2023 Schedule

Michelle Zauner

  5:45
  Hancher Auditorium
Michelle Zauner is best known as a singer and guitarist who creates dreamy, shoegaze-inspired indie pop under the name Japanese Breakfast. She has won acclaim from major music outlets around the world for releases like Psychopomp (2016) and Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017). Her most recent album, Jubilee (2021), earned two GRAMMY nominations for Best New Artist and Best Alternative […]

Black Belt Eagle Scout

  7:15
  Hancher Auditorium
This land runs through Katherine Paul’s blood. And it called to her. In dreams she saw the river,  her ancestors, and her home. When the land calls, you listen. And KP found herself far from her ancestral lands during a time of collective trauma, when the world was wounded and in need of healing. In […]

Cat Power

  8:30
  Hancher Auditorium
Chan Marshall’s latest Covers album as Cat Power arrives, as all of her music does, at just the perfect time. Covers is a deeply felt, intimate, and altogether holistic collection of songs intended as a healing salve for the artist and listener alike, showcasing Marshall’s singular chronicling of the ever-evolving great American songbook. Self-produced and […]

Black Belt Eagle Scout

  7:15
  Hancher Auditorium
This land runs through Katherine Paul’s blood. And it called to her. In dreams she saw the river,  her ancestors, and her home. When the land calls, you listen. And KP found herself far from her ancestral lands during a time of collective trauma, when the world was wounded and in need of healing. In […]

Cat Power

  8:30
  Hancher Auditorium
Chan Marshall’s latest Covers album as Cat Power arrives, as all of her music does, at just the perfect time. Covers is a deeply felt, intimate, and altogether holistic collection of songs intended as a healing salve for the artist and listener alike, showcasing Marshall’s singular chronicling of the ever-evolving great American songbook. Self-produced and […]

Michelle Zauner

  5:45
  Hancher Auditorium
Michelle Zauner is best known as a singer and guitarist who creates dreamy, shoegaze-inspired indie pop under the name Japanese Breakfast. She has won acclaim from major music outlets around the world for releases like Psychopomp (2016) and Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017). Her most recent album, Jubilee (2021), earned two GRAMMY nominations for Best New Artist and Best Alternative […]

Lit Walk

  5:00 PM
  Prairie Lights
The annual Lit Walk returns to MCF this year with three rounds of speakers at your favorite local hotspots. Bringing Iowa City to life in new ways, hear an unexpected variety of work from a mix of talented local and out-of-town writers. Round 1: R.S.V.P: Martin Riker, Skylar Alexandar, Brandon Courtney, Bethany Shultz Hurst, Susan […]

Extravision

  7:00 PM
  Riverside Theatre
Extravision is the intentionally malleable music of Des Moines humans Ryan Stier (The River Monks, Annalibera), Ben Dixon, Amanda Gibbons, and a rotation cast of helpers. Extravision is in a word, psychedelic, and seeks to explore that concept in multitudes. Sometimes spacious and expansive, sometimes glitchy and watery, sometimes a whisper, Extravision is as unpredictable […]

FlyLife

  7:30
  Gabes
Des Moines, Iowa-based rapper De’Angelo McGregor, aka FlyLife is known for his ability to mix catchy hooks with high level lyricism and fresh deliveries. FlyLife is not your ordinary rapper. He has learned to choose his cadences tactically over any type of instrumentation. McGregor started Us Vs Them in early 2017. A group that took […]

Sudan Archives

  8:00
  The Englert
Sudan Archives contains multitudes. She first emerged as an avant-garde violinist who channeled her playing through loop pedals. But she’s also much more than that: lovelorn songwriter, powerful vocal performer, and experimental beatmaker. She’s captivated audiences at festivals around the world with her hybrid sound, playing at Coachella, Pitchfork Midwinter, and FORM: Arcosanti, and sharing […]

Mr. Softheart

  8:30
  Riverside Theatre
Mr. Softheart is an American 3-piece from Des Moines and Cedar Falls, IA. Formed in 2021 by brothers John and Nick Fisher, alongside their long-time creative partner Charlie Patterson, Mr. Softheart’s sound fits most closely within a post-punk ethos — albeit one that favors minimalism and intimacy over more conventional iterations of the genre. Their […]

