Little Village issue 327 - March 2024 by Little Village Magazine

SPRING ARTS ISSUE

MISSION crEEK FESTIVaL

Iowa artists talk trans resistance

Poet and essayist hanif abdurraqib

DES MOINES Pro skater and Black Flag vocalist Mike Vallely

The central Iowa Trans Lives Festival

Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall cops

PLUS! Local reubens, reviewed

Beer & Best Pictures

Iowa album & book reviews

ALWAYS FREE

Music and Lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM Book by JAMES LAPINE

Originally Directed on Broadway by James Lapine

Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick

Directed by Stephen Thorne

INTO THE WOODS is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.mtishows.com

March 1–9, 2024 E.C. Mabie Theatre | UI Theatre Building 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 the Hancher Box Office in advance at 319-335-1158. GET YOUR TICKETS: THEATRE.UIOWA.EDU/EVENTS

INDEPENDENT IOWA NEWS, CULTURE & EVENTS

Since 2001

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24 Making Noise

When they’re not onstage, you can find these MCF performers rallying against hate in the statehouse.

36 Street cred

Before settling in Des Moines, Mike Vallely changed the course of skateboard (and punk) culture.

41 Mall rockers

Sharing a bill with Deerhoof? Just another manic Saturday for Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops.

LittleVillageMag.com/Support

Little Village (ISSN 2328-3351) is an independent, community-supported news and culture publication based in Iowa City, published monthly by Little Village, LLC, 623 S Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52240. Through journalism, essays and events, we work to improve our community according to core values: environmental sustainability, affordability and access, economic and labor justice, racial justice, gender equity, quality healthcare, quality education and critical culture. Letters to the editor(s) are always welcome. We reserve the right to fact check and edit for length and clarity. Please send letters, comments or corrections to editor@littlevillagemag.com. Subscriptions: lv@littlevillagemag.com. The US annual subscription price is $120. All rights reserved, reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. If you would like to reprint or collaborate on new content, reach us at lv@littlevillagemag.com. To browse back issues, visit us online at issuu.com/littlevillage.

6 Top Stories

8 Ad Index

14 Interactions

21 Fully Booked

22 Contact Buzz

24 Community Conversation

28 Trans Lives Festival

30 Reuben Review

32 Beer ‘n’ Movies

36 Prairie Pop

40 A-List: Hanif Abdurraqib

41 A-List: Poly Mall Cops

43 Events Calendar

55 Dear Kiki

57 Astrology

59 Local Album Reviews

61 Local Book Reviews

63 Crossword

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Tyler Erickson / Little Village

UPCOMING CLUB HANCHER

Y LA BAMBA

Friday, March 22 / 7:00 & 9:00 p.m.

CLUB

Hancher Auditorium / Strauss Hall / Cabaret

World Café says Luz Elena Mandoza Ramos, lead vocalist and producer of Y La Bamba, “[Her] inimitable songwriting is propelled by an earth-shaking voice and incisive lyrics that speak towards the duality of hurt and healing.”

TICKETS

Adults $ 20

Students & Youth $ 10

HANCHER EVENT PARTNERS

Vernon Hein Fund

Media support provided by 88.3 KCCK—Iowa’s Jazz Station

LA DAME BLANCHE

Friday, April 19 / 7:00 & 9:00 p.m.

CLUB

Hancher Auditorium / Strauss Hall / Cabaret

Yaite Ramos Rodriguez—who performs as La Dame Blanche—is the daughter of Jesús “Aguaje” Ramos, trombonist with both the Buena Vista Social Club and Afro-Cuban All Stars.The singer, flautist, and percussionist blends the Cuban music of her childhood with the sounds of hip-hop, dancehall, and cumbia, and plenty more.

TICKETS

Adults $ 20

Students & Youth $ 10

HANCHER EVENT PARTNERS

Vernon Hein Fund

Media support provided by 88.3 KCCK—Iowa’s Jazz Station

EXCEPTIONAL UPCOMING CONCERTS

SŌ PERCUSSION and CAROLINE SHAW

LET THE SOIL PLAY ITS SIMPLE PART

Monday & Tuesday, March 25 & 26 / 7:30 p.m.

Hancher Auditorium / Hadley Stage / Onstage Seating

Presented in collaboration with Iowa Percussion at the University of Iowa School of Music. Composer and vocalist Caroline Shaw returns for a second collaboration this season, this time with the adventuresome Sō Percussion.

TICKETS

Adults $ 25

Students & Youth $ 10

HANCHER EVENT PARTNERS

Loanna & Orville Bloethe/HLV Community School Fund

Vernon Hein Fund

OUMOU SANGARÉ

Friday, April 12 / 7:30 p.m.

The Englert Theatre

“The Songbird of Wassoulou” brings the music of Mali to The Englert’s stage. Oumou Sangaré is an icon whose powerful music and fierce feminism have inspired artists from Alicia Keys to Aya Nakamura to Beyoncé.

TICKETS

Adults $ 35

Students & Youth $ 10

HANCHER EVENT PARTNERS

Dale & Linda (1946–2023) Baker

Mary K. Calkin

Vernon Hein Fund

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 Paris Young in advance at (319) 467-4849 or at paris-sissel@uiowa.edu.

 LEARN MORE AND GET TICKETS AT HANCHER.UIOWA.EDU

PERFORMANCES

EDITORIAL

Publisher

Matthew Steele matt@littlevillagemag.com

Editor-in-Chief

Emma McClatchey emma@littlevillagemag.com

Arts Editor

Genevieve Trainor genevieve@littlevillagemag.com

News Director

Paul Brennan paul@littlevillagemag.com

Art Director

Jordan Sellergren jordan@littlevillagemag.com

Photographer, Designer Sid Peterson sid@littlevillagemag.com

Calendar/Event Listings calendar@littlevillagemag.com

Corrections editor@littlevillagemag.com

March Contributors

Achilles Fergus Seastrom, Anne Wilmoth, Anthony Scanga, Dan Ray, Darcie Hutzell, John Busbee, Kembrew McLeod, Lauren Haldeman, Mike Roeder, Ramona Muse Lambert, Rob Cline, Sam Locke Ward, Sarah Elgatian, Sarahann Kolder, Tyler Erickson, Tom Tomorrow

SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook @LittleVillageMag

Instagram @LittleVillageMag Twitter @LittleVillage

INDEPENDENT NEWS, CULTURE & EVENTS

Since 2001

LittleVillageMag.com

PRODUCTION

Digital Director

Drew Bulman drewb@littlevillagemag.com

Production Manager

Jordan Sellergren jordan@littlevillagemag.com

SALES & ADMINISTRATION

President, Little Village, LLC Matthew Steele matt@littlevillagemag.com

Advertising ads@littlevillagemag.com

Creative Services

Website design, E-commerce, Publication design creative@littlevillagemag.com

CIRCULATION

Distribution Manager

Joseph Servey joseph@littlevillagemag.com

Distribution

Andersen Coates, Heber Martinez, Joe Olson, Annie Sarcone, Joseph Servey, Nix Slater-Scott, Sam Standish distro@littlevillagemag.com

OFFICES

Little Village HQ, LV Creative Services 623 S Dubuque St Iowa City, IA 52240 319-855-1474

Little Village—Des Moines 900 Keosauqua Way, Ste 253 Des Moines, IA 50309

Meet this month’s contributors!

Achilles Fergus Seastrom is a trans writer and editor from Kansas currently living in Ames. His writing often focuses on human relationships with nature and the environment.

Anne Wilmoth is a children’s and collection services librarian at Iowa City Public Library.

Anthony Scanga is a photographer and videographer whose work has taken him across the globe. IG @ras_visual

Dan Ray is a journalist, musician, model and 1994 Aquarius. You can connect with her through IG. @heyimdanray.

Darcie Hutzell lives in Iowa City and is a freelance writer and mom to an amazing kid.

John Busbee has attended, produced and contributed to festivals throughout his career. He and his wife, Kimberly (who co-founded the event), produced the Wild Rose Independent Film Festival from 2002-2016.

LittleVillageMag.com/

Issue 327

March 2024

Culture writers, food reviewers and columnists, email: editor@littlevillagemag.com. Illustrators, photographers and comic artists, email: jordan@littlevillagemag.com

From Mission Creek Festival to the Trans Lives Festival to rock shows at xBk Live and Wooly’s, art means more amid a culture war. In this issue, performers organize, mourn, reminisce, fight fascism and get hyped.

Kembrew McLeod is a founding Little Village columnist and the chair of Communications Studies at the University of Iowa.

Mike Roeder is a self-declared Music Savant. When he isn’t writing for Little Village he blogs at playbsides.com.

Ramona Muse Lambert makes art and music. Sometimes she’s in charge of dinner too. Buy her art at Ramonamuselambert.com.

Rob Cline is a writer and critic who would gleefully give the current state of things a negative review.

Sarah Elgatian is a writer, activist and educator living in Iowa. She likes dark coffee, bright colors and long sentences. She dislikes meanness.

Tyler Erickson is a photographer based out of Des Moines trying to stay focused. Probably running around in the woods.

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327 March 2024 5

Support

Photo of Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops by Anthony Scanga

Send us a pitch!

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.

GOP bill would require Iowa students be shown womb animation video based on anti-abortion ‘propaganda’ (Jan. 31)

Ironically might be the best abstinence education they’ve ever come up with. —Baruch S.

“Shellie Flockhart, who described herself as a concerned parent, said she supported the bill because the health curriculum at her son’s school ‘went over anal and oral, it went over all the STDs, pictures of the STDs, just absolutely everything except for the development of baby.’” Apparently this person doesn’t understand the meaning of the word “health.” —Wendy P.

This happened to me in high school about 30 years ago. That’s the one reason I can

point to not being Catholic anymore. It was such overt propaganda that it completely turned me off from organized religion.

—Dick G.

Well shit, if this works as well as the D.A.R.E. program, back-alley abortions all around!!

—F.P.

But they won’t/can’t teach about HPV or HIV anymore? My public school sex ed in the 90s was that God sent AIDS to kill the gays but bisexuals and drug addicts messed up his plan by spreading it to straight people. My high school biology teacher also said evolution was made up by Satan and the earth was 6000 years old. But all those rural schools with fundamentalist teachers were way too woke! —Clark O.

LittleVillageMag.com

Ok, collaborate on refining the product through improvement of the data accuracy. Make the education better, and move on. —A.C.

There will be no collaboration or improvement of the accuracy of any kind of data, because it’s not supposed to be educational, it’s supposed to be anti abortion propaganda. —P.B.

Collaborate is not something that Iowa Republicans are willing to do. We just went a whole year where Republicans banned books because there may be an illustrated pee pee. This resulted in a vague law resulting in schools banning 1984 because it falls within the parameters of said law. This legislature has a senator that claimed schools in his area have litter boxes for kids to use. They are not interested in collaborating or data accuracy. —M.S.F.

