dsmWeekly - June 4, 2025

By Michael Morain

Dee Dee Bridgewater was at home in New Orleans a few years ago when an idea struck her out of the blue.

“I woke up one morning and heard his name,” she said. “And I thought to myself, maybe I’m supposed to work with him. I called my agent and said my God-voice told me I’m supposed to work with Bill Charlap.”

So here they are now: The singer with three Grammys and a Tony (for playing “Glinda” in “The Wiz” back in 1975) and the Grammy-winning pianist who knows the American Songbook inside out. Together, they’ll take the stage at Hoyt Sherman Place for a concert on June 12, just one day before releasing their new album, “Elemental.”

Bridgewater said audiences can expect to see “two individuals having a musical conversation, getting caught up in the magic of this wonderful connection that Bill and I have developed over the last few years.” They often decide their setlist on the fly, choosing whichever songs feel right in the moment, but there’s a good chance they’ll include “Honeysuckle Rose,” the Fats Waller classic they’ve turned into a fresh hit.

Bridgewater, 75, has spent nearly six decades pushing jazz forward without losing sight of its roots. Her career has spanned continents and genres, from her Paris years to her Tony-winning turn on Broadway. She’s a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, the founder of the Woodshed Network for women in jazz, and even a goodwill ambassador for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Charlap, 59, is known for his virtuosity, encyclopedic knowledge and work with the likes of Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand and now Bridgewater. “We’ve become a gentle force of nature,” she said.

Their Des Moines concert offers a rare chance to witness that force up close — two musical storytellers in sync, interpreting beloved old tunes through a new lens. As Bridgewater put it: “We don’t tour all the time, so when we do, we make it count.”

The annual PrideFest parade starts at noon Sunday in the East Village. (Photo: Capital City Pride)

BEST BET

The heart of the city beats with Pride

PrideFest unfurls a whole rainbow of celebration, protest, culture and more this weekend in the East Village. Organized by Capital City Pride, the festivities start at 5 p.m. Friday with performances on two stages, food trucks, street booths and a silent disco. Admission to the entire festival is free and open to everyone of all ages and stripes.

Saturday starts with the Pride Stride 5K run/walk/sashay, followed by the annual pet pageant where fabulously dressed show off their style. Throughout the day, you can pay your respects to drag royalty and peruse various festival zones for pets (opening at 9 a.m.), teens (10 a.m.) and families and youth (11 a.m.). There’s something for everyone.

On Sunday, you can take part in a guided yoga session (9 a.m.), cardio dance party (10 a.m.) or worship service (also 10 a.m.) before the big parade starts at noon.

The Week Ahead

“Hamilton,” 7:30 tonight through June 15, Des Moines Civic Center. A little song-and-dance show about the American Revolution — maybe you’ve heard of it? — takes another shot in Central Iowa, just about 250 years after the real story that inspired it.

Annual Landscape Show, 4-7 p.m. Friday, Olson-Larsen Galleries. This year’s show opens with a reception Friday and continues through July 26 with earthy, luminous or otherwise eye-catching paintings, drawings and photos by Gary Bowling, Jean Gumpper, Kristen Lansing-Stoeffler, Emily Milewsky, Ellen Wagener, Barbara Walton and Angela Warren.

“Torch Song,” 7:30 p.m. Friday through June 15, Des Moines Civic Center’s Stoner Theater. For Pride month, Iowa Stage Theatre revives Harvey Fierstein’s award-winning show about a New York drag queen who wants nothing more than a husband, a child and a pair of decent bunny slippers.

Circuit Court Day, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Living History Farms. Every half hour, reenactors as lawyers, witnesses and a judge present real Iowa court cases from the 1870s. Visitors sit on the jury and get to see whether their verdicts match the real ones.

Iowa Craft Brew Festival, 1 p.m. Saturday, Water Works Park. A full day of beer, cider, food trucks and music. What’s not to love?

Arts awards: The Des Moines Arts Festival announced multidisciplinary artist Jill Wells as the recipient of the 2025 G. David Hurd Innovator of the Arts award. “Jill Wells was selected because she pushes boundaries and has challenged our community to be better,” Arts Fest’s Executive Director Stephen King said in a prepared statement. "Dave would be particularly proud of her work mentoring younger people and leveraging her talent to explore the intersection of accessibility, inequality, race and history." Learn more about Wells in this dsm profile from 2022.

Speaking of the Arts Festival … it’s one of a handful nonprofits based at Mainframe Studios, which are the focus of this month’s First Friday. The open house from 5 to 8 p.m. will feature several exhibitions, including a retrospective of arts festival posters (1998-2025), “Fertile Ground” by the North River Arts Council, youth artwork from ArtForce Iowa, artwork by Seso Marentes at M/A/S/S Gallery, “The Faces of Mental Health” by photographer Anna S. at Momentum, and the unveiling of this year’s painted pianos by City Sounds.

