Little Village magazine issue 294: May 2021

ISSUE 294 May 2021

QAnon Star.

Hawkeye.

How UI grad Liz Crokin sold far-right conspiracy theories to the masses, from Roseanne Barr to Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Annalibera Music for Meals Popping the Lockdown Bubble

A L W A Y S

F R E E

Your community library since 1896

Libraries are for SCIENCE Libraries are for PRIDE

Libraries are for READING

Libraries are for MUSIC

Libraries are for ART

#LibrariesAre ForEveryone

#LasBibliotecas SonParaTodxs

WEBERDays

Local history programs celebrating Iowa City’s official historian, Irving Weber.

Resumé & Mock Interviews Thursday, May 13, 6pm

Career Exploration

Thursday, May 27, 6pm

icpl.org/teen-works

Introduction to Genealogy Thursday, May 13, 7pm The Remarkable Irish Family: the story of Frederick Macy "Captain" Irish

Tuesday, May 18, 7pm

For more information, go to icpl.org/weber

EXPRESS BROWSING MON-SAT, 10AM-6PM SUNDAY, 12-5PM

icpl.org/holds (319)356-5200

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for teens ICPL is partnering with GROW: JOHNSON COUNTY to host classes for 13 to 18-year olds. May 7 & 18

Register at calendar.icpl.org

icpl.org

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NEWS & CULTURE FROM IOWA CITY Since 2001 littlevillagemag.com

10 - Letter 12 - Interactions 15 - Brock About Town 19 - Cortado 20 - Liz Crokin 36 - En Español 38 - Iowa Magic Shop 40 - Bread & Butter 42 - Dear Kiki 44 - Prairie Pop 46 - A-List 48 - Events Calendar 57 - Astrology 59 - Album Reviews 61 - Book Reviews

Rich Dana

63 - Crossword

20

36

44

The UI journalism student

Visiting a cornfield for the first

The hymn-singing, cassette-loving

Liz Qrokin

Silos y tallos

POWERED BY CAFE DEL SOL ROASTING

Annalog

and gossip columnist turned

time since moving to Iowa, a

Midwestern musician Annalibera

conspiracy theory darling has

frequent wanderer finds some

will perform at the Englert Theatre

drawn thousands into Q’s web.

needed stillness.

on May 19.

SAVE, SHARE OR RECYCLE

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PRESENTED BY THE ENGLERT

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A weekly podcast discussing trends in the art world, showcasing Iowa-based musicians, and highlighting Expected final dimensions the page: through members of the Iowa City-areaof community their words 8.25”w and reflections x 10.25”hon local culture.

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NEWS & CULTURE FROM IOWA CITY Since 2001 littlevillagemag.com

Bleed Area

EDITORIAL

PRODUCTION

Publisher

Web Developer

Issue 294, Volume 30

Matthew Steele

Adith Rai

May 2021

matt@littlevillagemag.com

adith@littlevillagemag.com

Managing Editor

Digital Director

Emma McClatchey

Drew Bulman

LV takes a look at Liz Crokin,

emma@littlevillagemag.com

drewb@littlevillagemag.com

a former Hawkeye and current

Arts Editor

Photographer & Videographer

HBO’s Q: Into the Storm. Plus:

Genevieve Trainor

Jason Smith

Tunes to feed Johnson County,

genevieve@littlevillagemag.com

jason@littlevillagemag.com

inside Iowa’s only magic shop and

News Director

Marketing Automations

Paul Brennan

Malcolm MacDougall

paul@littlevillagemag.com

malcolm@littlevillagemag.com

Art Director

SALES & ADMINISTRATION

Jordan Sellergren

Marketing Director &

Lev Cantoral is a University of

John Martinek is a visual artist,

jordan@littlevillagemag.com

Copywriter

Iowa graduate and independent

cabinetmaker and currently

Celine Robins

animator currently based out

a part-time home-school

celine@littlevillagemag.com

of Chicago. He loves to do just

kindergarten teacher. More

about everything, including

art at johnmartinek.com and

Advertising

hand-drawn animation,

instagram @jnmartinek.

Matthew Steele

computer graphics, puppetry

ads@littlevillagemag.com

and drawing Fred Flintstone.

Creative Services

Rob Cline is a writer and critic

Website design

who would gleefully give

Spanish Language Editor

Email marketing

the current state of things a

Kembrew McLeod is a founding

Angela Pico

E-commerce

negative review.

Little Village columnist and the

Cover by Dana Telsrow

conspiracy theorist featured in

a review of Marquee Pizzeria in

0.625”

Staff Writer & Editor Izabela Zaluska izabela@littlevillagemag.com Copy Editor

Coralville.

Meet this month’s guest contributors:

Celine Robins celine@littlevillagemag.com

and Ph.D. candidate at the

Videography Calendar/Event Listings

Mariana Mazer is a writer

creative@littlevillagemag.com

University of Iowa.

chair of Communication Studies Dr. Dawson is the founder

at the University of Iowa.

of @hiphophealing. She is a

calendar@littlevillagemag.com CIRCULATION

light warrior who values her

Allana C. Noyes is a literary

Corrections

Distribution Manager

community. Her belief is that

translator from Reno, Nevada.

editor@littlevillagemag.com

Brian Johannessen

individualism makes the biggest

Her work can be found at

distro@littlevillagemag.com

contribution.

allananoyes.com.

Audrey Brock, Lev Cantoral,

OFFICES

Tiffani Green is an Iowa City-

Dana Telsrow is a musician-

Alex Choquemamani, Rob Cline,

Little Village

based writer and Little Village

cum-artist specializing in diet

Emma Colman, Dr. Dawson,

623 S Dubuque St

columnist. Her food column,

prog and gently elongated

Delphine Diallo, Tiffani Green,

Iowa City, IA 52240

The Takeaway, features reviews

portraiture in Iowa City.

May Contributors

of local takeout restaurants

Darcie Hutzell, Dan Kempf, Robert Lindsey-Nassif, John Martinek,

Little Village Creative Services

Mariana Mazer, Allana Noyes,

132 1/2 E Washington Suite 5

Kembrew McLeod, Frank T. Merrill,

Iowa City, IA 52240, (319) 855-1474

during the pandemic.

Sam Locke Ward is a cartoonist and musician from Iowa City.

Darcie Hutzell lives in Iowa City

In 2020 his Futile Wrath strip

Dana Telsrow, Tom Tomorrow,

and is a freelance writer and

for Little Village won the

Sam Locke Ward, Andrew West

mom to an amazing kid.

Association Of Alternative

SOCIAL MEDIA

Robert Lindsey-Nassif a

Facebook @LittleVillageMag,

renowned composer and lyricist

Instagram @LittleVillageMag,

for musicals and operas, as well

Twitter @LittleVillage

as an amateur magician.

Newsmedia’s award for cartoon of the year.

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294 May 2021 5

LittleVillageMag.com

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

Cargill will begin clearing the land for its Cedar Rapids rail yard later

Cedar Rapids man paralyzed in 2016 police shooting to receive $8

this month By Izabela Zaluska, April 6

million settlement from city By Izabela Zaluska, April 19

Removing trees, “pre-stressing” the land to encourage wildlife to leave

An $8 million settlement has been reached in the civil lawsuit filed by

and clearing a foot of topsoil are among the first steps planned for the

Jerime “Danky” Mitchell and his wife Bracken against the City of Cedar

Cargill rail yard development in Cedar Rapids’ Rompot neighborhood,

Rapids and former police officer Lucas Jones over a November 2016

according to the company. The controversial construction project is

traffic stop during which Jones shot and paralyzed Mitchell.

scheduled to last until October.

“This is tormenting people who live in this neighborhood,” said

The amount will set a record for a settlement in a police shooting case in the state, according to the Associated Press. The settlement,

Rompot resident and state Sen. Rob Hogg, who is challenging the

which is subject to approval from the Cedar Rapids City Council,

project in court.

avoids a long-awaited trial that was scheduled to begin on Tuesday.

4/20 in 2021: Iowans have come around to cannabis, but state and

VIDEO: Behind the Scenes—No Touching Sessions

federal lawmakers are straying from their pot promises

By Jason Smith, April 21

By Emma McClatchey, April 20

What began as an idea two friends had in May 2020

Nearly 80 percent of Iowans are in favor of expanding the state’s medical

for a “pandemic project” has now begun its second

cannabis program, while 54 percent support legalizing recreational use

season. In the “No Touching Sessions,” Crystal

of marijuana, according to the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom

Sherman and Dan Miller use the stage at Gabe’s

Iowa Poll. But rather than update programs or decriminalize cannabis,

to create a virtual concert experience, giving local

especially in light of Iowa’s status as one of the worst in the nation for

artists a new outlet for their music and viewers an

racial disparities in marijuana possession arrests, Republican legislators

opportunity to see performances in the comfort and

advanced a bill this week targeting the sale of glass pipes.

socially distanced safety of their homes.

WATCH Behind the Scenes—No Touching Sessions

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THANK YOU TO THIS ISSUE’S ADVERTISING PARTNERS This issue of Little Village is supported by: Adamantine Spine Moving (48) Arnott & Kirk (28) Artifacts (64) The Art of Music School (29) Ascended Electronics (45) Cedar Rapids New Bohemia/Czech Village co-op (42-43) - NewBoCo - Goldfinch Cyclery - RAYGUN - The Daisy - Parlor City Cedar Rapids Opera (32) Chomp (60) City of Iowa City (11) CIVIC (29) The Club Car (57) Coralville Public Library (26) CSPS (35) The Dandy Lion (15) The Englert Theatre (4) FilmScene (51) Fix! (28)

Fong’s Pizza (18) Gianna’s Italian Beef (39) Goodfellow Printing, Inc. (57) Honeybee Har Parlor (13) ICCA (31) ImOn (52) Iowa City Downtown co-op (33) - Critical Hit Games - Beadology - RAYGUN - Yotopia - Record Collector - Release Body Modifications - The Konnexion Iowa City Northside Marketplace (24-25) - John’s Grocery - The Haunted Bookshop - High Ground - Home Ec. Workshop, Inc - Artifacts - Russ’ Northside Service, Inc - Pagliai’s Pizza

- Hamburg Inn No. 2 - Dodge St. Tire - George’s - Marco’s Grilled Cheese Iowa City Public Library (2) Iowa Department of Public Health (39) Iowa Magic Shop (16) IPR (31) Johnson County Health Path (7) KCCK Jazz 88.3 (18) Kim Schillig, Realtor (29) KRUI (35) Linn County Conservation (35) Mailboxes of Iowa City (16) Martin Construction (56) MERGE (31) Micky’s Irish Pub (45) Multicultural Development Center of Iowa (29) National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (58) New Pioneer Food Co-op (62)

Nodo (48) Oasis Street Food (53) Phoebe Martin, Realtor (27) Pop’s BBQ (34) Public Space One (10) Red Vespa (39) Revival (31) Riverside Theatre (34) Sanctuary (12) Scratch Cupcakery (22) Shakespeare’s Pub & Grill (57) Soseki Sushi Cafe & Sake Bar (17) Toastmasters International (16) Troubleshoot, LLC (16) Teddy’s Bigger Burgers (23) US Bank (32) World of Bikes (30, 59) Whitedog Import Auto Service (55) West Music (67) Wig & Pen (41) Willow & Stock (17)

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

RECENT READER SURVEY DATA MEDIAN AGE: 37 25-34: 26% 35-44: 22% 45-54: 17% 55-64: 14% 65+: 10% 18-24: 9%

AVERAGE NUMBER OF CHILDREN 1.85

MEDIAN PERSONAL INCOME: $55k 26%: $40k-60k 18%: $60k-80k 17%: $100k+ 17%: $20k-40k 12%: <$20k 11%: $80k-$100k

GENDER Female: 63% Male: 34% Nonbinary/other: 3%

EDUCATION Masters: 34% Bachelors: 31% Ph.D: 18% Some college: 9% Associates: 7%

AVERAGE NUMBER OF YEARS LIVING IN EASTERN IOWA 28

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fix! $20 for $10

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Almost Famous Popcorn $20 for $10

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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.

Will the 15-minute city make Iowa City golden in 2021?

a conversation on CROSS-DISCIPLINARY IMPROVISATION with Gabi Vanek May 6 & 13 @ 5:30p

In March, as part of its Science on Screen program, FilmScene aired a documentary, Bikes vs Cars. The film documents the escalating problem for major urban areas like São Paulo, Brazil; Paris, France; and Los Angeles brought on by cars. The film not only highlights the growing air pollution and congestion, but the unsustainable costs to add roads and accommodations for vehicles. By contrast, bikes are increasingly being accommodated.

So, as we begin National Bike Month, May, how does Iowa City stack up in creating an alternative to the need for cars? Certainly, we’re nowhere close to major urban areas and their response to the issue. Fortunately, a recent concept

in urban planning, the 15-minute city, offers an eloquent response to the issue.

The “15-minute city” may be defined as an ideal geography where most human needs and many desires are located within a travel distance of 15 minutes. While automobiles may be accommodated in the 15-minute city, they cannot determine its scale or urban form. Based on automobile travel, most metropolitan areas may be 15-minute cities.

Politicians and urban planners around the world are seeing the 15-minute city as an approach to responding to the car-centric ways of the past. This approach puts people and their needs at the center of urban planning by locating goods and services within 15 minutes by walking or biking. Most famously, Mayor Anne Hidalgo

NICKY TAVARES screening + Q&A May 13 @ 6:30p

TIME-BASED METHODS virtual workshop with Zen Cohen starts May 22 publicspaceone.com presented with support from the Iowa Arts Council

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F U T I L E W R AT H

S A M LO C K E WA R D

HAVE AN OPINION? Better write about it!

Send letters to:

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successfully won reelection in Paris, France in 2020 by expounding on this idea, and candidates in the current New York City mayoral race have been bandying the idea around, too.

What does this mean for Iowa City, and how do we get the League of American Bicyclists’ gold-level Bike Friendly Community designation later this year?

When I began working at the university, I realized that I could bike to my office and, because car parking was several blocks away, be there in less time than driving. This proved true for many services, like food shopping and banking, too.

Even biking to football games was easier than dealing with game day traffic.

This is the concept of the 15-minute city and an idea Iowa City should exploit! Fifteen minutes represents about three miles on a bike. If the center of a three-mile radius was the Old Capitol, the east edge of the circle would be Scott Boulevard, the west edge West High School, the north edge north of I-80 and the south edge the Johnson County Fairgrounds or Trueblood Recreation Area; that’s a lot of our community.

For the Towncrest or Mormon Trek shopping areas, a two-mile radius covers a large portion of their shoppers.

