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Former I-74 Bridge Span New I-74 Bridge One-mile Pedestrian,

Dismantled to Center Bicycle & Shuttle Path

Fair Shake?
Decking

Food & Street

Vending

Conservation
90’ x 360‘ Study & Catered
Channel Clear Event Venue Events
of Navigational
Hazards
Concept & Illustration: Larry McDonald
For more information: Chris Barnard (563) 424-5707
p. 5-7

Veteran’s Memorial Pier

More than a bridge, it is a memorial to the veterans of four wars. Please don’t tear it down.

350+Things Local Music Is Social

to Do in the
Calendar
Visual Arts - Music - Literary
Arts - Theatre - Dance -
Comedy - Museums
- Lectures - Meetings - Courses
- Kids. Starts on page 9.
Emotional
Giallows, Pariah x Robscire,
VoidDweller, landethics
Starts on page 16.
Learning
Counterproductive?
p. 2
PLUS
Visual Arts 2021 Spring School
Blakelock: By The Light of the Moon @ Figge,
Steve Banks: Construct/Destruct @ Beréskin
Board Meeting Calendar
Starts on page 9. p. 12-13

"Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness" - 2021 Reader Photo Contest, p. 22

Your Key to the Quad Cities' Culture

Pursuing Happiness MAR 2021
Since 1993 PRINTED MONTHLY #983
2 River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021 Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com

Vol. 28 · No. 983

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Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Could Social Emotional Learning Be Counterproductive?
P
olitical influence is permeating every facet of
American society: culture, laws, finance, and
most alarming of all, education.
But first, a few recent noteworthy controversies.
A Georgia Gwinnett College student, Chike
Uzuegbunam, won his case against the college
for violating his First Amendment free-speech
rights in the Supreme Court of the United States
(SCOTUS) in a near unanimous vote of 8-1.
Justice Roberts was the sole dissenting vote,
favoring the college’s right to limit the student’s
speech to free speech zones via no quantifiable
non-pecuniary rights damage, instead advocat-
ing nominal damages, regardless. (Uzuegbu-
nam v. Preczewski) https://ballotpedia.org/
Uzuegbunam_v._Preczewski#Outcome
In Nevada this week, the Democrat Social-
ist Party won all five leadership seats for that
State’s Democrat National Party affiliation. After
which the entire staff of Nevada’s Democratic
Party resigned in opposition to the Social-
ist movement within their own group, taking
approximately $450,000 with them and parking
it with a different Democrat-affiliated organi-
zation. https://theintercept.com/2021/03/08/
nevada-democratic-party-dsa/
The three experimental injections being dis-
tributed nationwide do not conform to the legal
definition of “vaccine” or “vaccination,” nor are
any approved by the Federal Drug Administration
(FDA). This is because the experimental injections
are to-date not proven to provide immunity: (a)
do not prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection; (b) do not
prevent occurrence of COVID19 disease; (c) do
not prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus or
COVID19 disease. https://www.lawinsider.com/
dictionary/vaccine
The experimental injections only reduce symp-
toms of COVID19 disease for the approximate 19
percent of population who experience symptoms at
all, therefore recipients are admonished to continue
wearing mask(s) and socially distance indefinitely.
Furthermore, while all manufacturers of
experimental injections for COVID have blanket
immunity for liability from harm caused by the
injections, the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson &
Johnson experimental injections are approved for
“emergency use only” (EMU), and therefore do not
qualify for current government-run program(s) to
reimburse recipients harmed by these three desig-
nated COVID19 injections.
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-
announcements/fda-issues-emergency-use-autho-
rization-third-covid-19-vaccine
In Iowa, it has been learned that, well before the
2020 November election, Republican Secretary
of State Paul Pate’s office introduced the progres-
sive Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL)
during an annual conference of state-wide election
officials, effectively endorsing large infusions of
privately funded partisan grants into the public
election offices of 64 Iowa counties. https://www.
techandciviclife.org/
“COVID-19 Relief Grants’ were awarded by
CTCL to manage elections in targeted districts to
advantage Democrats in the 2020 election. The
grants came with instructions that required adher-
ence or the grants would be owed back to CTCL for
noncompliance.
Prior to the 2020 election, CTCL operated an
approximately $1 million annual budget, engaging
local election jurisdictions by offering free data col-
lection and analytics tools, making it a natural for
one of the world’s largest data miners, FaceBook’s
Zuckerberg, to join forces using hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars to influence predetermined election
outcomes, especially in swing states. (More on
CTCL’s, including many other partisan NGOs’ and
foundations’ data collection and analytic to come.)
To this end, CTCL distributed more than $350
million, funded almost exclusively by FaceBook’s
Mark Zuckerberg and wife Pricilla Chan, of which
Scott County received $426,000. This cash infusion
exceeded the County’s entire election budget. Scott
County Auditor Roxanna Moritz, who ran unop-
posed in 2020, accepted two CTCL grants ($286,000
and $140,000) in October, despite several prior
assurances the county election budget sufficed.
According to Auditor Moritz, in reports before
the Scott County Board of Supervisors (SCBS) in
midsummer through the fall 2020, the County’s
election was in good fiscal standing. All 63 polling
locations would be open despite Covid challenges,
with no shortfalls or additional funding requests
forthcoming.
Since then, all manner of irregularities and/
or crimes have surfaced that are connected to the
Auditor’s office that include violating state law.
Among them are altering time cards of Primary poll
workers to increase pay without Board approval,
asking the SCBS for a resolution approving the
increase in poll workers’ pay to whitewash the dis-
crepancy before the annual audit was certified, and
allowing Republican John Maxwell on the ballot for
a School Board position he was not eligible for as a
sitting Scott County Supervisor.
This last oversight by Moritz is made more
egregious by her office being one of three (auditor,
recorder, and treasurer) that will appoint Maxwell’s
replacement on the Scott County Board of Supervi-
sors until the next election.
The only way for Scott Countians to stop bureau-
cracy corruption in election integrity with unac-
countable funds and spending, regardless of party
affiliation or which party or candidate is advantaged
by such corruption, is to get involved in local civic
business by attending council, supervisor, and gov-
ernment committees’ meetings; running for local
board seats (county supervisor, school board, city
council, and the many committee seats throughout
the administrations); watchdog and participate
in election office processes (poll workers, elec-
tion judges, ballot counters, etc, as this is urgently
needed going forward); actively participate at the
precinct level for a preferred political party; but at
a minimum, begin attending meetings (county,
city, school, and political parties) as a concerned
citizen. Most are being held virtually so you can
attend remotely. These are simple actions/activities
that yield enormous reward if you persevere. Never
underestimate your powers of observation, partici-
pation, and civic engagement in causing meaningful
change.
*****
Now we circle back to education and local School
Districts and Board adoption of Social Emotional
Learning (SEL) programming into curriculums that
demand parents’ attention.
If you are wondering where all the drama is
coming from with censoring Dr. Seuss books,
blurring gender lines, Critical Race Theory training
prohibited then reinstated throughout the public
sector, and Social Emotional Learning with its
hyper focus on diversity and racism, the origins can
be found largely in academia.
The MainStream Media (MSM), newly referred
to as the M5M for Mainstream 5 Media (con-
glomerates) are all in, too, relentlessly reinforcing
themes of white privilege, racism, and oppression as
being responsible for the growing gaps in literacy,
mathematics, science, and many other traditional
academic categories of learning.
Both Academia and M5M are largely financed
by familiar foundations and NGOs, including
River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021
the Rockefeller Foundation, The Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, The Welcome Trust … . The
list is not surprising. Their patronage underscores
what Justice ClarenceThomas accurately coined
“The bigotry of low expectations.” Which begs the
question: Has a decision been made by funders and
educators that too many of our children have fallen
so far behind, that the more expedient solution is to
lower standards for all students to assure equity in
the classroom?
When viewed through a wider lens, or along a
longer timeline, supported by stated goals within
curricula, students are being incorporated into a
larger mission of long term social activism, with
teachers and administrators acting en masse as
community organizers.
A deeper dive into the K-12 social emotional
programming permeating schools in every state
suggests a “divide and conquer” social scheme. And
while there is nothing new in that centuries-old
strategy, it is much better funded, organized, and
now generationally deployed at ever-younger school
ages.
What is new is the emphasis on emotional
recognition and validation as equally instructive
compared with reason and rational cogitation. It
appears that Post Modernism doctrines provide
the ideal platform for refocusing students toward
social emotional learning that is measured by cor-
rect worldviews for advancement, in some cases
taking precedence over literacy, math, or science
competencies.
While emotionalism is definitely a tool for
navigating life, it’s infinitely inferior as the tool,
evidenced by the breakdown in communication
in the last decade. Few people are talking rela-
tive to cultural and political differences for fear of
emotionally triggering others. Emotionalism has
become the largest self censor-er of all.
Schools by social contract are places of higher
cognitive development, without which humans
languish intellectually. The chaos that underpins
contextual-less learning found in Common Core
is bearing this out. Thanks to COVID, the failure
that is Common Core would be otherwise glaringly
obvious by now. Instead, children are falling behind
scholastically across disciplines due to sheer neglect
and social isolation, leaving Common Core to
escape under the radar, and with it accountability
from school administrators and teachers.
But the new creed for the 21st century to never
waste a crisis has resulted in promulgating Critical
Race Theory (CRT), Culturally Responsive Teach-
ing & Learning (CRTL), Social Emotional Learning
(SEL), and the 1619 Project, to name just a few trans-
formative educational initiatives and programs.
https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1254/
critical-race-theory
Controversy plagues such programming within
curricula, claiming it smacks of resurrecting racial
division that has otherwise been gradually weeded
out of the hearts and minds of each successive gen-
eration. The super-majority of Americans embrace
the belief that skin color doesn’t matter, that people
need be judged by character and deeds, not by race
or any other attribute we have no control over.
This positive core belief has transcended culture
and society on an individual basis, with profound
moral conviction, backed by an increasing body of
laws to underscore the equality it means to invoke.
This color blindness can especially be seen in the
many places where children congregate, including
schools and playgrounds.
Still, while vigilance and improvement is always
needed, the danger of transformative education
and SELs arguably lies in its promoting the goal of
“equity” as a replacement for equality.
3
By Kathleen McCarthy
Equality describes equal in being, or “the same
in value,” and applies most efficiently to the lowest
common denominator of one for actually achieving
it.
Equity means fairness, justice, and is a construct,
often including some measurement or division for
groupings.
Equality has a singular nature, it applies to each
individual within a group, and does not confine
itself to groups only. Equality does not require
measurements or divisions, nor does it occur at the
expense of others as each individual by definition
has the same value.
Equity can and often does expend others for the
sake of group fairness or justice, evidenced by the
SEL’s penchant for underscoring racial inequities,
which are themselves divisive constructs in this
tidal wave of transformative education.
Reinforcing students from K-12, then continuing
through college and grad school, with the notions
of equity being the higher aim over equality (from
which natural, sustainable fairness and justice
flow), necessitates a hierarchy of causation that pits
one group against another, whether consciously or
subconsciously.
Highlighting historical racism using Critical
Race Theory, in order to persuade, advances a
race-based villain/victim scenario, hence the focus
on white supremacy, privilege, and oppressor of
the other races and their progeny. Americans past
and present grew up learning about the horrors of
slavery, most especially the cruelty and diminu-
tion of African-Americans as enslaved property
of white owners. The shame of “white oppression”
is not lost on Americans through time, evidenced
by an unyielding conviction to eliminate all racial
injustice as a core value of American ethos.
As the 1619 Project agrees, Thomas Jefferson
acknowledged the hypocrisy of his own slave own-
ership, especially in the bright light of his author-
ing the Declaration of Independence, therefore
outlawing much of it. It took another 85 years before
America fought a civil war for emancipation, but
it was fought precisely because America recog-
nized its crimes against humanity in the practice
of slavery. https://archive.org/details/1619project/
full_issue_of_the_1619_project
Fast forward to the present and it cannot be
denied that most white people openly reject those
past crimes with nonnegotiable resolve, further
cemented by continued codification against all
forms of cruelty and discrimination.
Yet children today, who have been taught from
birth that skin color doesn’t matter, are suddenly
being conditioned via SELs to believe otherwise by
hyper-focusing on differences that emphasize skin
color, and the historically negative behavior that is
presumed destined for repetition unless students
are taught to check their privilege and many other
biased inclinations.
This reverse conditioning as part of children’s
developmental programming has the potential
for unrecognized, unattended defensiveness,
insecurity, guilt, anxiety, all the toxic emotions that
no amount of admission, self-effacing, self-recrim-
ination, or self-loathing can on balance overcome
because our children are psychologically forced into
capitulating, apologizing, and emotionally paying
for sins, attitudes, actions, and oppression they had
no part in, neither as villain or victim.
It is important to note that SELs are also big busi-
ness as of 2021. Initially, school districts in Iowa get
these programs and support for free from a provider
organization such as CASEL, then must pay for the
Continued On Page 17
 4 River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021
ILLINOIS POLITICS
Kelly Clobbered Harris, and Might Have
Clipped Pritzker, Too
W
hen legal questions were raised
about U.S. Representative Robin
Kelly’s campaign for state Dem-
ocratic Party chair last week and Kelly only
got stronger, that should tell you a couple
of things.
One, Kelly is a genuinely well-liked,
well-known, and trusted person within the
Democratic Party, and her alliance with
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin was crucial. They
were quickly able to believably reassure her
supporters and those leaning her direction
that she’d find a way around the admission
by her own attorney that the state party
couldn’t raise or spend “soft,” non-federal
campaign money as long as she had even
“indirect” control of the party apparatus.
Two, and perhaps more importantly, the
hit solidified the contest as a referendum on
Governor JB Pritzker, and not in a good way.
When the potential loss of millions of
dollars in campaign contributions, plus the
possible loss of as much as $300,000 in post-
age discounts per cycle for the Illinois House
Democrats alone, and the publicly-expressed
fears about Kelly’s election from the party’s
most-dependable ally, organized labor, and
the very real possibility of alienating a sitting
By Rich Miller
liberal billionaire governor, weren’t enough
to stop Kelly, you’re dealing with a heck of
a candidate, a clever sponsor, and no fear of
reprisal from the other side.
Granted, the state central committee is a
strangely unique voting universe populated
with some odd sorts. But everybody knew
that going in. Also, people lied. But that’s not
new. In the end, however, the governor got
rolled. Again.
Governor Pritzker’s foray into the 2020
Illinois Senate President election caused a
backlash that ended in defeat and lingering
resentment on both sides. His “Fair Tax” was
so thoroughly beaten last year that Demo-
cratic legislators all over the state who voted
to put it on the ballot were running away
from it throughout the fall. January’s lame-
duck session was a gubernatorial disaster.
And now this.
Last week’s narrow-but-convincing
thumping of Pritzker’s candidate Michelle
Harris won’t matter at all to actual 2022
voters, who are far more concerned right
now with staying alive, healthy, and
employed. But these losses have a cumulative
effect under the Statehouse dome.
Losing is like a disease in politics. People
usually don’t want to have anything to do
with you when you lose. So the governor
needs to start putting some points on the
board or this could morph into something
that voters might eventually care about.
Someday, this pandemic’s gonna end.
Pritzker is starting to take some positive
steps. The governor just finished two weeks
of events with Legislative Black Caucus
members enthusiastically supporting the
new criminal justice reform law and aggres-
sively rebutting its many critics. The Black
Caucus passed three of its four “pillars” in
January (education and economic reform
were the other two), so expect another four
weeks of similar whistle-stops.
Governor Pritzker has also done a
few recent events announcing projects
from 2019’s massive capital-construction
program.
With the way things stand now, though,
the legislature will roll over him like he’s
not even there on the new district maps, the
budget, or whatever.
For instance, Pritzker’s failed efforts for
more than a year to pass a clean-up bill for
the cannabis-legalization law are encounter-
ing even more resistance. Representative
Sonya Harper, the chair of the Illinois Leg-
islative Black Caucus, insisted to the Cook
County Cannabis Commission last week
that the Pritzker administration’s implemen-
tation of the 2019 law is the main problem,
not the law itself.
And then, of course, there are the ongoing
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
problems at the Illinois Department of
Employment Security a full year since the
economic crisis began. Legislators receive
more gut-wrenching calls about this topic
than pretty much everything else combined.
The best path forward for the gov-
ernor boils down to good governance,
good politics, and much better “member
management.”
One thing that encompasses all three of
those is the state’s capital program, which
needs to be rolled out more. Nothing gener-
ates more legislative goodwill than projects.
Make lots of people happy and create some
jobs, already.
Above all, though, Pritzker’s gotta figure
out why these losses keep happening. Stop
talking and start listening.
He wouldn’t confirm it, but I’m told one of
the last people to declare his state party chair
allegiance was millennial committee-person
Tom Maillard moments before the voting
began. Maillard had just enough weighed
votes to put Kelly over the top. A phone call
to that young man to hear him out is prob-
ably the last thing anyone on Team Pritzker
wants to do right now. But it wouldn’t be a
horrible first step.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a
daily political newsletter, and
CapitolFax.com.
New Column Published Weekly at
RCReader.com
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
WORDS FROM THE PUBLISHER
Give Repurposing I-74 Bridge
Toll Plaza Idea a Fair Shake
W
hen Marigold Resources' brand-
ing and agribusiness adviser
Larry McDonald came up
with the idea to re-purpose the portion of
the I-74 Bridge that used to house the toll
plaza operations into an elevated park on
the Mississippi River, his concept render-
ing was posted to several social-media and
LinkedIn accounts. (Pictured on the cover
of this edition.)
It received thousands of views and engage-
ments, and hundreds of comments.
Plenty of observers commented how fabu-
lous it would be to provide such an unprec-
edented access to and experience of the
Quad Cities’ number one asset. Who knew
the original I-74 Bridge is also a memorial
to veterans of four foreign wars? The online
detractors dutifully cast the concept aside as
frivolous and commented “Who was sup-
posed to pay for this, the beleaguered tax
payers . . . again?!”
Barb Ickes, a longtime I-74 Bridge docu-
mentarian, opined in the daily papers in
GUEST COMMENTARY
Proposal for a Mid-River Elevated
Park on the Old I-74 Bridge Toll Plaza
"The Mississippi River is the #1 asset that sets the QCA apart."
– Q2030 Regional Action Plan and Big Table survey results
W
hat if... no guarantee, but there is
potentially up to $4 million in fund-
ing available to preserve the old I-74
bridge as a pier leading to a large pedestrian
plaza – 90 feet wide by 325 feet long – that cre-
ates an elevated park 60 feet above the middle of
the river with commanding 360-degree views
(and restrooms below deck)?
What if... this mid-river elevated park
would create an amenity and an attraction
for picnics, walkers, runners, cyclists, skat-
ers, and tourists that is utterly unique in
the QCA, or anywhere else along the entire
Mississippi River?
What if... this large elevated mid-river
park/plaza would be one of the crown jewels
of the QCA river experience?
What if... this idea, and potentially up to
$4 million to pay for it, is real?
THE IDEA: Preserve a single span on
the Illinois side that’s 23’ wide to create
a 1,300-foot pier leading to the 90’ x 325’
plaza (the old toll plaza). A gleaming glass
riverfront elevator (or alternate access
structure) would provide access that con-
nects to the downtown Moline riverfront
and the Ben Butterworth Parkway, creating
River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021
(unbeknownst to Marigold) for two years.
He has a load of research and has spoken
to more people involved in local, state, and
federal government than anyone else.
Jeff saw Larry’s rendering in the news and
connected with Marigold to share his white
February that this was a good idea, but too
paper, which we’ve re-printed below. Once
late. And a local TV station picked up on the
Jeff and Larry met and compared notes, it
social media buzz to run a story echoing the
was evident to me once again that the Quad
apparent party line, “Good idea, but don’t
Cities has experts and visionaries right in
hold your breath.”
our own backyard.
What did not get reported was this
And after reviewing the financial data
conceptual trial balloon never proposed
and insight he’s gleaned from his exhaustive
that repurposing and maintaining a
research, it’s also very evident this big idea is
piece of our bi-state region’s history and
worthy of a fair shake review. Doing a fair
infrastructure would rely solely on public
shake review is a low-risk exercise, with a
funding.
potentially high reward for this region.
Nor should it.
This region has immense private wealth
and significant expertise and resources to
Big picture, we know the following
realize and sustain such a bold idea.
to be accurate:
• Connecting locals and visitors alike
And if open-minded due diligence proves
directly to the Mississippi River is the
re-imagining a major piece of infrastructure
number-one way to ensure the Quad
can leverage more-meaningful-engagement-
Cities thrives as a destination and a
with-the-river-for-all than destroying it,
great place to live and grow.
Marigold stands ready to assist in making
• The infrastructure from the deck
the ask.
below to river’s bedrock will still be
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
standing more than 100 years from
Enter Rock Islander Jeff Moore.
now, even with zero maintenance to
Jeff has been working on this concept
that portion of the bridge.
attraction in any QCA or regional visitor
guide.
THE $4 MILLION: According to Iowa
DOT, right now, $22 million (88.5-percent
federal and 11.5-percent state) is parked in
a bank account for the demolition of the old
bridge from shore to shore. Of that amount,
$8 million is earmarked for the two
spans approaching the toll plaza from the
a recreational attraction for walkers, run-
Illinois side, or $4 million for each span.
ners, and picnickers; a mid-river park large
We also know that, in other cities with
enough to accommodate festival events; a
other bridges, demolition money has been
unique landmark for residents and visitors
repurposed for preservation, if the affected
on the new I-74 corridor; and a must-see
community so desires. So, in theory, if $4
5
By Todd McGreevy
• The annual cost estimates given
years ago to maintain the bridge
were not for this stripped-down pier
•
concept.
We only have one shot to measure
twice and cut once, and that window
is closing this year without a fiscally
sober evaluation of the opportunity
and the risks.
Marigold will be hosting an organiz-
ing meeting for a Fair Shake Task Force.
This will include Jeff Moore’s presentation
of his research as well as new conceptual
renderings from Larry McDonald with
more details about access, usage, views and
spectacularly inspiring drone videos.
We know there are challenges with
permitting and timelines. There’s also a
window to surprise ourselves if we want to.
Jeff Moore has done a yeoman’s job of estab-
lishing a baseline of facts and contacts that
we’re wagering will intrigue the Quad Cities’
leadership to take a second look. Thank you,
Jeff Moore!
To learn more about the Fair Shake Task Force
email Chris Barnard at info@marigoldresources.com.
Reader Publisher Todd McGreevy is also a partner
at Marigold Resources an independent mergers and
acquisitions firm, located in downtown Davenport,
Iowa.
By Jeff Moore
million could be saved by saving one span,
that money could be redirected to preserva-
tion of the remaining span. That would be
enough for a $2 million glass elevator (like
the one in Bettendorf for the new bridge, or
an alternate access structure like a switch-
back promenade) and the remaining $2
million could provide safety railings and
other improvements to open the pier/plaza
to pedestrians.
Continued On Page 6
Simple model of
PIER/PLAZA
The pier begins at the Moline river-
front and is accessed via glass elevator,
escalator, and/or switchback ramp/
stairs from the Ben Butterworth Park-
way. The pier extends 1,300 feet over
the water, ending at a park-like plaza
that is 90 feet wide, 325 feet long, and
60 feet above the water in the middle of
the river. There are unique views in all
directions, places to relax, restrooms
below deck, and the best view in the
QCA of the new I-74 bridge – including
its show of changing multi-color LED
lights every evening. Below deck, there
are 2,800 square feet of offices, rest-
rooms, and storage.
 6 River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021 Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com

