Hancher Auditorium announced new program details for the upcoming Stop/Time festival, which will make its debut April 3-4. New additions to the festival will include a lineup of guest authors, new performers, and free community events.
Touring brass ensemble The Westerlies will play a program based around American folk and sacred music in front of the Old Capitol on Saturday, April 4 at 12:30 p.m. The group will perform in collaboration with students from the UI School of Music’s brass department, singers from the Family Folk Machine community choir, and Joyelle McSweeney — a poet and Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum.
In addition to the Pentacrest performance, a lineup of guest authors has been selected to read short passages in advance of festival concerts.
Selected writers include UI associate professor Donika Kelly, UI assistant professor Paige Lewis, Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum Carmen Giménez, and National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Danez Smith.
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Kelly will read ahead of Ambrose Akinmusire, Lewis ahead of guitarist William Tyler, Giménez ahead of songwriter Jeffery Lewis, and Smith ahead of jazz musician Branford Marsalis. Smith is also offering a separate reading and conversation at Prairie Lights Bookstore on Saturday, April 4. The conversation will be moderated by Giménez.
“In that first round, so much of the stuff we were announcing were bands or music. And that’s our day to day work we do in our regular day jobs. So, there’s a natural flow to that,” André Perry, executive director of Hancher, said. “The authors were a direct collaboration with the team from the Office of Writing and Communication. All those folks just are so embedded in the literary community.”
The Hancher team helped curate the authors in conjunction with the University of Iowa’s Office of Writing and Communication. The aim is to integrate the authors’ fully into the program, bringing art, poetry and music into conversation with one another.
Additional festival developments include a collaboration with Iowa City-based Reanimator Reading Series, a performance by Chicago band Sharp Pins, and the Stop/Time Vinyl Record show.
The Vinyl Record show will function as a marketplace for used albums and LPs, which will be open to passholders and the public alike. The show will take place at the Iowa City Masonic Building during the afternoon of Saturday, April 4.
For more information about the Stop/Time festival, visit hancher.uiowa.edu/stoptime.
2-Day and Friday passes are sold out. All inclusive passes for Saturday activities are still available, as are a limited number of tickets to Branford Marsalis and Tortoise’s performances.
“This festival is a real opportunity for discovery, for anyone, whether you’re a musician, writer, or something else, to see and hear something and have fun with it, and to not have any expectations,” Perry said. “Just engage that curiosity and have a good time.”