Little Village Central Iowa issue 12: March 2023

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Est. 1923

Hoyt Sherman Place will host the all-Iowa GDP Festival in its theater’s 100th year

FrEE ThE WEED

What will it take to get meaningful cannabis reform in Iowa?

PaGE TUrNErS

DSM Book Festival to feature four bestselling novelists SLÁINTE!

Irish-style beers brewed here in Central Iowa

FrOM ThE MET TO DSM

Meet the Art Center’s new director

20 Indican’t

Cannabis advocates want Iowa lawmakers to puff puff pass the damn bill already.

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Since 2001

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24 Playing MaSh

Mansion. art gallery. Show venue. historic building. Hoyt Sherman Place is all that and more.

28 art Nouveau

Among new director Kelly Baum’s plans at the Art Center: doing a deep dive into Des Moines history.

6 From the Newsletter

7 Ad Index

8 Interactions

14 Contact Buzz

16 Essay

18 En Español

20 Free the Weed

24 Hoyt Sherman

26 Bread & Butter

28 A-List

30 Events Calendar

35 Dear Kiki

37 Astrology Forecast

39 Local Album Reviews

43 Local Book Reviews

47 Crossword

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.

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Do Better, MidAm

MidAmerican Energy proudly leads its marketing with sleek material highlighting how many wind turbines it’s built. But the largest carbon polluter in Iowa could be doing a lot more. #CoalFreeMidAm

Emma Colman -Organizing Representative emma.colman@sierraclub.org

IG: @sierraclub_iowabc

FB: @sierraclubiowabc

Twitter: @IABeyondCoal

• MidAm burns coal at 5 massive coal plants across Iowa.

• MidAm is one of the largest utilities in the country with no commitment to reduce carbon emissions.

• If MidAm retired its coal fleet and committed to clean energy, Iowans would save $120 million.

EDITORIAL

Publisher

Genevieve Trainor genevieve@littlevillagemag.com

Editor-in-Chief

Emma McClatchey emma@littlevillagemag.com

Arts and Culture Editor

Isaac Hamlet isaac@littlevillagemag.com

News Director

Paul Brennan paul@littlevillagemag.com

Art and Production Director

Jordan Sellergren jordan@littlevillagemag.com

Multimedia Editor

Associate Publisher—DSM Adria Carpenter adria@littlevillagemag.com

Photographer, Designer Sid Peterson sid@littlevillagemag.com

Multimedia Journalist

Courtney Guein courtney@littlevillagemag.com

Spanish Language Editor Summer Santos

Calendar/Event Listings calendar@littlevillagemag.com

Corrections editor@littlevillagemag.com

March Contributors

Benjamin Jeffery, Britt Fowler, John Busbee, John Martinek, Kent Williams, Lauren Haldeman, Loren Thatcher, Mike Kuhlenbeck, Sam Locke Ward, Sarah Elgatian, Teri Underhill, Tom Tomorrow

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Malcolm MacDougall malcolm@littlevillagemag.com

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

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Genevieve Trainor, Joseph Servey, Malcolm MacDougall, Matthew Steele ads@littlevillagemag.com

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Meet this month’s contributors:

Benjamin Jeffery is a writer based in Des Moines. He has opinions on music and film.

Britt Fowler is a Des Moines photographer specializing in documentary style, landscape and portraiture. Her active project Shoot Des Moines (Shoot DSM) catalogues sights and stories from the Mecca of the Midwest.

John Busbee works as an independent voice for Iowa’s cultural scene, including producing a weekly KFMG radio show, The Culture Buzz, since 2007.

Kent Williams lives, works, writes and complains in Iowa City.

Loren Thacher is a writer, musician and radio host based on the Iowa/ Illinois border. Correspondence can be sent to Lthacher13@gmail. com.

Send

Issue 012 , Volume 2 March 2023

Cover by Britt Fowler

Wintry mixes be damned; festival season is starting, and Iowa musicians, authors and arts organizers are ready to unfurl their newest work. Also in this mag: Is marijuana legalization a winning issue in Iowa? One man is staking his reputation on it.

Mike Kuhlenbeck is a freelance journalist and National Writers Union member based in Des Moines, Iowa.

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

Summer Santos earned her Ph.D. in Medieval English Literature and MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa in 2019. She now works in immigration law as a paralegal. If you wish to contribute to En Español, you can reach her at generalridley@ gmail.com with an inquiry.

Teri Underhill is a creative living in Norwalk, Iowa.

Culture writers, food reviewers and columnists, email: editor@littlevillagemag.com

Illustrators, photographers and comic artists, email: jordan@littlevillagemag.com

From the Newsletter

Four of the top stories featured last month in the LV Daily, Little Village’s weekday afternoon email written by Paul Brennan. Subscribe at littlevillagemag.com/support

Feb. 9:

Malpractice and the Iowa GOP

On Wednesday, both the Iowa House and Senate approved a bill limiting juries to awarding $1 million or less in non-economic damages in cases where a doctor has been founded to have committed malpractice, and $2 million or less in cases where the jury has determined a hospital or other medical institution has committed malpractice. The caps also do not apply to punitive damage awards for cases of “willful and wanton” disregard of patient safety.

Feb. 10:

‘Relentless salesman’ eyes presidency

Perry Johnson, a Michigan businessman who has filed paperwork with the FEC to establish a presidential campaign exploratory committee, announced on Thursday he’ll be running TV commercials on Sunday during the Super Bowl in media markets across Iowa.

Feb. 16:

Gun bill advances

A bill that would make it illegal for state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal gun laws and regulations was approved by an Iowa House subcommittee on Wednesday. HF 147 provides examples of what would be considered illegal federal infringement, including taxes, fees and “Any registering or tracking of firearms” that could “create a chilling effect” on gun sales.

Feb. 21:

Book ban hearings continue

On Monday evening, the Iowa House Government Oversight Committee held its second hearing on a proposal by Gov. Kim Reynolds that would require all public schools in Iowa to ban a book if any one of the state’s more than 300 public school districts bans it. The first hearing on Feb. 6 had only five witnesses, all members of the Polk County chapter of Moms for Liberty. They shared with the committee their concerns that it is too hard to force Iowa public schools to remove books they find objectionable.

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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.

In response to “Flights of Fancy” by Dana James in issue 11:

“It’s a powerful thing to speak the same love language as your closest friends or lovers. Some speak the love language of gift giving and receiving. I do. I feel like this article was a little negative towards consumerism. I don’t like capitalism or consumerism either, but buying things for someone you love and showing them off is an act of love as well. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not about impressing each other, it’s about connecting and sharing a beautiful moment with someone that you love. Of course relationships are a lot deeper and a lot more work than what it looks on social

media, but why would that make it not true? —Katie M.

Hundreds rally for LGBTQ Day on the Hill, protesting bills ‘meant to scare us back into the closet’ (Feb. 2)

I can’t wait for every single one of these bills to pass anyhow because Iowa hates queer people! And they have the audacity to wonder why so many young, educated Iowans are moving away for good… —C.I.

My partner was at Day on the Hill, and after coming home and sobbing about how awful our rep was, we’re seriously considering leaving for MN. A whole

family of trans people who love our community and our town and our little house forced to leave because fascism is running wild. It’s been an incredibly hard few days. —M.C.

Gov. Reynolds boasts about her anti-LGBTQ school policies, calls for new law restricting students’ access to books conservatives don’t like (Feb. 3)

I don’t understand how this is legal. This is obviously discriminatory. Isn’t this against federal law?? Speaking of which, how are we justifying school vouchers? How can we justify using public money to send kids to schools with discriminatory policies?? —Kristy

So, glad the Dems abandoned Iowa as first in the Nation. Can you imagine the funny business Kim and her minions would have tried. —Randi

B.

WORTH REPEATING INTERACTIONS

Hi, I’m 11. I’m still growing and figuring out who I am, who I could be. I believe all kids deserve to feel safe in school. That is why I founded the gender and sexuality alliance at my elementary school. I wanted there to be a place for kids who, like me, were interested in learning more about who they are and the world they live in. It’s easier for me in my house who accepts and appreciates me for who I am and who I have become. All kids should be able to grow and learn about who they are. It’s important to let kids decide when and how they come out. Don’t erase me or my experience from any language or books. Don’t erase my queer friends or our queer heroes. We deserve the right to be who we are when we are ready, at home, at school, and everywhere in between. —Noa, an 11-year-old Iowan, speaking during a hearing for Senate Study Bill 1145, which would require school districts to out students questioning their gender or sexuality to their parents, and forbid certain books and lessons addressing gender identity

“Democrats’ gun control is no longer rhetoric. It’s no longer, ‘We won’t take your guns away.’ It’s now, ‘We will take your guns away.’” —Jared Taylor of Iowa Gun Owner, testifying to an Iowa House subcommittee in support of a bill that would forbid Iowa police from enforcing federal gun laws

“These are people. These are our friends, our neighbors and our loved ones. These are our babies and we’re not protecting them.” —Rep. Megan Jones, R- Sioux Rapids, during the Iowa House debate on a bill limiting jury awards in medical malpractice cases. Jones was one of 11 House Republicans to join Democrats opposing the bill, which was signed into law Feb. 16.

“I do see myself as part of a very rooted musical lineage — I am just one little variation, a continuation. Hearing my dad singing and playing is one of my favorite sounds on earth. It’s somehow so rooted, and gigantic.” —Pieta Brown on her father, Greg Brown

Even if we take his vile comments at face value, it would seem he’s suggesting that people with mental disabilities don’t have rights and don’t deserve protections under the law. —Ben C.

Bringing in national hate groups to further a discriminatory, bigoted agenda… no surprise. Bet they show up on the campaign contribution list. Reynolds & her minions are literally in their own basket of deplorable. —Jessica R.

Pole to pole: Visiting every Des Moines strip club in one night (Feb. 6)

Okay I LOVE this!!!!! —Violetta

This is the type of news I like. —Camilo R.

We don’t deserve this level of journalism. Finally, a culture aficionado writing in the city of Des Moines. —Nate M.

READER POLL:

Pop quiz! Which U.S. president was born in West Branch, Iowa?

Please, pay Max to work a night shift and write part 2. —Ciara J.

I’m glad you did this, so I won’t have to.

Peter S.

I enjoyed this tour of the town! I’ve never been in one of these places. ;)

Jodi H.J.

STRESS FRACTURES JOHN MARTINEK

The answer is Herbert Hoover

Paint this staircase: Des Moines artists wanted for neighborhood beautification project (Feb. 10)

This is such a good idea! —Palarth

Rat tunnel’s art would be perfect! I can see the little guy walking all over the stairs. —Rethra

What about one of those real life looking perspective illustrations of a skateboarder face planting about 2/3 of the way down? —Alan M

Groups will rally in Cedar Rapids to support transgender kids, while Mike Pence campaigns at CR Pizza Ranch (Feb. 14)

It was a great turnout! —Susan M.

In full support of those protesting Pence’s callous and cruel intolerance. Shame on Pizza Ranch! —Michael M.

And remember, the [co-]founder of Pizza Ranch pleaded guilty to sexually abusing teen employees. If Pence and the PAC sponsoring this actually cared about protecting children, they sure are picking an odd venue for it. Great for bullying people in a completely different school district who can’t get there in time though. —Geoffrey J.

Let it be clear that this manufactured culture war is bullshit - transgender people have for long existed and have not been some major problem until, conveniently, now they are seen as such by a political party struggling to maintain its

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hold on power. Ignore every attempt by these conservative “activists” to convince you they’re “only in it for the children” - they would knowingly condemn trans kids to unnecessarily hopeless lives, alienating them from the care they need, meanwhile peddling rhetoric that fetishistically obsesses over the genitals of transgender youth and adults. This attempt to dehumanize transgender people, whose only crime is to affirm their humanity and expand their conception of the self to more appropriately fit all that a person is, must be repudiated so strongly as though it were fascism unmasked.

B.Y.

Your Village: Why there’s a statue of a nude woman facing the Iowa State Capitol (Feb. 15)

Don’t tell Moms For Liberty. Kristine T.D.

I’m amazed Kim R. hasn’t covered this up!! (Or tore it down…) Book banning and all. —l.b.

Why couldn’t it be a fountain. —Celine R.

Greg Brown, Iowa’s contribution to folk music mythology, reflects before retirement (Feb. 16)

Kembrew, you’ve outdone yourself. —Todd K.

Dana Telsrow makes amazing art!!!!! —Hal I.

I saw his interview [in the Gazette] where he said he no longer sings the “Iowa Waltz” because it’s not true anymore (“we take care of our old, we take care of our young”). J.L.W.

MOMBOY LAUREN HALDEMAN

Contact Buzz

a Literary Playday

The DSM Book Festival returns with a stacked lineup of authors.

BY JOhN BUSBEE

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature.”

