No knocks The climate crisis isn’t on our doorstep It’s alr the impacts are truly terrifying but MidAmerican has nev opportunity to do something about it by showing coal the d fuels the boot for good.
The climate crisis is here, and taking action has never been more im Reduction Act (IRA) is a treat bag of the largest climate investments that takes necessary steps to meaningfully address the climate crisis
No knocks. The climate crisis isn’t on our doorstep. It’s already in the house and the impacts are truly terrifying—but MidAmerican has never had a better opportunity to do something about it by showing coal the door and giving fossil fuels the boot for good.
The climate crisis is here, and taking action has never been more important. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a treat bag of the largest climate investments the U.S. has ever made that takes necessary steps to meaningfully address the climate crisis.
While it has led the development of wind energy, MidAmerican remains the largest climate polluter in Iowa with no plans to retire its five coal plants before 2049. Retiring MidAmerican’s coal by 2030 could save Iowans $1.2 billion. Iowans deserve better.
There has never been a better opportunity for MidAmerican Energy to clean up the cobwebs and retire its coal plants. With the invaluable treats offered from
While it has led the development of wind energy, MidAmerican rema polluter in Iowa with no plans to retire its five coal plants before 2049 coal by 2030 could save Iowans $1 2 billion Iowans deserve better
There has never been a better opportunity for MidAmerican Energy t and retire its coal plants With the invaluable treats offered from the I speed up the coal to clean energy transition now more than ever
the IRA, MidAmerican must speed up the coal-to-clean energy transition now more than ever.
Tell MidAmerican keeping coal is scary. It’s time to invest in clea MidAmerican Energy must retire its coal fleet by 2030. Show your su energy!
Tell MidAmerican you’ve had enough of its tricks. MidAmerican Energy must retire its coal fleet by 2030. Show your support for clean, affordable energy!
Link to QR code: https://linktr.ee/ia beyon
Emma Colman -Organizing Representative
eady in the house and er had a better door and giving fossil portant. The Inflation the U.S. has ever made s. ins the largest climate 9 Retiring MidAmerican’s o clean up the cobwebs RA, MidAmerican must an energy. upport for clean, affordable ndcoal
Funding gaps and racist jabs have plagued Deidre DeJear’s allAmerican campaign for governor.
24 cravings
Horror movies to make your stomach churn with DSM delicacies to settle it again.
Use Halloween as an excuse to be your best self by joining these frightsfor-a-cause charity events.
Little Village (ISSN 2328-3351) is an independent, community-supported news and culture publication based in Iowa City, published monthly by Little Village, LLC, 623 S Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52240. Through journalism, essays and events, we work to improve our community according to core values: environmental sustainability, affordability and access, economic and labor justice, racial justice, gender equity, quality healthcare, quality education and critical culture. Letters to the editor(s) are always welcome. We reserve the right to fact check and edit for length and clarity. Please send letters, comments or corrections to editor@littlevillagemag.com. Subscriptions: lv@littlevillagemag.com. The US annual subscription price is $120. All rights reserved, reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. If you would like to reprint or collaborate on new content, reach us at lv@ littlevillagemag.com. To browse back issues, visit us online at issuu.com/littlevillage.
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Meet this month’s contributors:
Avery Gregurich is a writer living and writing at the edge of the Iowa River in Marengo.
chad rhym is an Iowa-based photographer and Sociology Ph.D. student at the University of Iowa.
Dana James is founder of Black Iowa News. blackiowanews.bulletin. com, @blackiowanews
Elle Wignall is a Des Moines-based food writer, baker and cooking instructor with an out-of-control sweet tooth.
Jo Allen (they/them) is an LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC-focused photographer based in Des Moines, IA. Instagram: @jovisuals
John busbee works as an independent voice for Iowa’s cultural scene, including producing a weekly KFMG radio show, The Culture Buzz, since 2007.
John Martinek is a visual artist, cabinetmaker and currently a parttime home-school kindergarten teacher. More art at johnmartinek. com and Instagram @jnmartinek.
Kembrew McLeod is a founding Little Village columnist and the chair of Communications Studies
Issue 7, Volume 1 October 2022
Do the Democrats stand a chance?
In this pre-election issue, LV takes a look at the candidates taking on Reynolds and Grassley. Plus: How to vote, horror films and food pairings, Halloween-ing for a cause, and a candidate quiz!
at the University of Iowa.
Lauren Haldeman is the author of Team Photograph, Instead of Dying (winner of the 2017 Colorado Prize for Poetry), Calenday, and The Eccentricity is Zero.
rob cline is a writer and critic who would gleefully give the current state of things a negative review.
Sarah Elgatian is a writer, activist and educator living in Iowa. She likes dark coffee, bright colors and long sentences. She dislikes meanness.
Sam Locke Ward is a cartoonist and musician from Iowa City. In 2020 his “Futile Wrath” strip for Little Village won the Association of Alternative Newsmedia’s award for cartoon of the year.
You could see your bio here.
Culture writers, food reviewers and columnists, email: editor@littlevillagemag.com
Illustrators, photographers and comic artists, email: jordan@littlevillagemag.com
Catch up on Little Village’s most-viewed headlines from last month. Read more at LittleVillageMag.com.
‘there was no doubt that she loved Des Moines’: Local businesses help raise money for Autumn rupkey Memorial build by Lily Detaeye, Sept. 16
In 2018, Drake University grad and Habitat for Humanity worker Autumn Rupkey passed away suddenly due to a traumatic brain injury. Her death left the communities that loved her reeling and searching for ways to commemorate her. Three years later, they found the answer.
Sundara tattoo owner rayna ross is a master of Mehndi — both henna and permanent ink by courtney Guein, Sept. 16
Indian tattoo artist Ross has shaken the Central Iowa tattoo scene by utilizing her skill and background in Mehndi, often referred as henna in the U.S. Adopted from Tamil Nadu, India at the age of 2, Mehndi was Ross’s way of connecting to her Indian culture.
A beekeeper is born: Kara Kelso harvests honey and explains why Des Moines has ‘some of the healthiest bees around’ by Lily Detaeye, Sept. 23
“Look at this pollen pocket! Look at this girl!” Kara Kelso, co-owner of The Slow Down Coffee Co., excitedly directs my attention to one of her 30,000 bees. We are in her backyard in the Highland Park neighborhood, harvesting honey and treating the three hives for mites, the most common killer of honeybees.
to our newsletter for the very latest news, events, dining
Forty years after the Johnny Gosch disappearance, fear continues to fuel conspiracy theories in Iowa and beyond Story and audio recording by Emma Mcclatchey, Sept. 7
Amid the new 24-hour news cycle of the ’80s, fear of child abduction coalesced into what sociologists refer to as a moral panic, a particularly tenacious form of backlash to social progress—racial equity, feminism, LGBTQ visibility—combined with rampant disinformation. As the stranger-danger panic took off, Iowa’s missing paperboys were made into mascots.
recommendations and LV Perks: LittleVillageMag.com/
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Adamantine Spine Moving (41)
Bravo Greater Des Moines (10)
Broadlawns (35)
Campbell’s Nutrition (8)
Fine Jewlery (14)
Collins Community Credit Union
Curate (35)
Des Moines Art Center (25)
Des Moines Music Coalition (27, 32)
Des Moines Performing Arts (46)
Des Moines Playhouse (48)
Des Moines Symphony (27)
Full Court Press (42)
Greubel Legal Services (41)
Grinnell College Museum of Art (7)
Independent Historic East Village (38-39)
- Des Moines Botanical Garden - Wooly’s
- Raygun
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Infinite Resources: Ampified (29)
Iowa City Downtown District (19)
Iowa Department of Public Health (44)
Iowa Environmental Council (28)
Iowa Public Radio (37)
Kum & Go (30)
Mainframe Studios (11)
Noce (19)
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Science Center of Iowa (30)
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University of Iowa Museum of Art (33)
Varsity Cinema (25)
xBk (40)
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AVerAGe NUMber OF cHILDreN
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23.4%
20.9%
15.8%
12%
15.8%
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Female: 49.25
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eDUcAtION
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college: 7.8%
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It’S A PLeASANt LAte SUMMer AFterNOON as the sun floods Whistler Studio in Des Moines’ historic East Village. I arrive to find our pho tographer gesticulating wildly about the room, watching the light play on her hand as she tries to find the best of the quickly sinking sunlight. I help her move some scrims around the room as we decide on a backdrop.
We’re preparing for the arrival of a plethora of talent joining me in an effort to support abortion rights in Iowa. These are all people whom I’ve met as a performing artist in Central Iowa. They are all women whom I admire and respect as art ists, as friends, as people.
The moment that Roe v. Wade was overturned I knew I had to do something. As a male, I feel it is my place to advocate for people who can get pregnant and, as such, I need to shut the hell up and make space for powerful women to deliver a
powerful message.
The first of the artists to arrive for the photo shoot is the force of nature known as Sara Routh. She sweeps into the room with a toothy hello, brandishing wine enough to share with me, our photographer, and the eight other women arriv ing one by one, clad in black, representing eight powerhouse musical acts coming together to raise money to support abortion rights.
Abortion rights in Iowa are in danger. Too soon we could be living in a state where individ uals, families, and their supporters will need to cross state lines to receive abortion care at great personal expense.
This is why we’re here. We’re gathering for the first time in one physical place to share each other’s company, strength, and prepare for a show to benefit the Iowa Abortion Access Fund (IAAF), an organization that offers grants to
people who need financial assistance not only for the procedure itself, but for travel and accom modations wherever abortion access is available; a depressingly necessary service should current trends continue.
We arrive and begin with individual head shots of each artist present. Sadly we’re missing some of the troupe due to COVID issues and conflict ing strict rehearsal schedules, but we’re mostly here and the energy in the room is palpable; the sisterhood of women complimenting each other, sipping wine, and casting the occasional sober ing look as we each remember why we’re here.
We’re here because it’s important. Because it matters. Because the individual freedoms of all Iowans are at stake.
Sara Routh was the first to arrive, and the first to stand before the lens. Her soulful, jazzy voice and tender guitar will be part of the festivities held Saturday, Nov. 5 at xBk in the Drake neigh borhood of Des Moines (3-10 p.m., free-will do nations at the door). “Abortion is an issue that draws upon deep values, personal experiences, and a range of identities. That’s what makes it such a tough topic. I believe the hardest conver sations are the ones we need to have the most.
Our conservative delegates are put ting all the weight on religious be liefs, not on the folks who are faced with these difficult decisions. It’s a power move in every way and I will not sit by and allow a government or any persons’ god have power over what I choose to do with my body.”
Diana Weishaar fronts the elec tric pop trio Contakta and is half of the driving force of long time Central Iowa favorite The Host Country. “We’re coming togeth er to support the IAAF,” she says, “but this is also about holistically supporting women’s rights to make their own decisions about their body; protecting the rights of the in dividual, which is something I think we can all agree on.”
We gather for a group photo be fore the sun fails us completely. The hour has flown by. Some of us make plans for an after session drink, oth ers need to rush off and put children to bed. All of us leave looking for ward to a night of memorable mu sic and doing what we can to help people who need it. Please join us.
Ryan Morris, a.k.a. Ryan O’Rien
Forty years after the Johnny Gosch disappearance, fear continues to fuel conspiracy theories in Iowa and beyond (Sept. 7)
This is the most thorough and incisive piece on the Johnny Gosch disappearance I’ve ever read. My only minor footnote is there is no way on earth or any planet circling this sun that Ottis Toole killed Adam Walsh.
—Chris S.rESHArE: the ‘demure white supremacy of the Midwest’ (originally published Jan. 6, 2021)
I had only just moved to the Sad but true. It shows in dif ferent ways. In the midwest it feels covert and in some cases not; enter in the south it seems more entitled and in some cases covert. Sad state of affairs. Everyone wants to speak in niceties and turn an eye for the action rather than
Village
“There has been a really big focus on water quality in this state, but it has never been at a transformational level that we need in order to see change at the scope and scale which is neces sary to protect our waterways.” —Alicia Vasto, the Iowa Environmental Council’s new water program director
“This is somebody who’s holding a sign and saying, ‘Please donate mon ey to me.’ And so we’re giving tickets to people who are literally begging for money. It’s not effective. It’s criminalizing pov erty, criminalizing homelessness.”
