More than a dozen local, regional, and national speakers will deliver live and video presentations in the March 27 TEDxDavenport conference at the Figge Art Museum, a networking event themed “Limitless” that will join open-minded idea-seekers in a half-day exploration of unique experiences designed to inspire, inform, and challenge.
This feature collects articles published online by Quad Cities-area media outlets and by CapitolFax.com and the state-politics sections of the Des Moines Register and the State Journal-Register.
Appearing locally in a special partnership between the Davenport Public Library and Rock Island Public Library, National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds – the award-winning author of works including 2017's Marvel Comics novel Miles Morales: Spider-Man – will read from and deliver presentations on his literary output in a trio of special area engagements at the Davenport Main Library on March 28 and Rock Island High School on March 29.
Classical composers, iconic characters, and an assemblage of phenomenal dancers and musicians will combine in the latest presentation by the area talents of Ballet Quad Cities and Orchestra Iowa: Peter & the Wolf, Mother Goose, & Other Tales, which will enjoy two March 30 performances at Davenport's Adler Theatre and unite crowds in appreciation of the joys, terrors, and wonders of children's stories and fairytales.
Race is an issue that, in daily life, can feel like a daunting one to approach. Yet Davenport's Putnam Museum & Science Center is addressing the subject head-on in its new, interactive, and accessible traveling exhibition RACE: Are We So Different? Open to museum guests from January 26 through June 2, RACE aims to help visitors of all ages better understand the origins and manifestations of race and racism in everyday life by investigating race and challenging its misconceptions through the framework of science. And as Putnam President and CEO Kim Findlay says, it's an exhibit designed “to explore race through history, science, and culture – which happen to be the three things the Putnam focuses on.”
A bunch of weak political arguments have been used so far against Governor JB Pritzker's proposed constitutional amendment for a graduated income tax. But there is a clear path to killing it.
Democrats often propose ideas that take forever to explain and are often difficult for the masses to understand. That wasn't the case last week.
A lobbyist who works for a business-related organization asked me a question the other day that I've been hearing a lot lately: "Who's going to be the stopper now?"
What he meant was: Who in the legislative process can be counted on these days to help derail bills which are deemed hostile to business interests?
Give Governor JB Pritzker some credit: The man can give a good speech.
Governor JB Pritzker's administration has confirmed that its new public pension plan will slash $800 million from the state's scheduled pension payment next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
One of the most beloved and iconic rock operas of all time will enjoy a spectacular new staging by the talents of Quad City Music Guild when Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium hosts the March 22 through 31 run of Jesus Christ Superstar, the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice classic boasting such unforgettable numbers as “Everything's Alright,” “Hosanna,” “King Herod's Song,” and the timeless ballad “I Don't Know How to Love Him.”
A lauded stage work in which, according to the New York Times, “music, words, and performance meld into a spectrum of clashing emotions” and composer Jason Robert Brown “confirms his sparkling facility as a composer, fluidly mixing diverse styles,” The Last Five Years plays locally in a March 28 through April 7 presentation at Moline's Black Box Theatre, the two-character piece described by Variety as “bittersweet and nearly perfect.”
A Tony Award-winning modern classic will enjoy a special presentation at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre on March 29 and 30, as Bridges Collective and TOH (Testimonies of Hope) Argow's House present author Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf, the poetic meditation on African-American life that the New York Daily News called “a triumphant event” and Time magazine deemed “a pognant, gripping, angry, and beautiful work.”
It was mentioned – more than once – at its opening-night performance that the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse’s production of Diamonds & Divas: A Murderous Fiasco was the comedy's United States professional premiere. If we were supposed to be impressed by that fact, it really isn't saying much, as author Robin Hawdon's script would feel right at home with a group of American middle-schoolers. However, the cast, composed of many familiar Circa '21 favorites, injects talent amidst the chaos of this melodramatic escapade, almost fully redeeming an otherwise ridiculous affair.
A cold chill ran through the Playcrafters Barn Theatre at Friday's opening-night performance of Arthur Miller's 1953 play The Crucible; a riveting, partially fictionalized story about the hysteria that took place during the Salem Witch Trials in the Puritan town of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692. A group of young women are accused of casting spells, communing with the dead, and putting curses on children. The subsequent Salem Witch Trials, meanwhile, consisted of depositions, legal proceedings, hearsay, evidence (or lack thereof), and religious leaders of the day investigating alleged heresy and evil-doings involving the practices of witchcraft and black magic. Director Patti Flaherty delivered a provocative and captivating production that kept you interested and on the edge of your seat.
