2020 Schedule

Goosetown Kick-off Party

  5 p.m.
  Goosetown Cafe
Join us at Northside Iowa City's quaint Goosetown Café for a Mission Creek Festival 2019 Kick-off Party! Enjoy a delicious buffet, beverages, and quality time with Mission Creek staff and fellow festivalgoers. Who knows, you might meet your new festival buddy...

R.O. Kwon

  6 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
R.O. Kwon is the author of The Incendiaries, published by Riverhead (U.S.) and Virago (U.K.). The Incendiaries was an American Booksellers Association Indie Next #1 Great Read and Indies Introduce selection, and it is being translated into four languages...
with Jenny Lewis

The Watson Twins

  7 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
Raised in Louisville, Kentucky identical twin sisters, Chandra and Leigh Watson, have always blended musical genres to tell their story. The twins moved to the thriving music scene of Silver Lake, Los Angeles in the early 2000’s where their sound “developed a style of sweet, soulful indie-folk...
with TBA

Jenny Lewis

  8:15 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
One of the most celebrated and respected performers of her generation, Jenny Lewis got her start as the dynamic frontwoman of influential LA group Rilo Kiley in 1998. She has since released three albums under her name, most recently 2014’s The Voyager...

Black Stork

  8:30 p.m.
  The Mill
Black Stork, solo project of the Spanish composer and performer Carlos Cotallo Solares, combines elements of metal, math rock, and hardcore punk and reinterprets them through the acoustic guitar...

Noura Mint Seymali

  9:30 p.m.
  The Mill
Noura Mint Seymali is a nationally beloved star and one of Mauritania’s foremost musical emissaries. Born into a prominent line of Moorish griot (West African praise singers, poets and musicians) Noura began her career at age 13 as a supporting vocalist with her step-mother, the legendary Dimi Mint Abba...
with Jenny Lewis

The Watson Twins

  7 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
Raised in Louisville, Kentucky identical twin sisters, Chandra and Leigh Watson, have always blended musical genres to tell their story. The twins moved to the thriving music scene of Silver Lake, Los Angeles in the early 2000’s where their sound “developed a style of sweet, soulful indie-folk...
with TBA

Jenny Lewis

  8:15 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
One of the most celebrated and respected performers of her generation, Jenny Lewis got her start as the dynamic frontwoman of influential LA group Rilo Kiley in 1998. She has since released three albums under her name, most recently 2014’s The Voyager...

Black Stork

  8:30 p.m.
  The Mill
Black Stork, solo project of the Spanish composer and performer Carlos Cotallo Solares, combines elements of metal, math rock, and hardcore punk and reinterprets them through the acoustic guitar...

Noura Mint Seymali

  9:30 p.m.
  The Mill
Noura Mint Seymali is a nationally beloved star and one of Mauritania’s foremost musical emissaries. Born into a prominent line of Moorish griot (West African praise singers, poets and musicians) Noura began her career at age 13 as a supporting vocalist with her step-mother, the legendary Dimi Mint Abba...

R.O. Kwon

  6 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
R.O. Kwon is the author of The Incendiaries, published by Riverhead (U.S.) and Virago (U.K.). The Incendiaries was an American Booksellers Association Indie Next #1 Great Read and Indies Introduce selection, and it is being translated into four languages...

Goosetown Kick-off Party

  5 p.m.
  Goosetown Cafe
Join us at Northside Iowa City's quaint Goosetown Café for a Mission Creek Festival 2019 Kick-off Party! Enjoy a delicious buffet, beverages, and quality time with Mission Creek staff and fellow festivalgoers. Who knows, you might meet your new festival buddy...

R.O. Kwon

  6 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
R.O. Kwon is the author of The Incendiaries, published by Riverhead (U.S.) and Virago (U.K.). The Incendiaries was an American Booksellers Association Indie Next #1 Great Read and Indies Introduce selection, and it is being translated into four languages...
ft. Gabriel Houck, Jennifer Cheng, & Lawrence Ypil
ft. Gabriel Houck, Jennifer Cheng, & Lawrence Ypil

Nonfiction Writing Program Showcase

  7 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Gabriel Houck, Jennifer S. Cheng, and Lawrence Ypil —all alumni of the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program—read stories, poems, and essays from their recent books...

Pink Neighbor

  7:30 p.m.
  The Mill
Groovy. Intimate. Loungey. And of course, neighborly. These are the words Pink Neighbor embodies in sound and vibe. Based in Grinnell, Iowa, multi-instrumentalists Katie In and Erik Jarvis have worked patiently on their songwriting crafts since their teenage years. The deft and diverse output of Pink Neighbor makes this apparent, as they draw from the American Songbook, vintage global-psychedelia...

Halfloves

  8:30 p.m.
  The Mill
Hailed as "the best currently active rock band in Iowa" by the Iowa Informer, indie rock outfit Halfloves offers a variety of songs on their self-titled debut album made with renowned producer Brandon Darner (Imagine Dragons, The Envy Corps). Halfloves mixes pop sensibilities with heady textures and space to create an emotionally charged sound...

Ratboys

  9:45 p.m.
  The Mill
Born out of fierce friendship and a mutual affection for melody, Chicago’s Ratboys – anchored by the partnership of Julia Steiner and Dave Sagan – aim to ‘write songs that tell stories and honor the intimacy of memory,’ according to Steiner...

Chef PZ x The Cubist

  10 p.m.
  Gabe's
Chef PZ (Sepehr Sadrzadeh) and The Cubist (Tyrell Thornton) first collaborated in 2015, when Sadrzadeh was the executive chef of Pullman Bar & Diner and Thornton was producing music in the Hall Mall in downtown Iowa City. The two artists quickly formed an alliance after their first studio session together, which created the format for their "off the cuff" freestyle studio sessions...

Pink Neighbor

  7:30 p.m.
  The Mill
Groovy. Intimate. Loungey. And of course, neighborly. These are the words Pink Neighbor embodies in sound and vibe. Based in Grinnell, Iowa, multi-instrumentalists Katie In and Erik Jarvis have worked patiently on their songwriting crafts since their teenage years. The deft and diverse output of Pink Neighbor makes this apparent, as they draw from the American Songbook, vintage global-psychedelia...

Halfloves

  8:30 p.m.
  The Mill
Hailed as "the best currently active rock band in Iowa" by the Iowa Informer, indie rock outfit Halfloves offers a variety of songs on their self-titled debut album made with renowned producer Brandon Darner (Imagine Dragons, The Envy Corps). Halfloves mixes pop sensibilities with heady textures and space to create an emotionally charged sound...

