Little Village magazine issue 300: Nov. 2021

ISSUE 300!

November 2021

A L W A Y S

Local Nonprofit & Retail Spotlight 2021

Friends of Hickory Hill Park P. 32

Great Plains Action Society P. 34

Nikole Hannah-Jones 1619 Project P. 48

Local makers shopping guide P. 52

F R E E

Iowa City auto repair for Subaru, BMW, Mini, Porsche, Audi, VW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, Saab, Honda, Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, Acura and more

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10 - Letters & Interactions 12 - Brock About Town 22 - Give Guide 32 - UR Here 34 - Native Rights 43 - Black Liberation Space 48 - 1619 Freedom School 52 - Online Retail Guide 56 - Bread & Butter 60 - A-List 64 - Events Calendar 79 - Dear Kiki 81 - Astrology 83 - Local Labels 85 - Local Presses 86 - Reader Survey

Nikole Hannah-Jones by Briana Ladwig / Little Village

87 - Crossword

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The 1619 Project started the

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to demand justice for centuries of

conversation. Now, Nikole Hannah-

Summit helps new Americans

PayPal:

state violence.

Jones is bringing it home.

impact their communities.

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Join us for Old World Christmas Market, one of Cedar Rapids’ best-loved holiday events!

SATURDAY, DEC. 4 & SUNDAY, DEC. 5 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Shop for specialty imports and handmade gifts by select artisans; enjoy seasonal treats and live music; and take part in free family activities, including free admission to our exhibition galleries, all weekend long.

Learn more at NCSML.org/owcm 1400 Inspiration Place SW Cedar Rapids, IA 52404 |(319) 362-8500 | NCSML.org

This event is part of Deck the District.

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NEWS & CULTURE FROM IOWA CITY Since 2001 LittleVillageMag.com

EDITORIAL

PRODUCTION

Publisher

Web Developer

Issue 300, Volume 30

Arts Editor

Adith Rai

November 2021

Genevieve Trainor

adith@littlevillagemag.com Cover illustrations by Julia DeSpain

genevieve@littlevillagemag.com Digital Director Managing Editor

Drew Bulman

You gotta give! LV’s 2021 Give

Emma McClatchey

drewb@littlevillagemag.com

Guide highlights a range of

emma@littlevillagemag.com

nonprofits and retailers that Videographer

deserve your hard-earned

News Director

Jason Smith

dollars this holiday season. Plus:

Paul Brennan

jason@littlevillagemag.com

Indigenous Iowans take action, the

paul@littlevillagemag.com

future of Hickory Hill Park, fighting Marketing Analytics

food deserts in the QC and more.

Art Director

Coordinator

Jordan Sellergren

Malcolm MacDougall

jordan@littlevillagemag.com

malcolm@littlevillagemag.com

Meet this month’s guest contributors:

Multimedia Journalist

SALES & ADMINISTRATION

Jon Burns is an artist and musician

Avery Gregurich is a writer living and

Adria Carpenter

President, Little Village, LLC

living in the Quad Cities IA/IL.

writing at the edge of the Iowa River

adria@littlevillagemag.com

Matthew Steele

artofjonburns.com

in Marengo.

matt@littlevillagemag.com Kaylin Butterfield is a University

Melanie Hanson’s just trying to get her

Celine Robins

Marketing Director &

of Iowa alumni with a BA English

shite right and let it all go meow.

celine@littlevillagemag.com

Copywriter

and Art. She enjoys learning new

Celine Robins

languages like Chinese, Japanese

Charly Heber-Spates is a freelance

celine@littlevillagemag.com

and Spanish.

writer based in the Quad Cities.

Advertising

Rob Cline is a writer and critic who

Dalia Hurtado is a Latina artist with

Nolan Petersen, Matthew Steele

would gleefully give the current

a unique, hand-drawn style that

ads@littlevillagemag.com

state of things a negative review.

embodies her heritage as a LatinX. Her

Creative Services

Dr. Dawson is the founder of

fashion design, large scale murals and

Calendar/Event Listings

Website design, Email marketing,

@hiphophealing, a local business

hand-painted art with textiles.

calendar@littlevillagemag.com

E-commerce, Videography

dedicated to cultivating hip hop’s

creative@littlevillagemag.com

elements through mind, body and

Quincy Jagnow is a Johnson County

soul.

Native artist and community member

Copy Editor

Events Editor, Design Assistant Sid Peterson sid@littlevillagemag.com Spanish Language Editor

popular mediums include makeup art,

Angela Pico

Corrections editor@littlevillagemag.com

CIRCULATION

who values people and strives to love

Distribution Manager

Thomas Dean is Senior Presidential

even when it’s difficult. You can reach

November Contributors

Joseph Servey

Writer/Editor at the University of

out to Quincy with any questions or

Audrey Brock, Jon Burns, Kaylin But-

joseph@littlevillagemag.com

Iowa and has been writing Little

comments via E-Mail, Quincy.jagnow@

Village’s “UR Here” column since

gmail.com, or via Instagram @qjagnow

terfield, Lev Cantoral, Rob Cline, Dr. Dawson, Thomas Dean, Julia DeSpain,

Distribution

Sarah Elgatian, Mahmud Fitil, Avery

Terrance Banks,

Gregurich, Melanie Hanson, Charly

Charlie Cacciatore

Julia DeSpain is a part-time

illustrator in Lawrence, Kansas whose

Heber-Spates, Dalia Hurtado, Quincy

distro@littlevillagemag.com

freelance illustrator and full-time

work centers generational healing

Creative Coordinator for Iowa Valley

and afrofuturism. Bri is attending art

RC&D. She lives in Iowa City.

school at KU while doing freelance

Jagnow, Briana Ladwig, John Martinek, Trey Reis, Tom Tomorrow, Eriq

OFFICES

Tshimbombu, Sam Locke Ward

Little Village

SOCIAL MEDIA

2001.

Briana Ladwig is a Black, queer

work from home.

623 S Dubuque St

Sarah Elgatian is a writer, activist

Iowa City, IA 52240

and educator living in Iowa. She

Tshimbombu Eric wa Tshiobmbu,

likes dark coffee, bright colors

“Eriq Tshhims” on social media,

Facebook @LittleVillageMag Instagram @LittleVillageMag

Little Village Creative Services

and long sentences. She dislikes

is a Congolese lawyer, writer and

Twitter @LittleVillage

132 1/2 E Washington Suite 5

meanness.

human rights activist working in the

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

AmeriCorps Vista program.

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

Public Space One purchases historic Iowa City mansion

Iowa City’s new board game cafe is now open

By Emma McClatchey, Oct. 4 The expansion marks a bold new chapter

By Adria Carpenter, Oct. 12 Iowa City already had excellent stores for

for PS1, which spent the better part of the last decade in a basement,

gamers, but unlike a lot of other college towns, it didn’t have a board

as well as for the Close House, which has survived nearly 15 decades

game cafe near campus. That changed on Oct. 9, as Fortuna Board

on the corner of South Gilbert and Bowery, and is set to become more

Game Café officially opened its doors on the Ped Mall.

accessible than ever.

Thousands of John Deere workers strike, and Iowa Republican leaders

VIDEO: City dedicates the Oracles of Iowa City mural

‘don’t have anything to say about it’

Video by Jason Smith, story by Adria Carpenter, Sept. 29

By Paul Brennan, Oct. 15 More than 6,000 John Deere workers in Iowa

The Oracles of Iowa City mural is finally complete

went on strike at midnight Oct. 14, in the biggest labor action the state

after months of work. The figures stand tall over East

has seen in more than three decades. Contract negotiations between

Burlington Street with two stark messages: “Black joy

UAW and Deere executives had been in the news for weeks, before union

needs no permission” and “Weaponize your privilege to

members overwhelmingly voted against the contract offer proposed by

save Black bodies.” But the mural is just the first step in a

Deere, knowing that would lead to a strike.

long-term community engagement project.

WATCH City dedicates the Oracles of Iowa City mural

Subscribe to our newsletter for the very latest news, events, dining recommendations and LV Perks: LittleVillageMag.com/Subscribe 6 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

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THANK YOU TO THIS ISSUE’S ADVERTISING PARTNERS This issue of Little Village is supported by: Adamantine Spine Moving (73) Arnott & Kirk (87) Artifacts (77) Burger Haul (73) Cedar Rapids Czech Village / New Bohemia co-op (36-37) - The Daisy - NewBoCo - Parlor City Pub & Eatery - Black Earth Gallery - Goldfinch Cyclery City of Iowa City (78) CIVIC (50) The Club Car (78) Coralville Public Library (55) CSPS (16) The Dandy Lion (74) Deetz (41) The Englert Theatre (53) FilmScene (63) Firmstone Real Estate (16) Give Guide (22-31) - African American Museum of Iowa - Big Brothers Big Sisters of Johnson County - Brucemore - Catherine Mcauley Center - Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity - Community Crisis Services and Food Bank

- Coralville Community Food Pantry - Discerning Eye - Girls on the Run of Eastern Iowa - Iowa Abortion Access Fund - Iowa City Hospice - Iowa City Public Library Friends Foundation - Iowa Shares - Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity - Leash on Life Pet Supplies - MYEP - Revival - Riverside Theatre - Sustainable Iowa Land Trust (SILT) - Sweets and Treats - Systems Unlimited, Inc. - The Iowa Children’s Museum - The Midwest Writing Center - The Quire - West Music - Willis Dady Homeless Services - Willowind School Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce & Industry (49) Grinnell College Museum of Art (62) Goodfellow Printing, Inc. (11) Hancher Auditorium (82)

Honeybee Hair Parlor (73) ICCA (72) ImOn (14) Iowa City Downtown co-op (33) - Yotopia - Beadology - Release Body Modification - Record Collector - Critical Hit Games - The Konnexion Iowa City Northside Marketplace (80-81) - Home Ec. Workshop - Russ’ Northside Service, Inc - John’s Grocery - R.S.V.P. - Pagliai’s Pizza - Dodge St. Tire - Marco’s Grilled Cheese - Hamburg Inn No. 2 - The Haunted Bookshop - George’s Iowa City Public Library (84) Iowa Public Radio (72) Iowa Department of Public Health (15) Johnson County Health Path Clinic (51) Johnson County Public Health (75) KCCK Jazz 88.3 (75) Kim Schillig, Realtor (58)

KRUI 89.7 FM (61) Mailboxes of Iowa City (16) Martin Construction (69) Merge (72) Micky’s Irish Pub (19) Multicultural Development Center of Iowa (50) Muscatine Art Center 17) Musician’s Pro Shop (11) National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (4) New Pioneer Food Co-op (38) Nodo (19) Oasis Falafel (6) Perez Family Tacos (19) Pheobe Martin, Realtor (71) Prompt Press (13) RAYGUN (10) Red Vespa (78) Revival (50) Ricardo Rangel Jr., Realtor (76) Riverside Theatre (40) Scratch Cupcakery (58) Shakespeare’s Pub & Grill (78) Summer of the Arts (88) Ten Thousand Villages (11) Viewpoint IA (76) Vino Vérité (42) Wig & Pen (59) Willow & Stock (64) Whitedog (2) World of Bikes (20)

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

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

AVERAGE NUMBER OF YEARS LIVING IN EASTERN IOWA

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

28

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Letters & Interactions 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.

WE WITNESSED CLIMATE

Iowa. For me, it’s personal.

change in Eastern

• The 1993 flood delayed progress building our home as we moved from Indiana.

• We experienced multiple straight line wind events that damaged the house, uprooted trees, blew down large branches and tore through our neighborhood.

• Record flooding in 2008 filled much of the Iowa and Cedar River basins, backing up water into the Lake Macbride watershed to within 100 yards of our home. It made roads around us impassable and devastated many nearby places.

• Record drought in 2012 made life outdoors miserable. It negatively impacted crops.

Corn yield in Johnson County decreased

from 171.9 bushels per acre in 2011 to 132.4 in 2012, a 23 percent drop.

• There was a derecho on Aug. 10, 2020. In our yard it took down one tree and damaged several others. My greenhouse lifted into the air like Dorothy’s farmhouse in The Wizard of Oz. Winds up to 140 miles per hour destroyed 70 percent of the tree canopy in Cedar Rapids.

I know about climate change from living it, as do most Iowans. It’s time for our Republican members of Congress to work with Democrats and take action to mitigate it.

—Paul Deaton dad and his friend applied for a job at John Deere. Each had a wife and kids.

Neither had a job. This was before unemployment

YEARS AGO MY

F U T I L E W R A T H

S A M LO C K E WA R D

HAVE AN OPINION? Better write about it!

Send letters to: Editor@LittleVillageMag.com

benefits and food pantries. They were both hired.

John Deere had a common sense policy that anyone who worked in the factory had to remove their wedding rings. This was before OSHA. My dad took his ring off, put it in his pocket and started making money to care for his family. My dad’s friend refused and was immediately fired.

My dad could never understand why his friend would not follow the rules to provide food for his family.

Today is no different. Rules are set up to provide safety for workers and their families. Get vaccinated. Wear a mask. Take care of yourself and your family.

—Charlene Lange Public Space One purchases historic Iowa City mansion (Oct. 4) Congrats to the nonprofit Public Space One on their “new” home in Iowa City!

While we don’t have a mansion, Save CR Heritage can relate to this as we prepare to open the J.E. Halvorson House here in Cedar Rapids: “Having a physical location

Professional Printers for 65 Years 408 Highland Ct. • (319) 338-9471 bob@goodfellowprinting.com LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 11

I N T E R AC T I O N S

B R O C K

can really give the community a home that allows for more people to be involved and more visibility and more points of access.” —Cindy Hadish of Save CR Heritage

Ivermectin, the Brawndo of a new generation. —Matt M.

Gentle readers, it is with deep sorrow that I write you this missive, because it is from my deathbed. I’ve spent the last few weeks getting my affairs in order—informing that guy I met on spring break 2016 that we have a child in the workhouse, dividing my collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer memorabilia among a few close friends—and not a moment too soon, because I can feel myself fading away. I’m afraid it’s… the common cold.

That’s right, y’all, I’ve got the bug going around. The one your boss, all your roommates and that girl you met on Tinder who would otherwise love to have coffee sometime have all had, and it’s only a matter of time before you get.

Being sick is never fun, but in a COVID world, it’s also nerve-wracking. You got your vaccine (I hope), you wear your mask (I hope), but every tickle at the back of your throat fills you with a cold, cold dread.

Without further ado, here is my official guide to surviving the common cold, now that nobody cares:

Democrat Bob Krause, who served in the Iowa House in the ’70s, is running for U.S. Senate (Oct. 7)

• Wear a mask. Everywhere. All the time.

Even to take out the garbage. It significantly cuts down on the number

Iowa Senate Republicans vote on party line to reject first set of redistricting maps (Oct. 5) As far as I can tell, Republicans don’t think something is fair unless it gives them a significant advantage.

—Janelle B. COVID-19: More than 9,800 new cases reported; anti-vaxxers rally at the Iowa State Capitol (Oct. 7) So wait, are they saying they’d rather wear a mask than vaccinate? Because I’m not seeing that either.

—Courtney M.B.

I’m happy to have talented people running against Chuck—it would be hard to find a worse representative— but in no uncertain terms, anyone over 65 needs to back the fuck away from elected office. Y’all have had your time.

—Nick D. The ‘War on Meat’ isn’t real, but small Iowa farmers face an uphill battle against Big Ag (Oct. 7) God, I am so sick and tired of conservatives claiming that “Democrats/liberals are trying to cancel *fill in the blank*” —Samuel F.W. I love MEAT. I just hate big ag meat.

Give me a small farmer with free range chickens and hogs instead of the top 3 inhumane big ag folks that government lets do anything they want... Bloody Run and the Des Moines water fiasco come to mind. It’s all about profit for anyone in politics. —Tim J.

12 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

A B O U T

T O W N

STRESS FRACTURES

AUDREY BROCK

of scandalized looks you get every time you so much as sniffle. (An important caveat: Do not sneeze inside your mask. If you’ve never done it before, you cannot imagine how disgusting it is.)

• Lean heavily on food delivery services.

My disappointment was immeasurable when I realized that my mom would not be making me her magic chicken noodle soup, because she refuses to get within a hundred yards of me until she sees a negative COVID test. So I ordered the next best thing from Her Soup Kitchen, plus about six gallons of Gatorade and a box of tissues to dry my lonely tears (and blow my runny nose).

• Go to the doctor. Or don’t, but don’t pretend WebMD is an appropriate substitute. No matter how many times you Google “is a sore throat a COVID symptom” or “difference between COVID and the flu,” the answer is always going to be, go get a test.

JOHN MARTINEK

THE

ARE

Our screens, stages and spaces are vibrant once again — Downtown Iowa City’s nonprofit arts organizations are ready to welcome you!

When attending in person events please review and adhere to each organization's health and safety requirements.

Support provided by the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, Arts Midwest and the National Endowment for the Arts.

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 13

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

/LittleVillage READER POLL: Should audience members be allowed to chit chat during a musical performance?

Can chit chat quietly 25%

Do not move or breathe 36.1%

IT DEPENDS 36.1%

What is this, church? 2.8%

Iowa schools will be able to keep mask mandates, as judge issues preliminary injunction (Oct. 8) I just can’t understand why the state Republicans would willingly encourage the virus to spread among children.

—Rita A.F. So glad a bunch of Iowa taxpayers’ money is going to pay those lawyers to fight a crappy losing battle—NOT! —Adam H. This should all be BY CHOICE. Mandates cause nothing but fury.

—Susan A.M. Donald Trump lies, stokes xenophobia and endorses Chuck Grassley in speech at Iowa State Fairgrounds (Oct. 11) Biden has lied to us for the last nine months. Not done anything about the border crisis. Totally messed up

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

I agree that the Afghanistan withdrawal was handled poorly. The rest, especially the freedom rhetoric is, well, rhetoric. The government is supposed to promote the general welfare. If protecting the public in the face of a pandemic isn’t that, I suppose the government should also ignore other natural disasters as well. I’m free to drink myself to death, not free to kill you with my drunk driving. —Lisa M. The other, other, other white meat: Why you should consider adding rabbit to your diet (Oct. 12) I think it is unethical to publish an article encouraging people to kill an animal that is readily available as a pet. Iowa is one of the worst states for animal abuse to

I'M AN INTERNET

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

ImOn.net/IC.

Call 31 19-5119-6484 or visit ImOn.net/IC 14 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

Afghanistan withdrawal, done nothing about crime that is out of sight and is taking away freedom as in the vaccination debacle. Not one good thing. —Linda D.

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

SINCE 2001—ALWAYS FREE

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 15

I N T E R AC T I O N S begin with; we don’t need to encourage individuals with no background in animal husbandry to start killing rabbits at home.

—Zoe W.

UPCOMING NOVEMBER SHOWS CSPS & THE IMPROV INCUBATOR PRESENTS: IMPROV FIRST THURSDAYS Thursday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m.

DOM FLEMONS Friday, Nov. 12 at 8 p.m.

