On March 15 and 16, the Vibrant Arena at the MARK will host feats of staggering skill when the touring Professional Championship Bull Riders & Barrel Racers show returns to Moline, its national success based on a simple concept: Place one determined cowboy on the back of a cranky 2,000-pound bull and see whether he can stay on the gigantic, bucking beast for eight long seconds – and do it with only one hand gripping the animal’s backside.
With the event co-presented by the Midwest Writing Center, the Quad Cities' longest-running reading series SPECTRA returns to Rock Island's Rozz-Tox on March 15 in celebration of the release of two new MWC Press chapbooks: Amie Whittemore's Hesitation Waltz and Joshua Bohnsack's Atonality. Both books were selected for the 2023 Foster-Stahl Chapbook Series, with Whittemore's work the Series Selection and Bohnsack's the Editors’ Choice.
Featured on season eight of America’s Got Talent, the exquisite talents of Catapult Dance deliver the premiere performance of their 2025 tour at Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre on March 15, the artists employing interpretive dance and amazing acrobatics to create visual stories for the whole family all through expressive light and shadow.
An Augustana College graduate, former Moline teacher/coach, and Superintendent of Rock Island-Milan Public Schools takes part in a conversation about his recent memoir in From Dubuque to Selma & Beyond, a March 19 book talk with Dave Markward that finds the author, at the Rock Island Public Library Watts-Midtown Branch, sharing his personal journey of understanding racism in America.
Delivering a three-night mega-event that will also be broadcast on pay-per-view, the mixed-martial-arts spectacle Caged Aggression XXXIX: The Triad will take place at the Davenport RiverCenter March 20 through 22, with 68 supremely talented MMA greats facing off in the nightly battles "Origins," "Rising Warriors," and "Ascendance."
Saturday March 8, 2025 the 6th Annual Oberholzter Awards were hosted by the Nahant Marsh organization at The Bend event center in East Moline, Illinois. This year's award winners are listed below along with more information about why each was nominated and chosen for the award.
Advocates say a major storm is brewing that could overwhelm the state’s child foster-care system. The problem is legal liability insurance, or, more specifically, the lack thereof.
In 2023, Dr Allen Diercks and former Scott County Supervisor Diane Holst enlisted Attorney Mike Meloy's expertise in a lawsuit to force transparency on the part of of our elected public officials with respect to the people's representation. I can't encourage and urge people enough to read the case documents for a great lesson in how government service is supposed to work according to law, but how said service often goes awry.
The Iowa Supreme Court has reversed a lower court decision and ruled that the public should have access to county-supervisor applications maintained by Scott County. (Full ruling available at IowaCourts.gov/courtcases/21492/embed/SupremeCourtOpinion.) The case involves the Scott County Board of Supervisors, which experienced a midterm vacancy in December 2022 when one member resigned.
The latest report from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability shows that spending on four “core” state services in the governor’s proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget will be 9.1 percent less in real dollars than it was way back in Fiscal Year 2000. Those four core services are education, health-care, human services, and public safety.
One of legendary mystery writer Agatha Christie's most spine-tingling yet infrequently produced tales will be given delightfully creepy stage life in the area debut of The Stranger, a radio-play version of Christie's chiller running at Moline's Black Box Theatre March 14 through 23.
Presented by student actors in grades six through 12 and delivered with a cool steampunk twist, a stage version of Lewis Carroll's classic Alice in Wonderland serves as the latest 2024-25 season production by the talents of Young Footliters Youth Theatre, the one-act show's March 14 through 16 run at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts treating audiences to a brand-new take on Carroll's timeless storybook adventure.
Hailed by Show Biz Chicago as "an absolute gem of a show" and by Chicago on Stage as "destined to be a runaway hit," the Elvis Presley salute Heartbreak Hotel makes its Quad Cities debut with a March 12 through May 3 run at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, this tune-filled smash also lauded by Chicago Stage and Screen as a show that "gives fascinating insight to the music industry."
Nominated for seven 2019 Tony Awards including Best Musical, to leading to a popular 2020 Netflix film starring Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, the Broadway hit The Prom makes its area debut with a March 13 through 16 run at Augustana College's Brunner Theatre Center, the show inspiring the New York Times to rave, "With its kinetic dancing, broad mugging, and belty anthems, it makes you believe in musical comedy again."
With PodSask hailing the stage entertainment as "a delightfully entertaining romp" that will "make you shake your head in disbelief and laugh out loud," Karen Zacarías' critically lauded comedy Native Gardens enjoys a February 28 through March 9 run at Iowa City's Riverside Theatre, Artburst Miami adding that "the play isn't theater of the absurd, but it's absurdly hilarious."