Water From Your Eyes

  9:00
  Gabes
There’s no perfect way to describe Water From Your Eyes; to relate the New York duo in absolutes would be imprecise and frivolous. Since 2016, the group’s clear-eyed approach to dance music has combined austerity and satire, abrasion and charm, with the pair plotting sonic trajectories on All a Dance and forgoing traditional album structure […]

Snail Mail

  9:45
  The Englert
On her 2018 debut album Lush, seventeen-year-old Lindsey Jordan sang “I’m in full control / I’m not lost / Even when it’s love / Even when it’s not”. Her natural ability to be many things at once resonated with a lot of people. The contradiction of confidence and vulnerability, power and delicacy, had the impact […]

Yasmin Williams

  9:45
  Riverside Theatre
Yasmin Williams sits on her leather couch, her guitar stretched across her lap horizontally with its strings turned to the sky. She taps on the fretboard with her left hand as her right hand plucks a kalimba placed on the guitar’s body. Her feet, clad in tap shoes, keep rhythm on a mic’d wooden board […]

Divino Niño

  10:45
  Gabes
Divino Niño are no strangers to bold reinvention. When Camilo Medina and Javier Forero—friends whose bond dates back to their childhoods in Bogotá, Colombia—moved to Chicago and recruited guitarist Guillermo Rodriguez to form a band, they were psych-pop outsiders playing live shows with a drum machine. With the addition of drummer Pierce Codina, their 2019 […]

Extravision

  7:00 PM
  Riverside Theatre
Extravision is the intentionally malleable music of Des Moines humans Ryan Stier (The River Monks, Annalibera), Ben Dixon, Amanda Gibbons, and a rotation cast of helpers. Extravision is in a word, psychedelic, and seeks to explore that concept in multitudes. Sometimes spacious and expansive, sometimes glitchy and watery, sometimes a whisper, Extravision is as unpredictable […]

FlyLife

  7:30
  Gabes
Des Moines, Iowa-based rapper De’Angelo McGregor, aka FlyLife is known for his ability to mix catchy hooks with high level lyricism and fresh deliveries. FlyLife is not your ordinary rapper. He has learned to choose his cadences tactically over any type of instrumentation. McGregor started Us Vs Them in early 2017. A group that took […]

Sudan Archives

  8:00
  The Englert
Sudan Archives contains multitudes. She first emerged as an avant-garde violinist who channeled her playing through loop pedals. But she’s also much more than that: lovelorn songwriter, powerful vocal performer, and experimental beatmaker. She’s captivated audiences at festivals around the world with her hybrid sound, playing at Coachella, Pitchfork Midwinter, and FORM: Arcosanti, and sharing […]

Mr. Softheart

  8:30
  Riverside Theatre
Mr. Softheart is an American 3-piece from Des Moines and Cedar Falls, IA. Formed in 2021 by brothers John and Nick Fisher, alongside their long-time creative partner Charlie Patterson, Mr. Softheart’s sound fits most closely within a post-punk ethos — albeit one that favors minimalism and intimacy over more conventional iterations of the genre. Their […]

Water From Your Eyes

  9:00
  Gabes
There’s no perfect way to describe Water From Your Eyes; to relate the New York duo in absolutes would be imprecise and frivolous. Since 2016, the group’s clear-eyed approach to dance music has combined austerity and satire, abrasion and charm, with the pair plotting sonic trajectories on All a Dance and forgoing traditional album structure […]

Snail Mail

  9:45
  The Englert
On her 2018 debut album Lush, seventeen-year-old Lindsey Jordan sang “I’m in full control / I’m not lost / Even when it’s love / Even when it’s not”. Her natural ability to be many things at once resonated with a lot of people. The contradiction of confidence and vulnerability, power and delicacy, had the impact […]

Yasmin Williams

  9:45
  Riverside Theatre
Yasmin Williams sits on her leather couch, her guitar stretched across her lap horizontally with its strings turned to the sky. She taps on the fretboard with her left hand as her right hand plucks a kalimba placed on the guitar’s body. Her feet, clad in tap shoes, keep rhythm on a mic’d wooden board […]

Divino Niño

  10:45
  Gabes
Divino Niño are no strangers to bold reinvention. When Camilo Medina and Javier Forero—friends whose bond dates back to their childhoods in Bogotá, Colombia—moved to Chicago and recruited guitarist Guillermo Rodriguez to form a band, they were psych-pop outsiders playing live shows with a drum machine. With the addition of drummer Pierce Codina, their 2019 […]

