Rally to Save Iowa History

For further information, see the following article published in Little Village: "Rally Planned in Iowa City to Protest Closure of State Historical Society Research Center by Reynolds Administration." Advocates for the State Historical Society of Iowa have also created an online petition, with additional resources, that currently has over 5,000 signatures. 

Update: As of December 31, 2025, the petition has nearly 8,000 signatures. For the current status of efforts to support the Society, visit the Save Iowa History web site. 

Fighting Oligarchy: Bernie Sanders in Iowa City

United States Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont; Independent) delivered a speech today, February 22, 2025, to an overflow audience at the Englert Theatre in downtown Iowa City. 

The General Election: Vote!

For those still needing to register to vote in this year's general election, a number of states allow registration on Election Day (Tuesday, November 5). Further information regarding voting regulations can be found at USA.gov.

The above Common Curator graphic is based on Robert Indiana's iconic "Love" logo. Indiana died in 2018 at 89; his obituary can be read in the New York Times.

Random Generator: The 2022 PS1 Art Auction

Random Generator is the non-thematic theme for this year's Public Space One Art Auction. Held annually to help support the extensive programming of the artist-led community arts organization, this year's fundraiser will feature over 75 artists. Bidding will be entirely online, and will commence on Thursday, March 3, concluding with a reception at Close House (Iowa City), 7-8pm, Saturday, March 12, 2022. Further details are available at the PS1 website. 

The Common Curator is offering "Protopseudocryptoplasm" in this year's auction, and also designed the image above for the use of PS1 in a series of promotional materials. 

Slidin' into Twenty-Twenty-Two

National Book Festival 2021

The 21th annual National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, will be held September 17-26, 2021 in Washington, D.C. The festival is free and open to the public.

More than 100 authors, poets, and illustrators will be making presentations throughout the festival on stages for Children, Teens, Fiction, History & Biography, International, Poetry & Prose, Genre Fiction, Science, and other themes & genres. Speakers include such writers as Kazuo Ishiguro, Roxane Gay, Nikki Giovanni, Joy Harjo, George Saunders, and many others. 

Further information, including a schedule of events and an FAQ can be found at the festival website. 

This year's poster was designed by Dana Tanamachi; a gallery of all Festival posters from 2001 to 2021 can be viewed here.

WFMU Marathon: Freeform Station of the Nation

Love free-form radio? Take the leap and consider supporting independent station WFMU during its annual fundraising Marathon that runs March 6 to March 21, 2021. WFMU first hit the airwaves over sixty years ago on April 24, 1958 at the now-defunct Upsala College and has never looked back. Currently based in Jersey City, New Jersey, WFMU broadcasts at 91.1 Mhz in New York and via a second signal at 90.1 Mhz in the Hudson Valley. WFMU has long been an Internet pioneer, and has multiple online streams, as well as an extensive archive of past shows.

What is free-form radio you might ask? WFMU describes itself as follows: 

WFMU's programming ranges from flat-out uncategorizable strangeness to rock and roll, experimental music, 78 RPM Records, jazz, psychedelia, hip-hop, electronica, hand-cranked wax cylinders, punk rock, gospel, exotica, R&B, radio improvisation, cooking instructions, classic radio airchecks, found sound, dopey call-in shows, interviews with obscure radio personalities and notable science-world luminaries, spoken word collages, Andrew Lloyd Webber soundtracks in languages other than English as well as country and western music. 

And because the station is listener-supported, WFMU DJs have for years maintained complete autonomy and control over their own programming, which is extraordinarily eclectic. Check out the current WFMU audio smorgasbord, and see for yourself. Apps available for both iOS & Android. 

Happy Year of the Ox / 牛 年 快 樂 !

The image above was designed by Harry Brockway and is featured on a series of 2021 coins issued by the U.K.'s Royal Mint as part of the Shēngxiào Collection (生肖) to commemorate the Lunar New Year.

