Ames, Set, Go!

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

April 21, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Happy five freedoms!

This week’s events include a lecture by author and immersion journalist A.J. Jacobs, who will discuss his previous experiment of living within the bounds of the original meaning of the U.S. Constitution.

Elsewhere, Iowa Supreme Court Justice Christopher McDonald also talks about the Constitution, CeCe Winans comes to Ames, Ames Piano Quartet performs Fauré and Schumann, the Symphonic Band gets semiquincentennial, horticulturist Melinda Myers digs gardening, Ames Women’s Choir shares happiness and Henry A. Wallace comes alive on the stage.


Co-Editors: Anthony Capps & Amber Mohmand
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Celebrating Our Volunteers

For this National Volunteer Week, we’re noting the people who ensure your news is accurate, timely and fair.
Newsroom Engine: A massive thank you to Anthony Capps and Amber Mohmand, our editor and news editor who manage the complex daily flow of information.
Sharpest Eyes: Our dedicated copy editors, Mike Krapfl and Jodi O'Donnell, who ensure every word is polished before it hits your inbox.
The Newshounds: We are incredibly grateful for our current group of tireless reporters: Bill Monroe, Jared Larson, Mike Kitchell, Artemis Tack, Fiona Winn, Davin Bakerink and Deni Chamberlin.
Previous Contributors: There are numerous others who have also provided us with copy, editing help and so many other valuable contributions. This especially includes the journalism students who have occasionally offered up photos from local happenings.
Community Voices: We are thankful for those who are contributing these informative local pieces, including the people at the Ames History Museum as well as Jim Colbert and Nolan Sagan.
Systems Architect: A special shoutout to Charlie Weaver and Jason Burns. Behind every clean layout and managed subscriber list is Jason and Charlie’s vital technical and data oversight.

 

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Event Spotlight

Author A.J. Jacobs

Lecture

Exploring Originalism: A Year of Living Constitutionally

6 p.m. Tuesday | Sun Room, Memorial Union

Best‑selling author A.J. Jacobs, who has previously attempted Radical Honesty, read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica and lived for a year following every rule in the Bible, discusses constitutional interpretation and the practice of “living constitutionally” in modern law.

Calendar of Events

Ongoing

🎥 Cyclone Cinema: The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants
7 p.m. Thursday through Sunday | Carver 101
Desperate to be a big guy, SpongeBob sets out to prove his bravery to Mr. Krabs by following the Flying Dutchman, a mysterious swashbuckling ghost pirate, to the deepest depths of the deep sea.
FREE

Tuesday, April 21

🎶 Opera Studio – Shadows and Echoes: Music and Art on Campus
7:30 p.m. | Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall, Music Hall
Students in the music department perform fully staged scenes from famous operas and operettas. This program provides a look at the dramatic and vocal training of the department’s vocalists.
$10 public; free for students

Wednesday, April 22

🎥 Sitting Still
5:30 p.m. | Kocimski Auditorium, 0101 Design
This documentary features preeminent landscape architect Laurie Olin, one of the world’s most influential urban designers, and his profoundly social vision.
FREE

 

Research psychologist Gary L. Wells looks at how psychological science has revolutionized our understanding of eyewitness evidence and “whodunnits.”
FREE

 

In this one-act play, actor Tom Milligan portrays Henry A. Wallace, the agricultural innovator and founder of Pioneer Hi-Bred seed corn company who became U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and later vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt.
FREE

 

Iowa Supreme Court Justice Christopher McDonald explores the Constitution’s deliberate architecture of tension, the judiciary’s growing centrality to the resolution of those tensions, and the ongoing dialogue between state and federal courts that embodies the Founders’ vision of productive institutional competition.
FREE

 

🎷 Jazz Night "Digits"
7:30 p.m. | Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall, Music Hall
Jazz 2.0 and the ISU Jazz Combos play tunes whose titles are numerical, featuring works by Rob McConnell, Bob Reynolds, Pat Metheny, Oliver Nelson, Radiohead, Stan Kenton and John Coltrane.
$10 public; free for students

Thursday, April 23

👨‍🏫 Queering Taxonomy: How to Challenge Categorizations that Divide and Separate
5 p.m. | Cardinal Room, Memorial Union
This reading and lecture by poet and community organizer Matty Layne Glasgow invites us to consider the paradoxical — how we might deconstruct established taxonomic categories of genre, science and cultural identity to help us innovate new practices that can embrace the queer and fluid, the lyric, joyful and connective.
FREE

 

🌱 Gardening for Your Health and Well-Being
6 p.m. | Sun Room, Memorial Union
Gardening expert, TV/radio host, author and columnist Melinda Myers discusses the physical and mental health benefits of therapeutic gardening and nature connection.
FREE

 

🎤 Mango Soul / Mike Walsh Band
7 p.m. | Alluvial Brewing
A groove-heavy double header featuring classic rock, soul and country influences.
$5

 

🎤 CeCe Winans: More Than This Tour
7 p.m. | Stephens Auditorium
Cece Winans’ More Than This Tour features the expected worship moments like “Goodness of God,” “Believe for It,” and “Alabaster Box” while also introducing new standards like “That’s My King,” “Holy Forever,” “Come Jesus Come” and more.
$37+

Friday, April 24

🎤 Weary Ramblers and Beggars’ Bargain
7 p.m. | Ames City Auditorium
Newly-formed Iowa Americana duo Weary Ramblers brings together Chad Elliott and Kathryn Fox and a showcase of multi-instrumental performances. Rooted in indie rock and Americana, Beggars’ Bargain combines Micah Spurlock’s Texas blues guitar with Joe Bach’s philosophical songwriting.
$10

🎶 ISU Wind Ensemble
7:30 p.m. | Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall, Music Hall
The concert band at Iowa State performs advanced wind literature by contemporary composers. Featured will be Julie Giroux’s Sixth Symphony, The Blue Marble, which will accompany an amazing film based on Planet Earth.
$10 public; free for students

 

🎤 Lipstick Homicide and Bat Problem w/ Sunchoke
8 p.m. | Maintenance Shop
This rock show features Iowa City-based punk pop favorites Lipstick Homicide and the newly established Des Moines rock band Bat Problem.
$10+ public, $6+ ISU students

Saturday, April 25

🎺 Symphonic Band: Americans, We!
7:30 p.m. | Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall, Music Hall
A concert celebrating the spirit of America ahead of the 250th anniversary this summer.
$10 public; free for students

Sunday, April 26

🎹 Ames Piano Quartet Recital
3 p.m. | Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall, Music Hall
Come enjoy the Ames Piano Quartet as they perform two of the great masterpieces of chamber music: Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Quartet in G minor and Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet.

 

🎤 Good Company: Ames Women’s Choir presents “The Nature of Happiness” Spring Concert
7 p.m. | St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, 209 Colorado
Through a program of expressive and inspiring works, the choir invites you to pause, listen and experience the moments of happiness that music can bring. The concert will also feature the premiere of five new choral works by its collaborative pianist, Peter Roberts.
$15+

Monday, April 27

Ames Laboratory Senior Scientist Paul C. Canfield explores how the design, discovery, characterization and control of novel materials underpin solutions to some of the 21st century’s most urgent challenges.
FREE

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