—Des Moines City Councilmember Indira Sheumaker, who crowdfunded a local man’s $95 citation for standing on a me dian
“I got homies that can thrift shop and look better than people that are pull ing up in $1,000 suits.” —B. Well, Des Moines musician and founder of the new apparel line Elegance, on his target cus tomers
“So, my question is, is it OK to camp in the city?” —Exile Brewing Company co-owner Amy Tursi, beginning her comments at a Sept. 12 Des Moines City Council meeting, video of which went viral and drew criticism from housing advocates
speak honestly. In my observation and opinion.
—Michelle H.
I imagine we’re still dealing with the legacy of peo ple of color being intentionally kept out of New Deal era- hiring and union labor gigs. —Chad S.
Des Moines city councilmember Indira Sheumaker crowdfunds fine for man ticketed while panhandling (Sept. 29)
Indira’s the only good council member, we need to vote the others out! —Giada M.
No, Josh Mandelbaum is an honest and dedicated councilman who has done more for Des Moines and combating climate change than Indira ever has. —Tyler G.
Iowa’s League of Heroes spare no expense to offer escapism.
bY JOHN bUSbeeOctober. Thanks to the flood of modern mar keting that assaults our senses, Halloween is pushed with relentless, capitalistic fer vor. But sweeping the candy and decoration pitch es aside, Halloween is our seasonal excuse to be come someone or something else for a day—even a superhero. There is also a notable, noble effort to make the transformation a year-round treat for a special group of children.
Outside of Halloween, adults dressing in cos tume is considered cosplay, especially when done for big conventions or fan gatherings. For the Iowa League of Heroes, however, the art of donning capes, masks and utility belts is secondary to the audience for which they transform themselves.
“We are superheroes who donate our time and resources to families and children fighting difficult medical battles,” explained Matt Morgan, founder of the League.
This mission is the cornerstone for what he and his team does. Their numbers fluctuate, but about 12 superheroes are committed to uplifting the spir its of the children they serve as they and their fami lies battle sometimes unbeatable health challenges. All volunteer their work.
Two early interactions were pivotal in shaping the mission for Morgan. Two young boys, Colt and Enrique (first names only for privacy), both suffering from the rare myoclonic atonic epilepsy (MAE), known as Doose syndrome, were refus ing to wear protective helmets, an essential injury prevention device. Children afflicted with Doose syndrome may experience drop seizures, and the helmets protect the face and head. About two out
of three children ultimately outgrow their epilepsy.
Morgan had an idea, and connected with skilled airbrush artists Shawn Palek and Michael Kaut, unabashed superhero fans. They enthusiastically agreed to donate their time and materials to turn Morgan’s idea into reality to protect “Super” Colt (a name he quickly adopted) and Enrique. These two young lads were fans of Superman and Spiderman, respectively. Palek and Kaut applied their creative magic to the mundane white helmets, turning them into unique superhero helmets. The boys embraced their new headgear, proudly wear ing them.
Authenticity is the key ingredient for the role-players in the League. The cast is filled with “people who understand our mission and are will ing to dedicate themselves to it,” Morgan said.
That also means properly dressing each super hero.
“We make sure that we invest the resources to be sure that the superhero outfits are the best, most authentic versions for that character,” Morgan ex plained. “That means dropping over $3,000 for a Batman suit. We do this because we believe these kids deserve the best. We want them to have that magical experience that they will never forget for the rest of their lives, no matter how long that might be.”
“Each cast member becomes the persona they take on and they are the only one who portrays that character,” Morgan said. “The reason for that is to develop that connection with the families and chil dren who have their favorite. Our friendly neigh borhood Spidey is the only exception; one covers Eastern Iowa while the other covers Central Iowa.”
All efforts fall under the umbrella of Morgan Enterprises. He judiciously accepts appearance bookings at corporate or other events for superhe ro appearances, with all fees channeled back into supporting the core mission of making a difference in the children’s lives they serve. He also founded and authors books for a companion publishing
branch called One Life Books.
When pressed about his busy schedule, he said, “Everything that I do is more than full time for the League and One Life Books, so I work a part-time job to pay the bills. My wife understands—she was Wonder Woman for many years. I believe that I know exactly what my purpose in life is and that I am doing it with all the intention I can do it with.”
So if a superhero wanders to your door this Halloween, think about the Iowa League of Heroes, who invest their time, resources and com passion into making life better for children who don’t have the opportunities most kids do. This is art in action: a powerful, positive force. Creative superhero stuff.
John Busbee works as an independent voice for Iowa’s cultural scene.
Black leaders encourage Iowans of color to “seize their power” at the polls.
bY DANA JAMeSThe Iowa Legislative Black Caucus hosted the fundraiser
Stepping up to Justice on Sept. 22 at Noce in Des Moines. I attend ed to hear what candidates think voters need to know heading into the Nov. 8 midterm elections. The event supported Black Democratic caucus members who are up for reelection.
The state legislators serving on the Black cau cus are Reps. Ruth Ann Gaines, chair; Phyllis Thede, vice chair; Ako Abdul-Samad, outreach; and Ross Wilburn, Iowa Democratic Party Chair. Gaines and Wilburn are running unopposed. Abdul-Samad is running against RJ Miller, an independent. Thede is running against Mike Vondran, a Republican.
Several caucus members said their constituents have expressed optimism about the midterm elec tions, but candidates said voters need more infor mation about election-related deadlines.
Thede, who has served seven terms in the Iowa House, said it’s also important to remind people about the power of voting.
“If we don’t vote,” she said, “we give up that power.”
But what about people who don’t feel powerful, or who feel detached from politics?
Thede said people need to be reminded, amid national efforts to weaken voting access, that vot ing is simple and it’s a right.
“This is your power. You own that power,” she said. “There’s nobody else who can advocate for them, like themselves.”
During her tenure, it has become more import ant to visibly advocate for people of color, she said, about her work on the Black caucus, which formed in 2018.
“I needed to understand the process in order to represent people of color,” she said.
Thede said she’s excited about possibly in creasing the number of Black legislators elected this year. Iowa has only had one Black senator, Thomas Mann Jr., elected in 1982. Izaah Knox is running for Iowa Senate District 17 (Des Moines/ Polk County), and Dr. Mary Kathleen Figaro is running for Iowa Senate District 47 (Quad Cities); both are Black. More voices will equal more work on the disparities affecting Black Iowans and peo ple of color, Thede said.
Jerome Amos Jr., from Waterloo, who is run ning unopposed, with his wife, tina Harmon-Amos, at Noce. Dana James
“We need to continue to do it because nobody else is going to do it,” she said, of the Black cau cus. “With a majority of Republicans, how are we going to get it done? We just keep pushing, and keep pushing, and we keep pushing.”
The Black caucus plans to push to get minority impact statements attached to all budget bills so all legislators will know more about how people of color are affected in the bills they draft, she said.
Black people fought, marched and died to vote, and voter suppression efforts today have the same goal as those they fought against: keeping voters away from the polls, she said.
“I want all people to vote, don’t get me wrong, but I think especially for Democrats they need to get out and vote, and if they don’t do that, we’re going to see more restrictive voting, more restric tive rights,” she said.
With the election looming, low voter turnout is a concern. Thede wants voters to consider the whys of voting. She said people are dismayed, upset and angry about what is happening in their com munities, and they don’t know who to blame or what to do about it.
“Well my answer is this,” she said, “I’m going to re peat it over and over again: You get out and vote. That’s the only way change is going to happen.”
—Dana JamesPhyllis thede, vice-chair of the Iowa black caucus Courtesy of Phyllis Thede
Here are the deadlines from the Iowa Secretary of State:
Oct. 19 Early in-person voting begins at your county auditor’s office. Auditors will also begin mailing out absentee ballots to voters who requested them, using the printed form available on the auditor’s website.
Oct. 24 Deadline or mail-in absentee ballot requests to be received in your auditor’s office.
Nov. 7 Final day for in-person absentee voting.
Nov. 8 Election Day. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Absentee ballots must be received in your county auditor’s office before 8 p.m. on Election Day.
registering: Iowans can register online, by mail or at the auditor’s office through Oct. 24. Same-day registration will be available at your polling place on Election Day.
Polling place: Find your polling place. Your polling place may have changed due to redistricting, so double check.
Voting: Vote in person at your polling place on Nov. 8, absentee by mail or by returning the absentee ballot to your auditor’s office or its designated ballot box. All absentee ballots must be received in the auditor’s office by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Identification: Bring one (valid and unexpired) form of identification from the following list:
• Iowa driver’s license
• Non-operator state ID
• U.S. Passport
• U.S. Military ID or Veteran ID
• Iowa Voter Identification Card (signed)
• Tribal ID (signed and with photo) Don’t have one of these forms of ID? Check the Iowa Secretary of State’s Voter Ready website for alternative methods.
Marking your ballot: Fill in the oval next to your selection. Vote in each race, or you may vote only for a particular race.
turn it over: Public Measure #1 will be the back of this year’s ballot. If approved, it would amend the state constitution to make it almost impossible to regulate firearms in Iowa.
It’s a truism of American politics that with rare exceptions, incumbents always have a big advantage in an election. And nowhere is that truism truer than Iowa.
Chuck Grassley has been in the U.S. Senate longer than all but one of his colleagues—Democratic Patrick Leahy, who is retiring this year—and longer than most Americans have been alive. According to the Census Bureau, the median age in the United States is 38.8 years. In November, it will be 42 years since Grassley was elected to the Senate, following six years in the U.S. House and 16 years in the Iowa House. When Grassley won his first election in 1958, there were 48 states, not 50.
In terms of years in office, Gov. Kim Reynolds is a newcomer compared to Grassley. Her career began when she was elected treasurer of Clarke County in 1994, three and a half decades after Grassley’s first win. But Reynolds is, in many ways, an extension of Terry Branstad, who holds the record as the longest-serving governor in American history.
It’s impossible to imagine Reynolds being gov ernor in 2022 if Branstad hadn’t come out of retire ment in 2010, run for governor again and selected her as his running mate. At the time, Reynolds was not an obvious choice. She was in her first term in the state Senate and had no notable accomplish ments since arriving in Des Moines.
If Reynolds stood out at all, it was because she had a dynamic personality and was a loyal team-player. She was also a social conservative, and Branstad needed to reassure his party’s so cial conservatives who did not trust him.
Lieutenant governors in Iowa typically have little to do except stand near the governor at news conferences, be a smiling face at events the governor doesn’t attend and chair meetings in which they provide little input. That’s basical ly what Reynolds did until Branstad resigned in May 2017 to become President Trump’s ambas sador to China.
As governor, Reynolds has loyally served the interests of the coalition of support ers Branstad built during his decades in of fice. The advantages of incumbency and
being Branstad’s designated successor helped Reynolds in her race for governor in 2016. She defeated Democrat Fred Hubbell by less than 3 percentage points.
As governor, Reynolds has also opened her door wide to what were previously fringe ideas among conservatives in the state. Most nota bly, she’s made a voucher-style program that would channel public school funds to private schools a priority, going so far as to endorse the primary opponents of some Republican lawmakers who opposed her because they thought it would damage their already strug gling rural school districts.
Polling shows a majority of Iowans oppose the plan to divert public school funds to pri vate schools, but there’s no evidence it has hurt
Reynolds’ chances of reelection. An Iowa Poll conducted in July showed the governor with a 17 percentage point lead over her Democratic opponent Deidre DeJear.
Of course, it isn’t just Republicans who enjoy the advantages of incumbency in Iowa. Both of the state’s senior Democrats, Attorney General Tom Miller and Treasurer Mike Fitzgerald, were first elected to their offices in 1978. But neither of those positions has much power to set policy. Governors and U.S. Senators do that.
As the election approaches, Iowa is facing an uncertain future. From the pro-corporate agricul tural policies, which have led to a hollowing out of rural Iowa and environmental degradation, to the prospect of the state and federal govern ments further eroding reproductive freedom, the past clearly shows what Reynolds and Grassley will do to shape the state’s future. Their oppo nents, Deidre DeJear and Mike Franken, neither of whom have held elected office before, are basing their campaigns on the belief that Iowans want to go in a different direction.
It’s a truism of American politics that the next election is always the most important election. And nowhere is that truism truer than in Iowa.
Republicans’ campaign coffers overfloweth, but Deidre DeJear hopes a “new energy” against extremism in Iowa will make the difference on Election Day.
