Celebrating bikes, quilts and wetlands

Isthmus Picks for Sept. 10-17 includes Madison Bike Week and much more

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With the print version of Isthmus on pause, we thought it might be handy to have the Picks in a single weekly post. You can still find the Picks in the usual places online: collected here, and sprinkled throughout all the events.

Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, Through Sept. 16, daily at 4 pm: This annual series of concerts hosted by John and Rose Mary Harbison (pictured) celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2019. For 2020, with live performances on hold, the Token Creek Festival will use the pause as a chance to compile and revisit highlights from those three decades of repertoire. Classical pillars Bach, Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart each receive dedicated programs, as will composer John Harbison and, of course, jazz. The webcasts premiere at 4 pm daily on the Token Creek website and YouTube channel, and all will remain available through September.

Latinx Talkback, Thursday, Sept. 10, 8 pm: A powerhouse panel of Latinx women will talk about making alliances in the Black Lives Matter era, with a spotlight on immigration and community reform. Panelists Valeria Cerda (civic engagement director at Wisconsin VOICES), Nancy Flores (deputy director at the National Partnership for New Americans), Larissa Joanna (from Voces de La Frontera), and Aissa Olivarez (pictured, an attorney at the Community Immigration Law Center) will talk about their personal histories and grassroots immigration work. Find the discussion, hosted by Wisconsin Mujer, on Facebook Live.

The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Sept. 10-12: Quilts do the work. They keep us warm, they preserve memories, they tell stories. They are art; they are history; they are bedding. The 16th annual Great Wisconsin Quilt Show (formerly known as Wisconsin Quilt Expo) is online only this year, but it's free for quilt makers and quilt lovers alike. Learn new techniques, or just appreciate the work of talented quilters from across the U.S. in a virtual gallery. The booths are selling virtually too, everything from fabrics and decorative doodads to sewing machines that are the fiber arts version of self-driving cars. An online community service project — Quilt to Give — allows attendees to donate their materials and skills to create bed-size quilts for those in need. See QuiltShow.com for details.

Nelson Institute 50th Anniversary Celebration and 2020 Rendezvous, Friday, Sept. 11, 8:30 am-8:30 pm: The 50th anniversary of Earth Day was largely overlooked during the first month of the COVID-19 shutdown back in April, but the Nelson Institute at UW-Madison is making up for that with its own anniversary party. The environmental heavyweight will kick off the event at 9 am with coffee with Cal DeWitt, who for years hosted a coffee hour for his students and anyone interested in talking about critical environmental topics. The rest of the day will feature short talks from Nelson Institute alumni, a noon lecture on "Climate Change and Clean Air" from professor Tracey Holloway (pictured), and a LinkedIn Happy Hour at the end of the day.

Wetland Coffee Break, Friday, Sept. 11, 10:30 am: The Wisconsin Wetlands Association continues its webinar series with "What makes a wetland internationally important? The ecology of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway," a talk by ecologist Mike Mossman. The lecture will discuss the recent designation of the southwest segment of the Wisconsin River as a "Wetland of International Importance" under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, an international UNESCO treaty agreement. The river's lower section on its way to the Mississippi flows through the unglaciated Driftless Area — one of the most beautiful regions on the planet, in addition to being unique in landscape and biodiversity.

Madison World Music Festival, Friday-Saturday, Sept. 11-12: Until the pandemic is under control, it's not entirely safe to travel (nor are Americans welcome in most places), so here's a way to experience the world's music while snug in your pod. The Wisconsin Union Theater presents a robust schedule of international performances and related workshops. Artists include the Wisconsin Dells Singers, Jordan's Farah Siraj, Guinea's Natu Camara (pictured), and Haiti's Lakou Mizik. Tune in to experience the talent and remember the world that exists outside your own house and yard; sign up for streaming info and find the schedule here.

Midwest Gypsy Swing Festival, Friday, Sept. 11, 7 pm; Saturday, Sept. 12, 2 pm: The need to stay close to home doesn't mean one can't swing. Madison’s own Gypsy jazz band, Harmonious Wail, takes advantage of the livestream format to bring the world to your living room this weekend. Friday stays stateside, with sets by the Wail, Jack Soref Trio and Mississippi Hot Club. Saturday's globetrotting schedule starts off from Canada with Christine Tassan et les Imposteures, and through the day visits performers in France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands ... and Fitchburg, for a Wail set from the fest's usual venue, Art in the Barn. Find the schedule and livestream at midwestgypsyswingfest.com.

Stephanie Rearick, Friday, Sept. 11, 8 pm: One of Madison's most talented, prolific and experimental musicians can't wait to get her hands on the grand piano set up inside the Willy Street jazz haven Cafe Coda. Stephanie Rearick released her first solo album, The Long Picnic, on Sept. 11, 2001, and will mark the anniversary by playing songs from throughout her storied career. The livestream concert will give listeners a chance to support the artist and the club during this perilous time.

