Little Village magazine issue 285: Aug. 5-18, 2020

A L W A Y S

ISSUE 285 Aug. 5–18, 2020

Behind the Brick and Mortar Diving into the history of local buildings

plus:

LV Recommends: E’s Gluten Free Bakery T.J. Dedeaux-Norris on art and exploitation Taking the pretention out of poetry

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VOL. 29 ISSUE 285 Aug. 5–18, 2020 ALWAYS FREE LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM PUBLISHER MATTHEW STEELE DIGITAL DIRECTOR DREW BULMAN Jav Ducker / Little Village

ART DIRECTOR JORDAN SELLERGREN MANAGING EDITOR EMMA MCCLATCHEY ARTS EDITOR GENEVIEVE TRAINOR NEWS DIRECTOR PAUL BRENNAN VISUAL REPORTER—PHOTO ZAK NEUMANN VISUAL REPORTER­—VIDEO JASON SMITH STAFF WRITER/EDITOR IZABELA ZALUSKA ENGAGEMENT EDITOR CELINE ROBINS FOOD & DRINK DIRECTOR FRANKIE SCHNECKLOTH DISTRIBUTION

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Segregation in Iowa City

Open Doors & Wedding Bells

The Mother of All Mosques

Racist housing covenants in the ’30s are an oft-forgotten chapter of local history.

The Unitarian Universalist Society is Iowa City’s OG LGBTQ Safe Space.

Cedar Rapids is home to the longest-standing purposebuilt mosque in the U.S.

AUSTIN WU

EMMA MCCLATCHEY

IKRAM BASRA

4 - Letters & Interactions 6 - Brock About Town 12 - Cortado 14 - Bowery Street 16 - Garfield Elementary 18 - UUSIC

20 - Mother Mosque 22 - Robert A. Lee Center 24 - Bread & Butter 26 - Sex & Love 32 - A-List 34 - Events Calendar

39 - Ad Index 41 - Your Village 47 - Local Albums 49 - Local Books 51 - Crossword

BRIAN JOHANNESSEN, DAI GWILLIAM, NORBERT SARSFIELD, NICOLE ELDRIDGE ADVERTISING ADS@LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM LISTINGS CALENDAR@LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM CONTRIBUTORS IKRAM BASRA, NATALIE BENWAY-CORRELL, DANIEL BOSCALJON, AUDREY BROCK, CHRIS BURNS, ALEX CHOQUEMAMANI, THOMAS DEAN, JAV DUCKER, SARAH EGLATIAN, EMMA GRAY, CINDY HADISH, BRIANA LADWIG, TYLER LUETKEHANS, JOHN MARTINEK, ADRIANNA PATTERSON, JAY SCHLEIDT, NICHOLAS THEISEN, TOM TOMORROW, CASEY WAGNER, SAM LOCKE WARD, AUSTIN WU SUBMISSIONS EDITOR@LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM DISTRIBUTION REQUESTS DISTRO@LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM CREATIVE SERVICES CREATIVE@LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM CONTACT (319) 855-1474, 623 S DUBUQUE ST, IOWA CITY, IA 52240

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Little Village is an independent, community-supported news and culture publication based in Iowa City. Through journalism, essays and events, we work to improve our community in the Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids area according to a few 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. Little Village is always free; all contents are the licensed work of the contributor and of the publication.

If you would like to reprint or collaborate on new content, reach us at lv@littlevillagemag.com. To browse back issues, visit us at 623 S Dubuque St, Iowa City, or online at issuu.com/littlevillage.

Briana Ladwig

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LETTERS LV encourages community members, including candidates for office, to submit letters to Editor@LittleVillageMag.com. To be considered for print publication, letters should be under 500 words. Preference is given to letters that have not been published elsewhere.

“ERROR COMMUNIS FACIT JUS” (“COMMON ERROR MAKES LAW”) I COME FROM THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO. When I was young,

it was very common to see a blind, deaf or mute individuals get angry suddenly. Most of the time it was because other children harassed them, mocked them or provoked them.

When nothing is done to resolve this wickedness, inequality sets in.

The consequence of these behaviors pushed children with disabilities to turn in on themselves, far from any judgment, provocation and mockery. Alone, taking care of their own affairs far from other children, they seem so calm and at peace with the society and the environment. They follow their own

rules and they learned the lesson: separate life in society is better.

Today I know that what we see of them is often false. I realize that the silence of some people contains a boiling volcano, because some silences contain so much pain and anger, screams and despair and so much torment. If the world continues to function normally, nothing is done to resolve this problem, it is not impossible if you are disabled to think that maybe the problem is you.

And then you could start to blame yourself because of the injustice other people apply to you, you think, “If I was not like this, I would be better.” The same thing happens with victims of police brutality.

“Curving into violent intimidation only encourages even more violent intimidation.”

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THERE WERE NAMES BEFORE THEM AND THERE WILL CERTAINLY HAVE NAMES AFTER THEM, BUT LET’S CITE THE MURDERS OF AHMAUD ARBERY AND BREONNA TAYLOR, AND THOSE WHO WERE LITERALLY KILLED IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE WORLD, GEORGE FLOYD AND RAYSHARD BROOKS. THEIR MURDERS ARE PROOF OF A DYSFUNCTION IN THESE UNITED STATES; DENYING IT ONLY LEADS TO AGGRAVATING THIS DYSFUNCTION AND TO A CIVIL WAR. SUNDAYS

for a president to make sure that the people observe the balance; if not, the authority must stand up for the weak, not the opposite, otherwise the social agreement is broken.

The United States of America should be today the country that leads the best model of living in peace for all kinds of human beings.

But what is peace? Nelson Mandela says this following about peace: “Peace is not just the absence of conflict; peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish, regardless of race, colour, creed, religion, gender, class, caste or any other social markers

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Even between people who estimate themselves in a better position than others are other victims. It will no longer be between people with disabilities and people without disabilities, but between who is the most popular and the least? The most rich and the least? The most powerful and the least? The most strong and the least? Who is able to kill the most without any consequence? This is why there are authorities in the society, starting at home, school, work, city, state. We vote

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV285 Aug. 5–18, 2020 5

LETTERS & INTERACTIONS of difference. Religion, ethnicity, language, social and cultural practices are elements which enrich human civilization, adding to the wealth of our diversity. Why should they be allowed to become a cause of division, and violence? We demean our common humanity by allowing that to happen.”

There were names before them and there will certainly have names after them, but let’s cite the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, and those who were literally killed in front of the whole world, George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks. Their murders are proof of a dysfunction in these United States; denying it only leads to aggravating this dysfunction and to a civil war. My skin’s color is a disability in the United States of America. I am not a victim, I won’t die in silence, I claim the right to live because Black Lives Matter.

—Erick Tshimbombu Letter edited for length and clarity. It is the first in a three-part series.

Cedar Rapids law firm offers to prepare living wills and other health care documents for teachers for free (July 31) This headline is a punch in the gut. So sad. —Jennifer G. Gov. Reynolds sharply limits ability of schools to respond to COVID-19 (July 30) “A plan to develop a plan??” How about just make a (expletive) plan?!?!

—Leslie A.G. “I am proud to stand up for the sanctity of every human life. Life is precious, life is sacred, and we can never stop fighting for it.” -Kim Reynolds, 6/29/20 —ASko Her lack of foresight to consider that Iowa City will have 30,000 people enter their community in the next couple of weeks is appalling. —Janelle D.J.

BROCK ABOUT TOWN

AU D R E Y B R O C K

Howdy, y’all! I couldn’t be happier to be back from my, er, minisabbatical. OK, it was kind of a nervous breakdown. What? We’re all having them these days. Along with sourdough starters and TikToks of middle-aged white women having public meltdowns, it’s what passes for a trend now.

As literally every publication, commercial and Facebook listicle will remind you, it’s a difficult time. (God, I hate that little chestnut. It’s almost as lame as “our current situation.”) It doesn’t really bear repeating that we all have a lot more pressure on us than normal. For me, at least, the worst part is all the forced alone time. While some people are cheerfully going about business as usual, bar-hopping and licking each other’s faces or whatever you do in the outside world, I’m hiding under my bed with a can of Lysol. I feel like one of those pod people from The Matrix, which I feel compelled to admit I did not actually see in case this analogy doesn’t work. It’s even harder to get work done; how do I write jokes when all the people I gently rib are inside?

Maybe, rather than pining for the delights of human interaction, it’ll help to be more realistic. Close your eyes and imagine a beautiful summer day, one to three years in the future. You’ve been trapped in the glacially air-conditioned, burntpopcorn-scented office all day, Microsoft Excel burning teeny tiny holes into your retinas. All you want is to go home, take your pants off, and eat Szechuan in front of The Voice. Hey, don’t judge future you. Season 57 is pretty good.

Unfortunately, relief is not to be yours, because you told your friends from college you’d meet them for tapas. The very thought is enough to make you cry, but if you back out of this one, that bitch Megan is going to stage another intervention about your “emotional availability.” You spend an hour finding parking downtown and three hours sitting on a cramped restaurant patio, eating wildly overpriced hors d’oeuvres while you mentally calculate how much it’s going to cost you to attend two years’ worth of accumulated weddings.

What bliss.

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/LittleVillage READER POLL: Why do you live in Iowa?

Wrong answers only.

For the mountains, duh. —Mia Potatoes! —Alicia Big city livin’. —Miss C. All the Michelin-star restaurants.

—Kelly R. For the skiing. —Matthew F. The awesome and affordable properties in downtown Iowa City. —Tim P. For the beaches, obviously. Miles and miles of sandy, gritty, stoney, river beaches, that is. —Nolan Cheap direct flights everywhere.

—Nicole A. The beautiful lighthouses on the windswept coast line. —Roger S. The hustle and bustle of it all. And diversity. —Foxy Just here through the olive harvest.

—S Benjamin F. Data and metrics. —Hans H. The mild winters and cool summers.

—Ben K. The warm diverse welcome in every city where racism is unheard of! —Blake S. To escape “classic rock.” —Sam M. Definitely the wineries and fresh daily caught seafood. —Eileen J. The fashion. —Steve P. To live my best life under the amazing leadership of our Governor Kim Reynolds! It’s so inspiring to see her succeed in leadership without a functional spine or brain! —Amy L.

How to find us these days ...

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INTERACTIONS So, if the teachers, administrators, support staff, bus drivers, cafeteria staff and every other adult in the building are infected, guess the kids can take turns teaching the class.That makes perfect sense, Kimmie. —Debbie B.S.