―Maya Angelou

Iowa has a national, even global, reputation as a place with a legacy of writers. The DSM Book Festival is central Iowa’s stellar literary event, an eagerly anticipated destination for bibliophiles, authors, readers and budding writers. It received gold medals from the International Festivals & Events Association for Best New Event, Best Education Program and Best On-Site Décor.

The 2023 event promises to continue this legacy and give Iowa’s literature loving audiences a bounty of immersive options. Saturday, March 25 is your literary playday. Delight in the tantalizing offerings this year’s event will present.

Anchoring a day of exhibits, local and regional authors, displays, interactive enticements and more is a quartet of extraordinary authors. Attendees seeking additions to their personal libraries will find regional, independent bookstore Beaverdale Books operating an on-site store offering books for sale perfect for purchasing and getting these authors to personally inscribe.

chris Bohjalian is a #1 New York Times bestselling author who’s penned 24 books. His work has been translated into 35

languages and received three film adaptations. The Emmy-nominated HBO series The Flight Attendant is based on Bohjalian’s 2018 novel of the same name.

Sequoia Nagamatsu is the author of the national bestselling novel, How High We Go in the Dark, a New York Times Editors’ Choice. His work One World: A Global Anthology of Short Stories was a selection for the All Iowa Reads list in 2023.

NoViolet Bulawayo is the author of the novels Glory and We Need New Names, the latter of which was recognized with multiple awards, including the Hurston/ Wright Legacy Award and the PEN/Hemingway Award. It also earned Bulawayo a spot as an honoree on the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” selection for 2013.

Sarah Penner is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Lost Apothecary, which has been translated into 40

languages worldwide. The novel is also being developed into a television series at Fox.

DSM Book Festival will feature book clubstyle discussions led by featured commentators, hands-on activities, children’s programming, food, drink, live music and more. Details can be found on the event’s website, dsmpartnership. com/dsmbookfestival.

Attendees will have the opportunity to meet with and purchase books from local authors and learn more about local nonprofits. This event is free. VIP packages, starting at $60, include special amenities like signed copies of books from headlining authors.

“‘A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies,’ said Jojen. ‘The man who never reads lives only one.’”―George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

Chris Bohjalian / Victoria Blewer

hollywood Signs

A quick convo with Chris Bohjalian.

BY JOhN BUSBEE

When asked about his book, The Flight Attendant, being adapted into a hit TV series of the same name, Bohjalian was effusive.

“Kaley Cuoco as Cassandra Bowden was fantastic,” said the New York Times bestselling author. “There was a reason that she had multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.”

He continued, describing how this story came into being.

“My books are filled with autobiographical minutia. In The Flight Attendant, I’ve never been a flight attendant, but I had an aunt who was a flight attendant.”

“My books are filled with autobiographical minutia. In The Flight Attendant, I’ve never been a flight attendant, but I had an aunt who was a flight attendant… back in the day when we all assumed she was a spy because she flew for Pan Am. She was off the radar because this was before cell phones and she would be gone for three or four days at a time—Berlin or Dubai or Moscow or wherever Pan Am might have been flying.”

The conversation quickly switched as Bohjalian launched into the genesis of his latest novel, The Lioness.

“Obviously, I’m not a movie star,” he added with a chuckle, “and, in fact, don’t play one on TV. The first time I knew I wanted to write this book was in a movie theater in August of 2019. I was in New York City because we were workshopping my stage adaptation of Midwives, which they were bringing off-Broadway in 2020. It was an Equity day off, Monday, and I was emerging from the movie theater, from the air-conditioned dark, into the scorching August heat and the cerulean sky, and I thought to myself, ‘My God, I love movies. Why have I never written a Hollywood novel?’ And, I decided I would.

“I’ve never set a novel in my childhood, the 1960s or the 1970s. That was one of Hollywood’s golden ages, so let’s go there. I am of an age when the first movie people saw was Mary Poppins with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke and animated dancing penguins. Not me. The first movie I saw, because my parents had no judgment or filter, thank goodness, was Bonnie and Clyde. This is the collection of my autobiographical minutia.”

I am Not Strong By choice

BY TErI UNDErhILL

In the summer of 2022, I went with my hālau (hula group) to the Big Island of Hawai’i. During this trip, we chanted, danced, hiked, cried, laughed and more. We went to the top of Mauna Kea for the sunrise, celebrated the full moon of Hina (Goddess of the Moon), was taught hula by my kumu’s (teacher’s) aunty, and so much more, all in one week.

Our last night together, June 14, was a night of many celebrations. Wedding celebrations, anniversaries and birthdays we all celebrated under the full moon. We celebrated through hula, bellydance, song, poetry, storytelling and the four directions (an Aztec ritual led by two Mexicans in our group). At the end of our four directions, we hugged one another, shook hands and told each other how much we appreciated one another. One of my hālau’s family member’s looked me in the eyes, held my arm and told me, “You are stronger than you think” and hugged me tightly. I have been told I’m strong by many people in my personal life, but from this journey it hit me differently.

I have tried feeling strong, coming from many mana wahine (strong women). I have come from women who have gone through abuse and have lived through it and to tell their reflections. I have seen history repeat itself through my cousins and yet every wahine in my family is very outspoken, honest and strong. Why do I not feel the same as I view them?

In my 22 years of life, I have gone through verbal, physical and sexual abuse mostly from my childhood that has impacted me greatly. I have seen the other side of suicide to where I live mindfully now. I am just as outspoken and honest about my life as someone that is mixed, queer, fat and traumatized. Why do I not feel strong?

I’ve come to realize I am not strong by choice. I have no other option but to keep going, pushforward and be “strong.” I have spent my adolescence hurting deeply. I would bruise myself, starve myself, be mean to myself and be delusional to believe that “everyone hates me so I must hate myself first.” I have spent a decade of my life, which at the moment is the majority of my life, in pain that I caused myself because I

believed that was what I deserved.

At some point, you grow tired of the pain. It wasn’t until I graduated high school I started to spend some time befriending myself. While I may not be besties with myself, I allow myself to understand my needs and boundaries and respect them. I’ve found hearing myself and my needs is what I deserve. If no one else will listen, I still

deserve to listen to myself.

This turning point came after my first relationship when I was 17 years old. I was in an emotionally abusive, on and off, relationship with a classmate for six months of my senior year. Through this senior year, I attempted suicide and

Cont. >> on pg. 40

‘Trapped’ Teri Underhill

Machismo, masculinidad tóxica y chicos

Parte dos

El mes pasado, hablé del juego peligroso que nuestra sociedad requiere de nuestros chicos. Nuestra cultura en su totalidad incentiva este juego; el panorama mundial de los medios de comunicación está lleno de ejemplos autoproclamados por chicos jóvenes. Es casi bastante que la idea de la crianza de hombres buenos de los niños parece imposible. ¿Cómo podemos luchar contra tanta corriente arrolladora?

Tengo suficiente experiencia de intentar ser un hombre que yo sé que han maneras positivas de estar macho. Podemos motivar a los niños la búsqueda de estas maneras, y si motivásemos a ellos como una comunidad, tendrían posibilidad mientras desarrollan en hombres. A ver. ¿Qué podemos incentivar en los chicos? Muchas cosas, pero porque tengo espacio limitado, voy a emplear una lista numerada convenientemente de cuatro rasgos estereotípicos de la masculinidad y hablar de cómo usarlos por el bien y no lo malo. Mira, solo soy una asistente legal. No tengo todas las soluciones.

1. EL LIDEraZGO Nuestra sociedad espera que los hombres sean lideres. En realidad, enseña a los niños cómo estar tercos, mandones y arrogantes. El liderazgo bueno implica escuchar y considerar las ideas de otras personas. Significa conocer los límites de tu conocimiento y en quien confiar por consejo. Supone la habilidad de tener una visión más amplia y ayudar a ti y a otras personas para realizar una meta. Nuestra sociedad concibe el liderazgo con el individual, no el grupo, al centro, y debemos modelar el opuesto para los chicos.

2. La FOrTaLEZa El mensaje que los hombres verdaderos no lloran es tan universal que no necesito elaborar más. Los hombres y chicos en nuestra sociedad se suponen que endurecerse cuando cualquier cosa sale mal. Pero la fortaleza no tiene que significar el rechazo de efectos emocionales ni la ocultación de sus emociones del mundo. Los chicos pueden estar resilientes. Debemos enseñar a los niños cómo tomar un revés y recuperarse, cómo confiar sus sentimientos en sus amigües y su familia. Es más difícil a mostrar el ser auténtico que vivir toda su

vida detrás de una máscara.

3. La FUErZa Como la fortaleza, los chicos están enseñados que el poder, la fuerza, todo se reducen a la potencia de su personalidad y la superioridad física. La competición significa que, si no eres lo mejor, eres un fracaso. La fuerza verdadera, al contrario, implica reconocer tus talentos, tus déficits y cómo pedir ayuda cuando la necesitas. Los hombres fuertes entienden cómo dar una mano solidaria en vez de intimidar a las personas molidas por fuerzas más grandes.

4. La LÓGIca El pensamiento lógico es bueno, pero recibes lo que introduces. Si tu premisa inicial no es correcta, la lógica provee un resultado congruente y erróneo. Todes les niñes se beneficiarían de alfabetización más fuerte en medios de comunicación y saber cómo verificar fuentes de información. Desperdiciar una mente es una lástima, y debemos animar la lógica verdadera junto a mejor inteligencia emocional.

Machismo, Toxic Masculinity and Boys

Part Two

WrITTEN aND TraNSLaTED

BY SUMMEr SaNTOS

In last month’s piece, I discussed the dangerous game that our society asks our boys to play. Our culture as a whole encourages this game; the media landscape is full of self-proclaimed role models for young boys. It’s enough to make the whole idea of raising boys into good men feel hopeless. How can we fight such an overwhelming tide?

I’ve had enough experience with trying to be a man that I know there are positive ways to do so. We can encourage boys to pursue them, and if we do this at a community level, then they’ll have a chance as they grow into men. So, what can we encourage in boys? A lot of things, but because I have limited space, I’m just going to use a conveniently numbered list of four stereotypically masculine traits and discuss how to use them for good, not bad. Look, I’m just a paralegal. I don’t have all the answers.

1. LEaDErShIP Our society expects men to be leaders, but what it really teaches boys to be is stubborn, bossy and overconfident in themselves. Good leadership is about listening and considering others’ ideas. It’s about knowing the limitations of your own knowledge and who to rely on for advice. It’s about being able to see

a bigger picture and help yourself and others achieve a goal. Our society imagines leadership to be about the individual, not the group, and we should model the opposite for boys.

2. TOUGhNESS The message that “real men don’t cry” is so pervasive it hardly needs further elaboration. Men and boys are expected by our society to just tough it out when things go wrong. But being tough doesn’t have to mean not letting anything affect you and hiding your feelings from the world. Boys can be resilient. We should teach boys how to take a setback and bounce back. How to trust their friends and family with their feelings. It’s a lot tougher to show your real self to the world than it is to live your life behind a mask.

3. STrENGTh Like toughness, boys are taught that power all comes down to how forceful a personality you project and how physically superior you are. Competition means that not being the best makes you a failure. Real strength, though, means recognizing what you are good at, what you aren’t, and how to ask for help when you need it. Strong men know how to reach a helping hand to, rather than bully, those who are ground down by bigger forces.

4. LOGIc Logical thinking is good, but you get what you put into it. If your starting premise is bad, the logic provides a coherent, but wrong, result. All children would benefit from stronger media literacy and knowing how to check sources of information. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and we should encourage real logic alongside better emotional intelligence.

Pedro Pascal, model for positive masculinity. Emma McClatchey / Little Village

Pipe Dream

BY PaUL BrENNaN

As February was drawing to a close, Democratic leaders from the Iowa House of Representatives held a press conference to introduce their bill to legalize cannabis in the state.

“Legalizing marijuana for adult use keeps Iowans safe, stops our tax dollars from going to neighboring states, improves the quality of life for Iowans who are suffering from chronic illnesses and it stops us from wasting state resources to unfairly punish Iowans,” Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst said.

The 78-page bill was comprehensive. It covered the strength of the cannabis people 21 and older could legally possess (up to 500 mg of THC), how the location of retail outlets would be determined (local referendums) and how it would be taxed (a 10 percent excise tax with the revenue being split between schools, mental health services and local law enforcement). The bill set up a “seed-to-sale” regulatory system under the supervision of the Alcoholic Beverage Division, and addressed criminal justice reform by expunging convictions for possession for non-violent offenders.

“It is time to do this,” Konfrst said. Time or not, the bill never stood a chance. And the timing of its introduction suggests the Democrats understood that. Konfrst and her colleagues announced legalization was one of their top 2023 legislative priorities in September of last year, but waited until the week before all bills must be passed at both the subcommittee and committee level to introduce it. Not that it would have stood a better chance if it had been introduced earlier; Democrats in the Iowa Senate introduced a bill to legalize recreational use of marijuana three days after the legislative session started in January, and it went nowhere.