Lit Walk

  5:00 PM
  Prairie Lights
The annual Lit Walk returns to MCF this year with three rounds of speakers at your favorite local hotspots. Bringing Iowa City to life in new ways, hear an unexpected variety of work from a mix of talented local and out-of-town writers. Round 1: R.S.V.P: Martin Riker, Skylar Alexandar, Brandon Courtney, Bethany Shultz Hurst, Susan […]

Lit Walk

  5:00 PM
  Prairie Lights
The annual Lit Walk returns to MCF this year with three rounds of speakers at your favorite local hotspots. Bringing Iowa City to life in new ways, hear an unexpected variety of work from a mix of talented local and out-of-town writers. Round 1: R.S.V.P: Martin Riker, Skylar Alexandar, Brandon Courtney, Bethany Shultz Hurst, Susan […]

Small Press & Literary Magazine Bookfair

  11:00 AM
  The Chauncey
The annual Mission Creek Festival Small Press & Literary bookfair returns! Stop by The Chauncey for books, conversation, and community. Grab a Mission Creek fest tote bag to carry your haul of books and discover these featured presses: 503 Press Black Lawrence Press Book*hug Press Brink Canarium Books Dorothy, a publishing project draft: the journal […]

Industry Talk

  11:00
  Filmscene Theater 3
Meekling Press is a small “boundary-defying” publisher, printer, and arts collective based in Chicago, Illinois. Black Lawrence Press is an independent publisher of contemporary poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Join Meekling Press Publisher Rebecca Elliot and Black Lawrence Press Anthologies Editor and Immigrant Writing Series Editor Abayomi Animashaun as they discuss the merits, challenges, and opportunities presented […]

The Sun, Readers Write Workshop

  12:30
  The Tuesday Agency
Click to Register »  In each monthly issue of The Sun, Readers Write asks readers to address subjects on which they’re the only authorities: “Drug Experiences,” “Tools,” “Learning the Hard Way,” “Cooking,” “Being Stubborn,” to name just a few. Topics are intentionally broad in order to give room for expression. In this hour-long workshop, participants […]

Literary Conversation

  2:00
  Filmscene
  Founded in 2016, Fonograf Editions is a nonprofit literary record label and book press from Portland, Oregon. Sarabande Books is an independent publisher dedicated to poetry, short fiction, and essay, located in Louisville, KY. Join Fonograf Editions Editor Jeff Alessandrelli and Sarabande Books author Lauren Haldeman for an insider’s look at the role texture […]

Pictoria Vark

  3:00
  Big Grove Brewery
Pictoria Vark is the project of Iowa City-based songwriter and bassist Victoria Park. Growing up in northern New Jersey and cutting her teeth on the NYC music scene, Park’s debut full-length record, “The Parts I Dread” documents a sudden paradigm shift she faced when her parents relocated to Wyoming when she was 19. Much of […]

mars hojilla

  3:30
  Trumpet Blossom Cafe
mars hojilla is the freshly sprung solo project of Iowa City-based singer/songwriter Myles Evangelista (he/they). Born to two kickass Filipino immigrants in Peoria, Illinois, Myles’s first musical love was the household’s MAGIC SING Karaoke Machine, which fostered in him a love of classic pop and rock by scoring him highly on Queen, ABBA, and Elton […]

Podcast Recording

  3:30
  The Tuesday Agency
 Lit Hub’s Thresholds Podcast w/ Jordan Kisner, Ganavya, and Kaveh Akbar. Thresholds is a series of interviews with writers and artists you love about the transformative experiences (surprises, crises, existential freakouts, u-turns, breakthroughs) that have shaped their work. Jordan Kisner Jordan Kisner is the author of the essay collection Thin Places, named one of the […]

The Uniphonics

  4:15
  Big Grove Brewery
Since forming in Iowa City in 2007, The Uniphonics performed in more than 15 states, played at notable festivals, and opened for platinum selling artists. They’ve released 3 albums: Truth Be Told (2009), Crawl (2010), and The Uniphonics (2020). “Crawl” and “The Uniphonics” feature collaborations with internationally known artists, including Grammy Award winning jazz legend […]