Deidre DeJear worked on her first campaign while she was still in high school. Her grand mother, Mattie Washington, was running for a seat on the Election Commission in Yazoo County, Mississippi, and a young Deidre Howard spent the summer of her sophomore year helping with the campaign.
Washington already had a long history as a public school teacher and community organizer in that rural Mississippi county when she decid ed to run for office. She was then, and remains today, a major influence on her granddaughter.
“She really instilled in me the value of doing for others,” DeJear told Little Village. “ Her em pathy towards individuals was contagious, and it still is.”
By the time her grandmother ran for of fice, Deidre’s family had moved from Jackson, Mississippi to Tulsa, Oklahoma following the death of her mother, shortly after Deidre turned 8. Her father and his brother, who was already
living in Oklahoma, had decided to start a home healthcare business in that state.
DeJear was used to spending summers in Yazoo long before the campaign.
“I volunteered to assist my grandmother, ev ery summer she taught summer school,” she re called.
Washington’s summer sessions went beyond the classroom. DeJear said her grandmother or ganized field trips for students to such places as New York and Washington D.C., so they could see more of the world beyond the rural corner of Mississippi.
Those summers with her grandmother also opened her eyes to the challenges of life in rural area, DeJear explained.. The Howards had lived in Jackson, Mississippi’s capital and the state’s only large city. Her time in Yazoo helped ac quaint her with life in rural America, especially the challenges faced by rural families in need.
Mattie Washington spent her career making sure the basic needs of the kids she taught were met, both in and outside school.
“I came to Iowa to go to Drake, and I ended up choosing Iowa as my home. I just love the state and love what it has to offer to people.”
“She was creating safety nets for her young students,” DeJear said. It was an example she would follow after enrolling at Drake University.
As an undergraduate, DeJear co-founded the Back 2 School Bash, which collected school supplies for students at Des Moines-area schools who would otherwise have trouble affording them. The annual event evolved into the nonprof it Back 2 School Iowa.
DeJear had never spent time in Iowa prior to enrolling at Drake in 2004. She’d developed an interest in broadcast journalism in high school, and was impressed by Drake’s program. She was also interested in politics, and Iowa offered the promise of a parade of national politicians during caucus season.
“I came to Iowa to go to Drake, and I end ed up choosing Iowa as my home,” she said. “I just love the state and love what it has to offer to people.”
Although DeJear majored in broadcast jour nalism and politics, she turned to business when she graduated in 2008, setting up Caleo Enterprises. Caleo, which is Latin for “ignite,” started with a focus on providing marketing sup port for small businesses, and has expanded to offer business development support and financial coaching for entrepreneurs.
Starting her business led to an important mo ment in then-Deidre Howard’s life. It’s how she met Marvin DeJear.
“My husband was one of my first clients,” DeJear said, smiling.
Marvin, who earned an MBA and Ph.D. in Higher Education, Community College Leadership at Iowa State University, is currently senior vice president of talent development at the Greater Des Moines Partnership.
Also in 2008, DeJear began volunteering as an assistant coach for the girls’ basketball team at East High School in Des Moines. It evolved into a full-time position, and DeJear served as an as sistant coach for the Scarlets through 2014.
“That was an outlet for me,” DeJear ex plained. “I’m a creative person, and while some people may not recognize it, basketball is a very creative game.”
She’d grown up in a sports-loving family, and played basketball in high school. But it was more than love of the game that made DeJear want to volunteer at East. It was also the opportunity to work with students.
“I am inspired by our youth,” she said, regard ing her decision to take the coaching position. “I’m inspired when I know we can create oppor tunities for our young people.”
DeJear was coaching during 2011, when the girls’ team at East capped a perfect season
by winning the state championship. Shareece Burrell, now an assistant coach for the wom en’s basketball team at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, was a freshman player on the 2011 squad.
According to Burrell, “Coach Deidre” had a big impact on her and her fellow players.
“She was someone who would push us to be better each and every day,” Burrell told Little Village. “She wasn’t just coaching us, she was always encouraging us to be better individuals.”
DeJear worked with the players both on and off the court, helping them with their studies, or ganizing community volunteer opportunities for team members, assisting them with the college application process.
She also served as a role model for the young players. During Burrell’s four years on the team, DeJear was the only woman on the coaching staff.
“That representation meant so much to us,” Burrell said, “because we had a Black woman as a role model to look up to. She helped us see that we could potentially be where she’s at one day.”
After Burrell graduated from East, she played Division I basketball at Bradley University in Illinois, where she earned a degree in sports com munications. She then attended the University of Northern Iowa, completing a master’s in women and gender studies. In addition to her coaching job at Mount Mercy, she recently started a non profit in Cedar Rapids, Restore the Millenials, to provide mentoring and support to young adults
who feel disconnected from their communities.
DeJear stayed in contact with Burrell through out her college career, offering encouragement and support, and the two remain in touch today. DeJear has stayed in contact with most of her for mer players.
“All of them are productive citizens, doing amazing work,” she said proudly.
While coaching and building up Caleo, DeJear became more active in politics. She worked on Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign in Iowa. She also managed campaigns for two local school board candidates. In 2018, DeJear decid ed to run for office for the first time.
After the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in its 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, she felt a new urgency to work to protect access to the ballot box. The Secretary of State is, of course, Iowa’s chief election of ficial. But the office also provides important services for entrepreneurs starting new busi nesses. The Secretary of State’s duties combined DeJear’s interest in ensuring voting rights and fostering business development.
DeJear campaigned on expanding access to voting, and expanding outreach to potential en trepreneurs to make sure they understood how the Secretary of State’s office could assist in new business ventures.
In the primary, DeJear faced Jim Mowrer, who was the better known candidate. Mowrer had twice been the Democratic nominee chal lenging the incumbent congressman Steve King
in western Iowa. DeJear won. But in the general election, she fell to Republican incumbent Paul Pate by almost 8 percentage points.
Even though she lost, DeJear made history in 2018. She was the first Black candidate to win a major party’s nomination for a statewide office in Iowa.
Campaigning as the Democrats’ candidate for governor, DeJear is impressive. She has an en gaging personality, is an excellent speaker, has outlined policies to address many of Iowa’s most pressing problems and can draw on a compelling life story when trying to connect with voters.
“If my story is possible, then all our stories are possible,” DeJear often says at events. But most Iowans who aren’t active in Democratic Party politics have never heard her story.
DeJear’s campaign has been limited due to limited success in fundraising. As of the end of September, there had not been a single campaign commercial on TV, despite the fact she was the presumptive nominee all year long.
There was another Democrat running last year. Ras Smith, who represents Waterloo in the Iowa House, declared his candidacy in June 2019. He quit the race at the beginning of January, citing a “drastic disconnect between the current political system and the people.”
Smith explained what that meant in a post he’d published on Bleeding Heartland two weeks earlier: “I never expected to be given as equal a shot as my white counterparts,” Smith wrote. “Because that’s reality. I’ve been a Black man in Iowa my entire life. What I didn’t expect was to be treated as insignificant by the donor class of my own party.”
Smith, who received the Iowa Democratic Party’s Rising Star award earlier in 2019, won dered if donors would have been so reluctant “if the front runner for the Democratic nomination for governor of Iowa were white.”
According to DeJear, she is receiving ade quate support from the Iowa Democratic Party, although she acknowledges that her campaign is having to do more with less. Fundraising started off very slow, but has improved over the course of the campaign. In July, the DeJear campaign had $505,315 on hand. The Reynolds campaign, however, had $5.2 million in the bank at that time.
Reynolds began spending some of those mil lions on TV ads in September. Neither of the two campaign ads that debuted that month mention DeJear.
The only Democrat even mentioned in the first ad is President Biden. The second does feature a Democrat, Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, although the commercial never tells viewers who she is.
“And defunding the police has to happen,” Bush says in a brief clip showing her standing in front of the Capitol steps in Washington D.C., followed by a montage of images that frighten Fox News viewers. Then Gov. Reynolds smiles reassuringly at the camera. “Aren’t you glad you live in Iowa?” she asks, implying she is all that stands between viewers and the fears she is try ing to stoke.
The only reason for Bush, whose district is nowhere near Iowa, to be featured prominent ly in the ad is because Bush is a Black woman with shoulder-length hair and Deidre DeJear is a Black woman with shoulder-length hair.
Reynolds apparently expects viewers to be so blinkered they can’t tell the difference between two Black women, or so racist they assume all Black people secretly agree with each other and can’t be trusted to protect “real” Americans, or
Chuck Grassley issued a new video endorsement for him. (“Iowa needs Steve King in Congress. I also need Steve King in Congress.”) Reynolds kept King as co-chair of her 2018 election cam paign, and he was on stage as a featured speaker at her final campaign rally that year.
King was reelected in 2018, but national Republicans stripped him of all committee as signments in Congress, setting the stage for Iowa Republicans to abandon him during the 2020 primary. Iowa Republican leaders never had to explain the decades of support they provided for King. There’s no reason to think any of them will criticize the governor’s “Scary Black Woman” ad.
Polls showed Reynolds with a double-digit lead over DeJear as the campaign entered its fi nal stretch, but DeJear says there’s momentum the polls haven’t captured, and there’s a focus on the Reynolds administration’s failure to address Iowa’s problem that she didn’t see during her 2018 statewide campaign.
“We’re not talking about the political head lines this time. We’re talking about bread-andbutter issues that impact everybody—rural, ur ban, suburban, Black, white, LGBTQ.”
DeJear said she sees “new energy” among voters—young and old, Democrats and Republicans—who are opposed to Reynolds’ in tention to impose a six-week abortion ban and divert public school funds into a voucher-style program to pay private school tuition.
“This governor has gone too far,” DeJear said. “This type of extremism doesn’t sit well in our state.”
be willing to ignore the non-subtle racist appeal.
DeJear has never supported defunding the po lice. But people who watch the ad probably don’t know that, because the Iowa Democratic Party hasn’t aired any TV commercials promoting its candidate or challenging Reynolds.
Except for Steve King, no leading Republican in Iowa has ever paid a price for pandering to racism. And it was national Republicans who re jected King, not Iowa Republicans.
After remaining silent during King’s eight terms in Congress, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) decided four years ago that King’s white nationalist language and connections were just too odious to tolerate and cut off funding for him.
“We must stand up against white supremacy and hate in all forms, and I strongly condemn [King’s] behavior,” the committee’s chair de clared on Oct. 30, 2018.
Iowa Republicans continued to support King. Three days after the NRCC condemned King,
DeJear talks about creating a more inclusive approach to governing, in contrast to Reynolds’ focus on the coalition of corporate interests Terry Branstad created, and the social conservatives Reynolds appeals to by banning transgender girls from school sports and supporting right wing efforts to ban library books of which they disapprove.
“If we want people to be their best, we have to set them up for success,” DeJear said. “When we talk about education, healthcare, mental healthcare access—these are basic components, fundamentals things. There should be a pathway for people to enter in order to get access to those things.”
“And that pathway is getting smaller and smaller for the vast majority of Iowans. Why? Because our current leadership is not working hard enough.”
As she enters the final month of the campaign, DeJear acknowledges there’s still much work to do to get her message out. But then she refers back to what she said at the beginning of the campaign, “Iowa is worth the work.”
“We’re not talking about the political headlines this time. We’re talking about breadand-butter issues that impact everbody— rural, urban, suburban, Black, white, LGBTQ.”
Polls suggest the pro-Roe retired admiral is closer to unseating Sen. Grassley than any Democratic challenger before him.
Things were different 42 years ago. Chuck Grassley, then a three-term congressman looking to move up to the Senate, declared himself an opponent of negative political ads. Grassley devoted his open ing statement in the Iowa Public Television’s Republican primary debate in 1980 to complain ing ads targeting him.
Grassley called his primary opponent Tom Stoner a “negative candidate” who “spends his time and money attacking his opponent, dis torting his record and making innuendo about his character.” Grassley demanded Stoner
“apologize to the voters” for his ads.
The 1980 version of Grassley could have been describing the senator’s 2022 reelection campaign. Grassley has launched a series of negative ads attacking his Democratic opponent Mike Franken. He’s even tried to make Franken’s naval career a liability. More than one ad has claimed “Mike Franken can’t represent us. He doesn’t know us,” insinuating Franken’s 39 years of service around the country and the world has erased his Iowa roots.
Franken shrugs off Grassley’s ads.