Artifacts to expand into former El Banditos space (July 30)

I’d like to ask Dr. Pedati to explain her interpretation of the Hippocratic oath: “First do no Harm....” —Malinda T.

I LOVE ARTIFACTS! I’ll come shop your big ass store!! —Adrianne B. I hope this means more furniture!!

—Katie K.

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Some good news. —Lauren L. COVID-19: Groups representing more than 12,000 Iowa medical professionals ask Gov. Reynolds for a statewide mask mandate; 253 more Iowans test positive (July 28) It’s great they sent this. Unfortunately it will be the same response. That she “trusts Iowans to do the right thing.”

—Carla C. Thankful that Iowa City stores seem to be picking up the pace about requiring masks. They will NOT lose business, they will help stay in business. —Julianne V.M. Johnson County Board of Supervisors approves face mask mandate (July 23) Thank you so much for stepping into this void and taking the lead. We need to stop this trend: John Hopkins U recorded the first case of coronavirus in the United States on January 21: It took the country 99 days to reach 1 million cases on April 28. It then took 43 more days to reach 2 million cases on June 10. It took another 28 days to surpass 3 million cases on July 8. It has taken the United States only 15 additional days to surpass 4

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INTERACTIONS million cases. —Jan A. Saw IC was already on Rachel Maddow! —Kari F. ‘The time for action is now’: Mayor Bruce Teague issues order requiring face coverings in Iowa City (July 21) The governor likes to say she wants local governments to take control, but when they do she claims it’s up to her... thank you Mayor Teague!!!!

—Tom T. Our Mayor Teague is promoting the fastest route to economic opening. He is protecting our health care personnel and structures so they will be there if we need them. He is stepping up. —Carol B.G.

Glad someone in politics cares about their citizens. Way to go, Mayor Teague! —Erin S. An unenforceable mandate created only to challenge our governor. What a pathetic excuse for a mayor. —Parker H. COVID-19: Another 512 Iowans test positive; the governor orders limits testing at Dubuque’s Test Iowa site Reynolds ordering nurses to stop helping people without internet access schedule tests.

This is out and out discrimination against the elderly and the poor! I am really tired of so-called Christians. I haven’t left my home in months but I would march against Reynolds. —Tarrill A.

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Bienvenido a Cortado La columna más nueva de Little Village. POR ALEX CHOQUEMAMANI

H

ola mi nombre es Alex y soy de Perú. Vivo en Iowa desde hace casi dos años. Los motivos que me trajeron a estas tierras del Midwest Americano son más de índole familiar (mi esposa es iowana!) que de trabajo o estudios, aunque también hago ambas cosas.

Antes de venir a Iowa mi primer acercamiento con este estado de los Estados Unidos fue la película The Bridges of Madison County. Una película romántica que roza con el drama, especialmente en sus últimas escenas. Esos paisajes, puentes, casas, edificios, captados con mucha delicadeza por el director de la película (Clint Eastwood), en cierto modo, me prepararon para mi primera visita a Iowa (verano del 2014). Y una vez ya radicado aquí en Iowa City, como inmigrante, terminaría encantado por su estimulante cultura y su delicioso choclo.

Todo este tiempo me ha interesado la interacción entre la cultura latina y la cultura americana. No solo aspectos visibles como la gastronomía o la música latina, sino también otros asuntos que pueden ir desde las implicancias de aprender el idioma inglés hasta las deportaciones contra indocumentados que realiza la ICE con eficiencia, sin importar si estamos o no en pandemia.

Pienso que tener la condición de inmigrante no es algo estático e inamovible, como algunos piensan. Uno también es

Jordan Sellergren / Little Village

vecino de un barrio, trabajador independiente o dependiente, estudiante escolar o universitario, voluntario de una organización sin fines de lucro, por lo que podemos concluir que los inmigrantes participan de diferentes maneras en la construcción y el mejoramiento de nuestra comunidad.

De estos y otros temas me gustaría hablar en este pequeño espacio que muy amablemente me ha brindado el equipo editorial de esta chévere revista, Little Village.

Finalmente, solo decir que esta columna se llama Cortado porque una vez en una fiesta (en aquel tiempo no muy lejano en que bailar en un bar repleto era algo

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común) alguien me saludó alegremente diciéndome: “Hola, Cortado!”. Y ante mi rostro de extrañeza, esta persona quien por cierto trabajaba en un coffee shop, añadió: “Tú eres la persona que siempre ordena Cortado!”. Fue en ese momento en que caí en la cuenta de que no siempre recordamos a las personas por su nombre, sino también por algún rasgo o detalle particular. En mi caso fue el café Cortado. Sí, me gusta el Cortado por su sabor casi amargo, y porque tiene el mismo significado y la misma pronunciación en inglés y español. Por lo que siempre me es fácil ordenarlo en cualquier coffee shop de Iowa City.

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Building Stories

Omitted History An old store on Bowery Street speaks to Iowa City’s segregationist past. BY AUSTIN WU

I

n 2014, a small building on the block between South Johnson and South Van Buren streets in Iowa City was added to the National Register for Historic Places. Its inclusion was well-warranted; it had served as a small grocery store for nearly a century, beginning in the late 1800s. The store at 518 E Bowery St is one of the only buildings remaining from the initial development of the area, and incredibly well-preserved at that. Its presence speaks to a time before supermarkets came in and shuttered local grocers.

On the building’s nomination form, researchers theorized that, prior to Bowery Street becoming a haven for student rental properties, its residents were largely working class, employed by the factories and workshops that used to line Gilbert Street or by trades associated with the nearby railroad. Left out of this picturesque narrative of a resilient little storefront surviving over a century of change, however, is something more nefarious: the contrived efforts made to prevent people of color from living in or purchasing property in the neighborhoods surrounding this old grocery store—people like myself included.

During the heyday of the Bowery Street corner store, Iowa City avoided some of the more egregious forms of housing segregation, such as the notorious redlining system created by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation in the 1930s, applied in Davenport, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and even Dubuque. Perhaps this was due to the relatively small size of the city at the time. (Iowa City’s population boosted after 1945, as people flocked to higher education, and again in the ’70s following post-industrial stagnation in towns such as Waterloo and Dubuque.) Or, given the fact that only 0.73 percent of the city’s population in 1930 were nonwhite (down to 0.53 percent in 1940), bureaucrats may not have seen it necessary to differentiate between “desirable,” “declining” and “hazardous” neighborhoods, given they were all exceedingly white.

Nonetheless, enterprising white people in Iowa City found other means of writing racial segregation into the built landscape. One was the inclusion of race-based restrictions in housing covenants.

Essentially a list of conditions upon which a property was bought and sold, covenants were common before municipal zoning laws or building codes regulated building placement, land use or other minutiae, such as the ability to raise livestock in your backyard. However, another clause found its way into many covenants—one prohibiting the sale or occupancy of a property to people deemed nonwhite or Jewish, designating a property for the “sole and exclusive use and benefit of the Gentile people of the Caucasian Race.”

In these race-restricted covenants, the presence of nonwhite or Jewish individuals owning or living in a property was tantamount to raising cattle, opening a gas station or setting up a camping ground in a residential neighborhood. All were regarded as potential nuisances that would hurt an area’s reputation or property values, and thus were prohibited for the common good.

In some areas, such as the near entirety of University Heights, racially restrictive covenants accompanied brand-new developments, eliminating the mere possibility of integrated neighborhoods. In other cases, Cont.>> on pg. 42 Jason Smith / Little Village

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Building Stories

Pride and Place

Jiang Hu

Asian Street Food

Garfield Elementary’s history entwines generations of Cedar Rapidians. Can the building be recycled?

BY CINDY HADISH

A

rare example of Egyptian Revival architecture stands strong on a sloping hillside in northeast Cedar Rapids.

Imposing stone columns loom tall at the entrance of Garfield Elementary School, 1201 Maplewood Dr NE, while hardwood floors and natural woodwork add a sense of warmth inside.

Built in 1914, the style reflected a growing interest in Egypt during the era, according to Cedar Rapids historian Mark Stoffer Hunter.

Garfield was one of four schools built that year in Cedar Rapids, a time when the city’s economy and population were booming with expanding industries and job opportunities.

“It was the largest school boom in Cedar Rapids’ history before the Baby Boom era,” Stoffer Hunter said, adding that four architects were hired to design the four different schools, each with a singular architectural style.

Of the four schools built that year, Garfield and Arthur Elementary, situated just one mile apart, have been used continuously for more than a century by the Cedar Rapids Community School District—but both are at risk.

Under the district’s facilities master plan, Arthur, built in an uncommon “fortress” style at 2630 B Ave NE, would be demolished and replaced by a 600-student “mega-school.” And Garfield would be closed, with no plans for its future use.

The closures and demolitions—decided by the school board in 2018 with no vote from district residents—will affect the entire city. Eight neighborhood elementary schools are scheduled to close and 10 to be demolished and replaced. Three newer schools would be retained.

Dexter Merschbrock, elected last year to the school board as District 4 director, said he cannot speak for the board as a whole, “but my personal opinion is we need to listen to the people of the neighborhood and really consider the negative effects of closing neighborhood schools.”

“Garfield is unique,” Merschbrock said. “It’s in a core neighborhood; it is close to our two urban college campuses. My view is the [school] is a benefit to the neighborhood and the district sees a big benefit by being in that neighborhood.”

Mount Mercy University sits just blocks away from Garfield—both were constructed in park-like settings—while Coe College bookends the other side of the neighborhood, closer to downtown Cedar Rapids.

Tree-lined streets twist through the area, with modest homes reflecting the 1920s and ’30s architectural eras in which they were built.

Students living in the neighborhood can walk to Garfield and Arthur schools, but more busing will be needed under the district’s plans.

Even during the coronavirus pandemic, schools on the closure list have served core neighborhoods, with some designated as hubs for to-go meals for neighborhood children.

“If you think of a neighborhood as a small community of itself, the neighborhood school can become the hub of that community,” Cont.>> on pg. 44

Adrianna Patterson / Little Village

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Building Stories

Sanctuary Hosting sufferagettes in the 19th century, lesbian dances in the ’70s and hundreds of same-sex weddings before 2015, the Unitarian Universalist Society of Iowa City has always been ahead of its time. BY EMMA MCCLATCHEY

O

n May 1, 2009, a charter bus rolled into downtown Iowa City, packed with lesbian and gay couples from Missouri (and a rabbi or two). A few weeks earlier, Iowa had become the first state in the Midwest to recognize same-sex marriage. The busload of couples had come to the Hawkeye State to get hitched.

