Mary Todd Lincoln lived a life filled with triumphs and tragedies. But few genuinely know her story, and in the Bettendorf Public Library's February 12 program Historic Voices: Mrs. Lincoln in Love, patrons are invited to listen in as Mary – as portrayed by librarian and touring performer Laura Keyes – reflects on the loves of her life: her children, her husband, and her country.

With their works deemed “fresh and innovative” by the Chicago Tribune and “so imaginative, so playfully revisionist, so superbly realized” by the Chicago Sun-Times, the Windy City hoofers of Chicago Dance Crash bring their new stage show LXIV (six.four) to Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre on February 7, the company’s fusion-style moves creating intensely physical, authentic, and narrative-driven art.

Delivering the Spring 2026 Michael Lester Wendt Character Lecture for the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center, the institution's president Travis Frampton, PhD will speak on Heroes, Villains, & Leading Roles: How Stories Shape Character, this insightful program taking place in the John and Alice Butler Hall on February 9.

Enabling visitors to explore the remarkable ways in which animals across 500 million years have adapted armor for survival, and how these adaptations continue to inspire human innovation, the traveling exhibition Animal Armor takes residence in Davenport's Putnam Museum & Science Center through February 15, the fascinating exhibit exploring the evolutionary battle between protection and predation.