“Perhaps you’ve seen an ad done by my op ponent that hits me for saying something about
aspects in rural Iowa that are not what we wanted them to be, both economically and for the future,” he said to the crowd gathered for a campaign event on the patio of Tic Toc, a neigh borhood bar in Cedar Rapids the week the first attack ads launched. “And I’m sorry if the truth hurts so much. But we need to identify the prob lem before we proceed to a solution.”
He pointed to the decline of his own small hometown in northwest Iowa as an example of the decline of rural Iowa. When Franken was growing up near Lebanon in Sioux County, the town had a population of approximately 50.
“I think there’s 12 there now,” he said.
Mike Franken is the youngest of nine chil dren. His father, a World War II vet, ran a oneman machine shop; his mother taught at the local one-room schoolhouse. As a teenager, Franken worked construction jobs on neighbors’ farms, and later spent three years working in a Sioux City meat-packing plant to earn money to cover his tuition at Morningside College. Then he ap plied for a Navy scholarship.
That scholarship led to a career that ended when Franken retired in 2017, having reached the rank of three-star admiral. He moved back to Iowa in 2020.
Franken’s life story has been the major focus of his campaign commercials so far, and the re sults of the June primary showed the impact that
Unlike Grassley, Franken frequently speaks in detail about what he wants to accomplish in the Senate, including capitalizing on Iowa’s progress in shifting to wind energy and promoting further growth in solar-power generation to make the state a major center for clean energy.
story can make. He swept almost all the counties in the media markets where his commercial was broadcast. His main opponent, former Rep. Abby Finkenauer, won counties where Franken wasn’t on the air. He won the primary with 55 percent of the vote and carried 76 counties around the state.
Starting the general election campaign with negative ads gives Grassley a chance to try to de fine Franken for voters who may not have been paying attention during the primary. They also allow Grassley to avoid addressing the biggest unanswered question of his own campaign: Why is the 89-year-old running again?
In the video announcing his reelection run, Grassley said he had “a lot more to do for Iowa,” but didn’t explain what that meant, and has re mained vague on what he believes he can accom plish in an additional six years in the Senate that he hasn’t been able to do in the last four decades.
In his speeches, Franken notes that Grassley’s years in office have coincided with the decline of rural Iowa, as people continue to leave and small businesses struggle to survive.
“He has had the opportunity to help us, and he has not,” Franken said. He directly connects Grassley’s policies to the money the senator has collected from corporations over the years. Franken has made not accepting corporate PAC contributions a centerpiece of his campaign.
Unlike Grassley, Franken frequently speaks in detail about what he wants to accomplish in the Senate, including capitalizing on Iowa’s progress in shifting to wind energy and promoting further growth in solar-power generation to make the state a major center for clean energy.
“We have a great opportunity to have the cheapest electrical power in the nation,” he said.
Franken sees the potential for Iowa to become the center of a low-carbon regional energy grid that would help address climate change and pro vide the infrastructure for new economic growth in rural parts of the state.
Franken also favors working towards a sin gle-payer healthcare system by gradually ex panding Medicare, in order to remove the profit motive for essential care. He wants to ensure the solvency of Social Security by eliminating the income cap. Currently, only income below $147,000 is subject to Social Security taxes. Franken, along with many groups who work on senior issues, wants personal income above the current cut-off to be taxed at the same 6.2 per cent rate as income below the cut-off. He also has proposals regarding criminal justice reform, including the legalization of marijuana.
In addition to commanding a ship, the de stroyer USS Winston Churchill, and Combined Joint Task Force–Horn of Africa, serving as flag
officer in U.S. Central Command’s Planning and Strategy Office, and as the first director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Franken had years of directly dealing with Congress as chief of legislative affairs for the Navy under President Obama. He’s well aware of the Senate’s reputation as the place where legis lation goes to die, he says, and would come to the job with experience of how the chamber works and how it fails to work.
This isn’t Franken’s first run for the Senate. He entered the Democratic primary in 2020, but that year’s primary was largely decided in ad vance. Before any candidates publicly declared their intentions, national Democrats were lining up behind Theresa Greenfield and trying to dis courage others from entering the race.
The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC) issued its endorsement of Greenfield three days after she declared, even though there were already two other Democrats in the race. Franken, who entered the race later, finished a distant second to Greenfield. Sen. Joni Ernst eas ily beat Greenfield in the general election.
This year, the big national Democratic groups have largely ignored Iowa. “The DSCC is not involved in this race,” a committee spokesper son told Politico in response to a question about Iowa.
That’s understandable. Grassley has compiled an impressive record in his six previous runs for reelection. He’s never won less than 60 percent of the vote. In three races, he won all 99 counties, and in the other three he won 98. But this year may be different.
In 2021, before Grassley announced he was running again, the Iowa Poll found that only 27 percent of Iowans thought he should seek anoth er term. Three months ago, an Iowa Poll found Grassley leading Franken by only 8 percentage points. That’s closer than any opponent has been to Grassley in 42 years.
The conventional wisdom at the beginning of this year’s Democratic Senate primary was that Finkenauer, because she was a former member of Congress and had greater name recognition, would win.
“We’re cresting at the right time,” Franken told audiences of enthusiastic Democrats during his final cross-state campaign swing before the primary. His strategy was to create an expecta tion—“I believe Mike Franken will defeat Chuck Grassley” was his first campaign slogan—use his biographical ad to introduce himself to voters, and then build momentum through in-person events. But in September, something happened that might interfere with the campaign’s momentum.
On Sept. 19, Iowa Field Report, an online news site associated with the state’s Republican Party, broke a story about a former campaign worker accusing Franken of committing assault by grabbing the collar of her vest and kissing her.
The alleged incident happened in March, but Kimberly Strope-Boggus didn’t file a report with the Des Moines Police Department until the following month. According to the report, Strope-Boggus didn’t allege Franken acted in an aggressive or sexual manner, but instead attribut ed his actions to what she claims are his “1950s interactions with women.” After reviewing the
police report, the Polk County Attorney’s Office determined the case was “unfounded” and closed it without further investigation or contacting Franken.
Strope-Boggus, who was fired by the Franken campaign in the month before the alleged inci dent, told the DMPD she met with Franken at the Dam Pub on March 18 at his request to discuss her possibly returning to the campaign. It was af ter leaving the pub Strope-Boggus said the kiss happened. According to the police statement, af ter she pulled away they went their separate ways without speaking. Strope-Boggus said she had had subsequent text interactions with Franken, mostly about campaign matters, but never men tioned the alleged kiss in any of them.
Strope-Boggus did not resume working for the Franken campaign. In April, after receiving a complaint from a Franken staffer about some thing she tweeted, Strope-Boggus told her wife about the alleged kissing incident, and her wife encouraged her to file a police report.
After Iowa Field Report published its story, Franken told reporters he had met with StropeBoggus in March, but flatly denied grabbing her collar or kissing her.
“It never happened,” he said.
The Grassley campaign immediately called on Franken to release Strope-Boggus from the non-disclosure agreement she signed when she left the campaign in February. (NDAs are com mon in political campaigns to protect confiden tial information.) Franken agreed to do so and said Strope-Boggus is free to discuss her allega tions. Strope-Boggus has declined to make any further statements.
It’s possible the allegation could discourage some people from voting for Franken, but it’s unlikely that anyone concerned with women’s rights would be moved to vote for Grassley in stead, given his voting record. Franken describes himself as pro-Roe, and says that decisions made between a pregnant Iowan and their doctor are “none of [his] business.” Grassley was the right wing Republican candidate in 1980, a bad year for moderates, and Grassley’s fiercely anti-abo tion stance helped him first win the primary against Stoner, and then the general election against first-term Democrat Sen. John Culver. But in 2022, the electoral energy on the issue of abortion appears to be going the other way, It would be ironic if the issue that helped Grassley get to the Senate defeated him this year.
After 42 years, things are different in Iowa. How different won’t be clear until after Election Day.
Paul Brennan is Little Village’s news director.
bY PAUL brENNAN, ILLUStrAtIONS bY EMMA MccLAtcHEY
tom Miller (D-incumbent) agreed in 2019 not to pursue any legal actions outside of Iowa without first getting Gov. Reynolds’ permission, but in Iowa, he’s still free to do the things he’s been doing during his last 40 years in office.
rob Sand (D-incumbent) has infuriated Iowa Republican politicians by publishing a report on Gov. Reynolds misusing federal funds, and another one when she did it again, and promises to keep doing it as long as she keeps doing it.
Joel Miller (D) says Secretary of State Pate has introduced and backed unnecessary restrictions on voting.
John Norwood (D) wants to encourage farmers and corporations posing as farmers to voluntarily engage in better and environmentally sound farming practices, while protecting the flow of state and federal tax dollars that support the status quo.
Mike Fitzgerald (D-incumbent) has been in office for 43 years and 10 months, but the average Iowan could not tell you the name of the state’s treasurer, and it’s not clear if that says more about Fitzgerald or the average Iowan.
brenna bird (R)’s main campaign promise is that she will be ready as AG to sue the Biden administration at any time for any reason, especially for reasons that might get her name mentioned on Fox News.
todd Halbur (R) plans to bring “common sense” to the auditor’s office, and according to Gov. Reynolds, that apparently means not publishing reports about her misusing federal funds.
Paul Pate (R-incumbent) says he’s introduced and backed necessary restrictions on voting.
Mike Naig (R-incumbent) wants to encourage farmers and corporations posing as farmers to voluntarily engage in better and environmentally sound farming practices, while protecting the flow of state and federal tax dollars that support the status quo.
roby Smith (R) made headlines last year by reportedly pressuring state regulators to allow a dogbreeder accused of animal welfare violations to stay in business, and telling a reporter who asked about it, “I don’t work for you.”
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Film and food matches made in hell and available right here in Des Moines. bY ELLE WIGNALL
It’s October, which can only mean one thing: time to make that list and check it twice. No, not that list. We’re talking about the horror movie list—the can’t-miss spooky season flicks that’ll have you employing the buddy system to walk down dark hallways; the ones that elicit jump scares from house creaks that in any other month just sound charming.
There is only one thing better than a month-long lineup of the genre’s best, and that’s a month-long lineup of the genre’s best plus a meal pairing. Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?
If you’re not pouring a tall glass of milk alongside a toasty cheesy sandwich while watching this 1960s horror classic, you’re doing it wrong. Pick from a plethora of grilled cheeses on the Cheese Bar’s (2925 Ingersoll Ave, Des Moines) menu—from the Classic made with a mix of Iowa-made cheeses to the caramelized onions and gooey Swiss Mountain cheese blend of the Alpine. If you, like Norman, enjoy stuffing things, opt for one of the restaurant’s busier sandwiches like the muffuletta, stacked high with layers of cured meats, house-made mozz and olive salad. The Cheese Bar also serves milk from Sheeder Cloverleaf Dairy in Guthrie Center.
gochujang sauces. A meal for two includes nine hefty pieces of chick en, rice and three rotating sides, like house-made cucumber kimchi and a cheesy corn concoction. Basic Bird (2724 Ingersoll Ave, Des Moines) only operates one night a week out of the Harbinger kitchen, so give the Sunday Scaries a whole new mean ing with this dinner and a show.
Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Dawn of the Dead (1978)
If your city has a zombie-themed burger joint, it’s sacrilegious to not buckle down for a Dead
This trip of a film calls for a fullblown tea party. Make it happen with a stop at Gong Fu Tea (414 E 6 St, Des Moines) in the East Village. Gong Fu has over 100 teas to choose from, as well as plenty of brewing vessels and teacups for purchase. The Scarlet and Ginger herbal tea may not save a relationship doomed to ceremonial sacrifice, but the blend of woody Schisandra flowers, hibis cus, rosehips and sharp ginger is as bright as a May Queen headdress and results in a blood-red elixir you can ladle out to all your friends.
Django’s (1420 Locust St, Des Moines) shrimp cocktail comes packed on ice in a perfect
single-sized container with lemon slices, cocktail sauce and six plump crustaceans that we can almost guar antee won’t come to life and latch on to your face. Bonus points if you swing your hips and sing along to Harry Belafonte’s Banana Boat Song while eating.