Revered for such chart-topping singles as “Breath,” “I Will Now Bow,” “Failure,” “Angels Fall,” and last year's “Torn in Two,” the heavy-metal rockers of Breaking Benjamin take the stage at Moline's TaxSlayer Center on March 20 in support of their 2018 album Ember, a release that, according to Loudwire, finds the artists “proving that they're better (and, yes, heavier) than ever with plenty left to say.”
Rozz Tox links up Cave Light and Harakiri, a pair of Minnesotan indie/psych-rock bands, with Quad Cities-based openers Condor & Jaybird and Bold Little Airwave on March 20.
Called “one of the top-tier performers of soul and blues music” by Blues Blast magazine and “a strong songwriter and performer with magnetic stage presence” by Elmore, Blues Music Award winner John Németh takes the stage at Davenport's Redstone Room on March 21 in support of his most recent album Feelin' Freaky, a work BluesMatters.com described as “a superb, eclectic, easy-listening release by a man at the top of his game.”
A pair of lauded blues-rock collectives out of the Midwest share co-headliner duties at the Redstone Room on March 22, as the Davenport venue hosts one night with two top-tier ensembles: the Chicago-based talents of The Steepwater Band and the Omaha natives of Nebraska's Kris Lager Band.
Rozz Tox’s Outlet series of experimental and electronic music offers up one of the most exciting local bills in recent memory with the arrival of Chicago’s ascendant Teklife footwork producer DJ Taye on March 22, performing with support from Collidescope and AppleTree.
Is there any stronger gauge of movie stardom than the ability to singlehandedly redeem an otherwise unworthy film?
Iron Man is sarcastic. Thor is arrogant. Hulk is ill-tempered. Captain America is patriotic to a fault. And Captain Marvel, a.k.a. the human Carol Danvers, a.k.a. the alien Vers, is … female. At least, that felt like the chief takeaway from Captain Marvel, whose filmmakers and star have given us a perfectly respectable comic-book role model while neglecting to make her in any way interesting.
Contrary to Tyler Perry's public statements, I don't for an instant believe that his latest showcase for the straight-shooting, bible-thumping, politically-way-incorrect Madea – Tyler Perry's A Madea Family Funeral – is going to mark the house-dress-wearing hellion's final film appearance, especially considering that the titular ceremony isn't being held for Madea her(him)self. But maybe that's just preemptive grief talking, given that Perry's latest might be his most wholly satisfying Madea outing to date.
Given that they tend to get their jobs done even when the works themselves are crap, triumph-of-the-underdog sports flicks are perhaps the only genre movies almost completely impervious to criticism. You can fail to be amused by a comedy or excited by a thriller, but if the heroes win the big game and the music swells and everyone on-screen – and everyone sitting around you – is tearfully cheering and somehow you're still not moved? That's on you, not the film.
A true-life tale involving social reformer Frederick Douglass, iconic author Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the United States' first public discussions about abolition, the historical drama Sons & Daughters of Thunder will enjoy its world-premiere presentations at Davenport's Putnam Museum & Science Center on March 16 and 17, with the locally produced film boasting the talents of filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle and more than two dozen familiar area performers.
Serving as the latest guest speaker in the venue's “Evenings at Butterworth” series, noted scholar and historian Rolf Achilles will deliver a fascinating program on the art of stained glass – and one of its chief innovators in particular – in the Butterworth Center's March 22 presentation Tiffany & Other Great Midwestern Panes.
A contributing appraiser for PBS' popular, Emmy Award-nominated series Antiques Roadshow, Arlie Sulka appears as the special guest in the Figge Art Museum's March 28 Scholar Talk, lending her knowledge of rare artworks to a presentation devoted to pieces in the Davenport venue's current exhibition Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection.
Beautiful and evocative works by a pair of natural-landscape painters – one a native Canadian, one hailing from Moline – will adorn the walls of the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy from March 30 through April 26, with the Bettendorf venue inviting us all to “Think spring!” in the new exhibition Prairie Light: Pam Ohnemus & Cynthia Starkweather-Nelson.
The personal beliefs and significant experiences of two Iowa-based artisans will be expressed in a fascinating pair of Quad City Arts Center Gallery exhibitions February 1 through March 22: Esprit De Corps: The Brotherhood of Paratroopers, Rangers, & Special Forces at War by Eldridge painter Kenneth Cunningham, and Sophisticated Disobedience by Davenport's stpray-paint-college artist Brian Schulz.
Cityscapes in Chicago, New York, and numerous other worldwide locations will be on display in the latest exhibition at the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy, with the venue hosting Robert Reeves: Sounds of the City from February 23 through March 29 – a collection of paintings reflecting the hidden beauty in sights that millions of people likely view as everyday.
You'll get a rundown of What's Happenin' along with your keys to the Quad Cities' culture.
