Appearing as the final guests in Quad City Arts' 2025-26 Visiting Artist series, a residency that finds the talents leading educational workshops from May 11 through 15, the dancers' area tenure concludes with a Friday-night performance by Ballet Folklórica del Rio Grande, who will demonstrate their astounding athletic prowess and and grace in a full-length program at East Moline's United Township High School.
On May 15 and 16, the Rock Island Arsenal invites the public from the greater Quad Cities and beyond to join in the fun and tribute of the annual Armed Forces Day Celebration, a two-day event boasting live music, races, wrestling, food trucks, military displays, fireworks, and more at your island home for military history and heritage.
Over the past 250 years, German immigrants and their descendants, particularly in the Midwest, have helped develop, challenge, and improve the United States. The German American Heritage Center will consequently celebrate their history and accomplishments in Shaped by Immigrants: Celebrating 250 Years of the United States, on display in the Davenport venue from May 16 through November 1.
To honor America’s 250th birthday this year, the Bishop Hill Heritage Association will be hosting a variety of activities that look at various aspects of early U.S. history in the 2026 Bishop Hill Civil War Day, the May 16 events including an artillery demonstration, a speech by Union General John Logan, a Civil War music concert, an evening Civil War-era Ball, and, of course, a staged battle.
Delivering a night of prestidigitation that, according to The Bash, "could not have been better," touring artist Jason Hudy brings his show Mesmerizing Magic to Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse on May 16, the man's gifts inspiring Studio City Casino's Franz Harary to rave, "To tell you that his professionalism, performance, and overall way of being is outstanding does not give him nearly enough credit."
Before the House passed the megaprojects bill last month, we were told that the drafters didn’t want to just do some symbolic or “token” property-tax relief. After the chamber passed the bill, we were told the property-tax component will provide meaningful statewide relief for home-owners.
Faterium Bike Race Remembers Its Founder Dustin Collison: This Memorial Day Weekend, the 2026 Quad Cities Criterium Will Feature the Fat Bike Race Collison Innovated in the Rain in 2014Mor
The Quad Cities Bicycle Club (QCBC) is excited to announce the return of the Quad Cities Faterium as part of the 2026 Quad Cities Criterium, taking place Monday, May 25, 2026 (Memorial Day) in the Village of East Davenport. This year’s Faterium will celebrate Dustin Collison’s memory. Dustin's spontaneous and inspired rain-soaked ride in 2014 sparked one of this race weekend's most beloved modern traditions.
More than a year ago, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget was projecting a $3.2 billion deficit for what is now the current fiscal year. Part of the problem was that existing revenues were flat while spending was growing, according to the budget office.
“We’re almost there” on a Bears stadium bill, Representative Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, told some sports radio hosts on a Friday morning before the House returned to Springfield for three days of session last week. “We’re very close.”
In a mid-March poll, 68 percent of likely Illinois voters said they would support legislation to “regulate data centers to minimize their impact on our utility bills, climate, and water while still allowing them to be built.” But while 21 percent percemt opposed the legislation, more than half of those opponents (56 percent) said they did so because they “oppose allowing data centers to be built at all.” That means 80 percent either want guardrails or oppose any new construction.
Hailed by the New York Times as "rich, vivid, satisfying theatre," Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning Master Class makes its long-awaited area debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre May 15 through 24, this opera-themed comedy a show that, according to The Hollywood Reporter, "will be talked about for years to come whenever people point to theatre experiences that genuinely deserve to be labeled by the overused word ‘great.’”
One of the most beloved stage musicals in American history, as well as a Tony Award nominee for Best Original Score, composer Stephen Schwartz's timeless Godspell opens the mainstage season at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, the show's May 29 through June 7 run treating audiences to what NewCity Stage called "a terrific show – fresh, inventive, timeless, and rich."
Fiddler on the Roof is often considered one of the final entries in the Golden Age of Broadway era, a period defined by sweeping scores, big ensembles, and stories rooted deeply in character and community. Director Georgette Kleier’s production checks nearly every one of those boxes handily.
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.
With their most recent album Foregone praised by AllMusic for its "raw, bass-heavy, crunchy sound, with their usual highly melodic lines and harmonic solos present and correct," the melodic death-metal artists of In Flames headline a May 13 concert event at East Moline venue The Rust Belt, Kerrang! adding that "Foregone is a reminder that when In Flames are at the peak of their powers, they really are untouchable."