Better than anything you can get at Captain Spaulding’s gas station and prepared by a friendly and not-at-all murderous kitchen staff, Basic Bird’s Korean-style fried chick en has a crust that crackles and is best double-dunked with both the signature honey butter and tangy
double-feature. Zombie Burger + Drink Lab (300 E Grand Ave, Des Moines) even has burg ers with names riffing off the classic cult films for you hardcore on-theme ghouls. Replacing a bun with two grilled-cheese sandwiches, the They’re Coming to Get You Barbara burger is a terrify ing and delicious mess of a meal. Try the simple Dawn of the Dead topped with bacon, an egg and American cheese, or level up to the Jaun of the Dead with a cheese- and green-chile-stuffed fried croquette as big as the bun and patty. It oozes when bitten into—need we say more?
(And let’s be honest: you can substitute any zombie movie for this meal deal, so if you’re not into being terrified the entire month, keep it light but still nice and gory with a viewing of Shaun of the Dead instead.)
Get Out (2017) + Froot Loop Ice cream
Don’t be a Rose Armitage: mix the milk and the cereal for your annual viewing of Get Out with a stop at Totally Rolled Ice Cream (5545 Mills Civic Parkway Suite 103, West Des Moines). This one calls for the Totally Brandon’s Breakfast Special. Vanilla ice cream mix and your choice of cereal (ahem, Froot Loop it) get schmeared onto a freezing surface in a layer thin enough to roll into texturally pleasant—and, dare we say, hypnotiz ing—spirals.
Writing led Dessa to hip hop, and her music career brought her back around again.
fter like two years of rejections,” Dessa wrote on Twitter in early 2021, “my short story just got accepted into a literary magazine, and I am about to order the fuck out of some takeout.”
The acclaimed rapper, singer and writer was riding high after learning that The Iowa Review planned to publish “As Close as You Get,” which recently appeared in the Spring 2022 issue. It was a lev el-unlocked moment for Dessa, who started out with dreams of pursuing a literary career before taking a roundabout route through the indie hip-hop world.
“For me, a lot of what I do exists under the larger umbrella of the lan guage arts,” she told me. “I fell in love with language when I was a really little kid, and I would say that my love of words and language predated any vocational ambition.”
Dessa vividly recalls the moment when her mother was reading aloud from Peter Rabbit and she learned the meaning of the word “fortnight,” which struck her as an exotic name for a two-week span of time.
“My mom often encouraged me to sing along with songs that we both liked on the radio,” she said, “especially a harmony line or an ad lib— which got extra attention for mom—so we’d make up vocal lines to pass our time. As for poetry, I remember doing rhyming couplets as part of an assignment in fourth grade, and by the time I was in junior high, I was pretty excited about writing.”
College opened new doors for Dessa, especially when she discovered other literary forms like creative nonfiction essays, and the wide-eyed young writer was inspired to share her work with the world. Not fully aware of how connections grease the gears of the literary publishing machine, she sent her manuscripts in self-addressed stamped envelopes to magazines like The New Yorker, hoping to catch a big break, only to be greeted with radio silence.
“I was getting zero traction,” Dessa said, “so my friend suggested that I try performing in a poetry slam, and that was the way that I first entered the world of performance. I had a couple of half-written songs with a friend of mine in college who played acoustic guitar, but we never really performed them in public. My initial foray into music happened when a member of the Minnesota hip-hop community saw one of my slam performances and asked if I might be interested in working with a beat.”
Dessa hadn’t made rap music on her own before this moment, but soon she became a founding member of the Minneapolis-based hip-hop crew and record label Doomtree—which released her debut EP, False Hopes, in 2005. It set her on a new creative path that has yielded several singles, albums and collaborations that blur the lines between hip hop and pop, underground and mainstream.
In 2016, Lin-Manuel Miranda tapped Dessa to contribute to The Hamilton Mixtape, where she appeared alongside the Roots, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Queen Latifah, Chance the Rapper, Kelly Clarkson, Nas, Busta Rhymes and other music luminaries. The Hamilton connection had a deeper resonance given that Lin-Manuel and Dessa are both of Puerto Rican descent (her mother is a Bronx-born Nuyorican who relocated as an adult to Minneapolis, where Dessa was born).
“I somehow appeared on the periphery of Lin-Manuel’s radar before
In 2016, Lin-Manuel Miranda tapped Dessa to contribute to TheHamiltonMixtape, where she appeared alongside the Roots, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Queen Latifah, Chance the Rapper, Kelly Clarkson, Nas, Busta Rhymes and other music luminaries.
Music University conference, Drake University, Des Moines, Sunday, Oct. 23 at 10:30 a.m., Free (registration required)
Music University Showcase ft. Dessa, Open Mike Eagle, xbk, Des Moines, Sunday, Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m., $20
the Iowa review reading ft. tracie Morris, Dessa and others, Prairie Lights Virtual, Monday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m., Free (registration required)
Hamilton had made the transition to Broadway,” Dessa recalled, “and he and I had penned a few casual messages. Then we ended up meeting, and later on he called me and asked if I’d be able to contribute to The Hamilton Mixtape, which was like the easiest ‘yes’ ever.”
Two years later, the venerable trade press E.P. Dutton published Dessa’s My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love, after years of largely being ignored by the literary estab lishment.
“Part of the reason why I ended up in music,” Dessa said, “was because I wasn’t sure exactly which doors to knock on, whereas in the performance world, it’s less gate-kept. I can put music into the world myself and get traction, but I need someone else to say ‘yes’ if I want to have my writing
While Nugent and thousands of others were enjoying that video, the au thor had been patiently awaiting humility that struck Nugent as very Midwestern. It’s not uncommon for someone with Dessa’s profile to try to work the system to avoid the pro verbial slush-pile, especially because success in many parts of the literary world still has much to do with who you know.
“Yeah, I grew up in the Midwest,” Dessa said, “and that workmanlike sensibility is definitely something that we celebrate, for better and for worse. It’s funny, as much as I do revel in messing with genre and trying to turn an audience’s expectations inside-out, in other ways, I’m also kind of a rule-follower. It didn’t even occur to me to jump the queue. I just thought, ‘They’ve got a process.’ So, I just submitted and that was that.”
Lately, Dessa has been working on a new album with a tentative ear ly-2023 release date and she recently finished Tits on the Moon, a chapbook collection of 12 performance poems published by the Minneapolis-based literary organization Rain Taxi, in collaboration with Doomtree. As an in dependent artist who is deeply invested in the DIY ethos, she admits that it still feels good to have an established literary institution value her writing.
“The process of submitting writing can be more than a little demoraliz ing,” Dessa said. “It’s slow. It is solitary and there’s a lot of uncertainty—so yeah, when you ask them to dance and they accept, that just feels really good.”
Full disclosure: Kembrew McLeod and Iowa Review editor Lynne Nugent have been married since 2005, when they were wedded by an Elvis imper sonator at the Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas (her idea, and he happily agreed).
Local venues spread good this spooky season.
bY GENEVIEVE trAINOrBack in the Iron Age, the holiday we now celebrate as Halloween was Samhain, a Celtic festival ac knowledging the end of summer and marking the turning of the year. The themes of death and rebirth have persisted in our understanding, the notion of the thinning between worlds, the playing of tricks, the ap pearance of the dead and the offering of treats to appease them. The great appropriative force that was Roman Christianity tied the connections even tighter to modernity, merging All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) with the practice and giving it its contemporary name (All Saints’ Day is also known as All Hallows’ Day, making the day prior All Hallows’ Eve, or Halloween).
More and more frequently, the cultural influ ences flow in yet another direction. In modern times, New Year celebrations of all sorts have increasingly become associated with generos ity and giving, from year-end charitable dona tions to Facebook donation drives for birthdays. Halloween is no exception, and several Central Iowa events this year exemplify this push to mark the turning of a year with a commitment to making the next year better for others.
The earliest of these is coming up Friday, Oct. 14: Halloween Zoo Brew at Blank Park Zoo. Adults 21+ can get their best costumes on to support the zoo, which is the only accredited
member of the Association of Zoos and Aquarium in the state of Iowa. Blank Park was established nearly 60 years ago as the Des Moines Children’s Zoo. Philanthropist A.H. Blank, who emigrated from Romania to Iowa as a child, donated $150,000 to fund a children’s zoo, which opened its gates in 1966. In the early 1980s, the Blank Park Zoo Foundation was formed, followed by a success ful capital campaign and a couple of years of renovations. The renamed Blank Park Zoo, no longer just for children, opened in 1986.
The “merry-not-scary” decades-old Night Eyes tradi tion takes over the zoo the last two weekends in October, but as a testament to the idea that the space is not just for kids, Halloween Zoo Brew serves as an adults-only kick-off to the season of frights. From 5:30-8:30 p.m., costumed imbibers can enjoy the music of the high-en ergy cover band Punching Pandas. Admission is $10 or free for members, but a VIP ticket ($20 for members, $25 general), which must be pre-purchased, adds a drink ticket, a ticket for the haunted train ride and adult trickor-treating for seasonal beer samples. And of course there are costume contests!
The following afternoon, Oct. 15, you can celebrate
Halloween Zoo brew, blank Park Zoo, Friday, Oct. 14, 5:30-8:30 p.m., $0-25
Wag-O-Ween with Animal rescue League of Iowa, big Grove brewery, Saturday, Oct. 15, 12-4 p.m.
trick or trees, Des Moines botanical Garden, Saturday, Oct. 29, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., free-$10
the time Warp + Iowa Safe Schools Fundraiser, black Sheep DSM, Saturday, Oct. 29, 10 p.m.
Halloween on the Hill + DMArc Food Pantry, Historic Sherman Hill, Monday, Oct. 31, 6:30–8:30 p.m.
animals of a more domestic nature with WagO-Ween at Big Grove Brewery. All proceeds benefit the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, the state’s largest nonprofit animal shelter. Since its founding in 1926, the ARL has been serving the state with pet adoption services, spay/neuter pro grams, humane education, pet behavior training and more. It is funded entirely by individual and corporate donations.
Wag-O-Ween, which runs from 12-4 p.m., welcomes appropriately leashed and vaccinated dogs of all sizes and breeds. There is, of course, a pets and people costume contest. Other activi ties include painting pumpkins (though you must bring your own gourd to participate); vendors Stylin Paws, Pampered Pooch and Zoom Room Ankeny; and Nerd Art Face Painting.
On Saturday, Oct. 29, the Greater Des Moines “Boo-tanical” Garden opens for a day of Trick or Trees. Access to the full day of events is included with admission to the gardens ($10 adult, $9 se niors 65+ and military, $7 youth 4-17; members and children 3 and under are free). The 12-acre public garden first opened as the Des Moines Botanical Center in 1979, becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2013. In May of 2022, they opened the Founders Garden and Hiller Family Rain Garden to the public, spaces dedicated to high lighting local ecologies and centering sustainable gardening and water management practices.
Trick or Trees, which runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., will include an interactive storytime about bats for ages 5 and under, a costume parade and trickor-treating. The garden promises “creeptastic educational activities about trees and spooky bo tanicals,” and Iowa magician Jonathan May will take the stage at 3 p.m. after papermaking and antique cider press demonstrations.
Late that night, a very different charitable event takes place at Black Sheep DSM. Disc Nixon will be spinning an all-vinyl Rocky Horror Party for Time Warp, a fundraiser for Iowa Safe Schools. A
portion of all sales will go to support the Iowa Safe Schools mission: “to provide safe, supportive, and nurturing learning environments and communities for LGBTQ and allied youth through education, outreach, advocacy, and direct services.”
Celebrating 20 years in 2022, Iowa Safe Schools works throughout the state to sup port LGBTQ and allied students. In 2016, they launched a GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) net work, to connect and grow GSA organizations in schools across Iowa. Iowa Safe Schools fights for legislative support of their goals, as well. Black Sheep DSM, the underground tequila bar in the East Village, invites patrons to celebrate Halloween by doing the Time Warp again to raise funds for those who support these vulnerable kids, starting at 10 p.m. on Oct. 29.
On Halloween night itself, make your way to Historic Sherman Hill from 6:30-8:30 p.m. for Halloween on the Hill. Residents will have their homes decked out with eerie delights for your viewing pleasure. Admission to the neighbor hood is free, but all visitors are asked to bring a non-perishable food item or monetary donation to support the DMARC Food Pantry. The Des Moines Area Religious Council manages a net work of 15 food pantries across the region, and also operates mobile food pantry sites and offers next-day delivery service.
