Hancher announces Stop/Time Festival author lineup, additional musicians

IOWA CITY — Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa has announced new program details for this April’s Stop/Time Festival. Additions include a lineup of guest authors, new performers and free community events.

The inaugural festival is set for Friday and Saturday, April 3 and 4.

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Among the community events, a free performance will take place at the University of Iowa’s Pentacrest in front of the Old Capitol on Saturday, April 4, at 12:30 p.m. The touring brass ensemble The Westerlies will play a program rooted in American folk and sacred music, performing in collaboration with students from the UI School of Music’s brass department, singers from the Family Folk Machine community choir, and poet and Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum Joyelle McSweeney.

“This collaborative performance is the heart of Stop/Time Festival. It’s our convocation,” said Hancher executive director Andre Perry. “It brings together visiting artists, UI music students, local performers and UI alumni in celebration of the arts, our campus and the surrounding community. It is free, open to the public and for all ages. We hope it’s an opportunity to share a remarkable moment of music and collective joy.”

In addition to McSweeney’s presentation at the Pentacrest, a lineup of guest authors will read short passages in advance of select festival concerts. Those writers include UI associate professor Donika Kelly, UI assistant professor Paige Lewis, Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Carmen Giménez, and National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Danez Smith. Kelly will read ahead of Ambrose Akinmusire, Lewis before guitarist William Tyler, Giménez ahead of songwriter Jeffrey Lewis, and Smith before jazz legend Branford Marsalis. Smith will also offer a separate reading and conversation, moderated by Giménez, at Prairie Lights Bookstore.

The Hancher team curated the authors alongside the UI’s Office of Writing and Communication.

“Our aim is to present an exceptional group of writers who are also powerful performers of their work,” said Hancher programming and engagement director Aaron Greenwald. “We want to integrate them fully into the program — poetry, music and art all in conversation. That’s the spirit of Stop/Time.”

“It’s been exhilarating to work on this project,” said Office of Writing and Communication executive director Danny Khalastchi. “We love bringing the UI’s incredible literary culture into the larger conversation of arts and innovation. At the end of the day, this is an amazing arts campus and community. Our writers — past, present and future — all play a major role in that excellence.”

Other festival developments include a collaboration with the Iowa City-based Reanimator Reading Series, a performance by Chicago band Sharp Pins, and the Stop/Time Vinyl Record Show — a marketplace for used albums and LPs, open to passholders and the public alike, happening at the Iowa City Masonic Building during the afternoon of Saturday, April 4.

These new events and performers join artists from the initial announcement, including Branford Marsalis Quartet, Tortoise, Jason Moran, Mary Halvorson, Mei Semones and many more. The festival schedule, with performance and presentation times, will be released in March.

“The free programming is essential to this festival. Whether people buy a pass or not, elements of this festival are entirely open to our campus and community. The only thing you need to bring is your curiosity,” Perry said reflecting on the program expansion.

About Stop/Time Festival

Produced by Hancher Auditorium, Stop/Time Festival is a two-day, multi-venue, multi-artist spring festival devoted to innovation and independence in contemporary music and the arts. Stop/Time highlights the UI and Iowa City’s long tradition of creative experimentation. It is a festival of discovery. It’s about opening our ears and minds to new sounds, ideas, and possibilities.