Ratboys

  9:45 p.m.
  The Mill
Born out of fierce friendship and a mutual affection for melody, Chicago’s Ratboys – anchored by the partnership of Julia Steiner and Dave Sagan – aim to ‘write songs that tell stories and honor the intimacy of memory,’ according to Steiner...

Chef PZ x The Cubist

  10 p.m.
  Gabe's
Chef PZ (Sepehr Sadrzadeh) and The Cubist (Tyrell Thornton) first collaborated in 2015, when Sadrzadeh was the executive chef of Pullman Bar & Diner and Thornton was producing music in the Hall Mall in downtown Iowa City. The two artists quickly formed an alliance after their first studio session together, which created the format for their "off the cuff" freestyle studio sessions...
ft. Gabriel Houck, Jennifer Cheng, & Lawrence Ypil
ft. Gabriel Houck, Jennifer Cheng, & Lawrence Ypil

Nonfiction Writing Program Showcase

  7 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Gabriel Houck, Jennifer S. Cheng, and Lawrence Ypil —all alumni of the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program—read stories, poems, and essays from their recent books...

Kevin Young

  7 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Kevin Young is the Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, newly named a National Historic Landmark, and Poetry Editor of the New Yorker. He is the author of thirteen books of poetry and prose, most recently Brown...

Jaimie Branch

  8 p.m.
  The Mill
Jaimie Branch is our MCF 2019 Artist-in-Residence, a weeklong residency during Mission Creek Festival where artists are invited to spend five days recording new creative work at Iowa City's Flat Black Studios. Jaimie Branch is a Brooklyn-based trumpeter working in the areas of improvisation and composition. In her practice, Branch is particularly interested in extending and expanding the technical limitations of the trumpet...

Dana T

  9 p.m.
  Gabe's
It’s only hearsay, but Dana Telsrow is the bandleader for a late-night talk show that films in an alternate universe Studio 54. Carl Sagan is a guest every night. Catering is mostly dragonfruit. It’s all very casual, yet very intense...

Mark Guiliana SPACE HEROES

  9:30 p.m.
  The Mill
Mark Guiliana has become recognized as one of the world’s leading drummers, admired and in demand across the spectrum from jazz to rock to electronic music for his rhythmic sophistication, creative impulse, and individual sound. Now, Guiliana is unveiling his latest group, Mark Guiliana SPACE HEROES, featuring the “two horn” front line of saxophonists Jason Rigby and Mike Lewis, and bassist Chris Morrissey...

Younger

  10 p.m.
  Gabe's
After kicking around in other bands for years, Amanda Crosby, Sarah Mannix, and Rachel Sauter formed Younger in 2014 as an experiment. What could happen if songs were written as a complete collaboration? Their original aim was to geek out about weird song structures and challenging harmonic intervals without being a real band at all. Inspired by their excellent public school music education and deep love of art rock...

Guerilla Toss

  11 p.m.
  Gabe's
Analog synthesizers give tangible life to the works of Guerilla Toss. Whether it be the sound of a rocket ship, a kitten-with-a-wah, distorted dolphins, or a clavichord made out of honey-baked ham, the band consistently finds new ways to bring together the many ideas that combine to shape each new batch of art-rock puzzle pieces...

Jaimie Branch

  8 p.m.
  The Mill
Jaimie Branch is our MCF 2019 Artist-in-Residence, a weeklong residency during Mission Creek Festival where artists are invited to spend five days recording new creative work at Iowa City's Flat Black Studios. Jaimie Branch is a Brooklyn-based trumpeter working in the areas of improvisation and composition. In her practice, Branch is particularly interested in extending and expanding the technical limitations of the trumpet...

Dana T

  9 p.m.
  Gabe's
It’s only hearsay, but Dana Telsrow is the bandleader for a late-night talk show that films in an alternate universe Studio 54. Carl Sagan is a guest every night. Catering is mostly dragonfruit. It’s all very casual, yet very intense...

Mark Guiliana SPACE HEROES

  9:30 p.m.
  The Mill
Mark Guiliana has become recognized as one of the world’s leading drummers, admired and in demand across the spectrum from jazz to rock to electronic music for his rhythmic sophistication, creative impulse, and individual sound. Now, Guiliana is unveiling his latest group, Mark Guiliana SPACE HEROES, featuring the “two horn” front line of saxophonists Jason Rigby and Mike Lewis, and bassist Chris Morrissey...

Younger

  10 p.m.
  Gabe's
After kicking around in other bands for years, Amanda Crosby, Sarah Mannix, and Rachel Sauter formed Younger in 2014 as an experiment. What could happen if songs were written as a complete collaboration? Their original aim was to geek out about weird song structures and challenging harmonic intervals without being a real band at all. Inspired by their excellent public school music education and deep love of art rock...

Guerilla Toss

  11 p.m.
  Gabe's
Analog synthesizers give tangible life to the works of Guerilla Toss. Whether it be the sound of a rocket ship, a kitten-with-a-wah, distorted dolphins, or a clavichord made out of honey-baked ham, the band consistently finds new ways to bring together the many ideas that combine to shape each new batch of art-rock puzzle pieces...

Kevin Young

  7 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Kevin Young is the Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, newly named a National Historic Landmark, and Poetry Editor of the New Yorker. He is the author of thirteen books of poetry and prose, most recently Brown...

Kevin Young

  7 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Kevin Young is the Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, newly named a National Historic Landmark, and Poetry Editor of the New Yorker. He is the author of thirteen books of poetry and prose, most recently Brown...

Publishing Reimagined

  3:30 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
The Publishing Reimagined panel highlights independent presses and individuals who are bringing groundbreaking innovations to the presentation of literary work, including novelist Maxwell Neely-Cohen’s visual poetry synthesizer, the text-based objects of Container Press, the vinyl record-only poetry label Fonograf Editions, and Prompt Press, which uses original work from visual artists and writers as a launchpad for creative responses...

Lit Walk: Round #1

  5 p.m.
  Discerning Eye, Nodo, Beadology, & Cortado
Round #1 of our annual Friday evening Lit Walk features readings curated by The Iowa Review & Iowa Writers' House, FC2 & Prompt Press, Action Books & Subtitulados Reading Series, and the Iowa Youth Writing Project at a host of downtown locales...

Lit Walk: Round #2

  6 p.m.
  White Rabbit, Revival, & RSVP
Round #2 of our annual Friday evening Lit Walk features readings curated by Rescue Press & Monsters of Poetry, Make Magazine & Ninth Letter, and Lit Hub & The Rumpus at a host of downtown locales...

