More than a dozen local, regional, and national speakers will deliver live and video presentations in the March 27 TEDxDavenport conference at the Figge Art Museum, a networking event themed “Limitless” that will join open-minded idea-seekers in a half-day exploration of unique experiences designed to inspire, inform, and challenge.
This feature collects articles published online by Quad Cities-area media outlets and by CapitolFax.com and the state-politics sections of the Des Moines Register and the State Journal-Register.
Appearing locally in a special partnership between the Davenport Public Library and Rock Island Public Library, National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds – the award-winning author of works including 2017's Marvel Comics novel Miles Morales: Spider-Man – will read from and deliver presentations on his literary output in a trio of special area engagements at the Davenport Main Library on March 28 and Rock Island High School on March 29.
Classical composers, iconic characters, and an assemblage of phenomenal dancers and musicians will combine in the latest presentation by the area talents of Ballet Quad Cities and Orchestra Iowa: Peter & the Wolf, Mother Goose, & Other Tales, which will enjoy two March 30 performances at Davenport's Adler Theatre and unite crowds in appreciation of the joys, terrors, and wonders of children's stories and fairytales.
Race is an issue that, in daily life, can feel like a daunting one to approach. Yet Davenport's Putnam Museum & Science Center is addressing the subject head-on in its new, interactive, and accessible traveling exhibition RACE: Are We So Different? Open to museum guests from January 26 through June 2, RACE aims to help visitors of all ages better understand the origins and manifestations of race and racism in everyday life by investigating race and challenging its misconceptions through the framework of science. And as Putnam President and CEO Kim Findlay says, it's an exhibit designed “to explore race through history, science, and culture – which happen to be the three things the Putnam focuses on.”
Should proponents of legalizing cannabis in Illinois be worried about Representative Marty Moylan's (D-Des Plaines) House resolution?
A bunch of weak political arguments have been used so far against Governor JB Pritzker's proposed constitutional amendment for a graduated income tax. But there is a clear path to killing it.
Democrats often propose ideas that take forever to explain and are often difficult for the masses to understand. That wasn't the case last week.
A lobbyist who works for a business-related organization asked me a question the other day that I've been hearing a lot lately: "Who's going to be the stopper now?"
What he meant was: Who in the legislative process can be counted on these days to help derail bills which are deemed hostile to business interests?
Give Governor JB Pritzker some credit: The man can give a good speech.
One of the most beloved and iconic rock operas of all time will enjoy a spectacular new staging by the talents of Quad City Music Guild when Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium hosts the March 22 through 31 run of Jesus Christ Superstar, the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice classic boasting such unforgettable numbers as “Everything's Alright,” “Hosanna,” “King Herod's Song,” and the timeless ballad “I Don't Know How to Love Him.”
A lauded stage work in which, according to the New York Times, “music, words, and performance meld into a spectrum of clashing emotions” and composer Jason Robert Brown “confirms his sparkling facility as a composer, fluidly mixing diverse styles,” The Last Five Years plays locally in a March 28 through April 7 presentation at Moline's Black Box Theatre, the two-character piece described by Variety as “bittersweet and nearly perfect.”
A Tony Award nominee and Pulitzer Prize finalist will be the special guest in three presentations at Augustana College on March 29 through 30, as the college hosts readings, a playwriting workshop, and an evening celebration with Sarah Ruhl, the author of such critically acclaimed stage productions as Eurydice, Clean House, Dead Man's Cell Phone, and In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play).
A Tony Award-winning modern classic will enjoy a special presentation at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre on March 29 and 30, as Bridges Collective and TOH (Testimonies of Hope) Argow's House present author Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf, the poetic meditation on African-American life that the New York Daily News called “a triumphant event” and Time magazine deemed “a pognant, gripping, angry, and beautiful work.”
It was mentioned – more than once – at its opening-night performance that the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse’s production of Diamonds & Divas: A Murderous Fiasco was the comedy's United States professional premiere. If we were supposed to be impressed by that fact, it really isn't saying much, as author Robin Hawdon's script would feel right at home with a group of American middle-schoolers. However, the cast, composed of many familiar Circa '21 favorites, injects talent amidst the chaos of this melodramatic escapade, almost fully redeeming an otherwise ridiculous affair.
With the musical bio-pic Bohemian Rhapsody a recent winner of four Academy Awards that has grossed more than $215 million domestic and $875 million worldwide, Freddie Mercury and Queen may be hotter now than ever – which is sure to be proven by the raucous crowd response on March 24 when Moline's TaxSlayer Center pays tribute to the iconic British rockers in the stage spectacle One Night of Queen, performed by Gary Mullen & the Works.
