Poetry in Public Reading Featuring Iowa’s Student Poet Ambassador, Daniel Umemezie

Iowa City Public Library 123 S. Linn St., Iowa City, IA

Daniel Umemezie, 2025–26 Iowa Student Poet Ambassador Poetry in Public celebrates our community’s rich literary tradition and local writing talent by displaying poems by writers of all ages. Hear from some of the 2025 Selected Poets. This event is live and in-person, and will be streamed live at: https://www.youtube.com/thelibrarychannel Featuring special guest, Daniel Somotochukwu Umemezie,

Anna Barker: 13 Notes from Napoleon, Iowa: Musings on the Edge of the French Empire

Iowa City Public Library 123 S. Linn St., Iowa City, IA

Born on August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, Napoleon was the ruler of Iowa between 1800 and 1803 when he served as the First Consul of the French Republic. Iowa City, Iowa, evolved out of the 1838 settlement named after him — Napoleon, Iowa — the location marked today by

Christina Ward: Holy Food

Iowa City Public Library 123 S. Linn St., Iowa City, IA

Does God have a recipe? Christina Ward’s Holy Food:  How Cults, Communes, and Religious Movements Influenced What We Eat – An American History investigates the explosion of religious movements since the Great Awakenings that birthed a cottage industry of food fads and cookbooks.  Ward uncovers the interconnectivity between obscure sects and communities of the 20th Century who dabbled

Art Cullen: We Crapped In Our Nest

Iowa City Public Library 123 S. Linn St., Iowa City, IA

We have fouled our nest over the past half century in a way that was almost unavoidable, given our history of seeking domination — first over the Indigenous people of the Western World, then over their land. Native people for millennia lived with the land in a vital relationship. Europeans set out to transform that