Writers of Color Lit Walk Reading: Round #3

  7 p.m.
  Haba Salon
The final round of our 2019 Lit Walk features readings hosted by The Believer and the Writers of Color Reading Series at northside favorites Goosetown Cafe and Haba Salon...
with Mitski and Jay Som

Good Morning Midnight – SOLD OUT

  7 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
Good Morning Midnight began spontaneously, like a trip for ice cream or human combustion, when a record store in Iowa became sentient and began immediately devouring itself. The psychedelic folk music was gnashed to bits with every mouthful, the country records ended up smeared in dissonance from a stack of 90’s rock albums...

The Believer Lit Walk Reading: Round #3

  7 p.m.
  Goosetown Cafe
The final round of our 2019 Lit Walk features readings hosted by The Believer and the Writers of Color Reading Series at northside favorites Goosetown Cafe and Haba Salon...

Mission Beat

  8 p.m. to 4 a.m.
  Wildwood
Over the past decade, M:B has been Mission Creek's official underground dance music party. Continually providing the festival and its attendees with some of the best local and regional talent that the Midwest and Colorado have to offer. Now, in the 10th installment, we're kicking things up a few decibels...
with Mitski and Good Morning Midnight

Jay Som – SOLD OUT

  8 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
On her first proper album as Jay Som, Melina Duterte, 22, solidifies her rep as a self-made force of sonic splendor and emotional might. If last year's aptly named Turn Into compilation showcased a fuzz-loving artist in flux -- chronicling her mission to master bedroom recording -- then the rising Oakland star's latest, Everybody Works, is the LP equivalent of mission accomplished...

Crystal City

  9 p.m.
  The Mill
Crystal City is fronted by Dave Helmer and Sam Drella. Helmer is a Midwestern singer/songwriter from central Iowa with blue-collar roots. Heavily influenced by Paul Westerberg, Tom Petty, John Prine, and Townes Van Zandt, Helmer’s songs are approachable and relatable, touching on themes of love and loss, being good to each other, and celebrating life...
with Jay Som and Good Morning Midnight

Mitski – SOLD OUT

  9:15 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
Mitski Miyawaki has always been wary of being turned a symbol, knowing we’re quick to put women on pedestals and even quicker to knock them down. Nonetheless, after the breakout success of 2016’s Puberty 2, she was hailed as the new vanguard of indie rock..

Peanut Ricky & The Fiends

  9:30 p.m.
  Iowa City Yacht Club
Peanut Ricky is the solo project of long time local musician Jo Adams. They are joined by an ever alternating cast of backing musicians and long time member Phil Maul a local synth and noise artist. Peanut Ricky & The Fiends can be described as Nick Cave and PJ Harvey’s secret love child. Raised in a cement basement room with only a small TV playing VHS copies of David Lynch films...

Jack Lion

  9:30 p.m.
  Gabe's
Striking a balance between jazz composition, down-tempo break-beats, and hazy atmospherics, Jack Lion is one of Iowa City's most adventurous bands...

Becca Mancari

  10 p.m.
  The Mill
Becca Mancari is rewriting the rules. Born in Staten Island, New York, to an Italian-Irish preacher and a Puerto Rican mother, Mancari has lived a life of transition - from working as a janitor in South Florida, to writing songs with train hoppers in the Blue Ridge Mountains...

Mark Guiliana BEAT MUSIC

  10:30 p.m.
  Gabe's
Mark Guiliana has become recognized as one of the world’s leading drummers, admired and in demand across the spectrum from jazz to rock to electronic music for his rhythmic sophistication, creative impulse, and individual sound. He has been in the vanguard of drummers creating a new vernacular on the instrument...

Dryad

  10:30 p.m.
  Iowa City Yacht Club
DRYAD came into being within the wild forests and hidden ice caves of Iowa’s wilderness, a snarling primal force summoned from the darkened depths of the earth to combat our frenzied modern world. Featuring crusty dual vocals and relentless buzzsaw riffs, DRYAD is an anomalous combination of d-beat punk...

The Cactus Blossoms

  11:15 p.m.
  The Mill
Our new album, You’re Dreaming, didn’t happen overnight. It is the culmination of several years of songwriting and the kindness of thousands of miles and friends. A cast of characters, experiences, and personal perspectives set in simple rhymes and sung in harmony to paint a picture in your mind. When my brother and I started making music as The Cactus Blossoms there wasn’t a big plan...

HIDE

  11:30 p.m.
  Iowa City Yacht Club
Starting in 2014 as a collaboration between visual artist Heather Gabel and percussionist Seth Sher, the Chicago based industrial duo known simply as HIDE was formed. The following three years have seen HIDE crash through with a number of aggressively rendered singles and EP’s while quietly collecting the shattered pieces that would form their debut full length album, Castration Anxiety...

Kweku Collins

  11:30 p.m.
  Gabe's
Kweku Collins is a 21-year old rapper/producer/songwriter from Evanston, IL that has been making music for most of his life. Born into a musical family, Kweku joined his dad on-stage playing African drums at the early age of 4. As a teenager, Kweku transitioned to making his own music...
with Mitski and Jay Som

Good Morning Midnight – SOLD OUT

  7 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
Good Morning Midnight began spontaneously, like a trip for ice cream or human combustion, when a record store in Iowa became sentient and began immediately devouring itself. The psychedelic folk music was gnashed to bits with every mouthful, the country records ended up smeared in dissonance from a stack of 90’s rock albums...
with Mitski and Good Morning Midnight

Jay Som – SOLD OUT

  8 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
On her first proper album as Jay Som, Melina Duterte, 22, solidifies her rep as a self-made force of sonic splendor and emotional might. If last year's aptly named Turn Into compilation showcased a fuzz-loving artist in flux -- chronicling her mission to master bedroom recording -- then the rising Oakland star's latest, Everybody Works, is the LP equivalent of mission accomplished...

Mission Beat

  8 p.m. to 4 a.m.
  Wildwood
Over the past decade, M:B has been Mission Creek's official underground dance music party. Continually providing the festival and its attendees with some of the best local and regional talent that the Midwest and Colorado have to offer. Now, in the 10th installment, we're kicking things up a few decibels...

Crystal City

  9 p.m.
  The Mill
Crystal City is fronted by Dave Helmer and Sam Drella. Helmer is a Midwestern singer/songwriter from central Iowa with blue-collar roots. Heavily influenced by Paul Westerberg, Tom Petty, John Prine, and Townes Van Zandt, Helmer’s songs are approachable and relatable, touching on themes of love and loss, being good to each other, and celebrating life...
with Jay Som and Good Morning Midnight

Mitski – SOLD OUT

  9:15 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
Mitski Miyawaki has always been wary of being turned a symbol, knowing we’re quick to put women on pedestals and even quicker to knock them down. Nonetheless, after the breakout success of 2016’s Puberty 2, she was hailed as the new vanguard of indie rock..

