What to do in Madison this week: Black Women Artists Speak, Omar Sosa Quarteto Americanos and more Isthmus Picks

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J.E. Sunde + Anna Vogelzang, Monday, Sept. 19, High Noon Saloon, 8 p.m.: In The Daredevil Christopher Wright J.E. (Jon) Sunde created a magical harmony blend with brother Jason on folk-rock songs that were intriguingly off-kilter. In recent years Sunde has been recording and performing solo and still writes distinctively different folk songs, most recently unveiled on the 2020 LP 9 Songs About Love. This excellent double bill also features Anna Vogelzang, who spent a decade in the Madison music scene (and founded the popular annual Wintersong concert fundraiser for Second Harvest Foodbank) before heading to the west coast; now back in the Midwest, Vogelzang's most recent album is Beacon from 2019.

Press Play: Recorded Sound from Groove to Stream, through Dec. 22, UW Memorial Library-Special Collections: Long before there was a recording industry, inventors were trying to figure out how to preserve and reproduce sound. Since the late 1800s the results have been available in a multitude of ways, up to today's plethora of streaming choices. Press Play: Recorded Sound from Groove to Stream, a new exhibit on display through Dec. 22 in the UW-Madison Memorial Library's ninth floor Special Collections area, catalogs and explains formats both ubiquitous (LPs) and forgotten (minidiscs, anyone?). Curated by Nathan Gibson, an author, musician and preservation archivist, and the staff at Mills Music Library, the exhibit works as a basic beginner's overview of recording formats and the cultures that developed around them, and offers many examples of Wisconsin's part of the history. The exhibit is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday; a visitor's pass can be acquired at the Memorial Library front desk. Preview a playlist of recordings in the exhibit and find more info here.

Johanna Drucker, Tuesday, Sept. 20, Chazen Museum of Art, 4:30 p.m.: The annual Schewe Lecture from the Friends of UW-Madison Libraries will be given by Johanna Drucker, a professor in the Department of Information Studies at UCLA. Drucker's newest book, Inventing the Alphabet: The Origins of Letters from Antiquity to the Present, breaks down the story of the alphabet as its been told and retold by humans explaining their history with writing. A reception and book signing will follow the lecture and Q&A with Drucker. Register here.

Black Women Artists Speak, Tuesday, Sept. 20, Madison College-South Community Room 203, 6 p.m.: A panel of Fabu Carter, Lilada Gee, Grace Ruo, Catrina Sparkman and Sonia Valle will be discussing equity and fairness in the Madison art scene, and how institutions and the community can be supportive. Incidents surrounding the exhibit Ain't I a Woman (this year's Wisconsin Triennial), and specifically participant Lilada Gee, sparked the event, though the discussion will extend to larger questions about race in Madison. Register to attend in person (limited to 200 people) or watch a livestream at facebook.com/friendsofmadisonarts.

We Stand With Ukraine, through Sept. 24, Overt Space Gallery, Stoughton: Ukraine native Ky Beskorovayny studied for a year in Cambridge, Wisconsin, as an exchange student. Following Russia's invasion, Beskorovayny has been working with former Cambridge classmates on fundraising projects; We Stand With Ukraine is an art exhibit featuring work by artists from Ukraine and the U.S. A portion of the proceeds from art sales will be donated, and other donations can be made via Flex Fundraising.

Black Women's Wellness Day, Sept. 23-24, HopIn, 8 a.m.; RSVP by Sept. 21: This annual event hosted by the Foundation for Black Women's Wellness returns for a second year in an expanded two-day virtual format, on the HopIn platform. An expansive program includes panel discussions and speakers (including Maggie Anderson, the author of Our Black Year: One Family's Quest to Buy Black in America's Racially Divided Economy, and Black Women's Health Imperative President Linda Goler Blount), wellness sessions, a virtual marketplace, musical interludes by DJs Ace and Martinez White, and more. Note: registration closes Sept. 21; find the full schedule and sign-up info at blackwomenswellnessday.org.