Important Republican leaders in the legislature, like Rep. Steve Holt, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, oppose legalizing recreational use of cannabis. So does Gov. Kim Reynolds.

“I believe marijuana is a gateway drug that leads to other illegal drug use and has a negative effect on our society,” Reynolds told the Des Moines Register last year.

“I don’t see change coming from a big, sweeping bill,” Brad Knott told Little Village the week before House Democrats unveiled their bill. “Not with this governor, not with these Republicans in charge.”

Knott has four decades of experience in Democratic politics at the state and national-level. He’s worked for Sen. Tom Harkin and Gov. Tom Vilsack, and served in the Clinton administration. Last year, after selling his political consulting businesses, he started the nonprofit Campaign for Sensible Cannabis Laws (CSC) to advocate for change in Iowa.

CSC is focused on getting legislators of both parties to engage in a serious debate about the state’s laws. The group’s preference is apparent

in its website’s url, FreeTheWeedIowa.org, but its current focus is just on getting a debate at the state capitol.

“Campaign for Sensible Cannabis Laws doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue,” Knott said about the url. “We needed something easier to remember.”

The all-volunteer organization launched last May, and had its first public forum in October.

“This is probably the first public event since at least the 1970s in Iowa for anybody to have a serious conversation about reforming the cannabis laws,” he told the three dozen people gathered in the meeting room of a Des Moines Holiday Inn on a Saturday morning.

There was a brief moment at the end of the

Another year, another failed attempt to bring Iowa’s cannabis laws out of the dark ages. But one lobbyist is still convinced legalization is a winning issue.

Brad Knott has been trying to keep it real in Iowa. Sid Peterson / Little Village

In 1979, a group of bipartisan legislators passed a bill to allow the medical use of marijuana.

Des Moines Register

’70s when Iowa was one of most progressive states on marijuana. In 1979, a group of bipartisan legislators, led by Democrat Bob Arnould of Davenport and Republican Dale Hibbs of Iowa City, passed a bill to allow the medical use of marijuana by people with glaucoma or undergoing treatment for cancer. On June 1, 1979, Gov. Bob Ray signed the bill, making Iowa the ninth state to approve the medical use of cannabis.

Unlike the House Democrat’s bill this year, the 1979 bill contained few details, leaving it up to the Board of Pharmacy to create the medical marijuana program. It also required the board to

make sure the program was in accordance with federal law. That was impossible.

In 1972, President Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell—who would later be convicted on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury for his role in Watergate—made marijuana a Schedule I drug. The National Controlled Substance Act of 1970, the cornerstone of Nixon’s “War on Drugs,” created a ranking system for all drugs. Schedule I drugs are ones the federal government has declared have no medicinal use and a high potential for addiction.

There was no way the Board of Pharmacy could create a medical marijuana program in Iowa that adhered to federal law. The program was never launched.

Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, and his administration created an even simpler-minded version of the War on Drugs with its Just Say No campaign. Republican presidents have been largely inflexible on cannabis, if only to avoid being called soft on crime. Democrats before Biden haven’t been much better.

In October, Biden announced he had ordered the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General “to review expeditiously” marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug. At the same time, the president announced a pardon for anyone with a federal conviction for simple possession of marijuana.

But the mass pardon, which did not apply to any offense beyond simple possession, only had a very limited effect, because most convictions for possession occur at the state level and aren’t subject to presidential pardons.

In 1972, President Nixon’s attorney general John Mitchell made marijuana a Schedule I drug. Library of Congress

At the state level in Iowa, not much happened for roughly three decades after the 1979 attempt to introduce a medical marijuana program. In 2014, the legislature did pass a bill creating a limited program to allow some patients to possess

and use oil derived from cannabis. But it would be another three years before the state issued its first license to a company to grow marijuana and process it into cannabidiol. Another year would go by before the first five state-licensed dispensaries were allowed to sell it.

In its 2022 State of the States Report, the Americans for Safe Access Foundation, a nonprofit that monitors medical cannabis programs and advocates on behalf of patients, ranked Iowa’s program among the worst in the nation, due to its limited scope and many restrictions. The report did note there have been incremental

Legalized Medical & Decriminalized Medical Decriminalized CBD with THC only Fully Illegal

In its 2022 State of the States report, the americans for Safe access Foundation ranked Iowa’s program among the worst in the nation.

improvements in the program since it began dispensing cannabidiol in December 2018. Those incremental improvements are part of what persuaded Brad Knott to launch his campaign.

“I’d wanted to do this for a long time and the time was never right,” he said.

Knott started in politics as Reagan was reinvigorating the War on Drugs. His approach has always been practical, focusing on what is possible.

“I don’t like to get into just lost causes,” Knott explained. “It takes up too much energy, there’s too many fights that we can win.”

After a series of conversations with friends early last year, he decided the fight to reform Iowa’s marijuana laws was now winnable.

“For a long time in the ’80s and ’90s, I accepted the idea that change wasn’t viable,” Knott recalled. “But all the changes going around in the country, including in Iowa’s neighboring states, really started to change my thinking.”

It wasn’t just the increasing number of states that had legalized recreational cannabis use, or the polls showing solid majorities of Iowans favor legalization, that made the time seem right. It was also the increasingly widespread acceptance of the racist nature of the War on Drugs and the need for change as a basic matter of justice.

In 2020, the ACLU published a report documenting racial disparities in arrests for marijuana possession. Nationwide, a Black person was 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana than a white person, and at the state level, a Black Iowan was 7.26 times more likely to be arrested.

After Knott decided to work on reform, he approached the Iowa Democratic Party in hopes it would provide resources for the campaign. He was well connected in Democratic circles, and felt sure he could convince party leaders a sustained campaign for reform could help candidates win in Iowa. The party turned him down, and pursued other approaches on its way to

massive defeats in November.

Knott also approached a major cannabidiol dispensary in Iowa, in hopes they might provide funding for a campaign. They wished him well, but that was all.

“Once the funding for a real, paid campaign went out the door, I had to switch to a self-supporting organization,” he said. “I thought about the early Obama effort during his first run for

president. They created tools for people to organize on their own and do local campaigning.”

“We tried to design the website with resources to facilitate that. To help people get conversations about reform started.”

It’s an approach that appealed to Parker McNally, a student at Kirkwood Community College, who recently joined CSC as a volunteer organizer in the Iowa City area.

“With an issue such as cannabis reform, opinions can be incredibly divided, especially in a state like Iowa,” McNally said. “I think it’s important for legislators, especially from the culturally conservative parts of the state where there might still be a stigma about marijuana use, to

In 2020, the acLU published a report documenting racial disparities in arrests for marijuana possession. Nationwide, a Black person was 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana than a white person, and at the state level, a Black Iowan was 7.26 times more likely to be arrested.

Enviable Digs

GDP Festival may be just the right product for the Hoyt Sherman Place Theater, celebrating its centennial.

BY BENJaMIN JEFFErY

Gross Domestic Product sticks to the mission—but that’s about it. Since the all-local music festival first popped up in 2006, GDP has bounced between Des Moines neighborhoods to celebrate the various corners of both the city and the scene. That means no two years of the one-day festival look or sound the same.

“This is the only festival that is specifically designed to showcase Iowa artists,” said Mickey Davis, festival organizer and executive director of the Des Moines Music Coalition. “I think the perfect success of GDP is when a local act plays the festival, then plays their own show at a venue down the road, and sees an increase in attendance because of it.”

GDP 2023, presented in part by Little Village, will belong to Hoyt Sherman Place and the Sherman Hill neighborhood on April 15. The festival lineup is something of a daily special, inspired and shaped by its location, meaning this year’s mix of hometown heroes and buzzy upand-comers were handpicked to play the century-old space.

The Des Moines Music coalition will pay more than $10,000 to local artists for their performances at GDP 2023. If the festival is a big hit with everybody, a return to hoyt Sherman Place may be in the cards. “My dream is doing a show with Slipknot and an orchestra,” Davis said.

“We really wanted to celebrate Hoyt Sherman Place and say, ‘Hey, we have local acts that deserve to be on a stage of that size,’” Davis said.

The Envy Corps will headline the festival’s first stop at Hoyt Sherman Place for the 15th anniversary of their major label debut, Dwell The band, who have been standard-bearers of the central Iowa music scene since the days of MySpace, will play its mid-aughts indie rock record, front to back, with the support of a string octet—giving the band its flowers and the occasional oomph it deserves.

“I used to drive around listening to 105.1 Channel Q in my car, waiting for the Envy Corps to come on the radio,” Davis said. “I can’t remember a time when not only the commercial radio stations but the whole scene came together behind a band like that.”

The lineup also includes B. Well, Annalibera, Geneviève Salamone, James Tutson, EleanorGrace and Lani.

B. Well, a straight-up institution in Des Moines, needs no introduction. But any festival-goers sneaking across the street for some food from A Dong should make it back for

Pre-party and 80/35 Garage Sale

Big Grove Brewery, Saturday, April 15, 4-5:30 p.m.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Festival

Hoyt Sherman Place, Saturday, April 15, 5:30 p.m., $20-35

GDP Afterparty

Carl’s Place, Saturday, April 15, 9:30 p.m.

Britt Fowler / Little Village

Annalibera—a band that toured with the unbothered rock gods of Pavement—and Geneviève Salamone, who delivered not one but four performances at Paris Fashion Week. James Tutson is in the mix, too; his set at 80/35 last year was a midday surprise that kicked off with a decent crowd, then a few songs in, packed the street with people.

The artists will arrive right in time to play a part in Hoyt Sherman Place’s centennial season. The Victorian theater was actually a 1923 addition to the family home of the building’s namesake. The entire cultural center, a literal historic landmark, is composed of the theater, that mansion and what was the first public art museum in Des Moines. With so many stories in the architecture, even the little things become a delightful contrast of high and low culture.

“To walk through an 1897 mansion on your way to get a beer, it’s just very, very cool,” said Robert Warren, CEO of Hoyt Sherman Place.

Cliché as it is to say, Hoyt Sherman Place will also play a part in the performances for GDP 2023. “I hear a lot of our artists say that [the theater] is like another member of their ensemble,” Warren said. “They walk to the edge of the stage, and all of the sudden, this room just comes to life.”

Further festival-related entertainment will stretch out into the Sherman Hill neighborhood. GDP’s block party will get started at Big Grove Brewery, before the main event at Hoyt Sherman Place, and afties will happen at, where else but, Carl’s Place. MFKS will take the stage at the beloved dive bar, along with J’Main and Annie Kemble, for the final performance of the festival.

“That after-party is gonna be fun— and free,” according to Davis. Lachele’s Battlebus, fully armed and operational, will pull up outside and sling burgers to pair with the cheap shots of Malört.

At the end of the day, the Des Moines Music Coalition will pay more than $10,000 to local artists for their performances at GDP 2023. If the festival is a big hit with everybody, a return to Hoyt Sherman Place may be in the cards.

“My dream is doing a show with Slipknot and an orchestra,” Davis said.

Tickets for GDP 2023 are available now. Advance passes are $30, and on April 15, any remaining passes will be $35 at the door.

Benjamin Jeffery is a writer based in Des Moines. He has opinions on music and film.

Estrella naciente

Between GDP Music Festival and a new album release, Lani’s digital stars are aligning in 2023.

BY ISaac haMLET

Lani Eclatt was 14 years old when she performed her first solo in front of an audience, backed by an orchestra performing a song she’d composed.

“It was such a big deal for me at the time, but from there I knew I wanted to keep writing and performing,” said Eclatt, who has continued to play under simply “Lani.”

Eclatt’s performing prowess will continue to advance this year as she joins the lineup for the Des Moines Music Coalition’s GDP Music Festival, a first in her career.

The music festival has appeared in various incarnations through the Des Moines area since 2006, always showcasing Iowa musicians. The stage is set to host hip-hop artist B. Well, country up-and-comer EleanorGrace and, among others, Eclatt’s Latin-pop/indie-rock songs.

Eclatt was born in Florida, the daughter of Colombian-American parents, but has been in Des Moines since she was 4 years old. She’s always fostered a love for music. By age 11, she was teaching herself to play keyboard.

Eclatt’s first single “Digital Stars” took shape while she was taking a college course, much like that first performance at 14, which happened when she volunteered an original song to her class.

“[“Digital Stars”] was actually used as a hands-on project for a recording engineering class,” said Eclatt, who studied vocal music business at Drake University.