Peanut Ricky & The Fiends

  9:30 p.m.
  Iowa City Yacht Club
Peanut Ricky is the solo project of long time local musician Jo Adams. They are joined by an ever alternating cast of backing musicians and long time member Phil Maul a local synth and noise artist. Peanut Ricky & The Fiends can be described as Nick Cave and PJ Harvey’s secret love child. Raised in a cement basement room with only a small TV playing VHS copies of David Lynch films...

Jack Lion

  9:30 p.m.
  Gabe's
Striking a balance between jazz composition, down-tempo break-beats, and hazy atmospherics, Jack Lion is one of Iowa City's most adventurous bands...

Becca Mancari

  10 p.m.
  The Mill
Becca Mancari is rewriting the rules. Born in Staten Island, New York, to an Italian-Irish preacher and a Puerto Rican mother, Mancari has lived a life of transition - from working as a janitor in South Florida, to writing songs with train hoppers in the Blue Ridge Mountains...

Mark Guiliana BEAT MUSIC

  10:30 p.m.
  Gabe's
Mark Guiliana has become recognized as one of the world’s leading drummers, admired and in demand across the spectrum from jazz to rock to electronic music for his rhythmic sophistication, creative impulse, and individual sound. He has been in the vanguard of drummers creating a new vernacular on the instrument...

Dryad

  10:30 p.m.
  Iowa City Yacht Club
DRYAD came into being within the wild forests and hidden ice caves of Iowa’s wilderness, a snarling primal force summoned from the darkened depths of the earth to combat our frenzied modern world. Featuring crusty dual vocals and relentless buzzsaw riffs, DRYAD is an anomalous combination of d-beat punk...

The Cactus Blossoms

  11:15 p.m.
  The Mill
Our new album, You’re Dreaming, didn’t happen overnight. It is the culmination of several years of songwriting and the kindness of thousands of miles and friends. A cast of characters, experiences, and personal perspectives set in simple rhymes and sung in harmony to paint a picture in your mind. When my brother and I started making music as The Cactus Blossoms there wasn’t a big plan...

Kweku Collins

  11:30 p.m.
  Gabe's
Kweku Collins is a 21-year old rapper/producer/songwriter from Evanston, IL that has been making music for most of his life. Born into a musical family, Kweku joined his dad on-stage playing African drums at the early age of 4. As a teenager, Kweku transitioned to making his own music...

HIDE

  11:30 p.m.
  Iowa City Yacht Club
Starting in 2014 as a collaboration between visual artist Heather Gabel and percussionist Seth Sher, the Chicago based industrial duo known simply as HIDE was formed. The following three years have seen HIDE crash through with a number of aggressively rendered singles and EP’s while quietly collecting the shattered pieces that would form their debut full length album, Castration Anxiety...

Publishing Reimagined

  3:30 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
The Publishing Reimagined panel highlights independent presses and individuals who are bringing groundbreaking innovations to the presentation of literary work, including novelist Maxwell Neely-Cohen’s visual poetry synthesizer, the text-based objects of Container Press, the vinyl record-only poetry label Fonograf Editions, and Prompt Press, which uses original work from visual artists and writers as a launchpad for creative responses...
Lit Walk 2019

Jeff Alessandrelli

  
  TBA
The author of a poetic biography of the French avant-garde composer Erik Satie, an essay collection focusing on The Notorious B.I.G. and skateboarding and a poetry collection—This Last Time Will Be the First—that Rain Taxi deemed "immensely fresh and playful...rooted in a childlike antiquity, Jeff Alessandrelli lives in Portland, Oregon...

Lit Walk: Round #1

  5 p.m.
  Discerning Eye, Nodo, Beadology, & Cortado
Round #1 of our annual Friday evening Lit Walk features readings curated by The Iowa Review & Iowa Writers' House, FC2 & Prompt Press, Action Books & Subtitulados Reading Series, and the Iowa Youth Writing Project at a host of downtown locales...

Lit Walk: Round #2

  6 p.m.
  White Rabbit, Revival, & RSVP
Round #2 of our annual Friday evening Lit Walk features readings curated by Rescue Press & Monsters of Poetry, Make Magazine & Ninth Letter, and Lit Hub & The Rumpus at a host of downtown locales...

The Believer Lit Walk Reading: Round #3

  7 p.m.
  Goosetown Cafe
The final round of our 2019 Lit Walk features readings hosted by The Believer and the Writers of Color Reading Series at northside favorites Goosetown Cafe and Haba Salon...

Writers of Color Lit Walk Reading: Round #3

  7 p.m.
  Haba Salon
The final round of our 2019 Lit Walk features readings hosted by The Believer and the Writers of Color Reading Series at northside favorites Goosetown Cafe and Haba Salon...

Writers of Color Lit Walk Reading: Round #3

  7 p.m.
  Haba Salon
The final round of our 2019 Lit Walk features readings hosted by The Believer and the Writers of Color Reading Series at northside favorites Goosetown Cafe and Haba Salon...

Mission Beat

  8 p.m. to 4 a.m.
  Wildwood
Over the past decade, M:B has been Mission Creek's official underground dance music party. Continually providing the festival and its attendees with some of the best local and regional talent that the Midwest and Colorado have to offer. Now, in the 10th installment, we're kicking things up a few decibels...

Blake Shaw’s Big(ish) Band

The Blake Shaw BIG(ish) Band is an action packed, fun ensuing, dream band lead by bassist/vocalist Blake Shaw of Iowa City. Shaw writes and arranges all the music using the Duke Ellington model of exploiting all his friends’ talents and strengths on their instruments. The show contains many burning solos, grooves for days, and plenty […]

ICE CREAM Comics + Zine Fair

  11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  Public Space One
Join us for the Iowa City Expo for Comics and Real Eclectic Media (ICE CREAM) fair presenting the work of cartoonists, zinesters, and art books / handmade book artists. Vendors TBA...

Literary Magazine & Small Press Book Fair

  11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  The Mill
Literary magazines and independent publishers from across the country, and right here in Iowa City, will set up shop at The Mill in Iowa City for the 9th year in a row, representing some of the most exciting work in publishing today. Lineup includes: The Believer, The Iowa Review, Container Press, Two Dollar Radio, and more...
with Sabrina Orah Mark

Michael Martone

  1 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Michael Martone's recent books are The Moon Over Wapakoneta, Brooding, Winesburg, Indiana, Four for a Quarter, Not Normal, Illinois: Peculiar Fiction from the Flyover, Racing in Place: Collages, Fragments, Postcards, Ruins, a collection of essays...