DMARC celebrates 70 years of interfaith community advocacy and service this year. Their website, dmarcunited.org, maintains a list of most-needed food items to inspire those attending Halloween on the Hill. Start your night at Hoyt Sherman Place to drop off your donation and get a map of the largest displays in the neighborhood.
Dedicate your Halloween celebrations this month to making the world a better place for all around you!
Genevieve Trainor hates being scared, but loves being kind.
circle of Ash, Central City, Friday, Sept. 30–Saturday, Oct. 29, $25-60
Marengo Haunted barn - Ladora, Friday, Sept. 30–Saturday, Oct. 29, $12.
Scare Haunted House, Des Moines, Friday, Sept. 30–Sunday, Oct. 30, $25-45
the Slaughterhouse, Des Moines, Friday, Sept. 30–Monday, Oct. 31, $25-30
Linn’s Haunted House, Des Moines, Friday, Sept. 30–Monday, Oct. 31, $20
the Sleepy Hollow Haunted Scream Park, Des Moines, Friday, Sept. 30–Sunday, Oct. 30, $28-48
Phantom Fall Fest, Altoona, Friday, Sept. 30–Sunday, Oct. 30, $34.99-49.99
the Heart of Darkness, Waterloo, Friday, Sept. 30–Monday, Oct. 31, $20-50
eclypse Haunt, Iowa City, Friday, Sept. 30–Monday, Oct. 31, $25-40
Harris Haven Funeral Home, Evansdale, Friday, Sept. 30–Monday, Oct. 31, $5
tormented Souls Haunt and Scream Park, Madrid, Saturday, Oct. 1–Saturday, Oct. 29, $22-46
Scream Acres Park, Atkins, Saturday, Oct. 1–Saturday, Oct. 29, $36.95-43.95
thrashers House of terror, Mt. Pleasant, Thursday, Oct. 6–Saturday, Oct. 29, $10-20
Haunted Forest, Ames, Friday, Oct. 7–Saturday, Oct. 29, $25
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.
Storyhouse Bookpub is kicking off a new Therapist Meetup group! This first event celebrates the release of Stacy K. Nakell’s new book, Treatment for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors. Nakell, a licensed clinical so cial worker, certified group psychotherapist and certified clinical trauma practitioner, will be on hand to lead a group discussion and sign books. Therapists and mental health professionals are encouraged to gather for drinks and conversation; books will be available for purchase at the event.
Friday, Oct. 7 at 6:30 p.m. Meet the Author: Anne E. Terpstra, Bea verdale Books, Des Moines, Free
Saturday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. Drunk Book Club, Teehee’s Comedy Club, Des Moines, $10-15
Monday, Oct. 10 at 6:30 p.m. Meet the Author: Darcy Maulsby, Artisan Gallery 218, West Des Moines, Free
tuesday, Oct. 11 at 6:30 p.m. Meet the Author: Beth Howard, Beaver dale Books, Free
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 11 a.m. Storytime w/Mitali Perkins, Story house Bookpub, Des Moines, Free
Sunday, Oct. 16 at 2 p.m. Meet the Author: Adib Khorram, Beaverdale Books, Free
via Stacy NakellWednesday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m.
Meet the Author: Lan Samantha Chang, Beaverdale Books, Free
Sunday, Oct. 23 at 1 p.m. Zoom with the Author: Christer Stur mark, Beaverdale Books, Free
Monday, Oct. 24 at 6:30 p.m
Meet the Authors: Kay Fenton Smith and Carol McGarvey, Artisan Gallery 218, Free
Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. The Author Afterparty: Adam Soto, Raygun, Des Moines, $6
Friday, Oct. 28 at 6:30 p.m. Meet the Author: Anne Winkler-Morey, Beaverdale Books, Free
thursday, Nov. 3 at 6:30 p.m.
Meet the Author: Phil Adamo, Beaverdale Books, Free
thursday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. Broad way Book Club: After Anatevka, Online, Free
thursday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. All-inOne: Hen Mazzig, Caspe Terrace, Waukee, Free
Friday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. The Au thor Afterparty: Kelly Barnhill and Antonia Angress, Raygun, $6
$14-19
Originally published in 1964, Louise Fitzhugh’s original novel Harriet the Spy has both been hailed as a children’s classic and banned from some schools and libraries for setting a poor example for children. Both make for excellent reasons that the book has seen multiple iterations over the years, from television to film to stage. This version, adapted for the stage by Leslie Brody in the late 1980s, runs at the Kate Goldman Children’s Theatre through Sunday, Nov. 13. The Playhouse rec ommends their children’s theater productions for ages 5 and up.
Theatrical Thrills
Date Friday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. Chi cago Comedy Showcase, Teehee’s Comedy Club, Des Moines, $15-20
Opening Friday, Oct. 7. The Book of Mormon, Des Moines Civic Center, $55-175
Opening Friday, Oct. 7. DMYAT: Sister Act Jr., Stoner Theater, Des Moines, $24.50
Saturday, Oct. 8 at 9:30 p.m. Jail break! Stand-Up Comedy, Teehee’s Comedy Club, Free
Sunday, Oct. 9 at 6:30 p.m. Hari Kondabolu, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $20-25
Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. Comedy Open Mic, Teehee’s Com edy Club, Free
Friday-Sunday, Oct. 14-16. Annie Jr., Des Moines Community Play house, $10
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 9:30 p.m. Improv 101 Graduation Show w/ Chris George, Teehee’s Comedy Club, Free
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 8 p.m. Naughty Nerds Cabaret: Nerds That Go Bump and Grind in the Night, xBk Live, Des Moines, $25350
tuesday, Oct. 18 at 5 p.m. True Crime w/Sarah Cailean, Big Grove Brewery, Des Moines, $10
tuesday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. No Shame Theater, Teehee’s Comedy Club, Free
Opening thursday, Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. SALEM, Des Moines Civic Center, $50.50
Friday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. Ali Macof sky: Stand-Up Comedy, $15-20
Friday, Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. Flash force University Graduation Show, xBk Live, $30-40
Saturday, Oct. 22 at 8 p.m. Coral Thede, xBk Live, $15-20
tuesday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. Des Moines Storytellers Project: Obsessions, Hoyt Sherman Place, Des Moines, $12-28
Opening tuesday, Oct. 25 The Crown Live, Temple Theater, Des Moines, $20-48
Opening tuesday, Oct. 25 Fiddler on the Roof, Des Moines Civic Center, $40-150
Friday, Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. Leo’s Lounge of Burlesque, The Garden, Des Moines, $20-30
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. Com edy Kickback: Fade to Black 12, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $15-20
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 9:30 p.m. Tha Mix-Up: Costume Show, Teehee’s Comedy Show, $10-15
Opening Friday, Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m. Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Tallgrass Theatre Com pany, West Des Moines, $33-35
Sunday, Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m., $20 The Des Moines Music Coalition is bringing back their annual Music University, a conference and showcase for musicians and music industry workers in Iowa. All ages and experience levels are welcome to attend the workshops, panels, and keynotes throughout the day. Dessa, a singer and rapper from Minneapolis, Open Mike Eagle and Colo Chanel will cap off the day with a performance at xBk.
Friday, Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. Joe Satriani, Hoyt Sherman Place, Des Moines, $44.50-74.50
Saturday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. Dan Tedesco, Dave Zollo, ENGLISH, xBk Live, Des Moines, $15-20
Sunday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. Argonaut & Wasp, xBk Live, $15-20
Sunday, Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. Tai Verdes, Wooly’s, Des Moines, $25-30
Monday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. Ani DiFranco w/ Abraham Alexander, Wooly’s, $35
tuesday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. Liz Cooper, xBk Live, $15
Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. Kelsey Wal don w/Emily Nenni, Wooly’s, $15
thursday, Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m. BeauSoleil, Temple Theater, Des Moines, $20-45
thursday, Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m. The Manhattan Transfer w/the Diva Jazz Orchestra, Hoyt Sher man Place, $53-88
thursday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. Guerilla Toss w/ Haploid, xBk Live, $13-15
Friday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. Alyssa Allgood, Noce, Des Moines, $20-60
Friday, Oct. 14 at 9 p.m. Scratch & Turntable: Artists From Around the Globe, Platform, Des Moines, $22.96-28.11
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. Clutch w/Helmet, Quicksand, JD Pinkus, Val Air Ballroom, West Des Moines, $29.50-35
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. No Age, Dream_ Mega, Poly Mall Cops, Gas Lamp, Des Moines, $15-18
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m. DM Symphony: The Music of Queen, Des Moines Civic Center, $35-90
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m. Witness Matlou, Temple Theater, $22.50-32.50
Sunday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. Them Coulee Boys, xBk Live, $10-15
tuesday, Oct. 18 at 6 p.m. Highly Suspect w/ Dead Poet Society, Val Air Ballroom, $35-40
tuesday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. The Wrecks, Wooly’s, $22-25
tuesday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. The Lowest Pair, Luke Bascom and the End Times, Gas Lamp, $15-18
Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. Ace Hood, Lefty’s Live Music, $25-30
Friday, Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. Druids, Greg Wheeler, Poly Mall Cops, Glass Ox, Lefty’s Live Music, $10
Friday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. Rachel Eckroth w/Eric Thompson & Co, Noce, $20-60
Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 22 and 23. DM Symphony: The Firebird, Des Moines Civic Center, $15-70
tuesday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. NOSFERATU w/Invincible Czars, xBk Live, $20-25
thursday, Oct. 27 at 8 p.m. Newski w/Lily DeTaeye, xBk Live, $10-15
Friday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. Lauren Vilmain, Noce, $15-50
Friday, Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. Hulloween, Boggs’ Hull Avenue Tap, Des Moines, Free
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. Night Stories w/Traffic Death and Sam Locke Ward, xBk Live, $10-15
Friday, Oct. 28 at 9 p.m. Rex Manning Day Halloween Party, Gas Lamp, $10-15
Friday, Oct. 28 at 9:30 p.m. Moodie Black, Haploid, Voiddweller, Lefty’s Live Music, $15-20
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. The Queers 40th Anniversary Tour, Lefty’s Live Music, $20
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m. Lindsey Buck ingham, Hoyt Sherman Place, $45-89
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 8:30 p.m. Dia De Los Defnotes: Halloween Costume Party, Gas Lamp, $10-15
Sunday, Oct. 30 at 4 p.m. Ghouls, Goblins & Ghosts! Franklin Jr High Event Center, Des Moines, Free
Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. Too Many Zooz, Wooly’s, $18-20
20 at 6:15 p.m., $15-50 LUNAFEST, a traveling all-women’s film festival, is popping up in Des Moines this month. The event will kick-off with a cocktail hour, followed by short films that high light the aspirations and accomplishments of women and gender noncon forming individuals. The event hosts, Girls on the Run of Central Iowa, will present and share stories to audience members towards the end of the evening. In-person viewing includes the film screening, dessert and a drink ticket. Virtual screening is also available.
