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Celebrating the legalization of cannabis and unlocking the hidden and not so hidden author in you in the cities.

Four years ago, Illinois became the first state to legalize marijuana by an act of the legislature.

And since 2020, lawmakers have taken various actions to help grow the industry, control the use of marijuana, and penalize those who are still breaking the law regarding this drug.

Right now, the state has 202 adult use cannabis distributors.

And in May, the governor issued another round of approvals for an additional 35 conditional use licenses.

In a few days, the cities will celebrate the hemp industry and marijuana legalization with the first ever Tree Online Festival.

It'll be held at the Rust Belt in East Moline Friday, June 28th and Saturday the 29th.

And one of the organizers Heather Dabbas, owner of Yabba Dabbas House of glass, joins us with details.

The tree0nine Festival is coming up on June 28th and 29th.

I mean, you've been working on this.

Where did the idea come from?

Why are you doing this?

Larry Anderson and I discussed something to bring people to the city of East Moline.

And so this is something different that hasn't been done in the area, different bands than we usually get.

And a festival about cannabis with it.

So that's where it came.

It makes sense.

Yeah.

Tell me about that.

Because we're seeing the cannabis industry not only thrive, but but mean, they're trying to manage what could be explosive growth in the state.

Yes.

Are you seeing that explosive growth?

Yeah.

Yes, absolutely.

I think the more peopl get used to it, the less taboo it becomes, the more people use it.

the less companies are testing for it.

And, yeah, it's really just exploding.

Yeah, exactly.

And so this is kind of a celebration of that.

Yes, I think so.

Oh is it?

Because let's be honest.

We were talking about the fact that you are working very closely with East Moline Police, because there is a fine line between what's legal and what's not legal.

Yes.

That's right.

we are workin closely with them to make sure the festival goes off without a hitch and that we don't get shut down.

There are laws tha we're going to follow, though.

It is a festival about bringing information, bringing people together, showcasing products of the industry.

And there's a lot of different products.

Yes.

I yeah, I make a living off selling those products and my other business and, evidence of the growth of the marijuana industry, I think, can be seen any time you drive down the street.

You're lucky to make it three blocks without seeing a smoke shop.

Tell me a little bit about the bands that are going to be performing at the festival.

Because like you said you wanted to bring some music that isn't necessarily heard in the Quad Cities every day.

So there's a big electronic vibe to what we're doing.

Okay.

Chromeo is coming and doing a DJ set.

We have Girl Talk.

He does a lot of mash ups.

I'm pretty excited to see him.

Waka Flocka Flame has a little obviously is hip hop side.

we just we're trying to bring some energy and something different.

And I know that you also we're bringing some reggae in as well.

Yes.

I like the smile that you have because you do the.

Yeah, exactly.

Friday is my thing.

So tell me who you have in that genre.

this year we have Trap Adeleke.

They're one of our headliners.

And then we have one two trees and Rude Punch locally.

Next year, hopefully we have some more sprinkled in there.

This is something that you're hoping to do year after year after year?

Yes.

How are you going to measure success this year?

Because you and it's more than just how many people show up.

I mean, that's financially so important, but what else?

I mean, you do want to get a message out there.

Yeah.

I mean, I think if everybody comes together and has a good time and we lose that, more people smoke than what I think a lot of people want to realize.

The demographic that we get in the shop is everywhere, all the way up to age 90, and people young enough that they're trying to get in, the can't get in.

So I think a lot of people do.

I think this is just a chance to bring everybody together and have a good time.

And as long as everything goes smooth, we will do it again.

You have been an advocate of medical marijuana for quite some time because you have a personal story involving that.

I mean, it really has helped in some ways.

Your family.

Yes.

I have a daughter who had seizures after she was born, and it's something I did a lot of research in.

We went to the state of Colorado, thought about moving there.

So many people did.

Yes.

That was what a lot of people were doing because we didn't have the options.

I live in the state of Iowa.

We don't have those options.

There at the time.

Now I don't really need it.

So we're still in the state of Iowa, and we opened our stores and now I'm here.

Yeah.

So tell me about, because you're seeing this see change in legislation.

I mean, first, all types of marijuana banned and then all of a sudden medical marijuana.

And the concept that it helps as you said, seizures as well as some other medical conditions.