IOWA JAZZ COMPOSERS ORCHESTRA Saturday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m.

DAVID HUCKFELT Saturday, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m.

JOHN PRIMER & THE REAL DEAL Friday, Nov. 26 at 8 p.m.

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Animals eat other animals. Certain insects paralyze other insects and inject their victims with larvae which consume that insect while it is still alive. Many indigenous people would die if meat was not available to them. I am against factory farming. If animals can be raised and killed as humanely as possible, I believe we can without guilt eat those animals. —Dena M. COVID-19: Reynolds talks about banning vaccine mandates and suing the Biden administration; IDPH reports 94 more deaths, 8,167 new cases (Oct. 14) We might not have needed “mandates” if politicians hadn’t undermined vaccination campaigns (often after quietly getting vaccinated themselves) and other public health measures. They bear responsibility for our plodding recovery. —Lin L. Lol “enough is enough” with mandates— so I’m making a mandate to ban mandates! JFC. —Erin S. Says the governor who took control away from school districts. Says the governor who asked the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs Wade. Says the governor who wants to take rights away from private companies? You aren’t about freedom, you are only about what you think is freedom. —Brian B. Cocktails for the whole family! Inside Unimpaired, downtown Iowa City’s new dry bar (Oct. 15) Why tho. —D.K. C. Because there’s a shit ton of people who don’t drink alcohol but still want to go out with their friends. Coffee shops aren’t great for nightlife because not all of us want caffeine later in the evenings, and sometimes we don’t want to go out for a meal at a sit down restaurant. Something like this place is more inclusive to many people’s lifestyles. —Naomi H. There is a huge sober community in

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Sean Kenney’s award winning and record-breaking exhibition using LEGO bricks is on view at the Muscatine Art Center and is open to the public from November 16, 2021 through February 20, 2022. At times whimsical, gripping, and awe-inspiring, the exhibition is sure to inspire budding artists, ecologists, and builders to dream big.

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I N T E R A C T I O N S Iowa City. I’ve been sober for 7 years now… and I can say this is really what we needed. A fun place for us young sober people to go out. Getting and staying sober are hard as fuck, so if we have something that will help us, we will take full advantage. Don’t worry Unimpaired, we got you.

—Heather L. Thousands of John Deere workers strike, and Iowa Republican leaders ‘don’t have anything to say about it’ (Oct. 15) This just shows just how disconnected Grassley is with Iowans. These are our friends and neighbors. Yes Senator Grassley—John Deere workers do have grievances. If you cared, you would know before Iowa Public Radio made you aware of it. —Ron P.

Riverside Theatre offers peek into their future space, launches new capital campaign (Oct. 22) I’m excited for this. “The Grand Inquisitor” blew my mind last night. —Paula M. Letter from Susan Mims: Jason Glass will get my one and only vote for the Iowa City Council.

Here is why. (Oct. 22) I’ll definitely check out Jason as a candidate, but this sneering about “groupthink” and “only in Johnson County” from Mims on her way out doesn’t really do him any favors. —Randy K.

Stacey Walker will not run for reelection to the Linn County Board of Supervisors (Oct. 20)

Ms. Mims has been an asset to our Iowa City council, and I am sorry to see her leave. Although I have not always agreed with her on some issues, I feel she has always come to the discussions having researched all the options. We need independent thinkers. We need to hear all sides of an issue. In our city, sometimes I feel that a small number of people are pushing through their agenda without listening to those who are directly and negatively impacted by their decisions. She will be missed. —Connie P.

I hope he will change his mind and run for public office again.

We need public servants like him. —Jacqueline B.M.

Iowa’s Attorney General tweets odd warning about THC-laced Halloween candy, deletes it (Oct. 27)

Stacey Walker doesn’t owe us anything, but I hope this means he will continue leading the movement, just from a new place. —Brad W.

No one is giving out their eddies. That shit’s expensive.

—Melissa L.

He used to be a union member.

Now he’s in the pocket of the PAC. —Polly B.

It’s been the honor of a lifetime, and truly a beautiful ride. My thanks are with every resident of Linn County and all of the people—family and friends and gentle strangers— who have made these last six years so memorable and enriching. —Stacey Walker

Dumbest thing I ever heard, I’m not giving my edibles to some scary little clown.

—Walter J.W. When I was a kid, all we got was razor blades in our apples!

—Ryan D.C.

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“Which one of “While it has been an you jokers incredible honor to be nominated the first African my hat American as ‘Best elected to Elected county office here via Jon Green Official’ to @ in Linn, I surely don’t LittleVillage?” —Johnson want to be the last … It is my County Supervisor Jon Green sincere hope that women (@modestholdings), looking and people of color find it forward to Best of the in their heart to pursue this CRANDIC in December seat.” —Supervisor Stacey Walker, announcing he “Owning the Close will not seek reelection House means that in 2022 PS1 will have 10,000 square feet to “If I didn’t accept program art out. the endorsement of We’re investing in a person that’s got ourselves knowing 91 percent approval that this building of the Republican is going to be voters in Iowa, I important to wouldn’t be too Iowa City as smart.” via Art Office long as it’s a city.”

—Sen. Chuck Grassley, —John Engelbrecht, Public accepting Donald Trump’s Space One executive director endorsement on Oct. 9 “Oh, gosh, I feel like whatever he [Trump] spews out of his mouth I just love.” —A young MAGA supporter, interviewed by The Daily Show correspondent Jordan Klepper before the Oct. 9 Trump rally in Des Moines

“We want the entire experience to reflect the quality of work on stage.” —Adam Knight, Riverside Theatre artistic director, discussing plans for their future Ped Mall space

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Digital is real.

With over 2.3 million article views in 2020, LittleVillageMag.com’s growing audience is more than just a number—115,000 unique monthly visitors are ready to shop, dine and support local.

For advertising, web design, e-commerce and digital marketing support, contact Little Village today: Ads@LittleVillageMag.com (319) 855-1474

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SUPPORTING OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY is a shared effort and one that’s accomplished in a variety of ways. Perhaps you volunteer your time to build homes, serve food, help animals or clean up public spaces. Maybe you’re an advocate for shopping locally. Or maybe you make a yearly donation to a nonprofit organization you believe in.

In these pages, you’ll find a sampling of the hardworking nonprofits in the CRANDIC that fight day in and day out to make this a more livable place. These groups rely on donations from individuals like you and businesses that support their mission.

You’ll also learn about a few independent retailers that bring a thoughtful and unique product mix to local shoppers. These businesses depend on shoppers’ dollars to continue to adapt and thrive.

Year-round support of nonprofits and retailers is essential to the longevity of our community, but end-of-year giving and holiday sales can provide a much-needed boost and leg up for the new year, especially as the two-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iowa nears. This holiday season, find a cause you can rally behind in our donation drive (www.littlevillagemag.com/give) or knock out some gift shopping at a small business you can champion.

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the current issues faced in these areas today.

Though AAMI’s offerings lift up and celebrate Black voices in Iowa, they are not intended only for Black audiences; AAMI exists to educate all of Iowa’s population about their shared history, and their content is open and accessible to all. Visit the website to learn how you can help.

AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF IOWA

55 12TH AVE SE, CEDAR RAPIDS WWW.BLACKIOWA.ORG

The African American Museum of Iowa, founded in 1993, exists to preserve, exhibit and teach Iowa’s African American heritage. AAMI serves 30,000 patrons annually with educational resources regarding Iowa’s African American history and culture through programs, presentations and digital content.

Currently, AAMI is proud to present a temporary exhibit entitled Mapping Exclusion: Redlining in Iowa, on display now through August 2022. This exhibit explores the 22 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

systematic denial of various services by federal and local government agencies and the private sector to residents of specific neighborhoods, which historically affected Black populations in Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Dubuque, Davenport, Des Moines and Waterloo. The exhibit will look at these cities and the long-term effects of redlining on

BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF JOHNSON COUNTY 3109 OLD HWY 218 S, IOWA CITY WWW.BBBSJC.ORG

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Johnson

LITTLE VILLAGE GIVE GUIDE 2021

County was founded in 1976 and serves an average of 350 young people each year by creating and supporting 1:1 relationships between local youth and adult mentors that ignite the power and promise of youth in Johnson County and the West Branch school district.

Youth who have professionally supported mentors do better academically, socially and at avoiding risky behaviors, making for stronger individuals and communities. In the past two years, through BBBSJC, mentors provided the equivalent of $562,130 annually in volunteer hours.

With the pandemic, BBBSJC temporarily suspended school-based mentoring programs in the interest of public safety. However, this

past fall, the organization was recognized as a mission critical partner and authorized to return to schools—but their return to normal is far from over. There are over 100 youth on the waitlist for mentorship. BBBSJC has recently kick-started the Bridge program, which engages these waitlisted youth in group activities. Mentors have also returned to schools in a limited capacity, and the after-school program in Solon and North Liberty continues to provide opportunities for support and mentorship to youth.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Johnson County is grateful for all forms of support they receive from the community. Visit the website for more information on how you can contribute.

BRUCEMORE

2160 LINDEN DR SE, CEDAR RAPIDS WWW.BRUCEMORE.ORG

Brucemore inspires community interaction with history, preservation and the arts. The 26-acre estate reflects more than 140 years of history with its iconic 19th century mansion, outbuildings, gardens, landscape and artifacts. Since its founding as a nonprofit in 1981, more than one million people from all 50 states and more than 50 countries have visited this top Iowa tourist attraction for tours, programs, events and one-of-a-kind experiences. All this conservation is accomplished with only 11 full time employees and a handful of seasonal workers.

Right now, Brucemore is in the process of a multi-year effort to recover and restore the nationally significant buildings and landscape LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 23

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after the devastating effects of the derecho in August 2020. With your support, Brucemore can recover and come back even stronger than before to inspire community interaction with local history, preservation and the arts.

CATHERINE MCAULEY CENTER

1220 5TH AVE SE, CEDAR RAPIDS WWW.CMC-CR.ORG

Founded in 1989, The Catherine McAuley Center’s mission is to offer hope and opportunity through educational and supportive services for immigrants, refugees and women experiencing crisis. Services include one-on-one tutoring and group learning opportunities for adult learners; assistance navigating employment, transportation, health care and housing; and individualized support, basic needs assistance and therapeutic and skill-building opportunities. CMC serves around 850 clients annually, striving to help them achieve greater stability, community inclusion and improved quality of life.

As our community emerges from the pandemic, CMC must develop the financial resources necessary to extend services to more people. While one-on-one tutoring for adult learners studying English and other basic academic skills was able to shift online in the pandemic, several volunteers stepped back from their roles. The waitlist for classes is only growing, so the Center is looking for caring community members who are willing to share one hour of their time per week! New tutor orientations are offered twice monthly; visit the website for more information.

Additionally, financial 24 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

resources are needed to address the many changes to the refugee resettlement landscape in recent years. Resettlement agencies like CMC are still adjusting to increased refugee admissions while simultaneously planning for the possibility of even more arrivals from Afghanistan.

Donations provide needed support for refugee families as they learn to navigate life in the U.S. A lack of affordable housing and other factors has also exacerbated the level of homelessness in Eastern Iowa. Donations allow CMC to open its doors to more women in crisis and provide services that address the root causes of housing instability that women face, fostering a sense of community among women as they discover their own resilience and create meaningful futures.

CEDAR VALLEY HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

external repair services.

Partner families make a down payment, invest hundreds of hours of sweat equity into the construction of Habitat homes, and then make mortgage payments on a zero-interest loan.

Large groups of community volunteers led by the Construction Director and Site Supervisor make this work possible.

CVHFH is funded in part by the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which readers voted “Best Appliance Store” in Little Village’s Best of the CRANDIC 2020! Between ReStore, construction and administrative operations, Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity has about 24 employees. You can help make their work possible and learn more at the QR link to the left.

COMMUNITY CRISIS SERVICES AND FOOD BANK 1121 S GILBERT CT, IOWA CITY

WWW.BUILTBYCOMMUNITY.ORG

350 6TH AVE SE, CEDAR RAPIDS WWW.CVHABITAT.ORG

Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity has been bringing people together to build homes, communities and hope in Linn and Benton counties since 1988. Their mission involves providing affordable housing through new construction and rehabilitation projects, as well as performing some owner-occupied

CommUnity Crisis Services and Food Bank is a volunteer-driven organization that provides immediate support for individuals facing emotional, food or financial crisis.

CommUnity began as a suicide prevention hotline in 1970, and they continue to provide free, non-judgmental emotional support to anyone who needs it with resources available via call, text or online chat as well as mobile crisis outreach and support groups.

With approximately 100 paid staff and 200 volunteer staff, CommUnity’s food bank serves a large geographic area with multiple pantry locations, a mobile food pantry, food delivery and more services to address hunger

LITTLE VILLAGE GIVE GUIDE 2021

in our communities. Residents of Johnson County can receive weekly grocery assistance and choose their own items, and there are no requirements on income level or federal aid status for clients to access the food they need.

Visit CommUnity’s website to find out how you can support their work with a monetary or supply donation or by becoming a volunteer.

needed food pantry building which will help them remain a vital safety net for the long haul. Support this effort or learn more by visiting CCFP’s website at the QR link.

DISCERNING EYE 218 E WASHINGTON ST, IOWA CITY DISCERNINGEYEOPTICAL.COM

CORALVILLE COMMUNITY FOOD PANTRY 1002 5TH STREET, CORALVILLE

WWW.CORALVILLEFOODPANTRY.ORG

Serving Coralville, Tiffin and Oxford, the Coralville Community Food Pantry was founded in 2009 and served an average of 3,250 residents annually from 2019-2021.

With their mission statement—“We an anti-hunger nonprofit organization providing critical and innovative food assistance services to the greater Coralville community.

We believe that food is a human right and that food has the power to bring people together.”—CCFP also acknowledges that food alone cannot fix the problem of hunger.

“Hunger and poverty are symptoms of deeper inequalities related to health, housing, economics, racism, ableism, white supremacy and more. Until we address those issues, hunger will persist,” writes John Boller, CCFP Executive Director.

In pursuit of the innovative solutions their mission statement promises, CCFP is currently raising funds to build a new and direly

Opened in 2005, this family-run business showcases the best in independent designer eyewear. Shop the main floor for the latest styles, or check out their lower level for package-priced eyewear starting at $165 for single vision lenses. If you need an eye exam, set up an appointment with either of Discerning Eye’s experienced eye care professionals, Dr. Dan Wolfe and Dr. Haley Mathews. Consider giving the gift of stylish sight this holiday season!

GIRLS ON THE RUN OF EASTERN IOWA 26 E MARKET ST, IOWA CITY WWW.GIRLSONTHERUNIOWA.ORG

Girls on the Run is dedicated to creating a world where every girl knows and activates her limitless potential and is free to boldly pursue her dreams. Over a 10-week period, coaches meet with small teams of girls twice

a week. Each practice focuses on themes that the girls can relate to, such as friendship, recognizing/managing emotions and working as a team, introducing them to lifelong health habits and building confidence. Each season ends with a celebratory, non-competitive 5K which gives a sense of accomplishment and a framework for setting and achieving life goals.

But Girls on the Run is about way more than running! Research indicates that by age nine, girls’ self-confidence begins to decline. 50 percent of girls ages 10 to 13 experience bullying, and this is at a time when peer relationships become more central to girls’ lives. Additionally, physical activity levels have been found to decline starting at age 10 and continue to decline throughout adolescence.

After participating in Girls on the Run, 95% of girls improve in confidence, competence, caring, character, connection and physical activity.

Each year, GotR inspires an average of 1,000 girls in Buchanan, Benton, Black Hawk, Linn, Grundy, Henry, Washington, Johnson and Jefferson counties to be joyful, healthy and confident. If you’d like to support this mission, visit their website at the QR code to the left for more information—including how you can become a coach!

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 25

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IOWA ABORTION ACCESS FUND P.O. BOX 721, CEDAR RAPIDS WWW.IAAFUND.ORG

for all—learn more or contribute today at the website linked in the QR code.

IOWA CITY HOSPICE

IOWA CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION

WWW.IOWACITYHOSPICE.ORG

WWW.ICPL.ORG

1025 WADE ST, IOWA CITY

Iowa Abortion Access Fund (IAAF) is dedicated to the belief that the freedom to choose legal abortion should be available to everyone. Founded in 1978 in Cedar Rapids, IAAF is the second-oldest abortion fund in the U.S. Every year, IAAF helps hundreds of Iowa and Quad Cities residents who would otherwise not be able to afford an abortion. In the past 3 years (2019-2021), IAAF has provided an annual average of over $62K in assistance to residents of Iowa and the Quad Cities region and served an average of 425 callers per year (2018-2020).

The sole function of IAAF is to provide funds to callers who need support paying for a safe abortion. IAAF coordinates with clinic staff to confirm the appointment and sends payment directly to the clinic to be applied to the caller’s bill. Community support makes this work possible. Aside from one part-time staff member, IAAF is entirely volunteer-run.

One-time gifts and sustaining monthly support are the best ways to support IAAF’s mission to ensure reproductive freedom and access

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Iowa City Hospice and Visiting Nurse Association are now a team! Together, the new organization aims to offer “the right care, in the right place, at the right time” from birth to end of life. And they’ve been doing so for a long time: ICH began serving patients in 1983, while VNA of Johnson County has supported the health needs of our community since 1949.

Hospice isn’t just for final days, and it isn’t a place. Hospice is a philosophy that brings life-affirming services to patients, families and caregivers, allowing them to set their own care goals and live each day to its fullest. ICH brings comfort, support and spiritual care to patients in Johnson, Cedar, Iowa, Linn, Louisa, Muscatine and Washington counties; VNA works to improve quality of life by assisting individuals and families so they can achieve the highest level of health and independent function appropriate to the persons involved. Together, ICH and VNA provide care with dignity with a team of 100 paid staff and a growing fleet of compassionate volunteers.

When you choose to support ICH/VNA, you are supporting a hometown nonprofit that serves your neighbors, in your local communities. Visit the website above to learn more about Iowa City Hospice and Visiting Nurse Association of Johnson County and how you can help, either with a monetary contribution or a contribution of time and ability as a volunteer.

123 S LINN ST, IOWA CITY

The Iowa City Public Library is a center of community life that connects people of all ages with information, engages them with the world of ideas and each other and enriches the community by supporting learning, promoting literacy and encouraging creativity. Your generous financial contribution to the Iowa City Public Library Friends Foundation makes a difference for everyone through the Library, which is celebrating 125 years of service this year!

As their mission statement shares, the Iowa City Public Library Friends Foundation generates private resources to support the Iowa City Public Library. Through its support of the Iowa City Public Library, the ICPL Friends Foundation served 417,710 people annually (2018-2020), utilizing 49 volunteers and no paid staff. Support for ICPL Friends Foundation helps provide library services and uphold the values of ICPL: access, belonging, collaboration, community, enjoyment, intellectual freedom and literacy. Visit the website above to support this work and help ICPL and the Friends Foundation celebrate 125 years.