St. Louis couple Ed Reggi and Scott Emanuel organized what would become known as the Missouri Marriage Bus or Love Bus. After making plans to get married in Iowa, dozens of other couples began reaching out to Reggi and Emanuel asking if they could carpool. Reggi did some fundraising, researched the logistics and cost of Iowa marriage certificates ($35) and rented a bus.

“A lot of people early on … compared it to the Freedom Riders,” Reggi said. “For us, it was about safety. To have a bus of almost 60 people coming together was the strongest thing.”

“It was a complete community on wheels.”

As for the multi-wedding venue, Reggi reached out to the Unitarian Universalist Society of Iowa City (UUSIC). The congregation wasn’t just willing but enthusiastic about the marriages. In fact, UUSIC reverends had been performing “services of union” for same-sex couples since 1984, and has opened their doors to the LGBTQ community for far longer.

UUSIC occupied their historic space on 10 S Gilbert St for more than a century, but there’d been a Universalist congregation in Iowa City since 1838. Members advocated for a liberal view of religion, guided by a succinct set of principles centered on peace, justice, knowledge and dignity for all.

“Ours is a living faith that is constantly evolving to changes in society, and also a free faith without dogma or a creed that you must subscribe to,” UUSIC explains on their website.

The Universalists were among the first to embrace women on an equal status as men. In the 1860s, Iowa City Universalists hosted suffragists and abolitionists, including Susan B. Anthony, Jane Swisshelm and Mary Livermore. During the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, the congregation provided more than 3,500 meals to health care workers and crafted face masks for children. UUSIC reverends worked to integrate Iowa City restaurants in the 1940s and barber shops in the ’60s; one reverend even joined the Selma Freedom March in 1965.

The church formally adopted an “open door policy” in 1973, allowing their building on Gilbert Street to be used for political events, art shows, yoga classes and dances for the local LGBTQ community.

“I was a teacher in the public school system [in the ’70s],” said Dr. Tova Vitiello, a Jewish woman, lesbian and retired Kirkwood Community College psychology professor. “My heterosexual colleagues had pictures of their loved ones on their desk. I did not feel free enough.”

Cont.>> on pg. 44 Briana Ladwig / Little Village

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Building Stories

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Cedar Rapids’ Mother Mosque is one of the most important sites in Muslim American history. BY IKRAM BASRA

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I

n early July 2020, Turkey’s supreme court issued a verdict to revert the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a mosque. The 1,500-year-old structure was built during the Byzantine Empire in the Greek Orthodox tradition, and served as a church until the rise of the Ottoman Empire, when it was first converted into a mosque. With the fall of the Empire in 1922, the mosque was turned into a museum; a century later, it has reopened as a place of worship.

Like this ancient mosque half a world away, the Mother Mosque of America in Cedar Rapids has undergone a number of identity shifts in its history. Built in 1934 by Greater Syrian immigrants (from modern-day Syria and Lebanon, in the former Ottoman Empire), the mostly wooden, almost schoolhouse-like building at 1335 9th St NW was sold in the early 1970s after a larger mosque was built in town. Over the years, it served as a center for Cambodian refugees, a social club for local youth and a church, until 1992, when the Islamic Council of Iowa purchased the building and restored its status as a mosque.

Unlike the Hagia Sophia, the Mother Mosque originated as a mosque. In fact, it was the first building designed and constructed specifically as a house of worship for Muslim Americans, and is the nation’s longest standing mosque built for that purpose. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996, representing “a vital starting point for the development of Islam as an established religion within the United States” and “symboliz[ing] tolerance and acceptance of Islam and Muslims” in America.

Today, approximately 50 people can offer prayer in the building at a time. The mosque administration has also purchased an adjacent 95-square-foot plot of land to construct a research center and provide other relevant services for community members and visitors, according to Imam Taha Tawil.

On a recent visit to the Mother Mosque, the two features I found most striking were its stained glass windows and dome. These are the only visual features setting the mosque apart from the rest of the houses in the quiet neighborhood. They are also evidence of the the fact the Mother Mosque was built to serve Muslim worshippers.

The stained glass windows look very traditional and beautiful, not so different from those in Christian churches. But the mehrab at the top of these windows is distinctive of a mosque. A mehrab is a niche in the wall of a room in a mosque that indicates the direction of Mecca, towards which all Muslims pray. Mecca is the city in which the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessing Be Upon Him) was born and home of the most important Islamic site, the Kaaba.

A mehrab-niche design is also in the middle of the prayer mat, which is pointed toward Mecca during worship. Mehrab-style windows, doors and vents are very common in Islamic architecture.

Mehrabs often incorporate designs such as geometric shapes and Arabic calligraphy, which also serve a religious purpose.

The green dome in the mosque’s ceiling represents the arch of heaven. Green was supposedly the favorite color of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). “There’s no God but ‘Allah’ and Muhammadis Cont.>> on pg. 46 Jav Ducker / Little Village

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Building Stories

Open to the Public For six decades, Iowa City’s downtown rec center has served as a microcosm of the city’s best and worst qualities. BY NICHOLAS THEISEN

T

he Robert A. Lee Community Recreation Center, an unimpressive building that looms small in the shadow of The Chauncey, is nevertheless a nexus for the true cultural geography of Iowa City.

A relic of midcentury municipal architecture—something of a rarity in Iowa City—it took nearly a decade to realize after a 1955 fire destroyed the American Legion recreation center, which the city then owned. The new center’s namesake, longtime Iowa City Recreation Superintendent Robert A. Lee, fought for years to get it built, campaigning for numerous failed bond issues until the city finally broke ground in 1963. By all accounts, the rec center was Lee’s personal fiefdom, a pet project he shepherded until his retirement in 1983. The Iowa City Council almost immediately thereafter named the building in his honor, in recognition of his more than four decades of service to the city.

The Robert A. Lee center is, by design, something of a Frankenstein’s monster. When it opened, there were a variety of public offerings: a game room, pool, gym (complete with a rollerskating-friendly maple floor), exercise room, handball court, riflery and archery range, social hall, meeting rooms, a “modern lounge,” art space, dark room and sundry offices. Some of these have gone—a rifle range?—but many remain, some in different locations. The exercise room is now a fishbowl as you enter from the parking lot, with scenic views of swimmers and the front desk.

The modern lounge is gone, replaced with a small children’s play area, watched over by a somewhat terrifying Herky statue that looks like a state trooper from a distance, but is actually a vaguely farmer-like figure. The cracked tiles, power-wash showers and close proximity to one of the nastier stretches of Ralston Creek hardly conjure a sense of the sublime; the building’s one nod to beauty is the iridescent wave mural that hangs over the pool or, perhaps, the public art occasionally on display along College Street.

It may not be a work of art in and of itself, but, as the city continues its march toward complete gentrification, the rec center remains one of a few places to accommodate all kinds of Iowa Citians, at least in theory.

In the morning, it welcomes middle-aged lap swimmers and water-walking septuagenarians, who, I can attest, prefer the rec center pool downtown to the one in Mercer Park, due to the water being kept at a higher temperature.

Throughout the day, it welcomes the homeless. Despite Iowa City’s perennial debates about the rights of individuals experiencing homelessness to coexist with the housing-secure in public spaces like the Ped Mall and public library, rec center patrons rarely go out of their way to bother the men and women who come there for a hot shower and the opportunity to enjoy the basic luxuries of home most of us take for granted.

Cont.>> on pg. 48 Mustard-In-Law / Little Village

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M

aybe I’m not the best person to review a gluten-free bakery.

My body does not seem to have an adverse reaction to gluten. I have not suffered countless loaves of bread that taste like cardboard boxes. I haven’t choked down gritty, hard-as-rocks cookies in pretend enjoyment. But maybe because I haven’t tasted exactly how terrible gluten-free baking can be, I am just the person for the job, coming to things unbiased with fresh eyes and a clean palate.

E’s Gluten Free Bakery (a Black-owned business!) is a dedicated and certified gluten-free bakery run by a mother and son duo, Earie and Kwesi Seals. With a passion for baking since she was a young girl, Earie got her start baking gluten-free goodies as a favor for her family and friends. Now a licensed home bakery on the eastside of Iowa City, E’s offers customers a range of treats from cookies and cakes to savory and sweet breads, and even accepts custom orders. Everything is baked to order, ensuring the freshest and best-tasting product.

I ordered two flavors of cookies (white chocolate cranberry and chocolate chip) and a loaf of flax seed and brown rice bread. My treats were delivered a few days later by E herself and after a brief but lovely socially distant chat, I was able to tuck into my order.

After my first bite of a cookie, it became painfully obvious I had made a mistake not ordering more; I had to hide them from myself. The white chocolate cranberry cookies are E’s signature treat and “the one which people unfailingly claim, ‘This cannot be gluten-free! It’s way too good!’” They were truly delicious, and not just for a gluten-free cookie. I will happily and eagerly buy and consume these cookies again and again.

I’m a member of the Soft and Chewy Cookie camp, so these were really a homerun as far as I’m concerned. Moist and flavorful and not too sweet, they were quite honestly baked to perfection. Most cookies these days suffer the Goldilocks effect––either too big (you can’t eat very many) or too small (you eat so many you lose count), but E’s cookies are just the right size. Reminiscent of cookies made by your mom or grandma, they were 24 Aug. 5–18, 2020 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV285

Frankie Schneckloth / Little Village

comforting and homey in the best way possible and struck just the right chord.

The bread was a delight, too. The massive loaf was packed with flavor and a nice crumb encased by a chewy, soft crust. I think it’s best toasted and slathered with too much salty butter, but I have no doubt it would make a respectable base layer for the sandwich of your choosing. Because it was so big (and because I don’t eat a lot of bread to begin with) I wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish the whole loaf before it passed its prime. E’s website mentions their bread freezes well, so I sliced it up and packed it away in the freezer.

Future me will be thankful for a freezer stash of great bread when I’m craving some toast, but I’ll need to place another order for those cookies before too long.

Tip: Order online to get exactly what you want; your treats are typically ready in two day’s time.

Bonus tip: E’s is offering free local delivery during COVID-19. For instant gratification, you can find a selection of E’s goodies at Iowa City and Coralville Hy-Vee’s and at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics cafeterias. —Frankie Schneckloth

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LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV285 Aug. 5–18, 2020 25

CULTURE Sex & Love

The Art of Exploitation T.J. Dedeaux-Norris uses their body to create beautiful and sometimes provocative performance art dissecting race, gender and sexuality in America.

