Original works from more than 70 juried regional and national artists will be on hand at the September 17 and 18 Riverssance Festival of Fine Art, with the 34th Lindsay Park event, hosted by Quad City Arts, boasting a children’s art-activity tent, a wine tasting, food vendors, live music, and the presentation of the prestigious Harley Award, given to an individual who has significantly affected the arts and artists in the Quad Cities.

The proposed merger between the Canadian Pacific (CP) and Kansas City Southern (KCS) railways, if approved by the Surface Transportation Board (STB) of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the coming weeks, will mean increased levels of downtown train activity, especially in Davenport.

In 2001, I wrote a tribute to Susie Martens, a fabulous woman who became great friends with my beloved grandmother thanks to the long and abiding friendship between Grandma and Susie's gracious and distinguished father (and Chris' grandfather) Henry “Hank” Wurzer. Chris H. Martens, the oldest of Susie's children, passed tragically and unexpectedly on June 19, 2022. It was a monumental blow to every single person in Chris's life, a loss that reverberates to this moment with no relief hoped for or expected.

As hilarious as Regina Hall, Sterling K. Brown, and their Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. co-stars frequently are, you're left as likely to well up from pity as from laughter. This is a truly rare bird: a mockumentary drama. With loads of cringey giggles.

Often, mass tragedies are best understood not through bare statistics, but through personal stories of those affected. My Brother's Gift, a play by Claudia Haas based on the real experiences of survivor Eva Geiringer Schloss, tells one of these stories. I saw it on Saturday at the Black Box Theatre, and director, designer, and Black Box co-founder Lora Adams and her cast and crew have put together a spare, straightforward production that serves both as a remembrance and a call to action.

As the Wake Brewing Cvlt has grown, the Brothers Parris decided to bring live metal closer to home, specifically to the parking lot outside their headquarters in downtown Rock Island. Last fall's anniversary celebration featured venerable Midwestern stoners Bongzilla, and as their fifth anniversary approaches, Wake has another solid weekend of metal lined up for September 9 and 10.

Lauded by Blues Rock Review for 2018's Sketches of American Music, which the outlet deemed "an excellent debut album," singer/songwriter, guitarist, and Allman Betts Band member Duane Betts headlines a September 10 solo concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, his gifts leading All About Jazz to rave that "contemporary rock and blues may be in the hands of someone who not only appreciates its value, but may also have the talent(s) to do it justice."

A revered performer who, 35 years later, remains the youngest-ever winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress, film and television icon Marlee Matlin joins Illinois Libraries Present to share the highs and lows of her Hollywood career and journeys as an activist in A Conversation with Marlee Matlin: From Oscar to West Wing and Beyond, a virtual Deaf Awareness Month program presented mere months after her film CODA swept every category it was nominated in at the 2022 Oscars.

Returning to its traditional stomping grounds of the Figge Art Museum Plaza after a spring weekend at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, the 2022 Beaux Arts Fall Fair will treat visitors to an outdoor celebration of visual arts and fine crafts on September 11 and 12, with the annual event featuring food, live music, children's activities, free spin art, and works for sale by dozens of gifted Midwestern artists and vendors.