Ari Braverman

  1 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Ari Braverman is a fiction writer from Iowa City by way of New Orleans and New York. Her work has appeared in BOMB, Guernica, Smokelong Quarterly, and at Tammy Journal. She was shortlisted for the 2017 White Review Short Story Prize. Her debut novel, The Ballad of Big Feeling, will be out later this year from Melville House...

Underground Showcase

  1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
  Gabe's
Mission Creek's FREE all-ages, rip-your-face-off showcase of underground acts from across the Midwest and beyond! Lineup TBA...

Big Grove Vinyl Market

  2 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
While the Big Free Show takes over the Big Grove stage, record vendors from across Iowa will gather at the Vinyl Market! Vendors include: Bog's Vinyl, The Record Collector...

Flash in a Pan

  2 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Becca Mancari is rewriting the rules. Flash in a Pan is an Iowa City string band thats blends contemporary music with traditional folk and grass motifs. Their original compositions combine elements of reggae, country, folk and grass forms to produce tunes with a modern sensibility and respect for tradition...

HAI-DANG PHAN

  2:30 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Poet Hai-Dang Phan joins novelist Mesha Maren in our Debut Showcase Reading where both authors read from their first books. Hai-Dang Phan was born in Vietnam in 1980 and grew up in Wisconsin. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Best American Poetry 2016, and the chapbook, Small Wars. He is the recipient of an NEA Literature Fellowship, the Frederick Bock Prize from Poetry, and the...

Mesha Maren

  2:30 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Novelist Mesha Maren joins poet Hai-Dang Phan in our Debut Showcase Reading where both authors read from their first books. Mesha Maren is the author of Sugar Run (Algonquin Books, January 2019). Her short stories and essays have appeared in Tin House, Oxford American, Crazyhorse, Southern Cultures, Hobart, Forty Stories: New Writing from Harper Perennial, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of...

Jonathan Timm Band

  3 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Hailing from Northern Michigan, Jonathan Timm built a solid foundation in the Michigan folk scene, leading the songwriting efforts of Blackwater Valley Songs, Birches and The Jeremies and releasing 4 albums before making his move to Nashville in 2011. Once there, his longtime interest in classic country flourished, and he began crafting heart-rending songs under his own name...

Brandon Alexander Williams

  4 p.m.
  7 S. Linn St.
Born in Maywood and raised in Peoria, Illinois, Brandon Alexander Williams is a poet, MC and DJ. He is the most recent recipient of the Grant Wood Fellowship and is a visiting instructor at the University of Iowa’s School of Music where he teaches courses in Hip-Hop. Williams is an alumnus of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale...

Sabrina Orah Mark

  4 p.m.
  7 S. Linn St.
Sabrina Orah Mark is the author of the poetry collections The Babies and Tsim Tsum. Wild Milk is her first book of fiction. She lives in Athens, Georgia with her...
with Stephanie Burt, Brandon Alexander Williams, & more

Maxwell Neely-Cohen

  4 p.m.
  7 S. Linn St.
Maxwell Neely-Cohen is the author of the novel Echo of the Boom and Editor-at-Large for The Believer. His essays and non-fiction have been featured...
ft. Maxwell Neely-Cohen, Stephanie Burt, Sabrina Orah Mark, & Brandon Alexander Williams

Visual Poetry Synthesizer

  4 p.m.
  7 S. Linn St.
As a 2018 Resident Artist at CultureHub, Maxwell Neely-Cohen created a prototype for a space that would visually respond to the live reading of poetry and prose. He brings the latest iteration of this software to Mission Creek, where poets of all stripes will explore the possibilities of technology and poetry in a must-see reading...

Stephanie Burt

  4 p.m.
  7 S. Linn St.
Stephanie (also Stephen and Steph) Burt is the author of three poetry collections, Belmont, Parallel Play, and Popular Music, and several collections of critical works. Her essay collection Close Calls with Nonsense was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her other works include...

Mercy Bell

  4 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Mercy Bell is a “distinct voice with a potent, progressive take on emotive, modern folk” according to Rolling Stone. She comes from Nashville by way of Brooklyn, Massachusetts, California, and Arkansas...

Becca Mancari

  5 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Becca Mancari is rewriting the rules. Born in Staten Island, New York, to an Italian-Irish preacher and a Puerto Rican mother, Mancari has lived a life of transition - from working as a janitor in South Florida, to writing songs with train hoppers in the Blue Ridge Mountains...

Jericho Brown

  6 p.m.
  The Mill
Jericho Brown is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Brown’s first book, Please (New Issues 2008), won the...

Tameka Cage Conley

  6 p.m.
  The Mill
Tameka Cage Conley, PhD is a graduate of The Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She currently holds the Provost Postgraduate Visiting Writer Fellowship in fiction and teaches advanced fiction writing at the University of Iowa. As a literary artist, she writes fiction, poetry, plays, librettos and essays...

Daniel Gumbiner

  6 p.m.
  The Mill
Daniel Gumbiner was born and raised in Northern California. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 2011 and now lives in Southern Nevada. His first book...

Middle Western

  6 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Middle Western was formed out of a long friendship and discussions the various members had while playing on each others' recordings and the occasional band show organized as a way to play and sing songs written and recorded by other members. The band is made up of singer/songwriter and Anti Records artist William Elliot Whitmore...

Glory Edim

  6 p.m.
  The Mill
Glory Edim is the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, a Brooklyn-based book club and online community that celebrates the uniqueness of Black literature and sisterhood. In fall 2017, she organized the first-ever Well-Read Black Girl Literary Festival. She has worked as a creative strategist for over ten years at startups and cultural institutions, including Kickstarter, The Webby Awards and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She received...

Lilly Hiatt

  7 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Lilly Hiatt returned with Trinity Lane on August 25th, 2017. The 12-song set was produced by Michael Trent of Shovels & Rope and engineered by Andy Dixon at Trent’s Studio Bees in Johns Island, SC...

Nadalands

  7 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
Nadalands, the solo songwriting project of Fort Collins, Colorado's John Lindenbaum (The Lonelyhearts, Rust Belt Music), has recorded 12 EPs and a full-length LP since the year 2000. Eager to transition from solo shows to more dynamic live performances, Lindenbaum recruited drummer Benjamin Buttice (Sour Boy, Bitter Girl) and bassist Matt Schild...

Elizabeth Moen

  8 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
With a sultry and intoxicating voice, local artist Elizabeth Moen lures you in. Paired with introspective lyrics that echo both bitter and sweet, her music will captivate you then stay with you. “Moen is one of those rare artists whose voice, from the first moment you hear it, consumes your entire being...