IOWA SHARES 20 E MARKET ST, IOWA CITY WWW.IOWASHARES.ORG

Iowa Shares, founded in 1995, is a statewide federation of social action, environmental and cultural organizations and one of only three recognized workplace fundraising federations in Iowa. The 22 member organizations that comprise Iowa Shares address problems at

LITTLE VILLAGE GIVE GUIDE 2021

their root causes and create long-lasting positive change in Iowa’s communities. Member nonprofits across Iowa support families, the environment, civil and human rights, animal welfare, lifelong learning, international cooperation, health and the arts, to name a few.

The majority of the member nonprofits serve eastern and central Iowa, but altogether, the organizations serve thousands of Iowans.

Iowa Shares is committed to transparency.

The organization is known for its democratic management model and commitment to honoring donors’ intent. Additionally, Iowa Shares manages to keep overhead costs low.

Their administrative expenses are 15% or less and their work is accomplished with only 1 half-time paid staff member and a small team of administrative volunteers, and yet, the annual economic impact of their work is nearly $70,000. This makes it possible for a greater proportion of donor funds to go directly to the work they want to support.

If you’d like to learn more about Iowa Shares’ network of member organizations and how you can help, visit the website to the left.

modifications, emergency home repairs, major appliance replacements and educational programming about financial literacy and homeownership, to name a few.

IVHFH served 76 clients served from July 2019-June 2021 and is currently working on expanding the Helping Hands home repair program to serve even more this year. With sustainable funding resources for this program, especially its newly launched Emergency Repair and Major Appliance Replacement service (ERMAR), IVHFH hopes to be able to offer services to more residents in Cedar, Iowa, Johnson, Louisa and Washington counties. Learn more and find out how to support IVHFH at their website.

LEASH ON LIFE PET SUPPLIES IOWA CITY: 432 HIGHWAY 1 WEST

NORTH LIBERTY: 650 PACHA PKWY

IOWA VALLEY HABITAT FOR HUMANITY 2401 SCOTT BLVD SE, IOWA CITY

WWW.IOWAVALLEYHABITAT.ORG

As part of the national network of Habitat for Humanity organizations, Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity has served Eastern Iowa since 1992. Their mission statement, “Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope,” is enacted through the services and opportunities they provide to the community: access to affordable homeownership, aging-in-place home

in need through our contributions,” wrote Julie.

Giving back is essential to Leash on Life’s year-round mission. Their support extends to IC Animal Center, Last Hope, Fur Fun Rescue, Iowa Humane Alliance, DVIPCooper’s House and many other rescues and shelters. Additionally, they support IC Pride, numerous food banks and pantries, donations to fundraisers for local schools and nonprofits as well as Iowa Public Radio.

Whether you have a particular item in mind or are buying a gift card for a family’s fluffy friend, you can find all the latest on their website, on Facebook or by taking a fun trip to the store and chatting with the staff!

MYEP

407 HIGHLAND CT, IOWA CITY

WWW.LEASHONLIFE.NET

WWW.MYEP.US

Founded in 2006 by co-owners Julie Phye and Laurie Smith, Leash on Life Pet Supplies offers high quality, affordable products for dogs, cats and rabbits. With an exceptionally friendly and knowledgeable all-women staff and a curated selection of items, Leash on Life will be able to provide an excellent match for your pet’s needs.

“We love the shop-local vibe in Iowa City; people care about what and where they purchase. Sales in our two stores translate into paying our local staff and providing for those

MYEP is dedicated to providing advocacy and person-centered services which facilitate personal growth and community inclusion for people with disabilities. But it didn’t start that way. In 1968, MYEP began as a federal initiative encouraging cities to provide summer employment opportunities for disadvantaged youth and young adults aged 14 to 24. MYEP was built around the concept of summer conservation projects, which emphasized working in small groups to complete projects that benefit the entire LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 27

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classics to new works, fostering a deeper community appreciation for the dramatic arts.

In January 2022, Riverside will open a new 150-seat theater in the Crescent Block Building in the heart of the Ped Mall. This space will house an expanded set of programming including plays, musicals, cabarets, “opera on-tap” and new play readings—all homegrown with local and regional professionals.

Riverside is now in their 41st season, but this is their first capital campaign in 20 years!

Show some support for local theater by visiting their website and making a contribution.

community. As funding from grants dwindled, MYEP expanded into services for people with disabilities and, in 1996, MYEP was granted 501(c)(3) status to continue their work as a nonprofit. At MYEP, before taking any action or making any decision, the benefits and impacts on their service recipients are carefully considered, a guiding principle they recognize as “Service Before Self.” This is reinforced by the organizational values of continual improvement, ownership and engagement. Learn more about MYEP’s work and how you can get involved at their website!

REVIVAL

117 E COLLEGE ST, IOWA CITY (PED MALL) WWW.REVIVALIOWACITY.COM

fashion industry when you shop at Revival.

Not only does Revival provide a wide variety of socially and environmentally conscious apparel, but they also focus on supporting local organizations that strive to create equal and inclusive services to all humans. Shopping at Revival can support local causes like Emma Goldman Clinic, United Action for Youth, FilmScene, DVIP and The Englert Theatre.

Check out the website to shop online, or drop by their newly renovated brick-and-mortar space on the Iowa City Ped Mall!

RIVERSIDE THEATRE

119 E COLLEGE ST, IOWA CITY (PED MALL) WWW.RIVERSIDETHEATRE.ORG

Opened in 2003 by Iowa-City-born, NewYork-City-trained Sheila Davisson, Revival is a boutique where style always trumps fashion, offering a fun and curated assortment of resale, vintage and new clothing and accessories. Looking for a holiday gift-giving success? Check out Revival’s popular customizable gift boxes! Whether you’re shopping for yourself or for someone else, you will be browsing clothing brands that are committed to sustainable and ethical practices within the 28 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

A great city deserves serious theater.

Theater that sparks discourse, builds community, delights, inspires, breaks down barriers and explores the complexities of the human spirit. Riverside Theatre strengthens the cultural fabric of Iowa City through intimate, engaging productions of everything from

SUSTAINABLE IOWA LAND TRUST (SILT) 101 W MAIN ST, WEST BRANCH WWW.SILT.ORG

Iowa’s agricultural economy is not without its problems. Access to land for beginning farmers is difficult to come by, expanding cities are making prime farmland scarcer, climate change threatens our food systems and food insecurity is an ever-present problem in our communities. Since 2015, the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust has worked to address these issues, support rural communities and permanently protect Iowa land to grow nature-friendly table food.

SILT believes in the power of the family farm. In 2021, they announced the launch of the Circle Our Cities campaign. The campaign’s mission is to ground local food

LITTLE VILLAGE GIVE GUIDE 2021

systems in permanent local farms, surrounding ten Iowa cities with permanent table food farms in ten years.

SILT leaders are hoping to raise $3 million to fund this effort. With your support, SILT hopes to protect 4,000 acres of rich Iowa farmland, help 400 beginning farmers get or stay on that land, and in doing so, sequester 10,000 tons/year of carbon and feed 800,000 Iowans.

SILT permanently protects land for nature-friendly food production, helping future generations of farmers afford land to cultivate.

They provide free consultations to landowners interested in learning what food their land “wants” to grow. If you’re interested, visit the website to the left to contribute or look for “Iowa Landowners’ Guide to Sustainable Food Crops” on SILT’s website to learn how you can bring diverse, nature-friendly table food farming back to Iowa’s landscape.

Shop owner and candy connoisseur Monique Holtkamp, loves running this Iowa City shop and providing her time and the store’s treats for folks of all ages. “I love that we are home to many cultures & kindness,” Monique says. Get a slice of what makes Iowa City sweet this holiday season by visiting the website at the QR link.

SYSTEMS UNLIMITED, INC

disabilities and mental health challenges to live rich and connected lives, visit the website for more info on how to help.

THE IOWA CHILDREN’S MUSEUM

LOCATED INSIDE CORAL RIDGE MALL WWW.THEICM.ORG

2533 SCOTT BLVD SE, IOWA CITY WWW.SUI.ORG

SWEETS AND TREATS

201 S CLINTON ST, IOWA CITY (OLD CAPITOL TOWNCENTER) WWW.ICTREATS.COM

Founded in 1983, Sweets and Treats is your one-stop shop for all things delicious and delightful! You’ll find handmade chocolates, novelty candies, classic sweets and imported delicacies—candies and sweets of every kind, for every sweet tooth.

While Sea Salt Caramels are a consistent favorite, check out the varieties of gummies and handmade treats, some of which are made right in the store. And don’t miss the hidden gems among the shelves! Take a trip abroad without leaving town by trying the many delicious European chocolates and candies available in-store.

Systems Unlimited, Inc. (SUI) provides support to people with disabilities and mental health needs living in East Central Iowa.

Services are individualized and based on each person’s needs, ranging from individuals living in a residential care setting to those who just need a staff member to drop by their home to check in. Regardless of the needs of the client, SUI’s mission since 1971 has been to promote dignity and growth for the approximately 400 individuals they serve, work that is supported by the approximately 950 staff.

SUI holds day programs in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City where clients can find community, build friendships, volunteer and visit area attractions. SUI also helps clients seek and maintain employment in the community.

If you’d like to help support individuals with

The mission of the Iowa Children’s Museum is to inspire every child to imagine, create, discover and explore through the power of play! Since 1995, ICM has advocated for the benefits of informal learning and play for children. They serve an average of 180,000 individuals annually with interactive exhibits, drop-off programs, events and community outreach that create hands-on opportunities for children to use their imaginations and learn about the world around them. But ICM’s mission isn’t just about having fun—it’s backed by overwhelming research that says playing is essential to a child’s development.

In a typical year, about one out of every four museum admissions is provided free of charge. Your membership, donation or price of admission all make it possible for ICM to offer free events each month, provide free memberships to families through the ICM for Everyone program and partner with other nonprofit organizations to provide free or reduced museum admission to families in our community. Providing children with quality play LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 29

DONATE NOW AT LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/GIVE

experiences, regardless of their ability to pay, is central to ICM’s nonprofit mission.

THE QUIRE

WEST MUSIC

WWW.THEQUIRE.ORG

MARION: 1398 TWIXT TOWN RD

P.O. BOX 1101, IOWA CITY

THE MIDWEST WRITING CENTER

CORALVILLE: 1212 5TH ST WWW.WESTMUSIC.COM

401 19TH ST, ROCK ISLAND, IL WWW.MWCQC.ORG

The Midwest Writing Center, founded in

1980, exists to help “write more light into your life.” Through literary programming such as workshops, readings, youth education programs, contests, conferences, residencies and book discussion groups, MWC’s mission is to foster appreciation of the written word, supporting and educating its creators. Not everyone who writes wants to be an author or even to share their work publicly, but MWC believes there is much to be gained from even a basic writing practice and that anyone can be a writer. Via their imprint MWC Press, they also endeavor to publish works by Midwestern authors.

If you’d believe in the power of the written word, visit the website linked above for more information. You can also seek out MWC’s partner organization, Porch Light Literary, which provides a community space for people of all ages, income levels and levels of experience to participate in Iowa City’s rich literary offerings.Thank you for supporting literary education!

30 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

The Quire is a nonprofit chorus for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender folks promoting a positive image of these communities through excellence in choral music. As one of the longest continually running LGBTQueer nonprofits in the region, The Quire serves as a vital community and artistic space for LGBTQueer folks in eastern Iowa.

Founded in 1995 in Iowa City, The Quire’s first performance was by 14 singers for a June Pride talent show. The Quire recently celebrated 25 years of making music and now has more than 50 active members, two paid staff and 12 leadership volunteers. The chorus has performed for an estimated 4,500 people annually between 2018 and 2021.

The Quire aims for sustainable accessibility by limiting financial obligations and membership requirements and pushing members and leadership to maintain a justice-oriented mindset around topics often used to marginalize folks in our communities. Membership is open to anyone who is gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and/or queer, and to anyone who is respectful and affirming of these communities. Musical ability is not required to be part of The Quire! There are no auditions for general membership; many current members don’t read music, and there are non-singing opportunities, as well. Learn more about joining or supporting The Quire at the website above.

West Music offers a huge inventory of musical instruments sold by a knowledgeable and helpful staff, as well as instrument repair and lessons. They’re committed to early childhood music education as a way to give back. By partnering with performing arts organizations and area schools to offer scholarships opportunities for students in need, West Music hopes to help facilitate access to music and music education.

West Music was recently named 2021 Dealer of the Year by the National Association of Music Merchants, and with 80 years of experience in the industry, you can trust that West Music will provide you with a great experience and a high quality instrument, no matter the price point.

West Music is proud to call the Iowa City/ Cedar Rapids area home. The passion and commitment to arts and culture that exists in Iowa City is without peer, and the community has been home to ongoing inspiration and innovation in music education. Visit West Music’s website or stop by one of their two locations to choose the gift of music this holiday season. And if you’re looking for a gift that will appeal to nearly any age and ability level, consider a ukulele!

LITTLE VILLAGE GIVE GUIDE 2021

WILLIS DADY HOMELESS SERVICES

1247 4TH AVE SE, CEDAR RAPIDS WWW.WILLISDADY.ORG

and families. Please consider making a donation to support this important work.

WILLOWWIND SCHOOL 950 DOVER ST, IOWA CITY WWW.WILLOWWIND.ORG

in 2020, willis dady provided

29,588

nights of shelter for our communtiy

Empowering clients to

break the cycle

of homelessness and become self-sufficient.

Willis Dady Homeless Services was founded in 1987 by Jim Welborn, an individual who experienced 25 years of homelessness himself. Welborn recognized the need for support services to empower clients to break the cycle of homelessness, and WDHS is honored to continue his legacy by serving 1,000 clients in Linn, Benton and Jones counties annually.

WDHS’s mission is to provide shelter and prevention services to people experiencing homelessness and near-homelessness. They enact this mission through one-on-one case management at their Emergency Shelter and Community Overflow Shelter, housing services, street outreach and various homeless prevention and employment services that empower and provide tools of self-sufficiency in these populations.

The organization’s newest campaign, Willis Dady Works, will expand the employment services that WDHS offers to include training and social enterprise opportunities for individuals with high barriers to gaining and maintaining stable employment. It will also expand WDHS’s housing services by adding 13 additional supportive housing units for individuals

In 1972, 16 children embarked on a learning adventure in a small white house on Fairchild

Street as Willowwind School opened its doors for the first time. Nearly half a century later, Willowwind continues to provide distinctive and immersive learning opportunities to children in preschool through 6th grade by emphasizes social-emotional learning, the arts and social justice in addition to core instruction in their educational programs.

This school year, Willowwind is piloting an Integrated Arts Program. Weaving the arts into core instruction brings lessons to life and invites children to dive deeper into meaningful learning. It also allows students to explore and engage with Willowwind’s social justice curriculum through creativity and collaboration.

Iowa City, with its roots in culture, arts, and community involvement, has graciously served as Willowwind’s extended classroom for the last 50 years. Your support will help ensure that Willowwind can provide relevant, challenging and experiential learning adventures for another 50 years. To make a gift or learn more about Willowwind’s programs, visit the website linked in the QR code to the left. Learning and art are meant to be shared and to inspire!

Make a contribution to your

favorite nonprofit at littlevillagemag.com/give

For more information about our Give Guide program, contact ads@littlevillagemag.com

Community UR Here

Hallowed Grounds Be a friend to Hickory Hill Park.

BY THOMAS DEAN

“S

olitude,” “contemplation,” “sanctuary”—the Friends of Hickory Hill Park nonprofit uses these words to describe the park it supports. Unlike many of Iowa City’s parks, at Hickory Hill you won’t find the traditional swing sets, baseball diamonds or large shelters shading rows of picnic tables. Sure, Hickory Hill is a destination for winter sledders and features a couple small shelters, but for the most part, the park is a place where people go to escape into quality natural habitat and quiet sanctuary.

It’s a place where you can walk, hike, birdwatch, jog, dog walk (leashed, please!) or cross-country ski for literally hours with something new to see at every moment among several types of natural habitat native to our state: tallgrass prairie, oak and hickory woodlands and oak savanna.

As the social restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic sent more people outside to commune with nature, Hickory Hill, like so many other natural areas, saw increased use by local residents—and while that’s great, it has increased need for maintenance, care and preservation.

To preserve Hickory Hill’s exceptional character amid Iowa City’s growing urban footprint, it needs help. In fact, it needs friends, and we are fortunate to have exactly that in the Friends of Hickory Hill Park, a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to “permanently protect and preserve the park’s unique qualities as urban park land. Hickory Hill’s woodlands, fields and waterways provide habitat for a variety of wildlife and provide citizens the opportunity to enjoy a natural setting within city limits.” This mission is especially important today as the city continues to expand and develop, now extending to the park’s north and east.

The Friends’ genesis harks back over 20 years to 1999, for not-so-good proposals have often threatened the park’s unique quality: a 150-vehicle parking lot, a ski slope, a campground and a mountain bike course, to name a few. More than 90 percent of Iowa is rural farmland, and less than 3 percent is public land—one of the lowest rates in the country—making efforts to preserve, restore and even expand the state’s natural areas critical.

32 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

The updated Hickory Hill Estate proposal includes an expansion of the park. Image via Axion Consultants

The great conservationist Aldo Leopold— himself a native Iowan—once famously said, “There are two things that interest me: the relation of people to each other, and the relation of people to land.” And truly that philosophy is at the heart of the Friends’ mission as well. While keeping the Earth’s ecology functioning for its own sake and the sake of its nonhuman flora and fauna inhabitants is increasingly important, groups like FHHP are also about people. As the Friends’ website says, “Promoting a healthy relationship between people and the natural world is central to our work.” As I’ve noted, the “sanctuary,” “contemplation” and “solitude” that the organization promotes are for the benefit of us individual humans.

In yet another human dimension, the Friends promote community, Leopold’s “relation of people to each other.” FHHP frequently works with school groups, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, university groups and local environmental and community organizations to promote outdoor education and “to improve access to the park and to enhance and restore its natural features”—and all that builds the health of the human community as much as the natural. A recent collaboration that the Friends are especially proud of is the Team Red Shamrock Trail Challenge, a 6K race through the park in support of the Red Shamrock Foundation, an Iowa City-based nonprofit that supports childhood cancer survivors and their families as well as post-cancer research in Iowa.

FHHP’s biggest collaboration, of course, remains with the City of Iowa City, a partnership that has been crucial to the existence of the park as we know it today. Although our fair city is generous with its public services and amenities, we know that budget constraints are always an issue. The Friends fill in significant gaps, through many volunteer hours of conservation and park upkeep (trail maintenance, etc.) as well as by hiring environmental contractors for such things as invasive species management.

In the past year, the Friends have returned to their advocacy roots to protect and expand the park once again. When it was announced that ACT-owned land owned contiguous to the park at the northeast was to be privately developed with a senior care facility and private homes, FHHP went to work. The organization maintained that the proposed development did not conform to the city’s Northeast District Plan and Comprehensive Plan and that the residential development violated that plan by being too close to the park itself. FHHP mobilized its members and the general public to engage with the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council, and three revisions to the original proposal ensued.