I-74 Bridge Proposal, continued from page 5

THE HISTORY: In 2003, when the QCA was offered
the old bridge as a gift, the community was suffering from
“bridge fatigue” after 20 years of planning for the new
bridge. There was never any consideration for saving a por-
tion of the old bridge as a pier/plaza. Today, there is a new
and heightened appreciation for the river as the number-
one asset that sets the Quad Cities apart. The city of Daven-
port is exploring a $53 million plan for parks and walking
spaces on its own riverfront. And Moline is wondering what
kind of attraction it can offer on its own downtown river-
front after the old bridge is demolished. Is it worth taking
a second look at the giant, soaring pie, and plaza that’s View along a single span of the old bridge, which would DNR schematic to scale of both bridges. Also relative size
already there? It’s worth in excess of $53 million, can never be the pier, showing visibility through trusses, side railings, of plaza on old bridge and observation deck on new bridge,
be duplicated, and soon will be headed for the landfill. This and electrical with street lights. The side railings would which appears as a small red semi- circle.
decision will impact us for years to come because, whatever have to be modified to meet safety standards.
we decide, the pier/plaza is a singular opportunity that we’ll
never see again.

ACTUAL COST OF ONGOING MAINTENANCE:

A small engineering study would be required, but ongo-
ing maintenance costs for one quarter of the old bridge for
pedestrians would be far less than the DOT estimate that
was offered in 2003, which was for continued maintenance
of the entire bridge as an interstate highway. Iowa DOT says
the bridge is up-to-date with all structural maintenance to Rendering showing relative positions of bridges side by
safely carry 75,000 cars and trucks a day, and the load-bear- side. The entire suspension portion of the old bridge would
ing requirements for pedestrian use are much less. For an come down, leaving unobstructed views of the architectural
eye-opening, real-world example of the cost of converting beauty of the new suspension bridge.
for pedestrian use, see the Chain of Rocks Bridge at the top
of page seven.
View on the toll plaza, where the trusses drop below the
WHAT ABOUT THE PEDESTRIAN PATH ON THE deck, opening up a clear 360-degree view in all directions.
NEW BRIDGE? The side railings continue, as well as electrical.
An excellent interstate pedestrian path was added to the
new bridge. At the time, it was designated as the alterna- Water view showing the massive concrete pier under the >
tive to saving all of the old bridge from shore to shore as an middle of the old toll plaza which contains the old rest-
interstate walkway. But almost all of the facts are different rooms and offices below deck with plumbing and electrical.
today. (Also good view of how the trusses drop
• The idea for one quarter of the old bridge as a pier/ below deck on the plaza, opening the view.)
plaza was never considered.
• The cost of maintaining one quarter of the old bridge
for pedestrian use would be far less than maintain-
ing the whole bridge as an interstate highway.
• In 2003, there was no potential to re-allocate $4
million in demolition money because no demolition
budget had been allocated at that time.
• A large plaza in the middle of the river (with rest-
rooms) invites people to “hang out” in a large space
that has no resemblance to the walkway on the new
bridge. It would become a landmark that is utterly
unique on the Mississippi. It would also offer the best
view of the new bridge along with its nightly show of
changing multi-color LED lights.
• The pier/plaza would be accessed on the riverfront
with a glass elevator or multi-story walk up ramp.
In contrast, the walkway on the new bridge will
be accessed in Illinois a couple blocks away from
the riverfront with a street-level ramp, and will be
attached to the side of the new eight-lane interstate
highway that is the busiest in the QCA. It offers an
entirely different experience in terms of traffic noise
and unobstructed views. There is a small observa-
tion deck that is close to the Iowa side, and a very
long walk from Illinois. As a destination, it has no
restroom facilities.
Jeff Moore is a journalist and filmmaker living and working
in Rock Island, Illinois. To learn more about the Fair Shake Task Drone photo showing footprint of the new bridge relative to the pier/plaza. Also a good view of the large,
Force email Chris Barnard at info@marigoldresources.com. open toll plaza as it exists today, and how the pier also crosses over a wooded island.
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
The New I-74 Bridge
Pedestrian Experience
Rendering of 14-foot wide pedestrian and bike trail, creat-
ing an interstate walkway between Illinois and Iowa. The
overlook is located a short walk from the Iowa side,
which is accessed by a glass elevator.
Shown with no vehicle traffic.
Relative size of overlook. Shown with no vehicle traffic.
Rendering of 8-lane interstate highway with traffic.
Pedestrian walkway can be seen attached to the left (Illinois-
bound) side. The new bridge will be the busiest highway in
the metro area, projected to carry about
100,000 cars and trucks per day by 2035.
For comparison, the photo above is the Golden Gate
Bridge. It carries 112,000 vehicles per day and has a
pedestrian walkway alongside the highway.
River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021 7
Compare This Idea to Other Successful
Bridge Repurposing Projects
Chain of Rocks Bridge is a two-lane roadway bridge a mile long (built 1929) outside
the city of St. Louis that was abandoned/ dormant for 30 years with no maintenance.
Total cost of repairs to re-open for people and bikes in 1998, as part of the Mississippi
River trail system, was $2 million (in 2019 dollars) which covered the engineering study,
two miles of hand railing, spot repairs of the road deck, spot repairs beneath the deck,
electrical and other miscellaneous costs.
Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga is 2,375 feet long.
Abandoned and then demolition funds were repurposed to
preserve and restore the bridge for pedestrians.
Walkaway over the Hudson, a former railway bridge, was
abandoned for 35 years before it was restored for a 1.25-mile
pedestrian bridge in New York state.
John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge is 3,150 feet long in Nash-
ville. Abandoned for safety reasons because it was in such poor
repair, it was restored as a pedestrian pathway and park.
 8 River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021
Your event listing in print and online has been complimentary since 1993!
Send your events to Calendar@RCReader.com
NOTE: All events listed are confirmed at time of publication. Please check with the venue ahead of arrival to ensure status of each event.
VISUAL ARTS
Openings & Gallery Events
Virtual Event: Rebel Artists, Figge Assistant Curator
Vanessa Sage will examine artists whose acts of self-
determination changed the course of art; the presentation
will explore European and American arts organizations,
including the national Academy of Design, the Ecole
des Beaux-Arts, and the Royal Academy of Arts; free; for
information, call 563-326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W.
2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, 6:30pm Thu
Mar 11
“For America”: The Places Tours, on Thursdays; join Figge
staff and docents for tours featuring the special exhibition
“For America: 200 Years of Painting from the National
Academy of Design”; these intimate, in person, 30-minute
tours will feature insights into the exhibition and will offer a
range of topics for discussion; free with $4-10 admission; for
information, call 563-326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W.
2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, 4:30pm Thu Mar
11 thru Thu Apr 8
Meet & Greet: Elaine Rexdale, meet the artist behind
the current exhibition “Machinations of a… Quad City Arts
Center, 2pm Sat Mar 13
Virtual Family Day - Your Way!, featuring an introduction
to “For America”; your free registration grants your family
two weeks of access to a virtual line-up, which means you
can choose your day to play; free family activity packets will
be available for pickup at the museum for each registrant
that selects them; for information, call 563-326-7804, Figge
Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.
org,10am Sat Mar 13
Introduction to “For America” Tours, on Saturdays;
join Figge staff and docents for tours featuring the special
exhibition “For America: 200 Years of Painting from the
National Academy of Design”; these intimate, in person,
30-minute tours will feature insights into the exhibition and
will offer a range of topics for discussion; free with $4-10
admission; for information, call 563-326-7804, Figge Art
Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.
org,2pm Sat Mar 13 thru Sat Apr 3
“For America”: The People Tours, on Tuesdays; join Figge
staff and docents for tours featuring the special exhibition
“For America: 200 Years of Painting from the National
Academy of Design”; these intimate, in person, 30-minute
tours will feature insights into the exhibition and will offer a
range of topics for discussion; free with $4-10 admission; for
information, call 563-326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W.
2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, 1pm Tue Mar 16
thru Tue Apr 6
Virtual Presentation: Art Meets Music, join Michelle
Hargrave, the Figge’s executive director and CEO, and Mark
Russell Smith, music director and conductor for the Quad
City Symphony Orchestra, during this exciting conversation
that explores art and music; registrants will receive a Zoom
link two hours prior to the program; free; for information, call
563-326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport
IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, 6:30pm Thu Mar 18
After Hours: For America, enjoy a socially distanced and
semi-private evening at the museum to view “For America”;
individual charcuterie plates from the Figge Cafe and wine
are included with registration; guides will be available in
the exhibition space for questions and assistance; $50; for
MARCH 2021
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Covering March 11, 2021 - April 8, 2021
information, call 563-326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W.
2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, 5pm Fri Mar 19
Young Artists at the Figge Recognition Day: East
Moline District, elementary art students from six area
school districts are represented in the 2021 Young Artists
exhibition; thanks to museum and donor support, admission
for recognition days is free for student artists, teachers, family
and friends; $4-10; for information, call 563-326-7804, Figge
Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.
org, 12:30pm Sun Mar 21
Virtual Presentation: The Enterprising Eliza
Greatorex, join Katherine Manthorne for this fascinating
lecture that traces the challenges Greatorex faced as a widow
with four children and meager financial resources to achieve
success in New York’s male-dominated art world; free; for
information, call 563-326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W.
2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, 6:30pm Thu
Mar 25
Young Artists at the Figge Recognition Day:
Bettendorf District, 12:30pm: Neil Armstrong and Mark
Twain, 1pm: Paul Norton, Grant Wood, and Herbert Hoover;
elementary art students from six area school districts are
represented in the 2021 Young Artists exhibition; $4-10; for
information, call 563-326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W.
2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, Sun Mar 28
Exhibits & Shows
Keith Kaziak: Turn on the News and Elaine Rexdale:
Machinations of a Colorholic, exhibits of installations
by Wisconsin artist Kaziak… Quad City Arts Center, thru Fri
Mar 19
It’s About the Internet: Julia J. Wolfe, exhibit of works
featuring bright colors, invented shapes,… Bisignano Art
Gallery - University of Dubuque, thru Fri Mar 26
Brian Buckles, Hang Time
@ Quad City Arts International Airport
through April 29.
Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence, exhibit held
in conjunction with the 100th… Muscatine Art Center, thru
Wed Mar 31
Haitian Masterworks, the exhibit features significant as
well as rarely exhibited works from the Haitian collection by
Hector Hyppolite, Wilson Bigaud, Nacius Joseph, Georges
Liautaud, Frantz Zéphirin, and Edouard Duval-Carrié, among
others; Tue.-Sat. 10am-5pm, Thu. 10am-8pm, Sun. noon-5pm;
$4-10; for information, call 563-326-7804, Figge Art Museum,
225 W. 2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, thru Wed
Mar 31
Unlocking Life’s Code Exhibit, this poster exhibit was
produced by the… Moline Public Library, thru Wed Mar 31
Great Cover Ups: Quilts of the Nineteenth & Twentieth
Centuries, exhibit of quilts that are part of… Muscatine Art
Center, thru Sun Apr 4
2021 College Invitational, students to be included in
this exhibition hail from eight area colleges and universities:
Augustana College, Black Hawk College, Clinton Community
College, Knox College, Monmouth College, Scott Community
College, St. Ambrose University, and Western Illinois
University; Tue.-Sat. 10am-5pm, Thu. 10am-8pm, Sun. noon-
5pm; $4-10; for information, call 563-326-7804, Figge Art
Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org,
thru Thu Apr 8
Blakelock: By the Light of the Moon, the exhibit
features eight exceptional artworks by Blakelock from the
museum collection; born in 1847, his early paintings were
highly detailed landscapes inspired by Hudson River School
painters; Tue.-Sat. 10am-5pm, Thu. 10am-8pm, Sun. noon-
5pm; $4-10; for information, call 563-326-7804, Figge Art
Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org,
thru Thu Apr 8
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
Brian Buckles - Rowen Schussheim-Anderson -
Kelly Hanson, aquatic paintings by Buckles, tapestries
by Schussheim-Anderson, and… Quad City Arts Art @ the
Airport, thru Thu Apr 8
Exhalation: Landscapes by Richard Legg, Mon.-Fri.
9am-5pm, public visits by appointment only; free; for…
Morrissey Gallery, Galvin Fine Arts Center - St. Ambrose
University, thru Thu Apr 8
For America: 200 Years of Painting from the National
Academy of Design, the exhibit features more than 90
works made between 1810 and 2010 by some of the greatest
American artists, drawn from the collections of the National
Academy of Design in New York; Tue.-Sat. 10am-5pm, Thu.
10am-8pm, Sun. noon-5pm; $4-10; for information, call 563-
326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport IA,
FiggeArtMuseum.org, thru Thu Apr 8
Immigrant Luchadores: The Fight Goes On & On,
exhibit of works by Miriam Alarcon Avila;… Catich Gallery - St.
Ambrose University, thru Thu Apr 8
National Academicians: Works on Paper, drawn from
the Figge collection, the exhibit features the work of current
and past members of the National Academy of Design;
includes groundbreaking artists Romare Bearden, Hale
Woodruff, Mauricio Lasansky, Robert Rauschenberg, and
others; Tue.-Sat. 10am-5pm, Thu. 10am-8pm, Sun. noon-5pm;
$4-10; for information, call 563-326-7804, Figge Art Museum,
225 W. 2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, 3pm thru
Thu Apr 8
Steve Banks: Construct/Destruct, from ruined temples
and ionic columns to… Bereskin Gallery & Art Academy, thru
Thu Apr 8
Americans in Paris: Grant Wood and Marvin Cone’s
1920 Trip to Paris, for three months in the summer of…
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, thru Thu Apr 8
Art in Roman Life, over 50 works, including coins, glass
vessels,… Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, thru Thu Apr 8
Beyond the Prairie: Midwestern Art from the
Collection, exhibit showcases the work of artists inspired…
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, thru Thu Apr 8
Grant Wood Revealed: Rarely Seen Works by an
American Master, this exhibition will bring together works
from… Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, thru Thu Apr 8
Grant Wood: From Farm Boy to American Icon, the
installation reflects the depth of the… Cedar Rapids Museum
of Art, thru Thu Apr 8
Marvin Cone: An American Vision, a single-gallery
exhibition that serves as an… Cedar Rapids Museum of Art,
thru Thu Apr 8
Mauricio Lasansky: Master Printmaker, artistic takes on
the venerated Iowa City… Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, thru
Thu Apr 8
Seriously Funny: American Gothic Parodies, this
exhibition will look at many Grant… Cedar Rapids Museum of
Art, thru Thu Apr 8
The Path to Paradise: Judith Schaechter’s Stained-
Glass Art, the first survey and major scholarly assessment…
Des Moines Art Center, thru Thu Apr 8
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021 9
Iowa Artists 2021: Olivia Valentine, exhibit of the
artist’s works in the… Des Moines Art Center, Fri Mar
Take Home Workshop: Quilled Jewelry, make a
lovely pendant using this simple technique of coiling… VISUAL ARTS

Blakelock: By the
12 thru Thu Apr 8 Bettendorf Public Library, Thu Mar 18

Young Artists at the Figge: East Moline District, Feather Bracelet, with instructor Alyssa Jakowchuk;
elementary art students from six area school districts use feather beads and crystals to… Beadology Iowa,
are represented in the 2021 Young Artists exhibition; 10am Sat Mar 20