“We were working with a sound engineer who taught us mics, EQ, all of the basics of being a sound engineer, and he wanted us to do a project where we could get hands-on experience with setting up mics and getting them connected. And he was like, ‘Does anyone have a song they want to do?’ and I was like ‘I have one!’ ”

She went on to release “Digital Stars” as a single in 2019 and also included it on her 2021 album Reminiscent.

That album is largely composed of lyrically rich songs accentuated by soaring vocals and melancholic piano chords prevalent in Eclatt’s still-developing sound.

After college, Eclatt paused for a while, until she found a place to record again. She found that place thanks to one of her musical collaborators—and fellow 2023 GDP performer— Geneviève Gros-Louis Salamone.

Not only does Eclatt play piano for Dueling Fiddles—a violin duo composed of Salamone and Hanna Wolle—but she was also among the first to record in Salamone’s Wendat Records, a West Des Moines-based music studio named for Salamone’s Indigenous heritage. Salamone has received international recognition, performing at Paris Fashion Week late last year.

“She’s been kind of my mentor for my musical career since I started taking it seriously in 2021,” Eclatt said.

Eclatt and Salamone are performing back-toback at GDP, and to bridge their sets, the two will both perform their cover of “Creep.”

For her future ambitions, Eclatt plans to release a new album, Love, Lani, this July, and she’s also hoping to create an event for Latina Heritage Month this September. The latter project is still in the works, but she’s confident the stars will align for it.

“I’ve been wanting to get a collection of female Latina business owners and celebrate their entrepreneurship and their creativity, and have a big old block party on the south side, and just get some bands together, and play and do something casual and fun,” she said. “A big, casual, fun block party (on the south side) where people can eat food and listen to music and explore Latinaowned businesses in the Des Moines-area.”

Isaac Hamlet is Little Village’s arts editor.

Lani at GDP Festival Hoyt Sherman Place’s art gallery stage, Saturday, April 15, $20 to $35

Paul Ginaven

The Banshees of Ingersoll

BY EMMA MCCLATCHEY

Been banished by your best mate and drinking buddy? Worried you’ll spend St. Patrick’s Day with none but your sister and miniature donkey? Avoid a mental breakdown (and/ or an Oscar nomination) and grab a pint at your neighborhood brewery, where you’ll find Iowa twists on Irish beer styles. From crisp reds to stormy stouts, these five craft breweries can supply the confidence you need to defend your honor, compose a fiddle tune or dance with your dog like no one’s watching.

Confluence Brewing Company

1235 Thomas Beck Rd, Des Moines confluencebrewing.com

Blue Daba

Dee Daba Dad

6.4% ABV

“Yo, listen up, here’s a story about a little barrel that made everyone so blue,” begins Confluence’s description of this wild stout—a twist on their Bourbon barrel-aged milk stout 50’s Dad. Brewers put it back in the barrel with some blueberries for a year, then added coffee from Des Moines brand BLK & Bold. “Now when you drink it, you’ll be anything but blue!”

Double desLites

8.5% ABV

Confluence are the masters of the milk stout (Milk Man is Iowa’s unofficial state stout, I do declare) and aren’t afraid to push the envelope a bit. This Imperial oatmeal cookie stout is the result of a double-mashed malt packed with oat, dark chocolate and caramel flavor. Toasted coconut is added to the mix, resulting in an indulgent taste reminiscent of Caramel deLites Girl Scout cookies.

Twisted Vine Brewery

112 SE 4th St, Des Moines twistedvinebrewery.com

Mint

ShockO-Lot

6.3% ABV

You could drink a green-dyed lager, or you could drink a beer that tastes green. New DSM brewery, Twisted Vine, added mint to their chocolate milk stout for a flavor combo that cannot fail, especially during Shamrock Shake season.

Court Avenue Brewing Company

309 Court Ave, Des Moines courtavebrew.com

I’m Sorry Dave

5.3% ABV

A classic Irish ale. So why the reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey? Well, CABC’s brewers say they developed the recipe “in tandem with

an AI generator.” Has a 320-yearold beer style finally been cured of human error here in Des Moines? That’s not for this robo—er, human beer drinker to decide.

Fox Brewing

103 S 11th St, West Des Moines foxbrewco.com

Fox Tail

5.8% ABV

No, that’s not a red velvet cake in a glass. This traditional Irish red ale has that ruby-amber color, crisp white head, and malt-caramel finish you look for in, well, a traditional Irish red. By far the most genuine and satisfying red thing to come out of a place called Fox.

515

Brewing Company

7700 University Ave Suite C, Clive 515brewing.com

Suburban Grind

6% ABV

Some coffee stouts put regular coffee to shame, and this is one. 515 brews this caffeinated stout with lactose and beans from Pammel Park Coffee Company, based in Winterset, Iowa. Who needs Bailey’s and coffee when you can have beer coffee?

Pitter Patter, Let’s Get at ‘Er

6% ABV

This remix on the Suburban Grind would make for a perfect dessert after a dinner of Shepherd’s Pie, stew and soda bread. “Suffused with maple and pecans, it’s like eating a pecan roll with a cup of coffee,” 515 says. Consider me sold.

Whose Pub?

Crawl around downtown Des Moines and decide which person’s place reigns supreme.

Finn’s Pub 7020 Douglas Ave A, Urbandale

Kathy’s Irish Pub 6705 Hickman Rd

Peggy’s Tavern 3020 Forest Ave

Sully’s Irish Pub 860 1st St, West Des Moines

Wellman’s Pub 2920 Ingersoll Ave

Annie’s Irish Pub 206 3rd St

McCuen’s Pub 2565 Wedgewood Rd

Bailey’s Pub N Grub 918 E Euclid Ave

Cooney’s Tavern 3708 Beaver Ave

LV recommends

Local brews so good they could heal a friendship this St. Paddy’s Day.

‘The Banshees of Inisherin’

courtesy of Confluence Brewing Company

courtesy of Twisted Vine Brewery

courtesy of Fox Brewing

©Google 2023

art history, art Future

Five questions with Dr. Kelly Baum, the Des Moines Art Center’s new director.

BY ISAAC HAMLET

After longtime Des Moines Art Center director Jeff Fleming announced last year that he would step away after a quarter century, the question of who could replace him quickly arose.

Now, as the Art Center begins its 75th anniversary year, the answer has come in the form of Dr. Kelly Baum, who was announced as the new director on Feb. 7.

With 23 years of art curation under her belt, Baum comes to Des Moines after working at a variety of institutions including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Princeton University of Art Museum. She was selected by search

committee made-up primarily of Des Moines Art Center Board of Trustee members that also included one Honorary Trustee who took-up a nationwide search.

Little Village got in touch with Baum following her announcement as the new Art Center director and discussed via e-mail her love of art and the eventual move to Iowa.

how did you first become interested in visual art? It really began in college. My parents were scientists, and we tended to go to national parks instead of museums, so it never occurred to me to study art. When I entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989, I started out studying speech pathology, but I happened to sign up for a class on ancient Greek and Roman art, which sent us into the Ackland Art Museum for course assignments. That was my first experience seeing art in person.

I found ancient art intriguing, but it wasn’t intriguing enough to prompt a change in major. That occurred only after I met Professor Carol Mavor, who taught 19th and 20th century art. Then my future became art history.

You’ve curated exhibits in museums and institutions across the country. Do you have any favorite exhibits you’ve been a part of or artists you’ve been able to include? I’ve curated almost 30 exhibitions and commissions big and small over the last 23 years. I love putting together shows, and I have a lot of favorites. There’s one I organized at the Princeton Art Museum in 2013. It had the very quirky title, New Jersey in Non-Site, and it explored experimental artists who were inspired by the cities, highways, ruins, mines and beaches of New Jersey in the decades after World War II. That show was very special to me, because I was able to learn more about the state to which I had moved only a few years earlier.

I’m also very fond of an exhibition I co-curated with Randy Giffey titled Alice Neel: People Come First. We worked on it in the year before and during the initial phase of the COVID pandemic: I drew strength from Neel’s art. The response to the exhibition once it opened was extraordinary, moreover: people were very moved by Neel’s drawings and paintings, and for some, it was the first museum show they had seen in over a year.

Finally, I have to mention Wangechi Mutu’s 2018 commission for The Met: The NewOnes, will free Us. Wangechi created four incredible bronze sculptures for the facade of the museum, whose niches had always intended to hold art, but which had been left empty since the early 20th century. Her monuments to female empowerment stood sentinel over the museum for two years.

When did you first hear about the Des Moines art center? My introduction to the Art Center took place in 2007, when I wrote an essay for one its exhibition catalogs, on the artist Conrad Bakker. I came to learn more about its program and collection after that, and for my 2018 exhibition Delirious: Art at the Limits of Reason, 19501980, I borrowed an extraordinary work by Yayoi Kusama titled Ladder (1963).

After I was able to share the news of my appointment last week, I learned what an enormous national fan base the Art Center has among artists, curators and critics. Like me, people deeply admire its architecture. The three buildings that make up the Art Center—and the way they touch Greewood Park—are exceptional. I’m also very excited about the Art Center’s studios: to have an art school embedded inside the institution, in close proximity to the galleries, is very special. I love that the making of art, by members of the public, is folded into the very identity of the Art Center.

You have a particular interest in art of the 1960s and 1970s. What draws you to

courtesy of Des Moines Art Center

that period of art? This is one of the periods in the history of art that fascinates me the most, and it’s a particular strength of the Art Center’s collection. During those decades, artists embraced change and experimentation: every month, they were breaking and rewriting the rules of art. It was a thrilling time. Three of my favorite artists from that time are Eva Hesse, Ana Mendieta and Yayoi Kusama, all of whom are represented at the Art Center. Medieta, whose art appears in the current exhibition Art Center: 75 Years of Iowa Art, was a Cuban immigrant who studied at the University of Iowa. She was a fierce advocate for the rights of women and women of color.

What are you most looking forward to about getting started at the arts center this spring? There’s so much to look forward to. First and foremost, I can hardly wait to meet the staff, the rest of the board, and the Art Center’s donors and members. I’m also excited to get out into the city, the state and the region and speak with as many people—from artists, collectors and students to entrepreneurs, community leaders, arts professionals and more—as possible.

I want to take a deep dive into the history of the Art Center as well. Understanding where the Art Center came from and how it evolved into the great institution it is today will be key to planning its future alongside the staff and board. I want to spend a lot of time thinking about the buildings, the collection, and the communities the Art Center does—and should—serve. Great strides have been made to bring more women artists, LGBTQ+ artists, artists of color and Indigenous artists into the institution; more of that will come.

Part of what drew me to the Art Center and Des Moines were the people: everyone I have met on this journey thus far have been exceptionally kind and absolutely committed to the success of the Art Center. When I visited recently and stepped foot inside the Saarinen building, it felt like home.

COALITION,

&

SHERMAN PLACE PRESENT

THE ENVY CORPS PERFORMS

DES

MOINES MUSIC

LITTLE VILLAGE MAGAZINE

HOYT

AFTER PARTY AT CARL’S FT. MFKS, J’MAIN, AND ANNIE KEMBLE

B. WELL - ANNALIBERAGENEVIEVE SALAMONEJAMES TUTSONELEANORGRACE - LANI

DWELL (with strings)

EVENTS: MArcH

MARCH 2023

Planning an event? Submit event info to calendar@littlevillagemag. com. Include event name, date, time, venue, street address, admission price and a brief description (no all-caps, exclamation points or advertising verbiage, please). To find more events, visit littlevillagemag.com/calendar. Please check venue listing in case details have changed.

Storyhouse BookpubClub: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Storyhouse Bookpub, Des Moines, Thursday, March 16 at 7 p.m., Free

There’s still time to join Storyhouse Bookpub’s March book club. This month, they’re discussing Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong’s debut 2019 novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. The award-winning fiction novel is written in the form of a letter, and unpacks a family’s history rooted in Vietnam. Storyhouse has one book club meeting per month. In April, they will be talking about Girlhood by Melissa Febos, an associate professor at the University of Iowa.

Literary Luxuries

Monday, March 6 at 6:30 p.m. Workshop and Booksigning w/Mary Potter Kenyon, Beaverdale Books, Des Moines, Free

Monday, March 13 at 6:30 p.m. Meet the Author: Mike Triggs, Beaverdale Books, Free

Monday, March 20 at 6:30 p.m. Meet the Author: Patti Isaacs, Beaverdale Books, Free

Saturday, March 25 at 9 a.m. DSM Book Festival, Various Venues, Downtown Des Moines, Free

Tuesday, April 4 at 6:30 p.m. Meet the Author: Lilian Okech, Beaverdale Books, Free

Leah Hawkins in Concert, Plymouth Church,

Des Moines, Sunday, March 19 at 4 p.m., Free-$25

Leah Hawkins, a soprano who made her Des Moines Metro Opera (DMMO) debut last summer as Serena in Porgy & Bees, is returning to town for an intimate afternoon concert at Plymouth Church. Hawkins was recently named one of Washington Post’s 23 classical composers and performers to watch in 2023. Allen Perriello, DMMO’s Director of Artistic Administration will be joining Hawkins on stage at the piano.

