On September 17, a second-generation Holocaust speaker will share the remarkable story of her mother, Adela Goldberg, in the Moline Public Library program Memories of the Holocaust, Ruth Yablonsky speaking on one vital woman's life as a survivor, witness, and keeper of an important piece of history.
A unique production that combines world-class human talent, circus artistry, theatrical performance, and a touch of the mysterious and unexpected, the touring sensation Paranormal Cirque: Inferno enjoys performances at Davenport's Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds September 18 through 21, this R-rated event combining the excitement of a high-flying circus with a Gothic, supernatural narrative.
Held in celebration of their 70th anniversary as a community center for arts and culture, Moline's Butterworth Center and Deere-Wiman House will host their annual Porch Party on September 20, The community is invited to join in the festivities and tour all four buildings on the Deere-Wiman and Butterworth properties, including the tunnel that connects the Deere-Wiman House to the Carriage House.
Headlining a rare standup set in Davenport – so rare that, on his Web site, the comedian states “I don't tour so much anymore!” – New York-based funnyman Dave Ross performs at the Raccoon Motel on September 21, his evening show also featuring sets by standup comic Zach Peterson, Stu Cline, and Donny Townsend.
Over the past 250 years, German immigrants and their descendants, particularly in the Midwest, have helped develop, challenge, and improve the United States. The German American Heritage Center will consequently celebrate their history and accomplishments in Shaped by Immigrants: Celebrating 250 Years of the United States, on display in the Davenport venue through November 1.
Take, for example, corn. You probably didn’t expect that. But however you might measure intelligence, it is probably only valid if corn’s is higher than ours. In the fauna realm, if a Martian landed in my community and reported back to their spaceship on who is in charge down here, they would almost certainly have to say “pigs.”
Last September in Washington D.C., the International Center For 9/11 Justice (IC911.org) hosted a multi-day conference that publicly documented new and prior 9/11 Truth research results. This year, on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the Turn the Tide conference is back, now in New York City from September 10 to 13. Once again, the conference's speakers are the world's foremost 9/11 Truth experts within numerous expertise areas. This year, new speakers include Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, academic Bret Weinstein, and investigative journalist and author Nick Bryant.
The tragic attacks on September 11, 2001 are 25 years old this month. This issue's cover story author Jason Bermas co-produced and edited Loose Change: The Final Cut, an exceptional, timeless documentary released in 2007. Jason and crew catalogue the overwhelming amount of evidence that defies the hopelessly uninspired official fairytales, scripted for public consumption by our government and mainlined into our emotionally susceptible brains via media devices using a relentless “rinse and repeat” strategy of high-strung propaganda designed to anchor the official fiction as the real story. If you have not watched Loose Change, you should and can at RCReader.com/y/loose-change.
Hours after the social media giant Meta agreed last Wednesday to settle a case brought by 47 state attorneys general and implement reforms to protect children from social media harms, the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) issued a demand that all of Illinois’ portion of the $17.1 billion settlement – $768 million – be designated “to address the funding crisis for school districts across the state.”
Yet another sexual harassment allegation has been made against an Illinois House Democrat. But this time, the House speaker’s operation is fully supporting its incumbent.
Described by Time Out New York as an “insanely fun mixtape musical” and by Variety as a show that “gleefully apes the worst excesses of the era's pole-dancing, crotch-grinding, big-hair-tossing movies,” the Broadway smash Rock of Ages enjoys a September 16 through November 7 run at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, treating audiences to a celebration of 1980s chart-toppers that NY1 called “so cleverly staged and impressively performed that it's an irresistible, offbeat trip of a show that hits all the right notes.”
Lauded by the New York Times as a "big bearhug of a musical" in which "even the most stalwart cynics may have trouble staying dry-eyed," the Tony Award-winning Come from Away enjoys a September 11 through 22 at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts. Presented by City Circle Theatre Company, this deeply moving entertainment is being staged in honor of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, and was hailed by Broadway World as "inspiring, funny, and kick-ass beautiful.”
Lauded by The Theater Mirror as "a beautiful, moving, spirited show that examines the bonds of family, community, and sisterhood," author Josefina Lopez's exuberant stage dramedy Real Women Have Curves enjoys a September 24 through October 4 run at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre, this heartwarming coming-of-age saga also a story of love, family, and empowerment that became a 2002 movie hit for breakout star America Ferrera.
Opening its 2026-27 season with the theatre's 40th world premiere since its inception, Iowa City's Riverside Theatre debuts the period comedy I, Will: A Late Romance from September 10 through 27, its Emmy Award-winning author Scott Carter tackling a plague, a demanding king, an increasingly frustrated acting company, and a playwright wondering if his best work is behind him.