Light of the Moon

thanks to museum and donor support, admission for
recognition days is free for student artists, teachers,
family and friends; Tue.-Sat. 10am-5pm, Thu. 10am-
8pm, Sun. noon-5pm; $4-10; for information, call 563-
326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport
IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, Sat Mar 13 thru Sun Mar 21
Art Array 21: Muscatibe County Arts Council
Juried Exhibition, exhibit on the second floor of
the… Muscatine Art Center, Thu Mar 18 thru Thu Apr
8 Tuesdays thru Apr. 13; Andrew Wyeth, a featured artist
Young Artists at the Figge: Bettendorf District,
elementary art students from six area school districts
are represented in the 2021 Young Artists exhibition;
thanks to museum and donor support, admission for
recognition days is free for student artists, teachers,
family and friends; Tue.-Sat. 10am-5pm, Thu. 10am-
8pm, Sun. noon-5pm; $4-10; for information, call 563-
326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport
IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, Sat Mar 27 thru Sun Apr 4
The Edge, Mon.-Fri. noon-5pm; for information, call
563-589-3717… Bisignano Art Gallery - University of
Dubuque, Mon Apr 5 thru Thu Apr 8
Classes
The Virtual Craft Table: Mandalas, celebrate art
in your own daily life with this fun and informal art-
making experience that promotes relaxation, wellness,
and creativity; $20/person; for information, call 563-
326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport
IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, 6:30pm Thu Mar 11
Virtual Painting America: Craft Cocktails, join
mixologist Shale Sage for a craft cocktail crash course;
these cocktails, the Bees Knees and Southside, are
inspired by the 1920s American experience; Vanessa
Basket Weave Cuff, with instructor Zanetta Hoehle;
use seven base wires and three… Beadology Iowa,
10am Sun Mar 21
Life Drawing 3rd Sunday, with instructor Gary
Burlingame; artists from all over the QC… Bereskin
Through Sunday, April 25 @ Figge Art Museum
225 West Second Street, Daveport IA
Gallery & Art Academy, 1pm Sun Mar 21
Virtual Drawing Basics: Heads and Hands,
in the For America exhibition, spent 15 years creating
more than 240 works of one model, Helga Testorf;
these pictures will be the basis for pencil studies to
develop skills in drawing heads and hands; all levels
welcome; $60-75; for information, call 563-326-7804,
Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport IA,
FiggeArtMuseum.org, 6pm Tue Mar 23
Superduo Leaf Earring through Kirkwood
Community College, with instructor Karen Kubby;
use a two-needle beading technique and… Beadology
Iowa, 5:30pm Tue Mar 23
The Virtual Craft Table – Mandalas: The Symbol
Within, celebrate art in your own daily life with this
fun and informal art-making experience that promotes
relaxation, wellness, and creativity; $20/person; for
information, call 563-326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225
W. 2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, 6:30pm
Thu Mar 25
Gyrls Night Out: Star Light, Star Bright Earrings,
with instructor Karen Kubby; this star pattern
component can be… Beadology Iowa, 5:30pm Fri Mar
26
Barrette Making, with instructor Karen Kubby; learn
to cover a barrette with… Beadology Iowa, 10am Sat
Mar 27

Sage will highlight works from the Painting America
section of “For America: 200 Years of Painting from the
National Academy of Design”; $5-8.50; for information,
call 563-326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St.,
Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, 4pm Sat Mar 13
Virtual Time for Art, join Carol Ehlers for a series
of talks about American Art; this… Bettendorf Public
Library, 3pm Sat Mar 13
Kids Saturday Workshop with Julie Near: Piet
Mondrian, ages 7-14 will learn a little art history and
then… Muscatine Art Center, 1:30pm Sat Mar 13
Pearl & Peyote Earrings, with instructor Karen
Kubby; using peyote stitch, make an embellished…
Beadology Iowa, 10am Sat Mar 13
Red Barn Studio w/ Vada Baker: Garden Gnome
Watercolor, with step-by-step instruction on how
to complete your project; $13.50-15;… Muscatine Art
Center, 1:30pm Sun Mar 14
Virtual Paper Flower Craft Kit, we know you’ve
been wanting some realistic… Moline Public Library,
Mon Mar 15 thru Wed Mar 31
Virtual Preservation Workshop: Heirloom
Scrapbooks, held on the library’s YouTube channel;
library assistant Karen discusses what… Davenport
Public Library - Main Branch, 2pm Tue Mar 16
Virtual “A” Is for Art: Ages 3-5, on Tuesdays;
preschoolers are invited to join Figge educator Laura
Wriedt over Zoom for lively discussions about what
we see in art; each week will highlight works from the
exhibition “For America” and provide an opportunity
to share thoughts and observations through the eyes
of our youngest art experts; for information, call 563-
326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport
IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, 11am Tue Mar 16 thru Tue
Mar 30
Virtual Family Explorer Series: Inside the
Outreach Collection – For America, families
will get a live, behind-the-scenes experience as
they explore shelves of objects and hear from Figge
educators about the objects’ history and importance
today; sessions will be live but a recording will be
available if registrants cannot attend during the
scheduled time; $5; for information, call 563-326-
7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport IA,
FiggeArtMuseum.org, 3:30pm Wed Mar 17
Cupped Copper Earrings, with instructor Alyssa
Jakowchuk; participants will learn to stamp and…
Beadology Iowa, 3pm Sat Mar 27
Virtual Spring Craft Series: Cherry Blossom
Canvas, free; for information, call 309-732-7323…
Rock Island Public Library - Downtown Library, Mon
Mar 29
Virtual Family Explorer Series: Inside the
Outreach Collection – Native American Objects,
families will get a live, behind-the-scenes experience
as they explore shelves of objects and hear from
Figge educators about the objects’ history and
importance; sessions will be live but a recording will
be available if registrants cannot attend during the
scheduled time; $5; for information, call 563-326-
7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport IA,
FiggeArtMuseum.org, 3:30pm Wed Mar 31
Take Home Workshop: Felted Peeps, use wool
roving to make these decorative versions of the…
Bettendorf Public Library, Thu Apr 1
The Virtual Craft Table: Zen Tangling, celebrate
art in your own daily life with this fun and informal art-
making experience that promotes relaxation, wellness,
and creativity; $20/person; for information, call 563-
326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport
IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, 3:30pm 6:30pm Thu Apr 1
Introduction to Animation: Grades 3-8,
Wednesdays thru Apr. 28; with instructor Laura Warner;
students learn… Bereskin Gallery & Art Academy, 4pm
Tue Apr 6
Virtual “A” Is for Art: Ages 3-5, on Tuesdays;
preschoolers are invited to join Figge educator Laura
Wriedt over Zoom for lively discussions about what
we see in art; each week will highlight works from the
exhibition “For America” and provide an opportunity
to share thoughts and observations through the eyes
of our youngest art experts; for information, call 563-
326-7804, Figge Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport
IA, FiggeArtMuseum.org, 11am Tue Apr 6
Wheel Throwing, Thursdays thru Apr. 22; with
instructor Claire Waterman; this class… Bereskin
Gallery & Art Academy, 5pm Thu Apr 8
Continued On Page 10
F
orgeries, mental illness, intrigue, and
rapid fame – the dramatic circum-
stances of Ralph Albert Blakelock’s life
often overshadow the merits of his work. But
the Figge Art Museum hopes to amend that
with the Davenport venue’s exhibition Blake-
lock: By the Light of the Moon (on display
through April 25), a showcase of eight excep-
tional artworks from the museum collection.
Born in New York City in 1847, Blake-
lock’s early paintings were highly detailed
landscapes inspired by Hudson River School
painters. After traveling to the American
West and becoming familiar with Barbizon
painters, Blakelock developed the atmo-
spheric landscapes for which he is most
commonly known. Drenched in darkness
and silvery moonlight, his thickly painted
landscapes have a distinctive otherworldly
quality, and the Figge’s By the Light of the
Moon exhibition will explore Blakelock’s
body of work and how his interest in spiritu-
alism is reflected in his artistic practice.
Blakelock taught himself to paint through
trial and error, and continued to use impro-
visation as an artistic method throughout
his life. He was also an accomplished
musician, and would use his improvised
piano compositions as inspiration for his
paintings. Blakelock would frequently work
on paintings for years, building layers and
then scoring, scraping, or rubbing them
away, and while his early landscapes have
their genesis in the works of the Hudson
River painters, in time he developed a more
subjective and intimate style. His favorite
themes were those depicting the wilderness
and solitude; evocative and emotional
paintings of illuminated moments in
nature, of moonlit landscapes and twilight
hours and Indian camps in the solitude of
nature. He was also heavily influenced by
the French Barbizon school, whose painters
also favored dark forests and heavily worked
surfaces.
Blakelock’s technique was highly per-
sonal, and through his individualistic style
his paintings summoned the viewer into
a luminous, almost otherworldly realm.
In the majority of his paintings, space is
given depth by the use of light, most often
moonlight, and along with his contem-
porary Albert Pinkham Ryder, Blakelock
was one of the most individual American
painters of his time. Although one of his
many paintings titled Moonlight was sold at
the highest price ever paid for the work of a
living American artist at that time, his rise
in public notoriety – along with the increase
in his art sales – never benefited his family
or himself. By 1903, his works were being
forged – so much so that he remains today
as one of the most commonly forged artists
in America.
Blakelock: By the Light of the Moon will
be on display through April 25, and regular
museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on
Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 9
p.m. on Thursdays, and noon to 5 p.m. on
Sundays. Museum admission is $4-10, and
more information is available by calling
(563)326-7804 or visiting
FiggeArtMuseum.org.
10 River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021
VISUAL ARTS
Steve Banks:
Construct/Destruct
Through Friday, April 30 @ Beréskin Gallery & Art
Academy, 2967 State Street, Bettendorf, IA
Steve Banks, Beacon of the Plain
T
he latest exhibition by a noted area
sculptor and multi-media artist, Steve
Banks: Construct/Destruct will be on
display at the Beréskin Gallery & Art Acad-
emy through April 30, with Banks’ fascinat-
ing artistic themes and subjects including
ruined temples, Ionic columns, fragments of
architecture, and more.
Describing his latest exhibition on the
Bereskin Gallery & Art Academy Web site,
Banks states, “Seeing the weathered walls
of Rome and walking through the ruins
of Pæstüm had a profound impact on me.
The hints at what had been, what had been
lost, and what had been repurposed, would
serve as one of the major inspirations for
my artwork for the next 25 years. Ruined
temples, Ionic columns, maps, fragments of
architecture, parking lots, and abandoned
roadside signs thematically weave in and
out of my pieces – for there is a similar
beauty and melancholy to be found in both
the old bones of a Greek temple and the car-
cass of an abandoned truck stop. Much like
adjusting the sound levels on a car stereo,
I have turned the knob all the way to the
right for Construct/Destruct to emphasize
the architectural underpinnings found in
my artwork.”
Holding a 1995 BFA from Northwest
Missouri State University and 1997 MFA
from Florida State University, Banks is well-
known for his extravagant mixed-media
painted constructions – works created
primarily on canvas that utilize oil paint,
cardboard, fabric, and carved wood. As
Banks explains in his Artist Statement at
SteveBanksArt.wixsite.com: “My artwork
is about finding meaningful identity and
individuality within popular culture. I
strive to make energetic images that explore
our relationships and interactions with
what is precious, beautiful, necessary,
serious, sensual, and nonsensical through
juxtapositions of disparate materials, clash-
ing iconography, pungent color schemes,
contrasting textures, scale, and simplicity
versus clutter.”
“My image-making process,” Banks
continues, “is fueled by curiosity regarding
the process of partial cultural assimila-
tion. These studio works are rooted in the
quest for the individual within an apathetic
culture of homogeneity and pre-packaged
identity. This search for individuality often
turns into commentaries about how we
miraculously form meaningful interper-
sonal connections and relationships, while
our souls seem to bob haplessly on an
isolating sea of cultural white noise.”
Regular gallery hours are Tuesdays
through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with
the gallery also open by appointment, and
more information on the Steve Banks:
Construct/Destruct exhibition on display
through April 30 is available by calling
(563)508-4630 and visiting
BereskinArtGallery.com.
Calls for Entry
Call for Entry: 33rd Annual Riverssance Festival of
Fine Art, this two-day festival on Sept. 18 & 19… Quad City
Arts Center, thru Mon Mar 22
Call for Entry: Public Sculpture Program, this exhibition
opportunity offers established and emerging… Quad City
Arts Center, thru Tue Mar 30
Call for Entry: Metro Arts Applications, the program
provides opportunities for youth and… Quad City Arts
Center, thru Wed Mar 31
Call for Entry: Quarantine Art Exhibition, all artists
residing within a 250-mile radius… Quad City Arts Center,
thru Thu Apr 8
Call for Entries: Living Proof Exhibit, Living Proof
Exhibit, which provides the therapeutic benefits… Bisignano
Art Gallery - University of Dubuque, thru Thu Apr 8
MUSIC
Virtual PASS Concert: Barron Ryan, virtual dinner-and-
show experience with the jazz pianist in Quad City… Quad
City Arts Center, Thu Mar 11
Virtual Opera: The Enchanted Forest, Anna Young’s
children’s opera featuring CROpera Young Artists and
Eulenspiegel… Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, 7pm Thu Mar 11
Virtual Concert – Lessons in Loneliness: Schubert’s
“Winterreise” Then & Now, join SAU Music faculty,
baritone Nathan Windt and pianist Marian… St. Ambrose
University Madsen Hall, 5pm Fri Mar 12
50-Percent St Paddy’s Day Party w/ Blues Rock-it and
DJCAM, a full St. Paddy’s party with 50-percent capacity…
Kavanaugh’s Hilltop Bar & Grill, 3pm Sat Mar 13
Jazz Lounge w/ Mason Moss & Sara Tubbs, a relaxing
evening of jazz music in the Blueprint Bar… The Spotlight
Theatre, 7pm Sat Mar 13
Shamrock Shakedown: Funktastic Five, come celebrate
St. Patrick’s Day with Funktastic 5 performing from… The
Tangled Wood, 4pm Sat Mar 13
Virtual Concert: Taj Mahal & Phantom Blues Band -
Jon Cleary, live-streamed blues and roots concert with the
Grammy-winning legend and… Englert Theatre, 8pm Sat
Mar 13
Virtual Concert: Dan Padley, the guitarist/composer
based out of Iowa City performs a virtual… Englert Theatre,
7pm Wed Mar 17
Virtual Performance – Gaelic Storm: One for the Road,
the multi-national, award-winning Celtic group will bring A
St. Patrick’s Day… Englert Theatre, 7pm Wed Mar 17
Virtual Performance: Kirkwood Community College
Wind & Jazz Ensembles, for information, call 319-398-
4913 or e-mail arts@kirkwood.edu… Kirkwood Community
College, 11:15am Thu Mar 18
Virtual Roots Rising Showcase: Taj Mahal - Rob Ickes
& Trey Hensley - Amythyst Kiah - Annie Mack - Leyla
McCalla - Piedmont Bluz Acoustic Duo - Ranky Tanky
- Allison Russell - Jontavious Willis, a collection of Taj’s
hand-picked favorite emerging artists performing songs…
Englert Theatre, 8pm Sat Mar 20
Virtual Event: Nduduzo Makhathini presents
“Improvisation in Jazz as Divination: A (South) African
Context”, Makhathini, a Blue Note recording artist, grew up
in the… Knox College, 3pm Sun Mar 21
Virtual Concert – Claudia Nygaard: Looking Back …
the L.A. Years, virtual performance featuring the singer/
songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee… Uptown Theatre,
7pm Sun Mar 21
Virtual Concert: Ross Clowser, the guitarist, composer,
and music scholar from Des Moines performs… Englert
Theatre, 7pm Wed Mar 24
Jason Gray, live concert with the contemporary Christian
artist; Project 15:12 Love One… Bettendorf Christian Church,
7pm Thu Mar 25
Virtual PASS Concert: Invoke, virtual dinner-and-show
experience with the multi-instrumental string quartet in
Quad City… Quad City Arts Center, Thu Mar 25
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
Arch Allies, tribute band plays the hits of Bon Jovi, Queen,
Journey, Styx, REO, Boston & Def Leppard; $25-35; for tickets
and information, call 844-852-4FUN; Rhythm City Casino
Resort Event Center, 7077 Elmore Ave., Davenport IA,
RhythmCityCasino.com, 8pm Fri Mar 26 and Sat Mar 27
Virtual Concert: Taj Mahal & Fantastic Negrito, utilizing
a shared band, expect both separate and collaborative
blues… Englert Theatre, 8pm Sat Mar 27
Virtual Concert: Penny Peach, the pipes-wieldin’, guitar-
squealin’, soul-stealin’ mistress of indie/garage rock performs
a… Englert Theatre, 7pm Wed Mar 31
Upchurch, concert with Ryan Upchurch, aka Upchurch the
Redneck, the comedian and… The Rust Belt, 8pm Sat Apr 3
Virtual Organ Recital: Dr. Charles Barland, the debut of
Butler Hall’s new Dobson 3,000-plus pipe organ,… University
of Dubuque’s Heritage Center, 7:30pm Tue Apr 6
7 Bridges: The Ultimate Eagles Tribute, concert with the
touring Eagles tribute musicians; sandwich baskets and…
Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, 7:15pm Thu Apr 8
LITERARY ARTS
Virtual Recommended Reads: Women’s History
Month, discuss materials that focus on women’s history that
can be… Davenport Public Library - Fairmount Street Branch,
2:30pm Thu Mar 11
Virtual Mystery Book Discussion Group: The Murder
List, a discussion of Hank Phillippi Ryan’s book; free; for
information,… Bettendorf Public Library, 9:30am Sat Mar 13
Virtual Presentation: 13th Annual Iron Pen
Competition Readings, readings by prize winners in the
24-hour writing competition held… Midwest Writing Center,
2pm Sat Mar 13
Virtual Event: New Releases at Fairmount, on Mondays;
join us on Facebook Live and Instagram as… Davenport Public
Library - Fairmount Street Branch, 2pm Mon Mar 15 thru Mon
Mar 29
Virtual Book Babes Plus One Discussion Group: Dead
Wake, a discussion of Erik Larson’s nonfiction; free; for
information, call… Rock Island Public Library - Downtown
Library, 6:30pm Tue Mar 16
Virtual Book ’Em Mystery Book Club: The Holdout, a
discussion of Graham Moore’s book; we will be meeting…
Moline Public Library, 1pm Tue Mar 16
Virtual Contemporary Books Discussion Group: Ada
Blackjack, a discussion of Jennifer Niven’s book; free; for
information, call… Bettendorf Public Library, 7pm Wed Mar
17
Virtual Contemporary Books Discussion Group: The
Library Book, a discussion of Susan Orlean’s book; free; for
information, call… Bettendorf Public Library, 1pm Wed Mar
17
Virtual Event – Book Club @ Night: A Woman Is No
Man, a GoTo Meeting discussion of Etaf Rum’s book; free;
for… Davenport Public Library - Eastern Avenue Branch,
6:30pm Wed Mar 17
Virtual Novel Naptime Book Club: The Switch, a
discussion of Beth O’Leary’s book; the book club for… Moline
Public Library, 10:30am Wed Mar 17
Virtual Event: World Storytelling Day, join us as we
celebrate World Storytelling Day a bit… Davenport Public
Library - Main Branch, 3pm Fri Mar 19
Spring Into Reading Challenge: Start Day, keep on
target with your reading goals by signing up… Rock Island
Public Library - Downtown Library, 9am Mon Mar 22
Virtual Brown Bag Book Club: Salt to the Sea, a
discussion of Ruta Sepetys’s book; sign out a copy…
Davenport Public Library - Main Branch, 1pm Wed Mar 24
Virtual Last Monday Book Club, join Rachel through
GoToMeeting for Book Club; each person who… Silvis Public
Library, 6pm Mon Mar 29
Virtual Presentation – Opening the Box: Presented
by the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center,
explore and learn about the curious world of archives and…
Davenport Public Library - Main Branch, 2:30pm Fri Apr 2
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
Virtual Alpha Book Club: Little Fires Everywhere, a
discussion of Celeste Ng’s novel; free; for information, call…
Rock Island Public Library - Downtown Library, 1:30pm Mon
Apr 5
Virtual Event: New Releases at Fairmount, on Mondays;
join us on Facebook Live and Instagram as… Davenport
Public Library - Fairmount Street Branch, 2pm Mon Apr 5
Virtual DIY Poetry Series: Black Out Poetry, each
Tuesday in April, we will be discussing a different…
Davenport Public Library - Main Branch, 3pm Tue Apr 6
Virtual Pageturners, we will be meeting on Zoom; books
are provided on… Moline Public Library, 1pm Tue Apr 6
Virtual Event: Poetry Month, on Instagram Live; our
librarian shares her favorite poems and… Davenport Public
Library - Main Branch, 2pm Thu Apr 8
In-Person Class: Theatre Fun! for Ages 3-4, Tuesdays
thru May 11; this high energy class is full… Davenport Junior
Theatre, 4pm Tue Mar 23
Virtual Class: Professional Acting for Ages 11+,
Tuesdays thru May 11; students will learn the ins and…
Davenport Junior Theatre, 5pm Tue Mar 23
In-Person Class: Acting for Ages 10-12, Wednesdays
thru May 12; this imaginative, high energy environment
provides… Davenport Junior Theatre, 5:30pm Wed Mar 24
In-Person Class: Musical Theatre for Ages 7-9,
Wednesdays thru May 12; class develops storytelling and
communication skills… Davenport Junior Theatre, 4pm Wed
Mar 24
In-Person Class: Teen Acting, Wednesdays thru May 12; a
great way to get theatrical… Davenport Junior Theatre, 7pm
Wed Mar 24
River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021
In-Person Class: Tumble for Ages 8+, Thursdays thru May
20; tumblers will learn basic skills such… Davenport Junior
Theatre, 6pm Thu Mar 25
Virtual Class: Lyrical Dance for Ages 9+, Thursdays
thru May 20; this free and fluid style will… Davenport Junior
Theatre, 4:15pm Thu Mar 25
In-Person Class: Beginning Tumble for Ages 5-7,
Saturdays thru May 22; tumblers will learn basic skills such…
Davenport Junior Theatre, 9:15am Sat Mar 27
Ballroom: Bolero, Are you preparing for a wedding, taking
a cruise or… Duck Creek Park Lodge, 7:30pm Mon Mar 29
Ballroom: Swing, Are you preparing for a wedding, taking a
cruise or… Duck Creek Park Lodge, 6:30pm Mon Mar 29
Ballroom: Waltz, Are you preparing for a wedding, taking a
cruise or… Duck Creek Park Lodge, 5:30pm Mon Mar 29
11
Birds & You, the exhibit examines the role we all can play
in… Putnam Museum & Science Center, thru Thu Apr 8
Faces of the Past, an original Putnam exhibit that explores
portraiture around… Putnam Museum & Science Center, thru
Thu Apr 8
Play: The Story of Toys, in this exhibit for all ages, you’ll…
Putnam Museum & Science Center, thru Thu Apr 8
Virtual Presentation: German Immigration to
America, presented by Steve Szabados; this program studies
how the history… German American Heritage Center, 2pm
Sat Mar 13
Virtual Presentation: Sacred and Profane Art, Danuta
Hutchins will guide us on a tour of art… German American
Heritage Center, 2pm Sun Mar 14
Virtual Presentation: Hear Iowa Veteran’s Stories in
Their Own Words, presented by Sara Maniscalco Robinson;