Karen Meat

  4:30
  Trumpet Blossom Cafe
Karen Meat is a pop rock band experience based in Iowa, Midwest USA. In colorful outfits and antics, Karen Meat is fronted by Arin Eaton and backed by Dana Telsrow. Their melting synth and guitar rippin’ tunes bounce to the beat of Eaton’s melodic yet straight-to-the- point vocals, confessing weird life in a choir of […]

The Heavy Heavy

  5:30
  Big Grove Brewery
The Heavy Heavy create the kind of unfettered rock-and-roll that warps time and place, immediately pulling the audience into a euphoric fugue state with its own sun-soaked atmosphere. Led by lifelong musicians Will Turner and Georgie Fuller, the Brighton, UK-based band began with a shared ambition of “making records that sound like our favorite records […]

Friko

  5:45
  Trumpet Blossom Cafe
Fans know Friko (Bailey Minzenberger, Luke Stamos, and frontman Niko Kapetan) as vital rising stars in the Chicago scene. The music, which freelancer Britt Julious described as “perfect slices of indie-pop” in the Chicago Tribune last January, is complex, layered, and dynamic. Over the band’s time together, it has become clear they are comfortable embracing […]

Capstone Reading & Afterparty Celebrating The Sun Magazine

  7:00PM
  The James
This after party at The James is in celebration of The Sun Magazine’s 50th anniversary. Join us for these featured keynote speakers, poets, and authors: Camonghne Felix Camonghne Felix is a poet, essayist, political strategist, and cultural worker. She is the author of Build Yourself a Boat, which was long-listed for the 2019 National Book […]

BCJsPs

  7:00
  Riverside Theatre
Brian Penkrot, Jason Palamara, and Justin K Comer met in the early 2010s while pursuing graduate degrees in composition at the University of Iowa. Jason and Justin began playing together to accompany dancers, and eventually founded the duo JCϟjp. The duo lost some steam when Jason moved to Indiana, but in 2019, Brian breathed new […]

Greg Wheeler & The Poly Mall Cops

  7:30
  Gabes
Straight out of Des Moines, IA, aka the ninth best place to live in the entire world, Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops deliver manic garage punk slime at its finest — whatever that means. Greg Wheeler (The Wheelers, The Slats, Night Stories) joins Jill McLain-Meister and friendly neighborhood barber Hutch (The Vandon Arms) […]

Courtney Marie Andrews

  7:45
  The Englert
On the honey shores of Cape Cod in a beach shack, Courtney Marie Andrews found self-love and her voice. Every morning, she’d walk 6-8 miles around the back trails of an island and meditate on her life, perusing old memories and patterns like browsing a used bookshop. That summer of introspection led her to a […]

Ebony Tusks

  8:15
  Riverside Theatre
A rattling subwoofer is a sonic aberration, a byproduct of high volume that often results in a speaker system’s long-term damage. It takes the listening experience from exclusively aural to physical, evoking a range of reactions from listeners. This experience is bonded inextricably with rap music for both its fans and dissenters, a familiar beacon […]

McKinley Dixon

  9:00
  Gabes
Richmond, Virginia-based artist McKinley Dixon has always used his music as a tool for healing, exploring, and unpacking the Black experience in order to create stories for others like him. On his previous two self-released albums, Dixon’s songs looked at concepts ranging from self-love to police brutality, and the complex trauma Black people navigate collectively […]

Kevin Morby

  9:30
  The Englert
Kevin Morby is a Kansas City based singer/songwriter. With his seven acclaimed solo albums and myriad records of various collaboration, Morby has become a true musical auteur. His singular vision, evocative lyrics, and aptitude for catchy, dense songwriting has placed him firmly among the ranks of modern icons. Each Morby record possesses its own unique […]

Natural Information Society

  9:45
  Riverside Theatre
Natural Information Society (NIS) is a band led by composer & multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams. The group’s music is grounded in Abrams’ hypnotic & interwoven writing. Performing with Lisa Alvarado’s free hanging paintings as mobile sets, NIS create environments at once meditative & propulsive. NIS navigates forms that emphasize simultaneous differences, rhythm & collective listening. The […]

TEKE::TEKE

  10:45
  Gabes
After initially forming as a tribute band for Japanese guitar legend Takeshi Terauchi, TEKE::TEKE learned that they had to tear up their surf-tinged covers and build something new. Since then, the Montreal-based seven-piece have expanded their already wide scope into a dazzling journey through classic Japanese balladry and Brazillian psychedelia alike. Fusing everything from traditional […]