As the Friends insisted throughout the monthslong process and as FHHP vice president Jason Napoli told the Gazette, “We were never anti-development for the residential section. We wanted the residential section of the development to be

LittleVillageMag.com

done responsibly and in line with the Northeast District Plan.”

The fourth and current proposal removes the residential homes, keeps the senior care center and dedicates over 40 acres to be added to the park. Hickory Hill has nearly doubled in size from its original 98 acres when the park was created in 1965 to its current 185 acres, and if the current proposal is finalized, the park will increase in size by more than 20 percent. That’s a win for everyone, and we have the advocacy and leadership of Friends of Hickory Hill Park to thank for it.

Looking ahead, aside from its regular activities, FHHP is aiming to increase its fundraising.

You may be familiar with the organization’s popular annual plant sale and FHHP calendar, which will continue, but the board is looking to expand its repertoire of items with T-shirts and more—so keep an eye out for new FHHP gear.

Partnerships are always of interest, and the group is also brainstorming new collaborations with local businesses and organizations. Of course, individual monetary donations are critical, whether it’s a $25 annual membership in the Friends organization or a donation of any size.

Friends is an all-volunteer organization, so your time and talent are just as important as your treasure. Keep an eye on the group’s website to sign up for park workdays if you like to get your hands dirty or for more administrative activities such as helping with mailings. And if leadership is in your wheelhouse, FHHP is always on the lookout for enthusiastic board members. The current board boasts a variety of needed talents, and whatever you can bring to FHHP will be more than welcome. And as Friends treasurer Laura Goddard told me, even if you just want to share your concerns, ideas or experiences regarding the park, the board always appreciates hearing from you. After all, that’s at the core of the group’s mission—“promoting a healthy relationship between people and the natural world.”

In his foreword to his seminal A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold said, “Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free.” In the Friends of Hickory Hill Park, Iowa City is fortunate to have a group of dedicated citizens who have had—and continue to have—the foresight and fortitude to make sure our community continues to enjoy a remarkable place that remains natural, wild and free.

Thomas Dean is a friend of Hickory Hill Park.

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Community

Strength in Numbers The Great Plains Action Society works to preserve Native stories, lands and lives while seeking justice.

S

ikowis Nobiss has two kids at home, both in elementary school. She has a full-time job and volunteers on Iowa City’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

“Ugh, trying to deal with COVID and just keep the house clean? That’s my day today,” she said.

Nobiss is the founder of Great Plains Action Society (GPAS), a nonprofit that helps organize and rebuild Indigenous communities throughout the Midwest. She came to Iowa to attend the University of Iowa around 2006, and she soon saw that there wasn’t much support for the nearly 15,000 Native people that currently live in the state.

“There’s nothing for Natives here in Iowa City, you know. It’s just very bereft of culture for Natives. There’s very few of us,” she said.

Tama County, home to the Meskwaki Settlement, has the highest percentage of Native Americans relative to the total population at 8.3 percent, or around 1,400 people, according to the recent census numbers. There are also high numbers of Native people in Sioux City and Des Moines.

While there are a few Native organizations in the state, including the Native American Coalition of the Quad Cities, Nobiss felt that there were still unmet needs throughout the Great Plains region, which spans from the Canadian border in Montana and North Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas.

“We do stuff here in Iowa that nobody else does, and I’m not saying that because I want to come off as, you know, necessarily unique,” she said. “Literally like nobody does this stuff here, and it blows my mind. I would love to see more people doing it, and we hope that through the work that we do, we can inspire more Natives.”

Nobiss began planning the first stages of the Great Plains Action Society around 2015, but it wasn’t until the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation that the idea began to resonate.

“There was something very sacred about that event. I felt very called to it,” she said. “It elevated the words and actions of Indigenous people so that our ideologies and our ways of doing things were really amplified.”

In Iowa, the Dakota Access Pipeline runs through 18 counties, a distance of about 347 miles. That’s about 30 percent of the pipeline’s

34 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

BY ADRIA CARPENTER

total length of 1,172 miles. The pipeline is still active today.

Thousands of people protested the project, and millions of others showed their support. It created a “mini Renaissance” for Native people, Nobiss said, by focusing the world’s eye on their causes, culture and beliefs.

“It allowed me to finally get the attention that I was trying to get towards this organization, so

Texas. President Biden canceled the pipeline’s border crossing permit in January. The project’s sponsor, TC Energy, eventually abandoned the project in June.

But the Biden administration has taken no action against the Line Three pipeline that runs from Alberta to Minnesota.

“Right now the big fight is Line Three in Minnesota, and these are interconnected because

I could get more Natives involved. And here we are.”

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and President Joe Biden have halted development of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would stretch from Alberta, Canada, to Illinois, Oklahoma and

the police play a big role in brutalizing the activists,” said writer and comedian Adrianne Chalepah, a member of the Kiowa Tribe and Apache Tribe of Oklahoma.

GPAS has a number of campaigns for Native rights, all of which are interconnected, from food

LittleVillageMag.com

sovereignty to COVID-19 relief, voting drives and more.

One campaign focuses on justice for missing and murdered relatives. American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) women have the second highest homicide rate in the country, just behind African American women. On average, 7.3 out of every 100,000 Native women are killed every year, according to a report submitted to the Department of Justice in 2008. In some counties, the homicide rate is 10 times the national average.

A 2010 report by the National Institute of Justice found that more than 80 percent of AIAN

Left: Great Plains Action Society members pose in front of the Iowa State Capitol Building after their democracy rising powwow on Nov. 7, 2020 to push back against lies about election fraud.

Above: Activists hold a “Water is Life” banner written in Meskwaki at the Mississippi River near Keokuk in fall 2016 to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline in Iowa. Photos courtesy of Sikowis Nobiss

men and women have faced sexual violence, physical violence by an intimate partner, stalking and/or psychological aggression by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

Great Plains has helped organize marches, raise awareness and provide support to victims

and their families. One was the family of Zachary Bear Heels, who was killed by police in Omaha, Nebraska in June 2017.

Adrianne Chalepah, his cousin, says Bear Heels was a creative person who loved music and dancing.

“Zach and I grew up like siblings, and I consider him my brother. And in our culture, we don’t have a word for cousin, so we very much always viewed each other as siblings,” she said.

“Zach was very much a funny guy, and a storyteller, and a writer. And I think that’s why him and I got along so well.”

Bear Heels was riding a bus to his home in Oklahoma City after visiting his father’s family at the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. He was allegedly kicked off the bus in Omaha for acting erratically. Bear Heels, who was 29 at time, had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and his family says he didn’t have his medication.

Hours later, employees at a Bucky’s Convenience Store called the police to remove Bear Heels from the property. Omaha Police officers Scotty Payne, Ryan McClarty, Jennifer Strudl and Makyla Mead arrived. Renita Chalepah, Bear Heels’ mother, had contacted Omaha Police after her son didn’t show up at the bus stop.

“She was on the phone with them, and she just begged them to take him to a crisis facility because she knew that he wasn’t safe by himself out in the world,” Adrianne said.

The officers decided to take him back to the bus station, but when they went to put Bear Heels in the cruiser, he tried to leave and a struggle broke out. They tased him 12 times and punched his head 13 times, even after he was handcuffed and held on the ground. He was pronounced dead in the ambulance.

“When they finally transported his body back to Oklahoma, it is my knowledge that the condition that they got him in, that he was brutalized. His body was battered. And it wasn’t just his head. It was his entire body,” Adrianne said.

She explained that for a while, they didn’t know what had happened to him. A representative from the Bureau of Indian Affairs told them he passed away and that his death was under investigation.

Within a few months, all four officers involved were fired. Payne was charged with second-degree assault and use of a weapon, but was acquitted in December of 2018.

The county attorney dropped the charges against a second officer. With the exception of Payne, the officers were reinstated.

“At first our family was like, ‘Wow, you know, the right thing is going to happen. We’re going to get justice.’ And as the case progressed, we saw that there was going to be no justice,” Adrianne said.

In August 2018, Renita filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court against the City of Omaha and the police officers. In August 2020, the city settled the lawsuit for $550,000. Adrianne said the initial amount offered by the city was in the low thousands, around the price of a car.

“It was such a low amount that it felt like a slap in the face. It felt just inhumane,” she said.

“I just couldn’t believe that that’s the world we live in, where you could value someone so low, but that’s the way it is.”

Throughout the process, it was the activist community in Omaha, including Great Plains Action Society, that helped her family, she said.

“I know that had we not had the activists on the ground, we wouldn’t have been able to seek any type of justice,” she said. “They don’t make a manual on how to mourn a relative that’s been killed by the government. There’s really no justice for us.”

Adrianne said her grandmother and other members of the family get so emotional that they can’t find words to express their grief and anger.

“How do you speak? How do you have a voice for someone who doesn’t have a voice anymore, LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 35

Community

Prior to working with GPAS, he worked with Des Moines’ mutual aid fund.

“We did a lot of work with the houseless population and food insecurity,” he said. “So that was my main focus, and then some of that work is being supported by, and in cooperation with, GPAS now which has allowed it to scale out, which is great.”

goes with racial justice movements and police brutality, all of it. Indigenous voices need to be a strong leader.”

Adrianne Chalepah added that while people think of climate justice and racial justice as separate agendas, these issues bleed into one another.

“Everything is interconnected. Police brutality is one issue, but it does absolutely tie into miss-

“I KNOW THAT HAD WE NOT HAD THE ACTIVISTS ON THE GROUND, WE WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SEEK ANY TYPE OF JUSTICE. THEY DON’T MAKE A MANUAL ON HOW TO MOURN A RELATIVE THAT’S BEEN KILLED BY THE GOVERNMENT. THERE’S REALLY NO JUSTICE FOR US.” —ADRIANNE CHALEPAH Native Americans represent around 1 percent of the total U.S. population, but make up around 7 percent of the unhoused population, accordThe family of Zachary Bear Heels at the fourth annual prayer walk and memorial vigil on June 6, 2021 ing to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. in Omaha, Nebraska, organized by Great Plains In Sioux City, Native Americans made up 48 Action Society. Photo courtesy of Sikowis Nobiss to 63 percent of the homeless population as of 2018, the Sioux City Journal reports.

“Giving a strong regional voice with action and yet you feel like your own voice is shaking and trembling? And you know, we’re all just try- behind it not only allows things to be accoming to get through every interview without falling plished, but it also allows us Indigenous around here to find each other and feel solidarity,” he apart,” she said.

Being a voice for Native people in crisis is said.

James took a break from activism once he had at the core of the Great Plains Action Society’s work. Fundamentally, they are a mutual aid or- children, but was spurred back into the fray folganization, Nobiss explained. GPAS has branch- lowing the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by es in cities across Iowa to meet the needs of a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.

“Indigenous issues tend to get buried right Ingenious people.

In Des Moines, Ronnie James runs adminis- now with the climate crisis and environmental tration and mutual aid for the nonprofit. James racism,” he said. “I think it’s really important has been involved in activism his whole life. to have Indigenous voices in the front. This also

ing and murdered relatives. It ties back into environmental justice,” she said.

Bear Heels’ death has cast a cloud of grief and fear over his family.

“Every day I’m waiting, you know, for a phone call. Who’s next?” Adrianne said. “Whose life is going to be lost unnecessarily because of government violence?”

The AIAN population has the highest rate of suicide of any racial group. From 1999 to 2017, the suicide rate for Native women jumped from 4.6 to 11 out of every 100,000, according to the CDC. That is a 139 percent increase, the largest of any other demographic. For AIAN men, the suicide rate rose from 19.8 to 33.8, a 71 percent increase.

“We were genocided and colonized,” Nobiss said. “And it’s not like this [only] happened centuries ago, right?”

Nobiss grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, and on the George Gordon First Nation reservation in

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Saskatchewan. Her grandmother, aunt and many of her cousins attended residential schools.

Earlier this year, more than 1,300 unmarked graves for Indigenous children were uncovered at residential schools in Western Canada, causing national outcry against the government and the Catholic Church.

But the first residential schools were established in the U.S. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the U.S. government created mandatory boarding schools for Native children, which were based on earlier Christian missionary schools.

In these federally funded schools, Native children were banned from speaking their own language or observing their own cultural practices. The philosophy of these schools was “kill the Indian, and save the man,” a phrase allegedly coined by Col. Richard Henry Pratt. Conversion to Christianity was an important component of this process.

Disease and abuse were rampant at the schools. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, founded by Pratt in 1879 and open until 1918, interred nearly 200 Native children in their cemetery.

In 1891, the federal government required all Native children to attend these boarding schools.

“Within my own generation, people were still attending these, what I like to call ‘internment camps,’” Nobiss said. “It was meant to exterminate us, physically and culturally.”

In 1898, the Toledo Boarding School opened in Iowa, and around 50 Meskwaki students were enrolled. Johnathan Buffalo, the director of historic preservation at the Meskwaki Museum & Cultural Center, told Iowa Public Radio, “They were arresting parents to force them to go.”

In reaction to the unmarked graves in Canada, Indigenious leaders are calling for an examination of all former residential schools. U.S.

Activists gather at the Iowa State Capitol Complex for Great Plains Action Society’s second annual July 4th event in 2021 to demand that Iowa abolish monuments to white supremacy.

Participants are wearing Great Plains Action Society and Humanize My Hoodie’s “The Truth Will Not Be Whitewashed” shirts. Photo courtesy of Sikowis Nobiss

Interior Secretary Haaland announced that her department will investigate more than 365 former boarding school sites in the States. Haaland, the first Native American to lead the DOI and first to serve as a cabinet secretary, said this initiative will produce a final report by April 1, 2022.

The remains of children buried at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School are being exhumed and returned to their families. In July, nine bodies of children from the Sicangu Lakota tribe in South Dakota stopped at the Meskwaki Settlement so the Meskwaki could pay their respects.

Unlike other Indigenious communities, the

Meskwaki Nation does not live on a reservation.

In 1857, they purchased 80 acres of land in Tama County. Since the Meskwaki had formal federal recognition and private ownership of their land, the settlement had a murky jurisdictional status.

Buffalo explained that the Meskwaki Nation were able to resist and challenge the government in court because of their special jurisdiction. But even then, parents were “strong-armed” into sending their children to the Toledo Boarding School.

“Every time we talk about stuff like this, we’re accused of being un-American,” Buffalo said.

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LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 37

Community

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Great Plains Action Society participates in a Cancel KXL March in Lincoln, Nebraska in August 2017. GPAS’s Mahmud Fitil, who also founded Ní btháska Stand Collective in Nebraska for this very purpose, was instrumental in shutting the project down.

Photo courtesy of Sikowis Nobiss

“All we want is justice. Justice for our young people, our babies. That’s what we want.”

Keely Driscoll, who also does youth political engagement for GPAS, grew up in Tama on the Meskwaki Settlement. She went to the Meskwaki Settlement School, a tribally controlled school founded in 1980, then she went to public school in Tama. Her mother is a history teacher at the settlement school.

“Going to the town schools, like, it’s so different in terms of what you’re being taught and the kind of history that is being taught,” she said.

Driscoll is a senior at the University of Iowa, majoring in international studies with certificates in sustainability and Native studies. She plans to attend law school, though she hasn’t decided on a field yet.

“I’m having a hard time even just picking what kind of law I want to do—environmental or tribal or international—so I have a lot figuring out to do,” she said.

Driscoll started working with GPAS when she was in high school. She wanted to shed light on issues in her community that aren’t commonly known or discussed.

“We’re all living so close together, but we don’t really see each other’s ways of living,” Driscoll said.

Moving from Tama to Iowa City was a “culture shock,” she said, but her work with GPAS to support fellow Native students made her feel less alone.

“It provides a community away from home,” she said. “Seeing that there’s these different 38 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

events going on, or there’s different efforts being made to have Indigenous issues heard, even though they’re not on their reservation or not on the settlement, can be very comforting.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has made organizing more difficult. GPAS shifted from in-person events to online webinars, occasionally holding outdoor events.

white people, according to the Indian Health Service. They are over four times more likely to be hospitalized because of COVID-19.

“We have an older population. We have a lot of elders,” Nobiss said. “Those elders are like walking repositories of knowledge and language.

And if they haven’t passed that stuff on, then we lose it forever. So it’s pretty scary and sad sometimes.”

Another issue facing Native nonprofits and other organizations is funding.

Nearly everyone Little Village spoke with at GPAS mentioned the need for more people and resources. Part of the reason Native causes and organizations are underfunded is the lack of generational wealth, Nobiss said.

Some nations are doing so well that money is distributed throughout the community, she said.

Companies under the Meskwaki, Inc. umbrella or the Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel contribute funds to support the tribal community.

Meskwaki’s tribal government offers community services like food sovereignty, child support and a higher education program.

From 2006 to 2014, annual donations by large foundations declined by 29 percent, a $35 million decline, according to a study by First Nations Development Institute.

The majority of annual grant dollars are awarded to non-Native controlled organizations.

These organizations also get the majority of large multi-year grants, which provide over $400,000.

“WE HAVE AN OLDER POPULATION. WE HAVE A LOT OF ELDERS. THOSE ELDERS ARE LIKE WALKING REPOSITORIES OF KNOWLEDGE AND LANGUAGE. AND IF THEY HAVEN’T PASSED THAT STUFF ON, THEN WE LOSE IT FOREVER.” —SIKOWIS NOBISS

“Yeah, it’s been hard [this] last year,” Nobiss said. “I actually consider our work like an essential service. You can’t stop fighting fascism.

I don’t know how to deal with that sometimes.”

Native communities have responded well to the pandemic. The CDC shows that AIAN people have the highest vaccination rate. Just over 50 percent are fully vaccinated, compared to 40.5 percent of the white American population.

The Meskwaki Health Clinic has provided over 6,000 COVID-19 shots, serving four times the tribe’s population. In early October, the National Indian Health Board awarded them the “Heroes in Health Award.”

Despite this, AIAN people have infection rates three and half times higher than non-Hispanic

Support from the largest foundations declined on average by 60 percent during that same time frame. GPAS doesn’t hold fundraisers, but they do accept donations through their website.

“We could definitely use a couple more people, but to get that funding is like pulling teeth.

It’s so hard,” Nobiss said. “We’re just so underfunded in every capacity. My goal is really to change that.”

Speaking truth to power is a vital service provided by activism groups like GPAS, Adrianne Chalepah said.

“Our society desperately needs them, desperately needs people who aren’t afraid to speak up, who aren’t afraid to ask hard questions. We desperately need courage and strength from our

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 39

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society, and my heart is always with the activists because they put themselves in real danger from more state violence, from more police violence,” she said.

“Unfortunately, we live in a day and age where you can kill a Native American person and absolutely get away with it, because we don’t have a lot of political power,” Adrianne continued. “Our lives are priced at the lowest price tag you can imagine. It’s, in my opinion, an ongoing genocide.

“I know those are strong words, and I don’t say them lightly.”

Nobiss imagines a better future for her community, one that’s built on Indigenous ideologies and practices. She realizes that a “paradigm shift” away from colonial capitalism is idealistic, but that doesn’t stop her from taking steps to revive her culture, language and way of life.