Musical Marvels

Friday, March 3 at 8 p.m. Katy Guillen & the Drive & Frogpond, xBk Live, Des Moines, $10-15

Saturday, March 4 at 11 a.m. 123 Andres, Des Moines Civic Center, $12-25

Saturday, March 4 at 7 p.m. Charlie Ballantine, Noce, Des Moines, $18-45

Saturday, March 4 at 9 p.m. Danny Russell Wolf w/Allegra Hernandez and Tough Ghost, Lefty’s Live Music, Des Moines, $10

Monday, March 6 at 7 p.m. White Reaper, Wooly’s, $19.50

Tuesday, March 7 at 8 p.m. jxdn, Wooly’s, $29.50

Thursday, March 9 at 8 p.m. The Collection, Wooly’s, $12

Saturday, March 11 at 7 p.m. Nate Sparks & DM Brass, Noce, $18-45

Saturday-Sunday, March 1112. DM Symphony: St. Clair Conducts Tchaikovsky, Des Moines Civic Center, $15-70

Sunday, March 12 at 2 p.m. Yaala Ballin: Symphony, Song & Swing, Caspe Terrace, Waukee, $30

Sunday, March 12 at 2 p.m. We Rock Fundraiser and Showcase, Gas Lamp, $10

Sunday, March 12 at 8 p.m. Clem Snide, xBk Live, $15-20

Wednesday, March 15 at 7:30 p.m. Tuba Skinny, Temple Theater, Des Moines, $20-45

Wednesday, March 15 at 8 p.m. MIKE, xBk Live, $15-20

Wednesday, March 15 at 8 p.m. Weyes Blood w/Vagabon, Wooly’s, $25-30

Friday, March 17 at 9 a.m. St. Patrick’s Day, Gas Lamp, $5

Friday, March 17 at 7 p.m. Andrew Walesch w/Max Wellman, Noce, $20-45

Saturday, March 18 at 7 p.m. Jesse Daniel, xBk Live, $18

Saturday, March 18 at 7:30 p.m. Problems, Heligoats, Acid Leg, Gravity’s Constant, Gas Lamp, $10

Saturday, March 18 at 8 p.m. St. Paddy Goes Punk, Boggs’ Hull Avenue Tavern, Des Moines, Free

Wednesday, March 22 at 7 p.m. Michigan Rattlers, xBk Live, $20

Thursday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m. Shayna Steele, Temple Theater, $20-45

Thursday, March 23 at 8 p.m. The Counselors of Evil, xBk Live, $10-15

Friday, March 24 at 7 p.m. Freegrass String Trio w/Blake Shaw, Noce, $18-45

Friday, March 24 at 7:30 p.m. Real Friends & Knuckle Puck, Wooly’s, $25

Saturday, March 25 at 8 p.m. Niko Moon, Hoyt Sherman Place, $20-35

Sunday, March 26 at 5 p.m. The Emblem Faction w/ Hardship, In Search of Solace, Rehtek, Lefty’s Live Music, $10-15

Monday, March 27 at 8 p.m Saliva w/Through Fire & Any Given Sin, Wooly’s, $29.50

Tuesday, March 28 at 7 p.m. Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, Wooly’s, $25

Wednesday, March 29 at 8 p.m. HIDE w/Harpy & Real Dominic, xBk Live, $15-20

Thursday, March 30 at 8 p.m. Scott Yoder, Mr. Softheart, Jordan Mayland, the LiFT, Des Moines, $10 suggested donation

Friday, March 31 at 8 p.m. Poly Mall Cops Album Release w/ Penny Peach and Art Monk, xBk Live, $10-15

Saturday, April 1 at 7 p.m. Hailey Whitters, Wooly’s, $20

Saturday, April 1 at 8 p.m. Sky Creature w/V Ellsbury and Haploid, xBk Live, $10-15

Transgender Day of Visibility Educational, One

Iowa, Online, Friday, March 31 at 12

p.m., Free Join One Iowa for a virtual session on issues facing the Trans and Nonbinary community as they recognize Transgender Day of Visibility. The educational will include information on Trans and Nonbinary identities, the causes of violence against the Trans community, and ways to take action and support Trans lives. One Iowa has the option for a free ticket or a donation ticket, that’ll go back to the organization and support their work fighting for transgender Iowans.

Community Connections

Friday, March 3 at 5 p.m. First Friday: Body Work Figurative Show, Mainframe Studios, Des Moines, Free

Friday, March 3 at 6 p.m. Wine, Food & Beer Showcase, Marriott Downtown, Des Moines, $50-125

Wednesday, March 8 at 5 p.m. International Women’s Day Local Vendor Market, Big Grove Brewery, Free

Thursday, March 9 at 6 p.m. Capital City Pride Speaker Series: Mikah Meyer, Temple Theater, Des Moines, Free

Friday, March 10 at 5 p.m. Community

Access Programming: Youth Art Show Opening Reception, Des Moines Art Center, Free

Sunday, March 12 at 6 p.m. 2000’s Movie Trivia, Bellhop, Des Moines, Free

Thursday-Saturday, March 16-18. Hoops and Hops, Cowles Commons, Des Moines, Free

Friday, March 17 at 4 p.m. St. Patrick’s Bake Sale, Peace Tree, Des Moines, Free

Saturday, March 18 at 11 a.m. Entirely Kids Day, Des Moines Art Center, Free

Tuesday, March 21 at 3 p.m. City of Des Moines Job Fair, East Side Library, Free

Tuesday, March 21 at 7:30 p.m. National Geographic Live: Improbable Ascent, Des Moines Civic Center, $15-48

Friday, March 31 at 6 p.m.

Assemblé: A Female Focused Wine Dinner, Mainframe Studios, $175

Saturday, April 1 at 10 a.m. Central Iowa Trans Lives Festival, First Unitarian Church of Des Moines, Free

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Once Upon This Stage,

Hoyt Sherman Place, Des Moines, Wednesday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m.,

$25-75 Travel back in time for Once Upon This Stage, a variety-style tribute show honoring some of the first artists to perform at Hoyt Sherman Place. In the historic venue’s early years, artists like Grant Wood, Vincent Price, Meredith Willson, Agnes de Mille and John Philip Sousa were all welcomed into the space. Once Upon This Stage will honor these artists among others. The show will also feature local partners honoring these legends with live performances of the same art form. Ballet Des Moines, B. Well, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines Metro Concert Band, Des Moines Metro Opera, Des Moines Storytellers Project, Vox Infinitus, and digital artist Alan Lampe will be performing.

Theatrical Thrills

Friday, March 3 at 7 p.m. Cameron Logsdon, Teehee’s Comedy Club, Des Moines, $15-20

Friday, March 3 at 7 p.m and 9:30 p.m. Shane Gillis, Hoyt Sherman Place, Des Moines, $35-45

Saturday, March 4 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Charlie Kojis, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $15-20

Friday, March 10 at 6 p.m. Rachel Merrill: Untitled (Slobberknocker), Performance 1, Des Moines Art Center, Free

Friday, March 10 at 7 p.m. Grant Winkels, Courtney Baka, Joey Hamburger, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $15-20

Saturday, March 11 at 9:30 p.m. Dan Docimo, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $15-20

Closing Sunday, March 12 at 4 p.m. The Hundred Dresses, Des Moines Community Playhouse, $14-19

Opening Tuesday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m 1776, Des Moines Civic Center, $40-145

Opening Friday, March 17 at 7:30 p.m. Kinky Boots, Des Moines Community Playhouse, $29-53

Saturday, March 18 at 7 p.m. Bored Teachers: We Can’t Make This Stuff Up! Comedy Tour, Hoyt Sherman Place, $38-58

Sunday, March 19 at 5 p.m. All Ages Drag Show, The Garden, Des Moines, Free

Friday, March 24 at 7 p.m. Stephen Taylor, Teehee’s Comedy Club, $15-20

Friday, March 24 at 8 p.m. Naughty Nerds Cabaret: Geeky Garters, xBk Live, Des Moines, $30-50

Opening Thursday, March 30 at 7:30 p.m. Disney’s the Lion King, Des Moines Civic Center, $75-95

Friday, March 31. The Three Little Pigs, Des Moines Community Playhouse, $6

Opening Friday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m Trouble in Mind, Stoner Theater, Des Moines, $40

Saturday, April 1 at 11 a.m. Ugly Duckling, Temple Theater, Des Moines, $12

Sunday, April 2 at 1:30 p.m. Rachel Merrill: Untitled (Slobberknocker) Performance 2, Des Moines Art Center, Free

A

Red

Carpet Affair:

Oscar Watch Party, Varsity Cinema, Des Moines, Sunday, March 12 at 6:30 p.m.,

$25-35 Varsity Cinema is rolling out their red carpet for a special live-stream of the Academy Awards ceremony. The new cinema’s event will feature small bites from neighboring restaurants including Dough Co., Lucky Horse, and late-night coffee from Mars. Event-goers can also enjoy games and giveaways throughout the evening.

Films In Focus

Saturday and Sunday, March 4 and 5 at 1 p.m. Howl’s Moving Castle, Varsity Cinema, Des Moines, $9-12

Monday, March 6 at 4 p.m. A Wrinkle in Time, Forest Avenue Library, Des Moines, Free

Thursday, March 9 at 10 p.m. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Varsity Cinema, $9-12

Tuesday, March 21 at 6:30 p.m. Iowa History 101: We Came Home Together: Black Civil War Veterans and Community Building, Forest Avenue Library, Free

Tuesday, March 28 at 6:30 p.m. Science on Screen: Wall-E, Varsity Cinema, $9-12

Wednesday, March 29 at 7 p.m. Reel Rock Film Tour, Varsity Cinema, $9-12

via Varsity Cinema

Thursday, March 30 at 10 p.m. Stalker, Varsity Cinema, $9-12

Courtesy of Hoyt Sherman Place

Dear Kiki, I have a friend group from college that have kept in touch over the years through a group text. Friend A and B lived together, while friend C and I live fairly close and occasionally visit each other. I always knew A and B to be pretty inseparable, but recently A texted me saying that B moved away suddenly with very little warning, leaving A in a bit of a bind, and now they’re having a falling out because of it. I’m not sure what to do. I’ve known B to be a bit selfish in the past, so this behavior tracks with her past actions, but it was still shocking. B hasn’t mentioned it at all, and I’m afraid to ask for details. I feel like my long-standing friend group is falling apart and I don’t know whose side to take. A isn’t texting me back about the situation and I don’t want to pressure them, but the whole situation makes me feel so distant and I’m not sure what to do. I don’t want to just stop talking to any of them, but I’m worried that talking to one will make the other think that I’m taking sides. We’ve all been friends for so long and it’s breaking my heart.

Sincerely, Frazzled Friend

Dear Friend, I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling frazzled. It’s hard when people we care about beef with each other, because we absorb all of the hostility yet feel powerless to affect the situation in any way. It sucks.

There’s a couple of things to dig into here.

The first is the toll the situation is taking on you. This is a prime example of a “put your mask on first” situation. You’ll be no help to either of them (or the other people in your life) if you don’t protect your own capacity. What’s important for you to remember is that these are grownass adults making choices. As their friend, you are allowed to have opinions. But you don’t bear any responsibility for their decisions nor do you need to bend your reactions to their convenience.

The best thing you can do in this and any other relationship is react honestly and speak with kindness. Because this is a fraught situation, one or both of them might feel like you’re taking sides. But you can’t control their feelings. They might feel like you’re taking sides even if you do nothing at all. And at the end of the day, it’s better to deal with the fallout of honest reactions than to change your behavior and face that fallout anyway. Just be there for them, as much as you are able.

The other issue, Friend, is that awful feeling of fracturing that you need to navigate. I wish I had better news, but the truth is that people and

situations change, and some rifts are unmendable. What I want you to do here is give yourself permission to grieve. Again, you can’t control them. You can’t “fix” this, no matter what you do. Whatever happens, happens: If the friend group is broken, you will have to find a way to survive that, just like any other ending.

There’s a trivialization of friendship in U.S. culture, but rest assured that this experience carries as much trauma as the end of a romantic relationship or the loss of a job. Don’t be a hero, Friend. Your heart is breaking and you need to honor that grief and be gentle with it. Give yourself time and space to heal, and cherish whatever platitudes have gotten you through similar situations in the past: Yes, you will find new friends eventually. Yes, you will still have joy in the future even though it will look differently than you imagined. Yes, you are still a good friend. And yes, this happens to even the most diligent and caring people.