"The Hill We Climb," Amanda Gorman's Inauguration Poem

Amanda Gorman recites her poem, "The Hill We Climb," on the occasion of the inauguration of Joseph Biden as the 46th president of the United States on January 20, 2021. Gorman was selected as the first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017. 

Election Day 2020

Today is the day to vote. For those still needing to register, Iowa and 20 other states, as well as the District of Columbia, allow election day registration. Further information regarding voting regulations can be found at USA.gov. 

The Common Curator graphic above is based on artist Robert Indiana's iconic "Love" logo.

Memorial Day 2020

Of related interest, see the earlier Memorial Day post, A Living Service Flag, which features a large-scale formation (or living) photograph depicting the service flag of the U.S. Armed Forces. The photograph was produced circa 1918 by Arthur Mole and John Thomas, and entailed the complex staging of thousands of soldiers at Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas.

After 4.54 Billion Earth Years, 50 Earth Days

Earth Day was first celebrated fifty years ago on April 22, 1970. Founded by former US Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in, Earth Day is now coordinated by Earth Day Network, with extensive programming and events around the world. In 2009, the United Nations also declared April 22 to be International Mother Earth Day, an observance that "recognizes a collective responsibility, as called for in the 1992 Rio Declaration, to promote harmony with nature and the Earth to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations of humanity." Look magazine first published the ecology flag shown above on April 21, 1970. The theta symbol on the flag represents the conjoining of "e" for environment and "o" for organism. 

Census Day: Be Counted

No, it's not an April Fools' Day joke . . . it's mandated in the U.S. Constitution. The 2020 decennial questionnaire only takes a few minutes to complete online. The long, fascinating history of the U.S. Census is also documented online. Although there are now multiple ways by which to submit census information, the first printed forms were introduced for the 1830 Census: 

From 1790 to 1820, the U.S. Marshals conducting the census only received instructions about what to ask. Each marshal supplied his own paper and used whatever method he chose to divide the paper into the columns needed to collect the required information. The method for recording the data was not standardized until 1830 when marshals received uniform printed schedules.

Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution spells out how the enumeration and political apportionment will operate on the body politic . . . hence the categories for free white persons, slaves, and free colored persons on the 1830 forms shown above and to the right (larger versions): 

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. 

The 14th Amendment, passed by Congress just after the Civil War, changed this equation substantially. 

Historical census records are maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration rather than the Census Bureau itself. Exemplars of past decennial questionnaires (also called schedules or simply forms) can be viewed here.  

The WFMU Marathon: Support Freeform Radio

Love free-form radio? Take the leap and consider supporting independent station WFMU during its annual fundraising Marathon that runs February 29 to March 15, 2020. WFMU first hit the airwaves over sixty years ago on April 24, 1958 at the now-defunct Upsala College and has never looked back. Currently based in Jersey City, New Jersey, WFMU broadcasts at 91.1 Mhz in New York and via a second signal at 90.1 Mhz in the Hudson Valley. WFMU has long been an Internet pioneer, and has multiple online streams, as well as an extensive archive of past shows.

What is free-form radio you might ask? WFMU describes itself as follows: 

WFMU's programming ranges from flat-out uncategorizable strangeness to rock and roll, experimental music, 78 RPM Records, jazz, psychedelia, hip-hop, electronica, hand-cranked wax cylinders, punk rock, gospel, exotica, R&B, radio improvisation, cooking instructions, classic radio airchecks, found sound, dopey call-in shows, interviews with obscure radio personalities and notable science-world luminaries, spoken word collages, Andrew Lloyd Webber soundtracks in languages other than English as well as country and western music. 

And because the station is listener-supported, WFMU DJs have for years maintained complete autonomy and control over their own programming, which is extraordinarily eclectic. Check out the current WFMU audio smorgasbord, and see for yourself. Apps available for both iOS & Android. 