BY NATALIE BENWAY-CORRELL

T

.J. Dedeaux-Norris once dreamed of becoming a famous rapper.

“I came to Art through my tumultuous experience of trying to ‘make it’ in Los Angeles as a vulnerable teenage girl on my own,” T.J. explains on their website. “I explored the roles of rapper, video hoe, certified audio engineer, certified massage therapist, phone sex operator, stripper, prostitute, a sexually exploited, uneducated woman, porn star, occasional drug dealer, barista, customer service call center agent, professor and art star—which now all inform my art and social practice.”

T.J. and I met at a snow cone stand in Iowa City on a hot summer day in 2017. T.J. came to Iowa as a Grant Wood Fellowship recipient and has been a tenure track assistant professor of painting and drawing at the University of Iowa since 2017. It was truly an “Iowa City moment”—one minute we are talking about snow cones, the next we are discussing healing modalities, art and sexuality.

T.J. was 15 when they moved from the Mississippi gulf coast to L.A. to pursue a career in rap, and found themself among some of rap’s biggest heavy-hitters in the early 2000s.

“I was in the room with a lot of men,” T.J. said, “and whether you have talent or not, there was always a negotiation of sex.”

By the age of 20, “I was tired of trying to negotiate pussy,” T.J. said, so they enrolled in audio engineering school. T.J. wanted to learn and develop their own technical skills, produce their own albums and take ownership of their path forward.

Once T.J. completed their training in engineering, they applied for a job at a production company, and the white woman interviewing them said T.J. was too little and distracting to be able to do the job they’d trained to do.

“Exploitation is built into all these systems,” T.J. realized. “I was born into this system that was meant to do these things to me or I was going to fall victim to it somehow.

26 Aug. 5–18, 2020 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV285

Emma Gray / Little Village

T.J.’S ARTISTIC IDENTITIES

Tameka Janean Norris, is the birth name given to the artist by their mother. Tameka takes on “all the shit, of the stereotypes of the Black girl body,” from the video hoe to the welfare queen.

Meka Jean appreciates a good lipstick, a skirt and some cleavage. Her medium is rap, through which she can be aggressive, raunchy and overtly sexual.

She’s not afraid of jiggling her tits around or being hardcore to compete in the male-driven genre.

Meka, a nickname bestowed by family members, represents an identity the artist was born into, one who had not yet felt the weight of gender norms.

“Meka was the baby girl version of myself before she recognized what the repercussions were for not sitting with your legs closed in a dress.”

T.J. Dedeaux-Norris (they/them) is the advocate, the leader, the front person, the professor. T.J represents all the artist’s personas, as well as both a mother and a father.

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It was absolutely heartbreaking to realize the rap world, art world and academia has a lot of the same things. I worked so hard to pull myself out of reach of being exploited in various ways.”

Rather than allow themself to be exploited or degraded, T.J. decided they would, in a sense, exploit themself: T.J. began crafting songs, videos, performances and installations mimicking the more toxic elements of the music industry, as well as other fraught areas of American culture including racial and gender stereotypes, obscene symbols of wealth, the hypocrisy of the fine art world and human trafficking.

“EXPLOITATION IS BUILT INTO ALL THESE SYSTEMS. I WAS BORN INTO THIS SYSTEM THAT WAS MEANT TO DO THESE THINGS TO ME OR I WAS GOING TO FALL VICTIM TO IT SOMEHOW.” “A lot of my work is thinking about, how can I control my narrative?” T.J. said. “How do you flip exploitation?”

T.J. works in a variety of media—painting, music, dance, installations, videos, the internet, performance art— to, as they put it, “explore identity from the inside out.” T.J.’s most vital tool, though, is their own body. T.J.’s work has seen them fondling and grinding on top of multi-million-dollar sculptures on the UCLA campus for a tongue-in-cheek rap video; gluing their lips shut then prying them open; and cutting their tongue with a razor and dragging it against the walls of a museum.

In 2009, as a 28-year-old UCLA undergrad, T.J. performed a piece called “F@ cking Art History.” During a summer residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, T.J. walked into a semi-public library and attached a dildo to a stack of art history books.

“I proceeded to pornographically fuck the books in a semi-private performance.”

“There was a huge backlash when I performed it initially. It was presented on video at an exhibition on a loop. ... It wasn’t a nude—I was butt-ass naked and my fellow white female residents had a really hard time and thought it was disgusting. They would say ‘who does that?’ They thought it was crass and all about shock value.” They couldn’t see the merit or significance in the work at the time.

“It’s talking about consumption of all of this knowledge and how to embody it. It’s also all built on exploitation. Who’s fucking who? Am I fucking art history, or is it fucking me? Is academia fucking me, or am I fucking it?”

T.J. went on to earn their M.F.A. in painting and printmaking from Yale and found they “felt more like a performer when making paintings than when I was making performances,” they said. “I started thinking about what it means to be in my body in my embodied experience as someone who is a Black politicized person who comes from a multi-raced background and who navigates the world radically, in a more fluid way.”

“There was a place I got post-grad school in the studio where I was seeing the frame of the painting as almost a type of embodiment, like a figure. I was often projecting, attempting to work through fabrics—familiar fabrics, familiar smells, scents, curtains, bed sheets— in order to think about form and personhood, and using the frame as a vessel to do that.”

T.J. earned a $25,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant in 2017. The Figge Museum in Davenport will host an exhibition titled “T.J. Dedeaux-Norris Presents the Estate of Tameka Jenean Norris” from Oct. 10 through Jan. 31, delving into the different chapters of the artist’s life.

On Mother’s Day, performed an emotional piece via Facebook Live. They shaved their long hair on camera and discussed their spiritual and emotional connection with their hair while a childhood photo of T.J. and their mom burned over a candle on the toilet next to them. “What does it mean to be in my body and have the type of hair I have?” T.J. said. “Hair is connected to vanity and what is valuable.”

T.J. views art as a “healing practice” and hopes their art can not only help heal them, but others who have experienced sexual exploitation and trafficking.

“I don’t want to hold secrets anymore. The more people say ‘me too,’ I feel less alone by saying it out loud,” T.J. said. “[I have] lived this shit, and I don’t say it out loud for street cred, but to understand my own narrative and to understand I am alive and it’s a miracle.”

Natalie Benway-Correll LISW is a psychotherapist in private practice in Coralville.

She has a certification in sexuality studies from the University of Iowa and is currently pursuing additional licensure with the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists.

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CULTURE A-List

The Dead Poetry Society

Multimedia artist Nora Claire Miller will help writers resurrect old poems in an online workshop through Iowa City Poetry. BY SARAH EGLATIAN

“P

oetry is somewhere between jazz and bird call and computer code and ornate lacquer box and hot wrought iron and prayer and primal scream,” said Lisa Roberts, founding director of Iowa City Poetry.

For seven years, Roberts has collaborated with artists around one of the most prestigious (and arguably elitist) writing capitals in the world to make writing and literature as accessible as possible. Since March, though, when things started shutting down in response to COVID-19, the literary world has faced different challenges from other nonprofits and small businesses. Accessibility became easier while the potential for collaboration and networking diminished.

“Since going online,” Roberts said in an email, “my co-director Jenny Colville and I have been able to continue to welcome longtime local participants in the Free Generative [Writing Workshops], which has been so lovely. But now we’ve also been able to include writers from slightly farther-flung spots in Iowa—from Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Marion and Des Moines. It’s been really heartening to reach Iowans from all over, because that’s truly living up to our mandate to share Iowa City resources widely and help folks find a literary community.”

Iowa City Poetry’s monthly Free Generative Writing Workshops have continued as scheduled to a growing audience since March. Their other programming has included three paid

The Poem Inside the Poem Saturdays Aug. 1529, 12:30 p.m., $75/series

32 Aug. 5–18, 2020 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV285

workshop series and a new series started by Reading Series Director Jennifer MacBainesStephens.

“Iowa City Poetry did have a bit of a running start because we were already thinking about expanding our programming [this year],” Roberts said. “We were already poised to transform ourselves from a calendar of local poetry events into a center offering original poetry programs … But we’d always imagined these things happening IRL, in the inspiringly grungy arts spaces around town that we love.

“So in March and April we had to rush to retool the tech so that we could bring our first three-part workshop, Poetry & Wellness, to everybody online. Those first sessions in April, with Emily Spencer, were joyful things. You could feel how relieved we all were to see human faces again and interact through writing.”

Next in the paid workshop series, Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum and multimedia artist Nora Claire Miller will teach a three-part workshop called The Poem Inside the Poem, in which workshop attendees, according to the course description, will bring poetry they have abandoned as “‘dead’ beyond remedy.” The workshop will focus on radical interventions such as literally cooking or burying the page, as Miller subscribes to the thought that a poem itself can

be a generative source.

“Poetry is less like a tree, something built from the bottom up, and more like a field of grass,” they said in an email correspondence. “When you chop a tree at its trunk, all of its branches die, but when you pull up a clump of grass, new grass continues to grow all around it, sustained by the roots of its neighbors. In biology this concept is called a rhizome. Poems, like rhizomes, are sites of lateral growth.They aren’t units, they’re systems.”

The use of the poem as source material has helped Miller to produce poems in less traditional formats, like comics and music, and they don’t see the digital format as much of an obstacle. Having taught a course called Creative Writing for New Media at the University of Iowa in the spring, they saw the shift online “as an interesting opportunity to put theory into practice,” asking how this apparent impediment could be used as a tool.

“Instead of seeing online instruction as

“POEMS, LIKE RHIZOMES, ARE SITES OF LATERAL GROWTH. THEY AREN’T UNITS, THEY’RE SYSTEMS.” merely a second-tier version of physical classes, I am interested in considering [how] it provides an interesting opportunity for creative exploration, a space

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in which students can engage with their newly much more digital worlds,” Miller said.

In their New Media class, for example, students used social media to compose their writing.

“In The Poem Inside the Poem, I hope to continue to investigate how pedagogy can be, if not strengthened by an online format, at least productively altered by it,” they said.

“Perhaps the computer screen itself is a tool for revision.”

Miller’s optimism about the potential of new formats to generate art overlaps with their beliefs about art in quarantine.

“Creative folks are tasked with envisioning a new type of world, but such imagination can be difficult when, each day, we eat the same bowl of cereal, look out the same kitchen window at the same tree, feel the same commingling sense of dread and boredom,” they said. “Revision is as much about rewriting as it is about literal revisioning—looking at the same old things and considering them differently … I hope to help participants in my workshop see beyond the limitations of domestic space, and instead to see creative possibility in their gardens, in the hinges of their doors, underneath their sofa cushions.

