With the event sponsored by the Office of Student Inclusion and Diversity and the Augustana Diversity Council, the college's annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration on January 15 is themed Called for Love, its keynote speaker the award-winning author Dr. Reggie Williams, who also serves as a professor of Christian ethics at Chicago's McCormick Theological Seminary.

In a special evening featuring acclaimed touring artist Mike Wiley, a horrific piece of history will come to life with thrilling immediacy and power in the author/star's solo performance Blood Done Sign My Name, this arresting work - being presented in the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center on January 22 - hailed by Broadway World as "a fascinating story of one man's journey to understanding and coming to terms with his own community."

On display in the Peter Paul Luce Gallery of Mt. Vernon's Cornell College through March 31, the fascinating exhibition Come Celebrate with Me ... will treat patrons to a collection of arresting pieces by the Illinois-based interdisciplinary artist Nicole Davis.

With the event held not long after the celebration of the building's 150th anniversary and the decade-long rehabilitation of historic Forest Grove School Number Five, Kelly and Tammy Rundle of the Moline-based Fourth Wall Films will screen their documentary Resurrecting Forest Grove at the Bettendorf Public Library on January 18, this special presentation a program in the library's popular Community Connections series.