The Only Ion

  9 p.m.
  Gabe's
Born of Greek heritage, Ioannis Alexakis started playing music after hearing the first 15-seconds of a Prince song at a young age. He does his best to keep the sounds open-ended, but also maintains the Guthrie ideals in songwriting. He has performed with numerous national acts with Iowa City Hip-Hop collective The AWTHNTKTS and is eager to keep releasing music for a long time...

Arish Singh

  9 p.m.
  The Mill
Pete Dominick, comedian and host of Sirius XM's Stand Up!, will lead a showcase of Chicago and Iowa City-based standup comics, featuring: Arish Singh, Jessica Hong, Alex Kumin, and more...

Jessica Hong

  9 p.m.
  The Mill
Pete Dominick, comedian and host of Sirius XM's Stand Up!, will lead a showcase of Chicago and Iowa City-based standup comics, featuring: Arish Singh, Jessica Hong, Alex Kumin, and more...

Alex Kumin

  9 p.m.
  The Mill
Pete Dominick, comedian and host of Sirius XM's Stand Up!, will lead a showcase of Chicago and Iowa City-based standup comics, featuring: Arish Singh, Jessica Hong, Alex Kumin, and more...

Pete Dominick

  9 p.m.
  The Mill
Pete Dominick, comedian and host of Sirius XM's Stand Up!, will lead a showcase of Chicago and Iowa City-based standup comics, featuring: Arish Singh, Jessica Hong, Alex Kumin, and more...

Hurray for the Riff Raff

  9:15 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
It had been a successful, if tumultuous, ride for Alynda Segarra, who's been spreading a new kind of roots-conscious folk music across the country from her adopted hometown of New Orleans. But as far as the Bronx native had come with her band, Hurray for the Riff Raff, there was still a missing link to her story...

Tennyson

  9:30 PM
  The Englert Theatre
Tennyson’s talent has always been undeniable, even if he’s still discovering himself. Born Luke Pretty, his creative mind first bloomed in the basement of his parent’s home in Edmonton, Canada. His younger sister Tess has long been his partner, learning to play drums alongside his work on the key. The siblings cut their teeth on […]

Mock Identity

  9:30 p.m.
  Iowa City Yacht Club
For Mock Identity, the sum is both greater than, and equal to, its parts. Comprised of some of the DC experimental music scene's most innovative and forward-thinking musicians - vocalist Adriana-Lucia Cotes (Antonia), guitarist Jeff Barsky (Insect Factory), bassist Joshua David Hoffman (Supersonic Piss), and percussionist Nate Scheible - this post-hardcore quartet is a force of musical resistance that sounds miles away from the musical worlds of avant-pop, free jazz, and ambient drone its members come from...

Makaya McCraven

  10 p.m.
  Gabe's
Makaya McCraven is a beat scientist. The cutting edge drummer, producer, and sonic collagist is a multi-talented force whose inventive process & intuitive style of performance defy categorization. Called “a sound visionary”...

Moor Mother

  10:30 p.m.
  Iowa City Yacht Club
Moor Mother is the viscerally charged output of Philadelphia based interdisciplinary artist, Camae Ayewa. "Moor Mother might be the most radical – even the most useful – Afrofuturist artist to emerge for years. Fetish Bones works not just as an atlas and an archive but as a mausoleum, housing the bones of those who have fallen along a bloody trail stretching all the way back to 1886" — WIR...

Black Moth Super Rainbow

  
  Gabe's
If you haven’t panicked lately, you’re either blissfully ignorant or have gone completely clear. For the rest of us attempting to navigate the political, economical, and cultural carnage, Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” succinctly captures the statue of psychic dislocation...

Blake Shaw’s Big(ish) Band

The Blake Shaw BIG(ish) Band is an action packed, fun ensuing, dream band lead by bassist/vocalist Blake Shaw of Iowa City. Shaw writes and arranges all the music using the Duke Ellington model of exploiting all his friends’ talents and strengths on their instruments. The show contains many burning solos, grooves for days, and plenty […]

Underground Showcase

  1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
  Gabe's
Mission Creek's FREE all-ages, rip-your-face-off showcase of underground acts from across the Midwest and beyond! Lineup TBA...

Flash in a Pan

  2 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Becca Mancari is rewriting the rules. Flash in a Pan is an Iowa City string band thats blends contemporary music with traditional folk and grass motifs. Their original compositions combine elements of reggae, country, folk and grass forms to produce tunes with a modern sensibility and respect for tradition...

Big Grove Vinyl Market

  2 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
While the Big Free Show takes over the Big Grove stage, record vendors from across Iowa will gather at the Vinyl Market! Vendors include: Bog's Vinyl, The Record Collector...

Jonathan Timm Band

  3 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Hailing from Northern Michigan, Jonathan Timm built a solid foundation in the Michigan folk scene, leading the songwriting efforts of Blackwater Valley Songs, Birches and The Jeremies and releasing 4 albums before making his move to Nashville in 2011. Once there, his longtime interest in classic country flourished, and he began crafting heart-rending songs under his own name...

Mercy Bell

  4 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Mercy Bell is a “distinct voice with a potent, progressive take on emotive, modern folk” according to Rolling Stone. She comes from Nashville by way of Brooklyn, Massachusetts, California, and Arkansas...

Becca Mancari

  5 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Becca Mancari is rewriting the rules. Born in Staten Island, New York, to an Italian-Irish preacher and a Puerto Rican mother, Mancari has lived a life of transition - from working as a janitor in South Florida, to writing songs with train hoppers in the Blue Ridge Mountains...

Middle Western

  6 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Middle Western was formed out of a long friendship and discussions the various members had while playing on each others' recordings and the occasional band show organized as a way to play and sing songs written and recorded by other members. The band is made up of singer/songwriter and Anti Records artist William Elliot Whitmore...

Lilly Hiatt

  7 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Lilly Hiatt returned with Trinity Lane on August 25th, 2017. The 12-song set was produced by Michael Trent of Shovels & Rope and engineered by Andy Dixon at Trent’s Studio Bees in Johns Island, SC...

Nadalands

  7 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
Nadalands, the solo songwriting project of Fort Collins, Colorado's John Lindenbaum (The Lonelyhearts, Rust Belt Music), has recorded 12 EPs and a full-length LP since the year 2000. Eager to transition from solo shows to more dynamic live performances, Lindenbaum recruited drummer Benjamin Buttice (Sour Boy, Bitter Girl) and bassist Matt Schild...

Elizabeth Moen

  8 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
With a sultry and intoxicating voice, local artist Elizabeth Moen lures you in. Paired with introspective lyrics that echo both bitter and sweet, her music will captivate you then stay with you. “Moen is one of those rare artists whose voice, from the first moment you hear it, consumes your entire being...