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327 March 2024 15

Send letters to: Editor@LittleVillageMag.com FUTILE WRATH SAM LOCKE WARD TRUE LOVE

MUSE LAMBERT

HAVE AN OPINION? Better write about it!

RAMONA

INTERACTIONS

What a fun idea! How about they also show a real miscarriage or a mother dead of ectopic pregnancy? Or a nonviable baby that almost killed the mom because she couldn’t abort? So many neat options! —M.B.

What about showing them photos of Kim Reynolds to ward them off the evils of driving drunk? —P.P.

One day after bill undermining transgender rights is defeated, Gov. Reynolds introduces new bill targeting IDs for trans and nonbinary Iowans (Feb. 1)

Equal rights hurt NO ONE. —Mary S.

Imagine your Boogie Man is someone just trying to get through life being authentic to themselves. Kim has destroyed the Iowa I grew up in. —Dustin M.

My wife is a Jewish trans lady, the last time her people were forced to wear public identifiers it, uh, didn’t end well. —Heidi

‘It’s a matter of principle’: Tara McGovern prepares for trial as the only JoCo7 protester to not take a plea deal (Feb. 5)

Good. Whatever political opinions you have,

PERSONALS

Easter is March 31, but never mind that. Rabbits are yearlong, lifelong pets—and in the case of 6-monthold Peter and 7-month-old Bungee, bonded soulmates. This male-female (neutered-spayed) pair are a package deal, and while they won’t deliver gift baskets on Easter morning, watching them eat a basketful of veggies or flowers is even sweeter. Could you be worthy of these impossibly soft, inconceivably adorable buns? Visit the Iowa City Animal Center, icanimalcenter.org.

Send your personals for consideration to editor@littlevillagemag.com with subject line “Personals.”

LittleVillage READER POLL

Do you know someone who has benefitted from IVF?

Yes 79%

No 3%

Percentage

I’m not sure 17%

questioning the limits of police power against individuals is something everyone should support. The Back the Blue law passed in 2021, time to see how sensible it is. —M.P.

Wait. Wait. So they walked into the officer’s outstretched arm, and then were charged a month later??? For real?? And the officer said they “hissed back at him”? Tara, you are my new fucking hero. ACAB. —C.C.C.

Joco6.org, To sign the petition to drop charges or donate to the legal defense fund. —Kepple

Good for her [sic], but I hope she [sic] is prepared for the consequences. I don’t know the facts other than what is written in the article, but it seems pretty clear she [sic] was obstructing traffic. The 1st Amendment does not give you a right to break the law. —C.L.

Politeness and rule-following of course being the principal drivers of political and social change. —C.G.

This is the wrong mindset. Locking someone up for this?? What’s the point? It’s a dumb law in the first place, but if it’s going to be enforced you can’t throw people in prison for causing an inconvenience. —Dexter M.

Students block traffic all the time in Iowa City. The difference here is ppl were doing it out of principle, not just to get to class. —W.I.

LittleVillageMag.com

29 total votes

MOMBOY

LAUREN HALDEMAN INTERACTIONS

any rate I’m not going anyway I was born and raised here (not that that matters), I live and work here… fuck these conservatives!

—Stephany

I am trying so hard to hold onto hope every day, but jesus fucking christ. My very existence is offensive to these people, and it feels like everybody is just too busy or depressed or apathetic to stand up and fight. Fuck. I feel like I’m screaming into the void.

—Spiffy

We need a groundswell of not just LGBTQ persons but allies to show up at the Capitol. Overwhelming numbers. And frankly, as jaded as I am that voting does much, we need to especially in local elections. —D.C.

Fascism is founded on fear. Without fear, they have nothing. They start with one small, marginalized group and when they have vanquished it they move on to the next and the next and the next until only they are left. They tolerate no dissension. Your are experiencing this process in Iowa and nationwide. The only way to stop it is to support one another and stand firm against those who want to rule over you. —Bob T.

Iowa House approves bill to prevent tracking of suspicious gun purchases on party-line vote (Feb. 21)

I find it funny that the state can make laws preventing cities and counties from making their own laws, but if the feds do it to them, they cry foul. —K.M.

Grateful, not dead yet: The music keeps playing at rural Iowa bar Byron’s despite threat of condemnation (Feb. 20)

My parents have probably attended thousands of shows at Byron’s at this point. —K.L.

I’ve met Byron and I’ve been in his bar a few times. He’s a genuinely nice person and isn’t in it for the money. Pomeroy doesn’t have much to be proud of so I hope he is able to get everything taken care of. —A.B.

Legal team has been secured, hoping for a new/better location. https://gofund.me/ ead1e035 —The Beaker Brothers Band

A bill protecting ‘teachers of faith’ from having to respect students’ or parents’ preferred pronouns advances as LGBTQ rights advocates rally (Feb. 6)

When in our winter we settle our account, do we wish to tally the power we have accrued, or the good that we have done? —Jon G.

Hundreds declare ‘we will not go silently’ as supporters of Gov. Reynolds’ HF 2389 complain trans people ‘need to go’; bill advances (Feb. 14)

This bill came out of the education committee and has Skyler Wheeler’s dirty fingerprints on it. The state is going to lose talented workers, and businesses will bypass Iowa. Democrats need to vote Wheeler out of office when he runs for reelection. The guy is not even from Iowa. Maybe the education committee could focus on Des Moines schools wanting to cut 5th grade band and orchestra and making sure public education has adequate funding for elementary students. —Frank N.

The people that say the issue is being “pushed” on them are maddening. They seem completely clueless that transgender Iowans are just asking for the respect cis gender Iowans get by default in our culture. Those cis gender folk who are opposed to transgender equality seem to feel that acknowledging transgender individuals as human beings deserving of dignity, respect and rights is some kind of burden. —H.F.

I was talking to my doctor yesterday about all those anti trans bills recently and she was like you should leave Iowa. I really couldn’t tell if that was advice because she cares about me or if she buys into all the hate. At

MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN

Every year, events generate $2.8 billion for our region. So, if you’re a member of a group, organization, board, or association, we want to hear from you. Just share the name of the group and we’ll do the legwork to bring your next meeting here.

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327 March 2024 19 Anyone having sex can get a Sexually Transmitted Infection. Many STIs have no symptoms. The only way you can be sure of your status is to get tested. The Project of PHC offers free and confidential testing for HIV and other STIs such as Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Hep C, and Syphilis. Schedule your appointment today! Temporary Location: PHC West 7555 Hickman Rd. Urbandale, IA 50315 | (515) 248-1595

LittleVillageMag.com

TIME.

VILLAGE CRIER

Grant Hegstad, assistant principal at MOC-Floyd Valley High School in Orange City, was honored with a national Milken Educator Award, regarded as “the Oscar of teaching,” which comes with $25,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Los Angeles.

Two Iowa restaurants—The Webster in Iowa City and Harbinger in Des Moines—made USA Today’s 2024 Best Restaurants of the Year list, published Feb. 15. In descriptions of the restaurants, Des Moines Register writers praise Harbinger owner Joe Tripp and Chef Ryan Skinner’s vegetable-forward, Asian-influenced small plates, and how Webster chef and owner Sam Gelman has elevated a historic Northside building with his seasonal menu utilizing Midwest ingredients.

A 2016 essay by Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum Garth Greenwell for The Guardian titled “James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room: an antidote to shame” has been reprinted as a postface in a new edition of the Baldwin novel.

The winners of this year’s Write Out Loud awards for 1st through 8th grade students were honored at the One Book, Two Book Festival in Iowa City on Feb. 24. Eight young writers won Write Stuff awards, which focused on precision in writing, while six earned From the Heart awards for their emotional content. Winners represent Horn, Wickham and Oak Hill Elementary; Willowwind School; Northwest and South East Junior High; and Clear Creek Amana Middle School. Another 12 students earned honorable mentions. A full list of awardees can be found at iowacityofliterature.org.

The One Book, Two Book Festival also produced a viral tweet from University of Iowa student Rachel Lapides (@rachellapides), who looked up from studying in time to snap a photo of celebrity guests Frog and Toad waiting for an elevator at The Chauncey. Within three days, the post had nearly 8 million views.

Where is your Little Village?

Little Village is a community supported monthly alternative magazine and digital media channel offering an independent perspective on Iowa news, culture and events. The magazine is widely available for free, with a distribution focus on the state’s cultural centers of Iowa City, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Ames, Cedar Falls/Waterloo and the Quad Cities. Scan here to find which one of LV’s 800 distribution locations is nearest to you >>

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Fully Booked

Books for the ’90s kid in all of us

There’s nothing wrong with an adult who likes to read children’s books. (I’m a children’s librarian; therefore, an expert on these matters.)

Children’s books can provide a much-needed escape, along with being quick reads—you can devour these in a day or two. If you’re an elder millennial, a ’90s kid, like me, these titles might be just the thing to unlock a core memory, provide a satisfying jolt of nostalgia, and remind you of the joy of childhood.

Sideways Stories from Wayside School tells the completely off-the-wall story of a class on the 30th floor of a school that was accidentally built sideways, beginning with Ms. Gorf, the meanest teacher in this strange school, who turns all the children into apples one by one.

The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin is finding new popularity as a modern graphic novel series, but before all that, the babysitters were dealing with rival clubs, rambunctious kids, crushes and heavy topics like death and divorce in a 1990s series of over 100 books.

Christopher Paul Curtis’ The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 is tender and funny until the moment it fully gives way to a harrowing landmark event of the civil rights movement. This book will make you laugh out loud and then rip your heart out.

Catherine, Called Birdy is a funny diary-format book set in the year 1290 in England. Some elements of the story are timeless and relatable; others are exotic, medieval-specific issues. (So many fleas everywhere!)

If you’re in the mood for a fairy tale (one with a feminist bent), pick up Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted. Feisty heroine Ella of Frell is cursed with obedience, but goes on a quest to break the curse and claim her own destiny in this book that is now a modern classic.

Jerry Spinelli has created an utterly singular character in Maniac Magee A homeless orphan, Maniac Magee literally runs around for a year encountering offbeat situations and characters. The book deals sensitively with racial divisions in a small town (a central theme in the book), as Maniac establishes himself as a local legend and searches for a place to call home.

Esperanza Ortega overcomes her obstacles in a different way in Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. Esperanza, the only child of wealthy Mexican parents, is forced to flee penniless to California in the Great Depression and work as a farm laborer after a sudden change in fortunes. Issues of immigration and workers’ rights are at the forefront as Esperanza struggles to find hope and make a new life in America.

If you prefer a creepier tone to your children’s books, pick up one of The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids books. Beginning with Vampires Don’t Wear Polka Dots in 1990, Debbie Dadey’s series deals with teachers who aren’t what they seem. If these are too tame (the target audience is second-graders), you can graduate to the Goosebumps and Fear Street books by R.

