprise that the giant W on his costume stands for Wyatt, patiently lecturing him on the concept of secret identities, it’s evident that there’s more than just childish ignorance driving his choice. He’s working hard to understand who he is, and he needs that thread of connection, even while super, to ground him.

But you don’t need a thinkpiece on the wonders of middle grade nostalgia. The keys to this work are in far more than just how well it captures old folks like me. This is a book that’s full of fun, joy and wonder. The exuberance Wyatt and Adeline express, even when faced with situations of adult-level seriousness, is brilliantly captured in Gapstur’s Bill Watterson-esque facial expression details and the way he illustrates Wyatt’s powers, grounded in his DC comics background, but extra: the way an 11-year-old reading superhero books for the first time might experience them.

I don’t often go back and purchase copies of books that I get advances on, but this is one I absolutely will, and there’s one reason for that: Dearbhla Kelly. While Gapstur’s words and pictures are compelling, Kelly’s colors are a delight, capturing that middle grade spirit in their own way. My review copy lacks colors for the second half, and I simply must read the full book as intended.

Without a doubt, though, the best thing about Sort of Super?

The “1” on the spine, indicating that there will be more to come.

—Genevieve Trainor

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305 April 2022 73

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74 April 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV305

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ACROSS 1. Take a jazz solo with your voice 5. Disney character who says “Some people are worth melting for” 9. Singers holding down the low end 15. He ran shirtlessly around the Enterprise, waving a sword 16. Word before show or tune 17. Another name for a stoat 18. Air Bud, after turning pro?

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The American Values Club Crossword is edited by Ben Tausig. LittleVillageMag.com

by Francis Heaney

agreement (in gendered terminology) 21. Meld 22. Lethargy after thirds, say 24. Crime committed by Enron 27. Dark fog 28. My least favorite thing, when it comes to opening a brown paper package tied up with string 29. Instance of getting drunk near a hibernating bear without trying to hide it?

33. Catch a glimpse of 34. Atom that’s lost or

62

gained an electron 35. Candyman director DaCosta 36. Had Bieber keep an eye on, while you ran a quick errand?

42. Person scheduling shifts: Abbr.

43. Animal who would make a good interrogator (because she would just sit and wait for you to crack) 44. Band whose full name includes the word “Manoeuvres”

47. Like someone busted for having not yet made it to the tanning salon?

53. Source of some pressure 54. Better Call ___ 55. Cluster like a copse 56. Person sending funds 58. Grain container 60. 2009 movie whose first sequel is now scheduled for December 2022 61. Option for those (like me, and like some characters in this puzzle) whose gender identity is neither entirely

male nor female 66. Figure out from facts 67. E pluribus ___ 68. State that screwed up its bellwether status in 2020 69. “___ Fideles” 70. Pieces in some solitaire games 71. Breaks that are easier to take when working from home

31. Agcy. currently led by Merrick Garland 32. Band that produced Halsey’s latest album, for short 37. Honorary title for a retiree 38. Three-pt. scores 39. “Where the Sidewalk Ends” poet Silverstein 40. Bear voiced by Seth MacFarlane 41. “Carpe diem” letters 45. Network that hosts the VMAs 46. Manic Panic product 47. Ticked off 48. Like Footloose, in 2011 49. “Hard pass,” when being offered haggis 50. Turn to ash, perhaps 51. Product of a certain 30-Down 52. Like some patches 53. The house of the devil?

57. Ability to navigate a touchy topic 58. Nestled comfortably 59. Personal computers first sold in 1981 62. 67-Across, in English 63. Comment after an epiphany 64. Problem about which you might say “darn it” 65. “How do you do, fellow kids?” greetings

DOWN 1. Its last four digits are more frequently used than the first five: Abbr.

2. Baby bear or bobcat 3. Modeled after 4. Amount of water for a bath 5. Things you don’t want to find out your lifeboat is missing 6. Owen Wilson’s younger brother 7. Did away with a hero?

8. As a lark 9. Standing for 10. He was seen on J.Lo’s SNL episode 11. Squarely 12. Athlete Biles with many gold medals (including one from me for practicing good self-care in Tokyo!)

13. Fill with fond feelings 14. Upper house of the French parliament 19. Maker of the e-tron electric SUV MARCH ANSWERS 23. Royal sphere of RUMB A MEMB E R B CC influence?

A R I E L A R A B L E OUR F A L L O F S A I GON A R E 24. Kind of video U P D A T E D game where you spend A L L T H A T E A R A CN E U P DO a lot of time looking at W A A D S E M I D A N E A S S R I V E T S S T OR K a barrel: Abbr.

RH YME E R I E A S P E N 25. Feel crappy about N Y L ON S I Z E U P L AO 26. Director Ferrara or U B E R C E N T ME L T C AM I I R A N I CU singer Tesfaye U P C L OS E P L A T E A U 27. Grubhub listing B P A R E F UGE E C AMP S A L S CU E D I N A N I S E 30. Component of a N E E A P RON S O T T E R 55-Across, perhaps

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