“I will die before I see anything that I actually want to see happen,” she said. “Hopefully within my lifetime I might see one small change, you know, or maybe I’ll get lucky.”

In that better future, it isn’t about how much you have, but how much you give away, she said.

And the more you give away, the richer you are.

Adrianne can see the path to progress. She believe that education and prioritizing Indigenous voices will push people to action.

“I do have hope. I just think that people need to implicate themselves in this process as well. And then I think that our society can move forward,” she said. “But I would be lying if I said that the impact of this story, you know, wasn’t so great on my family.”

Loved ones are planning a memorial candlelight vigil for Bear Heels, hoping to spread awareness about police brutality and mental health.

“That’s really all we can do, and I think that by doing that work we’re healing ourselves.”

Adria Carpenter is a multimedia reporter and editor at Little Village.

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 41

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42 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

Culture

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Come On In, Be Yourself

I

Andre’ Wright approaches the challenges of liberation one conversation at a time.

t was the kids who came up with the name.

When designer and Humanize My Hoodie co-founder Andre’ Wright accepted an offer from Revival owner Sheila Davisson to make use of her then-vacant Ped Mall space, he didn’t have a name in mind.

All he had was a vision to “really show this community what inclusion is.” And in the months that he and his team were there, through December 2020, that lesson hit. Although the space wasn’t solely focused on youth, young Black creatives became the core of its user base.

“They got a chance to see constructive Black people,” Wright said. “My hope was that they would come in and be inspired.”

They clearly were. In the midst of the creativity and community spurred there, they began referring to the place in terms of what it had come to feel like for them: a Black Liberation Space.

And they weren’t the only ones who were inspired. Filmmaker and University of Iowa MFA candidate Trevon Jakaar Coleman crafted a tight documentary of the space with the same name; it’s been getting attention as it makes the festival rounds.

The film is an homage to the work that went on there and the people it touched. At just 12 minutes, it leaves you wanting more—which is appropriate, because so does the space itself. There is a sense, both in watching the documentary and in speaking with Wright, that there is so much more ahead for this idea, and for all of the other ideas swirling in Wright’s inventive mind.

For now, Wright has been meeting with some of the students who frequented the Black Liberation Space at various spots in downtown Iowa City, and they’re Jordan Sellergren / Little Village

working on projects in their own homes (see design spread, next four pages). He sees himself as a Professor X to the young people he works with.

“I get to help them understand what their talents are and how to use them,” he said.

He’s determined to continue to source opportunities for them, to help them discover ways to work within the field of art.

“This is what kids and other adults are telling me,” he said. “As much joy as this community offers, some people don’t feel the same, because they are excluded from the table.”

Wright saw the Black Liberation Space as “a chance to fight back … a form of protest, but in a way that was

BY GENEVIEVE TRAINOR

WH: Lessons & Visions on Independent Space Pt. 1, FilmScene—Chauncey, Iowa City, Saturday, Nov. 6 at 10 a.m., Choose Your Price-$25 Filmmaker Spotlight: Black Liberation Space, FilmScene—Chauncey, Iowa City, Sunday, Nov. 14 at 6:30 p.m., $5

liberation and what that means for us?”

He’s feeling more optimistic about that possibility now. As he searches for a new location for a reiteration of his vision, he’s also refining and heightening it.

“WE BUILD RELATIONSHIPS MORE THAN BEING AN INCUBATOR. AND THOSE RELATIONSHIPS LET US KNOW HOW WE CAN HELP EACH OTHER.” more empowering.”

“It was almost like a 3D visual of us humanizing ourselves in the moment,” he said.

But it wasn’t exhibitionist. In fact, he said, they never even opened the front door of the space. Everyone entered and left through the back door. It was of, by and for the community it served, not a showcase for the world at large.

Wright recalled the waves of support that have run through activist circles in the wake of various tragedies in the Black community, but he remembers them as transitory, performative.

“It upset me to see people fall back from something that was so passionate to me,” he said of the way those waves receded. He wondered, “Are we ever going to get liberation here? Are we ever going to be able to have a real conversation about

“This would serve as kind of an incubator for different kinds of services,” he said, speaking excitedly about a barber, for example, who had set up shop in the original space. “We build relationships,” he clarified, “more than being an incubator. And those relationships let us know how we can help each other.”

Wright wants to build a place “for our people to have a place of belonging,” he said—and he wants it to be in the heart of downtown, in a place where it can have the most impact and in a way that allows the users of the space “to actually do action, not just talk about things.” He sees opportunities for community development, for financial literacy, for providing jobs.

“If we’re not being vocal about these things, the conversation won’t be had,” he said.

Ultimately, it comes down to discerning the best way to help in each individual situation. And to do that, you have to know people deeply.

“How do you treat your friends? How do you treat your best friend? You learn,” Wright said. “I don’t think we spend enough time learning other people.”

Genevieve Trainor is arts editor and publisher at Little Village.

Check out the Black Liberation Space student design spread on the next four pages LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 43

44 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 Quincy Jagnow / Little Village

Watch the Black Liberation Space Movie LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 45

Dalia Hurtado / Little Village

Watch the Black Liberation Space Movie

Watch the Black Liberation Space Movie

Community

Follow the Leader 1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones brings her whirlwind success back home to Iowa. BY DR. DAWSON

N

ikole Hannah-Jones describes herself as “just a girl from Waterloo.” But her career suggests so much more.

Hannah-Jones was the recipient of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her introductory essay to The New York Times’ The 1619 Project, which discussed slavery as foundational in American history and its legacy seen today in U.S. capitalism, politics, health care, prisons, infrastructure, education and more. She has been named to Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People for 2021. And she demonstrates that moving forward in what one feels is right will always be the best option.

The Des Moines Public Library Foundation will add to Hannah-Jones’ list of achievements by presenting her with the Iowa Author Award for 2021 at an awards gala and benefit on Nov. 22 in Des Moines. She’ll be the featured speaker at that event, and she will be signing copies of her book The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story and her latest release, a children’s

“I DON’T THINK, MORALLY, YOU CAN BE BLACK IN AMERICA AND NOT WORKING IN SERVICE—IN SOME WAY—FOR YOUR COMMUNITY. IT IS OK TO WANT INDIVIDUAL SUCCESS, BUT I DON’T THINK THAT WE SHOULD EVER BE WORKING TOWARDS INDIVIDUAL SUCCESS AT THE EXCLUSION OF OUR COMMUNAL SUCCESS.” Nikole Hannah-Jones by Kaylin Butterfield / Little Village

book treatment of the subject called The 1619 Project: Born on the Water (out Nov. 16).

Despite state and national accolades, Hannah-Jones’ latest project is local and close to home. The 1619 Freedom School, an after-school program, is based in Hannah-Jones’ hometown of Waterloo, Iowa. The school’s mission is to teach Black youth personal empowerment and the contributions of their ancestors. Their motto—“Liberation Through Literacy”— pinpoints the steps needed to cultivate today’s new leaders.

And you can never start too young.

Although the school has no specific plans to open more branches around the country, its resources will be available to the public so that other communities can utilize them. The 1619 Freedom School team is determined to assist low-income students in the area, focusing on students whose standardized test scores show they are the most academically behind. The school plans to kick off with fourth graders at Waterloo’s Walter Cunningham Elementary—the city’s most segregated school, with its highest poverty rate. It will then expand locally as needed.

Amid frenzied conservative outrage over The 1619 Project, 48 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

critical race theory and other scholarly critiques of U.S. institutions that center race, Hannah-Jones emphasized that the Freedom School will not, in any way, be forced on children.

“We are serving families who do want this information,” Hannah-Jones said.

READ IT The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story Nikole Hannah-Jones & The New York Times Magazine The 1619 Project: Born on the Water Nikole Hannah-Jones & Renée Watson, illustrated

by Nikkolas Smith

Iowa Author Awards 2021, Embassy Suites, Des Moines, Monday, Nov. 22 at 5 p.m., $200

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This after-school program sprang from the same motives that drove Hannah-Jones’ 1619 Project: the preservation of letters from the first slave ship, which arrived in Virginia the year 1619. It was started in part as a response to the realization that many Black children are behind in reading—not because they are incapable, but because of the lack of resources available to them.

It will take some time to teach the current impact of our country’s past, but the 1619 Freedom School aims to ensure that Black youth will be educated on their history and empowered with knowledge they can apply towards their own goals and aspirations.

Hannah-Jones, who graduated with a degree in history and African American studies from the University of Notre Dame almost 20 years ago, acknowledges the need to pass down what she’s learned. And she feels that now she is at a stable place in her career and has the power and resources to bring things into the world, she must use those advantages for the benefit of others.

“We all carry that obligation, whether we acknowledge it or not,” she said. “You can never learn enough.”

Though books have remained her own primary way of learning, the way she disperses her knowledge has changed. The Freedom School aside, a career that began with newspaper articles has transformed into podcasts, social media and documentaries.

“Twitter is much more useful with providing sources, news,” Hannah-Jones said, adding that she appreciates the access to “different types of thinkers.”

I saw a thread on Twitter recently aimed at Chicago hip-hop artist Noname, pointing to a perceived lack of urgency among young Black activists toward issues central to the Black community. (Noname defended herself against the charges of online slacktivism by noting the daily work she puts into her community library, Noname Book Club.) I asked Hannah-Jones, as someone active on the site, if she feels there is a pressing awareness of the needs Black America is facing.

“I definitely feel urgency!” Hannah-Jones said.

She described her daughter as having an “activist spirit, a strong sense of judgment.” I mentioned that I remembered my own childhood as playful, passionate and driven. It made me question at what age one must come to terms with the ways of the world.

While childhood itself confers wonder and possibilities, it takes a community to invest in those wonders. One of the great accomplishments

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of the 1619 Freedom School is that it offers students a chance to explore different possibilities. It allows children the well-deserved opportunity to cultivate their gifts.

So, when is the “right time” to support rights for Black people?

Hannah-Jones is a firm believer that everyone has the power to create their own lives. And everyone can benefit from a program that teaches self-respect.

“I don’t think, morally, you can be Black in America and not working in service—in some way—for your community,” Hannah-Jones said.

“It is OK to want individual success, but I don’t think that we should ever be working towards individual success at the exclusion of our communal success.”

The history of Black struggle in America demonstrates the power of working together, of course. Marches and sit-ins have created legacies of togetherness and pride.

“I was leading walkouts in high school,” Hannah-Jones said. “For me, that has felt like a purpose since I was a child.”

In a turn that I find amazing, Hannah-Jones— who once had a goal of attending Howard University, a historically Black college, as an undergraduate student—has now come full circle as a tenured professor there, holding the new Knight Chair in Race and Journalism and establishing the Center for Journalism and Democracy with Howard alumnus Ta-Nehisi Coates. Amid a schedule that’s tiring and full, Hannah-Jones says she enjoys being surrounded by the different people on the East Coast, where many Black people of the diaspora reside.

Two years ago, the 400th anniversary of the start of slavery in New England led some in this country to reflect on how far (or how little) we have grown as the United States of America. The New York Times released the 1619 Project, a monumental history that declares that change is continuous. Reflection can bring on different emotions and realizations some people may not be ready for: thoughts of legacy, obligation and the future.

To be Black in America means understanding the price that is due to be paid. Countless Americans have dedicated their lives to ensure the good of our country comes first. Hannah-Jones has revived the meaning of an American hero—not because she feels obligated, but because the love of her people has bloomed beautifully.

Education has never been free, but using its power to uplift the community is a debt well paid.

Dr. Dawson is the founder of @hiphophealing, a local business dedicated to cultivating hip hop’s elements through mind, body and soul.

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 51

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Culture LV Recommends

Online Retail Guide

Dori Patrick Art

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Cedar Rapids mixed media artist Dori Patrick delights with her warm, whimsical designs accented by empowering sayings that walk that fine line between heartwarming and trite. Pins, prints, notecards, stickers and more are available from her Etsy shop or on her website, which also features journal entries and process videos.

Snappy dressers of any gender can put their outfit over the edge with a collar/cardigan clip from Kristen Lee’s Etsy shop, based in Iowa City. These metal bees, bats, bird skulls, antlers, octopi, dragons, simple arrowheads and more all put a bowtie to shame.

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When the “shop small” ethos combines with a slow supply chain and the urge to huddle at home, a lot of shoppers turn to Etsy.

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Explore this baker’s dozen of fantastic online shops that craft in (and ship from!) Eastern Iowa.

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The whimsical, flower-strewn women and cats of Iowa City artist Bao Pham’s prints have attracted nearly half a million Instagram followers and over 10,000 sales on Etsy. Pham also has 1.24 million views on his YouTube channel, where he posts timelapse videos of his painting and drawing process.

Evelyn Mae Creations etsy.com/shop/ EvelynMaeCreations evelynmaecreations.com Claudia McGehee etsy.com/shop/ ClaudiaMcGehee claudia-mcgehee.com

Perhaps best known as the artist behind Java House’s longtime coffee cup designs, McGehee’s distinctive scratchboard and watercolor illustrations have also graced children’s books, including Creekfinding and Begin with a Bee. Dozens of prints, along with copies of her books, a tote bag, a prairie coloring book and more are available for purchase from the IC artist’s Etsy shop.

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Dotł’izhi facebook.com/dotlizhi/shop

This Cedar Rapids-based shop sells delicate little sterling silver, pewter and gold-plated charms in any shape you could think of: animals, insects, tools, states, runes, religious and holiday symbols—even a little toilet! This variety (currently 1,700 different products) has led to more than 50,000 sales and thousands of five-star reviews.

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Alicia named her brand after the western Apache word for turquoise (pronounced dot-cluh-gee), a stone her Apache father often used in his traditional beadwork. Carrying on the tradition in her own way, Alicia crafts dramatic fringe earrings, statement rings and other intricate jewelry, utilizing sustainable materials.

“Each collection that I create will be inspired [by] a strong woman and the elements used will reflect her story, her culture background and her style,” Alicia says on her website.

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Culture

Thumbprint Soap Dirty Birdies Vintage

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Clothes, decor, wedding cake toppers—they’re all a little more special when they’re vintage. All 1,800 items in this Oxford Junction-based Etsy shop are one of a kind, making scrolling through Dirty Birdies’ wares a nostalgic experience for anyone who grew up between 1960 and 2006.

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Mind and Mineral etsy.com/shop/ mindandmineral

Laura Lacasa Yost weaves tiny seed beads into colorful, lightly textured statement jewelry, some pieces literally making statements. Yost communicates with her customers in Spanish and English and donates 10 percent of annual sales to local nonprofits, including Dress for Success Quad Cities, the HACAP Food Reservoir and the Iowa City Free Medical Clinic.

Nothing brightens up a room like a severed finger dangling in the window. Iowa City stained-glass artist Brooke Dearborn Huston has filled her Etsy shop with a range of vibrant, playful and often horror-themed glass art: suncatchers, planter stakes, earrings, tree toppers, custom glass pet portraits and more.

Katie Adams crafts oldfashioned lye soaps and other eco-conscious products in small batches, avoiding harsh chemicals, palm oil, overharvested essential oils and plastic packaging. Each bar is unique in appearance— inspiring the name Thumbprint Soap—and available in a range of fun scents. Her Cedar Rapids soap collection, for example, includes the fruity Crunch Berry Day; Lion Bridge Beer, made with the Czech Village brewery’s Bridge Beer golden ale; and Indian Creek, a woodsy scent inspired by the Indian Creek Nature Center.

Eightfold Fox eightfoldfox.com

After developing a stomach disorder that made wearing tight clothing painful and impractical, Fox learned to make her own clothes: pullover dresses, patterned joggers, relaxed-fit overalls and other easy-to-wear garments, infused with the cottagecore/ dark academia aesthetic Fox fancied. Soon, she was getting messages from people with arthritis, cancer, body dysmorphia, folks on the autism spectrum, all looking to purchase Fox’s accessible, stylish garments. Eightfold Fox was born, an adaptable clothing brand based out of Iowa.

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The only thing more mesmerizing than Kristin Vaughn’s polymer clay earrings is watching her make them. Perhaps this is why the Ely creator has garnered nearly 150,000 Instagram followers, over 211,000 TikTok followers and spotlights from Buzzfeed, Yahoo Life and My Modern Met. Vaughn even offers a monthly earring subscription.

54 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

Suzanne Aunan, etsy.com/shop/SuzanneAunan, sbaunan.com

Visit a few Iowa City living rooms and before long you’ll see a painting (or puzzle) in Suzanne Aunan’s distinctive modern primitive style. A self-taught painter, Aunan depicts happy scenes from her life in Iowa City and beyond with all the detail and whimsy of a Wes Anderson film still, including game day at Kinnick, the Holiday Tuba Concert at the Old Capitol, the Iowa State Fair, the University of Iowa Homecoming Parade, Dance Marathon and a tractor ride at Wilson’s Orchard.

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Bread & Butter

Bread & Butter

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Locally Grown Tapestry Farms works to feed refugees and others stuck in Quad Cities food deserts. BY CHARLY HEBER-SPATES

H

alf of Iowa’s grocery stores closed in the last quarter of the 20th century, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Today, roughly 40 percent of Iowans live a half mile or more from the nearest source of fresh fruits and vegetables—a minor inconvenience for folks with ready access to transportation, but devastating to the health of low-income Iowans whose neighborhoods are disproportionately left out to dry in food deserts.

According to IDPH, the further one must travel to access healthy food, the more likely they are to have chronic diet-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular issues.

Statewide, 9.4 percent of Iowans are food insecure, according to data collected by the nonprofit Feeding America. This trend extends to the Quad Cities, where nearly 11 percent of Rock Island County and 9 percent of Scott County residents

Amaranth

Intoryi

Kholrabi

Paw paw

56 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

attempted to rebuild, but with mounting obstacles, their efforts were unsuccessful. Presently, the organization has gone defunct.

Despite the fate of the Quad City Food Forest, the fight for food reciprocity in the QC continues.

Another Davenport-based organization, Tapestry Farms, promotes urban gardening with a focus on providing resources to refugees and honoring their immense knowledge of gardening and food. The nonprofit has been operating since 2017, and so far, they’ve reclaimed several plots of vacant land in the QC and turned them into lush garden spaces.

“Our plots, for the most part, are located in areas designated as food deserts by the USDA,” founder and director Ann McGlynn said. But as she and the dedicated volunteers of Tapestry Farms have worked toward providing for the people in these areas, they’ve seen firsthand the complex social issues that lead to food deserts.

TAPESTRY FARMS’ CSA CROPS CAN INCLUDE TOMATOES, CABBAGE, CORN, CARROTS, POTATOES, SQUASH, SUNFLOWERS AND APPLES, IN ADDITION TO KOHLRABI, AMARANTH, INTORYI AND PAWPAWS, PRODUCE FAMILIAR TO MANY AFRICAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN IMMIGRANTS LIVING IN THE QC. are food insecure, and where many of the region’s poorest residents live miles from the nearest grocery store.