Beyond using radical revision strategies as a way to revive and strengthen our poetry, I hope participants begin to find a sense of possibility in even the most ordinary places.”

Roberts, too, sees art serving to energize people during isolation.

“The truth is that many, many people write poems. And they write them to figure things out or calm themselves or protest or pay tribute or celebrate or mourn,” she said. “Look at all the pandemic poetry sites that have popped up since March. So why can’t [Iowa City Poetry] tap into the talent in our area to offer poets more ways to expand their tool kit so they can do even more of what they want with poetry?”

Iowa City Poetry will soon launch a Poetry Interview Series and a large variety of additional workshops in the near future. Those interested in Iowa City Poetry or Miller’s workshop can find more information on the website and Facebook page. The workshop will run on Saturdays from Aug. 15-29, with a reading on Sept. 5. Roberts invites anyone to reach out with ideas or for information.

Sarah Eglatian is a writer and activist with a lot of questions. Her work has been published in ‘Beholder Magazine’ and the Iowa Writers’ House print anthology ‘We the Interwoven.’

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EDITORS’ PICKS PRESENTED BY WORLD OF BIKES

CALENDAR AUG. 5–18, 2020

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.

NOTE! We are listing only ONLINE and OUTDOOR events in this calendar at the moment.

“Locations” listed for online events reference the presenting institution. Please visit our online calendar for links, or check the organizations’ websites and Facebook pages.

Wed., Aug. 5 Virtual 1 Million Cups Iowa City: Vendux,1 Million Cups Iowa City (@1MillionCupsIC), 9 a.m., Free World Wednesday: Holiday Traditions with the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library, Iowa City Public Library (@icpubliclibrary), 1 p.m., Free Immigrant Foodways: Czech Street food— Fried cheese vs. Schnitzel in Bun, National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library (ncsml.org), 6 p.m., $20-115 (registration required) Critical Conversations, The Academy for Scholastic and Personal Success (@theacademysps), 7 p.m., Free Internet Watch Party: ‘Barn of the Naked Dead (Terror Circus),’ Late Shift at the Grindhouse (@ ICgrindhouse), 10 p.m., Free

Thu., Aug. 6 SRP Kids: Juggling Jason Kollum, Iowa City Public Library (icpl.org), 1 p.m., Free (registration required) Movie Double Header: ‘WALL-E’ + ‘Field of Dreams,’ National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library and The DISTRICT Czech Village New Bohemia Main Street, Kernels Stadium, Cedar Rapids, 6:30 p.m., Free (reservation required) 34 Aug. 5–18, 2020 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV285

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Enjoy a private screening with a film of your choice when you rent a theater at FilmScene at The Chauncey! FilmScene members enjoy deep discounts. Book yours now at ICFILMSCENE .ORG

Join us for FilmStreet, a series of outdoor films in Iowa City’s Northside neighborhood!

Screenings begin at sunset.

SEATING IS DISTANCED. MASKS REQUIRED.

AUGUST 7 AUGUST 14 AUGUST 21 AUGUST 28

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EDITORS’ PICKS How to Save Seeds From Your Own

‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of

Second Annual Mud Dump

Mon., Aug. 10

Garden with Seed Savers Exchange,

the Lost Ark’ | FilmStreet Outdoor

Fundraiser, Hercules Haven (@

‘Playing Possum’ Release

Iowa City Public Library (icpl.org), 7 p.m.,

Movie, Northside Market Place, Iowa

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(sidekickcoffeebooks.com), 7 p.m., Free

No Touching Sessions 11 //

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p.m., Free (registration required)

of ‘Final Bow for Yellowface,’ Linn

Party for Emma Goldman Clinic, Out the Box Weekly Reading Series, Old Brick, Iowa City, 2 p.m., $75

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Mirrorbox Theatre (@MirrorboxTheatre), 8 p.m., Free (registration required)

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‘What We May Be,’ Young Footliters

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Internet Watch Party: ‘Why Don’t You

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‘Toy Story 4’—CRBT Drive-In

Black Women’s Maternal Health

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College of Medicine (medicine.uiowa.

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No Touching Sessions 12 //

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YOUR VILLAGE

BY PAUL BRENNAN

Why isn’t Rusty the Giant Sloth the official state fossil? —ME, Iowa City, via the Your Village feature on LV’s homepage

Jordan Sellergren / Little Villag

e

T

he short answer is Iowa doesn’t have an official state fossil. But if it did, a lot of people in Iowa City and University of Iowa alumni elsewhere would probably be in favor of Rusty having that honor. Since the giant ground sloth—Megalonyx jeffersonii, if you want to be scientific—went on display at the University of Iowa’s Museum of Natural History in 1985, it’s become a beloved local figure and the museum’s mascot.

Of course, being extinct helps make Rusty more charming than alarming. Megalonyx means “great claw,” a feature you can see when you look at Rusty (who is a pure product of the ’80s, no original Pleistocene parts). The giant, red-headed sloth would probably seem more menacing if it was still alive and you suddenly encountered one: 8-to-10 feet long and weighing more than a ton, in addition to being equipped with great claws.

Megalonyx was one of two giant ground slots that used to roam (or lumber around) the Midwest during the Pleistocene epoch. The remains of the equally extinct Paramylodon harlani have also been discovered in Iowa.

Both were roughly the same size, and both were herbivores. But Rusty’s side of the family clearly got the more

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impressive name.

Paramylodon means “like the mylodon,” mylodon being a name for a type of giant ground sloth that lived in South America.

It means “molar tooth,” which was the first part of the animal identified. Harlani refers to Richard Harlan, a distinguished but largely forgotten American scientist of the early 19th century and the author of Fauna Americana; being a Description of the Mammiferous Animals inhabiting North America, published in 1825. Ten years later, Harlan was the first to describe the sloth that bears his name in a scientific journal, after a lower jaw of the animal was unearthed in Pennsylvania.

of lions, but didn’t commit to the mega-lion theory.

Going back to his vice-presidential duties, Jefferson left the bones with the society for other members to study. When Dr. Caspar Wistar examined them, he realized right away they couldn’t belong to any sort of cat, and saw the resemblance to the remains of a mylodon that had recently been discovered in South America.

Wistar wrote to Jefferson explaining why Megalonyx had to be sloth. In 1799, when the American Philosophical Society published a version of Jefferson’s presentation, it published an accompanying article by Wistar identifying Megalonyx as a giant ground sloth.

IN 1796, JEFFERSON, ALREADY WELL-KNOWN It was Wistar who AS AN ENTHUSIASTIC AMATEUR SCIENTIST, WAS suggested in 1824 that SENT SOME BONES OF THE THEN-UNKNOWN jeffersonii be added MEGALONYX THAT HAD BEEN DUG UP IN A to Megalonyx’s name.

Megalonyx jeffersonii CAVE NEAR GREENBRIAR, WEST VIRGINIA. became the official name of Rusty’s family the next year, when Harlani is a respectable name but it lacks Richard Harlan used it in a scientific paper. the marquee value of jeffersonii, which is a If the Megalonyx did become the official Latinized version of Jefferson. As in Thomas state fossil, it would be the second one named Jefferson. Yes, that Thomas Jefferson. for Jefferson. The state fossil of Virginia is the Jefferson is sometimes given credit for first Chesapecten jeffersonius, a kind of an extinct discovering the bones of the Megalonyx, and scallop. Jefferson had nothing to do with the more often credited with being the first person mollusk, but its discoverer admired him. to describe the species in a scientific paper.

Despite Rusty’s popularity, he wouldn’t be The first claim is wrong, and the second one the only candidate for Iowa’s state fossil. In isn’t exactly right 2018, Iowa City’s own Sen. Joe Bolkcom inIn 1796, Jefferson, already well-known as an enthusiastic amateur scientist, was sent troduced a bill naming the crinoid as the state some bones of the then-unknown Megalonyx fossil. The crinoid is a type of marine invertethat had been dug up in a cave near brate, also known as a sea lily and is a distant Greenbriar, West Virginia (which was then still cousin of the sea cucumber. part of Virginia). Those bones included claws.

Crinoid fossils are so common around The following year, Jefferson—now vice Burlington, the city is known as “The Crinoid president of the United States—brought the Capital of the World,” among people who bones to Philadelphia, where he gave a presenknow about the sea creatures and have heard of Burlington. Unlike the Megalonyx, crinoids tation to the American Philosophical Society still exist, just nowhere near Iowa, since there’s in Philadelphia on the “Discovery of Certain no longer an ocean here.

Bones of a Quadruped of the Clawed Kind Bolkcom told the Des Moines Register in in the Western Parts of Virginia.” That pre2018 he introduced the bill at the request of sentation is traditionally considered the several geologists who felt the 500 million beginning of vertebrate paleontology in year-old creatures deserved the credit. the United States.

The bill never got a committee hearing and But Jefferson didn’t have Rusty in quietly died. mind when he came up with the name Megalonyx. He imagined the bones belonged to some sort of mega-lion.

Have a question about what’s going on in In a letter, Jefferson said he felt sure your community? Ask Little Village. Submit “the bones were those of a great cat, your question through the Your Village some three times the size of a lion.” feature on our homepage, or email us at In his 1797 presentation, Jefferson editor@littlevillagemag.com. compared the bones to various kinds LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV285 Aug. 5–18, 2020 41

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Bowery >> Cont. from pg. 15 such as the area around Bowery and South Johnson Street, covenants were established in the 1940s, decades after the streets were platted out and houses first built there, some of which still stand today. These covenants would not be found to be a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment until the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1968—less than two years before the planned termination date of the covenant, Jan. 1, 1970.

The erasure of immigrant and minority history in our human-made environment is all around us, even if—by its very nature—evidence of erasure can be somewhat elusive.

For example, in my hometown of Cedar Rapids, the historic Bethel AME Church is now surrounded by parking lots and clinics for the MedQuarter medical district, the Black neighborhood that it once served having been “obliterated by the development of Mercy Medical Center,” per the building’s Wikipedia page. One of the few Cedar Rapids locations in The Negro Motorist Green Book is now a staff parking lot for that very same hospital, without any indication of what used to be there.

In less than two years, from 1967 to ’69, a Hispanic neighborhood by the Cargill plant downtown was completely demolished to make way for a cloverleaf exit on I-380, Exit 20B. Is it merely a coincidence that Czech immigrants were relegated to a low-lying flood plain near the meatpacking factories on what was then the edge of town? The entirety of what is now considered to be New Bohemia, Czech Village and the Oak Hill Jackson neighborhood was redlined as “hazardous” by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation.