L. Stine. —Anne Wilmoth

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327 March 2024 21



contact Buzz

Listen & Learn

Break your winter hibernation at a chill spring festival.

BY JOhN BUSBEE

Mission Creek Festival, a destination-worthy, three-day music and literature festival held in venues throughout downtown Iowa City, returns April 4-6. Some acts bring national cred to MCF, while others down the lineup represent local and emerging artists, all selected by the Englert Theatre’s collaborative team of experienced programmers.

On the lit side of things, Tisa Bryant and Hanif Abdurraqib will headline an author’s event at Hancher Auditorium on opening night. Bryant is with the California Institute of the Arts and has served as its Creative Writing Program MFA director since 2017. Her book, Unexplained Presence, is a critically praised collection of essays on Blackness in film, literature and visual art. Abdurraqib, meanwhile, is a poet, essayist and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. In 2021, he released A Little Devil in America, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.

One of the best models for author immersion is the Lit Walk, happening on April 5 in the early evening. This ped-friendly and free experience connects festival-goers with writers both local and international inside downtown Iowa City businesses for intimate readings and conversations.

Rounding out the stellar group of headliners is a septet of artists. Sarah Minor (author and interdisciplinary artist), Lynne Nugent (editor of the Iowa Review), Walid Rachedi (co-founder of Frictions Media), Zachary Pace (author of I Sing to Use the Waiting), Cindy Juyoung Ok (Yale

Younger Poets Prize-winning fellow), and Thea Brown (poet and Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate). All presentations by these artists are free and open to the public.

Two additional events under the MCF umbrella will give attendees a sumptuous creative banquet on which to dine. The seventh annual Iowa City Expo for Comics and Real Eclectic Media (I.C.E. C.R.E.A.M.) Zine Fair, which presents the work of local cartoonists, zinesters, and art books/handmade book artists, and The Small Press & Literary Magazine Book Fair provide exceptional ways to explore the variety of literary expressiveness to be found at MCF.

Want to explore your cinephile side? Four of Iowa’s 12 film festivals happen in April: the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival (4-5), the Des Moines Latino Film Festival (16-21), the Farm to Film Festival (20-21, in Washington, Iowa), the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival (24-26), and, the Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival (26-28).

Most of the offerings are short films, often categorized in groupings like “student,” “Iowa,” “international,” “documentary” and more. Filmmakers and onscreen talent may mingle with patrons between screenings and participate in Q&As. Read more about all 12 film festivals at culture.iowaeda.com/film-festivals.

Being a cultural adventurer is a way to expand your horizons, gain understanding of what is happening, and become inspired to elevate your own creative game. Festivals are the perfect places to feast your soul.

“If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.” – John F. Kennedy

22 March 2024 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327 INDEPENDENT Northside Marketplace Shop • Eat • Drink • Live Support the businesses that make Iowa unique.

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Nadah El Shazly, a producer, vocalist and sound artist from Cairo, Egypt, is among the performers at 2024’s Mission Creek Festival. via MCF

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Legislating in the Name

A conversation about community, music and antifascism in Iowa.

PrODUcED BY SarahaNN KOLDEr

Sarahann Kolder is an Iowa City-based artist working primarily with writing, music and video. She works at Prairie Lights.

m (emma) denney is a sound artist, electronic musician, writer and sometimes lies about being a composer. She makes noise, drone music and long-form experimental art.

Harry Manaligod (she/her) is a rapper, producer, painter, local fool and the goat that makes music under the name YXNG RASKAL. She uses a microphone to encourage resistance.

This interview has been edited for space and clarity. Read a longer version at littlevillagemag.com.

Sarahann: In early February, LV reached out to me interested in a conversation on music and activism between myself, emma denny and Harry Manaligod. Each of us are playing Mission Creek this year, and we’re also involved in transgender advocacy.

emma and Harry were two of the seven trans people arrested in November by University of Iowa Police. What happened?

Harry: In October, the fascist student group YAF (Young Americans for Freedom) invited detransitioner Chloe Cole to speak at the IMU. Cole’s platform centers on taking away trans kids’ right to access healthcare related to transition.

The people came out to protest. There’s a parking garage across from the IMU where those attending this “lecture” were parked. If somebody parks there, they have to pass through the Madison/Jefferson intersection to leave. We occupied this intersection, and those who attended were trapped.

After about 20 minutes, UIPD ordered protesters to get out of the street and onto the sidewalk. Some obeyed this order and some didn’t. A clash between the remaining protesters and UIPD ensued. The police pushed us out of the street. One grabbed a girl’s neck. Eventually, all protesters were removed from the street, the cars left, and the protest redirected to University President Barbara Wilson’s mansion.

A month later, in November, seven of the over 150 protesters present were served warrants for

WaTch: Trans Iowa Video Series

Stay updated on protests and other actions at oneiowaaction.org

Prairielands Freedom Fund’s donation page for protesters’ legal fees:

arrest, all of us transgender. We turned ourselves into the county jail, and got booked. Most of us were charged with disorderly conduct and interference with official acts, which carries up to 13 months in prison and up to $3,410 in fines. Most of us took a plea deal. One of us is going to trial [Tara McGovern].

I believe that the police and the transphobes are on the same side: the side of fascism. I believe that human rights should be obtained By Any Means Necessary, and if the police are in our way and ordering us to give up the good fight, it is our sacred duty to disobey those orders.

Sarahann: It seems like every week there’s a new horrifying anti-trans bill being introduced at the capitol. What is going on?

m: As briefly as I can: Kim Reynolds and other Iowa Republicans have introduced dozens of bills that threaten trans people’s basic human dignity, civil rights, access to healthcare and ability to openly and safely live our lives. The two most notable attempts were HF 2082, Jeff “J-Dog” Shipley’s bill which would strike gender identity from civil rights code, meaning you can discriminate against someone for their gender identity, and HF 2389, Kim Reynolds’s “pink triangles” bill that defines trans people out of legal recognition, imposes cruel and undue requirements for medical legitimation of our gender, bars us from accessing many state and public services as ourselves and forces us to have special designations on legal

documents which would out us as trans to anyone who saw them.

J-Dog’s bill failed after immense public pressure, with 300-plus protesters and dozens of speakers coming out against the bill. Kim Reynolds’s bill, despite an even greater response, is awaiting a full vote in the House.

Sarahann: Why is all this happening now?

m: It’s an election year. This has also been a sustained campaign for years, with many versions of these bills previously failing in committee or subcommittee. Project 2025, a national conservative initiative, plans to use the courts to challenge many foundational civil protections. These anti-trans bills exist to create court challenges that will ultimately find themselves in front of conservative judges.

Sarahann: How do [we] sustain our efforts?

I’ll start. We organize. Organizing, plainly, is a political term in this context, but, in a wider sense, it’s something many of us already do for different objectives. Organizing means working together to accomplish something you can’t do alone. We all have different capacities and abilities, so activism looks different for everyone.

Harry: The simple answer is that people’s power is unending, and that mutual aid will carry all of us. The more complicated end is getting everyone

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to do everything they can—and I mean everything they can, not just what is convenient. For our efforts in protesting in the capitol, many people who did not go donated money for gas or food.

We all have to seize every opportunity to oppose this increasing fascism or it will swallow us all. And Black people and trans people will be among the first victims.

Sarahann: As an artist, I am more practiced than the average person at exposing my vulnerabilities. I like writing about “personal” things. You can read or listen to my work and know I have issues. But on the community-level organizing, you don’t want your weak spots to be easily found then exploited by people who don’t want you to exist.

I want to talk about despair and fear and hopelessness and sadness and crying. Do y’all cope with music? I definitely do.

m: “Despair” isn’t a word that I tend to use. Certainly fear, sadness, crying—I’ve cried during sets before. I think of music as a place I can go to be present in my feelings and experiences, and that has meant a lot of sadness and a lot of pain.

I think getting into noise and working with sound the way I do is honestly part of how I learned to be vulnerable with who I am. I tend to pull my sounds apart in fairly dramatic ways, slowing them down times 100 or resampling them over and over until they’re crushed flat. The way I see it, there is always the potential for all of what happens to the sounds I use, and what I do as a musician is just expose that potential and let it run wild. I code most of my own instruments and tools, other than a drum machine, so everything is really built to feed into that sort of overwhelming “presence.”

Harry: I don’t think that political art has any ability to make real change. The real change happens in the streets. It happens in rooms where actions are planned. It happens when the people organize themselves and take concrete, material actions against fascism.

I’ve made political music, but it’s not my goal. When I am making music, the most important thing to me is to be honest. So I make music about whatever I feel like making music about in a moment. The day SF 538 [the bill that took away trans kids’ access to healthcare] was passed, I was really angry. I was angry at transphobes. I was angry at the police that protect those transphobes. So I put that anger into a song called “Prairieland.”

m: Music doesn’t really do anything, people do. What I think music can do is bring those people together. I can think of several people who I used

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to see on the fringes at shows who are now re ally vocally fighting back. Hell, I’m one of those people. This vulnerability and honesty that we’ve been talking about can be sort of a “reaching out,” a hand to pull people into communities they might not have found otherwise. A lyric doesn’t change the world, but a few people who love a song or a sound can come together and start to build some thing.

Sarahann: Do you plan to stay in Iowa?

Harry: I’m hoping to escape Iowa by the end of this summer, because this state is becoming a liv ing hell for people like me. It is not a place where I can survive. I would come to Iowa to visit my mom. Otherwise, I would not come to Iowa.

m: My Ph.D. program paid me to come. I do re ally feel like Iowa City is my home now though, even though I’m planning on moving this year. I’ve said “the community” a lot, and I’ve meant half a dozen things by it, but IC is the first place I’ve ever really felt like I had anything like that in my life.

Sarahann: I think of Iowa City not only as a col lege town, but as a resort town. Even a weekend trip to Chicago blows my mind. I feel the delusion of racism, and all the subtle or unspoken aggression of it, disappear when I get to Chicago. I’m less of an anomaly there, and I get looked at less in the ways I don’t like, and more in the ways I do like.

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[But] I’m attached to my hometown, and I have a group of friends that love and support me. I’ve never liked myself and my life so much. Could it better? Maybe, but I would miss what I have here. I like running into people that truly care about me whenever I’m downtown.

m: When I used to live in LA, I never could have posted about a small show three weeks out and had 40 people there, or had dozens of people get themselves together in just a few days to go protest in Des Moines. The size and closeness here supports a really different way of moving and being an artist. The network of people might be smaller, but there are so many more threads connecting us all together; the PS1 people know the noise people know the punk people know the DJs know the poets know the folk people know the librarians know the activists and so on.