Taking place at Davenport's Common Chord two days in advance of St. Patrick's Day, a quintet of electrifying acts will take the Redstone Room stage in the high-energy March 15 event Shamrockin, a concert boasting the collective talents of Die First, Wyvern, Ill Omen, Braver Than I, and Fungal Mass.
A Chicago-based trio featuring Henry Dickhoff on organ, Kenny Reichert on guitar, and Luke Sagadin on drums and cymbals, the lauded outfit Righteous Rooster enjoys an area performance at Moline's Sound Conservatory on March 15, blending rich grooves with soulful melodies, and crafting music that honors the classic organ-trio tradition while embracing contemporary influences.
Inviting audiences to celebrate St. Patrick's weekend at the Ohnward Fine Arts center, the Maquoketa venue will host a night of exhilarating fun in the March 15 concert event Classical Blast in Kilts, the event featuring rock versions of traditional Celtic music alongside songs by contemporary Irish rock bands including U2, Cranberries, Dropkick Murphues, Snow Patrol, and other greats.
In the latest presentation in Polyrhythms' Third Sunday Jazz Series, powerful, hypnotic grooves will fill Davenport's Universalist Unitarian Congregation of the Quad Cities with the March 16 concert by the Matt Fuller Band, the early-evening event featuring the talents of Fuller on lead guitar and vocals, Joshua Kain on rhythm guitar and vocals, Dewey Lacefield on bass and vocals, Tyrone Phillips on lead vocals, and Jim VanHyfte on drums.
Its bandleader lauded by Guitar World Magazine as "a genuine blues guitar hero" and by Blues Access Magazine for delivering "an irrepressible mix of fresh gritty blues and romping Stax/Volt-era soul," the touring artists of Mike Morgan & the Crawl play a March 16 concert at Davenport's Gypsy Highway Bar & Grill in support of their most recent release The Lights Went Out in Dallas, the group's local appearance co-sponsored by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society.
Bong's latest may not be Parasite, but the writer/director's adaptation of Edward Ashton's 2022 novel Mickey7 is still an almost overwhelming amount of fun.
Going to the cineplex or staying in and streaming this weekend? Every Thursday morning at 8:15 a.m. you can listen to Mike Schulz dish on recent movie releases & talk smack about Hollywood celebs on Planet 93.9 FM with the fabulous Dave & Darren in the Morning team of Dave Levora and Darren Pitra. The morning crew previews upcoming releases, too.
Or you can check the Reader Web site and listen to their latest conversation by the warm glow of your electronic device. Never miss a pithy comment from these three scintillating pundits again.
Thursday, March 12: Discussion of Mickey 17, In the Lost Lands, and The Rule of Jenny Pen; previews of Novocaine, Black Bag, Opus, and The Day the Earth Blew Up; and reminscences on that Tom-and-Jerry cartoon that ended with the characters' suicide pact. Oh, Looney Tunes!
So. Who won Best Actress?
I'm kidding … although the answer to that question did come later than I would've preferred.
I may not have understood all the machinations involved in bringing our aquatic hero back safely, but I believed that Last Breath's helmer and cast knew what they were doing, and in the end, that was far more important.
Now playing at area theaters.
The event taking place in conjunction with the venue's current Myrlande Constant: DRAPO, an opening celebration for the exhibition will be held at Davenport's Figge Art Museum on March 20, with artist and scholar Dr. Petrouchka Moïse – assistant professor at Grinnell College and cultural and community-based digital curator at Grinnell College Libraries – presenting a history of Haitian Drapo and its connection to Constant's art practice.
A wide and beautiful variety of artistic media will be showcased in the latest group exhibition at Rock Island's Quad City Arts Center gallery, with Davis-Salazar, Weiland, & Regional Woodturners, through March 21, boasting new paintings by Katrina Davis-Salazar, sculptural ceramics by Brant Weiland, and 20 works by nine of the region’s best woodturners.
A fascinating and absorbing collection of abstract art is currently on view in the Black Hawk College ArtSpace Gallery, as gifted Midwestern artist Kent Broadbent showcases recent works in New & Improved, the fascinating pieces on display through April 4.
Boasting large woodcut prints and charcoal and pastel drawings of a dying willow tree from her yard in Dubuque, the arresting, fascinating exhibition Louise Kames: I Don’t See Anything That’s Not Beautiful – on display through April 6 – will be showcased in the Gildehaus Gallery of Davenport's Figge Art Museum, the artist focused on creating works that explore the beauty of natural decay, the line between life and death, and what remains after.
Notable and engaging works by 10 artists from Iowa and Illinois will be housed in the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery through April 29, with Moline's airport showcasing floral paintings by Kathleen Rietz, landscape paintings by Evan Ventris, and 19 works by eight of the region’s finest woodturners.
You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Real Astrology and RCR Crossword every week?)
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