Pictoria Vark

  3:00
  Big Grove Brewery
Pictoria Vark is the project of Iowa City-based songwriter and bassist Victoria Park. Growing up in northern New Jersey and cutting her teeth on the NYC music scene, Park’s debut full-length record, “The Parts I Dread” documents a sudden paradigm shift she faced when her parents relocated to Wyoming when she was 19. Much of […]

mars hojilla

  3:30
  Trumpet Blossom Cafe
mars hojilla is the freshly sprung solo project of Iowa City-based singer/songwriter Myles Evangelista (he/they). Born to two kickass Filipino immigrants in Peoria, Illinois, Myles’s first musical love was the household’s MAGIC SING Karaoke Machine, which fostered in him a love of classic pop and rock by scoring him highly on Queen, ABBA, and Elton […]

The Uniphonics

  4:15
  Big Grove Brewery
Since forming in Iowa City in 2007, The Uniphonics performed in more than 15 states, played at notable festivals, and opened for platinum selling artists. They’ve released 3 albums: Truth Be Told (2009), Crawl (2010), and The Uniphonics (2020). “Crawl” and “The Uniphonics” feature collaborations with internationally known artists, including Grammy Award winning jazz legend […]

Karen Meat

  4:30
  Trumpet Blossom Cafe
Karen Meat is a pop rock band experience based in Iowa, Midwest USA. In colorful outfits and antics, Karen Meat is fronted by Arin Eaton and backed by Dana Telsrow. Their melting synth and guitar rippin’ tunes bounce to the beat of Eaton’s melodic yet straight-to-the- point vocals, confessing weird life in a choir of […]

The Heavy Heavy

  5:30
  Big Grove Brewery
The Heavy Heavy create the kind of unfettered rock-and-roll that warps time and place, immediately pulling the audience into a euphoric fugue state with its own sun-soaked atmosphere. Led by lifelong musicians Will Turner and Georgie Fuller, the Brighton, UK-based band began with a shared ambition of “making records that sound like our favorite records […]

Friko

  5:45
  Trumpet Blossom Cafe
Fans know Friko (Bailey Minzenberger, Luke Stamos, and frontman Niko Kapetan) as vital rising stars in the Chicago scene. The music, which freelancer Britt Julious described as “perfect slices of indie-pop” in the Chicago Tribune last January, is complex, layered, and dynamic. Over the band’s time together, it has become clear they are comfortable embracing […]

BCJsPs

  7:00
  Riverside Theatre
Brian Penkrot, Jason Palamara, and Justin K Comer met in the early 2010s while pursuing graduate degrees in composition at the University of Iowa. Jason and Justin began playing together to accompany dancers, and eventually founded the duo JCϟjp. The duo lost some steam when Jason moved to Indiana, but in 2019, Brian breathed new […]

Greg Wheeler & The Poly Mall Cops

  7:30
  Gabes
Straight out of Des Moines, IA, aka the ninth best place to live in the entire world, Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops deliver manic garage punk slime at its finest — whatever that means. Greg Wheeler (The Wheelers, The Slats, Night Stories) joins Jill McLain-Meister and friendly neighborhood barber Hutch (The Vandon Arms) […]

Courtney Marie Andrews

  7:45
  The Englert
On the honey shores of Cape Cod in a beach shack, Courtney Marie Andrews found self-love and her voice. Every morning, she’d walk 6-8 miles around the back trails of an island and meditate on her life, perusing old memories and patterns like browsing a used bookshop. That summer of introspection led her to a […]

Ebony Tusks

  8:15
  Riverside Theatre
A rattling subwoofer is a sonic aberration, a byproduct of high volume that often results in a speaker system’s long-term damage. It takes the listening experience from exclusively aural to physical, evoking a range of reactions from listeners. This experience is bonded inextricably with rap music for both its fans and dissenters, a familiar beacon […]

McKinley Dixon

  9:00
  Gabes
Richmond, Virginia-based artist McKinley Dixon has always used his music as a tool for healing, exploring, and unpacking the Black experience in order to create stories for others like him. On his previous two self-released albums, Dixon’s songs looked at concepts ranging from self-love to police brutality, and the complex trauma Black people navigate collectively […]