THEATRE In-Person Class: Acting for Ages 7-9, Thursdays thru May you will hear accounts of… German American Heritage
13; this imaginative, high energy environment provides…
Davenport Junior Theatre, 4pm Thu Mar 25 COMEDY Center, 2pm Sun Mar 21

Performances Virtual Presentation: Mozart’s Eine Kleine

Dick Tracy: A Live Radio Play, whodunnit focusing on the
renowned sleuth’s investigation of murder and… The Black
Box Theatre, Thu Mar 11 thru Sat Mar 20
In-Person Class: Improv for Ages 10+, Thursdays thru Virtual Performance: Tommy Ryman, Minnesota-raised Nachtmusik, Jacob Bancks from the Quad City Symphony
May 13; through games and exercises, students develop… Ryman was a semifinalist on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing”;… Orchestra uses this… German American Heritage Center,
Davenport Junior Theatre, 7pm Thu Mar 25 University of Dubuque’s Heritage Center, 8pm Fri Mar 12 2pm Sun Mar 28
In-Person Class: Improv for Ages 7-9, Thursdays thru Virtual Presentation – Megan Gogerty: Telling the

Virtual Performance: Stages, a heartbreakingly funny
chronicle, written and performed… Riverside Theatre, Thu
Mar 11 thru Sun Mar 21
Virtual Performance: Will Power, a new YouTube series
that dives into Shakespeare’s… Riverside Theatre, Thu Mar
11 thru Mon Apr 5
Virtual Performance – Storytelling: A Pandemic Play,
a family play presented by Young Footliters Youth Theatre,
written by… Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, Fri Mar
12 thru Sun Mar 14
May 13; through games and exercises, students develop…
Davenport Junior Theatre, 5:30pm Thu Mar 25
Virtual Class: British Isles for Ages 10+, Thursdays thru
May 13; class focuses on accents from Britain,… Davenport
Junior Theatre, 6:30pm Thu Mar 25
Virtual Class: Magic for Ages 8-18, Thursdays thru April
29; award winning local magician, David Casas,… Davenport
Junior Theatre, 5pm Thu Mar 25
In-Person Class: Acting for Ages 10-12, Saturdays
thru May 15; this imaginative, high energy environment
Truth through Jokes, in this gentle and fun crash course,
comedian and playwright… Englert Theatre, 10am Sat Mar
13
Open Mic Comedy, on Mondays, on the upper deck; for
information, call 319-337-6464… Iowa City Yacht Club, 9pm
Mon Mar 15 thru Mon Apr 5
Let’s Do This! Comedy, standup comedy show; for
information, call 319-337-6464… Iowa City Yacht Club, 8pm
Sat Mar 27
MOVIES
Hemingway: A Virtual Event Series – Hemingway,
Gender, & Identity, presented in conjunction with the new
Ken Burns documentary “Hemingway”; these… WQPT-TV,
6pm Thu Mar 11
Keaton Film Lunch Hours, on Tuesdays & Thursdays; enjoy
silent films over the lunch… Orpheum Theatre, noon Thu
Mar 11 thru Tue Mar 30
Hemingway: A Virtual Event Series – Hemingway the

The Church Basement Ladies in You Smell Barn!,
musical-comedy sequel to “Church Basement Ladies”; for
the safety of… Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, Wed Mar 17 thru
Thu Apr 8
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
(Abridged) [revised], parody of Shakespeare’s plays
written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and… The Spotlight
Theatre, Fri Mar 19 thru Sun Mar 28
provides… Davenport Junior Theatre, noon Sat Mar 27
In-Person Class: Acting for Ages 5-6, Saturdays thru May
15; this imaginative, high energy environment provides…
Davenport Junior Theatre, 9am Sat Mar 27
In-Person Class: Acting for Ages 7-9, Saturdays thru May
15; this imaginative, high energy environment provides…
Davenport Junior Theatre, 10:30am Sat Mar 27
MUSEUMS
Author, presented in conjunction with the new Ken Burns
documentary “Hemingway”; these… WQPT-TV, 6pm Tue
Mar 16
Valor & Victory Gardens: WWII in the Hawkeye
State, the year 2020 marks the 75th anniversary… German
American Heritage Center, thru Sun Mar 28
Continued On Page 14

Virtual Performance – President Harry Truman: A

Grandson’s Portrait, a play/lecture in which President
Truman’s grandson Clifton Truman Daniel portrays…
University of Dubuque’s Heritage Center, 7:30pm Thu Mar 25
La Divina: The Last Interview of Maria Callas,
celebration of the famed opera singer, written by and
starring… The Black Box Theatre, Fri Mar 26 thru Sun Mar 28
Classes & Calls for Entry
Rising Stars’ Private Lessons/Small Group Lessons/
Coaching, we are now offering private lessons, small group
lessons, and… Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, Thu Mar 11 thru
Wed Mar 31
Auditions: The Show Must Go Online, online auditions
for the Young Footliters’ cabaret-style… Coralville Center for
the Performing Arts, Thu Mar 11 thru Tue Mar 16
In-Person Class: Costume Creation for Ages 11+,
Mondays thru May 10; students will learn how to develop…
Davenport Junior Theatre, 6:45pm Mon Mar 22
In-Person Class: Musical Theatre for Ages 10+,
Mondays thru May 10; class develops storytelling and
communication skills… Davenport Junior Theatre, 5:15pm
Mon Mar 22
In-Person Class: Musical Theatre for Ages 7-9,
Saturdays thru May 15; class develops storytelling and
communication skills… Davenport Junior Theatre, 1:30pm
Sat Mar 27
How do YOU
Virtual Class: Heroes & Villains for Ages 7-9, Saturdays
thru May 15; class lets kids create their own… Davenport
Junior Theatre, 10:15am Sat Mar 27
see America?
Virtual Workshop: Improv Games!, Mondays thru Apr.
19, for grades 7-10; through a wild… Coralville Center for the
Performing Arts, 6pm Mon Apr 5
DANCE
Ballet Quad Cities School of Dance Classes, offering
classes in Ballet Pointe, Modern, Jazz, Tap, Conditioning,
Creative… Ballet Quad Cities School of Dance, Thu Mar 11
thru Thu Apr 8
Virtual Class: Beginning Ballet for Ages 3-6, Mondays
thru May 17; dancers continue learning ballet fundamentals
and… Davenport Junior Theatre, 4pm Mon Mar 22
Virtual Class: Yoga for Ages 7+, Mondays thru May 17;
yoga helps students to gain strength… Davenport Junior
Theatre, 5:30pm Mon Mar 22

In-Person Class: Musical Theatre for Ages 5-6, Mondays
thru May 10; class develops storytelling and communication
skills… Davenport Junior Theatre, 4pm Mon Mar 22
Virtual Class: Character Creation for Ages 7-9, Mondays
thru May 10; students will learn to push their… Davenport
Junior Theatre, 4:30pm Mon Mar 22
In-Person Class: Musical Theatre for Ages 10+,
Tuesdays thru May 11; class develops storytelling and
communication skills… Davenport Junior Theatre, 6:45pm
Tue Mar 23
In-Person Class: Beginning Ballet for Ages 5-6,
Wednesdays thru May 19; dancers continue learning ballet
fundamentals and… Davenport Junior Theatre, 4:15pm Wed
Mar 24
Virtual Class: Hip Hop for Ages 5-6, Tuesdays thru May
18; students will explore popular basic hip… Davenport
Junior Theatre, 4:30pm Wed Mar 24
Virtual Class: Tone It Up! for Ages 7+, Wednesdays thru
May 19; this at-home exercise class is great… Davenport
Junior Theatre, 5:15pm Wed Mar 24