Part of mutual aid is giving what you can and trusting your community to do the same. That can start as simply as making sure your friends can eat. Then your neighbors, your community, your city, everyone.

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‘Our Joy is resistance’

The Central Iowa Trans Lives Festival counters legislative anxiety by celebrating trans art.

BY achILLES FErGUS SEaSTrOM

Within the first weeks of 2024 and the current Iowa legislative session, dozens of bills were introduced posing threats to the safety, healthcare access and legal recognition of transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming children and adults.

As the fight against these bills continues to rage inside the State Capitol, the First Unitarian Church of Des Moines is making space to showcase the art, experiences and joys of these threatened Iowans at their fourth Central Iowa Trans Lives Festival—the third in a row since their 2020-’21 COVID hiatus—on Saturday, March 30 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

First Unitarian has been an LGBTQ+ Welcoming Congregation since 1992. Birch Spick (they/them), Faith Formation and Congregational Life Coordinator at First Unitarian, described the festival as a place for trans performers to showcase their talents, a marketplace for trans artists and a resource fair. But it’s also more than that.

“This is a way we put our values into action in the world,” they said. “[This is how we] put in effort to center and uplift trans and nonbinary people in our congregation and highlight their lives and liveliness when we usually hear more about how their rights are being infringed upon.”

One Iowa Action, a grassroots activist organization supporting and protecting LGBTQ+ Iowans, has been tracking 40 bills introduced in the 2024 Iowa legislative session that they consider to be dangerous to LGBTQ Iowans. On Feb. 16, One Iowa Action announced that 33 of these bills had died during the first funnel, a deadline by which a bill must have approval from a full committee to continue through the legislative process.

However, this means seven bills still pose threats to trans and queer Iowans. These include bills that impact trans healthcare access, trans students’ freedom and safety in schools, and trans identification on official state documents.

When facing such stark antipathy from lawmakers, organizers of the Central Iowa Trans Lives Festival see celebration as a necessity.

“As a cis person, I don’t experience as much of a threat, which gives me a greater capacity to live life [unimpeded],” said Gianfranco Berardi,

a founding organizer of the 2019 festival. “I want to do what I can to help. This is amplifying the people who need a break when challenges out there are so relentless. To be able to focus on things that bring joy is a great focal point.”

Sarah Chang (she/they), co-leader of First Unitarian’s Queer and Transgender Action Group, agreed.

“I do what I can [about oppressive legislation] but sometimes, when you’ve done all you

“By highlighting the work of transgender artists, you give them a platform to spread awareness and information, and provide a community to those who are most in need of one.” —Andy Max

can, then what else can you do?” Chang asked. “Something that I can do is help create this safe space for celebration and trans joy.”

The Trans Lives Festival, taking place the same weekend as the International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31, is free and open to all ages. Enjoy performances throughout the seven-hour fest, including live music and poetry readings. Eat a few street tacos provided by local food truck Nacho Daddy’z Tacos, then browse community resource tables and artist booths. Some vendors will have art for sale, so don’t forget your wallet—or your proof of COVID-19 vaccination, which will be required at the door. Masks will also be required in the building,

which is ADA accessible.

Artist vendor Andy Max (he/him) of Resonating Art sells original paintings and prints. He said in an email that two of the biggest benefits of a festival centering trans art are “visibility and education.”

“There is a lot of ignorance in society around what it is to be transgender or gender nonconforming,” Max wrote. “And I believe a lot of that is due to a lack of visibility and education.”

Max, a Dubuque-based artist and a trans man, said a lack of trans visibility growing up had a big impact on his life; although he always knew he was a boy, he didn’t learn about trans identities until he was a freshman in college.

“By highlighting the work of transgender artists, you give them a platform to spread awareness and information, and provide a community to those who are most in need of one,” he said.

“To me, the biggest value in centering [trans] art is our joy!” added Lisa B, a multi-disciplinary artist who sells under the moniker LadyGayDHD. “Our joy is resistance” to institutional violence, she said, especially violence wielded against “our Black and brown siblings.”

First Unitarian’s Spick agrees. They see trans joy, and trans art, as a tool against oppression, not an experience separate from it.

“We do this,” Spick said, “so that we can have the energy, sustenance and nourishment to continue living in and fighting against an oppressive society.”

28 March 2024 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327

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Trans Lives Festival First Unitarian Church of Des Moines, Saturday, March 30, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., free Artist Andy Max describes his work during an exhibit at the Smokestack in Dubuque. Dubuque Area Arts Collective

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Little Village’s resident reub embarks on a fourth hunt for perfection.

BY JOrDaN SELLErGrEN

From this year’s reuben pageant sprung an unexpected star—a deviation, a meatless challenger from the sidelines. In the spirit of progress, we allowed its ascension; perhaps to set up 2025’s review, when the kitchen at Octopus in Cedar Falls should be in full service (owner Dave Diebler describes his tempeh reuben as “off the deep end... brown sugar, dijon, capers”) and we might finally have enough material to do a statewide survey for the vegetarians.

Until then, please enjoy the fourth year of hot takes from Little Village on this strange, indulgent and rather ubiquitous sandwich.

DES MOINES

1111 25th St, Des Moines, 515-277-1111, drakediner.com

You know when someone is smokin’ hot, but lacks wit to such a degree that you don’t feel attracted to them, but you still appreciate them on a superficial level? That’s how I would describe the Drake Diner’s reuben: easy on the eye, but there’s something missing inside. And for the most part, we’re fine with it.

Piled with sliced corned beef that has been crisped at the edges (was it toasted open-face in an oven?), secured with a mortar of Swiss and kraut between slices of dark marble rye. A 55:45 ratio, people, my ideal! But there’s just something missing. A depth of flavor that was never explored. After a few bites I decided the sauce lacked zang. We’re looking for a bit of complexity here-–nothing a bit of personal development won’t fix. I really do wish them the best. (B)

Palmer’s Deli palmersdeliandmarket.com

2843 Ingersoll Ave, Des Moines, 515-274-4004

655 Walnut St 219, Des Moines,515-288-4466 3719 86th St, Urbandale, 515-270-6561

4949 Westown Pkwy #180, West Des Moines, 515-223-0123

Wait, is this ham? I guess that’s one of the themes of 2024’s Reuben Review: bamboozled by ham when we were, understandably, expecting corned beef. This is not to say that Palmer’s Deli in Urbandale was bad. In fact, it was nice. The inside was spacious and sunny. There were casseroles of cavatelli and mac & cheese available for take-andbake. As far as delis go, Palmer’s feels grand, but was that HAM on my REUBEN!?!

It came just as a to-go sandwich should: wrapped in a printed parchment and stuffed in a paper bag. Warm, comforting, pressed with perfectly golden panini lines while Swiss, kraut and sauce squished around the edges between ruffles of tender, thin sliced… HAM?!? (B-)

IOWa cITY

Dandy Lion

111 S Dubuque St, Iowa City, 319-358-6400, thedandylionic.com

The Dandy Lion reuben is mostly traditional: toasted-yet-pillowy marble rye, house-made corned beef brisket, a sweet Thousand Island with good zang, everything at a lovely 55:45 ratio with the only deviation being a pickled red cabbage instead of the traditional fermented kraut. I love a pickled red cabbage, but I did order the reuben here, folks. I feel like using anything other than real kraut is some kind of apology to the world on behalf of the reuben’s existence. It doesn’t need your pity or excuses!

Despite this, the sandwich is delicious thanks to the sweetness of the sauce, which compliments the salty pickled cabbage, and the way the Swiss cheese integrates with the tender, slightly crisped brisket throughout. (A-)

MOLINE

Belgian Village

560 17th Ave, Moline, 309-373-9522, belgianvillagetogo.com

A friend suggested I seek out Belgian Village’s “VandeReuben.” “The schtick,” she said, “is that it is mega.” Somehow this did not prepare me for what I ordered: an 11-by-7-inch sandwich served on house-made rye and packaged so tightly in plastic wrap that I wager you’d be able to frisbee it across the Mississippi, or at least onto a passing barge, with some practice.

Come work with us JOHN@NEWBO.CO • (319) 382-5128 INDEPENDENT Cedar Rapids tourismcedarrapids.com LV recommends return

the

reuben review

Bread & Butter

Drake Diner

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Belgian Village has done to-go only since the pandemic. You do the honors of grilling to your idea of perfection… if you’re lucky. This is where things went awry for me. I overheated the pan, resulting in a burnt buttered-bread flavor that dominated everything good inside. If I can recommend anything to you today, it’s to practice patience and heat this baby low and slow.

A “Belgian reuben” is made with ham alongside the corned beef—unfortunate to learn as I stood at the pick-up counter, though it was clear as day on the menu (my bad). Still, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the experience: the location is charming and the sandwich was fine (approximately 60:40 meat to Swiss/kraut), decently balanced with the bread considering each slice was larger than my head. I still find myself in awe of just how large bread can be. (B-)

Newton’s Paradise Cafe 128 E 4th St, Waterloo, 319-234-0280, newtonscafe.com

Newton’s Paradise Cafe’s primary allure might be their wonderful, three-sided vertical sign, like

a big blue Toblerone on the corner of the historic former Newton’s Jewelry building, just a block up from the Cedar River. You may find that vibewise, the carpet doesn’t match the drapes, if you know what I’m saying (the mid-century aesthetic ends at the entrance), but the reuben came out hot and buttery in barely any time at all. It was casually constructed––the Swiss softened, yet stated visibly intact and unmingled with two thick slices of deli corned beef that lay within. I would estimate a 50:50 ratio of corned beef to Swiss and kraut, and that maybe the kraut could have been drained a bit more to manage a sourness that didn’t quite balance with the subtle sauce. (C+)

cEDar raPIDS

Tic Toc

600 17th St NE, Cedar Rapids, 319-200-4210, facebook.com/tictocCR

The Tic Toc has been around, for the most part, since 1964, yet somehow I never went inside during 15 years of Cedar Rapids residency. I do know from photos that it had a real “grandpa’s basement bar” vibe prior to the remodel and 2021 reopening, something I’m frankly sorry to have missed.

In any case, among the six corned beef (and ham) reubens tested this year, Tic Toc ranked highest in terms of 1. Traditional ingredients; 2. Golden ratio (55:45 meat to Swiss/kraut); 3. Commingled elements and 4. Overall flavor and

consistency. The sauce was just sweet enough with appropriate zang. The kraut had bite and was thoughtfully incorporated into the melted swiss and corned beef throughout. Without being dry, the marble rye was crispy, and while the sandwich may be smaller compared to some tested this year, the Tic Toc’s reuben was elegant in its restraint. (A-)

cEDar raPIDS / cOraLVILLE

New Pioneer Food Co-op www.newpi.coop

3338 Center Point Rd NE, Cedar Rapids, 319-365-2632

1101 2nd St, Coralville, 319-358-5513

A dark horse contender appears. Offering neither rye nor beef, New Pi’s tempeh reuben arrived by misunderstanding (I swore they had a corned beef one!) and would have been excluded for the sake of tradition if not for my affinity for this slightly unconventional sandwich. A less indulgent sibling of the original, it is meatless, ungreasy, wholesome but not boring, a bit dense but never crude, served on warm, chewy sourdough that’s crunchy at the edges, stacked with savory Swiss, kraut and marinated tempeh slices, adorned with sweet red onions and housemade sauce, then tucked into parchment and slapped on the counter for under 10 bucks.