You speak of being afraid to talk to B and say that A isn’t returning your messages. But where is C in all this? How are they feeling? Have you spoken to them? No one wants to feel like they’re talking out of class about other people’s problems, but you need to respect the ring theory here: comfort in, dump out. A and B are at the center of this. They are the ones the core situation is happening to. Be there to comfort them, but only express your frustration and grief to people on your ring or further out.

Lean on C or on other friends less involved. Expressing and trying to come to terms with your own feelings isn’t gossiping and it isn’t disrespectful to A or B. It’s how you protect yourself in order to help them better. Here’s to a less-frazzled future, Friend. —

xoxo, Kiki

Charity Nebbe, Host

Frequências: Contemporary

Afro-Brazilian Cinema & the Black Diaspora, Stanley Museum of Art and FilmScene–The Chauncey, Iowa City, Thursday-Saturday, March 30-April

1, Free Frequências: Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Cinema & the Black Diaspora, the 2022-23 University of Iowa Obermann Humanities Symposium, is organized by multiple scholars whose work focuses on cinematic arts, Brazilian literature and culture and Brazilian film. The symposium celebrates emerging young Afro-Brazilian filmmakers, curators, programmers and scholars already acclaimed in the international cinema sphere. Events include a mix of film screenings, performances, discussions and conversations that will take place over the course of three days. All events, including the screenings, are free and open to the public.

Eastward, ho!

Saturday, March 4 at 5 p.m. Lucy Ferriss & Repros For Iowa Emma Goldman Clinic Fundraiser, Press Coffee, Iowa City, $10 suggested donation

Monday, March 6 at 7 p.m. Post Sex Nachos w/Ava Beathard, Gabe’s, Iowa City, $15

Tuesday, March 7 at 7 p.m. Ligament w/Christine Burke and Justin K Comer, The James Theater, Iowa City, $10-15

Friday, March 10 at 7:30 p.m. NiBeSaPaDaPaSo: Echoes of Ireland, Mirrorbox Theatre, Cedar Rapids, $20

The Healing Power of Music w/Geneviève

Salamone, Ames City Auditorium, Thursday and Friday, March 23 and 24 at 7 p.m., Free-$10 Ames

folks, mark your calendars for The Healing Power of Music, a special program featuring Geneviève Salamone, a multi-talented violinist, producer, film composer, and designer from the Huron-Wendat Nation. Salamone uses her platform to raise awareness on mental health, sexual violence, and critical Idigenous issues. The two-day engagement begins with an interactive lecture on Thursday at 7 p.m., at City Auditorium. This lecture is free and open to the public. The concert is on Friday at 7 p.m., and will feature Salamone’s music, art, video and fashion. Concert tickets are $10.

Explore Ames!

Saturday, March 4 at 2 p.m. Des Moines Metro Opera Children’s Performance, Ames Public Library, Free

Tuesday, March 7 at 8 p.m. Poetry Slam, Lockwood Cafe, Ames, Free

Thursday-Sunday, March 9-12. Book Sale, Ames Public Library, $1-2

Sunday, March 12 at 1 p.m.

Storytime w/Terri Leedom, DogEared Books, Ames, Free

Opening Friday, March 10 at 7:30 p.m. Fefu and Her Friends, Riverside Theatre, Iowa City, $15-40

Friday, March 10 at 9 p.m. Masma Dream World + New Standards Men, Trumpet Blossom Cafe, Iowa City, $1015

Wednesday, March 17 at 8 p.m. David Cross w/Sean Patton, Englert Theatre, Iowa City, $25-145

Saturday, March 25 at 8 p.m. Knights of the Round Pasties: What’s Your Game? CSPS Hall, Cedar Rapids, $20-100

Tuesday, March 28 at 4 p.m. Curator Guided Tour: Out & About: Queer Life in Iowa City, UI Main Library, Free

Friday, March 31 at 7 p.m William Elliot Whitmore, Wildwood Saloon, Iowa City, $25

Sunday, March 12 at 2 p.m. Curator

Tour: Joyce J. Scott: Messages, Brunnier Art Museum, Ames, Free

Thursday, March 23 at 7 p.m. Writer’s Round, Alluvial Brewing, Ames, Free

Thursday, March 23 at 9 p.m. Yam Haus w/Landon Conrath, The M-Shop, Ames, $14-18

Thursday-Sunday, March 30-April

2. She Kills Monsters, Fisher Theater, Ames, $20

Courtesy of Obermann Center Farmhouse Studios

By Rob Brezsny

WEEKENDER YOUR WEEKLY

EDITOR-

CURATED ARTS COMPENDIUM, A.K.A.

THE Stuff to Do

THURSDAY SUBSCRIBE

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Piscean author and activist W. E. B. Dubois advised us to always be willing to give up what we are. Why? Because that’s how we transform into a deeper and stronger version of ourselves. I think you would benefit from using his strategy. My reading of the astrological omens tells me that you are primed to add through subtraction, to gain power by shedding what has become outworn and irrelevant. Suggested step one: Identify dispiriting self-images you can jettison. Step two: Visualize a familiar burden you could live without. Step three: Drop an activity that bores you. Step four: Stop doing something that wastes your time.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In 1993, I began work on my memoirish novel The Televisionary Oracle. It took me seven years to finish. The early part of the process was tough. I generated a lot of material I didn’t like. Then one day, I discovered an approach that liberated me: I wrote about aspects of my character and behavior that needed improvement. Suddenly everything clicked, and my fruitless adventure transformed into a fluidic joy. Soon I was writing about other themes and experiences. But dealing with self-correction was a key catalyst. Are there any such qualities in yourself you might benefit from tackling, Aries? If so, I recommend you try my approach.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Two Taurus readers complained that my horoscopes contain too much poetry and flair to be useful. In response, I’m offering you a prosaic message. It’s all true, though in a way that’s more like a typical horoscope. (I wonder if this approach will spur your emotional intelligence and your soul’s lust for life, which are crucial areas of growth for you these days.) Anyway, here’s the oracle: Take a risk and extend feelers to interesting people outside your usual sphere. But don’t let your social adventures distract you from your ambitions, which also need your wise attention. Your complex task: Mix work and play; synergize business and pleasure.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Astrologer Jessica Shepherd advises us to sidle up to the Infinite Source of Life and say, “Show me what you’ve got.” When we do, we often get lucky. That’s because the Infinite Source of Life delights in bringing us captivating paradoxes. Yes and no may both be true in enchanting ways. Independence and interdependence can interweave to provide us with brisk teachings. If we dare to experiment with organized wildness and aggressive receptivity, our awareness will expand, and our heart will open. What about it, Gemini? Are you interested in the charming power that comes from engaging with cosmic contradictions? Now’s a favorable time to do so. Go ahead and say, “Show me what you’ve got” to the Infinite Source of Life.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Only a lunatic would dance when sober,” declared the ancient Roman philosopher Cicero. As a musician who loves to dance, I reject that limiting idea— especially for you. In the upcoming weeks, I hope you will do a lot of dancing-while-sober. Singing-while-sober, too. Maybe some crying-for-joy-while-sober, as well as freewheeling-your-way-through-unpredictable-conversations-while-sober and cavorting-and-reveling-while-sober. My point is that there is no need for you to be intoxicated as you engage in revelry. Even further: It will be better for your soul’s long-term health if you are lucid and clear headed as you celebrate this liberating phase of extra joy and pleasure.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Poet Mary Oliver wondered whether the soul is solid and unbreakable, like an iron bar. Or is it tender and fragile, like a moth in an owl’s beak? She fantasized that maybe it’s shaped like an iceberg or a hummingbird’s eye. I am poetically inclined to imagine the soul as a silver diadem bedecked with emeralds, roses and live butterflies. What about you, Leo? How do you experience your soul? The coming weeks will be a ripe time to home in on this treasured part of you. Feel it, consult with

it, feed it. Ask it to surprise you!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): According to the color consultant company Pantone, Viva Magenta is 2023’s color of the year. According to me, Viva Magenta is the lucky hue and power pigment for you Virgos during the next 10 months. Designer Amber Guyton says that Viva Magenta “is a rich shade of red that is both daring and warm.” She adds that its “purple undertone gives it a warmth that sets it apart from mere red and makes it more versatile.” For your purposes, Virgo, Viva Magenta is earthy and exciting; nurturing and inspiring; soothing yet arousing. The coming weeks will be a good time to get the hang of incorporating its spirit into your life.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): If you are not working to forge a gritty solution, you may be reinforcing a cozy predicament. If you’re not expanding your imagination to conjure up fresh perspectives, you could be contributing to some ignorance or repression. If you’re not pushing to expose dodgy secrets and secret agendas, you might be supporting the whitewash. Know what I’m saying, Libra? Here’s a further twist. If you’re not peeved about the times you have wielded your anger unproductively, you may not use it brilliantly in the near future. And I really hope you will use it brilliantly.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Storyteller Martin Shaw believes that logic and factual information are not enough to sustain us. To nourish our depths, we need the mysterious stories provided by myths and fairy tales. He also says that conventional hero sagas starring big, strong, violent men are outmoded. Going forward, we require wily, lyrical tales imbued with the spirit of the Greek word metis, meaning “divine cunning in service to wisdom.” That’s what I wish for you now, Scorpio. I hope you will tap into it abundantly. As you do, your creative struggles will lead to personal liberations. For inspiration, read myths and fairy tales.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Many astrologers don’t give enough encouragement to you Sagittarians on the subject of home. I will compensate for that. I believe it’s a perfect time to prioritize your feelings of belonging and your sense of security. I urge you to focus energy on creating serenity and stability for yourself. Honor the buildings and lands you rely on. Give extra appreciation to the people you regard as your family and tribe. Offer blessings to the community that supports you.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): If you are like 95 percent of the population, you weren’t given all the love and care you needed as a child. You may have made adaptations to partly compensate for this lack, but you are still running a deficit. That’s the bad news, Capricorn. The good news is that the coming weeks will be a favorable time to overcome at least some of the hurt and sadness caused by your original deprivation. Life will offer you experiences that make you feel more at home in the world and at peace with your destiny and in love with your body. Please help life help you! Make yourself receptive to kindness and charity and generosity.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The philosopher Aldous Huxley was ambitious and driven. Author of almost 50 books, he was a passionate pacifist and explorer of consciousness. He was a visionary who expressed both dystopian and utopian perspectives. Later in his life, though, his views softened. “Do not burn yourselves out,” he advised readers. “Be as I am: a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it.” Now I’m offering you Huxley’s counsel, Aquarius. As much as I love your zealous idealism and majestic quests, I hope that in the coming weeks, you will recharge yourself with creature comforts.

Fragmentary Visions

GRINNELL COLLEGE’S KELEKIAN

Left: Iran, 17th century. Large Dish with Coy Gazelle. “Kubachi” ware, underglaze blue decoration with overglaze patterning, 13 inches dia. Grinnell College Museum of Art Collection, Gift of Nanette Rodney Kelekian. Right: Jeremy Chen, A Space for My Body, 2022. Mixed media, 15 1/2 x 21 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches. Courtesy the artist

BYrN D. PaUL The Great Vehicle BYRNDPAUL.BANDCAMP.COM

Byrn D. Paul is one of those musicians on a wavelength entirely their own.

He plays guitar, cello, violin, oud, koto, pedal steel guitar and modular synthesizer on The Great Vehicle On previous releases he positively shreds on the guitar, but this latest album is not about virtuosity. Technical skill is a requirement for this kind of music, and it’s as much a product of Paul’s digital audio production mojo as it is his fingers on strings.

His lyrics are also ambitious, exploring a syncretic, multi-modal mysticism. He’s concerned with Life, the Universe and Everything. I still laugh at Beavis & Butthead So for this album I’ll take Ludwig Wittgenstein’s advice: It’s something whereof I cannot speak so I’ll remain silent.

Philosophizing aside, there are many great musical ideas here, elegantly performed, recorded and produced. Paul is a guitarist primarily and there’s plenty of texture and rhythm from his guitar. None of the songs are verse/chorus/verse pop songs. The closest contemporary analog to what he’s doing is Joanna Newsom. They both write intricately structured, sophisticated pieces that take you to unexpected places.

“Sophia Samsara” closes the album but is a good place to start examination. Beginning with the sound of flowing water, church bells and spoken word poetry: “I never saw the bushes stir to admit the sacred guardian fawn / Foltchain, in her snow-white pelt.” The vocals

are subtly pitch-shifted and processed to sound portentous. But following that, you’re surprised by an almost conventional song, a lullaby of sorts. Though, I’m not sure a child would be comforted by the lyrics “Rejecting vice and nihilism / Embracing bliss beyond distinction.”

“Blue (III) Birds” is constructed in layers, including electric piano, inchoate rumbling found sound and the koto. Without being too on the nose, recordings of bird song enter during the song’s outro, which is awash with varied musical timbres including violin, cello, guitar and what I think is the wind rustling leaves. This is 21st century music, a digitally assembled bricolage.