Fresh, clean drinking water

It's our primary commitment at the City of Iowa City Water Division. Our state-of-the-art treatment facility and sustainable practices provide a steady, reliable supply of top quality drinking water. To learn more, read the latest Iowa City Water Consumer Confidence Report:

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I N T E R AC T I O N S

THE IOWA CITY POLICE LOG A coffee table book

ON SALE NOW LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/POLICE-LOG

If the preferred mode of active transportation is walking, a 15-minute circle one mile from Old Capitol would include Kinnick Stadium, Carver Arena, Hancher, City Park, Iowa River Crossing Park and housing past College Green Park on the east. Our downtown area is only about a mile in diameter.

The League of American Bicyclists created the Bike Friendly Community (BFC) program about 20 years ago. For free, the League evaluates communities on five criteria as well as biking modal share and accident rates. The five evaluation areas include engineering, encouragement, equity, education and self-evaluation. Over 485 communities have received a designation from bronze-level to platinum, but fewer than 40 have attained the gold or platinum designation. It’s important to note that a bike-friendly community accommodates walkers too. Public transportation generally is enhanced by the BFC program.

Iowa City first applied to be a BFC in 2007.

Even though there were lots of bike commuters and few accidents, we didn’t receive recognition, primarily because there was no master bike plan.

Two years later, with the master plan completed and bike education rodeos being offered at local schools, Iowa City received a bronze-level recognition. More progress was made, and in the

LittleVillageMag.com

Jordan Sellergren / Little Village

curriculum that includes a component for secondary schools, another important characteristic at the gold-level.

Why sweat being bike friendly? There are at least two good reasons. First, increasing active transport will reduce air pollution. More than a quarter of air pollution is attributed to auto ex-

“BIKE FRIENDLINESS ADDS TO THE QUALITY OF LIFE AND ENHANCES ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.”—BOB OPPLINGER

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2013 evaluation, the recognition was bumped up to silver-level. Fewer than one-third of the BFCs have done that well, but in the 2017 evaluation, the progress was insufficient to merit gold-level.

Over the past few years, Iowa City has gone a long way to accommodate active transportation.

For example, a new master plan was rolled out in 2019, and many new miles of bike lanes, trails and side-paths made available about 115 miles in Iowa City and an equal number of miles in the remainder of the metro area. All the schools are doing bike rodeos and a range of biking opportunities are being offered to disadvantaged members of the community. Our bike modal share remains high and accident rates low—key factors in the evaluation.

Will it be enough? We’ll see. We still do not have a bike/pedestrian coordinator in our community or an active transportation advisory committee. All the gold-level communities do. Their purpose is to evaluate progress and devise ways to motivate education and participation. While the bike rodeos offer bike education for kids who show up, there is no system-wide mandatory

haust, the single highest source. Iowa City has made a commitment to reduce its carbon footprint by half over the next 30 years. This will only occur with a commitment to active transportation.

Bike friendliness adds to the quality of life and enhances economic development. A 2016 study by the American Institute for Economic Research identified the 40 hottest job markets during the early years of the last decade. They were stratified into four levels by size, i.e., very large to small. Thirty-two (80%) were BFCs, and the gold- and platinum-level BFCs were overrepresented. In other words, business development was enhanced by active transportation.

With the summer of the bike upon us, dust off your bike, join some of the events and use active transportation a couple times a week to run errands.

Bob Oppliger, Education & Advocacy Coordinator, Bicyclists of Iowa City, Board Member, League of American Bicyclists

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I N T E R AC T I O N S Linn Street closed from Market to Bloomington, as outdoor dining on the street returns (April 12)

held belief in the right to make others ill? —Jim P. Just playing to the conservative culture war.

Kim will be holding things like this up for her

I wasn’t a fan of this idea when they first did

/LittleVillage READER POLL: Do you invest in cryptocurrency?

re-election run next year. —Beau F.

it, but it turned out to work well. Glad it will happen again. —Melanie M.

Somehow (well, we know how) a pandemic got politicized and somehow being “against

I hope the folks who live in apartments along

vaccines” made you part of your in group. I’d

there are getting a break on their rent. —Julie V.

rather colleges/universities/schools required

Yes 19.1%

vaccines, because I’d like to see this end.

Board of Regents decides not to require COVID vaccinations for UI, ISU and UNI; Grinnell announces it will (April 15)

—Sharon F.

No 80.9%

Why are so many people fans of the pandemic?

You’d think there’d be an interest in ending it what with the half a million dead Americans

Great, more online classes with professors who

and all. Just kind of a ‘save the viruses’ thing, or

really don’t thrive in that format. —Samantha C.

what? —Randy K.

Here’s a question to which I have not yet seen

Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the

an answer: What’s the ostensible rationale for

viruses!!! —Edward K.

‘bout god dammed time. still not enough.

not requiring? I don’t agree with the policy anyway, but I’d like to hear what the grounds are, especially in light of (as pointed out in the article) other vaccines are required. A deeply

—Emily R.

Cedar Rapids man paralyzed in 2016 police shooting to receive $8 million settlement from city (April 19)

It’s a shame that it took 5 years. —Becky P.

Print is personal.

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

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

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B R O C K

Cedar Rapids considers a major river recreation project (April 19)

AN APOLOGY

A B O U T

T O W N

AUDREY BROCK

It’s come to my attention that my last column, in which I fanned the flames of what is apparently a longstanding feud between

Des Moines is doing this very same thing.

Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, has sparked a bit of controversy. This

WHO asked for this?? And how does rafting

is, of course, a good thing. After all, what is the purpose of a local

“revitalize” the river? By offering more avenues

magazine, if not to engage the community? Plus, it’s always nice

for it to be further polluted with plastic during

to know that people are actually reading these things, and I’m not

events???? This is just a scheme to get more

just writing weird little rants to nobody, like a very narcissistic ep-

tourists in the city. Maybe CR should actually

isode of The Twilight Zone. For someone whose only interaction

help its citizens who are still recovering from

on any given weekend is with the Chinese delivery guy, outraged

the derecho and still suffering because of the

Instagram DMs basically feel like Valentines.

pandemic instead of this weird tourist junk that

However, it appears as though some people were sincerely hurt by some of my

most locals won’t even have the opportunity to

comments, and for that I am sorry. I’d like to clarify that I harbor no ill will towards Cedar

use. —RT B.

Rapids, because having strong feelings of antipathy for the mid-sized Midwestern city of your birth is the sort of thing that only works during your middle school pop-punk phase.

Cedar Rapids could plant a 20-acre prairie full

That said, I feel it’s important to clarify that this is a humor column, and its contents

of prairie flowers in the floodplain . . . oh wait,

should certainly not be taken as genuine. In other columns published this year, I have re-

it already did that and the council has just

peatedly made light of alcoholism and openly called for teenagers to drown themselves

approved the destruction of the prairie in favor

in order to avoid spreading COVID. Those were, y’know, jokes, and I’m sure some people

of an industrial rail yard. —Rob H.

found them to be in poor taste, but I find it interesting that people are much more offended by the (admittedly not original) observation that a lot of my high school friends have

State loosens restrictions around dogs on restaurant patios (April 28)

the same dye job they did when we were 16.

Anyway, that little crack I made about Mexican food had the happy side effect of getting me a whole bunch of restaurant recommendations, which I am only too happy to take.

UGH I have no interest in eating with other

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294 May 2021 15

I N T E R AC T I O N S

LittleVillageMag.com

people’s pets. —Melanie M.

“BAD SELECTION” by The Armed. —Mark Z.W.

I love this! Finally Iowa is becoming more dog

“Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred. —Jamie T.

friendly. —Monica B. Probably “Happiness Pie” by the Kids in the Hall.

—Jason A.

Employees cant pet the dogs whyyyy we obviously must wash our hands after regardless.

—Rezin R.N.

“Everybody Knows” by Leonard Cohen. Did I do it right? —Mark H.M.

Little Village asked: You’re about to make your drag debut. What song do you lip sync to?

“WAP.” —Laura J. “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summers. —Matthieu B.

Any of SOPHIE’s hit songs would be perfect, my favorite two being “It’s Okay To Cry” and

“Baby One More Time”...duh. —Erin M.

“Ponyboy.” —Paul P.

STRESS FRACTURES

16 May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294

JOHN MARTINEK

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“I think anyone that is eligible

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cuando llegué al trabajo ví a la Maritza bailando la cumbia sampuesana de Aniceto Molina. «La cumbia sampuesana, la que bailan con ganas», se escuchaba por el parlante de la cocina del restaurante. El sonido del acordeón de Aniceto Molina era electrificante, contagioso, rebosante. Maritza daba pasos pequeños, movía lentamente las caderas, y luego daba una media vuelta.

Maritza, 52 años, natural de El Salvador, cocinera. Llegó hace siete años a los Estados Unidos y ha trabajado en diferentes oficios. Pero siempre ha vuelto al mismo lugar: la cocina de un restaurante. Entre otras razones, porque ella domina su oficio de cocinera. Y también porque en muchos restaurantes de este país la mayoría de los cocineros son inmigrantes latinos, quienes comparten una cultura y un idioma (español), lo cual facilita enormemente la convivencia en el centro de trabajo.

Una vez terminada la canción, Maritza, tal como si fuera una confesión o, más bien, la revelación de un secreto bien guardado, nos contó que Aniceto Molina iba casi todos los años a El Salvador a la fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe a dar un concierto.

Listen: Aniceto Molina, Y, por supuesto, Maritza estaba Mi Cacharrito Viejo, 1970 allí en primera fila cantando y bailando las cumbias interpretadas por el cantante colombiano.

Poco después de la declaratoria de emergencia sanitaria yo dejé de trabajar en aquel restaurante. A decir verdad, encontré otro empleo.

Perdí contacto con mis compañeros de trabajo, incluida Maritza. Pero este año, en pleno invierno, volvería a verla de pura casualidad. Ocurrió una mañana de febrero en la que hacía mucho frío y corría un viento helado, y no había muchas personas en las calles caminando. Y una de esas pocas personas era Maritza. Caminaba a paso lento, mirando el suelo, como intentando enfrentar con dignidad al viento frío. Yo le grité desde mi auto, «Maritza, ¿para dónde va?». «Voy a comprar unas cosas», fue su respuesta. «Pues súbase que yo la llevo», le repliqué.

Durante el trayecto tuvimos una conversación breve. Allí me contó sobre la muerte de algunos de sus seres queridos, allá en El Salvador, víctimas de la pandemia del Covid-19. También me contó que dejó de escuchar cumbia porque ahora la considera «música mundana». Hoy solo escucha música cristiana. De inmediato cambié de tema, tal vez con la intención de no entrar en mayores detalles. Pues si algo aprendí de trabajar en ese restaurante es aquel código implícito que consiste en no criticar los gustos musicales de la otra persona.

Más allá de los cambios que uno pueda experimentar, lo que quedará en mi memoria será aquella tarde en la que Maritza rompió la rutina o, mejor dicho, el aburrimiento, el tedio, el desgano que a veces conlleva el trabajo, lanzando la siguiente frase: «¡Por favor, pongan cumbia!».

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InQuiring Minds How did University of Iowa grad Liz Crokin become one of QAnon’s brightest stars? BY EMMA MCCLATCHEY Content warning: This article contains references to sexual assault, child abuse and racism.

“Q

Anon Congresswoman” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was red-pilled (that is, fell down the rabbit hole of far-right online conspiracy theories) back in 2017.

“I first heard about [Q] from Liz Crokin,” Greene said in a Facebook Live video from November 2017. “She’s been saying all along that he is a good guy in this and he’s really going after the swamp creatures. If she’s correct, gosh, she’s going to be winning big.”

A former gossip columnist and University of Iowa graduate (who did not respond to Little Village’s attempts to contact her), Crokin may not be the most famous Q adherent—elected officials like Greene, who still hasn’t disavowed QAnon, and the indicted “Q Shaman” Jacob Chansley have gotten the most attention as of late—but she is arguably the movement’s most influential figure, aside from Q themself.

The anonymous, self-proclaimed White House insider “Q” was merely a fringe internet enigma at the beginning of Trump’s presidency.

In the midst of a career slump and looking for a purpose, Crokin was among the first people to take Q’s cryptic posts, interpret them and present a more coherent, palatable message to the curious masses on mainstream sites like YouTube and Twitter. By 2018, she had picked a Twitter fight with Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, been retweeted by Roseanne Barr and, allegedly, was contacted by Gen. Michael Flynn and encouraged to “stay the course.”

Crokin represents perhaps the purest form of

QAnon follower, ascribing to almost all conspiracy theories under its umbrella, theories Trump has done little to quelch: MK Ultra is an active operation and has had a hold on Hollywood since at least World War II; JFK Jr. didn’t die in 1999 and is in fact working in secret alongside Trump to drain the swamp; the Mueller investigation was really looking into the Clintons, Obamas and other elites whose crimes are “punishable by death”; demons are very real, and may even have given her dog bloody diarrhea; California’s mudslides were God’s punishment for Oprah Winfrey’s anti-Trump comments at the Golden Globes and its wildfires intentionally started by the cabal to cover up their crimes; and the deep state created the COVID-19 pandemic as a “cov-

Chicago and Los Angeles, and supposed insight into the dark underbelly of Hollywood elites. The 18-year-old student who arrived in Iowa City in the mid ’90s with a passion for GOP politics is, in 2021, an undaunted believer in the kind of misinformation that led to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

“Liz Crokin put herself so far out in front she was mocked, she was laughed at, she was called crazy,” fellow QAnon acolyte Mark Smith said in 2020. “Well let me ask you a question, for all those people that did that to Liz: Does she seem so crazy now?”

Q

CROKIN REPRESENTS PERHAPS THE PUREST FORM OF QANON FOLLOWER, ASCRIBING TO ALMOST ALL CONSPIRACY THEORIES UNDER ITS UMBRELLA, THEORIES TRUMP HAS DONE LITTLE TO QUELCH. BUT WHILE HER BELIEFS IN SATANIC CABALS AND THE OMNIPOTENCE OF Q AND TRUMP CAN BE LAUGHED OFF BY MOST, THOSE SUSCEPTIBLE TO SUCH CONSPIRACY THEORIES FOUND CROKIN CREDIBLE AND INSPIRING.

er” for the “mass arrests” that are always just over the horizon.