Kevin Morby

  9:30
  The Englert
Kevin Morby is a Kansas City based singer/songwriter. With his seven acclaimed solo albums and myriad records of various collaboration, Morby has become a true musical auteur. His singular vision, evocative lyrics, and aptitude for catchy, dense songwriting has placed him firmly among the ranks of modern icons. Each Morby record possesses its own unique […]

Natural Information Society

  9:45
  Riverside Theatre
Natural Information Society (NIS) is a band led by composer & multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams. The group’s music is grounded in Abrams’ hypnotic & interwoven writing. Performing with Lisa Alvarado’s free hanging paintings as mobile sets, NIS create environments at once meditative & propulsive. NIS navigates forms that emphasize simultaneous differences, rhythm & collective listening. The […]

TEKE::TEKE

  10:45
  Gabes
After initially forming as a tribute band for Japanese guitar legend Takeshi Terauchi, TEKE::TEKE learned that they had to tear up their surf-tinged covers and build something new. Since then, the Montreal-based seven-piece have expanded their already wide scope into a dazzling journey through classic Japanese balladry and Brazillian psychedelia alike. Fusing everything from traditional […]

Small Press & Literary Magazine Bookfair

  11:00 AM
  The Chauncey
The annual Mission Creek Festival Small Press & Literary bookfair returns! Stop by The Chauncey for books, conversation, and community. Grab a Mission Creek fest tote bag to carry your haul of books and discover these featured presses: 503 Press Black Lawrence Press Book*hug Press Brink Canarium Books Dorothy, a publishing project draft: the journal […]

Industry Talk

  11:00
  Filmscene Theater 3
Meekling Press is a small “boundary-defying” publisher, printer, and arts collective based in Chicago, Illinois. Black Lawrence Press is an independent publisher of contemporary poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Join Meekling Press Publisher Rebecca Elliot and Black Lawrence Press Anthologies Editor and Immigrant Writing Series Editor Abayomi Animashaun as they discuss the merits, challenges, and opportunities presented […]

The Sun, Readers Write Workshop

  12:30
  The Tuesday Agency
Click to Register »  In each monthly issue of The Sun, Readers Write asks readers to address subjects on which they’re the only authorities: “Drug Experiences,” “Tools,” “Learning the Hard Way,” “Cooking,” “Being Stubborn,” to name just a few. Topics are intentionally broad in order to give room for expression. In this hour-long workshop, participants […]

Literary Conversation

  2:00
  Filmscene
  Founded in 2016, Fonograf Editions is a nonprofit literary record label and book press from Portland, Oregon. Sarabande Books is an independent publisher dedicated to poetry, short fiction, and essay, located in Louisville, KY. Join Fonograf Editions Editor Jeff Alessandrelli and Sarabande Books author Lauren Haldeman for an insider’s look at the role texture […]

Podcast Recording

  3:30
  The Tuesday Agency
 Lit Hub’s Thresholds Podcast w/ Jordan Kisner, Ganavya, and Kaveh Akbar. Thresholds is a series of interviews with writers and artists you love about the transformative experiences (surprises, crises, existential freakouts, u-turns, breakthroughs) that have shaped their work. Jordan Kisner Jordan Kisner is the author of the essay collection Thin Places, named one of the […]

Capstone Reading & Afterparty Celebrating The Sun Magazine

  7:00PM
  The James
This after party at The James is in celebration of The Sun Magazine’s 50th anniversary. Join us for these featured keynote speakers, poets, and authors: Camonghne Felix Camonghne Felix is a poet, essayist, political strategist, and cultural worker. She is the author of Build Yourself a Boat, which was long-listed for the 2019 National Book […]

Small Press & Literary Magazine Bookfair

  11:00 AM
  The Chauncey
The annual Mission Creek Festival Small Press & Literary bookfair returns! Stop by The Chauncey for books, conversation, and community. Grab a Mission Creek fest tote bag to carry your haul of books and discover these featured presses: 503 Press Black Lawrence Press Book*hug Press Brink Canarium Books Dorothy, a publishing project draft: the journal […]

