- 4:30 p.m. – Doors and café open to the public
- 6:00–7:00 p.m. – Reading and Q&A with Hanif Abdurraqib
- 7:30–8:15 p.m. – L'Rain
- 8:50–10:00 p.m. – Neko Case

Hancher Auditorium is thrilled to host the opening ceremonies of Mission Creek Festival 2024 on Thursday, April 4! Mission Creek Festival returns to downtown Iowa City on Thursday, April 4, through Saturday, April 6, for a weekend of music, literature, and community events. The official lineup and early-bird passes are available now, with the full schedule and additional passes releasing in January.

For Mission Creek's opening day, Hancher will transform into a single-site festival venue and present a multidisciplinary program featuring a reading and conversation with MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow Hanif Abdurraqib, who last visited the festival in 2018. On tour for his new book, There’s Always This Year, he is set to appear in conversation with writer and professor Tisa Bryant from the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program. Performer and arts curator Taja Cheek, aka L’Rain, plays after Abdurraqib in support of her celebrated new record, I Killed Your Dog. The evening closes with a set from Neko Case and her band. One of our generation’s most critically acclaimed songwriters, Case celebrates her career-spanning retrospective LP, Wild Creatures.

In its 19th year, Mission Creek continues to embrace independent voices in music and literature. Hancher is honored to welcome these revered, rising, and remarkable artists to our community and the University of Iowa.

Neko Case: A storyteller at heart, Neko Case transcends genres and captures the essence of the human experience in her lyrics. With a career spanning over twenty years, Case is most known for her collaboration with The New Pornographers and Case/Lang/Veirs in addition to releasing many critically acclaimed solo albums. From the hauntingly beautiful Fox Confessor Brings the Flood to the raw energy of Hell-On, Neko's sound is an adventure that refuses to be confined.

L'Rain: Multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer, and curator L'Rain's sonic explorations interrogate how multiplicities of emotions and experience intersect with identity. Critically acclaimed by NPR, named album of the year in The Wire magazine, and #2 in Pitchfork's best albums of 2021, Fatigue propelled L'Rain towards a new audience while further cementing her place within experimental and art institutional spaces. Described by AllMusic, L'Rain makes "dreamy, genre-blurring music [...], reflecting on grief, change, joy, and resistance through a collage-like mixture of soul, psychedelia, gospel, musique concrète, and numerous other genres."

Hanif Abdurraqib: Poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio, Hanif Abdurraqub is described on Articulate with Jim Cotter as one "of a generation that is helping to redefine poetry." His first collection of essays, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, was released in winter 2017 by Two Dollar Radio and was named a book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, Paste, CBC, The Los Angeles Review, Pitchfork, and The Chicago Tribune, among others.

TICKETING

All passes for the Mission Creek Festival will be solely available from The Englert Box Office—both online and in person.

Full festival passes—which grant guaranteed access to the engagements at Hancher and festival events on April 4–6 in downtown Iowa City—are on sale now online and at The Englert’s box office.

Single-day Thursday passes—which only grant guaranteed access to these events at Hancher—will go on sale on February 2.

Note: All seating for the events at Hancher Auditorium will be general admission.

TICKETS
AVAILABLE ONLY THROUGH THE ENGLERT BOX OFFICE
Full Festival Pass*: $95 – available now!
Last Call Early Bird Full Pass*: $105 – available January 12 through February 1
Regular Full Pass: $115 – available February 2
Thursday Day Pass: $55 – available February 2
*limited quantities available

Mission Creek Festival Website - https://missioncreekfestival.com/
Neko Case Website - https://nekocase.com/
L’Rain Website - https://www.lrain.info/
Hanif Abdurraqib Website - https://www.abdurraqib.com/

Event page - https://hancher.uiowa.edu/2023-24/mcf-neko-case

Book covers can draw us into a story or remain with us long after the details of the story have faded. Create a unique art piece using recycled materials inspired by the cover of your favorite book. We’ll provide the materials, while you bring the book or a picture of the cover and join others in your community for this program.

Go to link below to find out more.
https://www.crlibrary.org/news/continuing-conversations-akwi-nji-librarys-2024-artist-residence

The AcademySPS is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87119622761?pwd=eCtDNmRoWEplMTlPdFJCY0dwRGRLZz09

Meeting ID: 871 1962 2761
Passcode: 388266

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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdoMXQDfCy

Every day we write our stories through the text messages we send each other. Nji will guide you as you create poetry from your personal text threads and collaborate on a mural.

Go to link below to find out more:
https://www.crlibrary.org/news/continuing-conversations-akwi-nji-librarys-2024-artist-residence

Presented in collaboration with The Englert Theatre

Part of Hancher's 51st season

"The Songbird of Wassoulou" brings the music of Mali to The Englert's stage. Oumou Sangaré is an icon whose powerful music and fierce feminism have inspired artist from Alicia Keys to Aya Nakamura to Beyoncé. The songs on her most recent record, Timbuktu, were largely written in Baltimore during the lockdowns of the COVID pandemic. The album blends the sounds of traditional West African instruments with those of instruments most associated with the blues. Sangaré will share music from this ambitious album as well as sounds from throughout her acclaimed career. How acclaimed? The New Yorker says, "Percussive, danceable, and haunting, the singer's visionary mix is the primary reason that her voice has come to carry as much respect as Aretha Franklin's."

Oumou Sangaré Website

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday, July 31, at 10 a.m.
Adults $35
Students & Youth $10

https://hancher.uiowa.edu/2023-24/oumou-sangare

During this drop-in program, write a letter to a favorite book character. Using the written letters, Nji will create a poem that will be featured as part of “The People’s Poetics” project.

Go to link below to find out more:
https://www.crlibrary.org/news/continuing-conversations-akwi-nji-librarys-2024-artist-residence