Friday, Oct. 7 at 5 p.m. First Friday: Momentum Annual Ex hibition, Mainframe Studios, Des Moines, Free
Saturday, Oct. 8 at 9 a.m. Pre-Winter Community Car Check Up, North High School, Des Moines, Free
Saturday, Oct. 8 at 10 a.m. Com munity Table: Local Storytelling and Food Festival, Franklin Ave nue Library, Des Moines, Free
tuesday, Oct. 11 at 6 p.m. Social Change: Voice to the Voiceless Lecture w/Vanessa McNeal, Suss man Theater, Des Moines, Free
Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 6 p.m. LGBTQ+ Financial Literacy Work shop, Des Moines Pride Center, Free
thursday, Oct. 13 at 5 p.m. Casting for Recovery Night, Exile Brewing Company, Des Moines, Free
thursday, Oct. 13 at 5:30 p.m. Na tional Coming Out Day, Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Des Moines, Free
Friday, Oct. 14 at 5 p.m. Exhibi tion Opening Celebration: Allison Elizabeth Taylor, Des Moines Art Center, Free
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 10 a.m. Long Shots, Evelyn K. Davis Park, Des Moines, Free
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 2 p.m. Artist Lecture: Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Des Moines Art Center, Free
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 3 p.m. Born Here. Brewed Here: Release Event, Exile Brewing Company, Free
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 6 p.m. Ghoulish Gala, Salisbury House & Gardens, Des Moines, $150
Sunday, Oct. 16 at 12 p.m. Wag-O-Ween w/the ARL, Big Grove Brewery, Des Moines, Free
thursday, Oct. 20 at 6:30 p.m. Bluebeard’s Halloween Bash, Freese Residence, Indianola, Free
Friday, Oct. 21 at 10 p.m. Stranger Queens: Immersive Event, Platform, Des Moines, $15
Friday-Sunday Oct. 21-23. Conflu ence 10th Anniversary Weekend, Confluence Brewing Company, Des Moines, Free
Sunday, Oct. 23 at 1 p.m Mercantile Market, Des Moines Mercantile, Free
still from Wearable Tracey
Friday, Oct. 28 at 9 p.m. Halloween Costume and Dance Party, Art Terrarium, Des Moines, Free
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 10 a.m. Trick or Trees, Des Moines Botanical Garden, Free-$10
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 11 a.m. Makers, Bakers & Boos Holiday Market, Peace Tree, Des Moines, Free
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 10 p.m. The Time Warp and Iowa Safe Schools Fundraiser, Black Sheep, Des Moines, Free
Sunday, Oct. 30 at 11 a.m. Day of the Dead, Des Moines Art Center, Free
Monday, Oct. 31 at 6:30 p.m. Halloween on the Hill, Sherman Hill, Free w/donation
The American Cancer Society recommends that women
average risk for breast cancer start
p.m., Free Iowa City Poetry is celebrating the official grand opening of their poetry lending library at the Close House by co-hosting, with Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature, the Iowa City Slam-O-Vision competition. Poets from all across Iowa are invited to test their mettle, with the winner advancing (via video) to the international competition. The slam begins at 7 p.m.; each poet has three-and-a-half minutes to perform. On Nov. 12, as part of the Mic Check Poetry Festival, local poetry lovers will convene to judge the video entries from other partic ipating UNESCO Cities of Literature. The winner will be announced in December.
Eastward, ho!
Sundays, Oct. 9, 16, 23. Iowa City Flea Market, PS1 Close House, Iowa City, Free
tuesday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. Iowa City Book Festival: Jerald Walker, University of Iowa Main Library, Free
thursday, Oct. 13 at 6:30 p.m. Literary Pub Crawl, Downtown Iowa City, $40
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 4 p.m Warlock Hour Festival, Gabe’s, Iowa City, $10
Gardens is lighting up more than 1,000 hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns this year to celebrate Halloween. They’ll be set up starting on Friday night, but you’ll likely want to wait to head out to the gardens until Saturday or Sunday night to catch all of the events and activities. The ISU juggling, unicycling, and cosplay clubs will be performing on both nights, plus there will be Hollusion holograms, glowing orbs, and lots of candy.
Explore Ames!
Friday-Sunday, Oct. 7-9 Polaroid Stories, Fisher Theater, Ames, Free-$20
Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 8-9. Psychic & Paranormal Expo, CPMI Event Center, Ames, $5
thursday, Oct. 13 at 6 p.m. Books & Beverages, Dog-Eared Books, Ames, Free
Friday, Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. Iowa Roots Round, Maintenance Shop, Ames, $8-12
Saturday, Oct. 22 at 5 p.m. Okto berfest, Alluvial Brewing Company, Ames, Free
Saturday, Oct. 22 at 8 p.m. Ryan Adams, Stephens Auditorium, Ames, $39.50-79.50
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 5 p.m.
Old Capitol City Roller Derby Monster’s Brawl: Punks v. Preps, Mercer Park, Iowa City, $7
Opening Friday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. The Beggar’s Musical, Iowa City Community Theatre, $14-22
Friday, Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. FilmScream 2022, FilmScene— Chauncey, $20-35
thursday, Oct. 27 at 7:30 p.m. Witching Hour: Hrishikesh Hirway and Jenny Owen Youngs, Englert Theatre, $10-20
Friday, Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. Bawdy Bawdy Ha Ha: Trick or Tease Halloween Burlesque, The Olympic Theater, $25-40
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m. Witching Hour:Another Stage of Staging Ourselves, Englert Theatre, $10-20
Friday, Oct. 28 at 10 a.m. Downtown Trick or Treat, Down town Ames, Free
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. Teenage Nightmares Art Exhibi tion, Reliable Street, Ames, Free
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 10 p.m. Halloween Party & Costume Con test, Big Wigs Bar, Ames, Free
As a pre-election special, Kiki guessed these Iowa statewide office candidates’ kinks based on their campaign platforms. Can you guess whose is (allegedly) whose? Find clues on page 23 and on the candidates’ websites! Have fun, and don’t forget to vote! —xoxo, Kiki
1. this former police officer and Army Sergeant needs everything to be kept in order. A sub if Kiki ever saw one!
2. Will ALWAYS show up. Is ALWAYS there. Maybe this one just wants to be held back—with rope. Shibari, most likely.
3. this homeschooled honey lives that farm life. Kiki sees rolls in the hay and plenty of barn splinters in creative places.
4. When you’ve been at the work as long as this one has been, there might be some interest in tantric exploration!
5. this long-serving soul is all about accountability, and the campaign site serves serious dom energy. Possibly a whip-cracker!
6. this one’s emphasis on safety and education might come from lots of experience as a careful and dedicated top.
7. this candidate’s concern with water quality might come from a desire to romp in our public lakes and waterways. Exhibitionist? Kiki thinks so.
8. “the watchdog” might engage in some role-playing fun—collar and leash included!
9. Every face of every Iowan on display. Kiki says: voyeur!
10. Expanding trade is important for this one: A possible sign of spouse-swapping.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):The Libran approach to fighting for what’s right shouldn’t involve getting into loud arguments or trying to manipulate people into seeing things your way. If you’re doing what you were born to do, you rely on gentler styles of persuasion. Are you doing what you were born to do? Have you become skilled at using clear, elegant language to say what you mean? Do you work on behalf of the best outcome rather than merely serving your ego? Do you try to understand why others feel the way they do, even if you disagree with their conclusions? I hope you call on these superpowers in the coming weeks. We all need you to be at the height of your potency.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “One bad apple spoils the bunch” is an idiom in the English language. It refers to the idea that if one apple rots as it rests in a pile of apples, the rest will quickly rot, too. It’s based on a scientific fact. As an apple de cays, it emanates the gas ethylene, which speeds up decay in nearby apples. A variant of this idiom has recently evolved in relation to police misconduct, however. When law enforcement officials respond to such allegations, they say that a few “bad apples” in the police force aren’t representative of all the other cops. So I’m wondering which side of the metaphor is at work for you right now, Scorpio. Should you immediately expunge the bad apple in your life? Or should you critique and tolerate it? Should you worry about the possibility of contamination, or can you successfully enforce damage control? Only you know the correct answer.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Of all the signs in the zodi ac, you Sagittarians know best how to have fun even when life sucks. Your daily rhythm may temporarily become a tangle of boring or annoying tasks, yet you can still summon a knack for enjoying yourself. But let me ask you this: How are your instincts for drumming up amusement when life doesn’t suck? Are you as talented at whipping up glee and inspiration when the daily rhythm is smooth and groovy? I suspect we will gather evidence to answer those questions in the coming weeks. Here’s my pre diction: The good times will spur you to new heights of creating even more good times.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): More than you might realize, people look to you for leadership and regard you as a role model. This will be extra true in the coming weeks. Your statements and actions will have an even bigger impact than usual. Your influence will ripple out far beyond your sphere. In light of these developments, which may sometimes be subtle, I encourage you to upgrade your sense of responsibility. Make sure your integri ty is impeccable. Another piece of advice, too: Be an inspiring example to people without making them feel like they owe you anything.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Rapper-songwriter Nicki Minaj says, “You should never feel afraid to become a piece of art. It’s exhilarating.” I will go further, Aquarius. I invite you to summon ingenuity and joy in your efforts to be a work of art. The coming weeks will be an ideal time for you to tease out more of your inner beauty so that more people can benefit from it. I hope you will be dramatic and expressive about showing the world the full array of your interesting qualities. P.S.: Please call on the entertainment value of surprise and unpredictability.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Author Robertson Davies declared, “One learns one’s mystery at the price of one’s innocence.” It sounds poetic, but it doesn’t apply to most of you Pisceans— especially now. Here’s what I’ve concluded: The more you learn your mystery, the more innocent you become. Please note I’m using the word “innocence” in the sense defined by author Clarissa Pinkola Estés. She wrote: “Ignorance is not knowing anything and being attracted to the good. Innocence is knowing everything and still being attracted to the good.”
ARIES (March 21-April 19): When you Aries folks are at your best, you are drawn to people who tell you exactly what they think, who aren’t intimidated by your high energy, and who dare to be as vigorous as you. I hope you have an array of allies like that in your sphere right now. In my astrological opinion, you especially need their kind of stimulation. It’s an excellent time to invite influences that will nudge you out of your status quo and help you glide into a new groove. Are you willing to be chal lenged and changed?
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Author Toni Morrison thought that beauty was “an absolute necessity” and not “a privilege or an indulgence.” She said that “finding, incorporating, and then representing beauty is what humans do.” In her view, we can’t live without beauty “any more than we can do without dreams or oxygen.” All she said is even truer for Tauruses and Libras than the other signs. And you Bulls have an extra wrinkle: It’s optimal if at least some of the beauty in your life is useful. Your mandate is summed up well by author Anne Michaels: “Find a way to make beauty necessary; find a way to make necessity beautiful.” I hope you’ll do a lot of that in the coming weeks.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Philosopher Alfred North Whitehead said, “It requires a very unusual mind to make an analysis of the obvious.” I nominate you to perform that service in the com ing days, both for yourself and your allies. No one will be better able than you to discern the complexities of seemingly simple situations. You will also have extraordinary power to help people appreciate and even embrace paradox. So be a crafty master of candor and transparency, Gemini. Demonstrate the benefits of being loyal to the objective evidence rather than to the easy and popular delusions. Tell the interesting truths.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian poet Lucille Clifton sent us all an invitation: “Won’t you celebrate with me what i have shaped into a kind of life? i had no model. i made it up here on this bridge between starshine and clay, my one hand hold ing tight my other hand.” During October, fellow Cancerian, I propose you draw inspiration from her heroic efforts to create herself. The coming weeks will be a time when you can achieve small miracles as you bolster your roots, nourish your soulful confidence, and ripen your uniqueness.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “Dear Rob the Astrologer: This morning I put extra mousse on my hair and blow-dried the hell out of it, so now it is huge and curly and impossibly irresistible. I’m wearing bright orange shoes so everyone will stare at my feet, and a blue silk blouse that is much too high-fashion to wear to work. It has princess seams and matches my eyes. I look fantastic. How could anyone of any gender resist drinking in my magnifi cence? I realize you’re a spiritual type and may not approve of my showmanship, but I wanted you to know that what I’m doing is a totally valid way to be a Leo. —Your Leo teacher Brooke.” Dear Brooke: Thank you for your helpful instruction! It’s true that I periodically need to loosen my tight grip on my high principles. I must be more open to appreciating life’s raw feed. I hope you will perform a similar service for everyone you encounter in the coming weeks.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): How to be the best Virgo you can be during the coming weeks: 1. You must relish, not apologize for, your precise obsessions. 2. Be as nosy as you need to be to discover the core truths hidden beneath the surface. Risk asking almost too many questions in your subtle drive to know everything. 3. Help loved ones and allies shrink and heal their insecurities. 4. Generate beauty and truth through your skill at knowing what needs to be purged and shed. 5. Always have your Bullshit Detector with you. Use it liberally. 6. Keep in close touch with the conversations between your mind and body.
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TUESDAY -
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PM - CLOSE)
(Blake Shaw’s bass solo plays the part of rearview mirror.)
The next two tracks reveal her real vocal range, with the acous tic guitar-and organ-anthem of “AGENCY” and the swinging thrash punk of “NICO.” The lat ter is all BPM and barre chords.
Have you ever been invited to an Ego Party? Me neither, but I bet they get real loud and standoff ish and are filled with folks who are never unsure behind the wheel even when given the murkiest of driv ing directions. On Penny Peach’s new album, her first full-length and the follow-up to her standout 2021 EP, brain gamez, she presents the soundtrack to her own EGO PARTY Album opener “CATACOMBS” is a prog-rocker with a folk song question: “When I go will you rest my bones in the catacombs?” Why? “Because I can’t afford a mausoleum/No, I may not even swing a grave,” Penny Peach (Elly Hofmaier) admits. But she’s quick to add directions: “Save the flow ers for your apartment/Just bring a friend and come sing in my cave.” The tune finally transforms into a doom-pop breakdown, featuring a brooding duet of guitar and ethereal flute supplied by Lex Leto.