Happy Year of the Rat / 鼠 年 快 樂 !

The image above was designed by P.J. Lynch and is featured on a series of 2020 coins issued by the U.K.'s Royal Mint to commemorate the Lunar New Year.

The obverse of the coin depicts Queen Elizabeth II, and was designed by Jody Clark in 2015. It is the first definitive royal coinage portrait by a Royal Mint designer in over 100 years.

Senator Bernie Sanders Brings Presidential Campaign to Iowa City

As part of his 2020 presidential campaign tour, Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent--Vermont) addressed a crowd of several hundred in downtown Iowa City in the early evening of October 25, 2019. In his speech, Sanders highlighted the core progressive themes of his platform, such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal; Sanders also spoke about his recently released Corporate Accountability and Democracy plan to end corporate corruption.

Climate activists from Iowa City schools joined Sanders on stage, as did Linn County Supervisor Stacey Walker, who was introduced him. More information on the event can be found in reporting by Little Village Magazine.

Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Comes to Town

The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg led a climate rally attended by several thousand in downtown Iowa City, Iowa on Friday, October 4, 2019. Since beginning her School Strike for the Climate (or Skolstrejk för klimatet) outside the Swedish Parliament in 2018, Thunberg has galvanized millions of youth and adults around the world and become an internationally-recognized leader of the movement to address the environmental crisis caused by fossil fuels.

The video of Thunberg's speech in Iowa City can be seen here; the transcript of her speech is available here. Fellow students from Iowa City, local and state representatives, and others also spoke at the event.

Thunberg has been nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced on Friday, October 11. At 16, Thunberg would be the youngest Nobel laureate ever should she win; to date, the youngest winner is Malala Yousafzai, who won the Peace Prize in 2014 at 17. Thunberg is pictured above in a blue jacket.

Iowa City Book Festival [11th edition]

Designated in 2008 as one of the very first UNESCO Cities of Literature in the world, Iowa City will be hosting the eleventh annual Iowa City Book Festival, October 1-6, 2019. In conjunction with the University of Iowa, FilmScene, the Iowa City Public Library, and the Iowa Arts Council, as well as other organizations and individuals, the six-day event will feature a Book Fair, readings by dozens of authors, and non-stop programming at many venues in and around downtown Iowa City.

As usual, many of this year's events will involve the University of Iowa's International Writing Program, which was founded in 1967 by Paul Engle and Hualing Nieh Engle. During this period, over 1,400 writers from more than 140 countries have spent a residency in Iowa City, where they have enriched the writing culture of the community while experiencing firsthand life at an American university. Sponsored by the City of Coralville, the annual Paul Engle Prize will be awarded to both Toi Derricote and Cornelius Eady, writers who have made "an impact on [their] community and the world at large through efforts beyond the page." Derricote and Eady are the co-founders of Cave Canem, a home for black poetry. 

The 2019 Schedule can be downloaded as a PDF, and full details can be found at the festival website.

Banned Books Week

Sponsored by the American Library Association and allied organizations, Banned Books Week is an annual celebration of the freedom to read. It began in 1982 in response to widespread censorship of books, and since that time over 11,000 books have been challenged in communities throughout the United States.

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom has been documenting cases of challenged and banned books since 1990, and the ALA's Library Bill of Rights strongly supports free and unfettered access to information and ideas. Internationally, the Index on Censorship is an organization that promotes and defends the right to freedom of expression.

Global #ClimateStrike: September 20 & 27, 2019

Millions worldwide will be joining thousands of youth-led events in over 100 countries to mobilize for effective responses to the environmental consequences of fossil fuels. To learn more and to locate a climate strike near you, visit the Global Climate Strike website.

Of related interest, see the earlier Common Curator posts: Climate of Concern: Shell's 1991 Warning of Global Environmental Damage; James Hansen: Why I Must Speak Out about Climate Change; and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Champions of Change for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Agriculture).