The Only Ion

  9 p.m.
  Gabe's
Born of Greek heritage, Ioannis Alexakis started playing music after hearing the first 15-seconds of a Prince song at a young age. He does his best to keep the sounds open-ended, but also maintains the Guthrie ideals in songwriting. He has performed with numerous national acts with Iowa City Hip-Hop collective The AWTHNTKTS and is eager to keep releasing music for a long time...

Hurray for the Riff Raff

  9:15 p.m.
  The Englert Theatre
It had been a successful, if tumultuous, ride for Alynda Segarra, who's been spreading a new kind of roots-conscious folk music across the country from her adopted hometown of New Orleans. But as far as the Bronx native had come with her band, Hurray for the Riff Raff, there was still a missing link to her story...

Mock Identity

  9:30 p.m.
  Iowa City Yacht Club
For Mock Identity, the sum is both greater than, and equal to, its parts. Comprised of some of the DC experimental music scene's most innovative and forward-thinking musicians - vocalist Adriana-Lucia Cotes (Antonia), guitarist Jeff Barsky (Insect Factory), bassist Joshua David Hoffman (Supersonic Piss), and percussionist Nate Scheible - this post-hardcore quartet is a force of musical resistance that sounds miles away from the musical worlds of avant-pop, free jazz, and ambient drone its members come from...

Makaya McCraven

  10 p.m.
  Gabe's
Makaya McCraven is a beat scientist. The cutting edge drummer, producer, and sonic collagist is a multi-talented force whose inventive process & intuitive style of performance defy categorization. Called “a sound visionary”...

Moor Mother

  10:30 p.m.
  Iowa City Yacht Club
Moor Mother is the viscerally charged output of Philadelphia based interdisciplinary artist, Camae Ayewa. "Moor Mother might be the most radical – even the most useful – Afrofuturist artist to emerge for years. Fetish Bones works not just as an atlas and an archive but as a mausoleum, housing the bones of those who have fallen along a bloody trail stretching all the way back to 1886" — WIR...

Black Moth Super Rainbow

  
  Gabe's
If you haven’t panicked lately, you’re either blissfully ignorant or have gone completely clear. For the rest of us attempting to navigate the political, economical, and cultural carnage, Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” succinctly captures the statue of psychic dislocation...

Literary Magazine & Small Press Book Fair

  11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  The Mill
Literary magazines and independent publishers from across the country, and right here in Iowa City, will set up shop at The Mill in Iowa City for the 9th year in a row, representing some of the most exciting work in publishing today. Lineup includes: The Believer, The Iowa Review, Container Press, Two Dollar Radio, and more...

ICE CREAM Comics + Zine Fair

  11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  Public Space One
Join us for the Iowa City Expo for Comics and Real Eclectic Media (ICE CREAM) fair presenting the work of cartoonists, zinesters, and art books / handmade book artists. Vendors TBA...
with Sabrina Orah Mark

Michael Martone

  1 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Michael Martone's recent books are The Moon Over Wapakoneta, Brooding, Winesburg, Indiana, Four for a Quarter, Not Normal, Illinois: Peculiar Fiction from the Flyover, Racing in Place: Collages, Fragments, Postcards, Ruins, a collection of essays...

Ari Braverman

  1 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Ari Braverman is a fiction writer from Iowa City by way of New Orleans and New York. Her work has appeared in BOMB, Guernica, Smokelong Quarterly, and at Tammy Journal. She was shortlisted for the 2017 White Review Short Story Prize. Her debut novel, The Ballad of Big Feeling, will be out later this year from Melville House...

Mesha Maren

  2:30 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Novelist Mesha Maren joins poet Hai-Dang Phan in our Debut Showcase Reading where both authors read from their first books. Mesha Maren is the author of Sugar Run (Algonquin Books, January 2019). Her short stories and essays have appeared in Tin House, Oxford American, Crazyhorse, Southern Cultures, Hobart, Forty Stories: New Writing from Harper Perennial, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of...

HAI-DANG PHAN

  2:30 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Poet Hai-Dang Phan joins novelist Mesha Maren in our Debut Showcase Reading where both authors read from their first books. Hai-Dang Phan was born in Vietnam in 1980 and grew up in Wisconsin. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Best American Poetry 2016, and the chapbook, Small Wars. He is the recipient of an NEA Literature Fellowship, the Frederick Bock Prize from Poetry, and the...

Stephanie Burt

  4 p.m.
  7 S. Linn St.
Stephanie (also Stephen and Steph) Burt is the author of three poetry collections, Belmont, Parallel Play, and Popular Music, and several collections of critical works. Her essay collection Close Calls with Nonsense was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her other works include...

Sabrina Orah Mark

  4 p.m.
  7 S. Linn St.
Sabrina Orah Mark is the author of the poetry collections The Babies and Tsim Tsum. Wild Milk is her first book of fiction. She lives in Athens, Georgia with her...
with Stephanie Burt, Brandon Alexander Williams, & more

Maxwell Neely-Cohen

  4 p.m.
  7 S. Linn St.
Maxwell Neely-Cohen is the author of the novel Echo of the Boom and Editor-at-Large for The Believer. His essays and non-fiction have been featured...
ft. Maxwell Neely-Cohen, Stephanie Burt, Sabrina Orah Mark, & Brandon Alexander Williams

Visual Poetry Synthesizer

  4 p.m.
  7 S. Linn St.
As a 2018 Resident Artist at CultureHub, Maxwell Neely-Cohen created a prototype for a space that would visually respond to the live reading of poetry and prose. He brings the latest iteration of this software to Mission Creek, where poets of all stripes will explore the possibilities of technology and poetry in a must-see reading...

Brandon Alexander Williams

  4 p.m.
  7 S. Linn St.
Born in Maywood and raised in Peoria, Illinois, Brandon Alexander Williams is a poet, MC and DJ. He is the most recent recipient of the Grant Wood Fellowship and is a visiting instructor at the University of Iowa’s School of Music where he teaches courses in Hip-Hop. Williams is an alumnus of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale...

Daniel Gumbiner

  6 p.m.
  The Mill
Daniel Gumbiner was born and raised in Northern California. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 2011 and now lives in Southern Nevada. His first book...

Jericho Brown

  6 p.m.
  The Mill
Jericho Brown is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Brown’s first book, Please (New Issues 2008), won the...

Glory Edim

  6 p.m.
  The Mill
Glory Edim is the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, a Brooklyn-based book club and online community that celebrates the uniqueness of Black literature and sisterhood. In fall 2017, she organized the first-ever Well-Read Black Girl Literary Festival. She has worked as a creative strategist for over ten years at startups and cultural institutions, including Kickstarter, The Webby Awards and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She received...