While her beliefs in Satanic cabals and the omnipotence of Q and Trump can be laughed off by most, those susceptible to such conspiracy theories, like Greene and Barr, found Crokin credible and inspiring. This is due in no small part to her journalism degree, more than a decade of experience working for major publications in

L

iz Crokin was born in 1977 in Glenview, Illinois, and raised in a conservative household. While attending the University of Iowa, she joined the organization Students for George W. Bush, a Republican student group supporting Bush’s presidential bid. (The group managed to commandeer the campus email system and blast pro-Bush messages to 40,000 email addresses.)

Crokin studied journalism and political

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caused brain damage and disrupted Crokin’s ability to work. She was laid off by her publisher in 2013 and says she went from making a six-figure salary to living on food stamps and facing a pile of medical debt.

Q

I

Still from ‘Q: Into the Storm’, HBO, Cullen Hoback

CROKIN HERSELF POPULARIZED THE STATISTIC—PULLED APPARENTLY OUT OF THIN AIR—THAT AT LEAST ONE-THIRD OF CONGRESS AND ONE-THIRD OF HOLLYWOOD INSIDERS ARE MEMBERS OF THE SATANIC CABAL OF PEDOPHILIC CANNIBALS. TRUMP KNOWS THIS, BUT HE DOESN’T TELL THE PUBLIC BECAUSE IT WOULD BLOW THEIR MINDS, CROKIN TOLD THE COMMON SENSE SHOW. science at UI. Her semi-autobiographical novel, Malice, includes a number of references to her college years: attending the 1999 Republican Straw Poll and the Iowa Caucuses, sneaking backstage at concerts and showing up to journalism classes hungover.

“I attended journalism school because I love getting my hands wet in the field on a good story,” she writes as her fictional protagonist.

Crokin spent her senior year interning at the U.S. State Department in D.C. and meeting Republican icons including President Bush, Rep.

John Kasich and Sen. John McCain. She went on to intern for Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News show The O’Reilly Factor.

She found her niche as an entertainment news columnist, writing for the Chicago Tribune’s daily tabloid RedEye (specializing in celebrity break-ups), the Chicago Sun-Times’ publication Splash and, freelancing in Los Angeles beginning in 2010, the National Enquirer, Star, InTouch and US Weekly.

In 2012, she was diagnosed with viral meningitis, a severe progression of herpes, which

n the aftermath of her illness and halted tabloid career, Crokin authored and self-published her first book, Malice, on Amazon in March 2015.

The 428-page novel is ostensibly about a Crokin surrogate named Lana Burke as she investigates a political scandal. (“The lifelong conservative Republican finds herself extremely conflicted covering a sex scandal involving potentially the nation’s first Mormon President,” reads the book’s description.)

This plotline involves Lana interviewing a sex worker who engaged in a kinky affair with Utah governor and 2012 presidential nominee Prescott Richards, an obvious Mitt Romney stand-in.

(The book is filled with transparent and largely unnecessary pseudonyms for real-life people and companies. My favorites are “President Muhammad Oyama,” “Rox News Channel” and its hosts “Shamus O’Malley” and “Megan Riley,” and rival network “BNN.”) In the course of exposing the scandal, Lana thinks she’s being tracked by a secret Mormon crime squad; this plot goes nowhere. Crokin manages to weave in homophobia (Lana balks at a celebrity’s secret gay lifestyle, conflating it with sexual abuse and “Hollyweird” perversions; she also portrays a gay coworker as a “bitchy” stereotype), slut-shaming (the word “hooker” appears in the novel 77 times), anti-Mormonism and racist caricatures of an Asian man and Black woman.

The crux of the novel, however, is Lana’s relationship with a man 20 years her senior—a

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rich fellow “die-hard Republican” with whom she shares countless bottles of red wine, romantic motorcycle rides and sexual encounters described in explicit detail.

The boyfriend, Malden, repeatedly has anal sex with Lana without her consent, something that disturbs Lana but doesn’t seem to register in her mind as rape (it is). Other abuses—such as Malden’s infidelity, his controlling and manipulative behavior, dirty talk that borders on pedophilic fantasies and even a presumed drugging of Lana—are fretted over by Crokin’s protagonist before she inevitably returns to his bed, praising his traditional masculinity and “JFK Jr. smile.”

(Malden is compared to John F. Kennedy Jr. no less than eight times.)

Lana comes down with the same viral meningitis Crokin experienced in real life—the character has trouble accessing healthcare coverage, an ironic plot point considering her staunch anti-Oyama ideology—with symptoms including migraines, photosensitivity and unbearable pain in her genitals. She takes heavy doses of Vicodin and drives in L.A. traffic, avoiding an accident “by the grace of God.” She starts feeling like she’s “possessed by the devil” and that she “could see demons.”

Like Crokin, Lana is laid off from work.

“The career I had worked so hard to build for over a decade had just crumbled like the Berlin Wall under Reagan’s administration before my very eyes,” Lana says.

Lana eventually concludes that Malden gave her herpes, the original source of her medical issues. In real life, Crokin sued an ex of hers named Mallory Hill, saying he exposed her to herpes without her knowledge, a form of abuse amounting to battery. Hill sued Crokin in return, claiming her fictionalized portrayal of him, as well as her frank comparison of Malden to Mallory in interviews promoting Malice, amounted to slander.

A partial settlement was reached in 2018.

Despite Malden being a “dark and deviant sexual predator” and “pure evil,” Lana has one last marathon sex session with him at the end of the novel. “I felt like I was kissing the enemy—or worse—the devil. … It made me disgusted and angry but eerily turned me on at the same time.”

She has a vision of him as a demonic wolf, complete with “fiery eyes” and a “furry, giant penis.”

“Was my mind playing tricks on me? Were the illusions caused by the painkillers and the damage the meningitis had done to my brain? I couldn’t understand why I was seeing things. Or was I? Perhaps I was seeing clearly for the first time in my life.”

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Q

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fter Crokin’s brain “started healing itself” in 2015, she got back to writing, working for the far-right conservative publication Townhall. Though her focus was sex crimes, her best-known piece for Townhall is an opinion article titled “Trump Does the Unthinkable,” published in July 2016, listing a mix of true and very untrue good deeds allegedly performed by Trump. The post went viral and is still regularly shared by the MAGA loyal on Facebook.

Q made their first post on 4chan in October 2017. Crokin told filmmaker Cullen Hoback that she was instantly hooked.

“When Q first dropped his first drop, I just immediately knew it was legit,” she tells Hoback in the new HBO docuseries Q: Into the Storm. “I just knew it intuitively. Everything resonated to me and everything added up.”

Crokin had already been “awakened” to the perversions of elite Democrats after the 2016 Wikileaks hack of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails, she said.

The Podesta emails form the basis for Pizzagate, a conspiracy theory that proports with no evidence that every casual reference to pizza, hot dogs, ice cream and other foods in Clinton staff emails were coded messages about child sexual abuse, and that a popular Clinton campaign hangout, Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in D.C., is a hub for abusers and traffickers. Pizzagate would eventually merge with broader QAnon theories and provoke death threats towards the owners of Comet Ping Pong and surrounding businesses.

The conspiracy theory made national headlines after a believer named Edgar Maddison Welch fired three shots from an AR-15 into Comet Ping Pong on Dec. 4, 2016. No one was injured.

Crokin, who’d already branded herself as an “investigative journalist exposing sex trafficking,” glommed onto Pizzagate, subscribing to a notion supported by Q that all pedophiles work in rings and that their crimes are animated by nefarious religious beliefs. (QAnon folks read a tongue-in-cheek email from a Clinton staffer saying they plan on “sacrificing a chicken in the backyard to Moloch” quite literally.)

In the minds of Q followers, these deep-state elites are not only child traffickers and rapists, but they torture, rape and murder children in service of Satan. On top of that, the cabal also traumatizes kids and flaunts occult symbols as a form of mind control. They drink their victims’ adrenaline-laced blood to get high on adrenochrome (a real substance researchers can buy online, which apparently only causes a mild and rather unpleasant high. But to each cabal their own).

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Crokin herself popularized the statistic—pulled apparently out of thin air—that at least one-third of Congress and one-third of Hollywood insiders are members of the Satanic cabal of pedophilic cannibals. Trump knows this, but he doesn’t tell the public because it would blow their minds, Crokin told The Common Sense Show. “They need it in doses, they need to be conditioned.” That, she says, is why Trump and Q drop so many hints about the incoming “Storm” of deep state indictments. Those who learn to see these hints (see: interpret Trump’s idiosyncratic ad libs, gestures and typos as confirming evidence of a theory followers have already convinced themselves is real) are “awakened.”

“There’s not one smoking gun,” Crokin explains in the 2020 QAnon “documentary” Out of Shadows. “There’s many small smoking guns that you have to piece together, and you have to use critical thinking to understand this stuff is real.”

Since she started posting about Pizzagate, Crokin said that all her friends from high school unfriended her, and her former colleagues “mocked” her. But this rejection by her “liberal sheep” classmates and blacklisting by the mainstream media only served to heighten Crokin’s profile in the eyes of fellow QAnon followers. As a commenter on one of her YouTube videos put it, “All a person needs to ask is, why would Liz and others stick their necks out to be chopped off by reporting on this subject matter unless there is ample evidence that it’s true?”

Q

T

he arrests of Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, NXIVM founder Keith Raniere and other famous figures beginning in 2016 were regarded as vindication by Crokin. “This is just the beginning,” she declared in a YouTube video.

“The Storm is officially here.”

She dismissed the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements as distractions constructed by the cabal, instead crediting Trump with this widespread reckoning on sexual harassment, assault and trafficking. (It should be noted that accusations against Trump loyalists including Brett Kavanaugh, Trump himself and recently Rep. Matt Gaetz have been dismissed by Crokin as deep-state distractions.)

She reported another false data point: that Trump had made an unprecedented 1,500 child trafficking-related arrests in his first 30 days in office. This was shared widely, including by actress Roseanne Barr, which delighted Crokin.

She had a less cordial brush with celebrity when

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Chrissy Teigen and husband John Legend threatened to sue Crokin after she tweeted that the couple “flaunt illuminati symbolism” and “run in circle with people who rape, torture & traffic kids.” Crokin was spared a lawsuit but lost her verification on Twitter due to the incident.

Crokin has gone on to accuse other celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Lil Nas X of being tools of the cabal due to their fashion and music video aesthetics. A favorite target of hers is experimental performance artist Marina Abramović, who often incorporates dark, shocking imagery into her exhibitions, including “spirit cooking” events frequented by high-profile art enthusiasts. Ever the literalists, QAnon followers see Abramović’s work as bald displays of witchcraft and an effort to desensitize the masses to violence and mind control. The comedy Zoolander serves the same purpose, according Crokin and her ilk.

In August 2018, Crokin got into a surfing accident while on vacation and lost two of the fingers on her right hand. She took to Twitter to assure her followers she was recovering—and share a meme depicting a cloaked Death on the beach handing her a glass of champagne next to the words “HILLARY 2020,” which Crokin said “captures the vision I had in the ocean after I looked at my hand and saw that two fingers had been severed.” In a video posted later, she speculates that Clinton or Abramović could have engineered her accident.

“All these people [I expose] dabble in witchcraft and spirit cooking. So, do these people do witchcraft against me? Of course they do,” she said. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if they were casting spells on me the night before.”

In fact, “literally nothing would surprise me,” she tells Hoback in Q: Into the Storm. “So, you know, if you tell me aliens are real and the Earth’s flat or whatever—” “Wait,” Hoback interrupts. “The Earth’s flat wouldn’t surprise you?”

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“No.” “Really?”

“I expose people who literally rape and eat babies,” Crokin replies. “To me, if that is able to exist in this world, I think anything is possible.”

Q

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yan Stoldt is a Ph.D. candidate in the UI School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Partnering with UI Journalism Prof. Brian Ekdale and funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, he is about to embark on a three-year study of internet radicalization.

Past studies have focused almost exclusively on web-born terrorists, he said. His research is more broad.

“We’re much more interested in our study of the kind of radicalization that everyday people are going through, where they’re becoming more accepting of the extreme,” Stoldt explained.

The study will explore radicalization on three levels.

“One of them is the extremity of the belief,” how mainstream or fringe it is. “The second is going to be the strength of that belief. There are people, it sounds like Liz, who are like, ‘QAnon is 100 percent correct.’ And then there are a lot of people out there that are probably like, ‘There might be something there, I don’t really know.’”

The third degree of radicalization, Stoldt says, is “the ways that you are willing to support that belief.” For QAnon followers, this could range from sharing a meme or voting for Trump to criminal acts, such as the attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Anecdotal evidence has pointed to social media algorithms as drivers of radicalization, Stoldt said. Indeed, “QTubers” like Crokin garnered millions of views when YouTube’s algorithm was still programmed to recommend or even autoplay one conspiracy video after another,

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guiding viewers down the rabbit hole. But there’s likely more to it, Stoldt said, including personal grievances, feelings of persecution, traumatic life events and social networks.

“A trend we see across extreme movements generally is the creation of an in-group narrative where … there is a very concrete evil in the world, and we are fighting against that. This is the Satanic group of pedophiles, for QAnon.”

Radical movements don’t need to incite or enact violence in order to hurt people, Stoldt said. “We very much believe that the personal is political, people’s beliefs play into their daily actions.” “Symbolic acts of violence,” such as perpetuating racist ideas about minorities and immigrants, spreading lies about COVID-19 and alienating skeptical family members, are all negative effects of radicalization that are potentially preventable—and will likely take more proactive measures than Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites deplatforming far-right extremists in the wake of Jan. 6.

Stoldt said he’s well aware of how hard it is to deradicalize people after they’ve been “awakened.”

“I do this research, and I’m pretty sure my grandma fully believes in QAnon. There’s nothing I’m going to be able to say to get through to her,” he said. “She’ll even ask me about this project researching radicalization online, and she just does not understand that this is the kind of stuff we’re actually researching, and not the Satanic cabal.”

Q

J

ust as well-spoken conservative commentators Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro are able to dispense white nationalist talking points to a more mainstream audience than far-right firebrands such as Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Kaitlin Bennett and even Q themself, Liz Crokin provides a pseudointellectual front for an outlandish ideology. In interviews and blog posts, Crokin touts her self-styled identity as a veteran journalist fighting a wicked Goliath.

“One of the appeals of QAnon is that it’s a pretty common stance to be like, ‘I’m against pedophilia.’ You’re not going to have many arguments against that,” Stoldt observed. “So I think that kind of soft front works as a way of legitimizing their beliefs, because they’re like, ‘Well, you agree with me on this. So let’s talk about this thing, this is just a little bit more extreme,’ and you continue down that rabbit hole of extremity.”

Many QAnon believers begin their red-pilling by joining online communities (and in some cases, even attending in-person demonstrations) 30 May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294

Your Opportunity to Engage with Arts and Culture CulturalCorridor.org

Be famous.