Of course, grocery stores and food pantries aren’t the only sources of healthy food. Two Quad Cities organizations have looked to harness the power of gardens and food forests to fill food gaps, with two very different degrees of success.

If you’ve never heard of a food forest, it’s almost exactly what you would expect: a designated area specifically used to grow native food-yielding trees and plants for a community.

The Quad City Food Forest had been working to do just that since 2014. The goal of the organization was to provide sustainable and free food to areas of the QC experiencing extreme food insecurity.

The organization faced a number of setbacks in 2021, and not just from the pandemic. In April, their main location in downtown Davenport was destroyed by vandals, their entire crop cut down to nothing. Then, the City of Davenport retracted the Food Forest’s license. The Food Forest

“We’ve started to talk about neighborhoods facing food apartheid,” McGlynn said. “These are neighborhoods that have experienced decades of disinvestment and discrimination.”

Racial and economic inequality are tied up with food insecurity, she explained. Many of the people behind the work at Tapestry Farms have experienced this treatment, and they use their experiences to direct the progress of the nonprofit.

Most notably, Tapestry Farms works to make the resettlement process for refugees easier, in spite of language, cultural and financial barriers.

“We grow fresh vegetables and flowers, and either give it away to refugee families or sell shares in our CSA,” McGlynn said. These crops can include tomatoes, cabbage, corn, carrots, potatoes, squash, sunflowers and apples, in addition to kohlrabi, amaranth, intoryi and pawpaws, produce familiar to many African and Middle Eastern immigrants living in the QC. Tapestry also utilizes jembes, a type of hoe traditional in African agriculture, in their gardens.

“It’s hard to succinctly explain what this box Jon Burns / Little Village

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 57

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of veggies means,” the org posted on Facebook in July, along with a photo of one of their summer CSA shares, bursting with peppers, zucchini, flowers and more. “This box represents access to fresh, beautiful produce for anyone, no matter their income. It represents meaningful employment and social services support for refugees.

And, it represents a lot of hard work and collaboration towards changing food systems in our community.”

Recently, Tapestry has teamed up with Backyard Abundance, a conservation education nonprofit in Johnson County, to plan an expansive new garden on a plot of land at Third and Brown streets in Davenport. The org also received a $10,000 grant from the Quad Cities Community Foundation this fall, which McGlynn said will go toward hiring new staff and welcoming new refugees.

Roughly 225 refugees have arrived in the Quad Cities every year over the past decade.

That number is expected to double in the years ahead, with more and more people relocating from Myanmar, Afghanistan and central and eastern Africa.

Ultimately, grants and community support make all the difference for organizations combating food insecurity, and the lack of them are often why they fail. The work of these organizations starts in the relationships between neighbors.

Ending food insecurity is impossible without mobilizing to make fresh food readily available to everyone in our communities.

Information about donating to and volunteering with Tapestry Farms can be found on their website, tapestryfarms.org. Look into the people and associations in your own communities fighting for food security—they have the power to change everything.

Charly Heber-Spates is a freelance writer based in the Quad Cities.

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 59

Culture

A-List

Seeing the Forest for the Trees An Iowa-based nonprofit celebrates and helps guide immigrant entrepreneurs. BY ERIQ TSHIMBOMBU

W

hether for personal reasons or compelled by political, social, cultural, economic or environmental circumstances, the act of immigration is disorienting. Entrepreneurship, for its part, is a dense forest that can discourage and even neutralize the most experienced hunters, if attempted without a guide who has mastered the environment.

Entrepreneurship is a complex and involved process for native-born citizens, and much more so for immigrants. This is why the Immigrant Entrepreneurs Summit (IES) was created: to highlight businesses and immigrants who shine through entrepreneurship, and, as their website states, to “help immigrant business owners or immigrants who want to begin business fearlessly learn and enthusiastically thrive for a better tomorrow.”

IES is a guide that helps immigrant business owners to find their way in this dense forest which is entrepreneurship in the U.S., especially in Iowa, to reach the summit.

Since its creation in 2008, board co-chair Ying Sa and the IES leadership have annually brought more than 1,000 business owners of diverse backgrounds together to share, learn and celebrate the immigrant entrepreneurship experience and the contribution they make, collectively and individually, to the community. Their National Summit, which is taking place on Nov. 20 this year, is the highlight of their annual events, typically drawing in attendees from over 40 countries of origin.

In 2015, Andrew Wainer, the senior immigration policy analyst for Washington, D.C. faithbased nonprofit Bread for the World Institute, wrote a briefing paper titled, “Harnessing Immigrant Small Entrepreneurship for Economic Growth.” In it, he cited four elements constituting the “challenges to small immigrant entrepreneurship”: “access to financing, business education and skills, culture and language, and the immigration status.”

To these challenges, let’s add racism, xenophobia and of course the COVID-19 pandemic, which has become a major difficulty that will have an impact for a long period to come.

COVID-19 has caused unforeseen devastation for entrepreneurship in all kinds of business, as well as for the entire economy.

A concrete example: WAWA Caribbean Restaurant in Cedar Rapids, owned by Wadeline LaFortune. LaFortune is a spouse, mother of four 60 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

Courtesy of the Immigrant Entreprenuers Sumit

boys—and a determined immigrant entrepreneur in her 30s, without a diploma.

“I never wanted to be a doctor or lawyer, that was my parents’ desire to see me in these kinds of fields,” LaFortune said. “My passion has always been about food, that is something that I loved to do.”

LaFortune is the owner and the visionary of her business, managing all administration needs, contracts and relationships with customers and partners. And she is the master of the kitchen.

Her husband, Wilberson Hyppolite, is every-

Immigrant Entrepreneurs Summit— National, FFA Enrichment Center, Ankeny, Saturday, Nov. 20 at 8:30 a.m., $70

pandemic. Banks did not want to take any risk.

She had to invest out of pocket, with the help of her husband, to start her business. Yet she is moving forward, despite difficulty in accessing financing, lack of formal business education and constraints of the COVID-19. These are common among the struggles immigrants have to face to

“INSPIRATION AND EMPATHY SURROUNDED ME DURING MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH IES, BECAUSE OF ALL THE KNOWLEDGE AND THE STORIES OF ALL THE MIGRANTS WHO HAVE SUCCEEDED THEIR BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES.” —JULIEN DUHAUTOIS

where: in the kitchen, serving, welcoming the customers, encouraging her and taking charge when she is absent. Three to four people help them in the kitchen, and her children are always ready to help when they are free.

At the beginning of this year, she saw all of her requests for financing to start her business rejected by banks because of the COVID-19

start their businesses. But they’re just a small difficulty among so many others that IES has helped to solve many times.

In 2019, two entrepreneur migrants, Julien Duhautois and Uzir Thapa, co-founded Tennis Line Call, a startup for an app “that will detect whether or not a tennis ball has gone out of bounds.” They serve as CEO and Chief App

LittleVillageMag.com

Courtesy of the Immigrant Entreprenuers Sumit

Officer Technical, respectively. The app will be in beta soon for iOS, and they expect it to be released for Android in 2022.

The same year they founded their startup, Duhautois was invited to IES by a friend.

“Inspiration and empathy surrounded me during my first experience with IES,” Duhautois said, “because of all the knowledge and the stories of all the migrants who have succeeded their business in the United States.”

In 2020, Duhautois won $5,000 at an IES pitch competition, created to help support immigrant entrepreneurs and to highlight and promote their businesses.

“Winning or not ..., participating is a huge opportunity for any immigrant business owner,” Duhautois said. “Any attendant may have created an opportunity for a potential investment or customer.”

In 2017, Claudia Schabel, another winner and president of Schabel Solutions DEI consulting firm, had the same experience. “You’ll gain so much from the experience, just like I did,” she said.

Throughout its history, “IES has helped more than 1,600 immigrant entrepreneurs to start their business and thrive,” Sa said. “IES can help much more when you are committed to spending time and to be learning and to look forward to other IES events. IES events, (whether the series of virtual or in-person held throughout the year across the region or the culminating national summit) draw energy, not just knowledge”.

IES was created by professional immigrant entrepreneurs to solve an existing problem, which was a growing demand for help in the community in Des Moines by immigrants and minority business owners with tax and business

issues. Sa, an IES founding Board member and a CEO at Community CPA, noticed the need and has worked with others to uplift the immigrant community.

In June, IES awarded recipients in Minnesota in a virtual event, including Tong C. Thao, who received the Immigrant Champion Award, and Dr. Bruce Corrie who received the Immigrant Spirit Award. The Summit had Steve Simon, Secretary of State of Minnesota, as one of the speakers.

Through networking, experience and knowledge sharing, IES has faced and solved the sorts of challenges cited above, from racism and xenophobia to even something as unforeseeable as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Immigration opponents may ask such questions as, “What is the interest of the United States to support an organization highly devoted to immigrants in particular instead of non-immigrant American citizens first?” and “what is the purpose of IES to support immigrant entrepreneur owners?”

A part of the answer can be found in point seven of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)’s office’s New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in 2016), which states that: “large movements of refugees and migrants have political, economic, social, developmental, humanitarian and human rights ramifications, which cross all borders.”

Another part can be found in Simon’s speech in June, in which he enthusiastically demonstrated the developmental ramifications of that point.

“Numbers and facts reveal the success story of immigrants around the United States,” he told

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Culture

LittleVillageMag.com

the virtual IES Minnesota attendees. “Indeed, there was a study released in 2019 by the Center for American Entrepreneurship that found that 43 percent of Fortune 500 companies and 557 percent of the top five companies in America were founded by immigrants or children of immigrants.”

He went on to cite additional studies showing that 51 percent of U.S. startups valued at $1 billion or more have at least one immigrant founder, and approximately 25 percent of hightech firms are founded by immigrants. “The bulk of economic research,” he explained, “shows that immigration has led to faster overall growth and a better standard of living for everyone. Not just a few. It raises the tide for all Americans, native-born or not … Immigration is the key to the national economic survival, and to a thriving economy.”

It must be said that this development can be reached only if immigration is promoted and well managed. IES has played a significant role in contributing to this development. However, many immigrant entrepreneurs are not known yet. Many others have started, but are not able to reach the next level. Some others do not know where to begin or are scared to start. And there are many victims of those entrepreneurs who do not want to open the knowledge of their craft to new arrivals.

“When one of our community members is doing a successful business, you see others are following suit,” Sa said. “I don’t call that competition, I call that forest. You cannot be a tree, blossom and big. You have to be in the forest.

And IES is creating that forest for all of us.”

Eriq is a Congolese lawyer, writer and human rights activist. An expert in international law and international relationships, he is CEO of Bonjour Maître, a social legal organization. Currently, he is working in the AmeriCorps Vista program.

Be famous.

(Kinda.)

Little Village is looking for writers. Contact: Editor@LittleVillageMag.com 62 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

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EDITORS’ PICKS: NOVEMBER 2021

EVENTS: NOVEMBER NOVEMBER 2021 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.

Courtesy of the Englert Theatre

fresh cut, beautifully arranged, locally-sourced flowers

SATURDAY, NOV. 20,

Kyle Kinane,

Englert Theatre, Iowa City, at 7:30 p.m., $15-26.50 Illinois comedian Kyle

Kinane, apparently, loves to crochet and do needlepoint. But his similarities to your grandmother likely end there (unless you got damned lucky in the grandma department). “Nobody likes the guy who gets their shit together … that sensible jackass,” he vamps on his 2020 album Trampoline in a Ditch, waxing poetic about moderation and its alternatives. “You’ve gotta hit rock bottom to sober up. I’ve never hit rock bottom—well, maybe I have; it’s a matter of perspective. Someone else’s rock bottom might be me saying, ‘Hunh. They’re never going to let us into that water park again.’” Kinane can also be heard on Netflix’s Paradise PD, as a drug-addled anthropomorphic police dog in an incompetent department staffed by the likes of Sarah Chalke and Cedric Yarbrough. Kinane is coming through Iowa City on the “So…Where Were We” tour.

Weddings & Events • Local Delivery Workshops • Flower Subscriptions Wrapped Bouquets • Custom Arrangements

207 NORTH LINN STREET, IOWA CITY 319.338.1332 • WILLOWANDSTOCK.COM 64 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

Theatrical Extravaganzas Thursday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m.

Friday-Sunday, Nov. 12-14.

Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood,

University of Iowa Opera: Three

Paramount Theatre, Cedar Rapids,

Decembers, Coralville Center for

$38-58

the Performing Arts, $5-20

Thursday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. Improv

Friday, Nov. 12 at 9 p.m. Tyler

First Thursday, CSPS Hall, Cedar

Fowler, Joystick Comedy Bar &

Rapids, Free-$5

Arcade, Iowa City, $5

AROUND THE CRANDIC

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM

Saturday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. Tyler Fowler (all-ages show), Joystick Comedy Bar & Arcade, Iowa City, $5 Sunday, Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. All Together Now—An Courtesy of Witching Hour Festival

ICCT Fundraiser, Celebration Farm, Iowa City, $80 Opening Friday, Nov. 19 Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Theatre Cedar Rapids, $27-51 Friday, Nov. 19 at 9 p.m. Mark Masters, Joystick Comedy Bar & Arcade, Iowa City, $5 Sunday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. MasterChef

Witching Hour Festival,

NOV. 5-6, VARIOUS VENUES, IOWA CITY, Choose Your Price-$25 This year, the Witching Hour Festival—an exploration of the creative process

and celebration of new work—returns in person with an exciting premiere. Iowa City’s Curious Records has chosen Witching Hour for the inaugural installation of Moebius Strips, a sonic sculpture that will take over the stage at the Englert Theatre for the duration of the fest. Electronic artist Tim Story spearheaded the project, which features electronic artists from around the world paying tribute to the influential Dieter Moebius. Along with the music, WH as always features conversation and community building, kicking things off on Friday with a chat between Story and Lauren Lessing, Director of the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, exploring the liminal space between music and art exhibition which the Moebius Strips installation walks. Witching Hour is co-produced by Englert Theatre and Little Village Mag. Look for the WH throughout this calendar.

Live!, Paramount

More Community Connections!

Theatre, Cedar Rapids,

Friday, Nov. 5 at 5 p.m. WH: Reflections on

$28-128

Moebius Strips: A Conversation with Lauren Monday, Nov.

Lessing & Tim Story, UI Main Library, Iowa City,

22 at 7:30 p.m.

Choose Your Price-$25

Fiddler on the Roof,

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 10 a.m. WH: Lessons & Vi-

Paramount

sions on Independent Space Pt. 1, FilmScene—

Theatre, Cedar

Chauncey, Iowa City, Choose Your Price-$25

Rapids, $58-83 Saturday, Nov. 6 at 11:30 a.m.

Wednesday, Nov.

WH: Lessons & Visions on Independent Space

24 at 7 p.m. A

Pt. 2, FilmScene—Chauncey, Iowa City, Choose

Charlie Brown

Your Price-$25

Christmas, Paramount

Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 6 p.m. Allyship Panel with

Theatre, $29-109

Advocates for Social Justice & Civil Rights Commission, Cedar Rapids Public Library, Free

Saturday, Nov. 27 at 7 p.m. Cirque

Sunday, Nov. 14 at 9 a.m. Vintner’s Run 2021:

Musica Holiday

Fundraiser for North Liberty Community Pantry

Spectacular,

and Coralville Community Food Pantry, Walker

Paramount

Homestead, Iowa City, $50

Theatre, $35.75185 Courtesy of Witching Hour Festival

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 65

EDITORS’ PICKS: NOVEMBER 2021

AROUND THE CRANDIC

SATURDAY, NOV. 13, Prompt

For the Planet Art Show and Auction, Porch Light, Iowa City, at 6 p.m. “Think of one element and speak in its voice

Courtesy of Porchlight

through pictures and words,” poet Amanda Gorman encouraged in 2018. “... Think of it as creating an open letter from the planet.” Since this invocation, artists and writers around the world have been channeling this challenge into their work. This show highlights 10 local Iowa City-area artists, including Jenny Gringer, Kalmia Strong and Keren Alfred, who are auctioning their Prompt For the Planet responses as a fundraiser to help the LENA Project and PromptPress bring this effort to writers and artists of diverse backgrounds across Iowa.

Eye-popping Experiences Friday, Nov. 5 at 6 p.m.

Thursday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m.

Release Your Inner Artist,

New Conversations on African Art,

The Artifactory, Iowa City, $50

Stanley Museum, Online, Free

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m.

Friday-Sunday, Nov. 12-14.

Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 6 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 21 at 1 p.m. Art in the

Saturdays at the Stanley: Graphic

Hot Stamped Foil Imaging,

Thanksgiving Centerpiece Floral

Afternoon, The Artifactory, Iowa

Novels and Social Justice, Online,

The Artifactory, Iowa City, $100

Design Workshop, Willow & Stock,

City

Iowa City, $65

Free

Vino Vérité: Ascension, FilmScene— SUNDAY, NOV. 21,

Chauncey, Iowa City, at 7 p.m., $10-20 Director

Courtesy of FilmScene

Jessica Kingdon and producer Nathan Truesdell will join the FilmScene audience in person for a post-show discussion for this latest iteration of Vino Vérité, the wine-infused conversation series co-produced by FilmScene, Little Village and Bread Garden. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for hors d’oeuvres and wine tasting, followed by the screening and then a Q&A accompanied by wine and dessert. First-time filmmaker Kingdon delivers what FilmScene describes as “a stunning acid-trip meditation on class and consumption in contemporary China.” This will be a full-capacity event, and a 72-hour (or less) negative COVID-19 test or documentation of a vaccine card in lieu of a negative COVID-19 test is required for entry.

Cinematic Significance Tuesday, Nov. 2, 9, 16 at 7 p.m.

Thursday, Nov. 11 at 6:30 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 14 at 6:30 p.m. Film-

Sunday, Nov. 28 at 7 p.m. Mystery

Film Scene 101: Neo-Noir, Film-

Pride at FilmScene: Days, Film-

maker Spotlight: Black Liberation

Science Theater 3000: Time

Scene, Online, $15-20

Scene—Ped Mall, $7-11

Space, FilmScene—Chauncey, $5

Bubble Tour, Paramount Theatre,

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 9:30 p.m. MC:

Friday, Nov. 12 at 3:15 p.m. Friday

Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 6:30 p.m.

Louder Than a Bomb, FilmScene—

Flicks: The Boss Baby, Family Busi-

Sidewalk Stories, FilmScene—

Ped Mall, $6

ness, Hiawatha Public Library, Free

Chauncey, $7

Wednesday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 13 at 10 p.m. Bijou

Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 6 p.m.

