{"id":1286,"date":"2024-04-05T15:49:33","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T20:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/?p=1286"},"modified":"2024-04-05T15:49:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T20:49:35","slug":"feed-me-weird-things-celebrating-the-contributions-of-the-late-chris-wiersema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/2024\/04\/05\/feed-me-weird-things-celebrating-the-contributions-of-the-late-chris-wiersema\/","title":{"rendered":"Feed Me Weird Things: Celebrating the contributions of the late Chris Wiersema"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Posters from the archives of\u00a0Feed Me Weird Things<\/strong>\u00a0(2017-present) have taken over the outer windows of the Rita Benton Music Library, a welcome and colorful distraction from winter\u2019s untimely return this week. These posters, the work of\u00a0Dylan Marcus McConnell<\/a>, showcase just a fraction of the 70+ artists that have been programmed on the series and encompass a wide aesthetic variety of music and performance types: avant-classical, noise, Americana, drone, free improvisation, new-age, folk, jazz, poetry, field recordings, electronics \u2026 there\u2019s something there for everyone.<\/p>\n

Feed Me Weird Things<\/strong>, which is described on its\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0as \u201can Iowa City listening series focused on rare and esoteric musics meant to arouse empathy from deep listening,\u201d was founded by local musician and curator Chris Wiersema, who passed away unexpectedly but peacefully a few weeks ago. One may recognize Chris\u2019 name from some of the other community music projects he was involved in. These include\u00a0Mission Creek Festival<\/a>, of which he was producer and programming director;\u00a0Witching Hour<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cdedicated to exploring the unknown, discussing the creative process, and presenting new work\u201d; and most recently\u00a0FEaST<\/a>, a fall-time festival that allowed concertgoers to \u201ccommune in our shared love of strange and beautiful music \u201cas the threat of \u2018All I Want For Xmas is You\u2019 looms large on the horizon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The artists that\u00a0Feed Me Weird Things<\/strong>\u00a0brought through town gave intriguing, meaningful, deeply beautiful, and downright strange performances (sometimes all at once). Chris supported local musicians by booking them as openers for each visiting artist, and he promoted them all with equal amounts of enthusiasm and confidence. Performers and audience members alike will always be grateful for what Chris did for the avant-garde music scene in Iowa City.<\/p>\n

You can hear the work of the local and visiting artists by clicking on some of the links below, by looking at the \u201cPast Artists\u201d section on the\u00a0FMWT website<\/a>, or by stopping by the display and using the QR codes near each poster. Thank you for taking the time to read, to look, to listen, and to share in the vision of Chris Wiersema and Feed Me Weird Things<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A public memorial for Chris will take place from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 7,\u00a0at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City. You can read more about Chris\u2019 work and life\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The scheduled spring season of\u00a0Feed Me Weird Things<\/strong>\u00a0will continue; all show updates can be found at Trumpet Blossom Caf\u00e9\u2019s\u00a0Instagram page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The posters of FEED ME WEIRD THINGS: <\/strong>an exhibit in honor of FWMT founder Chris Wiersema (1980-2024) was curated and installed by Christine Burke, Library Assistant IV at the Rita Benton Music Library.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Posters from the archives of\u00a0Feed Me Weird Things\u00a0(2017-present) have taken over the outer windows of the Rita Benton Music Library, a welcome and colorful distraction from winter\u2019s untimely return this week. These posters, the work of\u00a0Dylan Marcus McConnell, showcase just a fraction of the 70+ artists that have been programmed on the series and encompassContinue reading “Feed Me Weird Things: Celebrating the contributions of the late Chris Wiersema”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,28],"tags":[],"syndication":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1286"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1294,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286\/revisions\/1294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1286"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=1286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}