Alongside the lyrics in the extensive booklet included with the album is discussion of specific guitars, effect pedals and VST instruments used in production. The technical detail is presented as earnestly important as the mystical lyrics and poems. It’s a bold, wonky move.

You don’t often hear an album so lush and deeply worked from an Iowa musician. Paul harkens back to the 1960s psychedelic explosion of Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues and Yes, but his music could only be created in this digital future.

Throughout The Great Vehicle, Paul saddles his lyrics with a lot of sincere ruminations on discovering the sacred and mysterious truths of life. Yet the music itself is also lovingly independent of his philosophical intent.

My alternate title for the album could be Never Mind the Gnosticism, Here’s Bryn D Paul. One can let the lyrics wash over them and focus on the pleasures of melody, harmony and auditory texture.

—Kent Williams

JaD FaIr aND SaMUEL LOcKE WarD

Happy Hearts

JADFAIR1.BANDCAMP.COM

Cross-country collaborations with punk-rock legends are nothing new for Sam Locke Ward. His glorious work with Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, etc) under the SLW cc Watt moniker has been covered in this publication before. At the same time those albums were unleashed on an unsuspecting public, Ward made contact with Half Japanese founder Jad Fair, whose plans for 2021 centered on putting out one hundred (!!!) albums in a year’s time. Fair’s own pedigree is impressive, having worked with Daniel Johnston, Thurston Moore, Richard Hell, Moe Tucker, Teenage Fanclub and John Zorn among many distinguished others. The two began a “pen-pal” project, sending tracks back and forth between Iowa City and Austin, Texas at the slightly less grueling pace of one complete song per week.

Kill Rock Stars has just released the result: a dizzy, woozy, sugar-sweet collection of love songs fittingly named Happy Hearts. With 17 songs filling a 40-minute runtime, Happy Hearts fits neatly onto two sides of translucent yellow vinyl, and it feels positively “normal” after the maximum minimalism of Ward’s last album, the 9-minute, 40 song masterpiece Bubblegum Necropolis. Brevity is still key here, but the bouncy optimism could hardly be further from that album’s rage, tension and musical chaos.

Ward’s 2021 and 2022 releases felt like a means of venting the desperation and anger stirred up in Iowa

during and before the plague years; the American nightmare set to music. Fair has a different vision: the glory of love. Their press release sums it up perfectly: “Happy Hearts is a very positive album,” says Fair. “It’s good to stay positive.”

The album is a rather askew take on that ancient touchstone of popular song, twisted at times in its unabashed moon-in-June bubbliness. Fair’s lyrics could have been scrawled in a notebook by a lovestruck middle-schooler. Some memorable lines: “A little bird whispers ‘She’s the one,’ go to her, it’s time for love”; “Cupid got me, and got me good, his arrow shot me right where it should … thank you Cupid, thank you pal!”; and a personal favorite: “It’s as easy as eating cherry pie or falling off a log; three wishes from a magic fish, or a magic frog.”

This is the intoxication stage of love set to music; the state of being too zonked on hormones to drive, awash in pastel colors and soft synthesizers. It’s the soundtrack to making reckless decisions, like matching neck tattoos or moving to Indiana, all for that darling one. The effect is so overthe-top that one wonders where the bit starts, or ends; the tone is somewhere between the stoned innocence of “Don’t Laugh, I Love You” by Ween and the deep satire of “Our Wedding” by Crass, or nightclub music in a David Lynch movie. It almost feels like there’s something wrong with it.

Ward’s music evokes everything from Sunday morning televangelist programs to ‘80s homecoming dances to wine-bar acoustics to straight-up punk rock. Used with extreme restraint, his familiar punk-styled vocals are all the more hilarious in their light application. The music becomes more ominous and at times even atonal by the album’s end, but the mood of celebration remains: celebration of living and laughing and loving and sweet, sweet junk food. More collaborations have been promised; they are awaited with great interest.

—Loren Thacher

YOU DON’T OFTEN hEar aN aLBUM SO LUSh aND DEEPLY WOrKED FrOM aN IOWa MUSIcIaN.

relapsed deeply into my pain towards myself. I was tired of this cycle. I was angry at how I was being treated. I was angry at being dismissed by close ones around me. It finally clicked in my brain that I deserved so much better from others but most importantly myself.

I started reading self-help books such as Body Positive Power by Megan Jayne Crabbe and The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. I started surrounding my social media with diverse body types, disabilities, cultures, ethnicities and more. I let myself cry all the tears I needed to. So in the summer of 2022, June 14, when I was told I am “stronger than you think” by a, now, friend, I was stunned. That statement hasn’t left my mind since that day.

June 14 is my brother’s birthday and this would have been his 39th birthday. My brother passed away suddenly when I was 14 years old. I compare our strengths a lot. He had severe cerebral palsy and I had undiagnosed (at the time) autism. He could not walk the last five years of his life and I was contemplating my own. He was the one to pass away when I tried to.

I have felt deeply in my life. Sometimes I am told I am “too emotional.” Now I am told I am “strong.” Looking back, I am only “strong” because I had to be and I have to be. I have no other option for myself but to continue my life and heal. I do not have any other choice. On my dark days, I am still considered “strong” when I feel the weakest.

Strong people are not strong by choice. We have gone through trials and tribulations. We have cried and felt fearful for most of our life. Even as I heal, I am still fearful of life to this day. I may stand straight, shoulders back and chin up, but this is the only way of survival I know.

Remember this when you look at your heroes or people you wish to become one day, they did not become a strong figure in life because of choice. Behind every strong individual is a battle of a journey.

Teri Underhill is a creative based in Norwalk, Iowa.

GrEG WhEELEr aND

ThE POLY MaLL cOPS

Manic Fever

HIGHDIVERECORDS.BANDCAMP.COM

MCF: Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops, Gabe’s, Iowa City, Saturday, April 8, 7:30 p.m., included with pass ($55-110)

You didn’t realize you were waiting for this moment. But I promise you, you were.

Later this month, on March 24, just a couple weeks ahead of their appearance at Iowa City’s Mission Creek Festival, Des Moines punkers

Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops will drop their debut fulllength, Manic Fever. If, like a good Iowan music nerd, you’ve been following Greg Wheeler’s career since his time with Cedar Rapids band The Wheelers, then you’ll be absolutely ready for the wild, frenetic beauty of this aptly named album.

The 12-track release includes all three songs from their 2017 7-inch split and nine additional tunes to give you a crick in your neck as you jump and thrash along. Track four, “DGASAY,” one of those carried forward from their earlier release, is a classic punk vibe, channeling the ’70s obsession with sped-up surfer rock tonality. It’s the most polished track on the album, the one begging to be released as a single.

The following track, “Nothing,” is one of the album’s standouts, delightfully subtle following the fiery vehemence of “DGASAY.” It’s a track to get lost in, balancing seemingly straightforward lyrics—“There’s nothing much left to do / Except completely obliterate you / And there’s nothing left to say /

I want your face to go away”—with a wistful melodic structure, especially on the chorus, that reveals the lyrics to be pure bravado.

The title track is another that grabs your ears, 1:42 of quick addictive vocals and swirling instrumentation that make clear just how much fun they had composing these pieces. “Slowly Erasing You,” another 2017 re-up, is next, one more track that dances around and puts the lie to its lyrics. Then “Waste Away” takes control of the narrative, with lyrics that feel more poignant and true (“Don’t let go, I’ll float away”) couched in driven, drum-forward desperation that demands attention. This trio of songs in the album’s third quarter encapsulates the themes and philosophies of the whole; the three are worth looping on their own a few times through.

Closer “Fast Forward” is the perfect capper, all garage grunge grit and grime locked in conversation with the listener, begging for the emotional turmoil of the album to be over. I’m generally a fan of albums that bear repeating, that can be listened to over and over. But this is a deeply satisfying conclusion that hints at the possibility that the attempts at closure teased throughout might finally be realized.

Manic Fever is simultaneously nostalgic and contemporary, peak 2007 but without feeling retro. If I said, “goth pop-punk,” you, dear reader, would likely respond, “Oh, you mean emo?” But no. I do not mean emo. The Poly Mall Cops are more Joy Division than My Chemical Romance. And there’s a ’90s fuzz overlay that gives the album a very Love Among Freaks, Clerks soundtrack kind of vibe, along with just the right amount of raucous drums, reminiscent of classic, Brett Reed-era Rancid.

In other words, it’s like a decadent meal from the punk rock buffet. You think you have a grasp on their style, then they throw a wild card at you— and make it work every time. They deliver pop punk filtered through the miasma of pandemic times.

—Genevieve Trainor

know they will have support from constituents if they are willing to participate in a serious discussion about reform.”

McNally realizes that Iowa City isn’t a culturally conservative part of the state, but it is one that gives him a chance to meet other young people from across Iowa.

“Because it’s a college town, you get people from all over,” he said. “What I’m hoping to do is connect with people, especially from rural parts of the state, who are then willing to take the conversation back to their hometowns. The site has a lot of good resources to help them with that, including how to contact their legislators.”

To Knott, the site’s most important feature is its online petition.

“The campaign isn’t going to get on [lawmakers’] radar until we can demonstrate we have political strength,” he said. “There’s a difference between a petition where a person signs their name, and polls where you can remain anonymous.”

Knott acknowledges that even getting a serious debate on reform is an uphill struggle, and if debate leads to anything, it will still face an opponent in Gov. Reynolds. But he still thinks change, if only incremental change, is possible.

“If you’re going to get into politics you’ve got to have a bit of optimism about the possibility of change,” Knott said. “Or you’ll just never get anything done.”

July 7-8 • Downtown Des Moines, Iowa

Cautious Clay · Blu DeTiger · Thumpasaurus · William Elliott Whitmore

Etran de L’Aïr · Disq · McKinley Dixon · Ax and the Hatchetmen · Lipstick Homicide · Kiss the Tiger · Ancient Posse · Annie Kemble · Us Vs Them · Emma Butterworth · Penny Peach · Hurry Up, Brothers · Allegra Hernandez · Lady Revel · Flash in a Pan · Chill Mac · Surf Zombies · Basketball Divorce Court · Zap Tura · Glass Ox · Salt Fox · Belin Quartet · The Crust Band · Lost Souls Found · Girls Rock! Des Moines

Sudan Archives · Deerhoof · Ric Wilson · Gustaf

House of Large Sizes · Elizabeth Moen · Maxilla Blue · Pictoria Vark · Tayls · Ramona and the Sometimes · Neil Anders and the Brothers Merritt · Monstrophe · Des Moines Music Coalition Summer Camps

Paul Brennan is Little Village’s News Director.

Invasives

Emily Kingery’s Invasives opens in a garden and closes in a garden, repeatedly returning to Eden and tearing it down with one consistent throughline: that which is invasive.

The opening poem, “Musk Thistle,” weaves together two concepts such that they are inextricable. It talks about pulling weeds and ponders the difference between a weed and any other plant, relating that imagery to the way we accidentally sow figurative and digital seeds in our own lives.

Our speaker lingers in her childhood, hands us Barbies and woodchips, and pulls us through basements and playgrounds, laying groundwork for ways our desires hold us captive. Kingery repeatedly gives visceral illustrations of how lovers leave deep-rooted, impossible traumas in their wake. She makes us fall in love with bad men, asking, “Who argues / with men who undress you / the way summer does / to spring,” in the poem “April.”

She reminds us of young love, unrequited love, the pain of trying to exist in spaces not made for you. This collection hit closer to home than I could have anticipated and in darker corners than I’d like to admit. I think that’s an accurate picture of Invasives: a pretty package with ornate scaffolding built around our hauntings.

It’s probably true that not everyone has had experiences like those outlined in Invasives: abusive lovers, the allure of toxins, the belief that belief alone can save us. But

Kingery’s felicity is unparalleled— she pries universals out of snapshots from slumber parties and crushing on Indiana Jones and the specific boredom that means the end of coming of age. We are not all from the small town in which our narrator learns how to want and how not to love, but we do all learn these things.

Reading the poem “Toxicity” (the title and refrain derived from the System of a Down song), I understand how the unrequited can be romantic. Kingery’s language is potent, her scenes developed and raw. The book itself is invasive. Where you might expect to feel voyeuristic, instead you wear the narrator’s skin, her story coiling inside you.

What really gives these poems power is their bald-faced realism. The language is often flowery, but the images depicted here are disaster photography. They are high-contrast black-and-whites of crime scenes and personal tragedy, the best of which combine soft, natural

TaYLOr BraDLEY

There’s No Place Like House

Much is absent in Taylor Bradley’s latest book.

That observation is not an assessment of the component parts of the book—which catalogs segments of Bradley’s life from 2018 to 2020— rather, “absence” is the aching touchstone of this well-built text.