In-Person Class: Musical Theatre for Ages 7-9, Tuesdays Virtual Class: ZOOM-ba Kids! for Ages 3-6, Wednesdays
thru May 11; class develops storytelling and communication thru May 19; this dance aerobics class is great… Davenport
skills… Davenport Junior Theatre, 5:15pm Tue Mar 23 Junior Theatre, 4pm Wed Mar 24
12 River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021
KNOW MORE, DO MORE
2021 Spring School Board Meeting Calendar
“K
now more. Do More.” is the
Reader’s mission statement regard-
ing our calendar of events. Now
the Reader’s online and print calendar includes
local school board meetings, county board
meetings and city council meetings. Below
are three months of school board meeting
schedules. For those not inclined to attend in
person, most of these bodies have provided
virtual access or streaming of their meetings
(thanks Covid!). Go to the web sites listed below
to find access to agendas, minutes and links to
the virtual meeting space as well as archives of
prior meetings. If you’ve read our Words from
the Editor in this edition, getting involved with
your the governance of our children’s schools
is more important than ever now. You can also
access this calendar online and subscribe to
updates, share via email or text and set remind-
ers on your own digital calendar via our online
calendar tools.
Bettendorf
Bettendorf School District Board Meeting,
held in the Performing Arts Center on the 3rd
Monday of the month; for information, call 563-
359-3681, Bettendorf High School Performing
Arts Center, 3333 18th St.,
Bettendorf IA, Bettendorf.k12.ia.us/board
6pm Mon Mar 22
3865 Elmore Ave. | 563-326-1847 | dolandjewelers.com
6pm Mon Apr 5
6pm Mon Apr 19
6pm Mon May 3
6pm Mon May 17
6pm Mon Jun 7
6pm Mon Jun 21
Davenport
Join us for a variety
Learn more and
register online: Davenport School District Committee of the
of unique local events,
wqpt.org/hemingway
Whole Meeting, meets on the first Monday
Learn more
plus national of the month (excepting national holidays);
wqpt.org/hemingway for information, contact Board Secretary/
screenings &
discussions. Treasurer Mary Correthers at 563-336-7431 or
correthersm@davenportschools.org, Davenport
Community School District, 1702 N. Main St.,
Davenport IA, davenportschools.org/school-
board/information-on-school-board-meetings/
5:30pm Mon Apr 5
5:30pm Mon May 3
The man. The myth. The writer revealed.
5:30pm Mon Jun 7
Davenport School District Regular Meeting,
held on the second and fourth Monday of the
month; for information, contact Board Secre-
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick explore the life and work of the tary/Treasurer Mary Correthers at 563-336-
7431 or correthersm@davenportschools.org,
legendary writer and his enduring influence on literature and culture.
Davenport Community School District, 1702
This three-part, six-hour series premieres in April on WQPT PBS.
N. Main St., Davenport IA, davenportschools.
org/school-board/information-on-school-
board-meetings/
6pm Mon Mar 22
6pm Mon Apr 12
6pm Mon Apr 26
6pm Mon May 10
6pm Mon May 24
CORPORATE FUNDING FOR HEMINGWAY WAS PROVIDED BY BANK OF AMERICA. MAJOR FUNDING WAS PROVIDED BY THE ANNENBERG FOUNDATION, 6pm Mon Jun 14
THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, AND BY ‘THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,’ AND ITS MEMBERS JOHN & LESLIE MCQUOWN,
THE ELIZABETH RUTH WALLACE LIVING TRUST, JOHN & CATHERINE DEBS, THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND, THE KISSICK FAMILY FOUNDATION, GAIL M. ELDEN,
GILCHRIST & AMY BERG, ROBERT & BEVERLY GRAPPONE, MAUREE JANE & MARK PERRY; AND BY THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING AND PBS.
6pm Mon Jun 28
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
East Moline
East Moline Schools Board Meeting,
meetings of the Board of Education are
open to the public and are held on a rotating
schedule at each of the district school sites
throughout the school year; for information,
call 309-792-2887, East Moline School Dis-
trict Administration Building, 3541 Morton
Dr., East Moline IL, emsd37.org/page/boe
6:30pm Mon Mar 29
6:30pm Mon Apr 26
6:30pm Mon May 24
6:30pm Mon Jun 21
Eastern Iowa Community Colleges
Eastern Iowa Community Colleges Board of
Trustees Regular Meeting, held on the third
Monday of the month (May’s meeting on
May 10); for information on monthly meet-
ings, call 563-336-3300 or e-mail eiccinf@
eicc.edu, Scott Community College Urban
Center, 306 W. River Dr., Davenport IA, eicc.
edu/about-eicc/board-of-trustees/board-
meeting-dates-agendas.aspx
7pm Mon Apr 19
7pm Mon May 10
7pm Mon Jun 21
Erie
Erie School District Board Meeting, held on
the 4th Monday of the month in the school’s
Media Center; for information, call 309-659-
2239, Erie Community Unit School District
No. 1, 520 5th Ave., Erie IL, ecusd.info/page/
board-of-education
6:30pm Mon Mar 22
6:30pm Mon Apr 26
6:30pm Mon May 24
6:30pm Mon May 28
Geneseo
Geneseo School District Board Meeting,
held on the 2nd Thursday of the month in
the District Office Meeting Room; for infor-
mation, call 309-945-0450, Geneseo School
District Office, 648 N Chicago St., Geneseo
IL, geneseoschools.org/board-of-education
5pm Thu Mar 11
5pm Thu Apr 8
5pm Thu May 13
5pm Thu Jun 10
Mercer County
Mercer County School District Board Meet-
ing, the Finance Committee will meet before
the Regular School Board meeting at 5:30pm
in the District Office unless otherwise noted;
for information, call 309-582-2238, Mercer
County School District, 1002 SW 6th St.,
Aledo IL, mercerschools.org/board-of-
education
5:30pm, 6pm Wed Mar 17
5:30pm, 6pm Wed Apr 21
5:30pm, Wed May 19
5:30pm, 6pm Wed Jun 23
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
KNOW MORE, DO MORE
Mercer County School District Board Meet-
ing: Community Forum, for information,
call 309-582-2238, Mercer County School
District, 1002 SW 6th St., Aledo IL, mercer-
schools.org/board-of-education
6pm Wed Apr 21
Moline / Coal Valley
Moline-Coal Valley School District Com-
mittee of the Whole & Board of Education
Meeting, held on the 2nd Monday of the
month; for information, call 309-743-1600…
Coolidge Professional Development Room,
3430 Avenue of the Cities, Moline IL, molin-
eschools.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_
ID=383662&type=d&pREC_ID=2068169
6pm Mon Apr 12
6pm Mon May 10
6pm Mon Jun 14
Moline-Coal Valley School District Board of
Education Meeting, held on the 4th Monday
of the month; for information, call 309-743-
1600… Coolidge Professional Development
Room, 3430 Avenue of the Cities, Moline
IL, molineschools.org/apps/pages/index.
jsp?uREC_ID=383662&type=d&pREC_
ID=2068169
6pm Mon Apr 26
6pm Mon May 24
6pm Mon Jun 28
Muscatine
Muscatine School District Board Meeting,
held on the 2nd Monday of the month; for
information, call 563-263-7223 or e-mail
info@muscatineschools.org… City Hall of
Muscatine
7pm Mon Apr 12
7pm Mon May 10
7pm Mon Jun 14
North Scott
North Scott School District Board Meet-
ing, held on the 2nd & 4th Monday of the
month thru May; for information, call
563-285-4819, North Scott Community
School District, 251 E. Iowa St., Eldridge IA,
north-scott.k12.ia.us/district/school-board-
meeting-dates.cfm
6:30pm Mon Mar 22
6:30pm Mon Apr 12
6:30pm Mon Apr 26
6:30pm Mon May 10
6:30pm Mon May 24
6:30pm Mon Jun 21
North Scott School District Finance Work
Session & Board Meeting, finance work ses-
sion at 5:30pm, board meeting at 6:30pm; for
information, call 563-285-4819, North Scott
Community School District, 251 E. Iowa St.,
Eldridge IA, north-scott.k12.ia.us/district/
school-board-meeting-dates.cfm
5:30pm Mon Apr 12
River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021 13
Pleasant Valley
Pleasant Valley School District Board Meet-
ing, held on the 2nd & 4th Monday of the
month; for information, call 563-332-5550 or
e-mail pvweb@pleasval.org, Pleasant Valley
Community Schools, 525 Belmont Rd.,
Riverdale IA, pleasval.org/district/school-
board/index
6pm Mon Mar 22
6pm Mon Apr 12
6pm Mon Apr 26
6pm Mon May 10
6pm Mon May 24
Riverdale
Riverdale Board of Education Meeting,
held on the 4th Monday of the month in the
school library; for information, call 309-523-
3184, Riverdale High School, 9622 256th
St. N., Port Byron IL, riverdaleschools.org/
agendas-minutes
7pm Mon Apr 26
7pm Mon May 24
7pm Mon Jun 28
Rock Island / Milan
Rock Island-Milan Board of Education
Meeting, held in the school library on
the 2nd & 4th Tuesday of the month; for
information, call 309-793-5900 or e-mail
boardmembers@rimsd41.org, Rock Island
High School, 2101 6th Ave., Rock Island IL,
rimsd41.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_
ID=896145&type=d&pREC_ID=1209476
6pm Tue Mar 23
6pm Tue Apr 13
6pm Tue Apr 27
6pm Tue May 11
6pm Tue May 25
6pm Tue Jun 8
6pm Tue Jun 22
Rockridge
Rockridge School District Board Meeting,
held in the Board of Education Room; for
information, call 309-793-8001, Rockridge
High School, 14110 134th Avenue West,
Taylor Ridge IL, rr300.org
6:30pm Tue Apr 13
6:30pm Tue May 11
6:30pm Tue Jun 15
Silvis
Silvis School District Board Meeting, held
on the 3rd Thursday of the month in the
Office of the Superintendent; for informa-
tion, call 309-792-9325, Northeast Junior
High School, 4280 4th Ave., East Moline IL,
silvisrockets.com/school-board/meetings
6pm Wed Mar 17
6pm Wed Apr 21
6pm Wed May 19
6pm Wed Jun 16
 14 River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021
CONTINUED
MOVIES
Hemingway: A Virtual Event Series – Hemingway and
Biography, presented in conjunction with the new Ken
Burns documentary “Hemingway”; these… WQPT-TV, 6pm
Thu Mar 18
Hemingway: A Virtual Event Series – Hemingway and
Women, presented in conjunction with the new Ken Burns
documentary “Hemingway”; these… WQPT-TV, 6pm Wed
Mar 24
Onward, a screening of the Pixar comedy in the Backlot
Blockbusters… Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, Fri Mar 26
The Ten Commandments: 65th Anniversary, filmed
in Egypt and the Sinai with one of the… Rave Cinemas
Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, Sun Mar 28 and Wed Mar 31
SPORTS
Virtual Event – MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament:
#10 Seed vs. #7 Seed, fans will still be able to watch all nine
games… TaxSlayer Center, 7:30pm Thu Mar 11
Virtual Event – MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament:
#9 Seed vs. #8 Seed, fans will still be able to watch all nine
games… TaxSlayer Center, 4:30pm Thu Mar 11
Virtual Event – MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament:
#5 Seed vs. #4 Seed, fans will still be able to watch all nine
games… TaxSlayer Center, 2pm Fri Mar 12
Virtual Event – MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament:
#6 Seed vs. #3 Seed, fans will still be able to watch all nine
games… TaxSlayer Center, 8pm Fri Mar 12
Virtual Event – MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament:
Winner Game #1 vs. #1 Seed, fans will still be able to
watch all nine games… TaxSlayer Center, 11am Fri Mar 12
Virtual Event – MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament:
Winner Game #2 vs. #2 Seed, fans will still be able to
watch all nine games… TaxSlayer Center, 5pm Fri Mar 12
Virtual Event – MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament:
Winner Game #3 vs. Winner Game #4, fans will still be
able to watch all nine games… TaxSlayer Center, 1pm Sat
Mar 13
Virtual Event – MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament:
Winner Game #5 vs. Winner Game #6, fans will still be
able to watch all nine games… TaxSlayer Center, 4pm Sat
Mar 13
Virtual Event – MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament:
Winner Game #7 vs. Winner Game 8, fans will still be able
to watch all nine games… TaxSlayer Center, 2pm Sun Mar 14
OTHER EVENTS
Blarney Bash Virtual Auction, an important fundraiser
designed to provide critical support… CASI (Center for Active
Seniors), 1pm Thu Mar 11 thru Sat Mar 13
Virtual Presentation – Passport to Hope: Celebrating
Cultural Arts, the online fundraiser will showcase the work
of local cultural… 7pm Thu Mar 11
Annual Lenten Fish Fry, on Fridays; orders will be carry-out
only; the dinner options… St. Alphonsus Catholic Church,
3:30pm Fri Mar 12 thru Fri Mar 26
Black Hawk Hiking Club Hike, to Hennepin Canal - Steel
Dam, Lock 30, Milan, IL; come… 2:30pm Sat Mar 13
Virtual Event: Retail & Restaurant Workers Telling
Their Story of COVID-19, we will listen to four people tell
about their losses… Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, 6:30pm
Mon Mar 15
Virtual Event: Wednesday Nights with Barb, Barb
Arland-Fye will have a conversation with Father Jeff Belger,…
Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, 7pm Wed Mar 17
Quad Cities Bicycle Club Ride, on Wednesdays; 20-25 mile
Group D (13-15 mph) bike ride;… Hy-Vee - East Kimberly, 9am
Wed Mar 17 thru Wed Apr 7
Virtual Event: 38th Annual Maple Syrup Festival,
due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we will be doing…
Indian Creek Nature Center, 8am Sat Mar 20
Quad City Arts Center presents:
Virtual PASS Concert: Invoke
March 25
The Office Trivia Night, trivia based on the Emmy-winning
comedy series; for information, call 563-949-1000… The
Tangled Wood, 9pm Tue Mar 23
Virtual Event: Heart of Forgiveness, led by Sr. Kathy
Sadler; we will delve into the… Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat,
9am Wed Mar 24
Black Hawk Hiking Club Annual Banquet, dinner will
be served, beverages are included; masks should be…
Butterworth Center, 5pm Fri Mar 26
Virtual Event – Final Friday Trivia, you can participate
by yourself, with your family at home,… Bettendorf Public
Library, 7pm Fri Mar 26
Virtual Event: Friday Night Jam, join us virtually for board
games, karaoke, Wii games and… Roosevelt Community
Center, 6:30pm Fri Mar 26
Black Hawk Hiking Club Hike, to Fulton River Front and
Heritage Canyon, Fulton, IL; come to… 2:30pm Sat Mar 27
Virtual Spice Club: Paprika, a new take on a cookbook
group; registration comes with… Rock Island Public Library -
Downtown Library, 5:30pm Wed Mar 31
Black Hawk Hiking Club Hike, to Ralph Martin Farm,
Illinois City, IL; today’s hike is on… 2:30pm Sat Apr 3
Quad Cities Bicycle Club Ride, 20- 25 mile Group D (13-15
mph) women’s… Leach Park, 5pm Tue Apr 6
Virtual Event: Coffee with Dawn!, join President/CEO
Dawn Oliver-Wiand as she talks about Iowa Women’s… Iowa
Women’s Foundation, 8:30am Tue Apr 6
LECTURES
Virtual Presentation – Pre-Civil War Quilts: Secret
Codes to Freedom on the Underground Railroad,
a Zoom presentation exploring the origins of slave routes
passing through… River Valley District Library, 6pm Thu
Mar 11
Virtual Conversations with Mark Morris: Nico Muhly,
the acclaimed choreographer chats with the composer
and sought-after collaborator whose influences… Hancher
Auditorium, 7:30pm Thu Mar 11
Virtual Presentation: Seed Starting Introduction,
a program in the “Vegetable Gardening Made Easy” series
hosted… Rock Island Public Library - Downtown Library,
10am Mon Mar 15
Remembering the Orphan Train, historian and retired
Canadian Pacific Railroad conductor Dennis Wilson
discusses… Iowa Wesleyan University, noon Tue Mar 16
Virtual Presentation: Germination & Seedling
Growth, a program in the “Vegetable Gardening Made
Easy” series hosted… Rock Island Public Library - Downtown
Library, 10am Wed Mar 17
Virtual Community Connections: Life on the
Mississippi River with John Lynn, John will share the
story of America’s great river –… Bettendorf Public Library,
7pm Thu Mar 18
Virtual Presentation – A Woman of Achievement:
Stories from the Life of Lou Henry Hoover, learn about
the achievements of a First Lady whose legacy… Davenport
Public Library - Main Branch, 6pm Thu Mar 18
Virtual Conversations with Mark Morris: Alice Waters,
the acclaimed choreographer chats with the chef, author,
food activist, and the… Hancher Auditorium, 7:30pm Thu
Mar 18
Virtual Presentation: Blueprint to Gardening &
Planning & Prepping, a program in the “Vegetable
Gardening Made Easy” series hosted… Rock Island Public
Library - Downtown Library, 10am Mon Mar 22
William Sherman, renowned Iowa historian and author
William Sherman will highlight the… Iowa Wesleyan
University, noon Tue Mar 23
Virtual Presentation: Cool Season Vegetables &
Warm Season Vegetables, a program in the “Vegetable
Gardening Made Easy” series hosted… Rock Island Public
Library - Downtown Library, 10am Wed Mar 24
Virtual Presentation: Gambling Awareness, join
prevention staff from the Center for Alcohol & Drug…
Davenport Public Library - Main Branch, 1pm Wed Mar 24
Virtual Presentation – President Harry Truman: A
Grandson’s Portrait, a one-hour play/lecture where
President Truman’s grandson Clifton Truman Daniel…
University of Dubuque’s Heritage Center, 7:30pm Thu Mar 25
Virtual Presentation – Lou Henry Hoover: A Life of
Adventure, join us for a special event in honor of First…
Davenport Public Library - Main Branch, noon Mon Mar 29
Virtual Presentation: Hardening off and
Transplanting & General Care, a program in the
“Vegetable Gardening Made Easy” series hosted… Rock
Island Public Library - Downtown Library, 10am Mon Mar 29
Virtual Presentation: Pest Control Considerations
and Tips to Garden Safely, a program in the “Vegetable
Gardening Made Easy” series hosted… Rock Island Public
Library - Downtown Library, 10am Wed Mar 31
Virtual Presentation: Asian Carp, Asian Carp are literally
jumping into Midwestern boats; join our… Davenport Public
Library - Main Branch, 2pm Sat Apr 3
Virtual Presentation: Alcohol Awareness, join
prevention staff from the Center for Alcohol & Drug…
Davenport Public Library - Main Branch, 1pm Wed Apr 7
Virtual Presentation: Downsizing Tips & Tricks,
presenter Abigail Hays of Dreamt by Design: Art and
Organizing… Bettendorf Public Library, 7pm Wed Apr 7
Virtual Presentation: Estate Planning, join Jaime Ragins
and Ray Kozicki from the Society of Financial… Davenport
Public Library - Main Branch, 6:30pm Wed Apr 7
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
Virtual Presentation: Decoding the Weather Machine
Documentary Discussion, in time for Earth Day 2021,
let’s talk climate change… Davenport Public Library - Main
Branch, 6pm Thu Apr 8
Virtual Presentation: The Last Gasp: Opera and
Epidemics, featuring Dr. Karen Wachsmuth and Emeritus
Professor of Global Health… Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre,
7pm Thu Apr 8
COURSES
Virtual Presentation – Life Is Sweet: Eat Smart for Your
Heartbeat, learn how to identify added and natural sugars
in your… University of Illinois Extension - Milan, 11am Thu
Mar 11
Webinar: Containerized Production - Options When
Quality Native Soil Isn’t An Option, with Zack Grant; we
will look at container options, non-container… University of
Illinois Extension - Milan, noon Thu Mar 11
Virtual Class – Life is Sweet: Eat Smart for Your
Heartbeat, learn how to identify added and natural sugars
in your… University of Illinois Extension - Milan, 11am Thu
Mar 11
Light the Spark Scholarship Program, for high-school
seniors, presented by MindFire Communications; the award-
winning,… 10am Thu Mar 11 thru Thu Mar 25
All-American Virtual Chocolate Chip Cookie Class,
join Onnica Marquez, owner of Onnifaye Sweets and Such, to
learn how to update your classic chocolate chip cookie recipe
with new tips and tricks; ask the baker, share your recipes,
and more; free; for information, call 563-326-7804… Figge Art
Museum, 4pm Fri Mar 12
Virtual Class: Cute Crafty Holiday Project, Join us
on Zoom, and make your holidays special by… Roosevelt
Community Center, 1:30pm Sun Mar 14
Virtual Presentation: Seed Starting Introduction, learn
how to successfully start plants indoors from seeds for…
University of Illinois Extension - Milan, 10am Mon Mar 15
Webinar: Framing Biases, Overcoming Hurdles,
learn how to overcome poor spending choices by using
behavioral… University of Illinois Extension - Milan, 6:30pm
Tue Mar 16
Virtual Chair Yoga, on Tuesdays; Daina Lewis, a Registered
Yoga Teacher, will teach… Moline Public Library, 10am Tue
Mar 16 thru Tue Mar 30
Virtual Presentation: Germination & Seedling
Growth, learn how to successfully start plants indoors from
seeds for… University of Illinois Extension - Milan, 10am Wed
Mar 17
Webinar: Food Desert or Food Apartheid?, with Grace
Margherio and Joey Fonseca; the presentation will explore…
University of Illinois Extension - Milan, noon Thu Mar 18
Virtual Presentation: Blueprint to Gardening &
Planning & Prepping, explore how you can go about
planning your garden and… University of Illinois Extension -
Milan, 10am Mon Mar 22
Webinar: Make Your Savings Grow, this webinar
addresses the challenges of saving and provides practical…
University of Illinois Extension - Milan, 6:30pm Tue Mar 23
Virtual Class – New Internationalism: Color and
Flavor, join Chef Stu from the Figge Café to learn how to
make Pepper Painted Poultry with splashes of tri-colored
pepper sauce; after the cooking class, look at works from the
New Internationalism section of “For America: 200 Years of
Painting from the National Academy of Design” that inspired
this course; $5-8.50; for information, call 563-326-7804, Figge
Art Museum, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport IA, FiggeArtMuseum.
org, 5:30pm Wed Mar 24
Virtual Presentation: Cool Season Vegetables &
Warm Season Vegetables, learn about the different types
of vegetables that are commonly… University of Illinois
Extension - Milan, 10am Wed Mar 24
Webinar: Too Small for Wholesale Markets? Think
Again., with Kathryn Pereira, Marlie Wilson, and Dakarai
Howard; you’ll learn… University of Illinois Extension - Milan,
noon Thu Mar 25
Wine Class: Here Comes the Sun, learn about wines for
warmer weather; for information, call 563-289-4156… The
Faithful Pilot Cafe & Spirits, Thu Mar 25
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
Virtual Presentation: Hardening Off and
Transplanting & General Care, discover how to prep
seedlings that you grew indoors for… University of Illinois
Extension - Milan, 10am Mon Mar 29
Quickbooks, if you’re new to QuickBooks or have limited
experience using… Carl Sandburg College, 8:30am Tue Mar
30
Virtual Presentation: Pest Control Considerations,
tips to garden safely followed by a final Q&A session; a…
University of Illinois Extension - Milan, 10am Wed Mar 31
Quickbooks, if you’re new to QuickBooks or have limited
experience using… Carl Sandburg College, 8:30am Thu Apr 1
Riverdale City Council Meeting, held on the 2nd and 4th
Tuesday of the month;… Riverdale City Hall, 7pm Tue Mar 23
Davenport City Council Meeting, the Davenport City
Council meets on the first and third… Davenport City Hall,
5:30pm Wed Mar 24
Scott County Board of Supervisors Regular Meeting,
activities may include voting on actions and conducting
public hearings;… Scott County Administrative Center, 5pm
Thu Apr 1
Muscatine City Council Meeting, meets on the first,
second, and third Thursday of each… City Hall of Muscatine,
7pm Thu Apr 1 and Thu Apr 8
River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021
Bridge, on Mondays & Fridays; $2-5; for information, call
563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 12:30pm Fri
Mar 12 thru Thu Apr 8
Ceramics I, on Mondays & Fridays; $7-11; for information, call
563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 9:30am Fri
Mar 12 thru Thu Apr 8
Ceramics I & II, on Fridays; $7-11; for information, call 563-
386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 9am Fri Mar 12
thru Thu Apr 8
Golden Tones Chorus Practice, on Fridays; $2-5; for
information, call 563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active
Seniors), 9am Fri Mar 12 thru Thu Apr 8
15
Line Dancing Lesson, on Tuesdays; free; for information,
call 563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 8:30am
Tue Mar 16 thru Tue Apr 6
Senior Technology Clinic, on Tuesdays; $5-7; for
information, call 563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active
Seniors), 1pm Tue Mar 16 thru Tue Apr 6
Spiritual Devotions, on Tuesdays; free; for information, call
563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 8am Tue Mar
16 thru Tue Apr 6
Bunco, on Wednesdays; $2-5; for information, call 563-386-
7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 1pm Wed Mar 17 thru
Wed Apr 7

Bettendorf City Council Committee of the Whole Genesis Blood Pressure Checks, on Mondays; for Cribbage, on Wednesdays; $2-5; for information, call 563-

MEETINGS Meeting, recorded meetings can be seen at Bettendorf.org

or City’s Cable… Bettendorf City Hall, 5pm Mon Apr 5
information, call 563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active
Seniors), 9am Mon Mar 15 thru Mon Apr 5
386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 1pm Wed Mar 17
thru Wed Apr 7

Bettendorf Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting,
free; for information, call 563-344-4175 or e-mail info@
bettendorflibrary.com… Bettendorf Public Library, 5pm Thu
Mar 11
Moline Public Library Board Meeting, agendas are
available prior to the meetings; minutes are available…
Moline Public Library, noon Thu Mar 11
Muscatine City Council Meeting, meets on the first,
second, and third Thursday of each… City Hall of Muscatine,
7pm The Mar 11 and Thu Mar 18
Bettendorf City Council Committee of the Whole
Meeting, recorded meetings can be seen at Bettendorf.org
or City’s Cable… Bettendorf City Hall, 5pm Mon Mar 15
East Moline City Council Regular Meeting /
Committee of the Whole Meeting, meets on the 1st and
3rd Monday of every month;… East Moline Council Chambers
at City Hall, 6:30pm Mon Mar 15
Aledo City Council Committee of the Whole Meeting /
Regular Meeting, held on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of each
month; Committee… Aledo City Council Chamber, 6:15pm
Mon Mar 15
Milan City Council Meeting, held on the first and third
Monday of the month;… Milan Municipal Center, 5:30pm
Mon Mar 15
Bettendorf City Council Meeting, recorded meetings can
be seen at Bettendorf.org or City’s Cable… Bettendorf City
Hall, 7pm Tue Mar 16
Moline City Council Committee of the Whole Meeting
/ Regular Meeting, meets in Council Chambers; the formal
City Council meeting is… Moline City Hall, 6pm Tue Mar 16
East Moline City Council Regular Meeting /
Committee of the Whole Meeting, meets on the 1st and
3rd Monday of every month;… East Moline Council Chambers
at City Hall, 6:30pm Mon Apr 5
Aledo City Council Committee of the Whole Meeting /
Regular Meeting, held on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of each
month; Committee… Aledo City Council Chamber, 6:15pm
Mon Apr 5
Milan City Council Meeting, held on the first and third
Monday of the month;… Milan Municipal Center, 5:30pm
Mon Apr 5
Bettendorf City Council Meeting, recorded meetings can
be seen at Bettendorf.org or City’s Cable… Bettendorf City
Hall, 7pm Tue Apr 6
Silvis City Council Meeting, held on the 1st & 3rd Tuesday
of each month;… Silvis City Hall, 6:30pm Tue Apr 6
Coal Valley City Hall Meeting, held on the first and third
Wednesdays of each month;… Coal Valley Village Hall, 6pm
Wed Apr 7
Davenport City Council Committee of the Whole
Meeting, the Davenport City Council meets on the first and
third… Davenport City Hall, 5:30pm Wed Apr 7
Bettendorf Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting,
free; for information, call 563-344-4175 or e-mail info@
bettendorflibrary.com… Bettendorf Public Library, 5pm Thu
Apr 8
Moline Public Library Board Meeting, agendas are
available prior to the meetings; minutes are available…
Moline Public Library, noon Thu Apr 8
Shuffleboard, on Mondays; $2-5; for information, call 563-
386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 2:15pm Mon Mar
15 thru Mon Apr 5
Ugly Quilts, on Mondays; volunteer group; no sewing
experience necessary; free; for… CASI (Center for Active
Seniors), 8am Mon Mar 15 thru Mon Apr 5
Zumba Gold Toning, on Mondays; $3-5; for information,
call 563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 10:15am
Mon Mar 15 thru Mon Apr 5
Genesis Foot Clinic, on Mon. & Tue.; reservations required;
for information, call 563-320-3978… CASI (Center for Active
Seniors), 8am Mon Mar 15 thru Tue Apr 6
Canasta, on Tuesdays; $2-5; for information, call 563-386-
7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 1pm Tue Mar 16 thru
Tue Apr 6
Knitting & Crocheting, on Tuesdays; volunteer group; free;
for information, call 563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active
Seniors), 12:30pm Tue Mar 16 thru Tue Apr 6
Line Dancing I, on Tuesdays; $3-5; for information, call 563-
386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 9am Tue Mar 16
thru Tue Apr 6
Evening Bingo, on Wednesdays; $10 card pack minimum
purchase; for information, call… CASI (Center for Active
Seniors), 6pm Wed Mar 17 thru Wed Apr 7
T’ai Chi Ch’un, on Wednesdays; $24-36/6 weeks; for
information, call 563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active
Seniors), 10:25am Wed Mar 17 thru Wed Apr 7
Walgreens Medication Review & Blood Pressure
Check, free; for information, call 563-386-7477… CASI
(Center for Active Seniors), 10am Thu Mar 18
Classic Movie, 2-5; for information, call 563-386-7477… CASI
(Center for Active Seniors), 1:30pm Tue Mar 23
Genesis Foot Clinic, reservations required; for information,
call 563-320-3978… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), noon
Thu Apr 1
CASI Book Club, $2-5; for information, call 563-386-7477…
CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 10am Fri Apr 2
Red Hat Club Luncheon, location varies; for information,
call 563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), noon
Tue Apr 6
Continued On Page 17