From Here to Eternity, Film-

After Hours: The Long Goodbye,

Roman Holiday, Coralville Public

Scene—Chauncey, $7-11

FilmScene—Chauncey, $7

Library, Free

Cedar Rapids, $35-225

66 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

READER PHOTO SUBMISSIONS for our January Arts Issue

2021 AAN Awards Finalist for Best Special Section

Submissions should include:

• Original, previously unpublished color or b/w photography • 300 dpi or higher .tif or .jpg files • Regional relevance DEADLINE • Photographer’s full name and contact info November • 50-word description 30, 2021 Submit to jordan@littlevillagemag.com or mail/deliver prints to 623 S Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52240

Nick Rohlman, originally published in the January 2020 Arts Issue

now accepting

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 67

EDITORS’ PICKS: NOVEMBER 2021

AROUND THE CRANDIC Saturday, Nov. 6 at 10:30 a.m. MC: Protest with Poetry: Adult Workshop, Public Space One, Iowa City + Online, $25 or Free with MC Pass

Keto Product Tour Tues, Nov. 9, 6 p.m.

New Pioneer Co-op Cedar Rapids

508 Press Zine Reading Series, Porch Light, Iowa City Saturday, Nov. 6 at 1:30 p.m. MC: Spoken Word Poetry Panel Discussion, MERGE, Iowa City + Online, Free

Javon Johnson, photo via Robert Saxe

Feed Me Weird Things & Record Collector Present: Thom Nguyen w/Death Bag Thurs, Nov. 11, 9 p.m.

Trumpet Blossom Cafe

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 1 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 2:45 p.m. MC: Poetic Bodies: Adult Workshop, MERGE, Iowa City + Online, $25 or Free with MC Pass Saturday, Nov. 6 at 2:45 p.m. MC: Unlock Your Roar: Youth Workshop, Iowa City Public Library, Meeting Room D + Online, Free

NOV. 5-7, Mic

LITTLEVILLAGETICKETS.COM

Dead Coast Presents: Darrin Bradbury with Brian Johannesen Sat, Nov. 13, 8:30 p.m.

Trumpet Blossom Cafe Thanksgiving Centerpiece Floral Design Workshop Wed, Nov. 17, 6 p.m.

Willow & Stock

Check Poetry Fest, Various Venues,

Iowa City Friday-Sunday, Free-$85 This inaugural event produced

by Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey and Iowa City Poetry centers the poetic form in all its variety, with workshops, readings and slams. The $85 festival pass gets you into all events; audience members ages 13-18 are free. Most events are offered both virtually and in-person. All workshops require pre-registration. Festival highlights include headliner Javon Johnson; the Poetry in Motion showcase of area poets including Heather “Byrd” Roberts, Laura Johnson and David Duer; and weekend closer IC Speaks Showcase, highlighting teen poets. Look for the MC throughout this calendar for related events.

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 2:45 p.m. MC: Notes on Hope: Youth Workshop, Iowa City Public Library, Meeting Rooms B&C + Online, Free Saturday, Nov. 6 at 5 p.m. MC + WH: Writers of Color Reading Series, MERGE, Iowa City, Free with MC or WH Pass Saturday, Nov. 6 at 6:30 p.m. MC: Poetry Slam and Open Mic, Old Capitol Senate Chamber, Iowa City + Online, $5 or Free with MC Pass Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 6-7. Imagine Other Worlds with Authors, The Writers’ Rooms, Online (facebook.com/ iaotherworlds), Free Sunday, Nov. 7 at 1 p.m. MC: Javon Johnson and IC Speaks Showcase, Englert Theater, Iowa City + Online, Free with MC Pass Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 6 p.m. The Writer’s Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut and the Many Lives

Literary Luxuries

of Slaughterhouse-Five—Tom Roston w/ Matt Gallagher + Karl Marlantes, Prairie Lights,

Friday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m.

Online, Free

MC + WH: Poetry in Motion, Iowa City Senior Center + Online, Free with MC or WH Pass-$15

Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. Local Libraries LIT— Sloane Crosley, Online, Free

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 10:30 a.m. MC: Poetic

ARE YOU AN EVENT ORGANIZER? Start selling tickets today–– it’s free!

tickets@littlevillagemag.com

Bodies: Youth Workshop, Iowa City Public

Thursday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. Amor Towles w/ Erik

Library, Meeting Room A + Online, Free

Larson, Online, Prairie Lights, $31.80-35

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 10:30 a.m. MC:

Sunday, Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. Kidlit Pizzazz Festival,

Transforming a Message: Adult Workshop,

Sidekick Coffee & Books, Iowa City, Free

MERGE, Iowa City + Online, $25 or Free with MC Pass

Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. Ed Wasserman w/ Len Green, Online, Prairie Lights, Free

68 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

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LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 1824 G Street, Iowa City 2021 69

EDITORS’ PICKS: November 2021

AROUND THE CRANDIC

Thursday, Nov. 11,

Richard Thompson,

Englert Theatre, Iowa City, at 7:30 p.m., $20-59.50

When Fairport Convention burst onto the British folk-rock scene in 1967, there could have been no way to know that co-founder Richard Thompson would still be driving trends and spinning tales some 54 years later.

Listening to Fairport Convention’s early albums back-to-back with 13 Rivers, Thompson’s most recent solo release, you can hear those 50-plus years carried in the timbre of his voice. But the tone and style transcend time, especially his distinct hybrid-picking playing style. And the same songwriting style that influenced and inspired generations of musicians, merging folk and rock like earth and heaven, grounds and elevates his newer work.

Musical Magnificence

Wednesday, Nov. 3 at 8 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 9 p.m. WH:

Todd Snider w/ Chicago Farmer,

Tasha, Gabe’s, Iowa City, Choose

Englert Theatre, Iowa City,

Your Price-$25

$15-25 Saturday, Nov. 6 at 10:30 p.m.

Friday-Saturday Nov. 5-6. WH:

WH: Lala Lala, Gabe’s, Iowa City,

Moebius Strips Exhibition, En-

Choose Your Price-$25

glert Theatre, Iowa City, Choose Your Price-$25

Sunday, Nov. 7 at 3 p.m. Band Extravaganza, Xtream Arena,

Friday, Nov. 5 at 9 p.m. WH: Eve

Coralville, $5-14

Your Price-$25

Courtesy of Englert Theatre

Maret, Gabe’s, Iowa City, Choose Monday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. J. Knight’s 40th Open Mic AnniFriday, Nov. 5 at 10 p.m. WH:

versary Show ft. Grouper Soup;

Femme Decks Presents: DIE/

Birds, Trains, & Friends; Flash

ASPORA & Liara Kaylee Tsai,

In A Pan; Pigs & Clover; Reid,

Choose Your Price-$25

Joel, & Rachel; and special guest Laura Kittrell, Wildwood, Iowa

Friday & Saturday, Nov. 5-6 at

City, Free Saturday, Nov. 13 at 8:30 p.m.

Satuday, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. David

Cabaret Queen, Theatre Cedar

Thursday, Nov. 11 at 9 p.m.

Dead Coast Presents: Darrin Brad-

Huckfelt, CSPS Hall, Cedar Rapids,

Rapids, $15

Thom Nguyen w/ Death Bag

bury w/ Brian Johannesen, Trum-

$15-20

(tape release), Trumpet Blossom

pet Blossom Cafe, Iowa City, $10

7:30 p.m. Kara Ramirez: Killer

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 8 a.m. WH:

Saturday, Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m.

Cafe, Iowa City, $5-10

Moog Interactive Workshop, The

Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. The

Orchestra Iowa Masterworks II:

Chauncey, Iowa City, Choose

Friday, Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. Dom

World Famous Glenn Miller Or-

Handel’s Messiah, Paramount The-

Your Price-$25

Flemons, CSPS Hall, Cedar Rap-

chestra, Coralville Center

atre, Cedar Rapids, $16-56

ids, $20-25

for the Performing Arts, $25-30

WH: Moebius Strips Launch

Saturday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. Kan-

Friday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. (San-

chestra Iowa

Event w/ Tim Story and Guests,

sas, Paramount Theatre, Cedar

dy) Alex G w/ EXUM, Gabe’s, Iowa

Masterworks II: Handel’s Messiah,

Englert Theatre, Iowa City,

Rapids, $45.50-295

City, $18

Coralville Center for the Perform-

Saturday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. Iowa

Friday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. An

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 3:30 p.m.

Jazz Composers Orchestra,

Evening with Squirrel Nut Zippers,

Monday, Nov. 29 at 7:30 p.m. Big

WH: Moebius Strips Video Tour,

CSPS Hall, Cedar Rapids, $15-20

Englert Theatre, Iowa City, $35-55

Bad Voodoo Daddy, Paramount

Sunday, Nov. 21 at 2:30 p.m. Or-

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 2:30 p.m.

ing Arts, $16-56

Choose Your Price-$25

Online Tour, Free

70 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

Theatre, Cedar Rapids, $34-54

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Phoebe Martin, Realtor® &

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another year. It has been an amazing first year with Blank & McCune, and we sincerely look forward to serving you all in 2021. Cheers to the New Year!

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 71

EDITORS’ PICKS: November 2021

CEDAR FALLS / WATERLOO

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM Wonders of Waterloo/Cedar Falls Friday, Nov. 5 at 5 p.m.

Consequential Narratives + Diaspora of Meskwaki Creative Reception, Hearst Center for the Arts, Cedar Falls, Free Saturday, Nov. 6 at 5 p.m. Cedar Valley Chamber Music Presents: The Dali Quartet, Waterloo Center for the Arts, $20 Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. Cedar Falls Authors

Courtesy of the Waterloo Center for the Arts

Festival: Jim O’Loughlin, Hearst Center for the Arts, Free Friday-Sunday, Nov. 1214. North Central Ninja Series Finals Competition, Ninja U + Online, Cedar Falls, $5 Thursday, Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. Final Thursday

SATURDAY-SUNDAY, NOV. 13-14, Holiday

Arts

Festival, Waterloo Center for the Arts Get a jumpstart on your holiday shopping

in the Cedar Valley with the return of this artist-centered fest. Find gifts in mixed media, painting, drawing, photography, wood, glass, jewelry, metal, ceramics, fiber and more by artists from around the Midwest. World’s Window, the Waterloo Center for the Arts’ own store, will be offering 10 percent off during the fest, both in person and online (using code WCAFEST). Hungry Charlies and Muddy Pirate Coffee Traders will be onsite to help fuel your shopping spree.

Support area artists while crossing those hardest-to-shop-for friends and family members off your list. The festival runs 10 a.m to 4 p.m. each day.

NEWS YOU CAN TRUST.

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Stream online: IowaPublicRadio.org or the IPR app.

72 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

Your Opportunity to Engage with Arts and Culture CulturalCorridor.org

Reading Series: Gary Kelley, Hearst Center for the Arts, Cedar Falls, Free Saturday, Nov. 20 at 9 p.m. The Rumors w/ In My Blood, 8 Found Dead, Knubby, Octopus College Hill, Cedar Falls, $10

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

st uf f to do IN YOUR INBOX EVERY THURSDAY

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!

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LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 73

EDITORS’ PICKS: November 2021

Quad City Symphony Masterworks II: Fantasies and Fables, Centennial Hall,

Rock Island, at 2 p.m., $8-30

This concert plays tribute to folk and fairy tales.

The bill features Frederick’s Fables by Michael Abels (who scored movies including Us, Bad Education and Allen v. Farrow), narrated by Quad City poet and author Shellie Moore Guy. Also included are the prelude to Englebert Humperdink’s Hänsel und Gretel, the fantasy-overture from Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet and William Grant Still’s Poem for Orchestra.

Masks are required when transmission rates for COVID-19 are high in Scott and Rock Island Counties, and socially distanced seating is available.

QUAD CITIES

Quintessential QC Sunday, Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. Conservation of Paintings: Historical and Technical Discoveries, Online, German American Heritage Center (gahc.org), $5 Wednesday, Nov. 10 at 8 p.m. Protomartyr w/ Melkbelly, Raccoon Motel, Davenport, $22 Thursday, Nov. 11 at 8 p.m. SPECTRA Reading Series: Foster-Stahl Chapbook Release ft. Laura

Friday, Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. Kinogar-

Saturday, Nov. 20 at 3:30 p.m.

A. Ring + Aubrey

ten: M, Rozz-Tox, Rock Island

Lighting On The Commons, John Deere Commons, Free

Ryan, Rozz-Tox, Rock Island, $5 suggested

Opening Friday, Nov. 19 You Can’t

donation

Take It With You, PlayCrafters Barn Theater, Moline, $13-15

74 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

Courtesy of the QC Symphony Orchestra

Sunday, Nov. 7,

—Sarah Elgatian

EDITORS’ PICKS: November 2021

DES MOINES

Tuesday, Nov.

23, Mystery

Science Theater 3000 Live,

director Roland Emmerich created a film called Making Contact. It’s about a 9-year-old boy who battles a demonic ventriloquist dummy using telekinetic powers he developed after his father’s death.

Emmerich went on to achieve directorial prominence in the United States with the success of films such as Independence Day and The Patriot. Meanwhile, Making Contact was mostly lost to time among a slew of low-budget horror films that came to define the genre throughout the decade. That is— until now. With the return of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 road show this year, the crew will bring Making Contact to screens across the country for its cast of comedians to roast and ridicule in front of a live audience. The show’s favorite robots—Tom Servo, Crow and Gypsy—will be joined by actress and comedian Emily Marsh for the usual MST3K blend of hilarious live commentary, sketch comedy and B-movie nostalgia.

Courtesy of Hoyt Sherman Place

Hoyt Sherman Auditorium, Des Moines, at 7 p.m., $29-55 Back in 1985, German

Dynamic Des Moines Friday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. Nelly w/ B.

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 9 p.m. Boy

Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. Pigeons

Well, Horizons Event Center, Clive,

Dirt Car w/ Sex Funeral, Dweller,

Playing Ping Pong, Wooly’s Des

$49-69

Sarin, The Fremont, Des Moines,

Moines, $27

Free Thursday, Nov. 11 at 8 p.m. The

Saturday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. Iowa Wolves 2021-22 Season Opening

Sunday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. Jim

Record Company w/ JJ Wilde,

Night, Wells Fargo Arena, Des

Gaffigan, Wells Fargo Arena, Des

Woolys, Des Moines, $25

Moines, $15-65

Moines, $40-80

Nature and landscape B&W greeting cards and photographs of Iowa 76 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

Get your holiday greeting cards here! Canvas, standouts, and gallery wraps are also available.

Sign up for / alerts icgov.org/subscribe

Move vehicles off the street: Make room for plows! Park for free overnight at icgov.org/parkingoptions, or Mercer, Lower City, and Happy Hollow parks. icgov.org/snow

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DEAR KIKI

LittleVillageMag.com/DearKiki

D

ear Kiki, Hey! So I met a guy twice my age (in my 20s, he’s in his 40s) and it was just a hook-up. I honestly didn’t care. But then we’ve been going out, talking, calling—seeing each other all the time now. Couple times a week. And I actually really like him now, and he says he does too. However because of the age gap (we’ve been seeing each other for a few months) I’m wondering if it’s real or another reason? It feels real but who knows?

Thanks in advance, Is This Just Fantasy?

a multimedia narrative installation by

Bleue Liverpool

CHANCES ARE, THE AGE GAP HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH YOUR ACTUAL CONCERNS; YOU’RE JUST GRASPING FOR THE MOST OBVIOUS LOOSE THREAD IN AN ATTEMPT TO SEE IF YOU CAN UNRAVEL THIS, TO FEEL IN CONTROL.

D on view through 25 November at Public Space One 229 N. Gilbert St.

The Center for Afrofuturist Studies presented with support from mediaThe foundation, inc. and the VIA | Wagner Incubator Fund

info & hours: publicspaceone.com

spots. And that uncertainty about whether or not your feelings for one another are real?

Embrace it! Security has its benefits, but there’s no reward without risk, and that’s why the universe made risk so damned much fun. Terrifying, but fun.

If you let yourself fall, will you have a safe place to land? Who knows?! I’m not psychic either, Fantasy. But if this does turn out to be just smoke and mirrors, will the pleasure have been worth the pain? That’s something only you can decide—but I suspect yes. There are no guarantees in any relationship, Fantasy: not romantic, not platonic, not even parent-child. There’s a whole

ear Fantasy, OK, so you clearly know already that once you hit 18, age is, as the maxim goes, just a number. You wouldn’t have entered into this relationship, even for a casual hook-up, if you felt uncomfortable or pressured, right?

There are a million reasons to be cautious about age differences, but they’re all things that should have mattered long before now: There’s a risk that the older party may be in a position of power over the younger (professor, boss) or already in a committed relationship. The older party may be attempting to recapture lost youth, often co-evidenced by flashy sports cars or excessive partying.

If nothing of that sort has worried you yet, then I suspect what you’re experiencing is the time-honored tradition of not being psychic. What I mean, Fantasy, is that you’ve reached that point in the relationship when you’re starting to catch feelings, and it’s hard to see clearly with your head in the clouds. Chances are, the age gap has little to do with your actual concerns; you’re just grasping for the most obvious loose thread in an attempt to see if you can unravel this, to feel in control.

Don’t.

Enjoy this, Fantasy. A few months in, seeing each other a couple of times a week is one of the premiere relationship sweet

other human being on the other end of your thoughts and dreams, and you can’t control them!

What you can do is give this older man the chance to really know you. If it’s not enough or, contrariwise, if it’s too much, then it’s his loss. At least you’ll have spent your time living authentically and honestly.

And since that’s what you’re hoping for from him, it’s only fair that you offer it in return. Let the future sort itself out. Choose happiness now. xoxo, Kiki

KIKI WANTS QUESTIONS! 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/LV300 November 2021 79

IOWA CITY NORTHSIDE MARKETPLACE

80 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

AST R O LO GY

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): To encourage young people to come to its shows, the English National Opera has offered a lot of cheap tickets. Here’s another incentive: Actors sing in English, not Italian or French or German. Maybe most enticing for audiences is that they are encouraged to boo the villains. The intention is to make attendees feel relaxed and free to express themselves. I’m pleased to give you Scorpios permission to boo the bad guys in your life during the coming weeks. In fact, I will love it if you are extra eloquent and energetic about articulating all your true feelings. In my view, now is prime time for you to show the world exactly who you are.

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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “If we’re not careful, we are apt to grant ultimate value to something we’ve just made up in our heads,” said Zen priest Kosho Uchiyama. In my view, that’s a problem all of us should always be alert for. As I survey my own past, I’m embarrassed and amused as I remember the countless times I committed this faux pas. For instance, during one eight-month period, I inexplicably devoted myself to courting a woman who had zero interest in a romantic relationship with me. I bring this to your attention, Sagittarius, because I’m concerned that right now, you’re more susceptible than usual to making this mistake. But since I’ve warned you, maybe you’ll avoid it. I hope so!

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn author Asha Sanaker writes, “There is a running joke about us Capricorns that we age backwards. Having been born as burdened, cranky old people, we become lighter and more joyful as we age because we have gained so much practice in wielding responsibility. And in this way we learn, over time, about what are our proper burdens to carry and what are not. We develop clear boundaries around how to hold our obligations with grace.” Sanaker’s thoughts will serve as an excellent meditation for you in the coming weeks.