Colossal cravat: Local baker Andrew Fuller, who made a name for himself on the Netflix series "Is It Cake?" was in Los Angeles this past weekend for the network's "Tudum" publicity event. So who was he wearing on the red carpet? For starters, Des Moines Playhouse costume designer Angela Lampe, who made him a fabulous 11-foot necktie.

Investing in health: Mind & Spirit Counseling Center is partnering with the local holistic wellness boutique Inner Space to make mental health care more accessible. Now through July 31, patrons can enjoy the services at Inner Space at a discounted price using a one-time code “WHW2025,” and 10% of proceeds from the service will be donated back to Mind & Spirit to support mental healthcare for those in need.

By Jann Freed

Think of someone you love being around — someone who makes time stand still simply because you’re learning from them by listening.

These people tend to be rare, but for me, one of them is Judy Milligan. She has 90 years of life experience, and I am fascinated by all of it.

She taught art at several schools over the course of her career, including many years at Roosevelt High School, but her influence extends far beyond the classroom. She's displayed her sculptures at the Polk County Heritage Gallery and her jewelry art at the Des Moines Art Center, where she is an honorary trustee. She's served on the boards of Trees Forever as well as local and national garden clubs, and her own garden was once honored by the Smithsonian. Her creativity and curiosity are apparent in everything she does.

"Creativity makes aging easier," she told me.

Several years ago, I heard her give a program about journaling, a practice she started as a student at Drake University. Her journals are filled with notes, quotes, drawings, news clippings and more, an she has about 20 so far. “These books keep my ramblings in order,” she said. “I try to revisit some of the journals in January. This is one way I process my life experience. I discover new things, find pleasure and seek design solutions.”

Creative travel

Milligan traveled worldwide with her family — her husband and son, both named George, and daughter Lisa — and led tours with high school students for seven summers while she was teaching.

“Traveling gets you away from your norm,” she said. “You come home with a new awareness. You come back with new possibilities, ideas, designs and an appreciation of architecture. The world is wonderfully beyond what we live with daily at home, but we’re always eager to get back home.”

These days, she added, “I truly love to be home.”

Creative home and garden

If you ever visit Milligan at her South of Grand home, you’ll see she’s the opposite of a minimalist. She describes her style as “happily eclectic,” with a home filled with artwork and artifacts from her travels through Maine, Barcelona, Santorini and Monet’s gardens at Giverny, to name just a few of her favorite destinations. She also displays ceramics she made during local workshops with David Dahlquist, and some of her artwork overflows into the garden, where she’s designed several themed alcoves.

Everything tells a story, even the most ordinary objects, which she transforms into something poetically sculptural. “I don’t like throwing things away. I prefer finding them a new purpose,” she said. “I love to see the possibilities in everything.”

In her garden, a pair of antique church doors from Round Top, Texas, opens to a path of sculptures. There are also several “treasure trees” she made by trimming old Christmas trees back to their skeleton branches and then decorating them with fruit, bones, Champagne corks and other odds and ends.

She named her garden the “Raven Haven” after two nesting ravens she occasionally treats with bits of hot dog. A flock of finches lives there, too, and often catch the attention of her two dogs, Bunch and Blossom. As she put it, “Gardens, pets and birds are all valuable assets to any mature soul’s life experience.”

She maintains her garden with help from Melissa Deering, one of the many former students she’s befriended over the years. Milligan said those intergenerational friendships have helped her stay engaged and curious.

Creative aging

Milligan almost always has fresh flowers in her home. “They make me smile and I place them where I can see them when I look in the mirror,” she said. “The flowers help me look in the mirror at this age.”

Our society tends to treat aging as something negative, something to postpone. But aging gracefully is about embracing our whole being. By reflecting on our lives, we can process our experience into wisdom that we can pass along to people who matter to us.

Creativity and curiosity help us think beyond ourselves and divert our attention away from our own inevitable pains and losses. Milligan doesn’t complain.

“Age has given me the freedom to eliminate what I don’t want to do,” she said. “I would rather be in the garden than at any meeting. The challenge is not having the energy as I did when I was younger, but I am comfortable being mellow.”

At the end of my visit, I realized her zest for life goes beyond creativity and curiosity. She approaches life with intention — curating her spaces with intention and allowing them to evolve with the seasons. The life she’s built is inspiring, energizing and thought-provoking because she truly sees possibility in everything.

As I headed out, she showed me a large, handwritten board that hangs in her art studio, which reminds her daily how she wants to live her life:

Think natural
Loosen up
Pare down
Color in (not inside the lines)
Friends deserve time
Savor the earth
Garden with soul
Live artfully
Love friends and family
Balance solitude with fun
Find joy in the unexpected
Enjoy your nest!