(Kinda.)

Little Village is looking for writers.

Contact: Editor@LittleVillageMag.com LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294 May 2021 31

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and consuming media claiming to represent the #SaveTheChildren movement, a soft front for QAnon that exaggerates and mischaracterizes the very real issue of human trafficking. If QAnon is Wonderland, #SaveTheChildren and its variants are the white rabbit luring Alice towards the hole.

Crokin features prominently in Out of Shadows, a 77-minute film project that stuntman-turned-conspiracist Mike Smith released in January 2020. Thought to have reached more viewers than the notorious conspiracy video Plandemic, Out of Shadows “blends real historical events with imagined ones, leaning on the authenticity of the former to justify the wild extrapolations of the latter,” as Tarpley Hitt puts it in the Daily Beast. Smith, Crokin and others discuss MK Ultra and Project Mockingbird, Luciferian symbols, the cabal, Abramović, Pizzagate—and do not mention Q once.

This was intentional, according to the anti-conspiracy researchers behind the podcast QAnon Anonymous. They describe Crokin’s fanbase as a “wine mom QAnon following.”

But beyond her mom-friendly, #SaveTheChildren façade, Crokin shares many of the noxious beliefs of her fellow anons. She amplified the #FilmYourHospital hashtag that endangered healthcare workers and patients in the early months of the pandemic, seeking to prove COVID-19 is a lie of the cabal and China.

She has also openly expressed anti-Semitism.

“Pedophilia is rampant within the Jewish religion, from what I’ve researched,” Crokin said on The Richie Allen Show in 2017. “I’ve also discovered that predators prey on children at Jewish camps. Now, it is interesting how pedophilia has been exposed within the Catholic church but there hasn’t been a huge scandal about the pedophilia that goes on within the Jewish community.

We do know that the Jews control most of the mainstream media and Hollywood.”

Q

T

he big wins Marjorie Taylor Greene predicted for Crokin seem not to have arrived.

Joe Biden’s inauguration was “a punch in the gut,” Crokin admitted in an online post, although she doesn’t acknowledge the legitimacy of his election. Indeed, she has ceded no ground to the deep state in 2021, though her conspiracy content, once imbued with righteous fury, are now often tinged with melancholy.

Relegated to the fringe, free-speech social media site Telegram, she asks for prayers, writes bitterly about ex-believers who still have verified social media accounts on more mainstream sites and pleads with followers not to “lose faith” and

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Community

LittleVillageMag.com

Still from ‘Q: Into the Storm’, HBO, Cullen Hoback

to “believe in President Trump.”

“All I want for today is for some news to break exposing Pizzagate,” she posted on Feb. 8. “That’s all I want everyday & there is no gift more important to me than this.”

When Crokin joined the Q movement in 2017, there were mass arrests, executions and vindication to look forward to. Now, after at least 18 Q predictions have failed to manifest, most Q influencers have lost their primary revenue streams (Crokin was kicked off everything from Instagram to Etsy), Q has stopped posting and the Jan. 6 insurrection brought more critical attention to QAnon than ever, Crokin’s soft front seems to have hardened.

“I still trust The Plan & Q,” she declared on Telegram. “Yes, the Deep State is using Biden’s ‘inauguration’ as ammo to attack the Q movement but so what? Seriously, who cares? I’ve been consistently & relentlessly attacked since 2016 for exposing Pizzagate. I lost my career, reputation & almost everything but did I crawl into a corner & cry to my mommy? No! I kept fighting and fighting and fighting.”

“So just stop. If you’re bailing out now — you’re weak.”

Emma McClatchey followed her purchase of Liz Crokin’s $4.99 ebook with a $10 donation to the Domestic Violence Intervention Program.

34 May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294

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LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294 May 2021 35

Community En Español

Campos de maíz POR MARIANA MAZER

E

s de noche y camino por el campo de Cathy y Ralph. Algo de luna se refleja en los silos, en las escaleras que suben a los techos, en el camión que lleva al maíz cuando ya está listo para ser vendido. Tras los silos, unos pinos hermosos y gigantes que Ralph me explica dañó la tormenta Derecho.

Tras ellos, kilómetros de campos que se multiplican, hasta los molinos de viento que en la noche encienden unas luces titilantes coloradas.

Debería hacer frío, pero no, el viento ha comenzado a soplar y se lleva en remolinos algo de tierra del suelo. Acabamos de llegar de cenar. Fuimos al Olive Garden, entramos con nuestras máscaras, nos sentamos en una mesa con distanciamiento social, pedimos vino y pasta. A metros nuestros una beba y su madre. Los ojos de la beba brillaban, miraba en nuestra dirección. Le respondimos. La beba río, la madre le dio besos, limpió la baba que se le caía mientras la beba saludaba con los deditos.

Ralph, sentado frente a mí, me habló del maíz, de las épocas en que se prepara la tierra, de cómo a veces la nieve, si cae en el momento preciso, hace que las plantas crezcan más verdes. De la cosecha antes de que empiece el otoño, de que es necesario secar el maíz luego de cosecharlo.

Hace tres años que vivo aquí, hace tres años que vivo rodeada de estos campos, conduzco de una punta del estado a la otra y los atravieso, los silos junto a cada granja, la nieve que los cubre, las luciérnagas en verano. Nunca nadie me explicó sobre la cosecha, de los tipos de tierra que trabajan, que a veces es mejor la arcilla, a veces la arenosa, que los silos hay que limpiarlos cada verano.

Ralph se quita el sombrero. Me dice que hace este trabajo desde

Jordan Sellergren / Little Village

los quince, hace cuarenta años. Es lo que hacía su padre. Ahora vive en la granja donde creció. Las plantaciones las maneja con su hermano.

Pienso en todos los años hacer lo mismo. Que se pase una vida en el campo. Yo, que desde los

vez recepcionista en un banco.

Alguna vez extra en la filmación de Las Crónicas de Narnia en la Costa Oeste Canadiense. ¿Qué me une con este hombre que me cuenta de su trabajo y sus campos de maíz, en esta noche estrellada? No es la máscara de la

¿QUÉ ME UNE CON ESTE HOMBRE QUE ME CUENTA DE SU TRABAJO Y SUS CAMPOS DE MAÍZ, EN ESTA NOCHE ESTRELLADA? NO ES LA MÁSCARA DE LA QUE AMBOS NOS QUEJAMOS. TAMPOCO LA SOLEDAD DE LA PANDEMIA. veinte no me quedo quieta. Que he tenido una veintena de profesiones, de buza en el Caribe a hacer las vendimias en Nueva Zelanda.

Catadora de vino en el Niágara, camarera en México, ejecutiva en una multinacional en Buenos Aires.

Escritora en donde venga, profesora de español en Maryland. Alguna

36 May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294

que ambos nos quejamos. Tampoco la soledad de la pandemia. Ni siquiera la amiga que está en Buenos Aires y nos contactó, la que alguna vez vino acá de intercambio, se quedó en su casa y ahora, tantísimos años después, estando yo acá, nos pone en contacto.

Es esta noche loca en la que

debería haber llegado la nieve y, sin embargo, hay una primavera de veinte grados. O la necesidad de conectar, de escuchar historias, de sentir el olor de otros seres humanos. El antagonismo de nuestras vidas, sus años en la cosecha, los míos en cualquier lado.

Ya de vuelta en la granja, luego de recorrer los silos, Cathy me ofrece algo de calabazas que le trajo el vecino. Son verdes y naranjas.

Me dice que envíe un texto al llegar a casa, que tenga cuidado con los ciervos, que un ciervo en la ruta puede dar vuelta el auto.

Me abrazan. Por segundos no me importa la pandemia. Me fundo en sus brazos.

Enciento el auto y salgo a la ruta. La 30 que da a la 1. En la 1 doblo y de ahí ya no necesito el GPS. Es media hora derecho, el asfalto te va llevando. El cielo está más despejado aún y cubierto de estrellas. Hay una media luna. Y por unos instantes, por una noche, este lugar casi una casa.

LittleVillageMag.com

Cornfields

MEGA STORE

BY MARIANA MAZER; TRANSLATED BY ALLANA NOYES

I

’m walking through Cathy and Ralph’s cornfield at night. Beams of moonlight reflect off the silos, the ladders spiraling up them, the truck that transports the corn when it’s ready for sale. Behind the silos are several large, beautiful pine trees that were damaged by the derecho, Ralph explains. Beyond that, kilometers of fields doubling all the way to where the windmills light up the darkness with their twinkling, colored lights.

It should be cold, but it’s not. The wind has begun to blow and is kicking up little dirt devils. We’ve just come from dinner. We went to Olive Garden, where we wore our masks and sat at a table with social distancing measures in place. We ordered wine and pasta. Seated nearby there was a mother and baby, her sparkling eyes looking in our direction. We waved. The baby laughed. Her mother kissed her and wiped the drool from her face as she waved hello with her little fingers.

Ralph, seated across from me, talks to me about corn. About the time needed to prepare the soil. About how sometimes the snow, if it falls at just the right time, makes the crops grow greener. He tells me about the early October harvest and how it’s necessary to dry the corn after it’s been picked.

I’ve lived here for three years. Three years I’ve lived surrounded by these fields, driving from one end of the state to another, crossing them, the silos standing along their edges, the snow that blankets them, fireflies in the summer. No one ever told me about the harvest or the different types of soils. That sometimes clay is better, sometimes sand; that the silos must be cleaned each summer.

Ralph takes off his hat. He tells me he’s been doing this since he was 15—40 years. It’s what his father did. Now he lives on the farm where he grew up, and he and his brother manage the crops.

I think about what it means to do the same work every year. Spending an entire lifetime in corn. Ever since I was 20, I couldn’t stay put. I’ve had dozens of jobs, from diving instructor in the Caribbean to grape picker in New Zealand. I’ve been a wine expert in Niagara, a waitress in Mexico, an executive of a multinational corporation in Buenos Aires, a writer wherever I can, a Spanish teacher in Maryland. Once, I was a receptionist for a bank, another time an on-set extra for The Chronicles of Narnia movie somewhere along the western coast of Canada.

What could I have in common with this man telling me about his work and his cornfield under this star-studded sky? It’s not the mask we both complain about.

Nor is it the loneliness of the pandemic. It’s not even the friend in Buenos Aires who connected us, the one who once studied abroad and lived with them, and now, so many years later, because I am here, has put us in touch.

Maybe it’s this strange night when there should be snow, but instead there’s spring weather. Or the need to connect, to listen to stories, the familiar scent of other human beings. The way our lives grind us down—his spent farming, mine doing whatever.

As we’re walking back from the silos, Cathy offers me some squash the neighbors brought over. Green and orange squash. She asks me to text them when I’m home and to be mindful of the deer—a deer in the road can flip a car. They hug me, and for a brief moment, the pandemic does not matter. I melt in their arms.

I start the car and pull onto the highway, first the 30 then the 1. Then there’s no need for GPS. Just a straight shot for half an hour, the road takes you there on its own. The sky has become even clearer now and is dotted with stars. There’s a half moon and for a little while, for one night, this place almost feels like home.

Mariana Mazer is a writer and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Iowa.

Allana C. Noyes is a literary translator from Reno, Nevada. Her work can be found at allananoyes.com.

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Shop for a Spell Iowa’s only magic shop remains an illusionist’s oasis amid the pandemic. BY ROBERT LINDSEY-NASSIF

A

wizarding world awaits Iowans in downtown Marion.

At the Iowa Magic Shop, owned by professional magician Tim Stolba and his wife Sue, the display cases and racks are packed floor to ceiling with magical paraphernalia. There are exotic-looking boxes, feather flower bouquets, crystals and crystal balls, beautiful three-dimensional puzzles, illusions, metaphysical supplies, magic books and videos, jokes and gags and even a selection of Harry Potter merchandise, catering to everyone from the professional magician to the amateur prankster.

The shop also boasts an intimate performance space, where, when public health allows, Stolba hosts magic-themed birthday parties and performs magic for groups of spellbound children, who may even find themselves floating in mid-air.

“I started learning magic at age 4 or 5,” Stolba said. After a lifetime of study and a previous career as an automotive technician, he became a full-time professional magician in 2015. Since, he has performed on stages and for gatherings throughout the Midwest. Last year he was hired to astonish a group of 8-yearolds at a birthday party in a highend ski resort within the Colorado mountains.

Noticing there were no magic shops in the state, the Stolbas opened Iowa Magic Shop in early 2016, convinced local magicians needed an actual brick-and-mortar space to congregate and learn. That space was soon outgrown, so they moved to the historic downtown Marion in August 2018, into a century-old stone and brick building with a corner tower and turret that conjures up a mysterious medieval castle.

In addition to the many

Robert Lindsey-Nassif

beginner’s magic sets by Penn & Teller, David Copperfield, Shin Lim and Criss Angel, Stolba sells his own branded magic kit and an array of branded tricks. Young magicians can buy a magic set and come into the store to be tutored by the very illusionist pictured on the box.

Every month Iowa Magic Shop hosts the Six O’Clock Sunday Sessions (currently online), a gathering of magicians of all ages who are interested in learning magic, sharing techniques, practicing showmanship and keeping their act fresh.

One young illusionist who apprenticed at Iowa Magic Shop is 14-year-old Remington Haynes, a freshman at Linn Mar High School.

He became interested in magic at the age of 6, he said, when his father taught him some simple magic tricks. Haynes was smitten. He began studying magic and was one of the first customers at Iowa Magic

38 May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294

Shop.

Haynes began performing magic at birthday parties and corporate shows and doing “table magic” several nights a week at a local restaurant. As soon as he became old enough to get a job, he asked Stolba to hire him. Stolba agreed.

“Working at the shop has been fantastic,” Haynes said. “The people I meet and the connections I make are wonderful. It’s very fulfilling to see young children get their first magic trick, because it reminds me of myself.”

He does many kinds of magic, but his favorite is mentalism— where the magician appears to be able to read the minds of spectators.

“Magic has been, is and I assume will continue to be a major factor in my life,” he said. “Becoming a magician professionally has always been in the back of my mind, but I’m taking it one step at a time and seeing what the future has to hold.”

Iowa Magic Shop 1090 7th Ave, Marion iowamagicshop.com, 319-423-5488

Haynes encourages everyone, regardless of age, to find their way to a magic shop.

“Magic is a small art and preservation of it is very important,” he noted. “In my opinion, the Iowa Magic Shop is doing a fantastic job to help preserve and secure the future of magic.”

