Remember Valentine’s Day 2020, when life was still normal, before the world as we knew it ended? Well, the Midwest Writing Center (MWC) and River Music Experience (RME) are here to help you celebrate the holiday of love, 2021 pandemic-style. MWC is partnering with some of the best poets and writers in the community to offer bespoke poems this month, written for anyone you’d like to gift a poem. By participating in this limited-time program, “you’re not only giving unique poems to people you care about, but you’re also supporting local writers and writing/literacy programs in the Quad-Cities,”... Read More

DAVENPORT — Like many of his fellow musicians who are airing videos on Facebook and working to raise money during the Covid-19 pandemic, Don Gustafson is using the social-media platform for good. The 49-year-old Davenport man makes his living as a full-time musician – as bassist in the Q-C band Funktastic Five, assistant music director at Davenport’s St. Paul Lutheran Church, and adjunct music teacher at Black Hawk College, offering private piano, guitar and bass lessons. In response to the coronavirus, which has closed bars and restaurants, and put musicians out of work, Gustofson... Read More