Historic preservation enthusiasts (who tend to skew white, female and eldery) pine for the old days, when there was nary a McMansion in sight. However, the dominant, nostalgia-driven narratives in historic preservation also routinely

erase the darker aspects of urban development in the United States prior to 1968. That foursquare house with the great big porch out front? It was first built in 1926, “Sale To Whites Only.” That cute bungalow your friend always points out when you go on a walk with her? “No Jews Either.” Those details tend to be left out of the National Register of Historic Places registration form.

Rules for determining the supposed significance of a building in order for it to be preserved, while ostensibly unbiased, in practice gravitate towards associating that building with civic or business leaders—people who, especially in the past, tended more likely than not to be white, male and wealthy. Furthermore, it is the buildings associated with the wealthier and the whiter that are more likely to be spared the bulldozer and wrecking ball in the first place, or to be photographed and written about in public records for posterity. By design, housing injustices were often unrecorded: verbal agreements with no documentation, steering by real estate agents or a landlord simply refusing to rent rooms to people of color—some of which still goes on today—were common.

Ironically, as preservationists interact primarily with what still exists, they fail in their mission to remember the past. They perpetuate the erasure of what has previously been deemed insignificant, superfluous or threatening to those in power.

In response to these biases and oversights, as well as in the context of recent demonstrations against systemic racism in the United States, a subcommittee has been formed in the Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission in order to “preserve historically underrepresented communities’ stories and consider how to share those stories,” upon the suggestion of the current chair, Kevin Boyd. Some work has already been done to that effect, such as the preservation and

commemoration of Tate Arms and the Iowa Federation Home, living spaces for Black students at the University of Iowa at a time when non-white students were prohibited from the dormitories.

However, there is still much that should be done. City and Commission efforts to study and preserve what remains of Iowa City’s first Black and Hispanic neighborhoods—largely in the current Riverfront Crossings East District and around Oak Grove Park, respectively— would be a good start. Until then, I encourage readers to browse the online project Mapping Segregation in Iowa City, headed by Professor Colin Gordon at the University of Iowa, which provided much of the information in this article.

There is a particular dissonance between my fondness for old buildings and my likely exclusion from many of them when they were first built. To imagine a time—one when my grandparents were university students themselves— that I would have been banned from living in a space by virtue of the color of my skin (unless I was a member of the help; there was often an exception for “employment-occupancy by domestic servants who are not caucasian”), leaves me at a loss for words.

To use social progress as cover for transgressions in our community’s past would be a disservice to the practice and a deliberate distortion of history. This dissonance mentioned earlier need not be seen as a point of exclusion or shame—but rather as a point, among many, from which to form a more inclusive and open practice of historic preservation in Iowa.

Austin Wu is an at-large commissioner on the Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission and a graduate student at the University of Iowa College of Public Health. In his free time he enjoys bicycling, folk music and breakfast food.

Follow him on Twitter, @theaustinwu.

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Garfield >> Cont. from pg. 17

Unitarian Church >> Cont. from pg. 19

said Carol Sindelar, president of the Mound View Neighborhood Association, which borders Garfield Elementary. “It is about relationships being built like a giant web, starting among the children, then entwining parents and even the extended family and retired neighbors.”

Sindelar noted that when a school is within walking distance, children can walk together with their neighbors, school friends come over to play and parents more easily get to know their child’s friends. Parents also get to know other parents as they accompany their children to school or gather outside after school, waiting for class to get out, she said, in contrast to riding a bus.

“Events are easy to attend,” Sindelar added. “A spirit of being together enhances school pride as well as neighborhood pride. Neighborhood schools like Garfield have value way beyond the obvious educational value.”

CRCSD Superintendent Noreen Bush said Phase 1 of the multi-year facilities master plan is underway, with two new schools on the west side of town, at the sites of Coolidge and Jackson Elementary.

“We have a ‘pause’ after that first phase in order to assess our best next steps forward,” Bush said in an email, adding that due to the pandemic, the “pause” has not been implemented yet. “Our big picture goal of equity and supporting our community remains our focus in our FMP planning. Garfield’s building has some unique architectural features that have surfaced some great conversations about historic preservation. Beyond the physical aspects of any of our buildings, we will need to continue to assess our population and enrollment trends to make [the] best decisions for our community.”

Stoffer Hunter said the century-old Arthur and Garfield were built to last and could easily stand another 100 years, even if it comes down to taking them out of use as schools.

“We have a good track record in Cedar Rapids of repurposing old school buildings,” he said, citing the former Monroe Elementary, among others.

A mid-century modern school, Monroe was closed several years ago, and has since been turned into a mix of apartments in southeast Cedar Rapids, an undertaking that was named a preservation project of merit during this summer’s Preserve Iowa Summit by the State Historical Society of Iowa.

“These outstanding properties give communities a unique sense of pride and place,” Chris Kramer, director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, said of the award winners in a statement. The department oversees the State Historic Preservation Office. “The adaptive reuse of these iconic buildings is a creative and economic way to revitalize an entire neighborhood.”

Vitiello said queer women in the 1970s faced widespread discrimination in Iowa City, even from queer men. They were often targeted by police, followed and taunted by straight men, sometimes even assaulted or raped. Even after the formation of a Lesbian Alliance in Iowa City, cofounded by Vitiello, the group didn’t feel welcome or safe in straight-centric social clubs or male-dominated gay bars.

“We decided that we wanted our own space,” Vitiello said. “I went from place to place and was rejected. And then I went to the Unitarian Universalist Society.

The minister at that time, Tom Mikelson, said, ‘Sure, fine with us,’ and he actually gave me a key.”

The Lesbian Alliance hosted dances, talent shows, poetry readings and frequent gatherings at the downtown church. Many events were open to all women, queer and straight.

“Rather than just accepting us, they actually celebrated us,” Vitiello said of UUSIC. “The fact that we had the support and the protection of the congregation was really, really important to us. It was a safe space—before people started using the term ‘safe space.’”

Vitiello joined UUSIC and has been a member for 48 years. In spring 2009, as the Love Bus made its way into town, she helped welcome the affianced Missourians, rolling out welcome signs, bearing witness to their weddings and offering a reception spread including cake and champagne.

UUSIC was a natural fit to host same-sex weddings. Still, the Love Bus ceremonies were a completely unique affair, with each couple given approximately 10 minutes for a ceremony in their preferred tradition. Reporters attended, and UUSIC set boundaries to keep their guests comfortable.

The first couple to get married were Reggi and Emanuel, the Love Bus founders.

“We were getting married in a Jewish ceremony, we had the rabbi there, we were under the chuppah, and it all hit me. It was visceral,” Reggi recalled. “That was the first time I thought, ‘I’m going to be married to this person I’ve been with for 10 years, legally married.’ … It was definitely a moment that made me recognize why the fight of so many people before me was there, why that was such an issue for couples who unfortunately never got to be married legally and never got that $35 paper given to them.”

It was Reggi and Emanuel’s first but far from last time in the UUSIC sanctuary.

The Love Bus made dozens of day trips to Iowa City over the years, facilitating 252 peoples’ marriages. (Devotay was a common after-wedding dinner stop.)

Couples from other states followed suit between 2009 and 2015; marriage ceremonies ranged from secular to Christian to Wiccan.

Reggi said returning to Missouri in the Love Bus often felt like leaving Disney World, their new marriage licenses rendered null once they crossed the border. But in June 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision made marriage equality the law of the land, Love Bus veterans were among the first same-sex couples in Missouri to hold legal marriage licenses.

In 2017, after nearly 110 years and countless LGBTQ events and marriages at the Gilbert Street church, the UUSIC relocated to a brand new building on Oakdale Road in Coralville. The new building is much more accessible and spacious, with beautiful views of the surrounding landscape. Still focused on progressive values, the congregation seeks to be “the greenest church in Iowa,” built with sustainable materials and powered by solar and geothermal energy. Much of their attention as of late has been focused on supporting Black Lives Matter and families struggling with COVID-19-related issues, Vitiello said.

Still, the move was bittersweet.

“I hated to let go of [the old building],” she said wistfully. “The women’s dances, and the poetry readings and the talent shows—It was one of the first places I could go and feel free and safe, and be with like-minded people.”

Cindy Hadish is a freelance journalist and volunteer board member for Save CR Heritage, which raises awareness about historic buildings in Cedar Rapids.

44 Aug. 5–18, 2020 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV285

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Emma McClatchey is Little Village’s managing editor.

ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNEY

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): At times in our lives, it’s impractical to be innocent and curious and blank and receptive. So many tasks require us to be knowledgeable and self-assured and forceful and in control. But according to my astrological analysis, the coming weeks will be a time when you will benefit from the former state of mind: cultivating what Zen Buddhists call “beginner’s mind.”

The Chinese refer to it as chuxin, or the mind of a novice. The Koreans call it the eee mok oh? approach, translated as “what is this?” Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield defines it as the “don’tknow mind.” During this upcoming phase, I invite you to enjoy the feeling of being at peace with all that’s mysterious and beyond your understanding.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” Author Anne Lamott wrote that, and now I’m conveying it to you—just in time for the Unplug-Yourself Phase of your astrological cycle. Any glitches or snafus you may be dealing with right now aren’t as serious as you might imagine. The biggest problem seems to be the messy congestion that has accumulated over time in your links to sources that usually serve you pretty well. So if you’ll simply disconnect for a while, I’m betting that clarity and grace will be restored when you reconnect.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Have you been saving any of your tricks for later? If so, later has arrived. Have you been postponing flourishes and climaxes until the time was right? If so, the coming days will be as right a time as there can be. Have you been waiting and waiting for the perfect moment before making use of favors that life owes you and promises that were made to you? If so, the perfect moment has arrived. Have you been wondering when you would get a ripe opportunity to express and highlight the most interesting truths about yourself? If so, that opportunity is available.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes,” writes Scorpio author Maxine Hong Kingston. That would be an excellent task for you to work on in the coming weeks. Here are your formulas for success: 1. The more you expand your imagination, the better you’ll understand the big picture of your present situation—and the more progress you will make toward creating the most interesting possible future. 2. The more comfortable you are about dwelling in the midst of paradoxes, the more likely it is that you will generate vigorous decisions that serve both your own needs and the needs of your allies.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Some people will never like you because your spirit irritates their demons,” says actor and director Denzel Washington. “When you shine bright, some won’t enjoy the shadow you cast,” says rapper and activist Talib Kweli.

