Natural grasses and flowers bring all the pollinators to your yard. — Zak Neumann/Little VillageBy Kris Johnson, Iowa City As spring showers us with blossoms and pleasant breezes we all have the choice to plant and maintain nature in our yards. Some suggestions at the goodneighboriowa.org website show us how we can practice nature-friendly practices to protect children, pets and people. And two books at the Iowa City Public Library tell us of the wonderful results for nature when we plant native, not alien exotic plants. Most insects won’t eat alien exotic species of plants. So if the insects ..read more

Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen, University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson and University of Northern Iowa President Mark Nook. from left, speak to the Iowa Board of Regents April 25, 2024. — Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch Presidents of the state’s public universities told the Iowa Board of Regents at its meeting in Ames on Thursday that they are eliminating departments and positions related to diversity, equity and inclusion and looking to support students on a more individualized basis. Iowa State University, University of Iowa and University of Northern Iowa have ..read more

Empty shelves in CommUnity’s Food Bank — courtesy of CommUnityBy David Leshtz, Iowa City With kids out of school, food needs always increase in the summer. Demands on local food banks will escalate even more this year, due to a shortage of state funds allocated for food assistance. Gov. Reynolds opted out of $29 million in federal assistance for low-income children this summer.  If you care about the well-being of families in our community, now is a good time to contribute what you can to CommUnity Crisis Services and Food Bank at builtbycommunity.org. Local government ..read more

Rodney’s Jamaican Jerk & BBQ in Iowa City. — Jordan Sellergren/Little Village A new springtime festival is coming to Iowa City as the Move Ya Body Reggae Fest makes its debut on the first Saturday in May. The five-hour festival, which is free and open to the public, was the idea of Richiard Rodney, who was born and raised in Jamaica and is better known in Iowa City as Rodney of Rodney’s Jamaican Jerk & BBQ.  “He’s had this idea for a long time,” LaTasha DeLoach, the reggae fest’s coordinator, told Little Village.  As anyone who’s eaten one of the dishes Rodney serves from his ..read more

Anna Reishus/Little VillageBackbone Bluegrass Festival 1358 110th St, Strawberry Point The Backbone Bluegrass Festival has been around since 1981 and brings a mix of bluegrass, country and gospel acts to the northeast corner of Iowa. Held in Strawberry Point on the last weekend of July, this summer’s fest is Friday to Sunday, July 26-28. Aspiring musicians can check out the festival’s guitar, banjo, mandolin, dobro, fiddle and upright bass workshops on Saturday morning, or go fully immersive by attending the Strawberry Jam Camp or the Songwriters Workshop, July 24-26 ($300). Campers also perf ..read more

Public Space One at the Close House in Iowa City, April 22, 2024. — Paul Brennan/Little Village Public Space One (PS1) unveiled a new grant program on Monday, which will “support publicly-engaged experimental, collaborative, and connective visual arts projects in eastern Iowa.” The Big Field Fund (BFF) will award $60,000 to selected artists and projects on a yearly basis.  “BFF will target artist-led projects that manifest new and inventive models, support under-resourced creative communities, engage with vulnerable structures, systems, or ecologies, and/or fall outside the reach of typic ..read more

Walter Linares, left, works with Dale Eggerson, right, at the Iowa City Bike Library on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. — Benjamin Roberts/Little Village If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you give a man a bicycle, teach him how to keep it in tip-top shape, and advocate for there to be safe spaces for him to ride, you’re a bike collective. Iowa’s bike collectives are nonprofit community programs that focus on making bikes and cycling opportunities more accessible and giving local commuters an alternative to cars. “I’d like to think that every year we’re improving transportation f ..read more

The State Capitol Building reflects off 812 E Grand Ave in Des Moines, home of the Iowa Public Information Board. — Adria Carpenter/Little Village Iowa lawmakers debated budget bills into the early morning Friday as they aim for the end of session in the coming days. Though legislators spent much of their days in party caucus meetings Thursday, members of both the House and Senate moved through dozens of bills during debate, in addition to meetings of the chambers’ committees on taxes and spending.  The high volume of action comes in hopes of ending the 2024 session in the coming days. La ..read more

The Close House, a historic landmark on 538 S Gilbert St in Iowa City and the home of Public Space One, on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021. — Jason Smith/Little VillageBy Mike Fallon, Iowa City Jacob Simmering’s recent letter to the editor (April 11, 2024) is an argument based on circular reasoning or logic. Simmering’s argument begins where he wants to end, historical buildings are often boondoggles that the taxpayers should not tolerate. Like many proponents of simple, profit-driven arguments, Simmering urges us to wash our hands of archaic structures and collect a juicy profit from the sa ..read more

An Iowa City lawn untreated by weed killers or pesticides. — Jordan Sellergren/Little VillageBy Linda Quinn & Mary Dix, Iowa City Do you have a plant out of place in your lawn? Those out-of-place pops of color in our yards have gotten a bad reputation over the past 40 years. But not to everyone in Iowa City! There’s a lot of folks who allow these plants in places such as our city parks, our school grounds and residential yards. Colorful flowers in the grass show that toxic chemicals are not being sprayed there. Kids can frolic and pets can roll in such lawns without exposure to cancer ..read more