Libraries sponsors Witching Hour Festival BY SARA J. PINKHAM, EXHIBITION & ENGAGEMENT COORDINATOR Stacey Walker presenting in the Main Library Gallery during the Witching Hour Festival
world-class speakers and artists. They emerged with a varied lineup of crucial topics, timely art, and speakers from a range of backgrounds and experiences. “For us, we were very interested in how anyone was making sense of the world this year,” says Andre Perry, executive director at The Englert Theatre. “There have been a lot of challenges, from health and economic perspectives to recognizing the ongoing pain of racism and inequity in our country. We were pretty certain that if we opened up this platform, it would be hard not to hit some of those issues head on,” he says.
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ach October, the Witching Hour Festival brings brilliant artists and thinkers to Iowa City to explore the unknown, share their work, and consider what it means to be human. The Englert Theatre and Little Village Magazine, two longtime pillars of the arts community in the Iowa City area, present the event. Witching Hour, like most annual events making a brave comeback in 2020, had to pivot to a virtual format due to the continued COVID-19 pandemic. This change did not stop the production team from finding
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The University of Iowa Libraries has been a sponsor and partner for Witching Hour Festival since 2019. “The Libraries supports events such as Witching Hour so that we can be part of critical community conversations around the creative process,” says John Culshaw, Jack B. King university librarian at the University of Iowa Libraries. “By highlighting the work of diverse local, regional, and national voices, we can help make Iowa City and the Corridor a more inclusive place. Learning about the lived experiences of others through conversation and listening demonstrates why events like Witching Hour are important to our community and why the UI Libraries stays involved,” he says.