You may have to deal with reactions like those in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. If you do, I suggest that you don’t take it personally. Your job is to be your radiant, generous self—and not worry about whether anyone has the personal power necessary to handle your radiant, generous self. The good news is that I suspect you will stimulate plenty of positive responses that will more than counterbalance the challenging ones.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn occultist Peter J. Carroll tells us, “Some have sought to avoid suffering by avoiding desire. Thus they have only small desires and small sufferings.” In all of the zodiac, you Capricorns are among the least likely to be like that. One of your potential strengths is the inclination to cultivate robust desires that are rooted in a quest for rich experience. Yes, that sometimes means you must deal with more strenuous ordeals than other people. But I think it’s a wise trade-off. In any case, my dear, you’re now in a phase of your cycle when you should take inventory of your yearnings. If you find there are some that are too timid or meager, I invite you to either drop them or pump them up.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The people who live in the town of Bazoule, Burkina Faso regard the local crocodiles as sacred. They live and work amidst the 100-plus creatures, coexisting peacefully. Kids play within a few feet of them, never worrying about safety. I’d love to see you come to similar arrangements with untamed influences and strong characters in your own life, Aquarius. You don’t necessarily have to treat them as sacred, but I do encourage you to increase your empathy and respect for them.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Your body naturally produces at least one quart of mucus every day. You might not be aware of it, because much of it glides down your throat. Although you may regard this snot as gross, it’s quite healthy. It contains antibodies and enzymes that kill harmful bacteria and viruses. I propose we regard mucus as your prime metaphor in the coming weeks. Be on the alert for influences and ideas that might empower you even if they’re less than beautiful and pleasing. Make connections with helpful influences even if they’re not sublimely attractive.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In her book *Sticks, Stones, Roots & Bones*, Stephanie Rose Bird reports that among early African Americans, there were specialists who spoke the language of trees. These patient magicians developed intimate relationships with individual trees, learning their moods and rhythms, and even exchanging non-verbal information with them. Trees imparted wisdom about herbal cures, weather patterns and ecologically sound strategies.

Until recently, many scientists might have dismissed this lore as delusion. But in his 2016 book The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben offers evidence that trees have social lives and do indeed have the power to converse.

I’ve always said that you Aries folks have great potential to conduct meaningful dialogs with animals and trees. And now happens to be a perfect time for you to seek such invigorating pleasures.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Author Joanne Harris writes, “The right circumstances sometimes happen of their own accord, slyly, without fanfare, without warning. The magic of everyday things.” I think that’s an apt oracle for you to embrace during the coming weeks. In my opinion, life will be conspiring to make you feel at home in the world. You will have an excellent opportunity to get your personal rhythm into close alignment with the rhythm of creation. And so you may achieve a version of what mythologist Joseph Campbell called “the goal of life”: “to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.”

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Author Gloria Anzaldúa writes, “I am an act of kneading, of uniting and joining.” She adds that in this process, she has become “a creature that questions the definitions of light and dark and gives them new meanings.” I would love for you to engage in similar work right now, Gemini. Life will be on your side—bringing you lucky breaks and stellar insights—if you undertake the heroic work of reformulating the meanings of “light” and “dark,” and then reshaping the way you embody those primal forces.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Pleasure is one of the most important things in life, as important as food or drink,” wrote Cancerian author Irving Stone. I would love for you to heed that counsel, my fellow Crabs. What he says is always true, but it will be extraordinarily meaningful for you to take to heart during the coming weeks. Here’s how you could begin: Make a list of seven experiences that bring you joy, bliss, delight, fun, amusement and gratification. Then make a vow—even write an oath on a piece of paper—to increase the frequency and intensity of those experiences.

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV285 Aug. 5–18, 2020 45

Thank You

COMMUNITY Mosque >> Cont. from pg.21 his messenger”—these are the words written on the dome of the mosque, and to believe in Islam is to believe in these words. At the very top is a shiny silver crescent moon, which is another common symbol of Islam.

During my trip to the Mother Mosque, I met two fellow visitors, Ryan and Priyanka. Ryan is from China and does not follow any particular religion, and noted that it is her first visit to any place of worship. She learned a lot about Islam, felt she gained a better understanding about the religion and Muslims, and found her visit to be a soulful experience.

Priyanka, a Hindu and a student of public health at the University of Iowa, was awed after learning that the Mother Mosque is the first mosque built in the U.S. She’s previously visited a mosque in her birthplace of Bombay, India, and said she experienced the same peaceful vibe there as at the Cedar Rapids mosque.

In November, back on the other side of the world, the Indian supreme court ruled that a historic mosque in the Uttar Pardesh district, the Babri Masjid, be demolished, and a Hindu temple (Ram Mandir) be erected in its place. The site has been a point of dispute between Muslims and Hindus for centuries, and the court’s decision has created a wave of restlessness among Muslims around the globe.

One’s own faith is strengthened when we possess a big heart for other religions, Priyanka told me. As the poet Kahlil Gibran said, “We all live in God’s heart and he lives in ours and protecting each other from being hurt is the message of all the religions.”

Ikram Basra is enrolled in the Iowa Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa. He is a former television news producer and reporter in Pakistan.

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LOCAL ALBUMS

The Aircraft Dust is Dust THEAIRCRAFT.BANDCAMP.COM

T

he Aircraft, a three-piece band from Sioux Center, Iowa released their first full length album, Dust is Dust, on May 15. The indie-rock debut features a set of songs that summon a summertime spirit, ranging from earnest, higher-tempo songs that would sound quite excellent blasting on a stereo while driving down a country road to more languid-sounding dream pop that could accompany time spent idling in the shade.

The album features tightly constructed songs that provide internal variation both within songs and among them. This allows for enjoyable repeat listens, as different elements move into the foreground depending on the listener’s mood or inclination.

Defying some of the bleak possibilities invoked by the titular meditation on dust, the album lyrically generates a set of matter-of-fact possibilities. The third track, “What We’re Made For,” repeats a mantra, “Wouldn’t trade today for anything,” that echoes the advice given on the next track, “Just Relax.” Often, the lyrics seem a vehicle for the vocal line, giving it a chance to ride along some of the hooks that appear within a song. This alleviates the way the vocals sometimes take a sonic backseat to the instrumentals within the mix, and sometimes are—as above, and in the final track—intoned as a mantra. There’s a sense of peace that comes in accepting this.

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

Another thing I appreciated about the album was its willingness to allow for sparseness— rather than overpowering the songs, each one is able to breathe and grow on its own terms. The band allows itself to be a trio and makes no attempt to overcompensate or misdirect from their core strengths. Many songs start out simply, allowing listeners to focus on individual sounds—a cymbal, strummed guitar strings, a held vocal. This sparseness allows for the interruption of new sounds, on occasion—grace notes able to carry the weight of the melody or hook, encouraging smiles.

Songs will sometimes fold up back into these basic core elements after a more raucous interlude, regenerating the possibility for appreciation. Although in true rock fashion these generally converge into a more full sound, they do so with a sense of their own pace. As a whole, the songs

Hairless Monk Monolith HAIRLESSMONKMUSIC.BANDCAMP.COM

E

ven before the great quarantine of 2020 started, Jacob Willenborg, under the guise of Hairless Monk, was being highly productive. Since 2015 he has performed, recorded, mixed and mastered five EPs all while maintaining a full-time job and drumming for Cedar Rapids punk band FTA. May of 2020 saw the release of Monolith, an ambitious 40-minute prog-metal concept album. I call it a concept album, though it’s not THE SONGS BECOME declared such on Hairless INTERNALLY EXPANSIVE AS Monk’s Bandcamp page, MODULATIONS IN TEMPO as Willenborg is able to AND DYNAMICS PROVIDE AN weave together a compelling psychic narrative in ENTRY INTO AN UNHURRIED seven songs, with no use of lyrics or monologues.

SPACE OF ACCEPTANCE. Monolith has the feel become internally expansive as of something conceived, story modulations in tempo and dyboarded and then plotted out, namics provide an entry into an all before the recording began. unhurried space of acceptance.

Album opener, “Sarsen Stones,” The leisurely conclusion of the begins with the sound of distant last song on the album—“Wake chanting emanating from subdued Me Up Slow”—is quite represen- atmospherics, lulling the listener tative of this tendency. into a menacing dream, until Although the meditative they are suddenly rushed on by quality of the album means that the guitars crashing in with their (unlike COVID) they’re not emotive, anthemic-like marching. instantly catchy. These meaningBefore the song is over the guitars ful moments balance the more have faded back into the fog they infectious elements within songs. had emerged from, as if nothing Overall, the album is well-suited more than a hallucination. for those wearied of old playlists, Just as things have calmed, and are well crafted enough to be “These High Cliffs” brings the memorable for those willing to clamor of double-kick drums and listen on repeat. dual guitars. The resulting sound —Daniel Boscaljon is reminiscent of a ship battered

by waves against jagged rocks, helpless to free itself from the tide. The energy of “…Cliffs” is sustained through the next few tracks, finally reaching a brief calm on “Ellora.”

What becomes apparent very early on is the range of influences Hairless Monk threads together throughout the cycle of tracks.

Track three, the nearly nine-minute “Monolith,” brings to mind the metal epics of The Sword’s debut album, Age of Winters, and early Kyuss, where the guitars narrate a fantastic lore using cyclical phrasing accented with the crash of high hats and bludgeoned drums. Songs “Out of the Sky” and later, “Into the Earth” use a slow patience and riffage invoke the cosmic horror of Sleep and Elder’s doom/stoner operas (think Holy Mountain*or Reflections of a Floating World).

To show he’s not shy with the range of his influences, album closer “Tooth of Time,” with is energetic and (dare I say) bouncy rhythm, has more in common with the Pixies than most of the prog metal of the six previous tracks. It is the most infectious track on the record.

Throughout the entire run time, Willenborg is able to take these influences and weave together a story. Whatever the imaginary plot it invokes in your mind, Monolith stays true to the world it sonically builds. As we go forward in these uncertain times, a lot of people might find themselves tackling various at-home projects to keep sane. Anyone who’s setting out to write and record their own do-ityourself prog/doom masterpiece should give Hairless Monk’s Monolith a deep listen and take notes.

We might be under self-isolation well into the year 2021, so now’s the time to grab your guitars, bring the drums out of the garage and get to recording.