Rock Island County Board Regular Meeting, all
meetings are open to the public, but may be… Rock Island
County Office Building, 5:30pm Tue Mar 16
Rock Island Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting,
with time for public comment provided at the beginning
of… Rock Island Public Library - Downtown Library, 5pm Tue
Mar 16
Scott County Board of Supervisors Committee of the
Whole Meeting, the board will review legislative actions,
administrative items, and contracts; for… Scott County
Administrative Center, 8pm Tue Mar 16
Silvis City Council Meeting, held on the 1st & 3rd Tuesday
of each month;… Silvis City Hall, 6:30pm Tue Mar 16
Coal Valley City Hall Meeting, held on the first and third
Wednesdays of each month;… Coal Valley Village Hall, 6pm
Wed Mar 17
Davenport City Council Committee of the Whole
Meeting, the Davenport City Council meets on the first and
third… Davenport City Hall, 5:30pm Wed Mar 17
Scott County Board of Supervisors Regular Meeting,
activities may include voting on actions and conducting
public hearings;… Scott County Administrative Center, 5pm
Thu Mar 18
Virtual Presentation: Legislative Event Series, the
Chamber’s Government Affairs team and special guests will
provide insight… Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce, 9am
Fri Mar 19
SENIORS
Apple iPad Clinic, on Thursdays; $3-5; for information, call
563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 11am Thu
Mar 11 thru Thu Apr 8
Line Dancing II, on Thursdays; $3-5; for information, call
563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 2:30pm Thu
Mar 11 thru Thu Apr 8
New Horizons Band Practice, on Thursdays; $2-5; for
information, call 563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active
Seniors), 12:30pm Thu Mar 11 thru Thu Apr 8
We’ll help you find the
Zumba Gold, on Wednesdays at 9am & Thursdays at 9:30am;
$3-5; for… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), Thu Mar 11 thru perfect piece to start a
Thu Apr 8
lifetime together.
Billiards, Mon.-Fri.; $2; for information, call 563-386-7477…
CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 8am Thu Mar 11 thru Thu
#FanaBridal
Apr 8
Euchre, on Thursdays & Fridays; $2-5; for information, call
563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 12:45pm Thu
Mar 11 thru Thu Apr 8
Low-Impact Exercise, Mon.-Fri.; $2-5; for information, call
563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 9am Thu
Mar 11 thru Thu Apr 8
Senior Theatre: Second Avenue Players, on Fridays; $2-
5; for information, call 563-386-7477… CASI (Center for Active
Seniors), 10:30am Fri Mar 12 thru Fri Apr 2

Rock Island City Council Meeting, Public Comment is Bingo, on Fridays; no admission fee, card costs are $0.25 &…
held at the beginning of City Council… Rock Island City Hall, CASI (Center for Active Seniors), 12:30pm Fri Mar 12 thru
6:45pm Mon Mar 22 Thu Apr 8

3865 Elmore Ave. | 563-326-1847 | dolandjewelers.com

16 River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021
MUSIC
Local Music Bandcamp Roundup
Giallows, “Lost Boy”
https://giallows.bandcamp.com/album/
lost-boy
T
he Davenport-based horror-score
psych-rock experimental crew Gial-
lows dropped a new track called
“Lost Boy” on the most recent iteration of
Bandcamp on March 5 – the first Friday of
the month being the day the music-hosting
platform cedes its usual share of profits
directly to the artists, which has caused a
huge monthly spike in both artist output
and fan purchasing. With its moody, for-
ward-driving narrative, walls of distorted
guitar, and melodic vocal lines, “Lost Boy”
proves to be one of the most affecting and,
dare I say, accessible tracks that I’ve heard
from this shape-shifting band.
Landing somewhere on the art-rock spec-
trum explored by the likes of Radiohead or
Elbow, the track lopes along over a steady
electronic drum beat and a chunky guitar
riff, as layers of additional sustained guitar
screech and abstract electronics accumu-
late around the edges of the mix. The full
scope of the track contains plenty of sur-
prising moments, from a passage in which
the guitar cuts loose into a huge solo, to
the climactic introduction of a cascade of
minor-key synth arpeggios. Though the
band has tried on innumerable hats across
their wide catalog, the production value
here instantly seems miles above much of
their other output, steering totally clear
of the 20-minute-plus basement-fried jam
sessions captured on their full albums and
paring the proceedings down into a nice,
pop-adjacent morsel for us to ruminate on.
Perhaps most surprising of all is the lead
vocal performance by band leader Adam
Wesconsin, whose crystal clear voice sits
at the very front of the mix here, winding
its way through a dynamic set of melodies
that even occasionally climbs up closer to
the falsetto range. The track’s video proves
just as compelling as the music itself, with
its diverse set of imagery ranging from
heavily processed time-lapse footage of
empty neighborhoods, to what looks like
drone bombing footage, to some swaths of
classic trippy swirl effects. When the band
themselves pop into view, standing bolt
upright with their guitars in a small room
against a wall of projected visuals, the pres-
ence of distinguishable humans snaps us
back to reality for a second, as if to remind
us that Giallows is a real band who plays real
shows before our eyes. Hopefully they can
get back to that live experience soon.
Pariah x Robscire,
Idle Hands
https://pariahc.bandcamp.com/album/
idle-hands
Whoa. Here's a nice surprise from a Quad
Cities-based project that until this point has
been nowhere near my personal radar. A
five-track EP of mostly instrumental hip-
hop beats from the Davenport duo Pariah
and Robscire, Idle Hands perfectly scratches
a sweet spot between the kinetic, proto-trap
drum patterns and throbbing basslines of
Memphis hip-hop staples such as Three 6
Mafia, and a strain of more tripped-out
modern-rap beatmaking closer to, say,
Death Grips.
EP opener "Shtink " kicks off the vibe
straight away with its stuttering washes of
electronic texture and its rounded, groov-
ing bassline. No vocalist is credited any-
where on the release, so I'm guessing that
the vocals that pop into the mix now and
then are sampled from other sources (a clas-
sic Three 6 strategy employed most exten-
sively on their earliest releases). The frantic,
pitched 808 tom hits of "Jesus Wept" sound
like dead ringers for the drums on early
Triple Six classic "Talk Ya Ass Off," splitting
the difference between a melodic line and
a beat-pushing rhythmic element though
the distinctly hi-fi production quality of the
duo's music plants the final product closer
to the golden era Memphis revivalism of
Lil Ugly Mane's modern classic Mista Thug
Isolation.
Elsewhere, "These Moments" crests
closer to Project Pat's "Choices" with its
tightly chopped soul vocal samples and
monstrous beat patterns build over bone-
thick kick drums and crisp snares. The
Hypnotize Minds factor is only one part
of the appeal here, though, as the duo's
sensibilities for the narrative f low of a
beat and the small electronic details they
plant throughout elevate them to a stra-
tum far above Memphis cosplay. EP closer
"Resolve" grooves over a chubby bass line
that crackles with distortion, which nicely
contrasts against little droplets of elec-
tric piano and filter sweeps that arrive to
wash out the mix for a few seconds before
it kicks back in. "Full Time Gangsta" pres-
ents another instance of what sound like a
sampled verse, though it ends up spanning
the entire track 's length, so it could be an
original verse by an MC intended specifi-
cally for this release. As another potential
inspiration Easter egg here, the keyboard
line sounds almost identical to the lead
organ melody of "Beneath the Mask," one of
the most iconic tracks from the soundtrack
to the video game Persona 5. Part of me
thinks that's just a coincidence, but another
part thinks that these dudes have trawled
through so much pop culture that a nod to
a modern game fits right into their world.
VoidDweller, cum
https://voiddweller000.bandcamp.com/
album/cum
Bettendorf 's resident freak-noise-slash-
post-rap industrial producer/vocalist Void-
Dweller has been trolling our eardrums
with their aggro strain of free-for-all
genre-mashing psychosis for a minute
now, but the charmingly titled cum is
probably their most fully formed and
ultimately complete release to date.
The album pushes their sound in totally
unexpected directions at the drop of a hat,
veering between nü-metal-esque passages
that feature wailing vocal lines, to brood-
ing noise segments f lecked with peals
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
By Max Allison
of feedback and monotone spoken-word
poetry, to technoid breakdowns with com-
plex electronic drum arrangements. Album
opener "cummin in all sorts of cool ways"
(nice) sets the tone for the entire project
with its ridiculous vocal samples, double-
time drum beatdowns, and wonderfully
vulgar lyrics that include a great Mitch
McConnell diss too obscene to print in
these pages. Just when you think the
track has reached its climax (heh), Void-
Dweller amps up the technicality factor
and kicks into a passage that sounds
like somet hing from an early Dill-
inger Escape Plan album, with rapidly
f luctuating time signatures and blasts of
staccato, atonal guitar. The sum total is
something like modern mind-boggling elec-
tro-assault projects such as Machine Girl,
a comparison amplified by VoidDweller's
penchant for shifting vocal styles that posi-
tion them as a clear frontperson against
their own productions. Perhaps unsurpris-
ingly, cum features lyrics that are not for the
faint of heart, and while the more aggres-
sive shouted passages ty pically feature
vocals distorted beyond the point of com-
prehension, VoidDweller makes sure you
understand every twisted line clearly in the
moments when they decide to go full Blood-
hound Gang and just straight-up speak the
lyrics in an affectless tone and rhythms that
loosely conform to the beats.
For every moment that lands closer to
some corrupted form of pop music, there's
another experiment that has no qualms in
going full-on noise. "hyperbolic feeling
chamber / reach around" seems to cram
an improbable number of ideas and touch-
stones into its roughly two-minute run
time, and serves as a nice encapsulation of
the variety of VoidDweller's many contrast-
ing inspirations. The track kicks off with a
classic hip-hop break that fights against a
layer of noise and spoken-word samples that
proclaim "I feel like shit." (Don't we all?) But
after only a few seconds, the beat's tempo
cuts in half and we're left with a pitched-
down, DJ Screw-esque stumble, which
immediately gives way to a harsh, junkyard
noise passage consisting of what sounds like
someone smashing against giant sheets of
metal. What better way to cap off this track
than the sudden introduction of a hardcore
punk beatdown, and what better way to cap
off that hardcore punk beatdown than with
a blast of double-kick drum in the grind-
core style? There are too many highlights
on cum to fully explicate, and so many ideas
blast into your skull at such a rapid pace that
it feels like you're f lipping from station to
station on a radio, except every station you
land on features some weirdo ranting about
some terrifying, deviant topic (which, now
that I think about it, isn't too far from real
life).
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
landethics,
phantom tidepools ii
https://landethics.bandcamp.com/album/
phantom-tidepools-ii
Iowa City-based producer landeth-
ics release phantom tidepools appeared
in the Reader's pages back when it was
released in May of 2020, and its lovely
blend of post-video game OST melodi-
cism and tonal choices, fused with a fine-
tuned sense of beat programming, won
my heart.
phantom tidepools ii, released at
the beginning of March, builds on the
sound that the producer explored on the
previous iteration of the series, but pushes
their ideas into new combinatory permu-
tations. EP opener "enchanted_armor"
dives back into video-game territory with
its bright organ lines and wisps of synth
texture, and the track dials up the Super
Nintendo factor when it breaks into a
middle eight dotted with little pan f lute
accents and more active melodic figures
including what sounds like a vocal sample
buried somewhere in the mix. The drum
programming here, however, trades in a
measure of the more hip-hop-adjacent
rhythms of some of the other landethics
music I've heard for a more reverbed-out,
syncopated beat pattern that seems to
land closer to Japanese pop music from
the ‘80s such as Yellow Magic Orchestra
circa BGM or Miharu Koshi circa Paral-
lelisme. The comparisons to the sphere
surrounding YMO and related projects
is amplified by the release’s cover, which
has the project name spelled out in Japa-
nese katakana characters and features a
utopian building suspended on a f loating
island. The throwback is complete with
traces of visible ringwear on the album
cover, as if you're looking at a vinyl LP
discovered in the bargain bin of your
local record store.
KIDS’ STUFF
Virtual Creativity Lab: Twine Sculptures, for grades K-5;
sculpt your own decorative piece using just… Moline Public
Library, 3:30pm Thu Mar 11
Virtual Event – Tales for Tots, on Thursdays; storytime for
young children and their caregivers; new video… Bettendorf
Public Library, 10am Thu Mar 11 thru Thu Mar 25
Virtual Event: Little Makers to Go, on Thursdays; kits will
include a special craft for the… Davenport Public Library - Main
Branch, 4pm Thu Mar 11 thru Thu Mar 25
Virtual Event: STEM Fridays, on Fridays; join Miss Holly each
Friday at 2:00 pm… Davenport Public Library - Main Branch,
2pm Fri Mar 12 thru Fri Mar 26
Storytime for Littles Virtual Storytime Room, on
Mondays, for ages 0-3; nurture your baby and toddler’s…
Moline Public Library, Mon Mar 15 thru Mon Mar 29
Virtual Event – Preschool Storytime, on Mondays;
ages 3-5 are invited to attend these 30-minute sessions…
Bettendorf Public Library, 10am Mon Mar 15 thru Mon Mar 29
Virtual Event: Teen Advisory Board Meeting, TAB
members participate in an online teen programming,
volunteer-from-home activities… Davenport Public Library -
Main Branch, 6:30pm Tue Mar 16
Preschool Kit: Colors, pick up a Preschool Early Literacy
Kit… Moline Public Library, Tue Mar 16 thru Sat Mar 27
Virtual Event – Baby Storytime, on Tuesdays; join us on
Facebook for a special Storytime… Davenport Public Library -
Main Branch, 10am Tue Mar 16 thru Tue Mar 30
Virtual PNG Perch Dissection, grades 4-12 learn about
dissection safety and etiquette, animal biology,… Moline Public
Library, 3:30pm Wed Mar 17
Virtual Preschool Storytime, for ages 3-5 with their adult; feed
your preschooler’s need… Moline Public Library, Wed Mar 17
WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Social Emotional Learning
Continued from Page 3
programs going forward after full implementation
is secure. School resources consumed for SELs are
significant, including teachers’ training to recognize
and contain their own biases while teaching.
“The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and
Emotional Learning (CASEL) is a trusted source
for knowledge about high-quality, evidence-based
social and emotional learning (SEL). CASEL supports
educators and policy leaders and enhances the expe-
riences and outcomes for all PreK-12 students.”
https://casel.org/about-2/
According to its Web site, CASEL’s mission
“leads multiple initiatives and produces high-quality
resources to advance and implement SEL practices
and policies.” This includes Assessment work
groups, SEL Assessment Guide, Collaborating Dis-
trict Initiatives, District Resource Center, and much
more. But exactly how SELs achieve goals, and
quantify improvement scores is harder to discern
amid all the verbiage, requiring research by parents
and stakeholders to identify the actual hands-on
programming.
For 26 years, CASEL has been refining its SEL
programming to achieve “equities and excellence
for children” by weaving “SEL into the daily life
of school from academic instruction to discipline
practices.” https://www.the74million.org/article/
niemi-casel-is-updating-the-most-widely-recog-
nized-definition-of-social-emotional-learning-
heres-why/
According to a CASEL research paper’s intro-
duction, “Transformative Social and Emotional
Learning(SEL): Toward SEL in Service of Educa-
tional Equity and Excellence.”
This article seeks to develop transformative
social and emotional learning (SEL), a form of SEL
intended to promote equity and excellence among
children, young people, and adults.We focus on issues
of race/ethnicity as a first step toward addressing the
broader range of extant inequities. Transformative
River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021
Virtual D&D: Waterdeep – Dungeon of the Mad
Mage, for ages 12-18; ur group will meet every other week…
Davenport Public Library - Main Branch, 4:30pm Wed Mar 17
thru Wed Mar 31
Virtual Event – After School Kids Lab, on Wednesdays; we
will post a fun science experiment, craft,… Bettendorf Public
Library, 3pm Wed Mar 17 thru Wed Mar 31
Virtual Event: Storytime Live from the Library, on
Wednesdays, for ages 3-5; a live storytime from our…
Bettendorf Public Library, 10am Wed Mar 17 thru Wed Mar 31
Virtual Event: Wigs and Wiggles Storytime with Miss
Amber!, on Wednesdays; lots of wiggles, stories and dress-up
fun on… Davenport Public Library - Main Branch, 10am Wed
Mar 17 thru Wed Mar 31
Little Sprouts, bring your Little Sprouts to the Conservatory
for some fun… Vander Veer Botanical Center, 10:30am Thu
Mar 18
Park ‘n’ Craft! Library2Go: DIY Crown, bring your scissors
and glue to the spacious outdoors; meet… Rock Island Public
Library - Downtown Library, Thu Mar 18
Virtual PNG Pringles Building Challenge, for grades 4-12;
take home a kit with everything you… Moline Public Library,
3:30pm Mon Mar 22
Virtual Sew Fun!: Llama Stuffie, ages 8-12 join us in making
these adorable llama stuffies using… Moline Public Library,
3:30pm Tue Mar 23
Virtual Event: Choose Your Own Adventure Book Club,
for ages 6-11; every week we will read or finish… Davenport
Public Library - Main Branch, 6:30pm Wed Mar 24
Teen Online Book Club: The Last Dragonslayer, a Zoom
discussion of Jasper Fforde’s book; free; for information,…
Davenport Public Library - Main Branch, 4pm Thu Mar 25
Virtual PJ Party Storytime: Garden!, for ages 3 & up and
their families; put on… Moline Public Library, Tue Mar 30
SEL is anchored in the notion of justice-oriented
citizenship, and we discuss issues of culture, identity,
agency, belonging, and engagement as relevant
expressions of the Collaborative for Academic,
Social and Emotional Learning 5 core competencies.
We also point to programs and practices that hold
promise for cultivating these competencies and the
importance of adult professional development in
making these efforts maximally effective for diverse
children and youth. We conclude by offering a few
next steps to further advance transformative SEL
research and practice.
https://casel.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/
Transformative-Social-and-Emotional-Learning-
SEL-Toward-SEL-in-Service-of-Educational-
Equity-and-Excellence.pdf
The researchers admit that these SELs, while
implementing as far back as 26 years ago, are a long
way from understanding how this conditioning will
eventually express itself relative to “equities.” The
five areas of achievement for students participating
in SEL include “five inter-related sets of cognitive,
affective, and behavioral competencies: self-aware-
ness, self-management, social awareness, relation-
ship skills, and responsible decision making.”
https://www.the74million.org/article/niemi-
casel-is-updating-the-most-widely-recognized-defi-
nition-of-social-emotional-learning-heres-why/
CASEL is also a lobbying organization at the state
level to persuade States Departments of Education
and secure buy-in, eventually leading to legislative
permanence via codification. This has just occurred
in Illinois as of this publishing. In Illinois, the Joint
Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) upheld
Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning
(CRTL) Standards passed by the Illinois State Board
of Education, codifying into law that requires all
Illinois schools to implement this social emotional
learning programming into their curriculums at
every grade level K-12. https://www.isbe.net/Lists/
News/NewsDisplay.aspx?ID=1349
The new CRTL standards include the follow-
ing sections: (1) Self-Awareness and Relationships
17
Virtual PNG Cow Eye Dissection, grades 4-12 can sign up
for our dissection class to… Moline Public Library, 3:30pm Wed
Mar 31
Virtual Event – Tales for Tots, on Thursdays; storytime for
young children and their caregivers; new video… Bettendorf
Public Library, 10am Thu Apr 1 and Thu Apr 8
Virtual Lesson: Earth Gifts, a program in the Wee
Naturalists series, led by Peggy Doty,… University of Illinois
Extension - Milan, Sat Apr 3
Virtual Creation Studio: Grab-and-Go, pick up a bag of
supplies full of materials to… Bettendorf Public Library, 11am
Sun Apr 4
Creation Studio: Grab-and-Go – Egg Maracas, pick up a
bag of supplies full of materials to… Bettendorf Public Library,
11am Mon Apr 5
Storytime for Littles Virtual Storytime Room, for ages
0-3; nurture your baby and toddler’s… Moline Public Library,
Mon Apr 5
Virtual Event – Preschool Storytime, ages 3-5 are invited
to attend these 30-minute sessions… Bettendorf Public
Library, 10am Mon Apr 5
Virtual Event – Baby Storytime, join us on Facebook for a
special Storytime… Davenport Public Library - Main Branch,
10am Tue Apr 6
Park ‘n’ Craft! Library2Go: Reader’s Adventure
Monocular, meet Library2Go at any of our stops today,
04/07/2021, to pick… Rock Island Public Library - Downtown
Library, Wed Apr 7
Virtual Event – After School Kids Lab, we will post a fun
science experiment, craft,… Bettendorf Public Library, 3pm
Wed Apr 7
Virtual Event: Wigs and Wiggles Storytime with Miss
Amber!, lots of wiggles, stories and dress-up fun on…
Davenport Public Library - Main Branch, 10am Wed Apr 7
By Kathleen McCarthy
to Others; (2) Systems of Oppression; (3)Students
as Individuals; (4) Students as Co-Creators; (5)
Leveraging Student Advocacy; (6) Family and
Community Collaboration; (7) Content Selections
in All Curricula; (8) Student Representation in the
Learning Environment.
Digging into these standards will help parents
understand the trajectory of social emotional teach-
ing for which social emotional learning is scored.
The scoring is part of an entirely different set of
issues that require serious vetting, including Social
Impact Bonds (SIB) that represent private-public
collaborations for investing in outcomes of these
SELs. Private investors provide the initial funds via
social impact bonds for public education SELs in
various School Districts, eventually recouping their
investment with interest, thereby simultaneously
enriching Wall Street if students perform according
to the preset measures of improvement for the par-
ticular SIB. https://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-
and-employment/social-impact-bonds.aspx
Contrarily, Iowa has legislation in process
(H.R. 222) that would remove funding for any
Iowa school district using the 1619 Project and
other similar SEL programs due its controversial
lack of historical accuracy as curriculum-appro-
priate. https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/
BillBook?ba=HF222&ga=89
Social Emotional Learning is arguably the pur-
view of parents, but whether they have abdicated or
academia has usurped that responsibility is debat-
able. Meanwhile, perhaps instead of resurrecting
racism to achieve equity, school programs should
focus on unity to achieve equality.
Parents, grandparents, and interested parties
can get involved in their children’s education and
curricula by attending their school board meet-
ings, whose times and locations are posted in this
issue on page 12. As myriad unions across the land
encourage, “Labor respects what management
inspects.” In this case, you parents are the manag-
ers, so inspect.
18 River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021 Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com

