What to do in Madison this week: Shifting Gears, Ben Sidran and more Isthmus Picks

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Shifting Gears Bike Path Dance Festival, Monday, Sept. 4, Brittingham, McPike and Wirth Court parks, Monona Terrace, noon-6 p.m.: This open-air, multi-site dance festival grew out of the pandemic, as did the Isthmus Dance Collective, which organizes fun, ambitious, dance programs along bike paths. In addition to performances from many local dancers and dance groups there will be mini-lessons in folk and social dances and kids activities. Find out who is dancing where at isthmusdancecollective.org.

LaborFest, Monday, Sept. 4, Labor Temple, noon-5:30 p.m.: You know that the U.S. has come far, and not in a good way, when you see Labor Day on the calendar and think, “This country has a federal holiday devoted to celebrating the labor movement?” But it does; it became a federal holiday in 1894! While these days most folks just see the three-day weekend as the unofficial end of summer, the South Central Federation of Labor celebrates the roots of the holiday with music, kids' fun, food, info tabling and more. The Periodicals play at noon; there’s a solidarity roll call at 2 p.m. and VO5 gets everybody on the dance floor, or lawn, at 3 p.m.

Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art, Sept. 5-Dec. 23, Chazen Museum of Art: This vibrant show, guest-curated by Ugandan artist Margaret Nagawa (a doctoral student in art history at Emory University), showcases the contemporary African art that has been added to the Chazen’s permanent collection thanks to an initiative funded by the Straus Family Foundation. Nagawa organizes the exhibit in relationship to the body, its presence or absence in the work of art. Find reservation links for guided tours (next up: noon on Sept. 10 and 24) and related events at chazen.wisc.edu.

Ben Sidran, Sept. 5-6, North Street Cabaret, 7 p.m.: Ben Sidran first lived in Madison when attending UW in the early 1960s. Since those days, Sidran has been an ambassador for jazz music to the rest of the world, with a series of thoughtful books, radio and television programs on music, and many solo recordings of his own music. Sidran has also mostly been a Madison resident as well, and there's always been room on the schedule for some club dates in his adopted hometown. In recent years it's been a summertime tradition, and this year's pair of dates celebrate Sidran's 80th birthday. He's accompanied by drummer (and son) Leo Sidran along with bassist Billy Peterson; the trio is also the lineup on Ben’s 2022 instrumental album, Swing State. Special guests include Louka Patenaude (Sept. 5) and Anders Svanoe (Sept. 6); tickets can be found at brownpapertickets.com.

Workers' Views of Working in Wisconsin, Wednesday, Sept. 6, Zoom, noon: With Wisconsin’s unemployment levels at very low levels and a worker shortage, we’ve heard a lot from politicians and advocacy groups about what the problem is (and, like much modern discourse, often the answers seem to be from differing realities). But what is on the mind of the workforce itself? The Havens Wright Center at UW-Madison kicks off its fall lecture series by collaborating on a webinar with COWS, featuring a panel of employees of the State Street Starbucks in Madison, and the Fiserv Forum and Pabst Theater Group in Milwaukee. Register for the Zoom event on eventbrite.com.

Jazz at Five, Wednesdays, through Sept. 6, top of State Street, 4 p.m.: Jazz at Five marks 30 years of free concerts in 2023, with a return to its original home at the top of State Street for the full season. The final week, Sept. 6, features a band led by Grammy-nominated Chicago trumpet player Victor Garcia closing the night. Opening is Madison Music Foundry youth band The Blue Dyes, and in the sweet spot is one of Madison's sweetest ensembles, the Tony Castañeda Latin Jazz Band. Find more info at jazzatfive.org.

Floyd Newsum, through Oct. 8, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art: ‌ Lovers of color and pattern will be drawn to the exuberant artworks of Floyd Newsum. MMoCA is the site of the Memphis-born artist’s first large-scale retrospective, called “Evolution of Sight.” Often the works are mixed media, including collaged family photographs and other imagery personally significant to Newsum, but his allusive figures are universal and reward careful looking. Newsum discusses his work in a new video at mmoca.org. The gallery is currently open noon-6 p.m. Thursday-Saturday.

Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, Sept. 7-9, Alliant Energy Center: A quilt can keep you warm. It can also be a teacher, as was the case with a quilt celebrating Black history created by Karen Hinton Robinson for her daughter’s fifth grade class. That quilt and others by Robinson will be among the special exhibits at the 2023 Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, which also features vendor booths (open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday-Friday and 9 am.-5 p.m. Saturday), more than 100 lectures and workshops, a community quilting project, raffle and more. This annual event is presented by PBS Wisconsin and Nancy Zieman Productions; find tickets and workshop registration at quiltshow.com.

Ruthie McQuinn album release, Thursday, Sept. 7, Bur Oak, 7 p.m.: The singing and fiddle playing of Ruthie McQuinn should be familiar to Madison Americana fans from bands such as The Dang-Its, Radio Wranglers, Darling Daughters and others. McQuinn steps out with her first solo album, Ruthenium, released Sept. 1 and celebrated at this concert. The Brothers Quinn, The Krause Family Band and JP Cyr & the Ramblin' Kind participated in the recording sessions to make Ruthenium, and the three bands will join McQuinn to play music from the album and more. Tickets at seetickets.us,

The Garbologists, Sept. 7-24, Overture Center-Playhouse: ‌ Forward Theater kicks off its 2023-2024 season with this recent play by Lindsay Joelle about two sanitation workers in an odd-couple matchup that recalls not only the Neil Simon play but such buddy comedies as Lethal Weapon. In The Garbologists, a white, blue-collar garbage truck veteran is paired with a Black, Ivy League-educated woman. The worst and best that can happen is that they’ll learn something about each other, and themselves. Shows at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, plus 2 p.m., Sept. 16 & 23. Tickets at overture.org.

Steve'n'Seagulls, Thursday, Sept. 7, High Noon Saloon, 8 p.m.: Bands playing bluegrass-y versions of other styles of music have somewhat become a genre of their own in recent times. It would be hard to find an example with greater global reach than Steve’n'Seagulls. The Finnish five-piece has really piled up the YouTube streams with reimagined versions of rock bangers like AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” (with the guitar intro on banjo) or a recent take on Boston’s “More Than a Feeling.” (They do write and play originals, too; their most recent album is the 2020 disc Another Miracle.) Now’s your chance to see them do their thing IRL. With Adrian + Meredith. Tickets at ticketmaster.com.

Find the individual Picks collected here, and as part of the full calendar of events.