Arts for (and by) all

Virtual arts festivals, in-person frights and more in Isthmus Picks for Oct. 8-15

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The print version of Isthmus remains on hiatus as we reconfigure ourselves as a nonprofit news organization. We hope it's handy for you to find the Picks in a single weekly post. Of course, the individual Picks can still be found in the usual places online: collected here, and sprinkled throughout all the events.

Idea Fest, Through Oct. 10: This annual forward-thinking event coordinated by the Cap Times has transitioned to the virtual world, with the theme "2020 Changes Everything." You can check out the programs that have taken place since Sept. 26 for free anytime at captimesideafest.com, with speakers including former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and restaurateur/Democratic state Assembly candidate Francesca Hong. Still to come are talks featuring Freedom Inc. co-executive director M. Adams (1 pm Thursday), Gov. Tony Evers (7 pm Thursday), and legendary journalist Bob Woodward (7 pm Saturday).

Whiskey & Words, Thursday, Oct. 8, 6:30 pm: The annual Madison Reading Project fundraiser will provide the words via a virtual event hosted on the 105.5 Triple M radio Facebook page, with readings by 1neofmani, Leslie Coff, Araceli Esparza, James Roberts, Angela Trudell Vasquez (pictured), Barry Wein and Rachel Werner. You'll have to provide your own whiskey during this year's event but those who make a donation by Oct. 8 will be entered in a drawing for Old Sugar Distillery gift cards. Keep an eye on MRP's own Facebook page for more information.

The World We Make, Thursday-Friday, Oct. 8-9, 7 pm: We need few reminders of the uncertainty surrounding us, but we could all use some help managing our response to stress, loneliness and fear. The Center for Healthy Minds is offering a free series of virtual events to help us cope. Topics still to come include "Resilient Minds, Resilient Planet" (Oct. 8) and "Change Your Mind, Change the World" (Oct. 9). The final event features an in-depth conversation with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Center for Healthy Minds founder Richard Davidson.

Artists Beyond Boundaries, Thursday, Oct. 8, 7 pm: All artists want their works to be seen and appreciated, to head out into the world. The Artists Beyond Boundaries competition and fundraiser makes that possible via this program from Access to Independence. Artists with disabilities have already been invited to submit works of art to the competition. Tonight, participants in the virtual gala can see all the art submitted, learn which 12 works a juried panel chose to be included in the group's 2021 calendar and vote on the "people's choice award." More info on donating, participating and voting here and view the livestream here. (Pictured is a work by Barb Priem.)

If These Trees Could Talk, Friday-Sunday, through Oct. 18: A summer rite of passage for Midwestern theater fans was removed from the calendar in 2020 when American Players Theatre was forced to postpone its season. If you are missing walking up the hill, APT has created a walking tour of the grounds, accompanied by live whippoorwills, recorded poetry and vivid recollections by members of the APT family. Small groups depart every 15 minutes; tours are available from 3-5 pm and 6-8:45 pm Fridays and 11 am-5 pm and 6-8:45 pm Saturdays and Sundays, through Oct. 18. Find available times and tickets here.

Tierra, Arte y Cultura en Wisconsin (Land, Art, and Culture in Wisconsin), Friday-Sunday, Oct. 9-11: Madison multimedia company Wisconsin Mujer hosts a weekend of events focusing on Latinx art and artists, viewable on YouTube or Facebook. Kicking off Friday at 7 pm with norteña band Rey y sus Diamantes, the festival also includes music by Golpe Tierra (pictured), WYSO Music Makers students, Angela Puerta and Dana Maya, and DJ Queue, and dance by Ballet Folklorico de Maria Diaz, Francis Medrano and Natalia Hildner. There will also be talks by visual and culinary artists in both English and Spanish. Find the complete schedule here.

Breese Screamins Field, Friday-Saturday, Oct. 9-10, Breese Stevens Field, 6:30-10 pm: Usually October is a time for frights not related to current events. Big Top Baseball President Vern Stenman reports that "there are definitely spirits of Madison’s past at Breese," and Big Top will show off the historic landmark's ghosts with a socially distanced haunted house-style event on weekends through Halloween. Ticket sales are online only for time slots each half hour, and all participants must wear a mask. For those worried about both frights and COVID-19, the haunters and the haunted will be on opposite sides of a glass enclosure.

Annual Madison Compost Bin and Rain Barrel Sale, Saturday, Oct. 10, Garver Feed Mill, 10 am-2 pm: The annual Madison compost and rain barrel sale is back! This is a great way to buy these enviro-friendly home options for helping the city keep garbage out of the landfills and preventing runoff. You help the city and the city gives you a good deal. Pre-orders for contactless pickup are strongly recommended. There will be experts on hand to answer your (safely distanced) composting and rain barrel questions. Compost bins and 50- and 100-gallon rain barrels with diverters are available at discounted prices. Supplies are limited. For more information visit here.

Ellie Erickson & Bob Manor, Saturday, Oct. 10, Bos Meadery, 2:30 pm: When the weather has been nice, Bos Meadery has been offering some limited capacity, socially distanced shows outside on the patio behind the mead hall. And the forecast is spectacular for this weekend, which includes a duo performance by rock/folk singer-songwriter Bob Manor (The Getaway Drivers) and fabulous guitar-slinger Ellie Erickson (Bone Holler, Gold Dust Women).