Yes, it’s true: against all odds (six meat ones to be precise) and occasionally unavailable (call ahead), this year, the vegetarian version swooped in and stole the fuckin’ show. (A)

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

WaTErLOO

Pour Things

We’ve paired a pair of Iowa-made beers with each of this year’s Best Picture contenders so no matter who wins, you’re golden.

BY EMMa MccLaTchEY

AMERICAN FICTION

Bankrupt On Selling fruited sour

6.4% ABV, Lua Brewing, Des Moines Mummer Saison-style mumme

6% ABV, Quarter Barrel Arcade & Brewery, Cedar Rapids

Lua’s Bankrupt on Selling is packed with blackberry, pineapple, cinnamon and nutmeg. “Bankrupt on Selling,” a 1997 Modest Mouse song condemning those who compromise morality for fortune and fame, could be on the soundtrack of Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction. The dramedy follows a Black writer and academic (Jeffrey Wright) stuck in a mummer’s farce: writing from the voice of a racial stereotype in order to woo the white liberal establishment. A tale as old as the German mumme beer style Quarter Barrel pays homage to.

ANATOMY OF A FALL

Take a Chill pilsner

5.2% ABV, NoCoast Beer Co., Oskaloosa Off the Leash Iowa corn pilsner

3.5% ABV, Kinship Brewing Company, Waukee

This cerebral crime-and-court drama set in the French alps has a few loud scenes, but it’s the quieter moments that really get the blood pumping. No Coast’s crisp Take a Chill Pilsner will keep you braced through all the snowy suspense. This Palme d’Or winner also has a scene-stealing canine character: border collie Snoop (Messi), a seeing eye dog and eyewitness to a potential murder. Award your own pup with a romp in

Kinship Brewing’s dog park while you throw back a couple corn beers.

BARBIE

Pervading Existence double New England IPA

8% ABV, Alluvial Brewing Company, Ames Nice Shoes Scotch ale

9.6% ABV, Franklin Street Brewing, Manchester Do you guys ever think about dying? Are you plagued by existential thoughts during your dry morning showers, invisible breakfasts and sandless walks on the beach? Alluvial may have the cure for you. Or perhaps you just need a new pair of kicks to get your groove back—Franklin Street’s caramel-colored Nice Shoes are so heavy, you’ll be tip-toeing around the taproom again in no time.

THE HOLDOVERS

Fifth Year Senior hoppy lager

5.7% ABV, Big Grove Brewery, Solon, Iowa City, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids

Cure for Pessimism West Coast IPA

6.8% ABV, Contrary Brewing Co., Muscatine One way to cope when work has you overnighting with a grieving coworker and five abandoned teenagers is alcohol. Jim Beam is the drink of choice for hard-grading, world-weary history teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), stuck babysitting holdover prep school students during their 1970 holiday break. But it’s comradery that ultimately cures his pessimism. For the rest of us, there’s beer.

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

Forgotten Time 2024 barrel-aged barley wine

12% ABV, Lion Bridge Brewing Company x Clock House Brewing, Cedar Rapids Realize Vienna lager

5.5%, Dimensional Brewing Company, Dubuque There are at least two Native American-owned craft breweries on Osage lands, Broken Arrow

The

is the destination.

LV recommends

& Butter

Bread

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Brewing Company and Skydance Brewing Company (owned by Jake Keyes, a member of the Iowa tribe), though neither yet distribute outside of Oklahoma. Forgotten Time, a collaboration between two CR breweries, was aged for 28 months in Templeton Rye barrels, imbuing the barley wine with fruit, chocolate and sherry flavors as complex as the character of Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone). Realize, meanwhile, is as stark and dark as Mollie’s revelation in the film’s final act.

MAESTRO

Super Cooper SMaSH pale ale

5% ABV, Bremer Brewing Company, Waverly Faithfully Yours Pastry kettle sour

7% ABV, Pulpit Rock, Decorah

The SMaSH (single malt and single hop) brew is an American classic, much like 12-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper. Whether or not the man gets his flowers this year, your Super Cooper will arrive golden and floral. If you’re looking for a more complex and wholesome brew, Pulpit Rock’s fully fall-flavored Faithfully Yours is as fascinating as Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan)’s legendary parties. Her husband, titular maestro Leonard Bernstein (Cooper), proves less than faithful in this romantic biopic.

OPPENHEIMER

Czech Pilsner Mlíko pours

Field Day Brewing Company, North Liberty

Three varieties: Premium (5.2% ABV), Amber (4.7% ABV) and Dark (4.6% ABV)

As darkly awe-inspiring as Christopher Nolan’s recreation of the Trinity test may be, his cinematic clouds pale in comparison to Field Day’s Mlíko pours—beers that are 90 percent creamy, fluffy foam on top of an inch or so of Czech pilsner. So surprising and sweet, you’ll forget to bring the laundry in (or consider the irreversible, humanity-destroying ramifications of your actions).

PAST LIVES

Slightly Heightened Conversation

American-style sour ale

SingleSpeed Brewing, Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Des Moines

Two varieties: Rosé (5.4% ABV) and DryHopped (5.25% ABV)

The dialogue in Past Lives sparks and crackles with chemistry, whether spoken in Korean, English or meaningful stares. This sour from SingleSpeed comes in two mouthwatering varieties, so like Nora (Greta Lee), you’ll have to make a difficult choice. Unlike Nora, you can order another round in this lifetime.

POOR THINGS

Pants Off Dance Off pistachio cream ale

5% ABV, Millstream Brewing Company, Amana Luftballon hefeweizen

5.5% ABV, House Divided Brewery, Ely

If there’s anything Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) takes to like a duck to water in her Frankensteined second life, it’s dancing and, uh, the horizontal tango. Millstream’s pistachio ale and House Divided’s hef are light enough to keep you light on your feet—or flying high in a steampunk zeppelin—with a bit of sweetness to spare.

THE ZONE OF INTEREST

Clash With Reality West Coast IPA

7.4% ABV, Stompbox Brewing, Davenport Cold Hearted Snake cold IPA

7.1% ABV, 515 Brewing Company, Clive

The banality of evil haunts Jonathan Glazer’s historical drama, focused on a Nazi commander and his cognitive-dissonance-afflicted kin as they pursue a life of leisure in the shadow of Auschwitz. If the hoppiness of these aptly named IPAs don’t make you flinch, Zone’s disquieting sound design certainly will.

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THREE ELECTRIC PERFORMANCES

featuring UI students and faculty.

One vibrant campus with creativity at its heart.

This semester, join us for brilliant, diverse, eclectic artistry celebrating students, faculty, and staff across the performing arts.

Dance students working with Professor Stephanie Miracle and Professor Eloy Barragan will take to the Hancher stage with the iconic Martha Graham Dance Company. Theatre Arts students will bring a beautiful play to life under the direction of Professor Caroline Clay. And School of Music students will perform a new opera at Hancher with music composed by Professor William Menefield, who will also direct.

Each performance is emblematic of what’s possible on a campus committed to collaborative, transformational arts experiences for artists and audiences alike.

MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY

GRAHAM100

PRESENTED BY HANCHER AUDITORIUM WITH SUPPORT FROM UI DEPARTMENT OF DANCE

Friday, March 29 / 7:30 p.m. Hancher Auditorium

An indispensable dance company celebrates 100 years, bringing is founder's classic works to the stage alongside new work by contemporary choreographers. Martha Graham—an icon among 20th century artistic icons—radically expanded the dance vocabulary, and her work has captivated audiences worldwide while influencing generations of artists.

TICKETS

Adults $65 / $45

Students & Youth $10

34 March 2024 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327

SCHOOL OF MUSIC / DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE ARTS / DEPARTMENT OF DANCE / HANCHER AUDITORIUM / PERFORMING ARTS PRODUCTION UNIT PERFORMING ARTS AT IOWA 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 the sponsoring department or contact person listed in advance of the event.

FIERCE IN THE RED AND BROWN WATER

By Tarell Alvin McCraney

Directed by Caroline Clay

PRESENTED BY UI DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE ARTS

Friday–Sunday, April 12–14 & Wednesday–Saturday, April 17–20 Theatre Building

San Pere, Louisiana: Oya runs fast, but her collegiate future is placed on hold to care for her mother. Inspired by Federico García Lorca’s Yerma and Yoruban cosmology, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s In the Red and Brown Water is a lyrical offering at the intersection of ancestral myth and ritual about a young woman’s coming-of-age navigating lovers, community, and her chosen path.

TICKETS

Adults $20

Senior Citizens $15

Youth & Non-UI Students $10

UI Students $5

PRESENTED BY HANCHER AUDITORIUM, PERFORMING ARTS PRODUCTION UNIT, AND UI SCHOOL OF MUSIC

Friday & Saturday April 26 & 27 7:30 p.m. Hancher Auditorium

An opera for the 21st Century, Fierce follows four teenage girls finding identity and purpose in the world as they write their college essays in a high school writers’ workshop. The young women face striking internal challenges—the difficulties of high school popularity and social media, the weight of parental expectations, personal loss, and unstable lives at home—but come together to find community, self-empowerment, and the confidence to embrace new chapters.

TICKETS

Adults $20

Youth & Non-UI Students $10

UI Students $5

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327 March 2024 35

 MORE INFO AND TICKETS AT PERFORMINGARTS.UIOWA.EDU

Being Mike V

From skating with the Bones Brigade to playing in Black Flag, Mike Vallely is living the life he dreamed of as a 14-year-old.

BY KEMBrEW McLEOD

Growing up in New Jersey in the 1970s and ’80s, Mike Vallely was, of course, aware of skateboarding. But it didn’t seem approachable. Popular culture presented it as something made for Californians with nice tans and well-built bodies who wanted to show off and do handstands on their boards. So Vallely didn’t pay it much mind, at first.

“It was not an accepted or appreciated activity in the mid ’80s, at all,” Vallely said. “It was discouraged, seen as useless. It had no end game. There’s no touchdowns in skateboarding. There was no career path, no benefits package, nothing that would make any parent, teacher or concerned citizen look at it and say, ‘Oh, yeah kid, you should be doing that!’”

