Author's posts
Culture Crawl 689 “Someone Screaming at You to Live Your Best Life”
Mirrorbox Theatre returns to in-person shows with a world premier, “Cycle Play,” Feb. 17-27 in Theatre Cedar Rapids’ Grandon Studio. Founder. Cavan Hallman is excited not just about this play, but about the recently completed capital campaign to fund a permanent space for the theatre, in Cedar Rapids’ Time Check neighborhood. Playwright Megan Tabaque and …
Corridor Jazz Project Concert March 8
CORRIDOR JAZZ PROJECT RETURNS TO THE PARAMOUNTThree new schools join for the progam’s 15th year Three new schools join The Corridor Jazz Project as the program celebrates its fifteenth year at a massive concert March 8th at the Paramount Theatre, Cedar Rapids. The concert will be presented in two “sessions,” to accommodate those who are not …
Culture Crawl 688 “Don’t Toss the Wine Bottles”
The Cedar Rapids Concert Chorale has two big events in the coming weeks. Their sole fundraiser of the year, the Mardi Gras Gala, will be at the Czech Museum Feb. 26, and the Chorale pays tribute to the many composers who call, or have called Cedar Rapids home, in their next concert, March 5 at …
Soundtrack to the Struggle: Cab and Minnie
Cab Calloway’s subtle but indelible influence on American culture began the moment he forgot the chorus to his own signature song. Picture the scene: The club is packed. Dancers fill the floor. Calloway steps to the mic and begins that new song he’s been dying to sing. He reaches the chorus. Something catches his eye. …
Soundtrack to the Struggle: “Big Jay and The Photo”
It’s 1951 Los Angeles, and photographer Bob Willoughby works in his darkroom, listening to the radio. The disc jockey promotes a jazz concert that night at the Olympic arena. The concert starts at midnight. Intrigued, Willoughby packs his camera and heads for the show. What he finds there, and what he captures on film, become …
Soundtrack to the Struggle – Nina Simone
Nina Simone’s career in activism began in 1964, when her songs openly addressed racial inequality prevalent in the United States. She recorded the still-controversial “Mississippi Goddam,” her respon se to the murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church. That song, and others like “Old Jim Crow,” she said, were …
Soundtrack to the Struggle “Work Song”
The work song has existed since the dawn of recorded history. Field hands, boatmen, railroad gangs, and even cowboys used the work song to lift spirits and maintain the pace of labor. During the American era of slavery, the work song evolved into something far greater. It became a powerful means of communication, resistance, and …
Soundtrack to the Struggle “Same Old South”
Sometimes the truth is difficult to hear … or dangerous to tell. Sometimes, you have to serve it up with a helping of irony. And sometimes, you really DO have to use a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. Such is the case with Count Basie’s classic 1940 record, “It’s The Same …