Some Illinois House Democrats got a bit of a shock during a private caucus meeting held not long after the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) filed its proposed redistricting plan with a federal three-judge panel the other day.

Touring in support of their October release Georgia Blue, an album that Pitchfork deemed “a joyful affair with sadness lurking in the shadows,” Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit headline a December 4 concert event at East Moline's The Rust Belt, the alternative-country and Southern rock ensemble's frontman a four-time Grammy Award winner who was also a member of Drive-By Truckers from 2001 to 2007.

After a virtual version of their annual program was streamed in 2020, a sextet of Augustana College music ensembles reunite in person for December 4 and 5 presentations of Christmas at Augustana, a yuletide celebration at Centennial Hall boasting the collective talents of the Augustana Brass Ensemble, Augustana Symphony Orchestra, Ascension Ringers, Augustana Choir, Jenny Lind Vocal Ensemble, and Augustana Concert Chorale.

With The Guardian deeming the 2015 work “a thrillingly transgressive hit,” the unorthodox and unforgettable comedy Er Ist Wieder Da – also known by its English title Look Who's Back – enjoys a December 3 screening at Rozz-Tox, serving as the final 2021 presentation in the Kinogarten series of acclaimed, German-themed works hosted by the Rock Island venue and Davenport's German American Heritage Center.

Offering participants a special virtual program in its popular “Community Connections” series, the Bettendorf Public Library invites yuletide revelers to have a jolly old time learning about a jolly old elf in The History & Folklore of Santa Claus, in which Laura Keyes of Historic Voices explores the origins and evolution a figure beloved to children (and more than a few adults) all around the world.

Touring in support of his July release Resurrection, a recording that Blues Blast magazine deemed "an excellent album" with which "fans will not be disappointed," blues singer/songwriter and guitarist Mike Zito plays Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Rhythm Room on December 3, Rock & Blues Muse having called the artist's latest “as good as modern blues gets.”

A 178-year-old holiday perennial will be presented in a brand-new old-timey way from December 2 through 12 when Moline's Black Box Theatre presents its debut of A Christmas Carol on the Radio (well, really on stage), a sincere yet cheeky interpretation of Charles Dickens' beloved yuletide classic staged in the style of a 1940s audio-drama.

Lauded by Deadline as "an endorphin assault" and a stage work that delivers "warm-bath pleasure like no other show since 42nd Street," Broadway's yuletide treat Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn wraps up the 2021 season for Quad City Music Guild, its December 1 through 5 run sure to prove why CurtainUp called the musical "a trip back to sheer old-fashioned good-time entertainment."

Lauded by Rolling Stone as “absolutely incredible” and Broadway World as “an eye-popping display of storytelling that's like nothing else you've ever seen,” the electrified talents of Lightwire Theater bring their stage sensation A Very Electric Christmas to the University of Dubuque on November 28, a holiday-themed family event by the America's Go Talent competitors whom judge Sharon Osbourne declared “spectacular in every sense of the word.”