For most adults in central New Jersey, skateboarding, which evolved in tandem with surf culture on the West Coast, had all the markers of an utterly pointless pursuit. Surfing occasionally occurred at the Jersey Shore, but pretty much the only place on the East Coast where both sports gained traction was a few hundred miles south, in Virginia Beach. Still, skateboarding “really hit home for me,” Vallely said, “when I discovered street skating.”

“People had climbed mountains and learned to ski and surf the ocean, but no one had figured out what to do with concrete, steel and asphalt,” he told me. “Everything we navigate in our daily lives is laid out with right angles and literal barriers—the curbs, the street corners, whatever—so I liked the idea of going out and challenging one’s own environment.”

Street skating incorporates that environment into the practice. Tricks are performed around, over and sometimes on everyday obstacles. Vert, or transition, skating has its origins in suburban backyard “pool riding”—it emphasizes ramps, inclines and the transition from horizontal to vertical positioning. Purpose-built skate parks typically include elements of both.

Vallely’s perspective on skateboarding also works as a metaphor for the way that the pro skateboarding icon has navigated his life and career since he first got his hands on a board in 1984. His path has been one of twists, turns and deftly incorporated barriers, taking Vallely from his hometown of Edison, New Jersey to a quick spin through Virginia Beach, Virginia, a move to

“Black Flag was the first live music show I ever saw. They just blew me away because these guys, they were going for it. It was so, so intense, and just so life affirming. Like, ‘OK, I am alive, and I choose to live my life how I want to live it.’ That’s how I felt when I was watching them perform. It just opened me up and, further up the road, it informed how I approached my professional skating.”

Southern California and eventually landing him in Des Moines.

Born in 1970, Vallely was raised in the shadows of postindustrial decay at a time when the steady drip of factory closings caused economic hardships for many of the working-class families in Edison, including his own. These experiences taught him to lean into the positives and make the most of limited resources.

“We were affected by all kinds of things,” he said. “I mean, when we moved out of an apartment and moved in with my grandparents, it seemed normal to me. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, we have to do this because of finances’ or something. It’s like, ‘Oh, cool, we get to live with our grandparents!’ My dad worked a lot. He had

Black Flag xBk Live, Monday, March 18

Doors open 7 p.m., show at 8, $27–32

three jobs at one point, which I also thought was normal, and that’s why I say that me, my brother and sister had a kind of idyllic childhood.”

Vallely participated in team sports like baseball, but by the time he was entering high school he had grown disenchanted with the way that the system seemed rigged in favor of those from wealthier neighborhoods who could afford better equipment and training. The moment that he became aware of those dynamics, Vallely walked away from it all and embraced skateboarding.

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Tyler Erickson / Little Village

Prairie Pop

Culture

At 14, on day one of high school, Vallely befriended a punk rocker who showed him the ropes, opening his eyes to new music and introducing him to Thrasher, a photo-heavy skateboarding magazine that also functioned much like a social media page—connecting members of this rapidly expanding subculture across the nation.

“I went home with him that day, and he made me a mixtape that turned me on to a bunch of punk bands like Black Flag. He also told me to get a skateboard, and while we were listening to the music, I was like, ‘Well, that makes sense. Skateboarding is like a physical way to express what’s going on in that loud, fast, rumbling music.’ Then he said, ‘Go check out Thrasher magazine.’ And I was like, ‘Thrasher?!?’ The first time I heard the word, I was like, ‘Ah, Thrasher. Yeah, I get it.’ It all just kind of clicked.”

In one afternoon, Vallely was turned on to the two things that would play large roles in his life: skateboarding and Black Flag, the influential California punk band that he now fronts. Vallely’s high school punk rocker friend had a little brother with a stash of back issues of Thrasher—which Vallely devoured—and he also got a chance to ride the next-generation skateboards that were favored by street skaters.

“Just looking at the skateboard, it spoke to me,” he said. “I realized, like, ‘Oh, that’s my paintbrush. That’s my guitar. That’s my mode of transportation. That’s how I’m gonna go through the rest of my life.’ It all just hit me at once, and I knew that the rest of my life had just begun.”

The next month, in October 1984, Vallely went to see Black Flag at City Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey—his first live show. That Christmas, he got his first skateboard. From that moment, Vallely spent all his free time with his new friends listening to cool music, watching skate videos, reading Thrasher and skateboarding every single day.

“Wake up, skate to school, and skate during school, and skate after school. Skate before dinner, skate after dinner—skate, skate, skate, skate, skate. I did that all through 1985.”

The following year, a brief detour through Virginia Beach altered the course of his life. Skateboarding took off early in that beach town, where a recreational area known as Mount Trashmore became the first city-funded skateboarding park in America during the mid 1970s (not to be confused with Cedar Rapids’ Mount Trashmore, completed in 2018). Throughout the next decade, it hosted competitions that drew luminaries like Tony Hawk, who landed the first documented 900 there—that’s two and a half rotations in the air.

The Trashmore ramp also served as a

By Jackie Sibblies Drury Directed by Aaron Reese Boseman

Fairview is a bold and disarmingly funny play that serves as “a glorious reminder of the unmatched power of live theater to rattle, roil, and shake us wide awake.” (The New York Times). Meet the Frasiers, a middle class Black American family trying desperately to make everything perfect for a birthday celebration. But not too far into the festivities, we see their story through a whole new lens, leading to one of the most outrageous and jaw-dropping endings in theatre history.

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launching pad for Vallely’s career.

“In February of ’86, my dad set the family down and said he had a new job opportunity,” he recalled. “He had a choice of a couple different places that we could move, and one of them was Virginia Beach, which I knew about from following the skate scene. I knew that Mount Trashmore had pro contests, so I was like, ‘We have to go to Virginia Beach. In fact, I’m not moving anywhere, unless it is Virginia Beach!’ They couldn’t believe that I was so passionate about the idea of living there, because I never really spoke up like that before.”

A couple months later, the family moved into a place near Mount Trashmore, where Vallely found his people. But it turned out to be very short-lived; his brother and sister never really found their groove in Virginia Beach, his mother was unhappy, and then his father’s job fell through. After about three months, the family decided to move back to New Jersey.

“But the pro contest had yet to come to town,” Vallely said. “It was a couple weeks away when my parents wanted to leave, and I was like, ‘I’m not leaving till this pro contest occurs!’ So, me and my mom stayed behind and everyone else went back, and I think all the furniture had already been moved when I attended that contest. That’s where I met Stacy Peralta [pro skater in the Z-Boys; writer, Lords of Dogtown] and Lance Mountain [artist; pro skater in the Bones Brigade], which led to me being sponsored by Powell Peralta. But after that weekend, I was back in New Jersey.”

During that pivotal pro competition, he grabbed the opportunity to skate in front of Peralta, and the legend was impressed. Soon after, Vallely was invited to join Bones Brigade—a groundbreaking skateboarding team founded in 1979 by Peralta and George Powell after they launched their skateboard manufacturing company—and the momentum kept building. That summer, his new sponsor flew him to California, where Vallely won the national amateur skateboard championships in streetstyle.

Powell Peralta had set a five-year plan to develop Vallely as a pro skater. But after a photo of Vallely at Mount Trashmore landed on the August 1986 cover of Thrasher, it basically turned into a five-month plan.

“That was unprecedented, and it could only have happened one time in skate history, because street skating was a brand-new phenomenon,”

“Just looking at the skateboard, it spoke to me. I realized, like, ‘Oh, that’s my paintbrush. That’s my guitar. That’s my mode of transportation. That’s how I’m gonna go through the rest of my life.’ It all just hit me at once, and I knew that the rest of my life had just begun.” —Mike Vallely

Vallely said. “When Powell Peralta sponsored me, they basically told the entire skateboard world that the focus was shifting from ramps and vertical skateboarding to the streets, because I was just some random street skater kid from the East Coast who no one had ever heard of. It changed the entire industry.”

Vallely’s forward motion never faltered in the decades that followed as he navigated an idiosyncratic path through the world. An animal rights advocate since his late-teens, one of his earliest signature model skateboards, 1989’s The Barnyard, promoted vegetarianism with the slogan “Please Don’t Eat My Friends.” His passions didn’t necessarily align with what mainstream culture encouraged people to believe, but Vallely was on a mission.

“I thought that skateboarding was substantial, and a very meaningful pursuit,” he said. “But no one around me believed that. Even my friends who skated, they didn’t talk about it like that. I wanted to help popularize skating, so it became my calling in life.”

Throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century, Vallely repped many of the world’s most prominent skateboarding companies at demos and pro contests. He also appeared as a recurring character (“Mike V”) in fellow Bones Brigade member Tony Hawk’s popular Pro Skater video game series, which extended his prominence within a subculture that by then had been fully absorbed into popular culture. Vallely returned to another of his youthful passions, and in the early 2000s he began releasing music with Mike V and the Rats before landing a gig as vocalist for the

iconic band that introduced him to punk rock.

“Black Flag was the first live music show I ever saw,” he said. “They just blew me away because these guys, they were going for it. It was so, so intense, and just so life affirming. Like, ‘OK, I am alive, and I choose to live my life how I want to live it.’ That’s how I felt when I was watching them perform. It just opened me up and, further up the road, it informed how I approached my professional skating.”

In 2003, Mike V and the Rats were booked to open a series of shows for Black Flag, whose founder, guitarist Greg Ginn, took Vallely under his wing. While planning a one-off Black Flag gig that benefited a cat adoption organization, the guitarist tapped him to sing the entirety of the group’s 1984 My War record, a hardcore classic released on Ginn’s venerable indie label, SST.

A decade later, in 2013, Ginn and Vallely formed the band Good for You, which released one record on SST. Ginn had originally floated the idea to Vallely of making it a new Black Flag record, but Vallely nixed that, not knowing that the guitarist had already been considering relaunching that group—which he did that year with Black Flag’s second lead singer, Ron Reyes.

“I toured with them in 2013, and I saw them night in and night out, and when it kind of unraveled with Ron, Greg asked me if I was interested. We toured in 2014, and I thought it was pretty good, and then we went out again in 2019, but we had some personnel problems and it wasn’t quite gelling. But when we started up again after the pandemic, it really started to click. I was singing the songs as if the

38 March 2024 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327

Culture

Mike Vallely at Virginia Beach’s Mount Trashmore, in the photo that landed on the cover of Thrasher’s August 1986 issue. Courtesy of Mike Vallely

words were being lived in that moment. We kept tweaking our personnel, and now we have a really tight band that is all on the same page.”

While he was singing with Black Flag, Mike and his wife Ann Vallely started their own independent skateboarding company, Street Plant, from their garage in Long Beach, California. It’s a literal cottage industry, done right out of their home, and the couple remains committed to keeping everything in-house and not growing beyond what they can manage.

