Courtney Crouse and Tommy Ranieri are both enthusiastic theatre directors who are taking on recent roles as artistic directors of, respectively, our area's summer-stock organizations the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre and the Timber Lake Playhouse. Their passion for the craft and their new summer homes were obvious in recent interviews about the theatres located just 24 miles apart, one on each side of the Mississippi River.

Tariffs are among the oldest of taxes for the simple reason that they are easy to collect. Just send in the tax collectors and don’t let the goods being transported move until the duty has been paid. Being one of the earliest forms of taxation, it is not surprising that tariffs produced one of the earliest forms of tax evasion: smuggling.

Launched in 2023 by the Azubuike African American Council for the Arts and taking place in various area locales June 5 through 8, the third-annual Pulling Focus African American Film Festival of the Quad Cities has been designed as a celebration of local film and culture that focuses on enriching the lives of Quad Cities residents, presenting unique film-watching experiences framed through the lens of African American and Black Diasporic voices.

With their first album having debuted more than a half-century ago, and albums including Eliminator, Afterburner, and La Futura all top-10 smashes on the Billboard charts, the legendary blues rockers of ZZ Top bring their latest tour to Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on June 14, the artists as familiar for their signature look as they are for iconic songs including “Legs,” “Gimme All Your Lovin',” and “Sharp Dressed Man.”

Lauded by Ease Up Mag for their "strong indie pop and rock sound that is seamlessly correlated with the stories told in their songwriting," the touring musicians of The Thing with Feathers headline a June 18 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the magazine adding that the trio is "a band you truly don’t want to miss out on."

The lauded recipient of 2009 NAMMYs (Native American Music Awards) for Folk Album of the Year and Songwriter of the Year and the 2022 trophy for her Single of the Year "Bloomsday," Choctaw Nation singer/songwriter Samantha Crain headlines a June 13 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the artist's may release Gumshoe hailed by Americana Highways as "an astonishingly expansive account of yearning."

With Turn Up the Volume calling them “one of the most exciting bands on or off the stage” and Scotland's BBC Radio raving that the artists “put on an incredible live show,” the Seattle-based female-rock quartet The Darts deadlines a June 15 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, their appeal summed up by the Phoenix New Times, which simply said, “The Darts f---ing rock.”

Their most recent album XOXO lauded by Pitchfork for being "a distillation of their manifold strengths" boasting "pastoral accounts of American beauty curdling into something coarser and sadder," the Minneasota-based alt-country and country-rock outfit The Jayhawks headlines a June 19 concert at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, Louder Than War adding that "there is a real feel of togetherness on XOXO which is reflected in the interchanging lead vocals and instruments."

Inviting guests to explores sites worldwide, share the beliefs of young worshippers, and view images, artifacts, and stories from more than two dozen sites and across various faiths, Davenport's Putnam Museum & Science Center, through August 31, will host the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis's traveling exhibit Sacred Places, allowing patrons to explore the significance and insights provided by the locales of its title.