At the very least, Hairless Monk has left a blueprint for a bedroom magnum opus of the stoner metal kind. —Chris Burns

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV285 Aug. 5–18, 2020 47

COMMUNITY

LittleVillageMag.com/Support

Rec Center >> Cont. from pg. 23 In the afternoon, it welcomes teenagers wanting to shoot hoops, college students keen to play table tennis and seniors who’ve picked up the sport of Pickleball. It has played host to welcome dinners for international students, job fairs, art studios, after-prom parties and various multicultural events celebrating the city’s diversity, including the Black Voices Project’s annual community soul food dinner. In the months leading up to the Iowa caucus, presidential hopefuls welcome crowds of supporters through the rec center’s doors.

Of course, “welcomes” isn’t always the right word.

On a sign inside the rec center gym, a list of inappropriate behaviors that serve as grounds for removal includes fastening one’s pants below the waist, a perfectly ordinary style common among young Black patrons. And among the welcomed guests are Iowa City police officers, who serve as a constant reminder to Black and brown youth that their recreation is always subject to a law enforcement veto.

In 2015, ICPD Officer Travis Graves arrested a Black teenager for being “too rowdy,” according to an anonymous complaint, after the teen refused to leave. Officer Graves was later determined to have done nothing wrong, and yet when a grisly video of the arrest later emerged online—showing Graves pinning the teenager to the ground and shouting at him to put his hands behind his back while the teen insisted he couldn’t, before forcibly grabbing the teen’s arm and pressing his face into the floor—ICPD policy regarding arrests was immediately changed. The incident sparked a number of protests, with demands that sought not only to determine precisely what happened but also, much like the Iowa Freedom Riders’ 2020 demands, to question the role of policing in the wider community.

A change.org petition accompanied the 2015 protests and was presented to city officials, observing, “Black children are often perceived as older than they actually are, are treated as mini-adult criminals and profiled in similar ways to Black adults. Black people are often unjustifiably considered looming threats… [t]he Lee Recreation Center should not have a practice of automatically calling the police when they feel overwhelmed by our kids’ playing.”

“We, Black community members, need our children to be seen as children, and not as criminals,” the petition continued. “We need them to be treated and provided the same opportunities as white children.”

While we don’t yet know what will come of the Iowa City Council’s 17-point plan passed in June, the protests five years ago and the resultant stonewalling set a bad precedent. Graves not only remained on the force, but in 2018, was designated a nighttime community outreach officer. He is no longer with ICPD, but was involved in a similarly suspect arrest in October of last year in his then-new role as a DNR conservation officer.

When the Robert A. Lee center was completed in 1964, the underlying ethos assumed a public space ought to be for the public, having been brought into existence by one of the city’s most loyal public servants. Lee had insisted the center be built downtown rather than on the fringes of the city, believing it should be as central and accessible as possible.

But in recent years, the uses and disposition of public space downtown have largely been at the behest of private developers. The Chauncey Building, just across College Street from the rec center, is an example of this. Once a small, mostly concrete park where local musicians would perform and kids would make crafts on farmers market Saturdays, the land was sold by the city to the Moen Group in 2015, much to the chagrin of local activists.

Completed in 2019, the building is sleek, modern and clean, with high-end apartments, offices, a nonprofit movie theater, a cafe and a bowling alley. It is a different kind of “public” space, where the greenery out front is available to the public but sold to prospective tenants as an amenity built for them.

Meanwhile, the Robert A. Lee Community Recreation Center endures in its egalitarian, dingy glory, mostly free of cost and infinitely multifunctional—a survivor of the 2006 tornado and nearly six decades’ worth of wear and tear and patchwork fixes, both literal and figurative.

It is Iowa City’s most welcoming building, but this welcome mat needs work.

Nicholas Theisen teaches Japanese literature and culture. He used to live in Iowa City, and regularly chastises public officials through @city_of_iowa on Twitter.

48 Aug. 5–18, 2020 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV285

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LOCAL BOOKS

S.C. Sherman Beer Money: A Tale of the Iowa City Beer Mafia POST HILL PRESS

A

fter reading S.C. Sherman’s Beer Money: A Tale of the Iowa City Beer Mafia, I will never walk through Iowa City’s Northside district the same way again. Whenever I visit Oasis, Artifacts or George’s, I will think about the massive breweries that stood nearby, a character’s fateful visit to an alley when nature called and an elephant kept drunk with whiskey-soaked biscuits.

A blend of history and fiction, Beer Money recounts the clash between the real-life owners of the three Northside breweries— Conrad Graf, J.J. Englert and John Dostal, the so-called “Beer Mafia”—and the temperance movement, locally led by the vehement and determined Vernice Armstrong. The three brewers use their business sense, political connections and fists to fight prohibition, which they feel threatens their cultural heritage, livelihoods and freedom.

“A tale of blood and beer in America’s Heartland,” as Sherman writes in the foreword, Beer Money is a fun and informative read, one rich with local history. It provides much-appreciated and fascinating background on the Northside and a convincing peek at life in Iowa City during the 1880s. According to the foreword, the “vast majority” of events really happened and “[t]he overwhelming majority of characters actually lived in Iowa City.”

The main characters, historical and fictional, are well-defined. The brewers get the best

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

treatment; it’s hard not to think Sherman is on their side. They feel like the good guys, but they clearly have and enjoy privilege and power. (“They say money can’t buy happiness, but it could buy the best seats in the house and no line” [p. 173].) Sherman does a great job of showing Vernice’s unshakable resolve, belief and defiance in the face of great odds and strong opposition. It was a joy to read her rants against alcohol and the brewers while sipping a ReUnion Lager. Unlike the brewers, Vernice is a fictional character based on Carrie A. Nation.

The stars of the book, though, are the Northside district and Iowa City. Beer Money imparts the strong sense of community for those who lived in the neighborhood—as well as their reliance on the three breweries. Iowa City is portrayed as “the pearl of the prairie,” the golden dome of the Old Capitol watching over its growth.

However, it’s hard not to get the sense that the more things change, the more they stay the same: “Don’t they know it’s beer that keeps this town alive?” (p. 39).

I loved reading a book set in my hometown, featuring familiar streets and landmarks. However, when Sherman writes in the author’s note that his love for the Northside started when he illegally bought beer at a QuikTrip on the corner of Linn and Market in 1988, I wondered if there really was a gas station there. (I turned 6 in 1988, so I don’t remember, but Sherman may have meant to say the corner of Market and Dubuque.)

The book has its tedious stretches; the history-teller in Sherman gets carried away at times. There is a lot of talking and carousing, and the dialogue is often artificial and overtly informative. However, the action scenes at the end are well-written and engrossing, and Sherman does an excellent job of showing the inside workings and machinations of the rival groups.—Casey Wagner

a mix of past and present that frustratingly mimics real life. Nothing is ever quite reliable from a drunken narrator in the habit of lying to those closest to her—but the emotional journey is tangible and formidable. To tell the facts of the story is to do it a disservice. A woman, beleaguered by a slowly revealed Anna Bruno past, hunkers in for the night in the Ordinary Hazards bar where she is a regular.

Bruno’s elegant prose can be ATRIA BOOKS jarring when wielded by Emma’s narration. The writer cum stock oughly halfway through market expert cum barfly is disAnna Bruno’s Ordinary dainful, almost loathful when she Hazards (out Aug. 18), in the describes those around her. She is heart of a chapter titled 8PM, often so sexist in her descriptions the following paragraph begins a of other women that it comes as section: a shock. It’s almost funny when “Taking a shot of Fireball is she comes to this same realization like eating a corn dog at a county herself three-quarters of the way fair. Do it occasionally and it’s through the book (only as a passing ironic, a quick jaunt to an unfapossibility, but enough to drive miliar world: class tourism. Do it home that it is a character choice often, and lose your self-respect: and not a seeping in of authorial Abandon all hope, ye who enter intent).

There’s no reaBRUNO’S ELEGANT PROSE CAN son for any reader BE JARRING WHEN WIELDED BY to like Emma. But by gods, by the EMMA’S NARRATION. THE WRITER end of this novel, CUM STOCK MARKET EXPERT you will feel for CUM BARFLY IS DISDAINFUL, her. It almost feels like treachery on ALMOST LOATHFUL WHEN SHE the part of the auDESCRIBES THOSE AROUND HER. thor—but it’s also SHE IS OFTEN SO SEXIST IN HER a sly and savvy DESCRIPTIONS OF OTHER WOMEN proof of concept for the book-withTHAT IT COMES AS A SHOCK in-a-book that the character has written: a meditation on the imhere.” portance of storytelling in business Emma, the narrator of the that emphasizes her belief that all story, knows in her heart that she a person needs to break through in is a one-time class tourist who life is a story that showcases their has lost all self-respect. It’s clear humanity. throughout the book, but it’s here, This is Emma’s story, and she at the crux, that a turning point is has told it in such a way that, by reached. When she starts to admit the end, she feels human. But it to herself, she begins a long Bruno does it in such a way that climb back toward hope that lets it leaves you wondering if you’ve the reader climb with her. She’s just been played. How reliable is a never particularly likeable, but at narrator who believes in storytellsome point, the empathy strikes, and it’s unsuspected and powerful. ing as a means of advancement and success, anyway?

The background of the tale is doled out in dribs and drabs, told in —Genevieve Trainor

R

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57. Second, e.g.

32. Bank checks

58. Sight on a site

34. They suck, casually

59. Reps: Abbr.

60. Feed fodder

35. Reference after a system crash

61. Helmet-wearing hound

36. Size up, as the competition

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55. Enrique Peña ___ (leader who tweeted “Mexico will NEVER pay for a wall” in 2018)

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37. Takes back

1. Riffs

41. Swinging place

2. Dolly, et al.

43. Summer refresher

3. It almost fits like a glove

44. Hairless uncle of film, TV and cartoons

4. Word missing on many Mac keyboards

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5. “How should I know?”

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8. “Shyeah, right”

52. Portable shade provider

9. Ingredient in flubber

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1. Peaks 6. Large counter topper

19. Letters before addresses

10. Part of a chain, perhaps

20. Like those who get pay per view?

14. Group that sacks, for short

23. Thing with a tab that’s on a tab

15. Kiddie comeback

27. Try to get a free ride, in a way 30. The uplifting part of a craft, sometimes 31. Words of self-flagellation after a bad call

45. Catalog

40. Kuna spender

10. Awardwinning response

42. Standish on the Mayflower

11. Puts in position

43. Degree of creativity?: Abbr.

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48. Nails down

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34. Horses in the race 38. Sole feature

50. What loyalty programs encourage

22. Ding

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24. Place for Kane and Khan

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26. Tax ID

39. Covered, like records

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25. Brunch dispensers

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