Freeland Film Festival, Sept. 11-15: An international NGO based in Green Lake, Wisconsin, and Bangkok, Thailand, hosts a virtual version of its mission-based film festival. The scheduled documentaries tackle problems such as pandemics (!), human trafficking, child labor and environmental crises. Climate activist Greta Thunberg appears in a new film, Nature Now. And a panel discussion titled "Tigers in America" (11 am Saturday), inspired by public attention to the fate of captive tigers, includes Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue (and the Netflix series Tiger King). Tickets are available at freelandfilmfest.org.

The Lifespan of a Fact, Sept. 11-27: Forward Theater Company returns, streaming on the Overture Center website. It's not a play reading via Zoom. It's not a video of the actors acting while wearing masks. It is "an innovative collaboration of theater-makers and video artists," says Forward Theater artistic director Jennifer Uphoff Gray. Well, we love innovative! And the play, a farce by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell and Gordon Farrell, deals with issues very much of our time: A fact checker meets up with the writer of a magazine essay to find out how much of the story in question is true. What is fake, what is fact? The Lifespan of a Fact can be viewed any time from Friday, Sept. 11, through Sunday, Sept. 27; tickets may be purchased online at overture.org. (Pictured: Ensemble member James Carrington.)

Madison Bike Week, Sept. 12-20: Even during the pandemic, there are plenty of ways to participate in this year’s Bike Week, and ample opportunities (with social distancing and masks, of course) to nab some swag. Group rides include Bike Fitchburg's annual “Pick Me Up At The Border” ride on the Badger State Trail, getting a jump on the week on Sept. 11 (registration is required at bikefitchburg.org); and a ride designed for women and transgender folks, Sept. 18, at CamRock County Park. The Madison Brewery Bike Race, from Delta Beer Lab to Hop Haus Brewing Company's Verona location, is a new self-guided ride on Sept. 20 (Note: Not Sept. 17 as originally announced; register here). And throughout the week, Free Bikes 4 Kidz is hosting donation stations for gently used bicycles (fb4kmadison.org for locations). For all events, visit madisonbikes.org.

Communication Anniversary Party, Saturday, Sept. 12, noon-9:30 pm: The nonprofit creative art space and venue, located on Winnebago Street, celebrates its second anniversary with a day of virtual events, including a makers market (noon-4 pm on Instagram) and a special edition of Tone Madison's Conduit series featuring a discussion of Justice Club by artists Araceli Zuniga and Grace Olson (4:30 pm). Music starts at 6 pm and features hour-long sets from Emili Earhart, Kat & the Hurricane (pictured), Flying Fuzz, and Warbastard. Donations can be made at bit.ly/Comm2Year. Details on Communication’s Facebook page.

Choice Words: Writers on Abortion, Monday, Sept. 14, 6:30 pm: This virtual roundtable with contributors and editors of the crucial collection Choice Words is sponsored by A Room of One's Own. Annie Finch, Manisha Sharma, Alina Stefanescu, Desiree Cooper and Nicole Walker will read from and discuss the book and participate in a Q&A. Abortion is so often kept silent. It is a personal choice and need not be discussed publicly, but doing so is all the more important in the long shadow of those working against reproductive rights. Choice Words includes work by Margaret Atwood, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Ursula K. Le Guin, Audre Lorde, Joyce Carol Oates, Ntozake Shange, Gloria Steinem, Amy Tan, Lindy West, Mary Wollstonecraft and many others.

Welcome to YOUR Mills Music Library, Tuesday, Sept. 15, noon: Badger Talks expands on the Wisconsin Idea by inviting lecture requests from around the state, with speakers drawn from the UW community. Since April the series has been living in the virtual world, and viewable by all on the Badger Talks Facebook page. This week's livestream talk features a tour of the UW-Madison's Mills Music Library, given by music librarian Tom Caw. The library is an amazing resource for historic and otherwise hard-to-find recordings (including the Wisconsin Music Archives), and it's open to the public as well as the university community. Past Badger Talks lectures can be found on YouTube.

Aria Hunt, Through Sept. 27: The folks at Fresco Opera have always been committed to bringing opera to new locations and audiences, and their latest pandemic-inspired idea brings it up a notch. Once you sign in to participate, you will receive a series of clues to find various Madison locations. Once you get there, you are able to access a pre-recorded aria sung by one of the talented cast members (available on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music). There's a story, too, and you are encouraged to take selfies to document your quest. Participants who discover all the locations are eligible for a reward. A per-person donation of $8 is requested.

Yaa Gyasi, Thursday, Sept. 17, 7 pm: Bestselling author Yaa Gyasi joins the Wisconsin Book Festival (remotely, of course) to discuss Transcendent Kingdom, a follow-up to her best-selling and critically acclaimed debut novel Homegoing, which provided an intimate glimpse into the life of a Ghanaian family in Alabama. The author will talk about the books on Crowdcast with Brittle Paper founder Ainehi Edoro.

Editor's note: Updated with new information on Bike Week.