An eagerly awaited pre-summer event complete with food, vendors, local history, games, and entertainment for the entire family, the 2025 Quad City Juneteenth Festival will be held at Davenport's LeClaire Park on June 14, the celebration hosted by the Friends of MLK (FoMLK) and held in commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.
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, from June 14 through August 1, 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.
Delivering an exciting twist on the organization's annual Father's Day activity Ride the River, Davenport's River Action will this year host hours of outdoor fun in Ride the Island, a June 15 opportunity for cyclists to ride the roads and trails on the Rock Island Arsenal while exploring its rich history and visiting iconic landmarks.
With their popular audio series designed to debunk the phrase “that kind of this doesn't happen in our town,” Jonah Lantto and Dawn Palumbo bring their Midwest Murder Live podcast to Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Rhythm Room on June 21, the event boasting a live taping of a future broadcast concerning astonishing and sometimes grisly acts committed in small towns nationwide.
Danielle Colby, star of the hit series American Pickers and a longtime advocate for the performing arts, is proud to announce the grand-opening celebration for the Ecdysiast Arts Museum, this museum in the heart of downtown Davenport dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history and artistry of burlesque. The June 21 event promises an evening of education and entertainment, featuring curated exhibits that delve into the glittering world of burlesque, as well as live performances that pay homage to this vibrant art form.
I asked Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch last week about the failure to pass an omnibus energy bill (the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act) during the just-ended spring legislative session.
The watchers are no longer being watched by the people. At least in Scott County, Iowa, that is.
Inexplicably, for decades, incurious American voters refuse to remove el
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.
For quite a while now, most folks in politics have assumed that Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias and Comptroller Susana Mendoza will probably run for mayor of Chicago in 2027. The incumbent Brandon Johnson is spectacularly unpopular, and a real hunger is developing in the city (again) for new leadership.
For the company's annual classical production staged in Iowa City's Lower City Park, Riverside Theatre takes on perhaps the most beloved – and certainly the most famous – tragic romance of all time, with William Shakespeare's timeless Romeo & Juliet enjoying an outdoor run from June 13 through 29.
With the stage hit lauded by Broadway World as "entirely entertaining and enjoyable," the spooky, kooky, ooky musical-comedy version of The Addams Family serves as the opening presentation in the Clinton Area Showboat's 2025 summer season, its June 12 through 22 run treating audiences to a Tony Award-nominated delight inspired by the beloved TV comedy and the iconic cartoon strip by series originator Charles Addams.
Kitty: For me, Fun Home is what would happen if Tennessee Williams made a musical.
Mischa: Okay, intriguing … could you spell that out more specifically?
M: With its familiar storyline, a lot of talent on and off stage, and a full helping of over-the-top silliness, it really hits most of the right notes.
K: You know who was hitting all the right notes?
M: Could you possibly mean Lauren VanSpeybroeck and Casey Scott?
K: I could!
The Avenue Q book writer, a Tony Award-winning lyricist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, and the creator of Hamilton collaborate on a musical that's a hybrid of Hairspray, Mean Girls, and Sister Act II. You in? You should be.
The Tubs (confuse with the Tubes at your own risk) are a Welsh band, relocated to London and now touring America for the first time. On first listen, their newest album Cotton Crown is a glorious wash of '90s college-rock guitar, a warm shower at midnight in a gently-lit bathroom, radio-ready four-chord nostalgia for hipsters and Blues Traveler fans alike. Taken at the most superficial, background level, it's an energizing shot of musical positivity.
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 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.”
With the indie-rock and shoegaze musician's just-released recording It's Closeness, It's Easy lauded by Boolin Tunes as a "thematically and aesthetically consistent" album that "stands out in a crowded 2025," singer/songwriter Thom Wasluck's solo project Planning for Burial headlines a June 14 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the artist's latest also hailed by Everything Is Noise as "singular in its sound, turning the slow, crushing weight of existence into an art that will weather the expanse of time far beyond all of our expiration dates.."
Winners of the Quad-City Times' 2017 Reader's Choice Award for “Best Local Band, the AC/DC tribute artists of Electric Shock headline a June 14 Summer 2024 Music Lineup concert at Bettendorf venue The Tangled Wood, this evening of songs from Billboard chart-toppers Black Ice, Power Up, Ballbreaker, and Back in Black and boasting a performance by the gifted student musicians of the QC Rock Academy.
Although the movie isn't very funny until it begins hitting us with its really creative gory deaths, there was a moment not long into director Len Wiseman's Ballerina – a continuation being helpfully marketed as From the World of John Wick: Ballerina – that made me and others among our Thursday-afternoon crowd laugh out loud.
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, June 12: Discussion of Ballerina, The Phoenician Scheme, and Dangerous Animals; previews of How to Train Your Dragon, Materialists, The Life of Chuck, and The Unholy Trinity; and a detour on Mickey 17's weird Pigeon Man whom Mike doesn't remember and Dave remembers all too well.
You'll rarely hear me complain about a film, especially an umpteenth followup in an apparently endless franchise, being too modestly scaled or too short. However, in the case of this latest installment in the KKU, I do feel obligated to ask: Really? This is it? This whole, paltry, badly shot thing exists simply to get Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio on-screen together – and even then only barely, and not until almost a full hour has passed?
If Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning really is as final as its title implies, I can perhaps forgive the film for including so very many flashback images from the franchise's previous seven installments, including images that are regurgitated two or three times over. But if this is indeed the series' end – I mean, y'know … we'll see … – I'm still not sure I can forgive director/co-writer Christopher McQuarrie's latest for being so dully protracted and humorless, or for the decision to transform super-operative Hunt, and by extension Tom Cruise, into a veritable messiah.
Exploring themes of place and time by highlighting the Earth and capturing fragments of memories in paint, fiber, and clay, a trio of Midwestern artisans enjoy a collective exhibition at Rock Island's Quad City Arts Center through June 20, the Brown, Lennox, & Wenthe exhibit boasting Afrofuturist art by Monica Brown, quilted art by Cheryl Lennox, and ceramic sculpture by Elissa Wenthe.
With the Davenport venue partnering alongside the German American Heritage Center and Museum for programming during the exhibit's run, the Figge Art Museum will house Fever Dreams: German Expressionism in the Lewis Gallery from June 21 through December 7, this arresting exhibition featuring loans from the David and Sarojini Johnson Print Collection, and showcased in conjunction with the GAHC's companion exhibit German Expressionist Prints from the Johnson Collection.
A dazzling, visually rich celebration of fascinating felines and the artists who love them, Cats! (the exhibit, not the musical) can be viewed in the third-floor gallery of Davenport's Figge Art Museum from June 21 through January 4, this rich showcase inspired by our four-legged friends boasting works from both the museum's collection and on loan, and on display through the aid of contributing sponsors Carrie Kimple and Sue Quail.
With the exhibition made possible through generous funding from Art Bridges Foundation, and with KLJB FOX 18 serving as media sponsor, the fascinating collaborative exhibit CHAIN RE·AC·TION will be on view in the Figge Art Museum's Mary Waterman Gildehaus Community Gallery June 21 through September 28, visitors to the Davenport venue invited to witness the art experience's continuous cycle of inspiration, reflection, and response.
Highlighting the importance of sustainability in the arts and encouraging their audience to see the beauty of Earth’s resources and ecosystem, a trio of Illinois and Iowa talents enjoy a collective exhibition at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery through June 30, Olson, Stampfli, & Sunderman showcasing a beautiful assemblage of quilted art by Lindsay Olson and Jessie Stampfli and sculpture by Robert Sunderman.
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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