With the Southern rocker and his famed outfit The Business lauded by Echoes & Dust for crafting "catchy, hummable melodies that will stay with you long after you stop listening," J. Roddy Walston brings his solo act to Davenport's Raccoon Motel on May 13, Glide magazine adding to the praise by saying the band was adept at "making excellent rock and roll, best played very loud."
With the outfit's most recent recording When the Wind Forgets Your Name praised by Pitchfork as "dotted with cool surprises and intricately plotted melodies," the indie-rock trio Built to Spill headlines a May 13 concert at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, Pitchfork also placing three of the band's albums – There's Nothing Wrong with Love, Perfect from Now On, and Keep It Like a Secret – in the top 50 of its "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s list."
Touring in support of his 2026 album New Day, a long-awaited release that The Rockpit said "may just be the best we have heard from John so far," legendary hard-rock singer/guitarist John Corabi and several gifted musician friends perform a May 16 concert event at Moline venue Rascals Live, Corabi revered as the frontman of The Scream during 1989 and of Mötley Crüe (during Vince Neil's hiatus) between 1992 and 1996.
Hailed by Westword for his "catchy melodies and experimental production," R&B and soul singer/songwriter Keenan TreVon headlines a May 16 engagement at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the Colorado native lauded for such recent songs as “3 Days,” “11PM in Aurora,” and “She Goes by Denver.”
The Sheep Detectives is kind of like Babe meets Paddington meets The Wild Robot meets Agatha Christie … which means, unexpectedly yet delightfully, it's also kind of perfect.
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, May 7: Discussion of The Devil Wears Prada 2, Hokum, Deep Water, and Animal Farm, and previews of Mortal Kombat II, The Sheep Detectives, and Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard & Soft - The Tour Live, the latter promising state-of-the-art-filmmaking by one James Cameron. Billie's not gonna be blue with pointy ears and a tail, is she?
Meryl Streep as imperious fashion editor Miranda Priestly, Anne Hathaway as plucky journalist-turned-personal-assistant Andy Sachs, Stanley Tucci as acerbic Runway mainstay Nigel Kipling, Emily Blunt as snippy ladder-climber Emily Charlton … . Who wouldn't want to watch these people, as these people, one more time?
Presented by Time Travelers VHS Cinema and the Latchkey Movie Club, one of the most iconic zombie films of all time, if not the most, enjoys a May 15 screening at Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox, George A. Miller's 1978 horror classic Dawn of the Dead famously hailed by Rober Ebert with a four-star review and his certainty that it was “one of the best horror films ever made.”
With the May 14 event led by Co-Senior Curator Joshua Johnson, the Figge Art Museum's latest Music and Maker's Night will boast an art-making activity and live music in the Davenport venue's Quad City Bank & Trust Grand Lobby, as well as Johnson guiding museum guests on a tour of the fascinating exhibition Get Surreal ( A Surreal Lens).
Always an eagerly awaited series at the Figge Art Museum, the latest incarnation of Young Artists at the Figge will be on display from through May 24, with the Davenport venue celebrating the accomplishments of budding creative talents whose works will be showcased in a continuing series of individual exhibitions.
Two gifted, thought-provoking Midwestern artists will showcase their most recent works in a pair of exhibits at Dubuque's Voices Studios venue on view through May 30, with stunning examples of the power of photography on view in Randall Richmond's Palimpsest in the Voices Gallery and Amy May Laskye's The Edge of Light in the Joan Mulgrew Gallery.
Guests of the Muscatine Art Center are invited, through May 30, to explore powerful local stories of sacrifice in the exhibition Muscatine & the Civil War, with an April 18 event enabling patrons to experience special Civil War programs featuring a portrayal of Abraham Lincoln, a presentation on Iowa’s first soldiers, a book signing with Dr. Randee Fieselmann, and a live-music performance by Bob and Kristie Blake.
A trio of gifted Midwest photographers, one of them based in the Quad Cities, will have their latest works featured at Rock Island's Quad City Arts Center from May 8 through June 19, with the Huang, Jackson, & Terry exhibition showcasing the talents of the Peoria-based Qingjun Huang and Natalie Jackson, as well as those of Davenport's Matthew Terry.
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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