Iowa City residents braved the cold Monday to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Iowa City Senior Center, marking the start of Black Future Fest. The building buzzed with jazz music and displayed African American Iowan artists artwork, while volunteers participated in a food drive, a community mural, and a potluck.
LaTasha DeLoach, director of the Iowa City Senior Center, said few local events focus on Black History Month, and that discussions of specific cultures can feel almost taboo today.
“I think it’s fully important that our community still celebrates these different backgrounds, because they’re all a part of the American experience, and the history of how Black people have impacted in the United States is undeniable,” DeLoach said.
For the last two years, the senior center has hosted a Black History Ball, with a different theme each year attendees dressing up, and having a live band. DeLoach had considered Afrofuturism — a cultural movement that blends Black history, science fiction, and technology — theme for a future ball but decided to try something smaller in 2026.
“We have a group of folks of color who are seniors,” DeLoach said. “We wanted to make sure that we were ensuring that we had activities that they wanted to participate in.”
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The event started simple, with DeLoach thinking of doing an art show. As she began to talk with members of the community the event started to grow, becoming a multi-site, month-long festival titled, “Black Future Fest.”
“It started with a seed, and it grew. Very, very quickly. And so now it’s 12 organizations,” DeLoach said.
The event is now collaborating with multiple organizations across the city, including Iowa City Senior Center, Public Space One, Iowa City Public Library, FilmScene, UNESCO City of Literature, Art Advisory Committee, Dream City, Iowa City Foreign Relations Council, Founders of Iowa City Africa Fest, United Action for Youth.
Kylie Buddin, director of prevention programs for United Action of Youth, came in later during the planning process for the event to support the mural aspect of the event.
The mural combines square shaped canvases to create one collective piece of art. Canvases have been handed out since December and will be put together to create an art gallery. There is no instruction to what is painted, Buddin said, only that there is blue included — representing the senior center’s 45th anniversary this year.
DeLoach said while many murals reflect a single person’s vision, the mural showcases multiple perspectives.
“These are three different people with three different thoughts. But, imagine them right, next to each other, right? Like, it just really tells a story about the community,” DeLoach said.
The festival title, “Parables of the Future: Black Future Fest” — inspired by Octavia Butler and her book “Parable of the Sower” — hopes to not deny Black history of struggle but imagine the future without struggle, combining themes of science fiction and time travel.
“The more I kept thinking about who Martin Luther King was, the more I realized he was Afrofuturistic, and was thinking about what we’re thinking, the world or the country look like, if Black folks really had the ability to be truly liberated, truly free,” DeLoach said.
In the basement of the senior center was a food drive with tables covered in everything from canned goods to clothing items.
“It’s just really a day of service. I think sometimes on Martin Luther King Junior, or MLK Day we don’t always really do service things,” DeLoach said.
What started out as a small college dorm fridge slowly grew to become the Senior Center’s food pantry. DeLoach said the pantry serves around 75 to 100 people a week every Monday now. The pantry helps older adults who may struggle with mobility or income challenges but any community member can use it.
Volunteers and community members crowded around the canvases, pausing to admire each other’s paintings as the mural took shape.
Elizabeth Becker, of Iowa City, sat with her friend as she painted a horse on a square canvas. She has lived in Iowa City for the last five years and graduated from the University of Iowa and said she loved coming to these events and being with the community.
“I love spending time with people who are in the community, just being around so many smiley faces too. I think it’s a good opportunity to be able to do something for people that you’re interacting with face- to-face,” Becker said.
It’s unclear whether the event will return next year, though many attendees have expressed interest in seeing it come back.
“In our community, between the writers’ workshop, and the art department at the university, the comic book shop here in town, there’s a lot of folks who enjoy science fiction, enjoy avant garde arts, our music, our fashion. I think there’s a community for it,” Buddin said.
If the event does continue, DeLoach hopes that other members will take it on.
“I have no problem sharing this idea because it’s about the community. It is not about me personally. It can be smaller, it can be bigger. We’ll see,” DeLoach said.