Published in late 2022 by Bradley, a 2013 University of Iowa graduate, There’s No Place Like House is a memoir, presented

be looking for narrative grounding. Thankfully, Bradley writes with a deft hand and is quick to define these vacuums after the first essay. The most important absences are noted in the beginning and often take the spotlight in multiple essays. In particular “One-Inch Planet,” “Mary Poppins for Damaged Men” and “The Breakup” etch wretched failings with a surprisingly sympathetic hand.

Bradley’s time in the book is mostly focused in Los Angeles, while dipping in and out of London, New Orleans and Grand Junction, Colorado, among other places. As the essays continue, a somewhat recurrent cast of characters begin to take shape. An 80-yearold neighbor, an aging mother, a semi-estranged father and a handful of friends reappear throughout, but—keeping with the conceit of the book—none feel like permanent players, even when their presence (or lack thereof) is powerfully felt.

Dozens of photos illustrate settings, objects and people throughout the book. Many of these images lack distinguishable human faces, and when distinct faces do appear, it’s often in old, smiling family photos that add texture to Bradley’s already nuanced prose. Regardless of subject, these images tend to extrapolate on the text, rather than merely represent it.

elements with the grit of drugs or basement parties. As in “Tricks,” “I have read enough / to know I am half-gone already. I have cut enough flesh / that when the crosscut saw is flourished in the garden for the final trick, my body will disappear on its own.”

There are poems in here about happy things, beautiful moments of confidence and change, and the collection even gives opportunity to the reader to choose their own adventure with the way the book ends. Invasives is a fever-dream journey through trauma, but you get through it.

—Sarah Elgatian

as a series of photographs and essays. These narratives extend from 2018, in the immediate aftermath of a failed, decade-old, romantic relationship, to mid-2020 when COVID swallowed the globe.

Prior to this, Bradley has published poetry collections and written plays, at least one of which was part of the UI’s 10-Minute Play Festival in 2012.

Throughout There’s No Place Like House, Bradley establishes a slew of lackings, observing things as “not-my TV” and “not-my Grandpa” and the house of an “almost mother-in-law.”

Defining things in the negative risks losing a reader when they may

The book’s title alludes to a line repeated in The Wizard of Oz by Dorothy Gale, played by Judy Garland. When Dorothy is spirited away to the land of Oz, she’s followed by her house but not its content. She has to get back to Kansas, back to her home.

At the start of this book, the narrator prepares to leave a house that is not her own. But unlike Dorothy, she is not beckoned “back to Kansas.” That is a place she intentionally fled. Without that clear and guiding star, our protagonist’s path is more tumultuous than any yellow brick road.

—Isaac Hamlet

BARNES & NOBLE PRESS

ShE rEMINDS US OF YOUNG LOVE, UNrEQUITED LOVE, ThE PaIN OF TrYING TO EXIST IN SPacES NOT MaDE FOr YOU. ThIS cOLLEcTION hIT cLOSEr TO hOME ThaN I cOULD haVE aNTIcIPaTED aND IN DarKEr cOrNErS ThaN I’D LIKE TO aDMIT.

SEaN aDaMS

The Thing In The Snow

WILLIAM MORROW

The Thing In The Snow is set in a remote location “where the snow never melts.” Given my fiery hatred of Iowa winters, this was already enough to catapult me into a headspace of inexplicable tension that kept me turning the pages of Sean Adams’ latest novel.

Our narrator, Hart, is a supervisor tasked with making sure the Northern Institute, formerly a research facility, remains a place where “research cannot possibly occur.” The abandoned state of the Institute makes the presence of Gilroy, the last remaining researcher at the facility, even more curious. Hart is in charge of two subordinates: Gibbs, who Hart suspects is secretly plotting to take his job, and Cline, who he describes as “easily distracted and unintelligent.”

The staff doesn’t know their coordinates, they don’t know what research used to be conducted there, they don’t know the exact temperature in the facility. And they don’t know what the ominous black shape near the eastern wing of the building is, the titular “thing in the snow.”

In accordance to the wishes of Hart’s superior, Kay, the team strives for “efficiency,” spending their days carrying out their assignments: opening and closing doors to make sure they are functioning properly, using golf balls to check if table surfaces are level, sitting and shifting around on chairs to make sure they are sturdy enough, etcetera.

Hart regards this busywork with the utmost seriousness, obeying orders and filling out endless forms.

Despite managerial aspirations, Hart is seemingly at a professional dead end. It’s bad enough that our narrator is insecure about his leadership status, but like his team, he is left in the dark about practically everything.

Seeing the title, my mind flashed with images from John Carpenter’s 1982 film The Thing, a story centering on a team of researchers in Antarctica pitted against an unfathomable threat. A notable influence on that film is the work of horror scribe H.P. Lovecraft, who penned his own tale of an Arctic expedition team in his 1936 novella At The Mountains of Madness.

Thinking I had ventured across this frozen terrain before, I discover Adams once again subverts all expectations save one: delivering a superb novel in another year seemingly destined for the dumpster fire (a lesson I should have learned from reviewing the author’s debut novel The Heap in 2020.)

Here, Adams lures readers into a

Tara a. BYNUM

Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS

Book Matters: Tara Bynum, Prairie Lights, Iowa City, Wednesday, March 22 at 7 p.m., Free

Scholar Tara A. Bynum, an assistant professor in the University of Iowa Departments of English and African American Studies, is exploring interiority—and exemplifying it.

and fears stalk our thoughts; the uncertainty of the future is often a hovering cloud. It’s a remarkable phenomenon that these early Black Americans found and expressed those pleasures. It “bears proof,” Bynum writes, “of the taking care of or the tending to an inward self.”

The existence of these examples, and Bynum’s choice to present them in this way, is reminiscent of current trends toward defiant joy: from the ideas of Black boy joy and Black girl magic to the insistent refrain that “trans joy is resistance,” historically marginalized communities in the U.S. and across the world have been advocating for the power of expressive pleasure instead of taking pleasure in expressions of power.

world as claustrophobic as a snow globe, then shakes things up with a flurry of satirical commentary on the surreal and absurd nature of workplace culture. I am reminded of the space truckers in another Carpenter film, Dark Star (1974), and the cubicle dwellers in Mike Judge’s Office Space (1999). However, such comparisons last only briefly, as Adams gifts readers a uniquely hilarious yet frightening vision with The Thing In The Snow

(Reviewer’s Note: Special thanks to Beaverdale Books in Des Moines for lending an emergency copy of the book to Little Village for review.)

—Mike Kuhlenbeck

In her recently published monograph Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America, Bynum leverages her research in pre-1800 Black literary history for a deep dive into the lives and writings of a selection of early Black intellectuals. Beginning with Phillis Wheatley and moving on to names perhaps not well-known outside of academia, she examines the ways in which each pours their interiority onto the page, how they hope, how they dream and how they love. And as she does so, she sinks into the subject matter, revealing her own pleasures at every turn.

The pleasures in question, she advises in the introduction, are not sexual or even necessarily physical. “I’m describing what looks like those quotidian and simple pleasures that make life easier,” she writes. And, quoting James Baldwin, invokes a definition of “sensual” that embodies the ability to “respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.”

This is no easy task, of course, even in the modern day. Anxieties

Writing about pamphleteer David Walker, Bynum is direct in discussing his obvious anger, but argues that it’s “well-intentioned and purposefully excessive.” And it is utilized in pursuit of happiness: “namely,” she writes, “a world where his brethren are no longer enslaved.”

What is most beautiful about these chapters is the way that Bynum maintains a delightful voice, a first-person perspective that centers her own pleasure in the researching and writing of this book. Her curiosity permeates each page. “I still wonder sometimes,” she writes, “what Phillis Wheatley thought about as she brushed her teeth.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek moment—Bynum acknowledges self-effacingly that she’s aware toothbrushes weren’t around in Wheatley’s time—but it gets at the heart of her questioning. There’s a lot that these explorations of interiority can reveal, but we can never know how the authors truly see themselves.

Through these intertwined readings, Bynum searches for throughlines and truths, finding relevance in the writers’ shared Christian faith and tracing that influence. But mostly, she models for the reader what it is to read with curiosity and how to allow the interiority of others to inform our own, resulting in a communal experience.

—Genevieve Trainor

aDaMS LUrES rEaDErS INTO a WOrLD aS cLaUSTrOPhOBIc aS a SNOW GLOBE, ThEN ShaKES ThINGS UP.

Syphilis in Iowa increased by more than 167% from 2019 to 2022.

Syphilis is a sexually transmissible infection (STI) that can cause long-term health problems. It’s serious, and cases are on the rise in Iowa. Not everyone who has syphilis has symptoms, so people often don’t realize they have it. That’s why it’s important for you to get tested regularly for STIs, including syphilis, if you’re sexually active.

ACROSS

1. Top often paired with a cardigan, casually

5. “When was your last ___ smear?”

8. Opposite of fiction

12. Somewhat

13. One of many around the house for vinegar

14. Note for an oud?

15. Some memoirs

17. Corolla competitor

18. Character set?

19. Kiwi, for one

21. Virtual date annoyance

22. Wicked relative?

24. Briefly offline?

25. TV shopping station whose letters stand for three attributes

26. Moses’s Obi-Wan Kenobi co-star

28. Done for

30. Monarchy with no permanent rivers: Abbr.

31. Judges

33. Character in a Strange

Planet comic

36. Montero rapper Lil ___ X

37. 2021 WNBA champs

39. Sponcon, e.g.

40. Rattles off

42. What a vest covers

44. Muscle that can be bounced, for short

45. Unsupervised

47. Rate zero stars, e.g.

51. Wheelchair basketball player and TV host Adepitan

64. Guinness offering

65. Card game with reverses

66. Just that time

67. Schlep

68. Ku or Kane, e.g.

69. Celebratory cheers

DOWN

1. Cows and bulls

2. Didn’t have time to cook, perhaps

3. Spanish port with ferries to Tangier

4. Fluffy rice cake

5. Throb

6. Query in many a ’90s chat room: Abbr.

7. 100 centavos

8. Stormtrooper shipped with Poe

9. Browses an estate sale, say

10. Travel company?

11. EDM subgenre

14. “Live with it”

16. The first one ever began handing out cash in a New York bank in 1969

17. Company that aptly anagrams to “a rest”

announcements?

36. Compliment to a photographer or a tennis ace

38. Poet Harvey who contributed to Marvel’s World of Wakanda

40. Paved the way for

41. Didn’t release immediately

43. Tree that drops its cones during forest fires

44. Most scared at the haunted house, perhaps

46. Shaq’s alma mater

48. Like many a telenovela star

49. Free will

50. Doesn’t stay in one’s lane, say

52. Stonewall Inn demonstration

54. Ref. that added “burner phone” in 2022

57. Mötley ___ (band with a rare double gratuitous umlaut)

58. Self-satisfied

60. Gabriella’s boyfriend in High School Musical

63. Wahoo, at a sushi bar

52. Shares, as someone else’s post: Abbr.

53. “Without further ___ ...”

55. It’s shared by John Oliver and John Cena

56. Thick and delicious, as frosting

59. More soaked

61. Silkwood writer Nora 62. Item of color-changing jewelry found four times in this grid

20. Prefix with normative

23. Control tops?

27. Subjects of California’s Silenced

No More act: Abbr.

29. Invite along for

32. Second part of “i.e.”

34. “The Ketchup

Song” group ___ Ketchup

35. Wedding

UPCOMING EVENTS

March 4 123 Andrés

TEMPLE THEATER

Wellmark Family Series

March 14 - 19 1776 – The Musical

DES MOINES CIVIC CENTER

Willis Broadway Series

March 15 Tuba Skinny

TEMPLE THEATER

Prairie Meadows Live At The Temple Concert Series

March 17 - 18 Comedy Xperiment

STONER THEATER

March 21 Improbable Ascent

DES MOINES CIVIC CENTER

National Geographic Live

March 23 Shayna Steele

TEMPLE THEATER

Prairie Meadows Live At The Temple Concert Series

March 30 - April 16 Disney’s® The Lion King

DES MOINES CIVIC CENTER

Willis Broadway Series

April 1 Ugly Duckling

DES MOINES CIVIC CENTER

Wellmark Family Series

April 15 Gina Chavez

TEMPLE THEATER

Prairie Meadows Live At The Temple Concert Series

April 18 - 23

The Second City Swipes Right

TEMPLE THEATER

Prairie Meadows Temple Comedy Series

March 21 - 22 Comedy Xperiment

STONER THEATER

April 29 Air Play

DES MOINES CIVIC CENTER

Wellmark Family Series

April 30

Invisible Wonders

DES MOINES CIVIC CENTER

National Geographic Live

May 4 Ronald K Brown Evidence

DES MOINES CIVIC CENTER

The Dance Series

April 18 -23 TEMPLE THEATER