And then you're seeing the legalization of recreational marijuana.

State by state, not nationwide yet.

Tell me the importance of medical marijuana.

I think there is a lot of illnesses or conditions that can benefit from it.

It's good for pain, and there's not really the side effects that you're going to see with a lot of other pharmaceuticals, because when you say that you're seeing people that might be in their 70s or 80 or 90s, a lot of times it is for, pain regulation, pain medication.

Yes.

Glaucoma is another one.

I believe that it's used for cancer.

We were talking a little bit about the fact that the laws have changed.

You want to see them change more?

I think it should be fully legal everywhere federally.

to not have an issue like we do now.

Personally, I don't think it's anything worse than drinking, and I think it's better.

We all have our own opinion on it, but that's that's where mine sits.

So at this festival I like we you're saying you're going to be dealing with East Moline police.

You've got certain areas for smoking.

You have age limits for people who are coming in.

Tell me a little bit about what you're doing to make sure that you're above the law.

21 plus, of course.

And then there's regulations that we don't have a dispensary license, that the festivals will be selling any goods.

We're not giving samples for people to take home.

That's not allowed either.

we will be showcasing the products and showing what they have, and I am not really sur until we have our next meeting exactly how everything is going to work out, but we're going to make sure that we're within the constraints of the law and still are able to have a good time.

What has been the reaction so far?

I mean, are people going, oh, you can't do this, or are you pretty happy with the response?

I think people are excited about it.

Everybody I talk to, we have over 35 vendors showing up.

Some of them come from the smoke shop industry.

Some of them are local businesses.

They're all very excited to be a part of it.

So I hear it in everybody's voice when I've gone around and I'm posting fliers and bars to help spread awareness.

Everybody I talked to is really excited and of course, you have a few people that are questioning whether or not it's real and it's going to happen, but it is.

Well, and you've got also the stigma about whether or not it is correct, morally right, or even legally right.

and I think in a way, what you're trying to do and I hate to put words in your mouth, but you try to get rid of that stigma.

Yes.

How?

I think just awareness of, maybe if we're not looked at differently.

I mean, I have businesses, I have kids, I abide by the law.

I do the things I'm supposed to, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

I think it's everyday people and.

It's time.

I don't know, I don't even know how to say it.

It's just time that we all realize it's.

It's okay.

Tree 0 nine Festival June 28th and 29th.

Tickets are for sale right now.

What's your best pitch for people?

Especially the music.

Oh, we have 16 bands over two days.

Wrecks, roads, building an outdoor stage for us for food trucks live glassblowing, 35 vendors.

Fear of missing out.

Yes, I see it.

Our thanks to Heather Dabbas, organizer of the first ever Tree O nine Festival celebrating the cannabis industry in Illinois.

Tickets to the events are at the Rust Belt, available at its website as well.

TheRustBeltqc.com.

Johnathan Turner is just as comfortable behind a computer keyboar as he is behind a musical one.

An accomplished journalist and writer, Jonathan joined us on the stage of Molina's Black Box Theater to perform one of his originals.

So here's Jonathan Turner with just a midwest boy.

Here.

Just a midwest.

Boy and a Jersey girl alone in New York.

Alone in the world.

Night after night, the boy and girl wondered if they'd ever find anyone.

With their hungry hearts.

Be forever born to run.

Nathan, where are you?

Where are you?

Where are you?

Where are you?

You have to share.

With me the rest of my life.

Just a midwest boy and a Jersey girl.

One day they met online.

The feelings unfurl With the touch of a mouse.

The clicks got together the very next day.

The teachers were on their feet.

She was reborn to say she felt I found you.

I found you, I found you.

I found you.

And for The rest of my.

life Just a the Jersey girl and the Midwest.

boy.

She gave him hope.

He brought her joy.

Then one afternoon in June, he asked her to be his bride.. No one was reading out the Sunshine Street inside.

He said, I love you, I love you, I love you, and I love you.

For the rest of my life.

Now we're so happy.

To be here your wedding day, basking in your glow and let you know that we love you.

We love you.

We love you.

And we love.

For the rest of our lives.

Jonathan Turner with just a midwest boy performed at Mo Leon's Black Box Theater.

There's a story in all of us.

And for years, the Midwest Writing Center in Rock Island has been helping writers better express themselves and find markets for their works.