Throughout the album, Penny Peach performs several call-and-re sponse pairings with different itera tions of her own voice, embodying the true spirit of an EGO PARTY None is more effective than on “WINNER,” a power pop, set-steal ing stomper that sways hard and knows it. She follows it with “BLACK ICE,” an ekphrastic blues piece that reminds us that the cool kids always did and still do have black ice air freshener trees hanging from their rear views. It’s certainly hyperbole to say that Penny Peach’s voice sounds like what those lit tle trees smell like, but there it is.
Simply put, it has a lot of strut and, again, it knows it. Which brings us finally to “JESUS PIECE,” an unmatched musical takedown of each and every guitar bro who has tried to mansplain a pedal board to Penny Peach. Here she is in full ga rage rock vengeance mode, leaning in hard. The second chorus:
I got a Jesus piece on my daisy chain
I got a room full of people choking on my name
I got a fire in me that you could never touch
Oh I swear I’ve already got too much
By the time “EFFORTLESS” ar rives, the pitch is at a full fever. It takes a brass and woodwind send off to usher the last lin gering guests away from the party and out into the dark. EGO PARTY is a sonic salute to an unapologetic swagger, to self-confidence in the pursuit of an iden tity, performance or otherwise, and more likely both at once.
EGO PARTY stands in opposition to hesitancy, absent politeness and self-inflicted joy repression. And somehow, it never once stops being genuinely fun; not once.
At her EGO PARTY, Penny Peach recklessly explores the many varied capabilities of her voice, highlighting its uniquely deft and deeply powerful delivery through this valise of songs. But it’s obvious that throughout the search, she’s al ways sure of what exactly it is she wants to say.
—Avery Gregurich
Fans of James Tutson’s love ly voice, guitar stylings and well-crafted songs will be more than happy with his new release, a six-track recording called Happy The album, which features Tutson’s longtime collaborator Tyler Carrington on keys and drums and Blake Shaw on bass, is of a piece with his previous work. The songs are R&B and gospel-in flected, with Shaw’s basslines both grounding and propelling each number. The lyrics are consistently thoughtful, and Tutson’s vocals are
The intentionality of the allit eration in the opening two lines is balanced by the plainspokenness of the final line of the chorus (and the song): “And take it from there.” One could read the first two lines as the song’s narrator trying just a bit too hard but quickly realizing that if he would “just let” himself accept the simple foundations of a relationship, all could turn out well. In “I’m Not On My Own,” Tutson successfully adopts the trap ping of a slow doo-wop number, injects then with elevated lyrics and then simply sings the hell out of the song—including this verse that seems too thorny to work, but is instead buttery smooth in Tutson’s mouth:
I heard the news sung my lamen tations
You heard the news and gave your elegy
Well I called a dirge for your woeful poem
I’m so glad that I’m not on my own
The title track is a slow jam variation on the twist served up by a song like Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” Suffice it to say, the singer is not the person feeling the titular emotion. “By and By,” which may be my favor ite of the tracks, reminds listeners of Tutson’s ability to co-opt and reshape religious imagery and ideas in engaging ways. “I Need You Here” is an upbeat follow-up to “Let You Love Me.”
warm and filled with longing. All of that comes together, for example, on the song “Let You Love Me.”
I need to fetter my fear now I need to shackle my shame I need to trust you’re sincere now You need to know I’m the same I need to just let you love me I need to just let you care I need to stop being lonely And just let you know me And take it from there
The record closes with “Tomorrow Comes Again,” a song in the style of a singalong worship or campfire song—three verses, each built around a single line. The order of those lines/verses gives the song more power than it might have if the final line were not, “I believe that sorrow has its time.”
That may be true, but even as we acknowledge the inevitability of hard times, we should all be happy that Tutson shares his gift for ex ploring the intersection of joy and sorrow.
—Rob Cline
EGO PARTY IS A SONIc SALUtE tO AN UNAPOLOGEtIc SWAGGEr, tO SELF-cONFIDENcE IN tHE PUrSUIt OF AN IDENtItY, PErFOrMANcE Or OtHErWISE.
In the faces of her wolves, we see Haldeman, historical charac ters and possibly ourselves, as we grapple with the weighty contents of the book.
Photograph SARABANDE BOOKSittle Village comic contribu tor Lauren Haldeman’s fourth book, Team Photograph (out Nov. 8 from Sarabande Books) is a poi gnant exploration of how we’re shaped by the places where we grow up. This graphic novel combines Haldeman’s iconic wolf-headed style with erasure poetry to rehash her youth on soccer fields 800 feet away from the battlefields of Bull Run in Virginia.
Throughout her childhood, Haldeman saw ghosts of Civil War soldiers in her house and on the soccer fields. As she got old er, she began questioning why she saw the specters. Is it because they wanted to be seen? Why is she the only one who saw them? In Team Photograph, she dives into those memories alongside the American history that accompanies them to ultimately confront the death of her brother.
On first glance, Haldeman’s wolf figures are cute and disarming. Flipping through the book casu ally, one might assume that Team Photograph is about a fuzzy soccer team on their way to win a cham pionship. It’s only when you start reading that the darker themes of the book—racial inequities, trau ma hallucinations, the loss of loved ones—come through.
And while some say graphic nov els soften the blow of heavy topics by translating them out of real life, I’d argue that Team Photograph packs an even heavier punch be cause Haldeman’s illustration style entices you to look longer.
This is especially evident when Haldeman discusses the Robinson House, which was home to an of ten forgotten Civil War-era Black family. The house remarkably sur vived the war relatively unscathed. Over a century later, despite the house’s status as a historical sym bol, it was burned down by arson ists, who some speculate may have been motivated by racist hatred.
Despite living near the Robinson House her entire life, Haldeman only learns about it when visiting Virginia after her brother’s death. She further meditates on the era sure of the Robinson family’s history by bringing them to life in their own family photographs, complete with wolf faces.
It’s here, and at several other moments throughout the book, that we are hit with the horror in our history and our natural instinct to turn away from gruesome things.
But, as Haldeman discovers, ig noring our history only keeps its ghosts around longer. Sometimes
SKYLAr ALeXANDer Searching for Petco FORKLIFT BOOKSSearching for Petco (Forklift Books, 2022) opens like some one suddenly turned on a speaker. I felt accosted by author Skylar Alexander’s opening poems: clearly meant to be spoken, clearly friends with slam poetry. Extra-sensory and openly branded “millennial.”
/ to act as the foundation / of my withheld convictions” and then “& suddenly it’s Easter dinner– /same spiral ham, same corn casserole, but / everybody’s got a Keystone and / something nice to say, & even / tee totaler grandma will put down / the Bible for a minute, unclip / her clipon earrings, unclutch / her pearls & breathe.”
we must confront the uncomfort able in order to move forward.
Melancholy yet powerful, Team Photograph is an intertwining of histories that ebbs and flows with ease. Combining graphic novel el ements with poetry brings a cohe sion that nods to the complexities of history without getting too mud dy. It’s a quick read that you can pick up again and again, each time catching something new.
—Lily DeTaeyeAlexander brazenly powers into an image, hands her reader an archetype and disarms them on entry. “Oh,” you think, “I am read ing millennial pop-culture poetry.” Pop culture is the first language or second nature of this collection of poems, and it’s also a misdirection. The reader will understand the ref erences that freckle every poem (such as po ems titled “Mick Foley Death Wish,” “Bayonetta,” “Rozengurtle Baumgartner, Untouched by Man”), but someone expecting more traditional poems might be put off. This is no matter: Alexander is telling her reader she knows what they expect and she’ll wear her generation proudly—but don’t you dare underestimate her.
Bitterly feminist and bitingly universal, Alexander has permis sion to speak for our generation. In “Confession,” the first poem that caught me off guard and really slowed down my reading, she says, “I want to unhinge / the cellar door / of my ribcage & reveal / my cob webbed truths, / strategically buried
It is not easy to be caught off guard by a poet whose work I am already familiar with. These poems touch on moments from my own childhood and adolescence that I’d forgotten. They left me feeling both lonely and understood. In “Making Chloramine Gas in Grandma’s Basement,” Alexander’s narra tor fades out with, “Watch: I will evaporate; / become toilet bowl / bleached clean / / Watch: I will va porize; / become ammonia / lighter than air.”
This collection deals with sexu al assault, coming of age, Neopets and Tamagotchis, beauty standards, skate parties, chloramine gas, fall ing in love and WWE. There is barely a moment from the last 30 years missing from this text and, in case we get lost along the way, Alexander included “Liner Notes,” for her pop culture references.
Repeatedly, Alexander’s work changes tone, reminding the read er this is a collection of search ing. This is a collection built for searching. For readers in Eastern Iowa, Alexander leaves traces of her time here, such as in the poem “Driving River Drive Every Night for the Rest of My Life” and “Searching for Petco,” which take place in Davenport, or in the poem “From The Solar Plexus,” in which she says, “fine and intri cate / like the boy who sells beer at John’s Grocery / who teaches me to pretend / Schlitz is champagne / Skyrim is caviar / that I wanted this.”
Alexander’s first book is some where between a warning shot and flare depending on the reader. Do you need a partner to get you through the dark or do you need to back down?
—Sarah ElgatianIt IS NOt EASY tO bE cAUGHt OFF GUArD bY A POEt WHOSE WOrK I AM ALrEADY FAMILIAr WItH. tHESE POEMS tOUcH ON MOMENtS FrOM MY OWN cHILDHOOD AND ADOLEScENcE tHAt I’D FOrGOttEN.
hour?
“I should’ve brought a jacket”
Farm-to-stable fare
Act with the 1994 hit
Make generally less healthy but more delicious, in a way
City where the WNBA’s
play, familiarly
Contraction that drops
“v”
go on forever as four clean little mop-tops ...”
Group with the 1967 hit “Bernadette”
Trichotomous treats
Enumerates
COVID vaccine molecule
Pizzas, to New Yorkers, perhaps a bit controver sially
Lowered expense for a hybrid driver
Mid-2010s dance craze
to the World”
___ Major
Span that can’t be measured
Really goes for it
Group with the 2004 hit “Unwell”
Ménage à quatre
Paltry
Spice blend used in Palestinian cuisine
Barely above par
Raised
national dish is larb
Some TD scorers
Drummer who said “we
started on Vine
Blueberries for ___ (classic children’s book)
Group with the 1971 hit
Meteorological nick name for soccer star Fernando Torres
Minus
Seeks consent
Genre derived from mento, calypso and ska
DOWN
Pos. for basketball’s Lisa Leslie
King, in Portuguese
OutKast’s hometown: Abbr.
#Free___
Sandwich that often includes pickled daikon
Enter hesitantly
Certain meat sauce
Site seer?
Notoriously overpriced hotel amenity
Zen enlightenment
Egyptian serpents
Part that’s separated from the wheat
Absolutely sublime
Cloud storage devices
Like dive bars
Agcy. that was originally divided into Broadcasting, Telegraph and Telephone divisions
Orleans: Abbr.
Young’un
Amount past due to the Italian mafia?
Providence art inst. where the core of Talking Heads met
Old-timey cooking ap pliance
Mediocre-to-average weed, in slang
Soda that sounds like a type of sock
“This is for,” on a memo
Shade thrower?
Cohort just older than millennials
Symbol on the flag of South Korea
Group with the 2001 hit “Fat Lip” ... and the solution to this puzzle’s thematic equation
Official lang. of Israel
Robot that sucks at its job
___ Coltrane (jazz album with Spanish influences)
One in the cohort just younger than millennials
Spanish : Navidad :: Italian : ___
Pinnacles
Gendered pronoun
Journey
for one
“Will do!”
Common conifer
Reaches a denouement
Genus for humans
Clouds that become visible at night
Is a great song, in Bay Area parlance
North London Premier League club, on scoreboards
Elden Ring loot location
Sign that’s said to love the spotlight (you’re welcome)
Hypotheticals
Desire and Bourbon in New
Unites with, in a way
Comedian Notaro
Palindromic Overwatch character
Mullet-to-be, perhaps
Eastern Iowa
Central Iowa
