UPDATED: Though the Mississippi Valley Blues Society (MVBS) in 2020 had to cancel its annual blues festival and Blues in the Schools education program, it was hardly idle. The completely volunteer-run nonprofit organization, founded in 1984, completely revamped its website, mvbs.org – with much more content than before. It’s also returning to Davenport’s LeClaire Park (later this year than usual), Sept. 17-18, with its signature event, the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival. The website overhaul (led by the Rock Island-based design firm Pixouls) is broken into three main sections: Listen Most... Read More

Just a week after its first 2021 production, the Mississippi Bend Players, with Shelley Cooper, will be back this week with her original one-woman show, Mary and Ethel: How I Learned to Sing. The show, which debuted at the Circa ‘21 Speakeasy in September 2020, contains musical numbers from musical theater Golden Age icons Mary Martin (1913-1990) and Ethel Merman (1908-1984). With musical arrangements and piano accompaniment by Quad-City music director Mason Moss, Cooper sings multiple medleys from Golden Age classics like Anything Goes!, Hello, Dolly!, The Sound of Music, South Pacific, Annie... Read More

An adapted version of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure is currently running to open Genesius Guild’s 2021 season with the next performances at 7 p.m. on June 26 and 27. All performances are held at the Don Wooten Stage in Lincoln Park, 1120 40th St., Rock Island, and admission is free. Opening weekend marks the Genesius Guild’s return to live theater after cancelling the 2020 season. Sometimes known as one of Shakespeare’s problem plays – shows that are not explicitly comedies or tragedies – Measure for Measure is a “fascinating exploration of how power can corrupt, with comedic... Read More

MACOMB/MOLINE, IL – In Fall 2020, Western Illinois University jumped to the head of the line when its two cannabis-related minors debuted in Fall 2020: WIU College of Arts and Sciences’ (CAS) Cannabis & Culture minor and the School of Agriculture’s Cannabis Production minor. The Cannabis & Culture minor is an interdisciplinary minor that is nationally distinctive as it is the only known minor that focuses on social justice issues related to cannabis use and the cannabis industry. In Spring 2021 WIU graduated the first of its five Cannabis & Culture minors. According to... Read More

During the recent Western Illinois University-Macomb Student Government Association (SGA) elections, Kinsey Tiemann, a senior agriculture major from LaGrange, MO, was elected as the student member to the WIU Board of Trustees, while Elizabeth Orwig, a freshman from Princeton, and Jonathan Lewellyn, were elected SGA president and vice president, respectively. Tiemann served as the vice president of the SGA during the 2020-2021 academic year. She is also the president of WIU Women in Business, a chancellor for the School of Agriculture AgVocator Recruitment Team, president of the College of Business... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Though the Mississippi Valley Blues Society (MVBS) in 2020 had to cancel its annual blues festival and Blues in the Schools education program, it was hardly idle. The completely volunteer-run nonprofit organization, founded in 1984, completely revamped its website, mvbs.org – with much more content than before. It’s also returning to Davenport’s LeClaire Park (later this year than usual), Sept. 17-18, with its signature event, the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival. The website overhaul (led by the Rock Island-based design firm Pixouls) is broken into three main sections: Listen Most... 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 work on... Read More

Rock Island has earned SIX State Wrestling Tournament Qualifiers! In the sectionals this weekend in Geneseo, the team finished third place, and Aoci Bernard took 1st, Daniel McGhee, Tyler Barbee, and Manny Limon took 2nd, Kyle Gant took 3rd, and Sammy Niyonkuru took 4th. The six wrestlers will move on to the state tournament this week!  Read More

Today, Rocky Freshman Sanaa Hampton will be wrestling in the Girls Illinois State Tournament! Cheer her on to a championship!  Read More

Do you just want to go to a party where you can silently sit in a corner and read and it won’t be weird at all and you will actually win a bunch of stuff for it? Yes! And maybe every once in a while you can join in an online staring contest or try eating odd pop rocks combinations? Then you are invited to the Library’s 4th Annual Teen Silent Reading Party on Tuesday, June 22nd at 6:00 pm! We are going virtual again this year so join us in competing in random online challenges, reading a lot, and winning so many prizes–books, random swag, and gift cards–all while staying... Read More