Though the entire world has been under a dark spell this past year, Iowa Magic Shop has remained open and not only survived but thrived, with a healthy online business, free shipping and local delivery. There is no magic trick Iowa Magic Shop cannot deliver to your doorstep, which, itself, is an astonishing feat of magic.

375 3RD ST. SE, CEDAR RAPIDS (319) 200-2994 ORDER ONLINE AT:

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LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294 May 2021 39

Bread & Butter

LittleVillageMag.com LV Recommends

Marquee Pizzeria

I

920 E 2nd Ave #123, Coralville, marqueepizzeria.com, 319-333-1018

have heard it said that pizza is like sex: even when it’s bad, it’s good and when it’s good, it’s amazing. I tend to agree. I’ve had slices from school cafeterias, gas stations, bars, food trucks, mall food courts and upscale pizzerias—and I’d eat every one of them again. Pizza is never a mistake.

Pizza is also one of my partner’s and my “fallback foods” for those days when we’ve had the same “What do you want to eat?” “I don’t know” conversation 16 times and know that it may end in breakup or bloodshed if we have it again. We were both already slightly hangry when we started trying to decide what to have for dinner last night, so after the fourth or fifth “I don’t know” I decided to order pizza while we still loved each other.

As with many other foods, I have standard pizza toppings that I tend to return to repeatedly: sausage and/ or pepperoni, maybe mushrooms, maybe some artichokes or fresh basil if I’m feeling adventurous. The question with pizza is whether we’re in the mood for a classic, simple interpretation or something a little different. We decided to depart from old standbys and try something new and a little unusual this time, so we ordered from Marquee Pizzeria.

Marquee opened in Coralville’s Iowa River Landing in 2017. The concept is described as “Neapolitan meets New York,” and the pizzas are cooked in an imported Italian 90-degree, wood-fired oven that can cook a pizza in as little as 90 seconds.

Most importantly for me, many of their pizzas fit my favored category of “familiar with a twist.”

We ordered the Falco, Grandma’s Hands and Vice City, all of which featured at least one of my habitual toppings, plus at least one ingredient unique to these particular pies.

Grandma’s Hands was the closest to pizzas I’ve had before with just three ingredients: sauce, pepperoni

BY TIFFANI GREEN

Jordan Sellergren, photos by Tiffani Green / Little Village

and cheese. The twists came from both the pepperoni and the cheese.

The slices of pepperoni—referred to on the menu as “Iowa pepperoni”—were about two-thirds the size of those you usually see on pizza and were spicier and smokier than any pepperoni I’ve had before. They were also a bit thicker cut and chewier. A subtle, but significant, difference. The pizza has two cheeses: mozzarella and caciocavallo (fun fact, the name means “cheese on horseback,” due to how it’s dried: two teardrop-shaped forms tied together straddling a board). I had never previously heard of or tasted caciocavallo. It was a bit firmer than the mozzarella, with a similar amount of stretch and an earthier, more complex flavor. Both the pepperoni and cheese created a depth and complexity of flavor on what could have been a one-note pizza.

The next step up in complexity was the Falco. It was topped with sausage, red onion, breadcrumbs, fresh basil and garlic and parmigiano cheese. Still pretty classic,

40 May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294

but the sweetness of the red onion, the bite of fresh garlic and the salt and nuttiness of the cheese elevated the flavors of this simple combo.

Additionally, since parmigiano is a harder cheese than mozzarella, it added a lot of flavor while taking up less space and mouthfeel than cheese typically does on a pizza.

This kept the textures and flavors of the breadcrumbs, garlic and basil from being overshadowed.

Vice City was the biggest departure from the norm. It was topped with smoked mozzarella, parmigiano, sausage, pepperoni, green onion, pickled pepper sauce and hot honey. This was Mike’s suggestion, and I was skeptical. For one thing, I didn’t know what either hot honey or a pickled pepper sauce would taste like individually, let alone together and in combination with the other toppings. I also believe that putting sweet ingredients on pizza is a cardinal sin. I figured that this pizza would either taste strange, or one flavor would dominate all the others.

I could not have been more wrong.

This was our favorite by far. The many toppings created a nuanced and complex flavor so that no one ingredient stood out and none were overpowered. The honey and pepper sauce played off each other beautifully and created a lightly sweet spiciness unlike anything I’ve ever had.

On top of this, the pizzas all featured the hallmarks of wood-fired pizza: a crust that is both crunchy and chewy, delicious in its own right, with ingredients that stay slightly more intact and retain more of their texture and brightness of flavor due to the speed with which they’re cooked.

Marquee was up against the fond memories and high standards of some treasured Cedar Rapids-area establishments—Need, Cappy’s and Zoey’s to name a few—and it held its own against them. The Vice City in particular is a dish designed to create cravings. And since pizza is always a good idea, I plan to indulge in Marquee’s offerings often.

—Tiffani Green

DEAR KIKI

So You’re Thinking About

Popping Your Lockdown Bubble?

Kiki gets it. Spring has sprung after a long, lonely winter and you, reader, are tired and antsy. You’re vaxxed and ready to show the world your shine. But you’re also confused! You feel like someone with anxiety who just dropped a dose of ecstasy: truly desperate to interact but lacking the necessary skills. Rest easy, baby. Kiki’s got you. Here’s Dear Kiki’s Top Tips for Peopling Again!

Lycanthropy is all the rage.

I mean, don’t go on a murderous

rampage every full moon. (Please?) But do free yourself of any fucks to give about hair and the way you (or others) wear it. Haven’t shaved your legs or beard? Haven’t had your hair cut by anyone other than your spouse in 18 months? F U C K. I T. Enjoy how it feels in the spring breeze.

And keep your judgments about other people’s choices to yourself.

Don’t be over-eager. Yeah, the fragrant flowers are alluring. The sunshine is blasting you with delightful vitamin D. It probably won’t snow again ’til at least September (knock on wood!).

But take a breath. Slow down. You don’t want to break yourself! It’s like an epidemic in the ER! (Wait: Too soon?)

Never be the first one to let go of a hug. The world is touch-starved right now. That’s fine in Europe or wherever, but here in the U.S., especially in the Midwest, touch-starved people aren’t sure how to get their fix.

Hugging can be hesitant. It doesn’t need to tte

lle

Gi

be. Pay attention to the cues you’re given, and ask permission before diving in: But

CEDAR RAPIDS NEW BOHEMIA / CZECH VILLAGE

Come work with us

JOHN@NEWBO.CO • (319) 382-5128 42 May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294

Cimarron, 1931

LittleVillageMag.com/DearKiki

once you are a go, treat it like a hug from your teenage child who you’re never sure when you’ll get a hug from again. Don’t let go. Relax. Rest in each other.

Do a self-assessment

of the traits

you picked up, and determine which ones to keep: Dance like no one’s watching? no one’s watching?

Eat like

You’re a new person after

a year in near-isolation. Learn yourself before you share yourself. If you like some aspects of the “new you,” don’t just slough them off in deference to familiar normalcy. If you’ve picked up some bad habits? Use this in-between time to unlearn them.

Andrew West

read about on Facebook. It’s cool! Give yourself

know how to people now. It’s that we never

the same grace you give them. To make things

truly knew how to people before. By and large,

smoother, don’t get together “for drinks” or

we acted like we had forever. We prioritized

still in flux. Once we return to “normal,” it’ll be

“just to hang.” Pick a commonly enjoyed activity,

“getting along” over deep understanding. Take

hard to tell who were the deniers and the anti-

like trivia nights or board games, that can take

this chance to pop that paradigm. Enter back

maskers and the maskholes. We have easy-

center stage away from your awkwardness. And

into your relationships bold and guileless, and

peasy, no-fuss ways of getting at someone’s

pick something with a relatively fixed time span,

you’ll find that they’re better for it.

values on a first date: Ask their vax status. Then,

so there’s less uncertain lingering.

If you want to start dating again, start NOW, while things are

if you’re comfortable with their answer, take them to a crowded, outdoor event like a film

Live your values.

screening or farmers market. See if they still

Life is too short not to be your best self. And

wear a mask (which, as of this writing, the CDC

the one thing we’ve all learned over the course

still recommends in that situation). You’ll know

of the past year is that ultimately, we have to

more about their views on the world in one date

learn to live with ourselves—and the choices we

than you normally would in five.

make. Don’t let your friends convince you that

No one else knows how to people anymore, either. Your friends aren’t

When gathering with friends, remember:

Yep. All of them.

KIKI WANTS QUESTIONS!

something you think is important isn’t. Fight for what you believe in, and find the friends who will fight by your side. I do believe that we can all see more clearly now, and while that may

some social savants who are coming out of

damage some relationships in the short term, at

this with their eloquence unscathed. There will

the end of the day the ones that count will be

be awkward silences. There will be runaway

stronger.

ramblings. You’ll try to tell each other the same stories about your lives that you’ve already

xoxo, Kiki

The sticky, hidden truth is, it’s not that we don’t

Questions about love and sex in the Iowa City-Cedar Rapids area can be submitted to dearkiki@littlevillagemag.com, or anonymously at littlevillagemag.com/ dearkiki. Questions may be edited for clarity and length, and may appear either in print or online at littlevillagemag.com.

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294 May 2021 43

Culture Prairie Pop

‘The Musical Notebooks of Free Anna’ Nebraska’s Anna Gebhardt turned a church-music background into a career in ambient sound and filmmaking.

BY KEMBREW MCLEOD

N

ebraska native Anna Gebhardt is the mastermind behind Annalibera—a decade-long recording project that is synonymous with herself, and which also performs as a band. She came across the name via Quaderno Musicale di Annalibera, the title of a piano piece by Italian 12-note serial composer Luigi Dallapiccola, which translates as “The Musical Notebooks of Free Anna.”

“Indeed,” Gebhardt told me, “all of my ideas—whether words, music or film—start in a notebook.”

This polymath is bursting with ideas that find expression in her music, literary writing, and filmmaking—such as loveil. Shot in and around the now-abandoned farmhouse where Gebhardt grew up, loveil is an impressionistic companion piece to Annalibera’s 2015 album of the same title.

“All of my music would be visualized into films if I had the budget,” she said. “I write films for them because it comes to me. I see and hear my ideas. And I write them all down. They are one.”

Gebhardt read a lot and loved playing with words from an early age while growing up in relative isolation on a farm in the North Loup River Valley, near the center of Nebraska, where her family has lived since the latter half of the 19th century. As a girl, she’d commune with nature by walking the countryside while feeling in tune with the tall trees, yucca plants and whooshing wind—sometimes settling under a stand of trees to read, or wandering the rolling hills that allowed her to see for miles and miles.

The Methodist church that Gebhardt’s family attended introduced her to traditional American songs such as “Shenandoah” and “Simple Gifts,” along with the hymns that were popular with

Stages: Annalibera Emma Colman

Englert Theatre (englert. org), Wednesday, May 19 at

American Christians who immigrated from Europe. She sang every week in church, where the elderly members of the congregation brought treats after the service or made delicious chicken noodle soup from scratch.

“I really don’t know if it was there, or if it was my piano education, or my mom or my school,” Gebhardt said, “but I seem to know

collage and pure pop to blissed-out melancholic shoegaze for the soul.

Gebhardt picked up electronic influences from all the ’90s Madonna, Eiffel 65 and Savage Garden songs she heard on the radio in that farmhouse, echoes of which can be heard on Annalibera’s most recent album, Moon Bath, released in 2020.

She also learned a thing or two from Enya’s melodic ambient

7 p.m., $5-10

released on cassette.

“My friends and I still made mixtapes for each other until the downloading started,” she said. “My cassette collection grows mostly now with ambient and experimental releases, and Enya is still in the

“ALL OF MY MUSIC WOULD BE VISUALIZED INTO FILMS IF I HAD THE BUDGET. I WRITE FILMS FOR THEM BECAUSE IT COMES TO ME. I SEE AND HEAR MY IDEAS. AND I WRITE THEM ALL DOWN. THEY ARE ONE.” a lot of traditional American music that people generally don’t.”

Some of those influences can be heard in songs such as “Mountain,” from Annalibera’s 2015 album Nevermind I Love You, but that just scratches the surface of a musical range as expansive as the sky—encompassing everything from sound

44 May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294

soundscapes that she listened to on cassette tape while lying on the floor of her childhood bedroom.

Born in 1990, Gebhardt used to make mixtapes during the last days of that dying format—though it actually never really did quite expire, which is one reason why Annalibera’s albums are regularly

rotation. I release on tapes because I prefer them to CDs as the cheap option. Cassettes are a better object than CDs, all around.”

Gebhardt had one foot in the analog world and the other planted in digital culture, which feels like a good metaphor for this retrofuturist artist. As an adolescent, she began

LittleVillageMag.com

downloading music from file-sharing services using the farmhouse’s dial-up modem, and she also perused MySpace, an early music-oriented social media site. She relied on downloading to expand her musical universe until she was old enough to drive an hour away to the nearest record store, and her world continued to enlarge after attending Drake University in Des Moines in 2008.

Gebhardt has been involved in music for as long as she can remember, starting with singing those church hymns and the piano lessons she started in second grade. She also plays saxophone, trombone and guitar, but Gebhardt’s primary instrument is her voice—and, oh, what a gorgeous voice!

Too grounded and embodied to qualify as “ethereal,” it can still break free from its moorings and float like psychedelic pollen through the air. This effect is heightened when Gebhardt’s words are subsumed by the tactile grain of her voice, especially while soaked in heavy doses of reverb. Like the enigmatic wordless sounds produced by Cocteau Twins vocalist Elizabeth Fraser, her lyrical texts sometimes dissolve into sonic textures that complement the beats, noise and melodies that provide the musical bed for Annalibera songs.

Some of these varied vocal inspirations seeped in from Gebhardt’s involvement in renaissance and classical chamber choirs since attending Drake, which allows her to veer from a wispy, well-worn indie pop path into darker, more mysterious territories. Annalibera began when her college choir conductor assigned a project that gave an option to write a song, something she hadn’t really done since her second-grade days of composing songs about flowers.

“I was learning in the classical tradition,” Gebhardt explained, “and it took me so long to figure out how to write outside of that.”

Her first collaborator was Ryan Stier, a guitarist who played in Annalibera since the project began

in 2010, and she has been working with multi-instrumentalist Caleb Swank Ferrara on her most recent recordings. Those songs will follow Moon Bath, which was recorded with Iowa filmmaker and producer Philip Rabalais, who helped her develop more electronic beats than what had appeared on Annalibera’s previous three albums, all of which are quite different from one another.

“Moon Bath was swallowed by the pandemic,” Gebhardt observed, in that the band only got to play one record release show before everything shut down in March 2020.

