Recognized by Food & Wine magazine, Esquire, and the James Beard Foundation as "Rising Star Chef of the Year," an author and former contestant on season 13 of Top Chef will make a virtual appearance in a June 22 program at the Rock Island Public Library, with An Evening with Kwame Onwuachi finding the celebrity discussing his exciting career in food as chronicled in the man's bestselling memoir Notes from a Young Black Chef.

A pair of lauded independent musicians co-headline a June 22 concert event at Davenport's Raccoon Motel in conjunction with the releases of their 2022 recordings, with Joshua Ray Walker (described by Rolling Stone as "one of country’s most fascinating young songwriters") playing in support of See You Next Time, and Sarah Shook & the Disarmers (a group that Rolling Stone said "plays with fire and purpose") performing old favorites and new songs from Nightroamer.

With the band's latest album described by Atwood magazine as "radiant and spirited, uplifting and inspired," the Missouri-based indie rockers of Hembree headline a June 15 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, Atwood's rave for It's a Dream! continuing by stating, "Between the cinematic guitars and full-bodied harmonies, celebrations of the present and intimate reckonings deep down inside, Hembree have delivered a seductive release we'll surely be returning to for years to come."

For the venerated classical-theatre company's latest season of performances in Rock Island's Lincoln Park, Genesius Guild is opening its 2022 lineup with perhaps the most beloved – and certainly the most famous – tragic romance of all time, with William Shakespeare's timeless Romeo & Juliet being performed June 18 through 26 by a gifted cast almost wholly composed of actors who are also high-schoolers.