Ramps-ing it up

The Saturday Dane County Farmers' Market returns, and more Isthmus Picks for April 8-15

by

Lunafest, Thursday-Saturday, April 8-10: This film fest of short films made by and about women could be the sleeper hit of 2021 so far. The roster of seven beautiful films (total running time 86 minutes) includes Overexposed (about a female expedition to the North Pole), Knocking Down the Fences (about professional softball), A Line Birds Cannot See (animation), The Scientists Versus Dartmouth (women in science), Connection (Native American woman fly-fishing), and more. The $18 ticket benefits five woman-centric organizations in Madison via the Zonta Club. Films are viewable until 9 a.m. April 10.

"Black Woman Professor — White University": Nellie Y. McKay at UW-Madison, Thursday, April 8, 4 p.m.: Many UW-Madison grads are fortunate enough to have studied with Dr. Nellie McKay. A bright light in the academy, and trailblazing African American scholar, McKay nonetheless felt she had to keep many aspects of her private life hidden. Dr. Shanna Greene Benjamin (pictured) joins us thanks to the Friends of the UW-Madison Libraries to discuss her new biography of McKay, Half In Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y. McKay, with UW professor Dr. Monica M. White. The book is out this month from University of North Carolina Press. Join the livestream on YouTube, no registration is required.

Stephen Fleischman Lectureship, Thursday, April 8, 6 p.m.: A California native and graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, Martin Kersels is a sculptor, performance artist and videographer who often uses himself as a subject in his projects, which have been exhibited around the world. His first solo exhibition took place at the Madison Art Center, the forerunner to today's Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, and Kersels will give a Facebook Live talk on his work and relationship to Madison as part of the lecture series named for retired director Stephen Fleischman.

Primer for an Impossible Conversation, Thursday-Friday, April 8-9, 7:30 p.m.: In the 2020 production Distances Smaller Than This Are Not Confirmed, creators Marcella Murray and David Neumann presented a staged version of their real-life ongoing dialogue about race. In Primer for an Impossible Conversation, Murray and Neumann collaborate with Tei Blow for a continuation of the conversation designed for a performance in our pandemic-era world of connecting in virtual spaces, co-commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Wisconsin Union Theater. Tickets for the livestream performances are pay-what-you-can.

Rock Steady: The Revolutionary Soul of Nikki Giovanni, Thursday, April 8, 8 p.m.: Let us not forget the revolutionary poetry of Nikki Giovanni. A founder of the Black Arts Movement of the late ’60s, Giovanni is the subject of Fermat’s Last Theater's latest livestreamed production, Rock Steady: The Revolutionary Soul of Nikki Giovanni. The play, featuring Quanda Johnson, Melvin Hinton, Akiwele Burayidi and Ari Smith, includes poetry, dance, story and song and will introduce the audience, or remind them, of Giovanni’s work: direct, angry, playful, powerful.

Victoria Law, Friday, April 9, 7 p.m.: The United States continues to imprison more people per capita than any other nation. In the new book "Prisons Make Us Safer" and 20 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration (Beacon Press, 2021), journalist Victoria Law argues that the exponential increase in imprisonment, particularly in recent decades, is rooted in racism and social control. Law's book examines the reasons the system gives for maintaining the status quo and offers ideas about how we can end it. She will discuss the book with Bill Lueders, editor of The Progressive, in a livestream available on YouTube or Facebook. To receive a copy of the book, make a donation of $50 or more to The Progressive.

Lewiston/Clarkston, April 9-25: This innovatively structured play (or rather, two linked plays with what would be, during an in-person performance, a communal audience dinner at intermission), is coming to us from Forward Theater. It will be filmed live at the Playhouse at the Overture Center and available on demand through April 25. Both plays deal in different ways with the legacies of 1800s explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on the contemporary American landscape. The scheduled Zoom talkbacks should prove interesting, especially a Q&A with playwright Samuel D. Hunter (5 p.m., April 22); talkbacks with the actors and directors take place at 8:30 p.m. on April 9, April 15 and April 21 and 4 p.m. on April 11, April 18 and April 25. As for the food, Forward has partnered with Ian's Pizza, Quivey's Grove and North and South Seafood & Smokehouse for delivery to eat between Lewiston and Clarkston. Find tickets here, and more info on Zoom links and food choices at forwardtheater.com.

Science Expeditions, Friday-Sunday, April 9-11: The annual open house at UW-Madison's many science-related facilities is mostly happening in cyberspace for 2021. There is a varied schedule of live presentations through the weekend, including a Friday edition of the popular Wednesday Nite at the Lab series, featuring talks on climate challenges by professors Bassam Shakhashiri and Tracey Holloway (7 p.m., register here). Virtual tours of many locations will be available, but if the spring weather is calling you, there are self-guided exploration opportunities at the Arboretum and the Lakeshore Nature Preserve, and the Space Place "Planet Trek" is installed along bike paths and trails between Monona Terrace and Mount Horeb. Find all the details and registration info here.