Crossword TCH IT
DOUBLE DOUBLE-U • MARCH 16, 2021 Feb. 16 Answers: Page 19 WA

Schulz’s Review of
the Latest Movies On Demand

THE CROODS: A NEW AGE

With its great visual gags and first-rate
voice work, director Joel Crawford’s
animated sequel is like an elongated,
best-ever episode of The Flintstones,
and it might be a long while before I
forget either this lively, colorful outing
or its endearingly goofy particulars.

MINARI
Writer/director Lee Isaac Chung’s
wonderful dramatic memoir is filled with
beautifully observed insight regarding
the economic hardships of lower-
middle-class America, and the details
that Chung includes suggest a filmmaker
fully engaged with his memories and
what they mean to him.

ACROSS 65. Action movie DOWN 55. Health care

1. Leader sequence 1. Hems and _ expense PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
5. “The _ Witch Project” 66. Plant expert 2. Sch. type 57. Diaphanous With Carey Mulligan providing dazzling
10. Manhattan Project 69. Harsh 3. Insect parts 58. Disk
physicist 70. Viscous 4. Things avoided 59. Damon and virtuosity as wildly yet empathetically
15. Boot 71. Meat pie 5. Shown to be false LeBlanc damaged goods donning a facade
19. “_ _ Want for 72. Overly 6. Concern of 61. Door frame part of normalcy, Emerald Fennell’s dark
Christmas” 73. Like a whey-face gardeners 62. Take as given
20. Tidal bore 74. _ saltpeter 7. Bug-eyed 63. 007 actor Daniel _ comedy/thriller is intensely enjoyable
21. Forcefully 75. Haven 8. Like a sale 64. “_ manana!” and, by its end, more emotionally
22. Old Bacchic cry 76. Springtime event garment: Abbr. 65. Lustrous
23. An equivocation: 77. Native of: Suffix 9. Rhode Island’s 66. Singing voice overpowering than you may have
2 wds. 78. Sausage tree: 2 wds. 67. White wine variety anticipated.
25. Bored: Hyph. 80. Interlace 10. Curries favor 68. Skyscraper
27. _ salts 81. Gizmos, collec- 11. Act badly 70. Reasoner’s word
28. Psychogenic tively 12. _ avis 71. Faction
30. Heche and Baxter 83. Autopilot in 13. Thousand-legger 74. Reference
31. Fateful day “Airplane!” 14. Ill. neighbor 75. Prohibited
32. _ du ventre 84. ‘70s TV’s “Barney _” 15. Wailed 76. Fundraising event
33. Key 85. Toward shelter 16. Writer _ Turgenev 78. Wheals
35. Peddled 86. Gruff 17. Reactor part 79. Fermenting malt
38. The cucumber, e.g. 88. Dim 18. Ctrl, alt and delete 80. “The Merry _” Catch your favorite movies
39. Racing circuit 89. Gush 24. Tree with berries 82. Kind of apartment
43. A tribe of Israel 92. Cinco de 26. AKA Cambria 84. Pros and shows from ABC, NBC, CBS,
44. Supportive ones: Mayo event 29. Adequate, of old 86. Fight: Hyph.
Hyph. 94. Adherents 32. Search 87. Guide with a FOX, STARZ®, ENCORE® and more.
47. Go in haste 98. English poet 34. Dried out flashlight
48. A mother goddess 100. Flour type: 2 wds. 35. Calls out to 88. Any cat Plus, watch over 19,000 titles
49. Scend 102. Domed area 36. Thing of value 89. Mop at the press of a button!
50. Toolshed item 103. Like a malcontent 37. Covered up, as 90. English poet
51. Antitoxins 104. Red dye a scandal 91. _ Major
52. Rent 105. Roughly: 2 wds. 38. Rings 93. _ -Contra Affair
53. A Disney princess 106. Noggin 39. Cut of meat 94. Suggested amount WANT EVEN MORE? VISIT
54. Fishnet 107. General meaning 40. Financial resources 95. Architect _
55. First-found asteroid
56. Manages
108. Acts
109. Part of N.B.
41. Buenos _
42. Brewing need
Saarinen
96. Sunrise direction
mediacomtoday.com
58. Polecat 44. Joins 97. Portico & CLICK ON TV EVERYWHERE!
59. Composer 45. Tristan and _ 99. Wag
_ Mussorgsky 46. Reels 101. Scuffle
60. Telegrams 49. Start of a toast
61. Goes easily 51. The Model T, e.g.
62. Custard apple 53. Daft
63. Gulfs 54. Lizard
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
Movie Reviews
Feud for
Thought
CHAOS WALKING
B
ecause the film’s principal pho-
tography wrapped more than
three years ago, there was reason
to expect the futuristic adventure Chaos
Walking to be a stinker, and because the
movie is set in a YA-lit dystopia (and
based on the first novel in a trilogy,
natch), there was reason to expect it to
be a retrograde stinker, to boot. Yet while
director Doug Liman’s finally un-shelved
release shares DNA strands with all those
Hunger Gameses and Maze Runners and
Divergents – orphaned youths, nihilism,
paranoia, common nouns elevated to
proper-noun status (“the Noise” and “the
Spackle” being the primary examples
here) – this largely underwhelming offer-
ing at least provides in abundance some-
thing those other works woefully lacked:
charm.
Our charmer-in-chief is Tom Holland,
whose farm boy Todd, in book author/
co-screenwriter Patrick Ness’ post-apoc-
alyptic universe, lives on a faraway planet
where men’s thoughts are both audible
and visible, radiating from their heads in
vaporous clouds of fuchsia and lavender.
(At last! Visible proof of Holland’s Spidey-
sense tingling!) Enter co-charmer Daisy
Ridley, whose space traveler Viola crash-
lands in Todd’s community – a neo-West-
ern landscape in which the entire female
population perished years ago under
mysterious circumstances. Yet women’s
thoughts, for whatever reason, aren’t
public domain the way men’s are, and
horny young Todd has never seen a woman
before, so you can guess what transpires
after the kid and Viola eventually meet:
unmitigated comic panic!
Also, for the most part, unmitigated
delight. Juicy though Chaos Walking’s
setup is, there are almost too many
metaphors swirling around the notion
of a world where men are incapable of
hiding their thoughts and women don’t
reveal a thing; you could compose several
gender-studies thesis papers merely using
the film’s preview as inspiration. Hol-
land and Ridley, however, perform their
bickering, feature-length pas de deux with
supremely witty and winning sweetness.
As the pair make their way, E.T.-style, on
a quest to contact Viola’s mother ship,
Todd valiantly tries, and continually
fails, to mask his uncertainty, insecurity,
and desperate desire to kiss this foreign
creature, and Holland, especially in voice-
over, milks this slapstick scenario for all
it’s worth. Todd is mortification personi-
fied – a virgin nerd attempting to hide his
(figurative) erection from the girl of his
dreams – and Holland proves as funny
in his well-meaning bungling as Ridley
is in Viola’s incredulity that any boy, any
human, could possibly be this awkwardly
transparent.
Most of Liman’s latest doesn’t work.
There are underutilized monsters and
world-building conceits that needed at
least twice the film’s 110-minute running
length to be adequately fleshed out, and
with the editing a hot mess, characters
played by David Oyelowo, Demin Bichir,
Cynthia Erivo, Nick Jonas, and others
come off as immaterial when they’re
not actively confounding. But whenever
the movie was solely the Tom and Daisy
show, I had a blast – just as I did whenever
Mads Mikkelsen appeared, his villainous
mayor donning a floor-length fur coat to
shame Liberace and living in a domicile
that resembles a landlocked submarine
dipped in Pepto-Bismol. I won’t pretend I
understood a thing about the guy, but even
if Chaos Walking doesn’t inspire sequels,
I’m crossing fingers for a Mads-centered
prequel.
COMING 2 AMERICA
With the pandemic causing a two-
month lengthening of the traditional
Oscar calendar (nominees will be
announced March 15, winners on April
25), films released between January of
2020 and February of 2021 are eligible
for this year’s Academy Awards. Incred-
ibly, though, we may already have a
front-runner for next year’s ceremony
in Coming 2 America, the long-delayed
sequel – now streaming on Prime Video
– to Eddie Murphy’s seminal fish-out-
of-water comedy from 1988. No, Best
Picture won’t be a possibility, and neither
will Best Actor, despite Murphy giving
a significantly stronger performance as
Prince Akeem here than he did 33 years
ago. (Re-watching director John Landis’
original Coming to America the other
night, I was shocked at how frequently
Murphy dropped character when he wasn’t
providing one of his priceless cameos
under heavy makeup.) But this new outing
River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021 19
By Mike Schulz • mike@rcreader.com
Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland in Chaos Walking
should absolutely lead to another Oscar for and Jones delivering raunchier punchlines
costume designer Ruth E. Carter, who pre- in their heads than they’re allowed to voice
viously won for her iconic Black Panther on-screen – Brewer’s release is still mod-
wardrobe, and whose creations for direc- estly pleasurable in a getting-the-old-band-
tor Craig Brewer’s follow-up are nearly back-together kind of way. It was fun to see
breathtaking in their audacity and detail. the returns of Shari Headley, John Amos,
While there aren’t many genuine giggles in Vanessa Bell Calloway, and Louie Ander-
the movie, Carter’s eye-popping creations son. Even though (or maybe because) he
for the African citizens of Zamunda are was clearly too unwell to fully participate,
both visually ravishing and funny; it’s as if I got a little misty at the reappearance of
everyone in Wakanda decided to dress up James Earl Jones, his lion’s roar muffled but
for Mardi Gras, but this time, they decided his spirit lively. Fowler, Layne, Nomzamo
to go all out. Mbatha, and Tracy Morgan are all welcome
Beyond Carter’s jaw-dropping achieve- additions; the late Madge Sinclair gets a
ment, the first-rate prosthetic and visual nice callback; Morgan Freeman inevitably,
effects (particularly the 33-year de-aging hilariously pops up. You may not spend
of Murphy and co-star Arsenio Hall in much time laughing at Coming 2 America,
the NYC flashbacks), and, following his but you might find yourself smiling more
wicked turn in 2019’s Dolemite Is My often than you anticipated, even if you wind
Name, Wesley Snipes’ continued resur- up forgetting about the film in a week’s
gence as a madly inventive comedian, time. Until next year’s Oscars, that is.
there’s not much that’s memorable about
Coming 2 America. Yet it’s genial enough.
The easiest thing to forget about, or at least February 16 Crossword Answers
ignore, is the plot, which gives Akeem a
31-year-old son (Jermaine Fowler) – the
result of a long-forgotten one-night-stand
with Leslie Jones – whom Akeem brings
from New York to live in Zamunda as his
royal heir. Naturally, this doesn’t sit well
with the prince’s first-born daughter (Kiki
Layne) who presumed the throne would
be hers, and this narrative leads to far too
many banal comic set pieces informing
viewers that Women Are Just as Good as
Men. (A Hollywood revelation of this ilk
might have passed muster with 1988 audi-
ences; nowadays, it just feels pandering
and insulting.)
But while the storylines are bland and the
gags tepid and the PG-13 rating a hindrance
– you can practically see Murphy, Snipes,
20 River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021
Smear Pressure
I’m a college sophomore, and my boyfriend
is a senior. He’s a football player, and other girls
have crushes on him. Recently, he was with his
guy friends at a party. A girl came over and said
I’d slapped her across the face. I’ve never even
met her! Why would she do this?
– Mystified
Women are seen as the kinder, gentler sex
because they tend not to leave a trail of bloody
noses and broken barstools. But women go
plenty aggressive on other women, just in ways
they can’t patch up at urgent care – like when
some mean girl dislocates your reputation and
fractures your psyche in 36 places.
In short, while men have Fight Club, women
have Underhanded Snipe Club. Researchers
find that women almost always use “indirect
aggression” against other women – nasty gossip,
ostracism, and “Just trying to help!” shaming
remarks – to vie for mates and jobs. Psychologist
Kaj Bjorkqvist explains that this covert “social
manipulation” maximizes the harm to the victim
while minimizing the risk of counterattack on
the perpetrator, who often remains anonymous –
leaving the victim unable to trace how her social
status ended up in the morgue.
Women’s mate competition can be a beauty
contest – hotting up one’s appearance to yank
male eyeballs away from female rivals – or an
ugly contest: using “competitor derogation”
(disparaging the competition to decrease others’
mate value relative to one’s own). A woman
trashing another woman to men typically
sneers that she’s ugly or slutty (in line with men’s
evolved priorities for physical attractiveness and
fidelity). However, evolutionary psychologist
Maryanne Fisher observes that if the woman
casting the shade is not all that hot herself, her
remarks about another woman’s looks are likely
to be dismissed. This might lead her to rely on
“alternative tactics” – like inventing a story about
how a hot woman is actually the lady bar brawler
of the sophomore class.
Unfortunately for the cuckoo case trying to
destroy your reputation, her efforts may backfire.
Most undergrad guys aren’t dating to wife up, so
some (or many!) would be way into a high scorer
on the hot/crazy scale: Hello, aggro-babe hate
sex! As for the eventual “auto detailing” that so
often comes with, guys try to focus on the upside,
like their car being easier to spot in a crowded
campus parking lot. (Just look for the hot-pink
spray paint reading “Get your herpes here!”)
Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405. E-mail AdviceAmy@aol.com, visit
@amyalkon on Twitter, and listen to Amy’s weekly radio show at BlogTalkRadio.com/amyalkon. Order
Amy Alkon’s book Unf---ology: A Field Guide to Living with Guts and Confidence (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2018).
©2021, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. New column published weekly at RCReader.com
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
Ancestry Dot Bomb
You wrote about a 58-year-old woman
dating a 23-year-old guy. What’s the big
deal with that? My daughter moved in with
a 58-year-old creep when she was 18. He
gave his own daughter heroin when she was
18. Bad guy. He and my daughter just had a
baby, and now she’s pregnant again.
– Distraught Dad
First-time parents live in terror that they’re
getting it wrong (like that they aren’t spending
enough time reading Hooked on Phonics to their
kid in the womb), when they could really just
leave their kid in the woods and say, “Come back
when you’re 20.”
Okay, so the woods thing is a bit of an exag-
geration. However, psychologist and twins
researcher Nancy Segal explains that while “most
parents believe they significantly shape their
children’s behaviors … we now know that genetic
effects are pervasive.” In fact, “Most behaviors
have a 50-percent genetic influence.”
The power of genes in shaping our personality
and choices is especially apparent in identical
twins who were separated at birth and raised
apart. Segal studied two of these identical twins:
Oskar, who grew up Catholic in Nazi Germany
and was an enthusiastic member of the Hitler
Youth, and his brother, Jack, who was raised as a
Jew in the Caribbean and spent time on an Israeli
kibbutz. When Segal and her colleagues brought
them together as adults, each showed up at the
Minneapolis airport in a white sports jacket over
a two-pocket blue shirt with epaulets and had
wire-rimmed glasses and a mustache. Among
their many shared quirks, each read magazines
from back to front, wrapped tape around pens
for a better grip, kept rubber bands around their
wrists, and – because each is germophobic –
flushed toilets before use as well as after.
As Segal emphasizes, a child’s “environment,”
including parenting, “contributes only modestly”
to the sort of person they become. Focusing
on this might help. Perhaps if you remove any
“shoulda, coulda” blame you place on yourself,
you can set aside some of your anger, show
compassion for your daughter, and be loving and
supportive despite your dismay at her choices.
It’s possible your grandkids have a chance. If you
come at this more lovingly than adversarially,
they just might end up spending more time with
Grandpa than the bad dad you probably suspect
is a few infant crying jags away from putting
grain alcohol in the sippy cup.
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021 21

