Returning to downtown Davenport for its incredible 51st year, the Quad-City Times Bix 7 will again find runners and walkers taking on a seven-mile foot race alongside live bands and cheering crowds, the July 26 event famed for being the largest non-marathon race in the Midwest, having captured the imaginations of thousands upon thousands of enthusiasts from both the United States and countries around the globe.

Offered as part of the Davenport venue's popular “Kaffee und Kuchen” series, the German American Center's engaging July 27 program The 1919 Army Convoy & the Interstate Highway System will find presenter George Eaton speaking on the "Truck Train" of the U.S. Army Motor Transport Corps that drove more than 3,000 miles from Washington, D.C. to Oakland, California.

For the fourth straight year, and with company favorite Jacob Lund directing, the Quad Cities' classical-theatre company Genesius Guild will close its summer season with a madcap, somewhat modernized slapstick co-written by Haus of Ruckus founders T. Green and Cal Vo, their adaptation of Aristophanes' ancient-Greek satire Peace running in Rock Island's Lincoln Park June 26 through August 3.

I’ve never been disappointed to spend a Sunday in the park with Shakespeare, though I am grateful that, this past Sunday night, the weather was fairly mild for July. I admit to being only vaguely familiar with Antony & Cleopatra before the evening commenced, but I was not fully anticipating the story to be as epic as it was in director Alaina Pascarella’s production.

As most everyone will likely agree, the best thing about 1978's Superman is Christopher Reeve. And happily, though perhaps more arguably, the best thing about writer/director James Gunn's new Superman is David Corenswet, the 32-year-old tasked with breathing fresh life into this costumed crime fighter (and his alias Clark Kent) whom, by this point, we're all too familiar with.

Christian Mitchell has had strong detractors ever since Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle elevated the young Black man out of obscurity and backed him for the Illinois House in 2012. Preckwinkle chose her trusted aide Mitchell over appointed Representative Kimberly du Buclet (D-Chicago). Preckwinkle’s move upset a lot of people in that part of the world because the du Buclet family’s local influence had been strong for decades and Mitchell was not a born South Sider.

Consider this a "prom-vitation" to enjoy Quad City Music Guild's tuneful, touching, terrifically funny The Prom, its music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, and book by Beguelin and Bob Martin.

Lauded by the New York Times as "gorgeous" and "hypnotic," and by the Hollywood Reporter as "utterly fabulous," the teen edition of the Broadway smash Hadestown enjoys a July 18 through 20 run at Rock Island's Center for Living Arts, the original staging of this youth-performed musical the winner of eight 2019 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Direction, and, for composer Anaïs Mitchell, Original Score.

On July 24, art collectors David and Sarojini Johnson will join artist Joseph Lappie at Davenport's Figge Art Museum for an incisive and engaging discussion on Fever Dreams: German Expressionism, exhibition featuring German prints. the arresting current exhibition featuring loans from the David and Sarojini Johnson Print Collection.