With guests of the German American Heritage Center invited to explore the powerful stories, struggles, and triumphs that shaped the fight for equality in our community, the fascinating traveling exhibition Davenport Civil Rights Movement will be on display at the Davenport venue through July 31.
Delivering a blend of local history, environmental issues, education, entertainment, and fresh air, Davenport's River Action continues its series of outdoor presentations in the annual Channel Cat Talks and Riverine Walks – weekly "Explore the River Series" programs that, through August 1, will address such topics as ferry boats, pollinators, Silvis' Hero Street, and noted area jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke.
In the latest exhibition at Davenport's German American Heritage Center, guests are invited to explore how German immigrant traditions transformed local musical life through Play On! German Immigrants & the Quad Cities' Musical Legacy, this showcase of ingenuity celebrating the enduring organizations, venues, and rich riverfront behind area-wide music culture.
Returning to the area for its incredible 106th year, an eagerly awaited six-day festival boasting games, competitions, vendors, and concert sets by more than two dozen national and local acts returns with the 2026 Mississippi Valley Fair, its August 4 through 9 engagement at Davenport's Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds boasting, as always, grandstand performances by chart-toppers, multi-platinum sellers, and multiple-award winners.
Delivering a blend of local history, environmental issues, education, entertainment, and fresh air, Davenport's River Action concludes its 2026 series of outdoor presentations in the annual Channel Cat Talks and Riverine Walks – weekly "Explore the River Series" programs that, from August 4 through 29, will address such topics as the Mississippi River landscape, the Kreiter Tree Farm, local barrio communities, and the Quad Cities' 3,500 acre wetland ecosystem.
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was unanimously adopted by the second Continental Congress of the 13 united states, and soon after sent to King George III to serve as notice of the 13 former colonies' separation from Great Britain, including future jurisdiction and all subsequent authorities of the Crown.
The Illinois Republican Party filed its quarterly campaign finance report on the July 15 deadline. The party reported having just $223,000 in the bank. The next day, the party sent a letter to the Illinois State Board of Elections saying they were “reconciling” their records after a leadership change, and then noted that their actual end balance was $101,000 higher than it had reported the day before. But that bit of found money was basically the end of the “good news” for the GOP last week.
Chemical Trespassing on Iowa's State Tree Cannot Be Punished
Tony Singh's 20-Year Quest to Address Pesticide Damage in His Oak Savanna
In 1996, Tony Singh began rewilding a plot of land in LeClaire, hoping to restore its oak savanna, native prairie, woodlands, and wetlands. Fewer than five years later, he noticed the leaves on his oak trees were in tatters.
In our enlightened age, the public seems tirelessly bombarded with warnings of existential threat from infectious disease. Another distant outbreak is spreading, this time it could be Disease X – “…and there is no vaccine!” How, one might ask, is our species still extant?
About a week after the state budget passed both chambers in the dark of night, Attorney General Kwame Raoul spoke to the City Club of Chicago to complain that his budget was cut by $10 million.
Having first seen the musical in New York with the original Broadway cast, I came in with extremely high expectations. Director/choreographer Chaz Wolcott’s production more than rose to the challenge and made for a truly fantastic night at the theatre.
Lauded by the New York Times as “effortlessly endearing” and by Variety as “enormously satisfying,” The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee closes the 2026 summer season at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, the show's August 6 through 16 run sure to demonstrate why composer William Finn's celebrated 2005 musical comedy received two Tony Awards and enjoyed a Broadway run of 1,136 performances.
Nostalgia has a funny way of raising the stakes. A mediocre presentation wouldn’t just be disappointing; it would feel like someone had replaced my ruby slippers with muddy boots and then trounced all over my childhood memories. Thankfully, director Tony Parise’s production bursts to life with color, imagination, and obvious affection for the material.
Reviews by Rochelle Arnold, Jeff Ashcraft, Patricia Baugh-Riechers, Audra Beals, Pamela Briggs, Dee Canfield, Madeline Dudziak, Kim Eastland, Emily Heninger, Heather Herkelman, Kitty (née Israel) Hooker, Mischa Hooker, Paula Jolly, Victoria Navarro, Roger Pavey Jr., Alexander Richardson, Mark Ruebling, Mike Schulz, Joy Thompson, Oz Torres, Brent Tubbs, Jill Pearson Walsh, and Thom White.