“Playing shows makes a release feel more real, I guess,” she said. “It is too bad Moon Bath didn’t get its release, but it’s just like, ‘Bummer, next!’”

With Annalibera’s newest recordings, “I am going to bring the songs less plotted out, just in their initial melody forms, and build them with Caleb,” she said. “My intent is to introduce the rhythm elements earlier. I think it will be a revolution for my process.”

Gebhardt said she has remained in Des Moines after graduating college for reasons that are largely psychological, physical and financial, though she really appreciates the support she has received in that relatively small city.

“I would like to be part of a bigger and more competitive scene,” she said. “But so far, resources and opportunities to go somewhere like that have not come through for me.

I felt more like manifesting my ideas—I’m full of ’em—than doing the risks of the ‘small-town girl goes to the big city’ routine.”

“But I grew up in relative isolation on a farm. So I can work within that spacious environment, too. I like a lot of solitude. Being five miles away from any friends, I entertained myself with the books, music and nature. And I loved that life—still do. Can’t wait to live in the country again.”

AWARDED BEST PUB 2015, 2016 & 2018

Kembrew McLeod is a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll.

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Culture A-List

Sing for Their Supper

O

The Coralville Community Food Pantry offers art, music and poetry in exchange for supporting Johnson County’s food insecure. BY GENEVIEVE TRAINOR

ver the last several years, the food insecurity rate in Johnson County was dropping.

According to interactive maps from the organization Feeding America, it went from 13.9 percent in 2016 down to 8.2 percent in 2018 and maintained that in 2019. But a projection the site ran for the impacts of COVID-19 predicted a rise to 10.6 percent for the year 2020.

As someone who has myself felt the impact of hunger, having been on food stamps at multiple points in my adult life and utilizing food banks during one interminable stretch between jobs, those are more than just statistics. They’re the uncertainty of being able to fill my kids’ bellies. They’re the embarrassment of even asking for help (something that I am notoriously bad at).

The Coralville Community Food Pantry (CCFP), founded in 2009, has made it their mission to address not just food insecurity, but the stigma surrounding it. And they’ve

made great strides toward doing so.

“Food brings us together” is the central message on their website landing page, and they work hard to remind our community of that simple truth.

Each year, they hold a community meal that welcomes all comers without question of need, simply to break bread together. This month, they’ll host a foraging clinic for beginners of all ages, which will be livestreamed to reach more than just the limited number of attendees they can allow. They recently held a two-day vaccination clinic at the Coralville Public Library with the goal of providing 600+ doses to vulnerable Iowans. And during the height of the pandemic last year, they delivered food to the homes of those who were unable or unwilling to venture out for it, just as major grocery stores were expanding their

Music for Meals, Coralville Community Food Pantry, coralvillefoodpantry.org and North Ridge Pavilion, Coralville, Thursday, May 27, 5:30 p.m., $25-200

Caleb Rainey, photo via the artist

46 May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294

Sandrah Nina, photo via the artist

delivery programs as well.

This ethos of serving the whole person, not just the need, is evident in their annual fundraiser, Music for Meals, as well. By pairing music and other performance with a curated dinner, they feed the spirits as well as the bellies of even their donors, reminding them of their own wholeness, as well as that of the people their donations support.

Tara McGovern, lead organizer of this year’s event, has been a CCFP board member just since January of this year. She describes the organization as “more than a pantry, it’s a community united in dedication to addressing the physical and emotional needs of every resident.” Her involvement with

the M4M event began last year, as a performer.

“Last year I was a performer in my folk rock duo with Jeffrey C. Capps called The Soft and Low,” McGovern said in an email. “Jeff and I were both so honored to be included as we are both devoted to the pantry, me as a longtime resident of Coralville and Jeff as the director of the Iowa Children’s Museum (located in Coralville).”

McGovern is a steady hand in every task she undertakes, bringing the same mix of flexibility and precision as she exhibits as a performer—and her influence can be seen in the details of the upcoming fundraiser. It’s a delicate balance of meeting the needs of those who still

VENMO @littlevillagemag PAYPAL lv@littlevillagemag.com

LittleVillageMag.com

Blake Shaw and Dan Padley, photo by Dan Kempf

aren’t attending events and those who are eager to venture out. Last year’s Music for Meals was entirely virtual, but this year, it’s a hybrid event, with a cap of 50 on in-person attendance.

Guests will bring their own seating and beverages, and spread out at COVID-safe distances around the outside patio of the North Ridge Pavilion in Coralville. At home viewers will watch live, thanks to CoralVision, Coralville’s public, education and government channel.

The price is the same for each— $25—and tickets include a charcuterie board developed by their community meal team, which can be picked up or delivered the day of the event. (A “pod” ticket for $200 includes either four in-person tickets or unlimited virtual access with a second charcuterie board and the opportunity to record a message to play during the event.)

It’s incredibly well-designed, the work of folks who have absolutely been paying attention during this pandemic and know what to keep and what to toss of the lessons they’ve learned.

“We were always planning a virtual element ... to make the event available to as much of our community as possible,” McGovern said.

“John [Boller, CCFP executive

director] and I have both been very impressed with virtual offerings by arts organizations such as the Englert and Riverside Theatre, and we have definitely drawn inspiration from the advantages of connecting in this new and powerfully inclusive way.”

The variety of performers cho-

considerable skill, but as a reflection of the community.

“Coralville is fortunate to be one of the most racially diverse towns in the state of Iowa, but that diversity has only recently been reflected in our city council with the election of Iowa’s first ever Vietnamese American person to be elected to

Sam Huang Hao, photo via the artist

sen for this year’s event also clearly reflects the skill and values of both McGovern and the CCFP. Although the event is still billed as Music for Meals, those sharing their talent include a poet and a dancer, as well.

All were chosen not just for their

public office, Hai Huynh (a campaign that John and I both worked on and that John led),” McGovern said. “As people who value representation, we prioritize choosing innovative and masterful artists who also accurately reflect the racial

demographics of our community.”

Those include headliners Dan Padley and Blake Shaw, who, McGovern noted, “have an incredible magic and rapport playing as a duo”; local dancer and activist Sandrah Nina (currently studying in Pittsburgh); tenor Sam Huang Hao, of whom McGovern said, “His version of ‘O Sole Mio’ posted on his YouTube channel had me in tears”; and poet Caleb Rainey, whose collections, McGovern said, are “permanently in my personal reading rotation.”

Among organizers and performers alike, there is a clear deep commitment to the cause. Rainey, who had been unfamiliar with the benefit until he was invited to perform, said that “food insecurity is something that I care a lot about.”

“I have grown up needing a food pantry,” he continued. “Anything I can do to help the movement for a hunger-free community, I’m there for.”

Padley noted in an email, “I decided to do this fundraiser because I think all people deserve access and availability to good, healthy food.”

And for McGovern, “I feel strongly that the food insecurity of any one individual or family is a community issue, and one that we all have the responsibility to address.”

The Music for Meals event certainly gives the community an opportunity to both make strides to address that and to feed their own hunger for great art. The CCFP has a $7,500 fundraising goal for the event that feels within reach, and it might just be the same pandemic that’s increasing food insecurity that drives the desire to address it.

“Luckily,” Rainey told me, “what I think happened is COVID made us very aware of parts of the systems that weren’t working for us … gave us the heart and compassion to change the systems that we’re just now becoming aware of.”

Genevieve Trainor is proud to be a member of a community that values wholeness.

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294 May 2021 47

EDITORS’ PICKS: May 2021

EVENTS: May May 2021

Frank T. Merrill from the 1896 edition Little Women

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.

We’re especially honored to be voted BEST MOVERS in the CRANDIC this year, when we’ve all worked so hard to keep each other safe and well. Onward! www.spinemoving.com/moving-quotes | 319-235-MOVE

FRIDAYS, SATURDAYS AND

SUNDAYS MAY 21-JUNE 6, ‘Little

Women,’

Theatre Cedar Rapids, Brucemore, Cedar Rapids, 7:30 p.m., $25-100 Theatre Cedar Rapids once again

partners with Brucemore Mansion this summer to bring Cedar Rapids the best in outdoor, COVID-safe theater experiences. They’re kicking things off with the Heather Chrisler adaptation of Little Women, a four-woman show that emphasizes the role of play in the lives of the four sisters while also lingering on the impact of tragedy. First workshopped in 2019, this adaptation saw most of its development process online over the course of the pandemic, and TCR will be presenting one of its first live performances.

CRANDIC performances: Friday, May 7 at 8 p.m. Out the

Sunday, May 16 at 2:30 & 4 ‘The

Box: ‘Dark Skinned Pavement’ by

Journey’—Illusionist Scott Silven,

TJ Young, Mirrorbox Theatre (mir-

Hancher

rorboxtheatre.com) Friday, May 21-Sunday, May 23, all Tuesday-Saturday, May 11-15 at

day ‘The Show Must Go Online!,’

6:30 & 8 ‘The Journey’—Illusionist

Young Footliters (coralvillearts.

Scott Silven, Hancher (hancher.

org), $12-17

uiowa.edu), $20 Friday, May 21 at 8 p.m. Out Friday, May 14 at 8 p.m. Out the

the Box: ‘To Saints and Stars’

Box: ‘Baby Camp’ by Nandita

by Jordan Ramirez Puckett,

Shenoy, Mirrorbox Theatre

Mirrorbox Theatre

Saturday, May 15 at 7 p.m. ‘Under

Friday, May28 at 8 p.m. Out the

Milk Wood’ Zoom Reading,

Box #50, title TBD, Mirrorbox

Uptown Bill’s Coffee House (@

Theatre

uptownbills) 48 May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM

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.

OPEN CALLS! Cedar Rapids Visual Arts Commission has two open calls running for mural artists, both with proposals due May 7. They are looking to activate two spaces along the Cedar Valley Nature Trail. The first is a 40’ w X 10’ h wall under the 8th Avenue Bridge; the other is a 75’ w X 10’ h wall on the east side of the 12th Avenue Bridge. Submissions should be sent to s.brueckert@cedar-rapids.org; more details available on cedar-rapids.org.

The Open Air Media Festival call for artists runs through Saturday, May 8. In its second via the artist

year, the festival was originated by the Public Space One Media Arts Co-op in response to the challenges of presenting media work in the pandemic. This year’s festival asks creators to respond to the themes of “drifting” and “driftless,” and the way those concepts engage with time and place. More details and a submission link are available at publicspaceone.com.

Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Theatre is looking for adults 18 and up to audition for their summer production of the musical Ordinary Days. They are accepting recorded auditions through 5 p.m. May 16 to mvlcom-

THURSDAY, MAY 13, Nicky

Tavares virtual screening + Q&A,

Public Space One Media Arts Co-op (publicspaceone.com), 6:30 p.m. The Media Arts Co-op at Public

Space One continues its series highlighting Iowa-based media artists with a selection of work

by Nicky Tavares, an Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies in the Department of Art at Grinnell College. Tavares explores systemic inequalities through personal storytelling; she works across a wide variety of media and has presented work internationally in both screening room and gallery contexts.

munitytheatre@gmail.com. For full details and link to audition form, visit facebook.com/

Other film screenings and discussions this month:

mvlctheatre.

Wednesday, May 5 at 7

Rapids Civil Rights

Saturday, May 15 at 8:19 p.m.

The Writers’ Rooms are accepting applications

p.m. ECO Film Discussion:

Commission (@cedar.rights)

‘Emma.’, FilmScene in the

through July 31 for work to be included in their

‘Riverblue­—Can Fashion Save

third community anthology, Writers of the

The Planet,’ Iowa City Public

Thursday, May 6 at 7 p.m.

Flame. The theme of “fire” can be used as set-

Library and Green Iowa

Black Lives on Screen Virtual

Wednesday, May 19 at 8:23

ting, theme or included in any other manner.

AmeriCorps (icpl.org)

Screening Series, Obermann

p.m. ‘Nomadland,’ FilmScene

Center (obermann.uiowa.

in the Park, Chauncey Swan

edu)

Park

They are looking for prose, poetry and graphic narrative as well as photography and artwork.

Wednesday, May 5 at 8:09

Full details available at thewritersrooms.org.

p.m. ‘The Truffle Hunters,’

Park

FilmScene in the Park,

Saturday, May 8 at 8:12

Saturday, May 22 at 8:23

Iowa Keeps Creating: Digital Stage continues

Chauncey Swan Park, Iowa

p.m. ‘The Truffle Hunters,’

p.m. ‘Nomadland,’

to accept submissions for recorded or live-

City

FilmScene in the Park

FilmScene in the Park

gov/arts/DigitalStage. Artists, organizations

Thursday, May 6 at 6 p.m.

Wednesday, May 12 at 8:16

Saturday, May 29 at 9 p.m.

and projects funded under the Iowa Arts

‘Do We Belong?’ Screening

p.m. ‘Emma.’, FilmScene in

‘The Croods: A New Age,’

Council grant cycle through June 30, 2021

and Panel Discussion for

the Park

Summer of the Arts 2021

are ineligible. Upcoming themes are: June—

Asian/Pacific American

Free Movie Series, Iowa City

Balance; August—Emerging Artists (age 25

Heritage Month, Cedar

Municipal Airport

streamed events to be featured at iowaculture.

and under).

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294 May 2021 49

EDITORS’ PICKS: May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM

SUNDAY, MAY 23, Peace

Walk: Seeing Our Community with Fresh Eyes,

Malcolm MacDougall / Little Village

Wellington Heights Neighborhood Engagement Program, McKinley Middle School, 3 p.m., Free Born of a Safe, Equitable and Thriving Communities

(SET) grant from the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, the Wellington Heights Neighborhood Engagement Program works to promote peace and understanding through listening sessions and relationship building. In that vein, they’re holding a short, 20-minute Peace Walk (masks and distancing required). The event will kick off at McKinley STEAM Academy with remarks from local activists, and prizes will be awarded for the best signs promoting a message of peace in various age brackets: 0-5 years, 6-10 years, 10-12 years, 13 and above and adult.

Classes, community and conversations throughout May Thursday, May 6 at 4 p.m.

Friday, May 7 at 6 p.m. Seedling

Saturday, May 15 at 9:30 a.m. Mindful

Friday, May 21 at 4 p.m. Drive-up

Food Is Everywhere: Foraging

Check-in—for 13-18-year-olds, Iowa

Rock Painting (geared to ages 3-5),

Traditional Czech Meal, National

Walk for Beginners, Coralville

City Public Library w/ Grow Johnson

Linn County Conservation, Wickiup Hill

Czech and Slovak Museum and

Community Food Pantry (@

County (icpl.org)

Learning Center, Toddville, $5

Library, Cedar Rapids, $25 (orders

Friday, May 7 at 7 p.m. Long

Saturdays, May 13-June 5 at 11 a.m.