It culminates each year with the David R Collins Writers Conference, coming up June 27th through the 29th at Augustana College.

Organizer and executive director of the Midwest Writers Center, Ryan Collins, joined us.

The conference is going to be a three day, conference at Augustana.

it's for all types of writers, is it not?

Yeah.

All types of writers, all experience levels.

it tends to be people who've maybe been writing for a little while and are kind of like looking to make that next step.

but really, we get people at all stages.

You know, we get people who published books, and are doing that kind of work, and we get people that are just kind of like, putting their toe in the water for the first time and get one of their first workshops and see what that's like.

So it's a good combination.

Not every writer's the same.

Some are far more gregarious than others, and others are very introspective.

but this conference really kind of allows people to what, share some of their stories or at least get some feedback, which is always necessary.

Yeah, definitely a little a little bit of all that.

Like most of the workshops, they tend to be generative.

So, generating new material or if you're working on a project, something that can kind of help you, move down the book, move the ball down the field, so to speak, on whatever that project is.

but also like a big part of the conference for us is community.

I think a lot of, a lot of people think of writing as this big solo activity and just people kind of like thinking, you know, hard in their room a, you.

Know, a room with a typewriter.

Exactly.

But I think, like, if you ask people who are doing the work, you find out that, like, most of those people are working in communities, they have writer's groups that they share work with people they trust, just share their work and kind of celebrate each other.

And so we want to tr to help create that community, especially for writers who maybe don't have it.

because it helps lot because, there's a lot of.

If you're going to try to publish, there's a lot of rejection involved in writing.

it can be a tough road to hoe.

And so the more you can kind of have people that are with you that are kind of going through the same thing that you can develop, you know, those friendships and things like that and kind of celebrate each other along the way and the victories and the publications and things like that, share opportunities and things like, you know, like not everybody knows about this submission opportunity and things like that.

So, we really want to foster that community, especially for people who are maybe new to it.

and we want to foster it across genres, across experience levels, across demographics.

you know, we want to happy writing community in the Quad Cities.

It is, the 27t through the 29th at Augustana.

Tell us a little bit about your keynote speakers or your your instructors.

I mean, because you have you try to find, a diverse group, that can really help writers in this area.

Definitely.

Yeah.

I mean, we want, a diversity of styles.

We want a diversity of people.

they're all excellent writers.

They're all award winning.

so we've got, Darius Stewart, who's, doing a lyric memoir class, which is, you know, we know what memoir is telling your own story.

But like, with a little bit more of, a little bit more poetry to it, you might say, like, he's also got a background in poetry.

So a little bit more lyrical, a little bit more musical, but still kind of telling personal stories in a, in a deep, introspective way.

we've got a poetry workshop with, Sarah Lupita Olivares, who teaches at, University of Illinois, Springfield.

she won a prize called the Canto Mundo Prize a few years back, which is a very prestigious first book prize.

actually, we had an instructor a couple of years ago, Gina Franca, who also won the same prize, who teaches at Knox, which is pretty cool.

That's very cool.

Yeah.

That's not, you know, having two people who have won that prize and relatively close proximity to hers is pretty awesome.

So and then Chad Simpson, who is the only instructor who has taught at the conference before, he's a professor at Monmouth, and he's doing short fiction.

he does all kinds of fiction, but he's coming back to specifically work on, telling short stories.

And then, Rebecca McKenna, who just published her first novel, I believe, last summer.

and who actually used to serve on our board of directors way back in the day, she worked for Modern Women of America, who's a sponsor of the conference.

And, so it's cool that she's coming back and but with with success and having her first book.

So we're really excited to see her and welcome her back.

And she's got some ties to the area beyond that.

She's got family around here, so it's cool that she'll be teaching for the first time.

And it feels like kin of a nice, full circle moment.

Well, and like you said, I mean, getting published is such a major well first ordeal for so many ways.

But I mean, it is a major accomplishment just to get published.

Yeah, it's a lot of work.

I believe when she left here, she went to, she was starting her MFA.

and for a lot o people, but not for everybody.

That's that's one road that you can take that that can help with those things.

It certainly helps.

Maybe, being able to just spend time on your work and craft and, you know, dedicate yourself to it in that way.

That's not always easy when you're working and family things and of all the things.

In life happens.

Life happens.