Dane County Farmers' Market, Saturday, April 10, Alliant Energy Center, 7 a.m.-noon: Ramps, anyone? The surest sign of spring is the return to outdoors of the Saturday Dane County Farmers’ Market. The market remains at the Alliant Energy Center for now as the large parking lot in front of the Exhibition Hall allows for plenty of social distancing. Shoppers should remain six feet apart and mask; otherwise, it's a traditional market with "spontaneous shopping," although customers can pre-order from specific vendors. There is no drive-through pickup on Saturdays. A return to the Square will be assessed later in the season.

Drive-thru Souper Bowl, Saturday, April 10, Little John's Kitchens, Fitchburg, noon-6 p.m.: The traditional soup and pottery bowl fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity has moved from its usual time slot coinciding with that eponymous apex of gridiron combat. Souper Bowl will take place revamped for a drive-through model. But note, preorders are required; orders for soup ($10/bowl, with six options: two with meat, two vegetarian and two vegan) and pottery bowls donated by local artists ($10) should take place online by midnight, April 9. Pickup is April 10 from noon-6 p.m. at Little John's Kitchens, 5302 Verona Road, Fitchburg. All soup sales will benefit both Habitat for Humanity of Dane County and Little John's Kitchens, a nonprofit that aims to use excess food in chef-driven meals to feed community members, regardless of their means. All sales of ceramic bowls will benefit Habitat for Humanity. A limited number of extra soups may be available day-of.

WYSO Percussion Extravaganza, Saturday, April 10, 4 p.m.: A highlight of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra's spring concert season, the Percussion Extravaganza was among the organization's canceled programs in 2020. But this year the show will go on, following several months of rehearsals in a room big enough for the large ensemble to socially distance: a Monona Terrace ballroom, which also served as a filming location. The resulting webcast premieres on Saturday; it's free, but registration is required.

What’s Past is Prologue: The Unfinished American Conversation, Saturday, April 10, 7:30 p.m.: University Opera returns with a spring production mixing filmed and staged elements. What’s Past is Prologue examines history while considering current events. Texts by or about U.S. figures — Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain and Walt Whitman — are set to songs or song cycles by composers Christopher Berg, Margaret Bonds, Tom Cipullo, Michael Daugherty, Scott Gendel, Jennifer Higdon, John Kander, Steven Mark Kohn, Ned Rorem and Gwyneth Walker. Accompanying panel discussions examine how the legacy of hierarchical structures in the arts is changing, and the intersection of cancel culture and Susan B. Anthony's views on race. The webcast will be streamed only twice (an encore takes place at 2 p.m. April 11) but will remain available for 23 hours following the second stream. Donations are welcome.

Amaud Jamaul Johnson + John Murillo, Wednesday, April 14, 7 p.m. : UW-Madison creative writing professor Amaud Jamaul Johnson's poems in Imperial Liquor, his latest volume of verse, are mostly set far off in Compton, California. There's nothing contrived or prettied-up about these poems that feel integral to the Black experience in the U.S. circa 2021. Yet on a sentence level, the verse often sings. John Murillo, a UW alumnus, will also read from his latest, Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry, which also contrasts street violence with poetic language. This presentation is from a partnership between the Wisconsin Book Festival and the University of Wisconsin Program in Creative Writing. Register here for a link.

Voices of Color, Thursday, April 15, 10 a.m.: The Madison Senior Center sponsors this monthly webcast featuring conversations with community leaders of color. In April, host Melvin Hinton talks with Shelia Stubbs, a Dane County board supervisor since 2006 and a state Assembly representative since 2019. To participate in the Zoom livestream, contact Gary Flesher: gflesher@cityofmadison.com or 608-266-6581.

Jet Line, Thursday, April 15, 6 p.m.: Burlington, Vermont, is one of the communities where the military's F-35 jets are currently based (Isthmus reporter Dylan Brogan visited Burlington in 2019). What has life been like for residents living in the flight path? Documentary filmmakers Patrick McCormack and Duane Peterson III feature the voices of Burlington residents in the new short Jet Line, and will talk about the film following a free virtual screening; register here. Truax Field in Madison is currently scheduled to receive a squadron of F-35s in 2023.

We hope it's handy for you to find the Picks in a single weekly post. The individual Picks can still be found in the usual places online: collected here, and sprinkled throughout all the events.