“When I first got into skateboarding,” Vallely said, “I didn’t see these brands as companies, because they were created by people who loved skateboarding. That’s also how punk rock felt. It just felt like a community that you were a part of. You weren’t a consumer of it, you were part of it all. And then I got sponsored, and I found out that the industry was not really like that, but I still didn’t let that tarnish the way that I wanted to interact with the culture.”

“So, when I decided to truly start my own business, I knew I had to run my business the way I dreamed that it was being run when I was

Skateboarding sales skyrocketed during the pandemic, which helped Street Plant’s finances, but the rents they were paying in Long Beach were going through the roof. Ann and Mike Vallely realized that their time in Southern California had come to an end. Their daughter’s husband was from Iowa and the young couple had been spending time in the Des Moines area, which they were raving about.

“My wife and I looked at each other and were like, ‘Well, they’re gonna end up there, and we potentially could have grandkids there, so what the hell are we doing here?’ California just didn’t feel like a place of openness, it felt like a place of extreme closed-off conformity. We were mulling the idea over, and then my wife found our house while looking online.”

While Vallely prioritizes everything in his life

equally—bringing the same passion and intention to fulfilling Street Plant orders, his music or skateboarding demos—he admits that the upcoming Black Flag gig in Des Moines holds a special place in his heart.

“It’s a hometown show, and so it’s circled on my calendar,” he said. “Yeah, I know that making any special distinction can be a recipe for disaster, but I can’t help it. I’m really looking forward to this hometown show.”

“I’ve traveled all over the world since I’ve been living here,” Vallely said. “Pretty much every major city in the United States and Europe. I’ve been to Japan, Australia, all over South America, and whenever I fly back into Des Moines, I’m really happy. I feel really good. All of the friends that I’ve made here, they’re all really solid human beings. Everyone I know owns their own business or is in business for themselves in some way. I feel like Iowans support Iowans, and people here will get behind you.”

Kembrew McLeod’s first Black Flag album was The First Four Years

Sing-Along

SAT APR 13 | 7:30 PM |

AND

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327 March 2024 39

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THE IDEAL THEATER

“Sit, drink, listen, and sing along with beloved jazz standards, Broadway tunes, and opera selections led by some of the area’s finest singers. With the beautiful ambience of the Ideal Theater and Bar, custom opera-themed cocktails, Hangry Lady charcuterie boards, and all your favorite standards from Sinatra to Scarlatti, this premium event is sure to be a feast for all the senses.” BAR

a kid. My wife and I receive the orders, pack the boxes and deal with the inventory, so when you interact with our company, you’re interacting with us. We love skateboarding and we want every single interaction to be one of positivity, because it is personal to us.”

It’s all Ball

This culture critic is examining an American obsession: basketball.

BY GENEVIEVE TraINOr

At just 40 years old, poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib has covered a hell of a lot of ground in his career. A 2021 MacArthur fellow, his work has earned him an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence (for A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance) as well as landed him on the National Book Award longlist (for Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest). He’s the subject of a mural in his hometown of Columbus, commissioned by Cbus Libraries, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the library system in central Ohio. He’s been a visiting professor at institutions including Butler University and the University of Iowa, and he holds an honorary degree in the field of human ecology from the College of the Atlantic.

But there’s also performances within the performance of sport … the way that Stephen Curry, for example, runs around and screens to find a small sliver of light through which he can get

“Reading to an audience has to be a kind of communal act. I’m on stage oftentimes alone with my work, but my hope is that it leads to or at least opens up to a larger conversation, which is why I enjoy a Q&A session. I’m not very interested in one-sided performance, and that extends to my own reading.”

That’s because, above all else, he is a cultural critic. He makes no secret of his passions and integrates the world around him into all that he does, in ways that elevate both his work and the discipline of cultural criticism.

Abdurraqib’s latest foray into the liminal space between essay and memoir is his seventh book, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, out March 26 from Random House. It explores the Golden Age of basketball in the 1990s, plucking at culturally accepted ideas of success and excellence.

Little Village spoke with Abdurraqib via phone ahead of his upcoming performance at the Mission Creek Festival in April. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can find a longer version at littlevillagemag. com.

From a cultural critic perspective, where do you see the line where sports becomes performance in the same way that the arts are performance? I think sports is performance just in the most literal sense of performance, right? It’s people performing an act for an audience.

open for a shot: That is a type of performance, that is a type of dance, if you will.

In terms of the work that the artist or performer puts into it, and the conversations they have with themselves, or …? Yeah, well, I mean, that kind of work. But also those kinds of small moments of a defender and an offensive player locked in a one-on-one battle, or an offensive player locked in a battle with an audience—somebody heckling, these kinds of things. These are also small versions of a larger performance.

how do you apply that to your own performance work? For me, at least, reading to an audience has to be a kind of communal act. So sure, I’m reading, and I’m on stage oftentimes alone with my work, but my hope is that it leads to or at least opens up to a larger conversation, which is why I enjoy a Q&A session. I’m not very interested in one-sided performance, and that extends to my own reading. When I’m on stage reading, I tend to feel very isolated ... I think it is up to me to bridge the gap from that

hierarchy that a stage can create, to make it so that everyone in the room feels like they are participating in the act, even if they’re not reading work on stage.

Around 2012, I started doing poetry slam locally, mostly because I never wrote poems before, and this was giving me an incentive to write poems … I got very used to knowing what my voice sounded like, [and] knowing what my voice sounded like reading my work, which is kind of a superpower, I think. All these kinds of things that make a reading experience feel really robust, as opposed to something that people are kind of suffering through. Because it’s not easy to read one’s work well, and … for me, it is a requirement that I know how to read my work well, because I know what it’s like to sit through a reading that’s not exactly pleasurable.

how does your approach differ between poetry and essay, writing and performance? Oh, it doesn’t. I tend to take the same approach, within the writing especially, which is understanding that I am writing words that I intend to read out loud. And so I’m writing with an ear— not just an eye, but an ear—towards beautiful language that can maneuver in a lot of ways on stage coming out of my mouth. That approach, I think, serves me well, and that means that when I’m sitting down and writing, I’m really just in pursuit of that language and not in pursuit of any genre.

40 March 2024 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327

a-List: Eastern Iowa

Culture

MCF: Tisa Bryant and Hanif Abdurraquib, Hancher Auditorium, Iowa City, Thursday, April 4 at 6 p.m., $55-215 Maddie McGarvey

a-List: central Iowa Polymania!

Greg Wheeler’s latest venture has gone from revolving drummers to signing with High Dive to opening for Deerhoof, and the manic fever still hasn’t broken

BY DaN raY

The name Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops comes partly from an inside joke. In Kansas City, frontman Wheeler and bassist Jill McLain-Meister came across a group of three people living together who always wore security guard outfits and jokingly named them the “poly mall cops.” But the name also reflects the multiple drummers they went through and the difficulty of forming a band that’s the right fit.

The Mall Cops formed in 2016 after lead singer and guitarist Greg Wheeler’s previous project, the Wheelers, disbanded. Wheeler was looking to start a new band, and his partner, McLainMeister, wanted to support him (the pair has been together 17 years now). So she learned bass with Wheeler’s help. (Fun fact: Barb Schilf of House

of Large Sizes, arguably Iowa’s most famous punk rock band of the ’90s, also learned bass to play in HOLS with her partner, Dave Deibler.)

“When [the Wheelers] was coming to an end, I didn’t want to get back to the same spot where you invest time and energy into a project, things start winding down, and you feel obligated to call it a day because those identities make the band,” Wheeler said. “So that was part of the idea of calling it Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops. Poly [means] multiple partners, but you could also have it be a revolving door of musicians.”

Mall Cops’ current drummer Hutch joined the band in 2018. A professional barber, Hutch was once cutting Wheeler’s hair when it came up in conversation that he was a drummer. The band had been cycling through drummers, and luckily Hutch stuck—although he doesn’t cut Wheeler’s hair anymore since Wheeler grew it out.

They signed with Kansas City record label High Dive in 2022, and in March of last year, the Mall Cops put out their first full-length LP,

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327 March 2024 41

LittleVillageMag.com

Deerhoof w/Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops, Wooly’s, Saturday, March 30 at 7 p.m., $25 Anthony Scanga / Little Village

Manic Fever—12 songs and 24 minutes of high-energy punk rock grooves. The album flies by in a rush of headbanging and arm flailing so intense you won’t know what happened by the time it ends. And that’s the same vibe you can expect from their live show.

“We put a lot of energy into those songs and into our performances,” McLain-Meister said. “We want to leave the audience winded when we play live.”

This March, the Iowa punk rock trio will play a show at Wooly’s in Des Moines with San Francisco’s Deerhoof, a seminal indie/punk rock band Pitchfork writer Nick Sylvester once referred to as “the best band in the world.”

“We put a lot of energy into those songs and into our performances. We want to leave the audience winded when we play live.”

—Jill McLain-Meister

“I saw Deerhoof for the first time last year at 80/35, and it was just so mind blowing,” Hutch said. “I’m really excited to see [their drummer] again. Their bass player and lead singer; she’s insane. Their guitar players are insane. All night it’s gonna be this wall of music.”

Last year, Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops played 35 shows across the country in support of Manic Fever, and this year is looking just as jam-packed. They have some concerts lined up for the summer they can’t announce yet and a new LP coming late summer or early fall. A live tape of their 80/35 afterparty set at the Lift from last summer drops sometime in the spring.

At the Deerhoof show, the band plans to play through Manic Fever and preview some tracks from their upcoming LP (recorded live, punkrock style, in their basement). Manic Fever, which was recorded just prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, holds a special kind of mania. But the release that comes from dancing until you’re out of breath in a room full of strangers doing the same is universal to any time period or any hardship—and that’s what Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops want you to get from their music.

“When you drop a needle on it, it’s this wave of emotion you can connect with. You’re like, ‘Holy shit, yeah,’” said Hutch. “I’m just trying to keep my head above water right now. I’m just trying to not let this manic world drag me down with it.”

42 March 2024 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327 GET TICKETS AND GET INVOLVED: DMPlayhouse.com All is Calm 2023-24 Season Summer class registration NOW OPEN! CLASSES COMING SOON NOW SHOWING Beautiful: The Carole King Musical Apr. 5-21, 2024 Dragons Love Tacos Mar. 1-10, 2024 Our Town, 2023-24 Season

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EDITORS’ PICKS: MARCH 2024

Planning an event? Add it to littlevillagemag.com/calendar! Please include event name, date, time, venue name/address, admission price (or range) and a brief description (no all-caps, exclamation points or advertising verbiage, please). Contact calendar@littlevillagemag.com with any questions.

Des Moines

MUSIC

Thursday, March 7 at 6 p.m. Eli Young Band, Val Air Ballroom, West Des Moines, $35

Thursday, March 7 at 7 p.m.

The Moss, xBk Live, Des Moines, $21.95

Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m. Remo Drive, xBk Live, $24.02

Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m.