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY New Columns Weekly at RCReader.com By Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Artist
Richard Kehl tells this traditional Jewish
story: God said to Abraham, “But for me,
you would not be here.” Abraham
answered, “I know that Lord, but were I not here
there would be no one to think about you.” I’m
bringing this tale to your attention, dear Aries,
because I think the coming weeks will be a favor-
able time to summon a comparable cheekiness with
authorities, including even the Divine Wow Her-
self. So I invite you to consider the possibility of
being sassy, saucy, and bold. Risk being an articu-
late maverick with a point of view that the honchos
and experts should entertain.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Spiritual
author Ernest Holmes wrote, “True imag-
ination is not fanciful daydreaming. It is
fire from heaven.” Unfortunately, how-
ever, many people do indeed regard imagination as
mostly just a source of fanciful daydreaming. And
it is also true that when our imaginations are lazy
and out of control, when they conjure delusional
fears and worries, they can be debilitating. I bring
this to your attention, Taurus, because I believe the
coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to
harness the highest powers of your imagination –
to channel the fire from heaven – as you visualize
all the wonderful and interesting things you want
to do with your life in the next nine months.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “I’m always
waiting for a door to open in a wall with-
out doors,” wrote Gemini author Fer-
nando Pessoa. Huh? Pessoa was
consistently eccentric in his many writings, and I
find this particular statement especially odd. I’m
going to alter it so it makes more sense and fits your
current needs. Here’s your motto for the coming
weeks: “I’m always ready to figure out how to make
a new door in a wall without doors, and call on all
necessary help to make it.”
CANCER (June 21-July 22): You can’t
drive to the Kamchatka Peninsula. It’s a
104,000-square-mile area with a sub-
Arctic climate in the far east of Russia. No
roads connect it to the rest of the world. Its major
city, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, is surrounded by
volcanoes. If you want to travel there, you must
arrive by plane or ship. And yet Petropavlovsk-
Kamchatsky has long had a thriving tourist indus-
try. More so before the pandemic, but even now,
outsiders have come to paraglide, hunt for bears,
and marvel at the scenery. In this horoscope, I am
making an outlandish metaphorical comparison of
you to the Kamchatka Peninsula. Like that land,
people sometimes find it a challenge to reach you.
And yet when they do, you can be quite welcoming.
Is this a problem? Maybe, maybe not. What do you
think? Now is a good time to re-evaluate.
LEO (July 23-August 22): Biting midges,
also known as no-see-ums, are blood-
sucking flies that spread various diseases.
Yuck, right? Wouldn’t the world be a
better place if we used science to kill off all biting
midges everywhere? Well, there would be a disap-
pointing trade-off if we did. The creepy bugs are the
primary pollinators for several crops grown in the
topics, including cacao. So if we got rid of the no-
see-ums, there’d probably be no more chocolate.
I’m guessing that you may be dealing with a com-
parable dilemma, Leo: an influence that has both a
downside and an upside. The central question is:
Can you be all you want to be without it in your life?
Or not? Now is a good time to ponder the best way
to shape your future relationship.
. much wider assortment of flavors in that natural
VIRGO (August 23-September 22):
According to my analysis of your immi-
nent astrological potentials, you already
are or will soon be floating and whirling
and churning along on an ocean of emotion. In
other words, you will be experiencing more feelings
and stronger feelings than you have in quite some
time. This doesn’t have to be a problem as long as
you do the following: (1) Be proud and appreciative
about being able to feel so much. (2) Since only a
small percentage of your feelings need to be trans-
lated into practical actions, don’t take them too
seriously. (3) Enjoy the ride!
LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Poet
Wendell Berry says “it’s the immemorial
feelings” he likes best: “hunger and thirst
and their satisfaction; work-weariness
and earned rest; the falling again from loneliness to
love.” Notice that he doesn’t merely love the gratifi-
cation that comes from quenching his hunger and
thirst. The hunger and thirst are themselves essen-
tial components of his joy. Work-weariness and
loneliness are not simply inconvenient discomforts
that he’d rather live without. He celebrates them, as
well. I think his way of thinking is especially
worthy of your imitation in the next three weeks.
SCORPIO (October 23-November 21):
Famous and influential science-fiction
novelist Philip K. Dick relied on amphet-
amines to fuel his first 43 novels. Begin-
ning with A Scanner Darkly, his 44th, he did
without his favorite drug. It wasn’t his best book,
but it was far from his worst. It sold well and was
made into a movie featuring Keanu Reeves, Robert
Downey Jr., and two other celebrity actors. Inspired
by Dick’s success without relying on his depen-
dency – and in accordance with current astrologi-
cal omens – I’m inviting you to try doing without
one of your addictions or compulsions or obses-
sions as you work on your labor of love.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22-Decem-
ber 21): Ninety percent of all apples in the
world are descended from a forest of apple
trees in southeast Kazakhstan. Most of us
have tasted just a few types of apples, but there’s a
wonderland. You know how wine is described as
having taste notes and aromas? The apple flavor of
Kazakhstan’s apples may be tinged with hints of
roses, strawberries, anise, pineapples, coconuts,
lemon peels, pears, potatoes, or popcorn. Can you
imagine traveling to that forest and exploring a far
more complex and nuanced relationship with a
commonplace food? During the coming weeks, I
invite you to experiment with arousing metaphori-
cally similar experiences. In what old familiar per-
sons, places, or things could you find a surprising
wealth of previously unexplored depth and
variety?
CAPRICORN (December 22-January
19): Author Andrew Tilin testified that he
sometimes had the feeling that his life was
in pieces – but then realized that most of
the pieces were good and interesting. So his sense
of being a mess of unassembled puzzle parts gave
way to a deeper contentment – an understanding
that the jumble was just fine the way it was. I recom-
mend you cultivate and enjoy an experience like
that in the coming weeks, Capricorn.
AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18):
Indian poet Meena Alexander (1951–
2018) was born under the sign of Aquar-
ius. She became famous after she moved to the U.S.
at age 29, but was raised in India and the Sudan. In
her poem “Where Do You Come From?,” she wrote,
“Mama beat me when I was a child for stealing
honey from a honey pot.” I’m sorry to hear she was
treated so badly for enjoying herself. She wasn’t
committing a crime! The honey belonged to her
family, and her family had plenty of money to buy
more honey. This vignette is my way of advising
you, in accordance with astrological omens, to
carry out your personal version of “stealing the
honey from the honeypot,” dear Aquarius. Take
what’s rightfully yours.
PISCES (February 19-March 20):
The bad news is that the narrow buffer
zone between North Korea and South
Korea is laced with landmines. Anyone who walks
there is at risk for getting blown up. The good news
is that because people avoid the place, it has become
an unprecedented nature preserve – a wildlife
refuge where endangered species like the red-
crowned crane and Korean fox can thrive. In the
coming weeks and months, I’d love to see you
engage in a comparable project, Pisces: finding a
benevolent use for a previously taboo or wasted
part of your life.
Homework: If you have a question whose answer
might be interesting to other readers, send it.
Maybe I’ll address it in the column.
E-mail Truthrooster@gmail.com
and visit FreeWillAstrology.com.
Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s
EXPANDED WEEKLY AUDIO HOROSCOPES
& DAILY TEXT MESSAGE HOROSCOPES
The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at
1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-77

The Dragonfly
Alternative Counseling & Healing Opportunities

Kathleen Collins, Ms. Ed.

– SHAMANIC HEALING TECHNIQUES –
Get healed from the past to move
forward and be launched onto your
path of purpose, empowerment, and joy.

Individual & Couples Counseling | Most Insurance Accepted | Workshops Ongoing

New Red Meat Cartoons Weekly at RCReader.com Call 563-332-4361 or visit KathleenCollinsCounseling.com
22 River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021 Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com

Spring Photo Contest

April 29 Submission Deadline

COME WATCH
AND BET ON
COLLEGE HOOPS
IN DRAFT DAY With spring (almost) in the air, it's time again for the River Cities’ Reader’s
annual Spring Photo Contest!

For 2021, we've decided on three new categories for your submissions:

“Life,” “Liberty,” or
& “The Pursuit of Happiness.”
Entrants are welcome to interpret the categories however they wish.

The deadline for entries is Thursday, April 29, and the rules are below.
Gift cards from loyal Reader advertisers will be awarded to first-place
winners, and we will publish both contest champs and runners-up at
RCReader.com and in the May print edition of the  River Cities’ Reader.
Photo Contest Rules 

1) Entries should be e-mailed to  5) Photographers are limited to three
photos@rcreader.com  with the subject entries apiece. You may submit
heading “photo contest.” No physical multiple images in a single category,
prints will be accepted. but each photograph counts toward
2) All photographs must be received the three-entry limit.

by 5 p.m. Central Daylight Time on 6) All entries must include the name of
Thursday, April 29, 2021. the photographer, a daytime phone
3) Photographs must be saved in the number for the photographer, and the
JPG or TIF format at a resolution category in which the photograph is
suitable for newspaper publication. being entered. Although not required,
Generally speaking, each entry should we welcome short statements (fewer
be at least 1,200 pixels on its shortest than 100 words) that provide context
side. for the image – for example, notes on
4) All photographs must be previously the photographic subject or the
unpublished. shooting circumstances.
Check out last year’s photo winners at rcreader.com/y/photo2020.

7077 ELMORE AVENUE DAVENPORT, IA 52807

RHYTHMCITYCASINO.COM | 1.844.852.4FUN
Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com
LIVE MUSIC
NOTE: All events listed are confirmed at time of publication. Check with the venue ahead of arrival to ensure status of each event.
THURSDAY
2020/09/03 (Thu)
(11)
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Open Mic Night – Bootleg Hill Honey
Meads, 321 E. 2nd St., Davenport IA
Open Mic Night w/ Ky & Ty Acoustic Duo
– Green Tree Brewery, 309 N. Cody Rd.,
LeClaire IA
Virtual Opera: The Enchanted Forest –
Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, 1120 2nd
Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids IA
Virtual PASS Concert: Barron Ryan –
Quad City Arts Center, 1715 2nd Ave,
Rock Island IL
(12)
FRIDAY
2020/09/04 (Fri)
50 Shades of Rock – Hawkeye Tap Sports
Bar N Grill, 4646 Cheyenne Ave.,
Davenport IA
Divas through the Decades – Rhythm
City Casino Resort Rhythm Room, 7077
Elmore Ave., Davenport IA
Funky Mojo Daddy – Riverside Casino and
Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22, Riverside
IA
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Soul Storm – The Gypsy Highway Bar &
Grill, 2606 W. Locust St., Davenport IA
Tangled Reality – Harley Corin’s, 1708
State St., Bettendorf IA
Virtual Concert – Lessons in Loneliness:
Schubert’s “Winterreise” Then & Now
– St.Ambrose University Madsen Hall,
Galvin Fine Arts Center - 2101 Gaines St.,
Davenport IA
SATURDAY
2020/09/05 (Sat)
(13)
50-Percent St Paddy’s Day Party w/ Blues
Rock–it and DJCAM – Kavanaugh’s
Hilltop Bar & Grill, 1228 30th St., Rock
Island IL
The Acoustic Knights – Bootleg Hill Honey
Meads, 321 E. 2nd St., Davenport IA
Bad Hair Unplugged (1pm) – Cal Stage
Band St Paddy’s Day Bash (9pm) –
The Gypsy Highway Bar & Grill, 2606 W.
Locust St., Davenport IA
Code 415 – Harley Corin’s, 1708 State St.,
Bettendorf IA
Divas through the Decades – Riverside
Casino and Golf Resort, 3184 Highway
22, Riverside IA
Freddy Allen & Neal Smith – The Grape
Life Wine Store & Lounge, 3402 Elmore
Ave., Davenport IA
Funky Mojo Daddy – Rhythm City Casino
Resort Rhythm Room, 7077 Elmore Ave.,
Davenport IA
Jazz Lounge w/ Mason Moss & Sara
Tubbs – The Spotlight Theatre, 1800 7th
Ave., Moline IL
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Ky & Ty – Green Tree Brewery, 309 N. Cody
Rd., LeClaire IA
Russ Reyman Request Piano Bar – The
Phoenix Restaurant & Martini Bar, 111
West 2nd St., Davenport IA
Shamrock Shakedown: Funktastic
Five (4pm) – The Tangled Wood, 3636
Tanglewood Rd., Bettendorf IA
Virtual Concert: Taj Mahal & Phantom
Blues Band – Jon Cleary – Englert
Theatre, 221 East Washington St., Iowa
City IA
TUESDAY
2020/09/09 (Wed)
(16)
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Linn St, Iowa City IA
WEDNESDAY (17)
2020/09/10 (Thu)
DJ Ladies Night – My Place the Pub, 4405
State St., Bettendorf IA
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Lewis Knudsen (6:30pm) – The Faithful
Pilot Cafe & Spirits, 117 N Cody Rd,
LeClaire IA
Virtual Concert: Dan Padley – Englert
Theatre, 221 East Washington St., Iowa
City IA
Virtual Performance – Gaelic Storm: One
for the Road – Englert Theatre, 221 East
Washington St., Iowa City IA
THURSDAY (18)
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Open Mic Night – Bootleg Hill Honey
Meads, 321 E. 2nd St., Davenport IA
Open Mic Night w/ Ky & Ty Acoustic Duo
– Green Tree Brewery, 309 N. Cody Rd.,
LeClaire IA
V ir t ual Pe r formance: K irk wo o d
Community College Wind & Jazz
Ensembles (11:15am) – Kirkwood
Community College, 6301 Kirkwood
Blvd., Cedar Rapids IA
(19)
FRIDAY
Andrew Chastain – Riverside Casino and
Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22, Riverside
IA
Crooked Cactus – Rhythm City Casino
Resort Rhythm Room, 7077 Elmore Ave.,
Davenport IA
Dave Ellis – The Grape Life Wine Store &
Lounge, 3402 Elmore Ave., Davenport IA
Fair Warning – Harley Corin’s, 1708 State
St., Bettendorf IA
Jef Spradley – Hawkeye Tap Sports Bar N
Grill, 4646 Cheyenne Ave., Davenport IA
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Project X – The Gypsy Highway Bar & Grill,
2606 W. Locust St., Davenport IA
SATURDAY
2020/09/13 (Sun)
(20)
Andrew Chastain – Rhythm City Casino
Resort Rhythm Room, 7077 Elmore Ave.,
Davenport IA
Far Out 283 – Harley Corin’s, 1708 State St.,
Bettendorf IA
JD Aguilera – Green Tree Brewery, 309 N.
Cody Rd., LeClaire IA
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Rosie & the Rivets – Riverside Casino and
Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22, Riverside
IA
Ruby & Donovan – Bootleg Hill Honey
Meads, 321 E. 2nd St., Davenport IA
Russ Reyman Request Piano Bar – The
Phoenix Restaurant & Martini Bar, 111
West 2nd St., Davenport IA
Tony & Ron from the Whoozdads – The
Grape Life Wine Store & Lounge, 3402
Elmore Ave., Davenport IA
Twice-On-Sunday – Riscky’s II, 108 Main
St., Reynolds IL
Vir tual Concer t: Freedom Fest
Fundraiser w/ King Jeremy – Bishop
Hill Creative Commons, 309 N Bishop Hill
St., Bishop Hill IL
Virtual Roots Rising Showcase: Taj Mahal
– Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley – Amythyst
Kiah – Annie Mack – Leyla McCalla –
Piedmont Bluz Acoustic Duo – Ranky
Tanky – Allison Russell – Jontavious
Willis – Englert Theatre, 221 East
Washington St., Iowa City IA
Wild Oatz – The Gypsy Highway Bar & Grill,
2606 W. Locust St., Davenport IA
MARCH 11–APRIL 8, 2021
Send your live music events to calendar@rcreader.com
Deadline 5 p.m. Thursday before publication
SUNDAY (21)
Sunday Funday w/ Donovan Gustofson
(4:30pm) – Sunday Funday w/ Donovan
Gustofson (4:30pm), 2606 W. Locust St.,
Davenport IA
Virtual Concert – Claudia Nygaard:
Looking Back … the L.A. Years –
Uptown Theatre, 221 1st Street NE, Mt.
Vernon IA
(23)
TUESDAY
2020/09/17 (Thu)
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Linn St, Iowa City IA
WEDNESDAY (24)
(Fri)
DJ Ladies Night – My Place the Pub, 4405
State St., Bettendorf IA
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Rob Dahms (6:30pm) – The Faithful Pilot
Cafe & Spirits, 117 N Cody Rd, LeClaire IA
Virtual Concert: Ross Clowser – Englert
Theatre, 221 East Washington St., Iowa
City IA
THURSDAY (25)
Jason Gray – Bettendorf Christian Church,
3487 Crowne Pointe Circle, Bettendorf IA
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Open Mic Night – Bootleg Hill Honey
Meads, 321 E. 2nd St., Davenport IA
Open Mic Night w/ Ky & Ty Acoustic Duo
– Green Tree Brewery, 309 N. Cody Rd.,
LeClaire IA
Virtual PASS Concert: Invoke – Quad City
Arts Center, 1715 2nd Ave, Rock Island IL
FRIDAY (26)
Arch Allies – Rhythm City Casino Resort
Event Center, 7077 Elmore Ave.,
Davenport IA
Cody Road – Hawkeye Tap Sports Bar N Grill,
4646 Cheyenne Ave., Davenport IA
Jimmy Welty Trio – Riverside Casino and
Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22, Riverside IA
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Stimulus Package – Rhythm City Casino
Resort Rhythm Room, 7077 Elmore
Ave.,Davenport IA
River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021 23
The Stone Flowers – Sunday Funday w/
FRIDAY (2)
Donovan Gustofson (4:30pm), 2606 W.
Locust St., Davenport IA Code 415 – The Gypsy Highway Bar & Grill,
2606 W. Locust St., Davenport IA
SATURDAY
2020/09/20 (Sun)
(27) Ginger Roots – Green Tree Brewery, 309 N.
Cody Rd., LeClaire IA
Arch Allies – Rhythm City Casino Resort Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Event Center, 7077 Elmore Ave.,
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Davenport IA
Brother K Band – The Gypsy Highway Bar
& Grill, 2606 W. Locust St., Davenport IA
Code 415 – Harley Corin’s, 1708 State St.,
SATURDAY (3)
BanD – Bootleg Hill Honey Meads, 321 E.
Bettendorf IA
Doug Brundies – Green Tree Brewery, 309
2nd St., Davenport IA
First Impression – The Gypsy Highway Bar
N. Cody Rd., LeClaire IA
& Grill, 2606 W. Locust St., Davenport IA
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Frankie Joe & Kinfolk – Green Tree
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Brewery, 309 N. Cody Rd., LeClaire IA
Rob and Gary of the Night People –
Jim Buennig Jazz – The Grape Life Wine
Bootleg Hill Honey Meads, 321 E. 2nd St.,
Store & Lounge, 3402 Elmore Ave.,
Davenport IA
Davenport IA
Russ Reyman Request Piano Bar – The
Phoenix Restaurant & Martini Bar, 111
Jim Ryan (6pm) – Tuggers Burger Bar & Ale
House, 201 N. Main St., Port Byron IL
West 2nd St., Davenport IA
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
The Soul Company Jazz – The Grape Life
Wine Store & Lounge, 3402 Elmore Ave.,
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Russ Reyman Request Piano Bar – The
Davenport IA
Phoenix Restaurant & Martini Bar, 111
Stimulus Package – Riverside Casino and
West 2nd St., Davenport IA
Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22, Riverside
Twice-On-Sunday – My Place the Pub,
IA
4405 State St., Bettendorf IA
Twice-On-Sunday – Purgatory’s Pub, 2104
Upchurch – The Rust Belt, 533 12th Ave.,
State St, Bettendorf IA
East Moline IL
Virtual Concert: Taj Mahal & Fantastic
Negrito – Englert Theatre, 221 East
TUESDAY (6)
Washington St., Iowa City IA
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
TUESDAY
2020/09/23 (Wed)
(30) Linn St, Iowa City IA
Virtual Organ Recital: Dr.Charles
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Barland – University of Dubuque’s
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Heritage Center, 2255 Bennett St.,
WEDNESDAY (31)
Dubuque IA
2020/09/24 (Thu)
SATURDAY (7)
DJ Ladies Night – My Place the Pub, 4405
State St., Bettendorf IA
DJ Ladies Night – My Place the Pub, 4405
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Linn St, Iowa City IA
State St., Bettendorf IA
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Virtual Concert: Penny Peach – Englert
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Theatre, 221 East Washington St., Iowa
City IA
TUESDAY (8)
THURSDAY
2020/09/25 (Fri)
(1) 7 Bridges: The Ultimate Eagles Tribute
– Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, 1828 Third
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Ave., Rock Island IL
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Karaoke Night – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S
Open Mic Night – Bootleg Hill Honey
Linn St, Iowa City IA
Meads, 321 E. 2nd St., Davenport IA
Open Mic Night – Bootleg Hill Honey
Meads, 321 E. 2nd St., Davenport IA
24 River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 28 No. 983 • March 2021 Know More, Do More • RiverCitiesReader.com

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