LunArt Festival, Saturday, Oct. 10 & 17, 7 pm: A concert series celebrating and supporting women in the arts, LunArt Festival returns in year three with "Human Family," a pair of livestreams featuring works created by Black women. Along with performances of chamber music by composers both modern (Valerie Coleman, Jessie Montgomery) and from the past (Margaret Bond, Florence Price, Undine Smith Moore), hear new music by singer-songwriters Akornefa Akyea and Danielle Crim, spoken word and poetry by Jamie Dawson, Fabu and Shasparay Lighteard, and see a new work by choreographer Kimi Evelyn. Both concerts are free; find the schedule and livestreams here.

Indigenous Poetics, Monday, Oct. 12, 7 pm: Former Wisconsin poet laureate Kimberly Blaeser (pictured) and current Madison poet laureate Angela Trudell Vasquez will be joined by Joaquin Zihuantanejo and Santee Frazier (director of the Institute of American Indian Arts Low Residency MFA program) to mark Indigenous People's Day. Blaeser writes with intimacy of the lives of Native Americans and of the natural world. Vasquez is a longtime social justice activist and poet of witness, as well as a poet of play and of place. Join this Wisconsin Book Festival event on Crowdcast.

Animal, Mineral, Vegetable & Digital, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 6 pm: Animal, mineral, vegetable, digital, man, woman, person, camera, TV. No, it's not a cognitive assessment. "Animal, Mineral, Vegetable & Digital" takes a closer look at the importance of plant and animal (and mineral!) specimens in museums and university natural history collections. It’s a peculiar and fascinating 19th century wing of science that can seem somewhat macabre (all those pinned butterflies!) but has proven invaluable in helping scientists look back at the state of species more than 100 years ago. Worldwide, curators are digitizing these collections to provide greater access. Curators Ken Cameron, Laura Monahan, Craig Brabant, Carrie Eaton and (bonus!) artist Martha Glowacki (whose work often borrows from the iconography of 19th century specimen-hunting and display culture), are on this Wisconsin Academy panel discussion. Free and open to the public with advance registration, on Zoom.

Madison Bicycle Adventure Trail Engagement Meeting, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 6 pm: Weird thing about city meetings — it's much easier to participate in them now that they're on Zoom...and you have nothing else to do. Try this one, which concerns a new off-road bicycle trail network initiative in the city. While Madison has a lot of asphalt bike paths and lanes, single-track paths and other natural surface trails in town are hard to find. (Legal ones, anyway.) In this public informational meeting, members of the city of Madison Parks Division will make a short presentation on the project, followed by two 15-minute breakout sessions and a q and a. Register for the Zoom link here (and also find info on Oct. 15 and 28 meetings).

Greg Zelek, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 7:30 pm: The final date in last season's Madison Symphony Orchestra Concert Organ series, featuring principal organist Greg Zelek with the Diapason Brass and Timpani, is currently bumped forward another season, to 2021-22. However, Zelek will open the 2020-21 season with a free virtual concert featuring works by French composers including Léon Boëllmann, Claude Debussy and César Franck. Register here.

Yahara Lakes 101, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 8 am: For Madison residents, the term "leaf-free streets" is likely a familiar refrain every fall. But what does it mean? More trees aid in stormwater retention and an urban canopy keeps cities cooler, but all those leaves falling can lead to phosphorus filtering into lakes and streams (and that feeds algae growth). The Clean Lakes Alliance will take a look at why it’s important to handle your trees' bounty during this Yahara Lakes 101 series talk by U.S Geological Survey research hydrologist Bill Selbig. It's free, but RSVP here for the link.

Wisconsin Science Festival, Thursday-Sunday, Oct. 15-18: It feels like an uphill battle to get some people to take science seriously, but one event at the upcoming Wisconsin Science Festival gives us all full permission to approach the topic with some humor. For six years comedian Shane Mauss has been interviewing scientists “about the meanings of life” on the podcast Here We Are. The Wisconsin native will do a rare, virtual episode of the show so people can watch live and join in the action. The Oct. 17 show (8:30 pm)  will focus on the science of screen time, phone use and the internet. But that’s just one event of this year’s festival, which runs from Oct. 15-18. Most of the more than 100 events will be virtual, but there will be some in-person events as well. Find the full schedule here.

Nikki Giovanni and Kiese Laymon, Thursday, Oct. 15, 7 pm: You might say Nikki Giovanni (pictured) was ahead of her time. The poet rose to prominence in the 1960s with works that could seem deceptively simple but drew inspiration from the civil rights and Black Power movements. But anger and frustration at the Black experience in the U.S. is also an integral part of Giovanni's long list of works. In this Wisconsin Book Festival talk via Crowdcast, Kiese Laymon, professor of English at the University of Mississippi, will discuss with Giovanni her latest book, Make Me Rain, a collection of poetry and prose. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-make-me-rain. The Wisconsin Book Festival's fall main event continues through Oct. 17; find the full schedule here.

Talking Spirits Cemetery Tours launch, Thursday, Oct. 15: There are many interesting people buried at Madison’s Forest Hill Cemetery, including veterans. For more than 20 years, the Wisconsin Veterans Museum has been keeping their stories alive by hosting live tours of the cemetery. This year the action will be virtual but no less riveting. You’ll learn about Hettie Pierce, who was born into slavery in 1829 but eventually made her way to Madison, and Thomas "Bud” Truax, a graduate of UW who went on to become an Army Air Corps aviator and for whom Truax Field is named. Museum director Chris Kolakowski says the virtual tour actually presents an opportunity: “Using virtual technologies to show you the cemetery, we can take you to remote locations on the grounds and provide you with more stories and details which we haven’t been able to tell on previous tours." The tour launches on Oct. 15 and will be viewable through at least the end of 2020; read more at MadisonCemeteryTours.com.