Lauded by Living Blues magazine as “21st Century blues at its best,” the Memphis-based artists of the Ghost Town Blues Band perform a March 24 concert at the Moline Viking Club presented by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society, treating audiences to the soulful, electrifying effects of, as Living Blues stated, “what can happen when the past is distilled through young sensibilities, voices, and instruments.”
Nashville’s crunchy indie rock outfit Airpark and Toronto-based garage rock/surf pop crew Goodbye Honolulu land at the Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel on March 27. While both bands retread some time-honored rock tropes that have been swirling around the indie sphere for years, they each bring enough earworm vocal hooks and confident guitar work to stand out from the crowd.
Named after the legendary contralto and recipient of such honors as the Congressional Gold Medal, the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the award-winning Marian Anderson String Quartet performs as the latest guests in Quad City Arts' Visiting Artist series, the classical musicians' March 29 and 30 performances showcasing the gifts that the Austin Chronicle called “as sweet and soothing as a hand laid gently upon your cheek.”
With Blues Rock Review calling him “a contemporary blues master” and Chicago Blues Guide labeling him an artist who “can sooth, stimulate, and in some cases electrify his audiences with his show-stopping performances,” blues singer/songwriter/guitarist Albert Cummings headlines a spirited Redstone Room concert on March 29, demonstrating the skills that led Grammy-winning producer David Z. to rave, “Albert Cummings writes, plays, and sings the blues like nobody else.”
Is there any stronger gauge of movie stardom than the ability to singlehandedly redeem an otherwise unworthy film?
The Reader's Mike Schulz and OurQuadCities.com's Ashe Simpson cover new releases Five Feet Apart, Apollo 11, and Wonder Park, plus Mike’s first impressions of Jordan Peele's Us.
Iron Man is sarcastic. Thor is arrogant. Hulk is ill-tempered. Captain America is patriotic to a fault. And Captain Marvel, a.k.a. the human Carol Danvers, a.k.a. the alien Vers, is … female. At least, that felt like the chief takeaway from Captain Marvel, whose filmmakers and star have given us a perfectly respectable comic-book role model while neglecting to make her in any way interesting.
Contrary to Tyler Perry's public statements, I don't for an instant believe that his latest showcase for the straight-shooting, bible-thumping, politically-way-incorrect Madea – Tyler Perry's A Madea Family Funeral – is going to mark the house-dress-wearing hellion's final film appearance, especially considering that the titular ceremony isn't being held for Madea her(him)self. But maybe that's just preemptive grief talking, given that Perry's latest might be his most wholly satisfying Madea outing to date.
Given that they tend to get their jobs done even when the works themselves are crap, triumph-of-the-underdog sports flicks are perhaps the only genre movies almost completely impervious to criticism. You can fail to be amused by a comedy or excited by a thriller, but if the heroes win the big game and the music swells and everyone on-screen – and everyone sitting around you – is tearfully cheering and somehow you're still not moved? That's on you, not the film.
A contributing appraiser for PBS' popular, Emmy Award-nominated series Antiques Roadshow, Arlie Sulka appears as the special guest in the Figge Art Museum's March 28 Scholar Talk, lending her knowledge of rare artworks to a presentation devoted to pieces in the Davenport venue's current exhibition Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection.
Beautiful and evocative works by a pair of natural-landscape painters – one a native Canadian, one hailing from Moline – will adorn the walls of the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy from March 30 through April 26, with the Bettendorf venue inviting us all to “Think spring!” in the new exhibition Prairie Light: Pam Ohnemus & Cynthia Starkweather-Nelson.
Cityscapes in Chicago, New York, and numerous other worldwide locations will be on display in the latest exhibition at the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy, with the venue hosting Robert Reeves: Sounds of the City from February 23 through March 29 – a collection of paintings reflecting the hidden beauty in sights that millions of people likely view as everyday.
Works by one of the Quad Cities' most revered artistic talents and an emeritus professor at St. Ambrose University will be on display at MidCoast Gallery West / The ARTery February 8 through March 31, with the Rock Island venue celebrating its 10th birthday with the debut of the new exhibition Leslie Bell: Paintings & Drawings Waiting to Go On.
From February 1 through March 31, vibrant watercolors by one of the Quad Cities' most accomplished artists will be showcased in Tom Hempel: Retrospective, a exhibited collection of works by the Davenport-based talent who has painted more than 1,700 originals depicting a wide variety of subjects that include water scenes, landscapes, and the architecture of area homes, schools, office buildings, and churches.
You'll get a rundown of What's Happenin' along with your keys to the Quad Cities' culture.
