Presented by the Davenport Civil Rights Commission, the Davenport Public Library's February 2 event Black History: The Fight For Civil Rights in Davenport invites visitors to the Fairmount Street Branch for a discussion about local, historical Black people from the Quad Cities, including one of the community's most prominent one-time citizens: Dred Scott.

A beautiful and informative documentary that found its inspiration during the shelter-in-place phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, My Garden of a Thousand Bees serves as the second presentation in River Action's annual QC Environmental Film Series on January 29, the film created when wildlife filmmaker Martin Dohrn set out to record all the bees he could find in his tiny urban garden in Bristol, England, filming them with one-of-a-kind lenses he forged on his kitchen table.

Always an eagerly awaited series at the Figge Art Museum, the latest incarnation of Young Artists at the Figge will be on display through May 14, with the Davenport venue again celebrating the accomplishments of budding creative talents of local elementary art students whose works will be showcased in a continuing series of individual exhibitions.

With her latest exhibition showcasing more than a dozen new works, one of them an installation created specifically for its Davenport venue, noted area artist and professor Zaiga Minka Thorson is the invited guest at the Figge Art Museum's February 2 artist talk, during which the longtime Black Hawk College instructor will discuss the pieces on display in her collection Storms & Silver Linings.

More than a dozen glorious new works, one of them an installation created specifically for its Davenport venue, by a noted area artist and professor will be showcased in Zaiga Minka Thorson: Storms & Silver Linings, the Figge Art Museum's new exhibit of local talent on display through May 7.

Hailed by StageLeft.nyc as "taut and lively" and by Theatre Scene as "a compelling play on important and topical themes," playwright Lauren Gunderson's unique and unpredictable dramatic comedy Natural Shocks makes its Quad Cities debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre from February 2 through 12, with DC Metro Theatre Arts adding its praise by deeming it a work that "raises important points about the need to take action in times of crises."

Lauded by the New York Times as a "fresh, winning, and deliriously tuneful" musical that's "as sweet as a show can be without promoting tooth decay," the Tony-winning Broadway sensational Hairspray makes a national-tour stop at Davenport's Adler Theatre on January 31, this stage sensational also praised by Variety magazine as a "sweet, infinitely spirited, bubblegum-flavored confection" that "more than lives up to its promise."

With Philly Cheeze Blues' Phillip Smith raving that the musician's My World Is So Cold album boasts "a bus load of soul," adding "I love the funky guitar riffs and the infectious rhythm," blues guitarist extraordinaire Kent Burnside headlines a January 27 concert at Davenport's Gypsy Highway Bar & Grill, the artist the oldest grandson and one of the closest pupils of the legendary R.L. Burnside.

Performing an exhilarating evening of solo and duet works by composers Wynton Marsalis, Sergei Prokofiev, Chen Yi, Paul Lansky, and the Quad Cities' William Campbell, Quad City Symphony Orchestra concertmaster and violinist Naha Greenholtz and percussionist Aaron Williams will fill Moline's Butterworth Center with classical delights on January 28, the artists combing their talents for the special QCSO presentation Up Close with Naha & Aaron.

A unique and interactive concert experience that allows adult to enjoy the music they love while also providing fun and interactive activities for kids, Common Chord's new series Music Explorers will, on January 29, find its inspiration in the British Invasion, at event inviting Redstone Room patrons to cross the pond and rediscover the music of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and many more legendary artists.

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