And, as wonderful as life is, you got to make space.

I once heard somebody say that, like, you're right.

And you've kind of got to treat it like a garden, like you've got to maintain borders.

You've got to, like, take care of it and nurture it, because everything else that you do in your life is going to want to work its way in.

which is great.

That's a lot of good stuff.

But if you want to do th work, you've got to make time.

You've got to have some discipline.

You got to care about it and want to do it.

and this conference I think, is, one way of giving people an opportunity to at least spend, you know, a weekend together and get to interact with these writers, kind of close up, see them perform, maybe read alongside of them.

they're all speaking at the keynote, talking about really basic things like, why is writing important?

Like, what got you started?

we did this last year with the faculty, and you kind of know how this community conversation thing would go, but, it was really revealing.

I think the writers really leaned into it.

I think, a lot of times writers get asked the same kind of questions, just like anybody else that does interviews and things like that.

And so being at being able to go back to like the real core reason, like, why do you do this?

Like what you have to do that you have to drill down and focus?

Yeah.

I think it really helps to have a clear idea of like, why do I want to put words on the page?

And especially like if I want to publish, like, why do I feel like I want to share it with somebody?

Like having a clear idea for yoursel about why you want to do that, helps get through the rejection and difficulty and just revisio and the work that it is to do.

the writing, which is really rewarding, but it is work.

Well, let's be honest.

Is there a personal for.

That, too?

But you can't take the criticism personally.

It just doesn't make sense.

But that's the way it is.

Yeah, it is a little bit paradoxical like that.

But I think that and that's one of the good things about the conference.

Like if you've never been in a workshop, if you've never been in a situation where you're getting constructive feedback about your work, you can't you you want the you're hoping that the comments serve the work.

but everybody's got to be on board for that and everybody's got to participate in that way.

And so when that happens, it can be really generative.

But it is it is a weird push pull because like, I care about my work an it's often personal to people.

but you've got to be able to like, take a step back a little bit and hear what other people are saying, especially people who have a lot of experience who have done at a high level, and.

Who have also received that.

Right.

Exactly.

They doesn't do the same thing.

And like, more likely than not, they're going to see things in your work that you're just not going to because you're so close to it.

and that's a blessing, I would say.

Like, that's really it's the thing I miss most about being in a graduate program.

is that kind of built in community and being around ten, 15 peopl who are dedicated to this work and care about it and are going to work not only to write the best work that they can, but to help each other write the best work everybody can.

And that's a great feeling.

Once again, the three day conference begins on June 27th.

How can somebody register or get involved right now?

You can register online.

we've got, online registration is open.

We've still got space on all the workshops that they are filling up.

We've got, kind of hard class limits so the classes can function.

They can't be.

We want them to be big, but not too big.

So you can find us online, or you can give us a call at the writing center or stop by, and we can get you registered.

And taking care of.

Ryan Collins from the Midwest Writers Center, organize of this year's David R Collins Writing Convention to be held at Augustana College.

Now you can go to the Midwest Writers Center website for more information and to register to attend the conference.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device, and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time to join us.

As we talk about the issues on the cities.

At VCU, we've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial health and we are here I am VCU is a proud supporter of Wqpt.

The future.

That' where our minds are at Western Illinois University, Quad Cities.

We are innovators searching for something new outside of the textbooks dog loving, leadership driven, world changing.

Whether you choose to study on campus or online, your future is designed on your terms.

Start your future at WSU, Edu QC.

Public Affairs programing on Wqpt is brought to yo by The Singh Group at Merrill, serving the wealth management needs of clients in the region for over 35 years.

Celebrating the weed and.

Two murders this weekend.

The city is seeing its cannabis industry grow like weeds.

Since legalizing recreational pot four years ago.

One group wants the cities to celebrate.

We'll have more.

And your chance to write the great American novel.

Or any story that's in you.

The people who can help you succeed.

Join us for the city's Thursday at seven on the city's public television station.

Wqpt.

Celebrating the weed and human this week on the city's Boise.

Its cannabis industry grow like weeds.

Since legalizing recreational pot four years ago.

One group wants the cities to celebrate.

We'll have more.

And your chance to write the great American novel, or any story that's in you, the people who can help you succeed.

Join us for the city's Sunday at Four on the city's public television station.

Wqpt.