I think by now we’ve all heard about the carnage, the brutality, and the humanity of the Great Quad-Cities Pickle Wars of June 2021. For those unaware, the owner of Cafe Fresh made a lengthy post the other day claiming that her Cafe was in fact the originator of the dish which has been floating around the midwest for almost 100 years, and lambasted Meatball’s sandwich shop for having the audacity to add pickle wraps to their menu. The Quad-Cities erupted in brine and bile, putting the Cafe Fresh owner in quite the pickle as she was called out by hundreds of people for not, in fact,... Read More

A new regional video project is shining the spotlight on our Downtown Quad Cities and all they have to offer residents and visitors alike. The fast-paced short video promotes the vibrancy, fun and uniqueness of all our downtowns with scenes from their signature events and festivals, venues and their businesses. View the video here: https://youtu.be/ojBA-4sDgcg  The video features seven cities, which were coordinated by Downtown Bettendorf Organization, Downtown Davenport Partnership, East Moline Main Street, City of LeClaire, Moline Centre, Development Association of Rock Island, Silvis Main Street.... Read More

Teens (11-19) are invited to join Miss Amber on Tuesdays beginning June 22nd at 2:00 pm in the Fairmount Street Library’s Garden for a new teen audiobook club! This summer we will be listening together to one of 2020’s best-selling and award-winning books, Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism and You written by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi and read by Jason Reynolds. As a group, we will listen to portions of the audiobook and work on quiet projects in the garden including gardening, crafting, and meditating. Teens can choose to bring their own projects (such as a sketchbook, etc) or... Read More

Saturday in the Arts is a weekly feature covering a trend, subject, event or personality of local interest. It runs every Saturday morning on your site for the best entertainment and arts coverage in the area, QuadCities.com! Brianna Hobbs was in middle school when the then-new River Music Experience first opened its doors June 12, 2004, in the historic Redstone building at 2nd and Main streets, Davenport. Now, the 28-year-old East Moline native is thrilled to join the growing nonprofit’s staff as new programs director, as the veteran RME leaders Bret Dale and his wife Kate transition out as... Read More

Record Store Day 2021 will be spread out over two days this year, June 12th and July 17th at Ragged Records in downtown Rock Island. We won’t be ready to open at our new Davenport location until July so for the first day we will be combining both orders to bring twice the amount of titles in one location for our Record Store Day Courtyard Sale. Saturday June 12th starting at 9:00am and going until 5:00pm in the Laborspace courtyard outside of our Rock Island location. We’ll have as many copies of as many titles we can get our hands on. Joining us will be Trash Can Annie with a variety of jewelry,... Read More

I really wanted to enjoy Quad-City Music Guild’s first complete musical in a year and a half, “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” which is available to be streamed online June 11 and 12 at 7:30 p.m., and June 13 at 2 p.m. But due more to its supremely silly, groan-inducing, seemingly unending source material than its eminently capable cast and crew, this two-hour-plus filmed version is disappointingly lifeless and unsatisfying. Despite opening on the day where the state of Illinois is allowing all theaters to open at full audience capacity, the Guild months ago decided to stage “Spamalot” with... Read More

Playcrafters Barn Theatre’s first production in 15 months, the new drama “Princeton’s Rage,” is deeply personal for both its Quad-Cities playwright and director. In the Don Faust play (rated R for language and adult content), Princeton Yale left his hometown of Chicago over 30 years ago, turning his back on an abusive past at the hands of his high school classmates and never looking back. But through a series of happenstances, Princeton’s past comes to pay him a visit, in the form of one of his former tormentors, Reece “Rage” Johnson, and more than just talk about “the good... Read More

The Black Box Theatre in downtown Moline will be presenting the comedy “Hate Mail” by Bill Corbett and Kira Obolensky through June 12. Performances begin at 7:30 pm except Sundays, which begin at 2:00 pm “Hate Mail” follows Preston Dennis, Jr. who writes a furious letter to a store demanding a refund for a broken snow globe. In his increasingly heated exchanges with the assistant manager Dahlia, who gives as good as she gets, he gets her fired – and finds a vengeful epistolary match. These two begin an epic, often acrimonious correspondence as their lives intertwine. ”Whether Preston... Read More

Artist Lesley Dill, a renowned New York-based artist, brings historical and literary figures from America’s past to life in a new exhibition curated by the Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport. Opening this past weekend, Lesley Dill, Wilderness: Light Sizzles Around Me features a collection of hand-painted and sewn textile sculptures and banners created by Dill over the past six years. Her work carefully interweaves imagery, text, and historical visionaries into stunning three-dimensional encounters. Gracefully suspended from the ceiling, the clothing of each figure is delicately... Read More

“Do not desire to fit in. Desire to oblige yourselves to lead” – Illinois Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks. The new Gwendolyn Brooks Memorial Park Dedication will take place on the Western Illinois University Macomb campus beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 12. The Park is located on the corner of Adams and Normal streets on the WIU-Macomb campus, on the site of the former Gwendolyn Brooks Cultural Center (GBCC). As COVID-19 restrictions remain in place, the event will be limited to 100 participants, by invitation only. The dedication will also be livestreamed on WIU’s YouTube channel at... Read More