CoralvilleCommunityFoodPantry), location TBD+livestream

must be placed by May 10) Lost—Artist Talk by Quelle, LGBTQ

Queer as Form w/ Jessica Lawson, Iowa Saturdays, May 22-June 5, 11 a.m.

Thursday, May 6 at 6 p.m. Implicit

Iowa Archives & Library (@

City Poetry (iowacitypoetry.com), $100

bias: Is there hope for change?,

LGBTQIowaArchives)

National Czech and Slovak Museum

Time-Based Methods with Zen Cohen, Public Space One Media Arts Co-op

Thursday-Sunday, May 20-23 Youth

(publicspaceone.com), pay-what-youcan $5-135

and Library (ncsml.org), reservation

Thursday, May 13 at 10 a.m. & 3 p.m.

Mural Workshop w/ Janiece Maddox,

required

The Anne Frank Tree Project: Town

Public Space One Saturday, May 22 at 1 p.m. Online

Hall Meetings, Obermann Center Thursdays, May 6 & 13 A Conversation

(obermann.uiowa.edu), registration

Thursday, May 20 at 5:30 p.m. Screen

RPGs with Corridor Games on

on Cross-Disciplinary Improvisation

required

Time: Christopher Hunter, Andrea Truitt

Demand (discord.gg/ZAKhbSJ)

& Ramona Muse Lambert, Englert

with Gabi Vanek, Public Space One Media Arts Co-op (publicspaceone.

Thursday, May 13 at 7 p.m. 2nd

com), registration required

Thursday Series: From the Heart 2,

Thursday, May 6 at 7 p.m. People’s

Theatre (englert.org)

Saturdays, May 29-July 3 at 4 p.m.

Online Sketch Comedy Class, Willow

Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre (cropera.

Thursday, May 20 at 7 p.m. Lift

Creek Theatre Company (@willow-

org)

Every Voice: Athletes, Artists, and the

creektheatrecompany), $75

Truth and Reckoning Commission

Movement for Social Justice, Hancher

Meeting, Wetherby Park, Iowa City

(hancher.uiowa.edu), registration required

WORK FROM HOME W at ch li st e n le ar n Pl ay

SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEKENDER TO GET EVENT UPDATES AND ALL OF LV’S LATEST ARTS CONTENT DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX EVERY THURSDAY. LittleVillageMag.com/Subscribe 50 May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294

Our new outdoor cinema was built in partnership with the Iowa City Parks and Recreation Department and made possible by the transformative Strengthen • Grow • Evolve campaign.

We’ll be playing movies through August in Chauncey Swan Park!

MAY 8

THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS

MAY 12

EMMA

SPONSORED BY

SPONSORED BY

MAY 19

JUNE 5

NOMADLAND

THE WIZARD OF OZ

SPONSORED BY

A CELEBRATION OF

THE GANG OF SEVEN

LEARN MORE AT ICFILMSCENE.ORG

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294 May 2021 51

EDITORS’ PICKS: May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM More music MAYhem Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Stages, Englert via Third Coast Percussion

Theatre (englert.org), $5-10

May 5—Blake Shaw

May 12—Joel Sires

May 19—Annalibera

May 26—Rachel Saint

Thursdays at 8 p.m. No Touching Sessions, Threshold Apprehension Sound

FRIDAY, MAY 7, ‘Archetypes’:

Third Coast Percussion with Sérgio Assad and Clarice Assad, Third Hancher (hancher.uiowa.edu), 7:30 p.m., $5

Coast Percussion continues their collaboration with the University of Iowa’s Hancher Auditorium with Archetypes, a program recorded especially for the Hancher audience. They are joined by Sérgio Assad on guitar and Clarice Assad on piano and vocals; Clarice lends her compositional talents as well.

Archetypes explores the enduring symbols and concepts that are found throughout the wide variety of world mythic traditions, including creation stories, apocalypses and familiar characters that recur.

Hancher’s brief summary of the piece describes it as “an expansive musical journey that is at once idiosyncratic and universal”; it promises to be a singular experience!

I’m Brandi and I’m honored to be connecting Iowa City neighbors to ImOn's advanced Fiber

Optic Internet service. See more of my story at

May 6—Surf Zombies

May 20—Shining Realm

May 27—Death Kill Overdrive +

Call 31 19-5119-6484 or visit ImOn.net/IC

Young Broke Radicals

Thursday, May 13 at 7 p.m. The Milk Carton Kids, Englert Theatre + Mandolin, $15-125 Saturday, May 15 at 5 p.m. A Rogue Wave with special guest Natalie Brown, RavenWolf Productions, Williamsburg

I'M AN INTERNET

TECHNICIAN. I'M JUST UP THE STREET. I'M ON FOR IOWA CITY.

ImOn.net/IC.

52 May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294

(thresholdappsound.com)

Introducing Oasis Street FoodTM Why the snazzy new look and refreshed name? We’re expanding our hummus to more grocery stores across the Midwest so that more folks can find Oasis a little closer to home.

TM

Oasis Street Food Hummus

In addition to being delicious, our hummus is a plant-based superfood that’s vegan as well as dairy- and gluten-free.

Now available in Hy-Vees in seven states—Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota—and a growing number of Natural Grocers, Fareways, and local stores.

Oasis Street FoodTM Pocket Pitas Keep your eye out for our plain and whole wheat pocket pitas arriving in more stores in the coming months.

319.358.7342 info@oasisstreetfood.com 206 N. Linn St. Iowa City, IA 52245

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294 May 2021 53

EDITORS’ PICKS: May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM via National Endowment for the Arts Big Read event materials

JUST ANNOUNCED

Endowment for the Arts Big Read,

Delphine Diallo

MAY 5-JUNE 16, National

Center for Worker Justice (cwjiowa.org), Free The Center for Worker Justice, under a grant from the National Endowment

of the Arts (NEA) administered by Arts Midwest (based in Minneapolis) is joining in the NEA’s Big Read program for 2021, which will focus on Into the Beautiful North, by Luis Alberto Urrea.

CWJ has a full slate of free, virtual programming surrounding this programming, running through a June 16 reading and discussion with the author. The kickoff event, on Wednesday, May 5 at 4 p.m., will feature a brief talk by CWJ director Mazahir Salih and previews of later presentations by Chuy Renteria and Miriam Alarcón Avíla. Registration will be required for all events and will be available as they each get closer on the CWJ website.

The rest of the May programming follows: Friday, May 7 at 3:30—a presentation by Cristina Ortiz about her research in Columbus Junction, Iowa among Latinx and Burmese immigrants; May 8-21—three-week book discussion program for high school students with curriculum designed by staff of the Iowa Youth Writing Program; Thursday, May 13 at 4 p.m.—presentation by Janet Weaver about the University of Iowa Libraries’ extensive archive including oral histories about Mexican immigration to Iowa; Wednesday, May 26 at 7 p.m—book discussion of Into the Beautiful North led

by Coralville Public Library staff; Thursday, May 27 at 7 p.m.—reading and discussion with Chuy Renteria of his forthcoming book from University of Iowa Press about Latinx immigrant experiences of himself and others in West Liberty, Iowa; and Saturday, May 29 at 11 a.m.—two-hour writing workshops, led by members of the University of Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program.

May Literature Events

2021 Iowa City Jazz Festival lineup! Summer of the Arts

has been taking things slowly with their announcements of the details of their festival season. As audiences and performers alike slowly ease back into in-person events, it will take patience and precision to get things just right. The Iowa City Jazz Festival, scheduled for July 2-3 in downtown Iowa City, is the product of that patience, and the lineup, announced late last month, shows the care and enthusiasm that we can expect from Summer of the Arts programming in this hesitant year and always!

Wednesday, May 5 at 7 p.m.

Saturday, May 8 at 10 a.m.

Wednesday, May 19 at 7 p.m.

Amy Klobuchar with Art

Storytellers: Akwi Nji, Englert

Black Lives Matter at School,

Cullen, Prairie Lights (prairiel-

Theatre (englert.org), $5-10

Prairie Lights

Monday, May 10 at 7 p.m.

Friday, May 21 at 7 p.m.

4:30 p.m. Schoolhouse Jazz

Friday, May 7 at 2 p.m.

Chloe Angyal with Brandon

Larissa Pham with Jenny

6:30 p.m. NOLA Jazz Band

Kate Durbin + Raquel Salas

Taylor, Prairie Lights

Zhang, Prairie Lights

8:10 p.m. Big Fun

for the Literary Arts (@

Tuesday, May 11 at 7

Saturday, May 22 at 7 p.m.

Saturday, July 3

CenterForTheLiteraryArts)

p.m. Donika Kelly & Mark

Vanitas: Spring Jam, Vanitas

11:30 a.m. The United Jazz Ensemble

Wunderlich, Prairie Lights

Mag w/ Midwest Writing

12:15 p.m. North Corridor Jazz All Stars

Center (@vanitasmag)

2 p.m. Giveton Gelin

Iowa City Jazz Festival Lineup Friday, July 2

ights.com/live)

Rivera, Cornell College Center

Friday, May 7 at 7 p.m.

Meenakshi Gigi Durham,

Wednesday, May 12 at 7 p.m.

4 p.m. Immanuel Wilkins

Prairie Lights

Alexander Chee: Writers @

6 p.m. Bonegasm

Grinnell Distinguished Author

8 p.m. Terri Lyne Carrington and

Event, Prairie Lights

Social Science

54 May 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294

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TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus poet Vera Pavlova writes, “Why is the word yes so brief? It should be the longest, the hardest, so that you could not decide in an instant to say it, so that upon reflection you could stop in the middle of saying it.”

I suppose it makes sense for her to express such an attitude, given the fact that she never had a happy experience until she was 20 years old, and that furthermore, this happiness was “unbearable.” (She confessed these sad truths in an interview.) But I hope you won’t adopt her hard-edged skepticism toward YES anytime soon, Taurus. In my view, it’s time for you to become a connoisseur of YES, a brave explorer of the bright mysteries of YES, an exuberant perpetrator of YES. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In indigenous cultures from West Africa to Finland to China, folklore describes foxes as crafty tricksters with magical powers. Sometimes they’re thought of as perpetrators of pranks, but more often they are considered helpful messengers or intelligent allies. I propose that you regard the fox as your mentor for the foreseeable future. I think you will benefit from the influence of your inner fox—the wild part of you that is ingenious, cunning and resourceful.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “The universe conspires in your favor,” writes author Neale Donald Welsch. “It consistently places before you the right and perfect people, circumstances and situations with which to answer life’s only question: ‘Who are you?’” In my book Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings, I say much the same thing, although I mention two further questions that life regularly asks, which are: 1. What can you do next to liberate yourself from some of your suffering? 2.

What can you do next to reduce the suffering of others, even by a little? As you enter a phase when you’ll get ample cosmic help in diminishing suffering and defining who you are, I hope you meditate on these questions every day.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The poet Anne Sexton wrote a letter to a Benedictine monk whose real identity she kept secret from the rest of us. She told him, “There are a few great souls in my life.

They are not many. They are few. You are one.” In this spirit, Leo, and in accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to take an inventory of the great souls in your life: the people you admire and respect and learn from and feel grateful for; people with high integrity and noble intentions; people who are generous with their precious gifts. When you’ve compiled your list, I encourage you to do as Sexton did: Express your appreciation; perhaps even send no-strings-attached gifts. Doing these things will have a profoundly healing effect on you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “It’s a temptation for any intelligent person to try to murder the primitive, emotive, appetitive self,” writes author Donna Tartt. “But that is a mistake. Because it is dangerous to ignore the existence of the irrational.” I’m sending this message out to you, Virgo, because in the coming weeks it will be crucial for you to honor the parts of your life that can’t be managed through rational thought alone. I suggest you have sacred fun as you exult in the mysterious, welcome the numinous, explore the wildness within you, unrepress big feelings you’ve buried and marvel adoringly about your deepest yearnings.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Science writer Sharman Apt Russell provides counsel that I think you should consider adopting in the coming days. The psychospiritual healing you require probably won’t be available through the normal means, so some version of her proposal may be useful: “We may need to be cured by flowers. We may need to strip naked and let the petals fall on our shoulders, down our bellies, against our thighs. We may need to lie naked in fields of wildflowers. We may need to walk naked through beauty. We may need to walk naked through color. We may need to walk naked through scent.”

By Rob Brezsny

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): As Scorpio author Margaret Atwood reminds us, “Water is not a solid wall; it will not stop you.

But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it.” According to my reading of the astrological omens, being like water will be an excellent strategy for you to embrace during the coming weeks. “Water is patient,” Atwood continues. “Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In a letter to a friend in 1856, Sagittarian poet Emily Dickinson confessed she was feeling discombobulated because of a recent move to a new home.

She hoped she would soon regain her bearings. “I am out with lanterns, looking for myself,” she quipped, adding that she couldn’t help laughing at her disorientation. She signed the letter “From your mad Emilie,” intentionally misspelling her own name. I’d love it if you approached your current doubt and uncertainty with a similar light-heartedness and poise. (P.S.: Soon after writing this letter, Dickinson began her career as a poet in earnest, reading extensively and finishing an average of one poem every day for many years.)

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Now is a favorable time to celebrate both life’s changeableness and your own. The way we are all constantly called on to adjust to unceasing transformations can sometimes be a wearying chore, but I suspect it could be at least interesting and possibly even exhilarating for you in the coming weeks. For inspiration, study this message from the Welcome to Night Vale podcast: “You are never the same twice, and much of your unhappiness comes from trying to pretend that you are. Accept that you are different each day, and do so joyfully, recognizing it for the gift it is. Work within the desires and goals of the person you are currently, until you aren’t that person anymore.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Aquarian author Toni Morrison described two varieties of loneliness. The first “is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up; holding, holding on, this motion smooths and contains the rocker.”

The second “is a loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive, on its own.” Neither kind is better or worse, of course, and both are sometimes necessary as a strategy for self-renewal—as a means for deepening and fine-tuning one’s relationship with oneself. I recommend either or both for you in the coming weeks.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): England’s Prince Charles requires his valet to iron his shoelaces and put toothpaste on his toothbrush and wash all of his clothes by hand. I could conceivably interpret the current astrological omens to mean that you should pursue similar behavior in the coming weeks. I could, but I won’t. Instead, I will suggest that you solicit help about truly important matters, not meaningless trivia like shoelace ironing. For example, I urge you to ask for the support you need as you build bridges, seek harmony, and make interesting connections.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Created by Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century, the Mona Lisa is one of the world’s most famous paintings. It’s hanging in the Louvre museum in Paris. In that same museum is a less renowned version of the Mona Lisa.

