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.

Its namesake lauded as "a smiling, exuberant performer with an open upper torso and fast-flying feet straight out of Irish step dancing," the touring talents of Darrah Carr Dance enjoy a residency as the latest guests in Quad City Arts' Visiting Artist series, their public performances including an intimate, abbreviated performance and artist talk at the LeClaire Community Library on March 12, and a riveting, full-length engagement at Davenport's Capitol Theatre on March 13.

Returning to Davenport's Galvin Fine Arts Center with their first full St. Ambrose University presentation in more than six years, the gifted professional dancers of Ballet Quad Cities stage their latest, Valentine's-themed iteration of Love Stories on February 22 and 23.

Although most people are more familiar with New Orleans' Mardi Gras and Brazil's Carnival, Germany has its own extravagant regional celebration known as Fasching, and on February 23, Kathlyn Hoffman will deliver a presentation on this exuberant street party in Fascinating Fasching, a program in the popular "Kaffee und Kuchen" series at Davenport's German American Heritage Center.