A Grammy-winning musician whose style, according to All About Jazz, "borrows from the fabric of reggae, blues, jazz and pop to provide a totally enjoyable experience," Terrance Simien and his musical outfit the Zydeco Experience headline a June 7 concert event at Maquoketa's Discovery Park, the bandleader performing with Danny Williams on keyboards, Stan Chambers on bass, Ian Molinaro-Thompson on drums, Michael Christie on trumpet, Revon Andrews on trombone, and 2024 recruit Noah Boshra on saxophone.

On June 11 and 12, a trio of gifted, award-winning authors will take place in a pair of virtual conversations hosted by the LeClaire Community Library, with fans of child and young-adult fiction invited to a Tuesday-evening audience with Diane Wilson of the All Iowa Reads selection The Seed Keeper, and a Wednesday-evening online chat with Celia Perez and Samira Ahmed of All Iowa Reads choices Tumble and Hollow Fires.

In the latest program in the German American Heritage Center's popular "Kaffee & Kuchen" series, Dr. Danuta Hutchins will refer to her book Torn Out Memories while sharing her experiences as a child living under the Nazi occupation of Poland and during the Warsaw Uprising, with June 9's The Butterfly Effect: Why Do We Feel Empathy with the Victims of War, Hunger, Terror, & Natural Disasters? finding Hutchins relating her personal trauma to the terrors suffered by the victims of 9/11 attacks.

A tradition of 40-plus years that has attracted more than 25,000 people each summer to downtown Iowa City, the Iowa Arts Festival, from June 7 through 9, will showcase a wide array of visual artists from local and national levels, and also feature a beverage garden, a variety of culinary delights, children’s activities, and thrilling live-music performances, including a Saturday-night set with Grammy-winning festival headliner Terrance Simien.

In the latest Musser House Galleries exhibit at the Muscatine Art Center, rides, contests, animals, refreshments, delighted patrons, and more will be showcased in Iowa artist Kurt Ullrich's The Iowa State Fair, a collection of gorgeous and evocative black-and-white images, on display through September 8, that truly evince the wonder of this annually awaited outdoor tradition.

Held in conjunction with the venue's new exhibit Reckonings & Reconstructions: Southern Photography from the Do Good Fund, Davenport's Figge Art Museum will host a special Southern Photography Exhibition Celebration on June 13, with curator Dr. Jeffrey Richmond-Moll introducing the exhibition and sharing fascinating insights on his curatorial process.

For its season-opening production at Rock Island's Lincoln Park, the Quad Cities' venerated classical-theatre organization Genesius Guild will present the return of Euripides' timeless Greek tragedy Medea from June 8 through 16, the one-act play's director Michael Callahan planning to deliver “an intense 90 minutes that you will, I promise, never forget.”

Praised by USA Today as a Broadway hit of "uncynical warmth and charm," the Tony-nominated Tarzan: The Musical swings into Moline's Spotlight Theatre for an area-debut run from June 7 through 16, this theatrical adaptation of Disney's Oscar-winning animated film boasting magical stagecraft and delightful tunes including "Two Worlds," "Strangers Like Me," and 1999's Academy Award champion ""You'll Be In My Heart."

Lauded by London Theatre as "a feel-good ‘fish out of water’ musical that easily takes the audience on to a great journey of good songs, optimism, and fun," the exuberant stage version of the classic '80s movie Footloose enjoys a pre-summer engagement at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, its June 13 through 23 staging sure to demonstrate why the show received four 1999 Tony nominations and enjoyed a New York run of more than 700 performances.

Lauded by Broadway World as "a truly fantastic, feel-good show that will you have jumping for joy in your seat," the Tony-winning smash Million Dollar Quartet opens the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's 2024 summer season of popular jukebox musicals, treating audiences to the iconic hits and personalities of legends Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley.

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