It depicts the same woman, but she’s unclothed. Made by da Vinci’s student, it was probably inspired by a now-lost nude Mona Lisa painted by the master himself. Renaissance artists commonly created “heavenly” and “vulgar” versions of the same subject. I suggest that in the coming weeks you opt for the “vulgar” Mona Lisa, not the “heavenly” one, as your metaphor of power. Favor what’s earthy, raw and unadorned over what’s spectacular, idealized and polished.

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294 May 2021 57

An exhibition and community engagement project from the Smithsonian—an exploration of the social science, psychology, and consequences of implicit bias.

April 17 - May 16, 2021 Smith Gallery

Organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. Supported by:

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LO C A L A L B U M S

Wave Cage The Portrait EP FACEBOOK.COM/WAVECAGEBAND

W

ave Cage—a local band made up of Jarrett Purdy on keys and synths, Ryan Garmoe on flugelhorn and electronics, Nolan Schroeder on saxophone and electronics and Christopher Jensen on drums—describes itself in a couple of ways.

In an email to Little Village, co-leader Purdy calls the ensemble a “jazz/fusion/electronic band.” On the band’s YouTube channel, it says, “Wave Cage fuses jazz composition with electronic textures.”

The band’s debut recording, The Portrait EP, bears these descriptions out. But it also brings to mind a more succinct genre descriptor: smooth jazz.

It’s possible that the members of Wave Cage simply don’t think about the band in those terms.

But it is equally possible that they’ve made a conscious choice to avoid the moniker because, it must be said, “smooth jazz” is a divisive term. For many a jazz fan, smooth jazz doesn’t qualify as jazz at all. In many cases, the music might more accurately be described as instrumental pop. A jazz purist might well be heard using “smooth jazz” as nothing short of an epithet.

That is decidedly not how I am using it here.

Let me be clear: The Portrait EP is an engaging, atmospheric, beautifully produced and occasionally humorous recording.

If you like saxophonist David Sanborn or trumpeter Chris

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

Botti, you will like The Portrait EP. If you like guitarist Pat Matheny’s “Last Train Home,” you will like this recording. If you like your jazz to be driven by melody and can take or leave long sections of improvisation, you will like The Portrait EP. Part of the credit for the EP’s success clearly goes to Jensen, who, in addition to playing the drums, recorded, mixed and mastered the recording. The recording is lush and warm, and the frequent effects—most notably reverb—put on the instruments are handled tastefully and add to rather than distract from the musicians’ playing.

And that playing is strong throughout the four tracks on the recording. In the absence of a bass player, Purdy is frequently the pulse of the band (though in spots, Jensen offers a prominent and straightforward drumbeat). Meanwhile, Garmoe and Schroeder blend beautifully, whether a passage calls for warm-toned exploration of a melody or technical proficiency.

My favorite track on the recording is “Level Up,” which is to video games what “Last Train Home” is to trains. “Level Up” is a whimsical take on video game soundtracks, complete with the familiar synth sound from the Mario Brothers games.

As the energy ramps up, it is easy to imagine the track as a slightly off-kilter take on the celebratory music that might follow the defeat of the final boss.

It might sound as though I am describing a novelty number, but I’m confident “Level Up” will hold up even for the listener who has never experienced the joys of finding coins and rescuing princesses with Mario and Luigi.

EPs are the appetizer plates of the recording world. Here’s hoping The Portrait EP will soon be followed by a full entrée of music from Wave Cage.

—Rob Cline

Nadalands The Vernal Equinox EP NADALANDS.BANDCAMP.COM

N

adalands are back with another mediative EP: The Vernal Equinox. Each song truly reflects the title’s meaning: shining light on the ways of the new world.

This five-track treasure features vocals from well-known local musicians Alexis Stevens and Brian Johannesen joined with Matt Tritto and Benjamin Buttice. This projects’ sound is unique due to the rest of the band being based in Fort Collins, Colorado. We get a great balance of both rustic, vibrant towns. The beautiful sounds of John Lindenbaum on guitar carry you through the beat production by The Gyrd.

The EP is 20 minutes of great harmony and traditional feels. It takes you on a journey of self-reflection. The album art shows the peaceful countryside near a sandy beach and clear blue skies.

This paradise is interrupted by a futuristic town in the making, representing evolution. The song placement does a great job presenting the consistent themes of fear, death, romance and faith.

Full of upbeat rhythms, this is sure to put you in the mood for a great time with friends. We start with a meeting in the park that could potentially go wrong on track one, “I Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Dust.” We are reminded of the importance of respecting the people we encounter, because they could be experiencing unimaginable circumstances.

This track also reveals one of the controversial themes presented

throughout the EP—the relationships between citizens and law enforcement. There is mention of the police, National Guard, undercover agents and first responders.

There has been constant national coverage regarding police brutality, demand for budget re-evaluation and protected respect for the profession more now than ever before.

Nadalands allow us a glimpse into the different viewpoints around our nation.

We find the hopeful romantic on track two, “Tampa Nightclub incident.” The words of unsatisfied lovers are always “will you wait for me?”—a question rarely answered. We experience a story of someone wishing the ways of the world didn’t interfere with their second chance at love. There is mention of the hard time people faced trying to date during quarantine. The lyrics “In October, let’s go where they still have medicine” identify a concern many have during the current state of the pandemic. Access to vaccines and fully staffed hospitals remain an obstacle in 2021.

Track three, “The Coloradoan Song of the Dead,” reveals just how connected we all are despite life choices and occupations. Individuality doesn’t separate you from the ways of the world. Time and seasons bring community change, and we will inevitably change with the community, as well. Just as the world as we know it dies, the loyal citizens will die with it. We are encouraged to remember the lyrics from track four, “500k”: “We are One, we are strong. We are done, we are gone.”

The Vernal Equinox is a great addition to the Nadalands collection. Be on the lookout for the band’s live performances scheduled Fall 2021.

—Dr. Dawson

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294 May 2021 59

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LO C A L B O O KS

Rachel Marie-Crane Williams Run Home If You Don’t Want to Be Killed THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS

L

ocal author and University of Iowa professor Rachel Marie-Crane Williams’ beautiful new book, Run Home If You Don’t Want to Be Killed, is a tense work of graphic history. Many people are aware of the riots in Detroit in 1967, but fewer know of the earlier riot in 1943, the details of the two days of violence that erupted in the city or the stories of the 34 people who lost their lives. Williams’ book is an excellent entry into the events that led up to the riots that June, both a retelling and a visual representation of a time of intense transition.

The story is told from multiple perspectives, from the white and Black civic leaders trying to find a way forward to the Black men and women organizing marches and strikes on the local level. Most interesting to me, and the driving force of the book, are the tales of the women. Williams made sure that the narratives of the Black women involved in the strike and the housing crisis were their own, with direct quotes and affidavits culled from the Detroit archives of the NAACP. The author, who is white, notes in the forward to the book that she struggled with speaking for others, so instead chose to tell the story with authentic accounts of the events that happened. The women’s stories were incredibly poignant, and they ranged from convincing their husbands to join the

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

unions, to taking part in the marches, to looking for children after the riot. Hearing from women is vital, as they are often the backbone of any movement, and their stories are often erased from history.

The black, white and gray drawings and art in the book are beautiful and help to further parallel the tension of the time. The Black women in the book are drawn with a range of emotion, whereas the Liza Ketchum, Jacqueline white characters seem flatter, esBriggs Martin and Phyllis pecially those white men in power. Root; illustrations by Similarly, the police are drawn Claudia McGehee with angry, pinched faces. I found Begin with a Bee myself pulled between wanting to UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS read the compelling narrative and wanting to examine the drawings. hen I received the email that Williams does not dance around there was a new book forthissues of police brutality and incoming that featured the talents of competence, and this is clearly Iowans Jacqueline Briggs Martin seen in the pages that deal with of Mount Vernon and Iowa City’s the riot itself. She does not paint Claudia McGehee, I honestly got the police with a soft brush; it is so excited. Their previous collabclear through the illustrations that oration, Creekfinding, is a favorite sympathies should and do lie with of mine, and I leap at the chance the marginalized. While I was to explore their work. Whenever I aware that I was reading about an ask myself why, exactly, I live in earlier time, the drawings of peoIowa, I only have to lose myself in ple and the emotions on their faces McGehee’s love letter-like illustraconveyed emotions similar to what tions to be reminded of the ineffawe see today. ble beauty of the prairie.

“Bridges are liminal spaces,” McGehee turns those talents to Williams writes. “In Detroit, bees (a subject I already have a the Belle Isle Bridge (renamed MacArthur WILLIAMS DOES NOT Bridge in 1942) connects the urban indusDANCE AROUND ISSUES OF trial hub of Detroit with POLICE BRUTALITY AND the largest city island INCOMPETENCE, AND THIS park in North America.”

IS CLEARLY SEEN IN THE Liminal is a good PAGES THAT DEAL WITH word for the book as THE RIOT ITSELF. well. It straddles work of art and academic study.

It is rooted in history, but no modern reader will be able soft spot for!) and their habitats to read it and not think of modern in Begin with a Bee, out May violence. Liminal is also an apt 18. Each page is a universe to description of the city of Detroit get lost in. McGehee works in itself, always in transition, but scratchboard, which is at least rooted firmly in its past. This is a partially how her work manages beautifully illustrated book about a to be somehow both carefree and little known instance in American precise. Movement drives the eye history and definitely worth a read across each page, infusing her for historical perspectives on struc- scenes with life. But when stilltural racism. —Darcie Hutzell ness is warranted, she provides

W

that, too, in equal measure.

Begin with a Bee traces the life cycle of a queen rustypatched bumblebee, the first bee (the back text tells us) to be placed on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Endangered Species list. The plight of bees, we’re often told, is intricately tied to the survival of humanity. According to worldbeeday.org, one-third of the world’s food production depends on bees.

(World Bee Day, incidentally, falls on May 20, just two days after this book’s release!)

With bee populations at risk, the value of teaching children about them at a young age is clear. And this book does that with charm and aplomb, weaving the styles of the three authors together to create a narrative that is straightforward and compelling.

I often read the children’s books that I review to my daughter (now 3), and for this one she sat in hushed excitement for the entirety. It takes scientific concepts and processes and makes them not just accessible but enthralling.

The book ends with a slightly deeper dive into the science for older readers and a page titled “Ten things we can all do to help” that activates children to action.

Many of them are, again, geared toward older kids—but my daughter was inspired and eager to share the book and the ideas with her grandmother, whose garden she plays in often.

Parents, be aware that this is a book that is tailor-made to cause a case of the “Why?”s. If you don’t love exploring and learning with your child, then this isn’t the book for you. But if you are ready to dive down a rabbit hole (well, bee colony hole) of curiosity, then you’ll want to pick it up for every nature lover and nature lover-tobe(e) in your life.

—Genevieve Trainor

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV294 May 2021 61

MIXED BLESSING

LittleVillageMag.com

by Juliana Tringali Golden

The American Values Club Crossword is edited by Ben Tausig.

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ACROSS 1. Bottled water option from Norway 5. Book group?

10. Fixes some pieces of Road & Track?

15. Really amazing, in slang 16. The same 17. Naomi Campbell was on its cover last November 18. Octet of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs?

20. “I Love It” band ___ Pop

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21. Rastafarian god 22. Scotch whisky with the slogan “Don’t be vague, ask for ___” 23. Presses Ctrl+V 24. Totally confused, in a maritime metaphor 26. Liam who played a character with “a very particular set of skills” 29. Crib sound (if you’re lucky) 30. Pine (for) 31. Attila’s most avant-garde friend?

65

33. Useful device in a post-apocalyptic vampire hellscape, or a veggie garden 35. Canadian Senators, on scoreboards 36. Quaker grains 37. Soft leather whatever?

41. Bring to a boil?

44. Breed that looks similar to a French bulldog 45. Montecristo, but not Monte Cristo 48. Finished an entire bottle of Beefeater?

52. ___ set (certain tool collection) 54. MorningStar Farms makes a meatless one 55. Call before a hike 56. Missing, from the French 57. Skips the registry, say 59. “... sting like ___” 61. Bugs with bonnets?

62. Safe spots on a diamond 63. Blessing mixed four times in this puzzle 66. Comedian Cheri who

does a mean Barbara Walters 67. Director/screenwriter with a 70-Across for Get Out 68. Queen in The Favourite 69. Himalayan cryptids 70. See 67-Across 71. Boosted on Twitter by clicking a cycling arrow icon, briefly

writing 25. Wiped out 27. Awards goal for Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock 28. Star Wars baddies 32. Switch back and forth 34. High, arcing novelty baseball pitch 38. “Ebony and Ivory,” for one 39. Snack for Eleven on Stranger Things 40. Pecked, like a puppy 41. Guy who wants to hear the Specials?

42. Contain, as a strain 43. The biggest one was once the Taj Mahal, though it was surpassed in 2007 by the Millennium Falcon 46. Passage in many an action film 47. Burgundy, for one 49. Exercise for some seniors 50. “Be right there ...”

51. Interstellar cloud 53. “Tin roof ... ___!”

58. Prefix with “scope” 60. Cabinet dept. with a lot of power?

63. Mail HQ 64. Wide shoes 65. “So funny I almost forgot to laugh ...”

DOWN 1. Early Black-owned record label founded by Vivian Carter and Jimmy Bracken (aptly; and no, they didn’t play music videos) 2. Codeine and morphine, e.g.

3. Throws shade toward, wordlessly 4. Univ., e.g.

5. Rowlands of A Woman Under the Influence 6. Like an ass 7. Gave a little push 8. Nanjiani costar in The Lovebirds 9. Chicago trains 10. Bottled water options from France 11. Certain frontline workers, casually 12. [Wink and a nod] LV293 ANSWERS 13. Stop paying MA P T RO L L E Y B A D attention to U SO S H A R E A B E D R AM S AW OX YGE N B A R A R I 14. Los Angeles I D E A L S A L E S E L T ON C A R BON N A S D A T I NG basically has two MA N E S NOD E S (dry and wet) S H E GO L DR I NGS L S D I O T A YOU S E MA T E 19. DoubleP L A T E D N I A MA R V I N platinum Ariana S I L V E R A NN I V E R S A R Y R E L Y D E L T Grande album, A R I A L E L E N A ___, next MY CH EM I C A L ROMA NC E A S H E S EMC E E I N T E R 23. Colorful, as C L E A T S A T E D S A I L S

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