Whitey Morgan & The 78’s, Wooly’s, Des Moines, $29.50

Saturday, March 9 at 7 p.m.

Anxious, Koyo, One Step Closer, Wooly’s, $22.50

Monday, March 11 at 7 p.m. An

Evening w/Tinsley Ellis, xBk Live, $30-35

Tuesday, March 12 at 7 p.m.

Nicotine Dolls, Wooly’s, $25

Tuesday, March 12 at 8 p.m.

Brue Hornsby and yMusic: Brhym, Hoyt Sherman Place, Des Moines, $46-81

Thursday, March 14 at 7 p.m.

Early Eyes, xBk Live, $20.92

Thursday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m.

The High Kings & Gaelic Storm, Hoyt Sherman Place, $39-69

Saturday, March 16 at 8 p.m.

Dan Tedesco Album Release Party, xBk Live, $18.69-60

Saturday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m. Tropidelic, Wooly’s, $20

Mark Lage

Sunday, March 17 at 6 p.m. Chappell Roan, Val Air Ballroom, $35

Sunday, March 17 at 7 p.m. Mike Mains & The Branches w/28 Days Later & Keep Warm, xBk Live, $15-18

Monday, March 18 at 8 p.m. Black Flag, xBk Live, $17-32

Wednesday, March 20 at 7 p.m. Squinny w/Good Morning Midnight, Zap Tura, Haploid, xBk Live, $12-50

Wednesday, March 20 at 7 p.m.

Too Many Zooz, Wooly’s, $23

Thursday, March 21 at 5 p.m.

Weeping Wound, Glasswaves, Surefire, Hardship, Ataraxis, Lefty’s Live Music, Des Moines, $15-20

Benefit for Iowa Abortion Access Fund, xBk Live, Des Moines, Saturday, March 23 at 5 p.m., Free Will Donation

Get out to xBk for an important rescheduled musical evening benefiting the Iowa Abortion Access Fund (IAAF). Organized by Irish-inspired local folk artist, Ryan O’Rien, attendees will have the opportunity to catch The Other Brothers, Allegra Hernandez, Mr. Softheart, Dickie, The Deeves, and Munk Rivers. According to the IAAF, the typical support package offered to those in need of the fund’s assistance is $500. Free will donations will be taken at the door to directly support the IAAF.

Friday, March 22 at 8 p.m. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and the June Bugs, xBk Live, $20-50

Saturday, March 23 at 5 p.m.

Women’s History Month Music Fest, Lefty’s Live Music

Saturday, March 23 at 7 p.m.

The Listening Room: Andy Fleming & The Sweet Nothings, Noce, Des Moines, $18-45

Sunday, March 24 at 7 p.m.

Dizzy Shakes Album Release w/ Extravision and Spectral Snake, xBk Live, $12-50

Tuesday, March 26 at 7 p.m.

Low Cut Connie, xBk Live, $2750

Thursday, March 28 at 8 p.m.

Ax and the Hatchetmen w/ Social Cinema, xBk Live, $15-18

Friday, March 29 at 8 p.m. Mike Zito, xBk Live, $23-27

Saturday, March 30 at 11 a.m.

The Pa’akai We Bring, Temple Theater, Des Moines, $10

Saturday, March 30 at 7 p.m. Deerhoof w/Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops, Wooly’s, $25

Saturday, March 30 at 8 p.m.

Loving w/Fog Lake, xBk Live, $20-25

Sunday, March 31 at 6 p.m.

Transcend: A Trans Day of Visibility Celebration, xBk Live, $10-50

Tuesday, April 2 at 8 p.m.

Bumpin Uglies w/Bikini Trill, xBk Live, $21.95

LITERATURE

Thursday, March 7 at 6:30 p.m.

Meet the Author: Lyz Lenz, Beaverdale Books, Des Moines, Free

LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327 March 2024 43 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/CALENDAR

AViD Presents: Kaveh Akbar, Central Library, Des

Moines, Thursday, March 21 at 7 p.m., Free

The Authors Visiting in Des Moines (AViD) series’ first storyteller of the year is Kaveh Akbar, a well-known Iranian-American writer who just released his debut novel, Martyr! in January. The NYT Book Review said Akbar’s book is “both a riveting character study and piercing family saga.” The story follows a newly sober second-generation Iranian-American on his profound journey searching for meaning and a family secret. Admission is free.

Tuesdays, March 19 and April

2 and 16 at 6 p.m. NOS Book Club, Slow Down Coffee Co., Des Moines, Free

Tuesday, March 19 at 6:30 p.m.

Poetry Presentation: Dennis Maulsby, Beaverdale Books, Free

Monday, March 25 at 7 p.m.

Slow Down Community Reads, Slow Down Coffee Co., Free

Friday and Saturday, March 8

and 9 Ballet Des Moines: Love Letters, Hoyt Sherman Place, Des Moines, $37-87

Saturday, March 9 at 8 p.m.

MAR10 Party: Burlesque Show, xBk Live, Des Moines, $20-30

Closing Sunday, March 10

Dragons Love Tacos, Des Moines Community Playhouse, $14-19

Closing Sunday, March 10 Iowa Stage Theatre Company: The Glass Menagerie, Stoner Theater, Des Moines, $40

Opening Tuesday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. Funny Girl, Des Moines Civic Center, $40-175

Wednesday, March 13 at 7 p.m.

All Ages Variety Show, xBk Live, $10-50

Friday, March 15 at 8 p.m.

Matteo Lane, Hoyt Sherman Place, $34-74

Friday, March 22 at 7 p.m.

Stand-Up Comedy: Justin Bulver, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $15-20

Friday, March 22 at 7 p.m. Jim Jefferies, Des Moines Civic Center, $49.75-164.75

Friday and Saturday, March 22 and 23 at 7:30 p.m. Comedy Xperiment, Stoner Theater, $15

Tuesday, March 26 at 6:30 p.m.

Tracey Garvis Graves: Book Launch, Beaverdale Books, Free

Friday, March 29 at 7 p.m.

The Author Afterparty: Tracey Garvis Graves, Storyhouse Bookpub, Des Moines, $8

PERFORMANCE

Friday and Saturday, March 8 and 9 at 7 and 9 p.m. StandUp Comedy: Luis J.Gomez, Teehee’s Comedy Club, Des Moines, $25-30

Friday, April 5 at 7 p.m. StandUp Comedy: Kristin Lytie, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $15-20

Saturday, April 6 at 7 p.m.

Stand-Up Comedy: Jordan Rock, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $15-20

Saturday-Sunday, April 6-7 Beauty and the Beast, Hoyt Sherman Place, $35-75

Friday and Saturday, April 12 and 13 at 7 p.m. Stand-Up Comedy: Geoffrey Asmus, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $20-25

Opening Friday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. The Good Doctor, Tallgrass Theatre Co., West Des Moines, $33

Friday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. Pinky Pate, Hoyt Sherman Place, $30-65

Saturday, April 20 at 7 p.m. Stand-Up Comedy: KC Shornima, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $15-20

Friday, April 26 at 7 p.m. StandUp Comedy: Stef Dag, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $15-20

FILM

Wednesday, March 6 at 7 p.m. Robot Dreams, Fleur Cinema & Cafe, Des Moines, $6.54-8.41

Saturday, March 23 at 7 p.m.

Stand Up-Comedy: Ali Sultan, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $15-20

Wednesday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m. Pilobolus - Re:Creation, Des Moines Civic Center, $15-61

Saturday, March 30 at 7 p.m. Stand-Up Comedy: Dan St. Germain, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $15-20

Sunday, March 10 at 5 p.m. A Red Carpet Affair, Varsity Cinema, Des Moines, $35

Sunday, March at 5:30 p.m. Red Carpet Gala, Fleur Cinema & Cafe, $40-70

Sunday, March 17 at 7 p.m. Peck, Varsity Cinema, $9-12

Wednesday, March 20 at 7 p.m. Reel Rock 18, Fleur Cinema & Cafe, $9.30

44 March 2024 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV327 EDITORS’ PICKS: MARCH 2024 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM

Beowulf Sheehan

Up Next at the CCPA! CoralvilleArts.org 319.248.9370 1301 5th St., Coralville Visit CoralvilleArts.org for a complete list of events! Screaming Orphans March 16, 2024 8:00 PM March 23, 2024 • 7:00 PM Moon River: THE SONGS OF JOHNNY MERCER MAY 3–5, 10–12, 2024 March 8–10, 2024

NiBeSaPaDaPaSo: Irish Stories & Songs,

Mirrorbox Theatre, Cedar Rapids, Saturday, March 16 at 7 and 9 p.m.,

$15-20 Mirrorbox’s second annual NiBeSaPaDaPaSo is the night before Cedar Rapids’ beloved long-running parade, and an event celebrating Irish storytelling and music. This year’s event will feature the premiere of the reading Irish Legends, written and directed by Mirrorbox’s artistic director Cavan Hallman, and will include classic legends of fairies, changelings and leprechauns. The epic stories and poems will be paired with Irish folk songs, performed on the cello by Lucy Conroy.

Tuesday, March 26 at 7 p.m. BlackBerry, Varsity Cinema, $9-12

Thursdays, April 4 and 11 at 12 a.m. Night of the Living Dead, Varsity Cinema, $9-12

COMMUNITY

Friday, March 8 at 5 p.m. Opening Reception: Chris Vance, Moberg Gallery, Des Moines, Free

Friday, March 8 at 6 p.m. Wine, Food, Beer Showcase, Des Moines Marriott Downtown, $50-150

Thursday, March 14 at 6 p.m. States of Becoming Gallery Talk w/Elshafei Dafalla, Des Moines Art Center, Free

Thursday, March 14 at 7 p.m. Anime Night, Up-Down, Des Moines, Free

Friday, March 15 at 10 a.m. Garden Starters for Kids, Central Library, Des Moines, Free

Wednesday, March 20 at 6 p.m. Paint & Sip, Big Grove Brewery, Des Moines, $35

Thursday, March 21 at 6 p.m. Capital City Pride: Michael Arceneaux, Temple Theater, Des Moines, Free

Thursday, March 21 at 7:30 p.m. Beyond Earth: The Quest for Life on an Icy Moon, Des Moines Civic Center, $15-48

Wednesday, April 3 at 5 p.m. Then & Now Legislative Fundraiser: 15 Years of Marriage Equality in Iowa, Willow on Grand, Des Moines, $50-250

Friday, April 5 at 10 a.m. Community Access Program: Student Exhibition Opening Celebration, Des Moines Art Center, Free

Friday, April 5 at 5:30 p.m. First Friday, Mainframe Studios, Des Moines, Free

Thursday, April 11 at 6 p.m. Capital City

Pride: Alicia Roth Weigel, Temple Theater, Free