Touring in support of their 2025 release Worldwide that finds the musicians, according to Pitchfork, as "rowdy and relentless as ever," the Nashville-based punk rockers of Snõõper headline a July 28 concert aty Davenport's Raccoon Motel, Joyzine adding to the Worldwide praise by deeming the recording "fast, frantic, funny, and deeply addictive."
With the musician's lauded vocal style hailed by Illustrate magazine as "slow, smooth, and intimate, setting a nostalgic and warm tone," Minnesota native Seth Evans' touring project Paul Babe headlines a July 29 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, The Other Side Reviews adding that the indie outfit produces an "extremely interesting mix of sounds and soothing vocals to bring overwhelming emotions to life."
With an eagerly awaited weekend of live performances returning to the Quad Cities for the 55th time, the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival will, from July 30 through August 1, again enjoy residency at the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center.
It's not often that you're see horses and a dinosaur on the same stage. But miracles will be in the making on July 30 when Davenport's Capitol Theatre hosts an evening with Band of Horses and Dinosaur Jr., the popular alternative rockers respectively adored for such albums as the Grammy-nominated Infinite Arms and the critically acclaimed Sweep it Into Space.
With their 2024 debut LP Miss Missed Connection the winner of the South Arts Jazz Roads Award and, according to The Grateful Web, boasting "infectiously fun songs that invite crowd participation," the touring pop, soul, and New Orleans brass talents of Sweet Magnolia return to Davenport's Raccoon Motel on July 30, their songs hailed by Glide magazine as "unapologetically sassy, infectiously fun, and bold."
Christopher Nolan appears seriously invested in our enjoyment, and there are many, many sequences in this grandly scaled adventure as thrilling, juicy, and ticklish as any that 2026 has thus-far produced. Those demanding fidelity to Homer are likely gonna hate it.
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, July 23: Discussion of The Odyssey, and previews of Hadestown: The Musical, Motor City, and Her Private Hell. Also reviews of a few trailers: I Play Rocky, Avengers: Doomsday, and Other Mommy, the latter of which has set the Internet on fire for understandable reason. It looks fre-e-e-eaky.
Watching romantic relationships crack and crumble can be enormous, if nerve-racking, fun – just so long as those breakdowns are viewed from the perspective of an auditorium, and not a mirror.
It's hard to think of a more ticklish recent ode to cinema than Minions & Monsters, which would've been just about perfect if its monsters were ditched entirely.
In celebration of America’s 250th birthday, Davenport's Figge Art Museum has been hosting American Art talks throughout the month of July, and on Thursday the 30th, guests are invited to enjoy Focus with Artist Beth Lipman, held in conjunction with the A Golden Age for Whom? exhibition in the Figge's Mary Waterman Gildehaus Community Gallery.
Four Chicago-based artists will present concurrent solo exhibitions across the galleries of Dubuque's Voices Studios through July 31, with the collective Quiet Intersections exhibit a multi-faceted experience that reveals how individual artistic voices can converge, diverge, and share creative space.
Telling the story of Raven, an important trickster figure in Tlingit culture who transformed the world by bringing light to people via the stars, moon, and sun, Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight will be viewable at Davenport's Figge Art Museum through August 2, with the tale of Raven releasing or "stealing" the daylight one of the most iconic stories of the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska.
On August 6, Figge Art Museum Co-Senior Curator Vanessa Sage will lead a special tour celebrating the creativity, strength, and influence of women in art during the Davenport venue's Music & Makers Night event Celebrating All Wonder Women, allowing guests to explore rhe works and stories that highlight remarkable women artists and inspiring subjects throughout the galleries.
With the latest Quad City Arts Center exhibition taking on a very specific theme, and a seasonally appropriate one at that, a pair of Midwestern artists currently have beautiful works displayed in Bicycle Worlds, the Rock Island venue treating patrons, through August 7, to bike photography by Ken Urban and bike illustrations by Jeff C. Williams.
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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