“Lauded by the San Diego Reader for its “heightened sense of reality, folk tales, and folk dances transmogrified into sinuous spectacle,” the World Ballet Company's touring production of The Great Gatsby lands at Davenport's Adler Theatre on October 7, this thrilling adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's literary masterpiece also hailed by the Times-Advocate's critic as “one of the most transcendent cultural experiences I have had in a long time.”

Held in conjunction with the October 5 through 11 Banned Books Week – a celebration of our collective freedom to read – the Midwest Writing Center's and Rock Island Public Library's annual Banned Books Read-In will take place on October 6, with more than a dozen participants gathering at the library's Watts-Midtown Branch to read from frequently challenged works and unite in the fight against censorship.

Enabling visitors to explore the remarkable ways in which animals across 500 million years have adapted armor for survival, and how these adaptations continue to inspire human innovation, the traveling exhibition Animal Armor takes residence in Davenport's Putnam Museum & Science Center from September 20 through February 15, the fascinating exhibit exploring the evolutionary battle between protection and predation.

Presented by Jacob Bancks, Ph.D., a professor and co-chair of composition and musicianship at Rock Island's Augustana College, Brahms Symphony No. 2 serves as the latest program in the German American Heritage Center's popular "Kaffee und Kuchen" lecture series, with Bancks enlightening patrons on the gorgeous musical work whose composition was reportedly brief in comparison with the 21 years it took Brahms to complete his first symphony.