What to do this weekend - August 7, 2025

Hi,

Welcome to This Week In Lincoln.

Thanks to all the new folks who've signed up recently! Scroll down and you'll find the usual roundup of local events happening later this week. But first, I've got a few other things to share.

Some of you might not know, but I sometimes publish writing in publications that are much cooler than this little blog. For example: I've got a new story in the Flatwater Free Press today! It's about the impact of federal funding cuts to organizations in Nebraska that support the arts. The cuts have hit things like theaters, music festivals, First Friday art walks — exactly the kind of stuff I try to highlight in this newsletter every week.

Here are the first few paragraphs:

Dave Marsh stepped up onto the flatbed trailer that would serve as his stage. The gig: an Independence Day celebration near Crawford in Nebraska’s far northwest corner, far from his home outside of Lincoln.

Despite the distance, the scene felt familiar.

The longtime musician has spent the past 30 years traversing the state to educate audiences about his eclectic arsenal of instruments, which includes the accordion and the guitar but also the hammered dulcimer and bodhran, among many others. He estimates he has introduced hundreds of Nebraska kids to folk music during that time.

“A lot of these kids don’t know what a banjo is,” said Marsh, who also plays banjo. “And a lot of the other instruments that I play are things that they just don’t see.”

But that musical mission could be in jeopardy. Humanities Nebraska, which financially supports Marsh’s work and hundreds of similar programs that reach tens of thousands of Nebraskans each year, is among at least a dozen cultural institutions in the state facing financial uncertainty in the wake of federal funding cuts by the Trump administration earlier this year.

You can read the whole thing here, and then go support the Flatwater Free Press! Help them pay me to write more stories like this.

There's so much news happening all the time, and so many bad things to keep track of. You probably saw a headline at some point in the past few months about the arts and humanities being defunded. But I tried my best to do a more substantive follow-up on past coverage and capture the material impact of what DOGE and the Trump administration are doing.

One thing I didn't really realize until I started reporting this story: A ton of the cuts in Nebraska have hit programs that introduce kids — and especially kids in low-income households — to music and theater. The fact that poorer children will be hurt more by such "cost-cutting" measures seems obvious to me now in retrospect. Wealthy families will always be able buy private music lessons and instruments and theater tickets for their kids; that's never going to be a problem for them. But when public programs are defunded, it's all the other children who lose out and, by extension, the community as a whole.

There was also some relevant breaking news last night that I wasn't able to mention in my story: A federal judge ruled that DOGE's attempt to slash grants to support the humanities — including money intended for Humanities Nebraska, an organization featured heavily in my story — was likely unconstitutional. What this means for the future still isn't totally clear. It'll likely be a long time before anyone gets their promised funding — if it ever happens at all. But I wanted to mention that news here.


One more thing: I've got an update on a previous newsletter.

Folks who've been reading for a while might remember me complaining about how, since I moved here earlier this year, I hadn't managed to exchange a Midwest/Nebraska/one-finger wave while driving, despite my repeated attempts. (I'm willing to admit that it's probably because I haven't spent enough time driving in rural areas.)

But that finally changed! Someone in Lincoln reciprocated! A big thank you to the random man in the white sports car who I passed while driving to the co-op last night. You helped make me feel welcome.


Got an event you want to see included in next week's newsletter? Submit it here. You can also send feedback, suggestions, compliments and criticism to tynanstewart@proton.me

Thanks so much for reading. Talk to you again next Thursday!

~ Ty

P.S. This newsletter is free to read, but I do have a paid option for anyone who'd like to support the work I'm doing. If you don't have the means, I totally understand. But please consider sharing this issue with someone who'd find it useful or interesting!


Thursday, August 7


Friday, August 8


Saturday, August 9


Sunday, August 10


Things to do next week:


Things to do later this month and next: