Guest column: Among local summer wonders, music for a 'braincation'
On June 6 Iowa City-area students will burst from school doors and spill into the neighborhoods. The formal learning year will be over. Carefree days of childhood summer will begin. Fortunate community residents will find their way that evening to McPherson Park for a 6:30 p.m. "Music on the Move" concert by Kevin Burt.
Ahh, summer vacation. Time for grand adventures. Road tripping to the Grand Canyon. Catching games at Midwest baseball stadiums. Pedaling with the large, flowing community called RAGBRAI. Denting the eardrums at Hinterland. Brushing shoulders with Iowans from 99 counties at the State Fair. Camping along the Wapsipinicon.
In recent years, the staycation has come into vogue. Travel within one's region. Save on lodging and gas. Discover the modest but enriching treasures nearby.
A subset of both the grand adventure and staycation is the braincation. Urban Dictionary defines this as "a vacation for your brain to escape stress." Sierra Club considers it unplugging and taking a deep dive into nature. And while summer historically is a time for people to walk away from formal learning, I amend the braincation to an activity that leans into informal learning.
A locality may not host the Seven Wonders of the World but it invariably will have many "there's no place like home" marvels and experiences. Near or in Iowa City, for instance, a Devonian fossil gorge; a stunning sidewalk literary path; the recreation of a giant ground sloth; a world-renowned bookstore; a chestnut tree propagated from one Anne Frank knew; arguably the best arthouse film center in the nation; and UNESCO's third-designated City of Literature are within daily reach.
June festivals invigorate our streets with the Iowa Arts Festival, Juneteenth Celebration, and Pride. If those merrymakings are not enriching enough, jaunt eight miles south, metaphorically leaving the planet while visiting the future birthplace of James Tiberius Kirk at Riverside's Trekfest.
But for now, let's head to McPherson Park for a riveting concert.
The land for the park was acquired in 1951. Its turf borders a creek, a fact which birthed its very imaginative original name: Creekside. The Black Lives Matter movement presented an opportunity to rename it in 2021 for James Alan McPherson, a Georgian transplant and local literary giant.
A professor of writing at the university, interim director of the Writer's Workshop, Guggenheim Fellow, MacArthur Fellow, recipient of the City of Literature's Paul Engle Award, McPherson was the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. His daughter said his religion was "neighboring." He preferred to be known as a good neighbor over a major literary prize winner.
Launching the new season of neighborhood musical concerts in his park is quite fitting.
Burt will kick off the 12-concert calendar, presented by Summer of the Arts. Six artists (Burt, Blake Shaw, Miss Christine, Dave Zollo, Annie Savage, James Tutson) will deliver two concerts each in various city parks. Incidentally, the second-to-last concert will be performed by Savage in Upper City Park on First Day of School Eve, providing a melodic end to summer.
The proto-concert series began three years ago in the pandemic storm. Burt amplified the back of his pickup and broke the coronavirus stillness taking mobile music to various neighborhoods. It's little wonder then that he presents the leadoff concert.
Burt was a triple-award winner at the 2018 International Blues Challenge and a living exhibit on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the state of Iowa's Sesquicentennial. For that celebration he assembled a program for the Smithsonian on the history of Iowa Blues music. Mark Thompson of Blues Blast Magazine wrote of Burt, "In this day and age where celebrity status is conveyed on people with little discernible skills or talent, it is refreshing when the spotlight finally lands on someone who ... actually deserves recognition."
Burt is the real deal. You can make his concert the first stop on your braincation.
Patrick Muller is a visual artist living in Hills.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Opinion: Among local summer wonders, music for a 'braincation'