Touring in support of her newly released EP Promises (Covers EP), and with her prior album Carving Canyons hailed by Forbes as “her best as well as her most mature work yet," lauded singer/songwriter and Rock Island native Lissie returns to the Quad Cities for a September 16 headlining concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel.
Currently traveling the country on their eagerly awaited "The Flannel & the Fury Tour," the alternative rockers of Sleater-Kinney headline a September 16 concert event at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, Carrie Browenstein's and Corin Tucker's wildly popular outfit named by Sterogum's Tom Breihan, in 2015, "the greatest rock band of the past two decades."
A legendary glam-metal outfit whose first studio album Dawn Patrol debuted more than 40 years ago, the rockers of Night Ranger bring their national tour to Davenport's Capitol Theatre on September 17, the group revered for Billboard-charting hits including "Don't Tell Me You Love Me," "When You Close Your Eyes," and the immortal "Sister Christian."
Lauded by Saving Country Music as "an amalgam of many great singers of country and roots interwoven into an original approach," singer/songwriter Alma Russ headlines a September 10 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, Saving Country Music adding that you're likely to find the artist's music "stirring your very soul, sending flutters through your heart and shivers down your spine."
With award-winning, Billboard-charting, internationally touring artists performing on the banks of a mighty river, the Mississippi Valley Blues Fest returns to Davenport for its 41st incarnation on September 18 and 19, the LeClaire Park event – hosted by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society – featuring seven thrilling Main Stage concert sets, eight additionally incendiary events on the neighboring Pedigo-Jones Stage, and music lovers ages 25 and under admitted free.
A few hours after this Deep South thriller mercifully ended, it finally dawned on me who co-star Mark Wahlberg resembled: Alley Oop. That incongruously bulky comic-strip caveman whose jokes are funny only to him.
Going to the cineplex or staying in and streaming this weekend? Every Thursday morning at 8:15 a.m. you can listen to Mike Schulz dish on recent movie releases & talk smack about Hollywood celebs on Planet 93.9 FM with the fabulous Dave & Darren in the Morning team of Dave Levora and Darren Pitra. The morning crew previews upcoming releases, too. Or you can check the Reader Web site and listen to their latest conversation by the warm glow of your electronic device. Never miss a pithy comment from these three scintillating pundits again
Thursday, September 10: Discussion of By Any Means, Onslaught, Fall 2: Deadpoint, and Mother Mary, and previews of Practical Magic 2, Runner, The Uprising, Hope, and Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger. Also, Dave raves about the launch of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot. We knew Kickstarter was invented for a reason.
I fell in love with Coyote vs. Acme roughly an hour into the picture, when a cartoon map showed a plane's trajectory headed toward the American northwest, after which it suddenly veered east, and the pilot apologized for making that wrong left turn. The plane took off in Albuquerque.
Presented as a special event in the Quad Cities Latino Cinema Series, and boasting a 94-percent "freshness" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway smash In the Heights enjoys a September 15 screening at Davenport venue The Last Picture House, the review aggregator calling the movie "a joyous celebration of heritage and community fueled by dazzling direction and singalong songs."
Now playing at area theaters.
Original works by nearly 100 juried regional and national artists will be on hand at the September 19 and 20 Riverssance Festival of Fine Art, with the 38th Lindsay Park event, hosted by Quad City Arts, boasting a children’s art-activity tent, food and beverage vendors, live music, and Rowen Schussheim-Anderson being presented with the prestigious Harley Award, an honor given to an individual who has affected the arts and artists in the Quad Cities during their lifetime.
Bringing together contemporary artists responding to the themes and aesthetics explored in the Davenport venue's concurrent exhibition The Golden Age: Featuring Northern European Works from the National Gallery of Art, the Figge Art Museum's A Golden Age for Whom? will be on display through September 20, the two exhibitions' adjoining galleries allowing visitors to move directly between historic works and contemporary responses.
Visitors of the Bisignano Art Gallery are invited to experience the University of Dubuque in fresh and unexpected ways through the creative vision of the Plein Air Painters of Dubuque, the exhibition UD Expressions: Plein Air Painters of Dubuque on view through September 25.
On September 22, Quad City Arts will officially kick off its 53rd season of the Visiting Artist Series at the organization's venue in downtown Rock Island, the public invited to enjoy refreshments, meet and connect with new executive director Ben Gougeon, and learn more about the artists and experiences headed to schools and communities throughout the Quad Cities in the 2026-27 season.
Purchased in honor of the Figge Art Museum's late museum trustee, board president, and museum supporter Tom Gildehaus, the visitor favorite Corn Zone returns to the Davenport venue through September 27, its “corn field” installation of oversize blown-glass ears carefully suspended from the museum's ceiling with rope, and designed to explore the fragility of glass, the story of corn, and contemporary issues in farming.
You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Real Astrology and RCR Crossword every week?)
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