Tameka Cage Conley

  6 p.m.
  The Mill
Tameka Cage Conley, PhD is a graduate of The Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She currently holds the Provost Postgraduate Visiting Writer Fellowship in fiction and teaches advanced fiction writing at the University of Iowa. As a literary artist, she writes fiction, poetry, plays, librettos and essays...

ICE CREAM Comics + Zine Fair

  11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  Public Space One
Join us for the Iowa City Expo for Comics and Real Eclectic Media (ICE CREAM) fair presenting the work of cartoonists, zinesters, and art books / handmade book artists. Vendors TBA...

Literary Magazine & Small Press Book Fair

  11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  The Mill
Literary magazines and independent publishers from across the country, and right here in Iowa City, will set up shop at The Mill in Iowa City for the 9th year in a row, representing some of the most exciting work in publishing today. Lineup includes: The Believer, The Iowa Review, Container Press, Two Dollar Radio, and more...

Underground Showcase

  1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
  Gabe's
Mission Creek's FREE all-ages, rip-your-face-off showcase of underground acts from across the Midwest and beyond! Lineup TBA...

Big Grove Vinyl Market

  2 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
While the Big Free Show takes over the Big Grove stage, record vendors from across Iowa will gather at the Vinyl Market! Vendors include: Bog's Vinyl, The Record Collector...

Flash in a Pan

  2 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Becca Mancari is rewriting the rules. Flash in a Pan is an Iowa City string band thats blends contemporary music with traditional folk and grass motifs. Their original compositions combine elements of reggae, country, folk and grass forms to produce tunes with a modern sensibility and respect for tradition...

HAI-DANG PHAN

  2:30 p.m.
  Prairie Lights Bookstore
Poet Hai-Dang Phan joins novelist Mesha Maren in our Debut Showcase Reading where both authors read from their first books. Hai-Dang Phan was born in Vietnam in 1980 and grew up in Wisconsin. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Best American Poetry 2016, and the chapbook, Small Wars. He is the recipient of an NEA Literature Fellowship, the Frederick Bock Prize from Poetry, and the...

Jonathan Timm Band

  3 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Hailing from Northern Michigan, Jonathan Timm built a solid foundation in the Michigan folk scene, leading the songwriting efforts of Blackwater Valley Songs, Birches and The Jeremies and releasing 4 albums before making his move to Nashville in 2011. Once there, his longtime interest in classic country flourished, and he began crafting heart-rending songs under his own name...

Mercy Bell

  4 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Mercy Bell is a “distinct voice with a potent, progressive take on emotive, modern folk” according to Rolling Stone. She comes from Nashville by way of Brooklyn, Massachusetts, California, and Arkansas...
with Stephanie Burt, Brandon Alexander Williams, & more

Maxwell Neely-Cohen

  4 p.m.
  7 S. Linn St.
Maxwell Neely-Cohen is the author of the novel Echo of the Boom and Editor-at-Large for The Believer. His essays and non-fiction have been featured...

Sabrina Orah Mark

  4 p.m.
  7 S. Linn St.
Sabrina Orah Mark is the author of the poetry collections The Babies and Tsim Tsum. Wild Milk is her first book of fiction. She lives in Athens, Georgia with her...

Stephanie Burt

  4 p.m.
  7 S. Linn St.
Stephanie (also Stephen and Steph) Burt is the author of three poetry collections, Belmont, Parallel Play, and Popular Music, and several collections of critical works. Her essay collection Close Calls with Nonsense was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her other works include...

Becca Mancari

  5 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Becca Mancari is rewriting the rules. Born in Staten Island, New York, to an Italian-Irish preacher and a Puerto Rican mother, Mancari has lived a life of transition - from working as a janitor in South Florida, to writing songs with train hoppers in the Blue Ridge Mountains...

Middle Western

  6 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Middle Western was formed out of a long friendship and discussions the various members had while playing on each others' recordings and the occasional band show organized as a way to play and sing songs written and recorded by other members. The band is made up of singer/songwriter and Anti Records artist William Elliot Whitmore...

Lilly Hiatt

  7 p.m.
  Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival. Lilly Hiatt returned with Trinity Lane on August 25th, 2017. The 12-song set was produced by Michael Trent of Shovels & Rope and engineered by Andy Dixon at Trent’s Studio Bees in Johns Island, SC...

Pete Dominick

  9 p.m.
  The Mill
Pete Dominick, comedian and host of Sirius XM's Stand Up!, will lead a showcase of Chicago and Iowa City-based standup comics, featuring: Arish Singh, Jessica Hong, Alex Kumin, and more...

Alex Kumin

  9 p.m.
  The Mill
Pete Dominick, comedian and host of Sirius XM's Stand Up!, will lead a showcase of Chicago and Iowa City-based standup comics, featuring: Arish Singh, Jessica Hong, Alex Kumin, and more...

Jessica Hong

  9 p.m.
  The Mill
Pete Dominick, comedian and host of Sirius XM's Stand Up!, will lead a showcase of Chicago and Iowa City-based standup comics, featuring: Arish Singh, Jessica Hong, Alex Kumin, and more...

Arish Singh

  9 p.m.
  The Mill
Pete Dominick, comedian and host of Sirius XM's Stand Up!, will lead a showcase of Chicago and Iowa City-based standup comics, featuring: Arish Singh, Jessica Hong, Alex Kumin, and more...

Ryan Joseph Anderson – SOLD OUT

  7 p.m.
  The Mill
Ryan Joseph Anderson’s solo career began in April 2014 with the release of his debut album, The Weaver’s Broom. The album, engineered and co-produced by Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff), was hailed as one of the best Americana records of the year. Songs from The Weaver’s Broom made "best of" lists for Daytrotter...

John Moreland – SOLD OUT

  8 p.m.
  The Mill
The replay of John Moreland’s network television debut is…glorious and affirming and a sucker punch. He is announced by Stephen Colbert, lights dissolve, and the camera slowly focuses on the person midway across the unadorned stage, revealing him beneath muted blue lights. He is a big man. Seated, alone, cradling his acoustic guitar...

Ryan Joseph Anderson – SOLD OUT

  7 p.m.
  The Mill
Ryan Joseph Anderson’s solo career began in April 2014 with the release of his debut album, The Weaver’s Broom. The album, engineered and co-produced by Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff), was hailed as one of the best Americana records of the year. Songs from The Weaver’s Broom made "best of" lists for Daytrotter...

John Moreland – SOLD OUT

  8 p.m.
  The Mill
The replay of John Moreland’s network television debut is…glorious and affirming and a sucker punch. He is announced by Stephen Colbert, lights dissolve, and the camera slowly focuses on the person midway across the unadorned stage, revealing him beneath muted blue lights. He is a big man. Seated, alone, cradling his acoustic guitar...

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