You’re in a phase when you can make dramatic progress in embodying the skills she articulates.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): As author Denise Linn reminded us, “The way you treat yourself sends a very clear message to others about how they should treat you.” With that advice as your inspiration, I will ask you to deepen your devotion to selfcare in the coming weeks. I will encourage you to shower yourself with more tenderness and generosity than you have ever done in your life. I will also urge you to make sure these efforts are apparent to everyone in your life. I am hoping for you to accomplish a permanent upgrade in your love for yourself, which should lead to a similar upgrade in the kindness you receive from others.

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Mon-Sat 11am-midnight Sunday noon-midnight

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You have at your disposal a prodigiously potent creative tool: your imagination. If there’s a specific experience or object you want to bring into your world, the first thing you do is visualize it. The practical actions you take to live the life you want to live always refer back to the scenes in your mind’s eye. And so every goal you fulfill, every quest you carry out, every liberation you achieve, begins as an inner vision. Your imagination is the engine of your destiny. It’s the catalyst with which you design your future. I bring these ideas to your attention, dear Pisces, because November is Celebrate Your Imagination Month.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Are you still hoping to heal from psychological wounds that you rarely speak about? May I suggest that you consider speaking about them in the coming weeks?

Not to just anyone and everyone, of course, but rather to allies who might be able to help you generate at least a partial remedy. The moment is ripe, in my opinion. Now is a favorable time for you to become actively involved in seeking cures, fixes, and solace. Life will be more responsive than usual to such efforts.

By Rob Brezsny

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “The delights of self-discovery are always available,” writes author Gail Sheehy. I will add that those delights will be extra accessible for you in the coming weeks. In my view, you’re in a phase of super-learning about yourself. You will attract help and support if you passionately explore mysteries and riddles that have eluded your understanding. Have fun surprising and entertaining yourself, Taurus. Make it your goal to catch a new glimpse of your hidden depths every day.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini novelist and philosopher Muriel Barbery says, “I find this a fascinating phenomenon: the ability we have to manipulate ourselves so that the foundation of our beliefs is never shaken.” In the coming weeks, I hope you will overcome any tendency you might have to manipulate yourself in such a way. In my view, it’s crucial for your mental and spiritual health that you at least question your belief system, and perhaps even risk shaking its foundation. Don’t worry: Even if doing so ushers in a period of uncertainty, you’ll be much stronger for it in the long run. More robust and complete beliefs will be available for you to embrace.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In her book *Mathilda*, novelist Mary Shelley (1797-1851) has the main character ask, “What had I to love?” And the answer? “Oh, many things: there was the moonshine, and the bright stars; the breezes and the refreshing rains; there was the whole earth and the sky that covers it.” I bring this to your attention in the hope of inspiring you to make your own tally of all the wonders you love. I trust your inventory will be at least ten times as long as Mathilda’s. Now is a favorable time for you to gather all the healing that can come from feeling waves of gratitude, even adoration, for the people, animals, experiences, situations and places that rouse your interest and affection and devotion.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Our memories are always changing.

Whenever we call up a specific remembrance, it’s different from the last time we visited that same remembrance‚ colored by all the new memories we have accumulated in the meantime. Over time, an event we recall from when we were nine years old has gone through a great deal of shape-shifting in our memory so much so that it may have little resemblance to the first time we remembered it. Is this a thing to be mourned or celebrated?

Maybe some of both. Right now, though, it’s to be celebrated.

You have extra power to declare your independence from any memories that don’t make you feel good. Why hold onto them if you can’t even be sure they’re accurate?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in a spacecraft. His flight marked the first time that NASA, the agency in charge of spaceflight, had ever used electronic computers. Glenn, who was also an engineer, wanted the very best person to verify the calculations, and that was Virgo mathematician Katherine Johnson. In fact, Glenn said he wouldn’t fly without her involvement. I bring this to your attention, Virgo, because I believe the coming months will be a favorable time for you to garner the kind of respect and recognition that Katherine Johnson got from John Glenn. Make sure everyone who needs to know does indeed know about your aptitudes and skills.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): According to an Apache proverb, “It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand.” If you act on that counsel in the coming weeks, you will succeed in doing what needs to be done. There is only one potential downfall you could be susceptible to, in my view, and that is talking and thinking too much about the matter you want to accomplish before you actually take action to accomplish it. All the power you need will arise as you resolutely wield the lightning in your hands.

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 81

Photo: Laura Domela

STORM LARGE HOLIDAY ORDEAL Saturday, December 4, 7:30 pm “Storm” and “large” are not, generally speaking, words you want to hear together in early December. But you want to hear Storm Large take on the holidays in her third Hancher performance. An undeniable force of nature, she’ll light up the holidays with a tempest of seasonal favorites.

$10

STUDENT & YOUTH TICKETS

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

EVENT PARTNERS Joseph N. Christopher Lowell A. Luhman, M.D. Alan and Amy Reed Mark and Sheila Reed Tom Rocklin and Barbara McFadden Ralph Schultz Family Foundation Marvin and Helen Schumacher Douglas and Vance Van Daele Larry and Miechelle Weber

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

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

LO C A L A L B U M S

Station 1 Records Des Moines STATION1RECORDS.COM

T

here’s more altruism in music than the notoriously exclusive and abusive mainstream industry would have you believe. Station 1 Records in Des Moines is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit designed to not only record local minority and underrepresented artists but to serve as a sort of business school for artist entrepreneurs.

“We take on a handful of artists at a time,” said Executive Director Thomas Kutz, “those we see particular promise or potential in, and work with them directly to offer financial support for production, marketing, recording, booking/touring and album distribution.”

Prior to the pandemic, Station 1 released an album quarterly, with each artist working on a 14-month album cycle. While the organization is working to return to that production rate, many projects were suspended when live music shows were no longer a possibility. Without live shows as a means of promotion and artist income, Station 1 had to adapt. The label reformatted some projects into shorter EPs, mix tapes or singles.

In the meantime, Kutz has a ton of in-the-works material to gush about: “Lily DeTaeye, our masterful troubadour, has spent the summer in Door County, Wisconsin writing, performing and taking in the northwoods and Great Lakes for inspiration. She’s been working with Bryan and Sarah Vanderpool (the Well Pennies) over at Golden Bear Records on some brilliant new material. It’s really unlike anything

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

she’s recorded previously … she’s absolutely found her mark as a songwriter and is using the complete breadth and scope of her musical tastes to develop something really truly special, and we can’t wait to share it with everyone.”

Upcoming releases include a new soul/R&B rock opera from the Finesse (formerly Madison Ray and the Finesse) in collaboration with Jeremy Franklin and Gabe Scheid from Motide and Lost Horizon Productions.

Andre Davis has a project with DK Imamu Akachi and Writing History, which includes the single “The Alchemist,” out in early November. Also on their agenda are some music videos in collaboration with Eli Fox of ELIVE Productions, which Kutz calls “next level.”

Plans for Station 1 artists stretch into next summer, when xBk hosts a MAIDS reunion show. Live shows and music festivals are a priority. And, of course, finding new artists.

Station 1’s mission, however, does not include growing its roster. Artists are not expected to remain with the label for long but to launch their own independent careers. Kutz encourages other early-career industry professionals to get involved with Station 1.

“If nothing else, when people are done working with Station 1 Records, I want them to have a network of professionals and to know who to ask or where to turn so they’re ready for anything this industry could throw at them.”

Other label programs include Breaking the Band, a monthly showcase in partnership with Des Moines Music Coalition and xBk, and Summer in the City, a live summer concert series focused on underrepresented communities and underutilized venues throughout the Des Moines area.

—Melanie Hanson

Speak Up Records Ottumwa SPEAKUPRECORDS.BANDCAMP.COM

I

n both life and in music, Jason Bolinger has always sort of seen himself as a drummer.

“I’ve always been the organizational guy, the guy that books all the tours,” he says. “That’s always been me, holding it all together and helping everyone get to the finish line.”

Bolinger, an Iowa native, has played in bands for 30 years, usually from behind a drum kit. He’s also the founder and manager of Speak Up Records, the Ottumwabased record label that since 2011 has released nearly 50 titles across the musical spectrum, from straightahead death metal to coffeehouse folk.

Speak Up is actually the second record label Bolinger founded.

“Back in 2000 or so, I was in this band called the Eggnogs. It was just crazy, fun punk rock, but we were very DIY,” he said. “We made all our own records. We spent hours just gluing and cutting paper and burning CDs and doing the art ourselves, and we were just having so much fun doing it and playing around so much we were like, ‘Hey, friends, you can have albums, too.

Let us help.’”

That label, lovingly called Poopsicle Records, released records

by Iowa bands such as Rianisis, Polyorchidman and Laser Skeleton.

“It only lasted two years, but we burned bright,” Bolinger said.

Around the same time, Bolinger began his other creative endeavor, the horror film company Prescribed Films. “We love dumping fake blood on each other,” he said. “The

best part of life is being creative, right? We’re looking for all the outlets.”

Speak Up has released records

by Jake Book, Joretta Oaks, X-Ray Mary and, most frequently, Jimmie’s in the Basement. This year alone, Speak Up has released eight full-length Jimmie’s in the Basement records. The band is the musical haven of just one person: Jimmie Dalton.

“His brain won’t shut off. He’s incredibly prolific. It’s amazing,” Bolinger says. “I’m sitting on three more albums. We’re just spacing them out.”

Bolinger has been able to play a few shows recently, including an X-Ray Mary show after his film company’s Halloweenaplooza event in downtown Ottumwa.

That’s given him some optimism about the future, both for his own performances and for the label.

“At least there’s some shows kind of happening around here again. They’re very infrequent still, but there’s a few bands that I hope to either help record or help put out their album,” Bolinger said. “One of the best parts about being in a band is I get to see a new show every night, and I get to see two or three new acts and bands. That’s amazing. I missed that, and it’s been great to hear some new stuff.”

Bolinger says that he’s always interested in hearing new music from local artists, and that Speak Up supports music across genres, known and unknown. Ultimately, he sees his role at Speak Up as an abettor to creativity.

“I’m just here to help. I feel like that’s my role in life, just to help other people see their creative side come through. I can help record, I can help do graphic design. I do a lot of that for the label,” Bolinger says. “If a person or a band just needed some help, they can always reach out to me.

And if I can’t help you, I probably know someone who can.”

—Avery Gregurich

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300 November 2021 83

84 November 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV300

LO C A L B O O KS

Final Thursday Press Cedar Falls FINALTHURSDAYPRESS.COM

Cedar Falls Authors Festival: Jim O’Loughlin, Hearst Center for the Arts, Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m., Free Final Thursday Reading Series: Gary Kelley, Hearst Center for the Arts, Thursday, Nov. 18 at 6 p.m., Free

F

inal Thursday Press out of Cedar Falls specializes in special books.

Jim O’Loughlin, press founder and publisher, curates the collection from regional writers whose work stands out and whose projects excite him.

“I’m always trying to work one level beyond what I’m comfortable with,” O’Loughlin said, each project challenging him in a way that allows him and Final Thursday to grow and improve with each publication.

Final Thursday Press evolved from a reading series that O’Loughlin, who is head of the Languages and Literary Studies department at University of Northern Iowa, has held since 2000 on the final Thursday of each month. The series features both an open mic and a featured reader portion. Although not officially associated with UNI, the press was started as an extension of the series, as an opportunity, O’Loughlin said, to highlight regional talent and support “the maintenance of a literary community.”

The increasing ease of access

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

to publishing has allowed Final Thursday to function without needing to be genre-specific or have any hard boundaries surrounding publication. The press is a nonprofit entity funded primarily by grants and staffed sometimes by graduate assistants from UNI, sometimes

by O’Loughlin alone. Because of its micro nature, O’Loughlin said, Final Thursday allows writers the opportunity to have more say in the process of publishing than they ordinarily would.

Because O’Loughlin puts such attention into each publication, the press only prints about one book per year, but the books tend toward the unique—another one of the benefits, he says, of running a micropress.

His current recommendations include Final Thursday’s most recent publication, Passion for Beauty: Marjorie Nuhn, Watercolorist, and 2020’s Winsome/Bend of the Sun. The first is a visual biography of painter Marjorie Nuhn, who studied at Grant Wood’s Stone Art Colony.

It’s compiled by Nuhn’s brother Ferner and includes essays and letters from other people in Nuhn’s life. The 2020 release is a double-cover pair of mysteries by Grant Tracey, fiction editor at the North American Review.

The books have small runs and must be purchased in-person from Hearst Center for the Arts, Ragged Edge Art Bar and Gallery or the UNI campus bookstore; online through Amazon; or by ordering through email (linked under each title on the Final Thursday Press website) and sending a check.

Although the pandemic “has made things harder,” O’Loughlin said, “it has made these events and publications matter more.” “[I feel] fortunate to be at a place where it’s understood that we grow in all directions,” O’Loughlin said.

“In any area there are always people doing interesting, important work and there are ways that we can support that and make sure we celebrate them.”

—Sarah Elgatian

The Writers’ Rooms Iowa City/Cedar Rapids THEWRITERSROOMS.ORG

Imagine Other Worlds with Authors, The Writers’ Rooms, Online (facebook.com/iaotherworlds), Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 6-7, Free

W

hen Erin Casey and Alex Penland started the Writers’ Rooms, the idea was to create supportive environments for writers who worked in one of several specific genres. As the organization’s website puts it: “The Writers’ Rooms endeavors to help all writers with their craft.

We strive to encourage and foster community-sourced knowledge to help lead literary sessions and provide a safe, positive writing environment. We are writers helping writers.”

In 2018, as a way to thank the individuals who lead each of the Rooms, Penland and Casey collected, edited and published work by the Rooms’ “concierges.” That book, A New Adventure, was the Writers’ Rooms’ first foray into publishing.

With that experience under their belts, Casey and Penland saw they might be on to something that could serve a wider group of writers while also serving as a fundraiser for the nonprofit.

“We realized that it would be great for our writers and for our community to publish an anthology once a year,” Casey explained via Zoom.

They made an early decision that

has guided the organization’s publishing efforts since: using the four natural elements—water, fire, air, earth—as themes for the next four books.

The first call for submissions was fairly straightforward: “All we asked was that people submit work with a water theme,” Casey said.

No writing style was off limits.

Fiction, nonfiction, poetry—all of these and more were welcome by design.

“You can interpret the theme a lot of different ways,” Casey said, “and then the anthologies have something for everyone.”

For the forthcoming anthology, Writers of the Flame (set to be published in March 2022), the founders have relied on the help of a volunteer committee to help them get the book ready for publication and then out into the world.

“We’re encouraged that people do join the committee with the promise that they will learn how to publish an anthology.”

The learn-by-doing experience includes content selection and editing; book formatting and publishing for both the electronic and physical editions (the Writers’ Rooms uses a self-publishing service to create the books); and marketing and publicity—including setting up readings and the like for the participating authors.

Any writer in the community is welcome to submit work for consideration for the Writers’ Rooms’ anthologies.

Casey anticipates the submission period for the next anthology, which wraps up the elements theme by focusing on earth, will open in April or May of 2022.

“It won’t be long after Writers of the Flame comes out,” she said. “It is basically a yearlong process to do this.”

While there are plenty of challenges from the moment submissions open to the moment the books are in the hands of readers, Casey believes all the effort is well worth it.

“We’re really proud of them,” Casey said. “It’s a lot of work, but we like to be able to showcase our authors and show people what they can learn about their work through the Writers’ Rooms.”

—Rob Cline

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

PARTING COMPANY 1

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ACROSS 1. Natural confetti material 7. It’s sort of on the fence 15. Nicks who was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice 16. Greek heroine who would only marry a man who could beat her in a footrace (spoiler: the one guy who did it had to cheat) 17. Site of a canal that did NOT have a giant ship lodged in it for several days 18. Falls asleep 19. Letters on a produce scale 20. Parts of a loaf that are

54. Rep. whose staffers earn a minimum salary of $52,000 55. Name for nine popes 57. Cory, partner of Rosario Dawson 61. Machine that helps you chill 62. Orange County city 63. Group with special badges and/or arm bands, usually 64. Attached with string

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

by Malaika Handa

often tossed 21. Place to study abroad?

22. Nearsighted Jim Backus cartoon character 25. TV show that featured the Warblers and Vocal Adrenaline 26. Letters on letters 27. Musk, ex-partner of Grimes 28. A Series of Unfortunate Events record keeper whose files are destroyed (much like the 2001: A Space Odyssey character he shares a name with)

29. Meas. for a speedster 31. ___ Posadas (Mexican nativity festival) 32. Sit pretty?

33. Bows out at the last minute 36. With 38-Across, regulatory slogan from Elizabeth Warren, and what the black squares between the shaded letters in this puzzle do 38. See 36-Across 40. Cat calls?

41. Aware of systems of racial injustice, e.g.

42. Day of the wk. when you

58

59

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might eat king cake 43. Scientist Bill whose best-known show aired for 100 episodes 44. Tool that creates furrows 45. Pop group whose fourth and biggest album was Arrival 46. Attendance-taking response 49. Play with the knuckle, as strings on a bass guitar 51. Get on one’s knees, maybe 52. Silverback, e.g.

53. Word in question 94 on the Rice Purity Test

money) 28. Aptly named exotic pet reptile 30. Senate staffer 32. Tree-lined rd.

34. Leave alone 35. Type of gear that helps you take some deep breaths 37. Top-tier 38. Word said while softly touching someone on the nose 39. Prince single from (appropriately) Dirty Mind 41. Some aboriginal Alaskan subsistence fishers 45. Recess 46. It’s good to break a bad one 47. Unit in machine learning or history 48. Girls5eva actress ___ Elise Goldsberry 50. Materials for Karolina Laskowska, master corsetiere 51. Bread akin to bhatura 53. Way away 54. Some 56. Little demon 58. Eatery visitor who gets a menu with a word search 59. Brian who coined the term “ambient music” 60. N.W.A MC

DOWN 1. Handheld Sony console of yore, briefly 2. Stat that’s really hard to trust coming from the MTA 3. Windows OS number, currently 4. High school name in a Meg Cabot novel about a reincarnated King Arthur 5. Activity that pushes you to new lows 6. South China and East China, e.g.

7. Glamorous (and graceful) Zootopia pop star voiced by Shakira 8. Make amends 9. It takes two 10. Animals that bugle 11. Faux ___ (mispronouncing someone’s name, e.g.)

12. From here ___ (moving forward) 13. Hijink LV299 ANSWERS 14. “Foolproof Tarte S HO T B Y J AMB D I G ___ & Rough Puff K A R A T E A R I A S BOC A Pastry” (Claire I S AMUNOGUCH I ON E S Saffitz recipe) P I L E S RU B MC A T S I D E D I S A A CM I Z R A H I 22. Former Spice T I X T HOR HU L A T E N Girl with the debut C A NOE S T A L E R MEG M A M A S A L L Z E T A album Hot I B R AMX K E ND I 23. Built-in app C T R L R A E T A UN T AWE A ROU S E OP C I T with a clock icon M I A CONN NOME MR I 24. Open call, in I ND I R AGA NDH I K E E N S I R E D O U I T A S K S modeling jargon M I N I I CH I ROS U Z U K I 25. [:O] B EGS E R A S E ON A C I D A S S U S E D Y A N K E E 26. Take ___ (lose

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