Industry Talk

  11:00
  Filmscene Theater 3
Meekling Press is a small “boundary-defying” publisher, printer, and arts collective based in Chicago, Illinois. Black Lawrence Press is an independent publisher of contemporary poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Join Meekling Press Publisher Rebecca Elliot and Black Lawrence Press Anthologies Editor and Immigrant Writing Series Editor Abayomi Animashaun as they discuss the merits, challenges, and opportunities presented […]

The Sun, Readers Write Workshop

  12:30
  The Tuesday Agency
Click to Register »  In each monthly issue of The Sun, Readers Write asks readers to address subjects on which they’re the only authorities: “Drug Experiences,” “Tools,” “Learning the Hard Way,” “Cooking,” “Being Stubborn,” to name just a few. Topics are intentionally broad in order to give room for expression. In this hour-long workshop, participants […]

Literary Conversation

  2:00
  Filmscene
  Founded in 2016, Fonograf Editions is a nonprofit literary record label and book press from Portland, Oregon. Sarabande Books is an independent publisher dedicated to poetry, short fiction, and essay, located in Louisville, KY. Join Fonograf Editions Editor Jeff Alessandrelli and Sarabande Books author Lauren Haldeman for an insider’s look at the role texture […]

Pictoria Vark

  3:00
  Big Grove Brewery
Pictoria Vark is the project of Iowa City-based songwriter and bassist Victoria Park. Growing up in northern New Jersey and cutting her teeth on the NYC music scene, Park’s debut full-length record, “The Parts I Dread” documents a sudden paradigm shift she faced when her parents relocated to Wyoming when she was 19. Much of […]

mars hojilla

  3:30
  Trumpet Blossom Cafe
mars hojilla is the freshly sprung solo project of Iowa City-based singer/songwriter Myles Evangelista (he/they). Born to two kickass Filipino immigrants in Peoria, Illinois, Myles’s first musical love was the household’s MAGIC SING Karaoke Machine, which fostered in him a love of classic pop and rock by scoring him highly on Queen, ABBA, and Elton […]

Podcast Recording

  3:30
  The Tuesday Agency
 Lit Hub’s Thresholds Podcast w/ Jordan Kisner, Ganavya, and Kaveh Akbar. Thresholds is a series of interviews with writers and artists you love about the transformative experiences (surprises, crises, existential freakouts, u-turns, breakthroughs) that have shaped their work. Jordan Kisner Jordan Kisner is the author of the essay collection Thin Places, named one of the […]

The Uniphonics

  4:15
  Big Grove Brewery
Since forming in Iowa City in 2007, The Uniphonics performed in more than 15 states, played at notable festivals, and opened for platinum selling artists. They’ve released 3 albums: Truth Be Told (2009), Crawl (2010), and The Uniphonics (2020). “Crawl” and “The Uniphonics” feature collaborations with internationally known artists, including Grammy Award winning jazz legend […]

Karen Meat

  4:30
  Trumpet Blossom Cafe
Karen Meat is a pop rock band experience based in Iowa, Midwest USA. In colorful outfits and antics, Karen Meat is fronted by Arin Eaton and backed by Dana Telsrow. Their melting synth and guitar rippin’ tunes bounce to the beat of Eaton’s melodic yet straight-to-the- point vocals, confessing weird life in a choir of […]

The Heavy Heavy

  5:30
  Big Grove Brewery
The Heavy Heavy create the kind of unfettered rock-and-roll that warps time and place, immediately pulling the audience into a euphoric fugue state with its own sun-soaked atmosphere. Led by lifelong musicians Will Turner and Georgie Fuller, the Brighton, UK-based band began with a shared ambition of “making records that sound like our favorite records […]

Friko

  5:45
  Trumpet Blossom Cafe
Fans know Friko (Bailey Minzenberger, Luke Stamos, and frontman Niko Kapetan) as vital rising stars in the Chicago scene. The music, which freelancer Britt Julious described as “perfect slices of indie-pop” in the Chicago Tribune last January, is complex, layered, and dynamic. Over the band’s time together, it has become clear they are comfortable embracing […]

Capstone Reading & Afterparty Celebrating The Sun Magazine

  7:00PM
  The James
This after party at The James is in celebration of The Sun Magazine’s 50th anniversary. Join us for these featured keynote speakers, poets, and authors: Camonghne Felix Camonghne Felix is a poet, essayist, political strategist, and cultural worker. She is the author of Build Yourself a Boat, which was long-listed for the 2019 National Book […]

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