An award-winning orator and educator familiar from her appearances on BET, MSNBC, NBC, and numerous SiriusXM radio stations, Dr. Chandra Gill will serve as the keynote speaker for Augustana's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, with January 13's “The Time Is Now” event also featuring musical performances, a video presentation, and an opening ceremony boasting the Metropolitan Youth Program Drill Team.

Works by four Midwestern female artists will be on display at the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy beginning January 23, with paintings by Evanny Angelene Henningsen featured in the exhibit Utah Colors, and pieces in various mediums by Ann Peters, Amy Whiteman and Olivia von Gries – all former students of gallery owner Pat Beréskin – in the fittingly titled exhibition Coming Home.

To download a PDF of the puzzle, click here.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate shocked just about everyone by claiming that a deliberate "strategic gentrification plan" exists to push black people out of Chicago and make the city “whiter.”

Performing blues, folk, country, and Americana music that, according to NPR, “evokes the old-timey spirit of a thousand crackling 78 RPM records” whose “energy makes them feel new and alive,” Midwestern singer/songwriter Pokey LaFarge plays Davenport's Redstone Room in support of his most recent album Manic Revelations, described by Paste magazine as “all sass and swagger, with plenty of juke-jump energy to spare.”

Described by Glide magazine as “a classic folk artist that somehow manages to never remain too predictable,” the Nashville-based, alternative-country musician Rayland Baxter performs a Moeller Nights concert on January 17, playing from a repertoire that includes his most recent album Imaginary Man, praised by RedLineRoots.com for the “vibrant and lucid way in which he paints the characters of his stories.”

Let's put a new twist on an old format – the ubiquitous year-end lists about music. We invited over 50 Quad Citizens who we know contribute to, support, and/or promote the local-music scene to give us their takes on 2017 via a 3-2-1 format. We asked: What are the three top songs they loved listening to this year; the two top live shows they saw in the Quad Cities; and the number-one artist they most want to see perform here live in 2018?

A good friend of mine once relayed a phrase that her mother would lob at her as an explanation for her poor choice in men, saying, “Your taste is only in your mouth.” I suppose that’s how it is with music, too, isn’t it?

Hosted by Mandala Integrative Medicine and designed to help attendees start the new year right by learning about the preventative power of proper nutrition, the second-annual Integrative Lifestyle Forum will promote the improvement of work-life balance, growth and success, productivity, and well-being, and includes presentations by nationally recognized speakers Dr. Sayed A. Shah, Brooke Lemke, and frequent national-TV presence Jay Jacobs.