Maggie Ginsberg, Wednesday, Sept. 21, Mystery to Me, 6 p.m.: Madison Magazine’s book-loving associate editor Maggie Ginsberg will celebrate the release of her own debut novel with the magazine’s longtime columnist Doug Moe. Still True is set in the small fictional town of Anthem, Wis. It’s a gorgeous and at times heartbreaking story about the complex ways one fateful evening impacts an older husband and wife living in separate houses, a wise 10-year-old boy in need of a friend, and his highly dysfunctional parents. Although it takes place in the present, Still True is wrapped in warm nostalgia and provides a flicker of hope that good things still can happen to good people. Find in-person tickets and livestream info at mysterytomebooks.com.

GLEAM, Wednesdays-Saturdays, through Oct. 29, Olbrich Gardens: Olbrich Gardens is lighting up at night with a new installment of GLEAM: Art in a New Light, an annual fundraiser during which the gardens are dotted with art displays that involve light and transform the already magic botanical paths into something otherworldly. Timed entry is available from 7:30-9:30 p.m. with the gardens closing at 11 p.m. in September (timed entry starts at 6:30 with the earlier dusk in October), in advance only at olbrichgleam.org. Tours of the art guided by Mercury Stardust are also available at 7:45 p.m. (family-friendly) or 9:30 p.m. (PG-13), Oct. 1 and 12 (tickets here).

The Wanderers, Sept. 8-25, Overture Center: Forward Theater starts its season with the Wisconsin premiere of Anna Ziegler's The Wanderers, an interesting meditation on love and the road(s) not taken. Ziegler contrasts the arranged marriage of a young Orthodox Jewish couple with the flirtation of Abe and Julia, celebrities married to other people. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, plus 2 p.m. on Sept. 17 and 24; find tickets at overture.org. Forward will also offer tickets to an on-demand streaming version of the show. Read Gwendolyn Rice's review here.

Omar Sosa Quarteto Americanos, Wednesday, Sept. 21, Overture Center-Capitol Theater, 7:30 p.m.: Pianist-composer Omar Sosa was born and began his musical education in Camaguey, Cuba — a sister city to Madison, which should give this show a bit of extra significance for local music listeners. Since then Sosa has performed around the globe, and his prolific recording and performing career has fostered collaborations with musicians from everywhere, too. A new project is Quarteto Americanos, Sosa's first U.S.-based ensemble in many years, featuring drummer Josh Jones and saxophone/clarinet/flute player Sheldon Brown (both of whom Sosa collaborated with in the '90s) along with Cuban-born bassist Ernesto Mazar Kindelán and sax player Peter Apfelbaum.

Questioning Things: A Quarter Century of Material Culture Studies at UW-Madison, through Nov. 20, UW Nancy Nicholas Hall-Ruth Davis Design Gallery: Questioning Things focuses on the study of material culture; that is, the study of the objects of the past, from teapots to chairs to shoes. The “conversational” exhibit is dotted with the kinds of questions that those who study material culture ask, with a nod to the UW's quarter century of scholars in the field, and visitors are prompted to consider their own answers.

Community Change-Maker Awards, Thursday, Sept. 22, Union South, 5-7 p.m.: Join Community Shares of Wisconsin for its annual celebration of local individuals and organizations making social and environmental changes in Madison. R. Richard Wagner will be honored posthumously with the CSW Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to LGBTQ+ equality in Madison. Wagner was the first openly gay member of the Dane County Board of Supervisors. To be honored this year with Change-Maker Awards are activists Dana Pellebon, Phyllis Greenberger and Elisabeth Lambert. Ticket purchases will benefit six nonprofits; an online option is available.

Death Cab For Cutie, Thursday, Sept. 22, The Sylvee, 8 p.m.: Death Cab For Cutie managed to overcome the inherent ridiculousness of its own name (taken from the title of a Bonzo Dog Band song) to last as one of the strongest indie rock outfits of the aughts. Strummy, dreamy songs, Ben Gibbard's ethereal vocals, and an everyday romanticism are still evident in their latest studio album, Asphalt Meadows, just released on Sept. 16. With Thao.

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

Note: Many venues and businesses may continue to maintain individual requirements for masking, as well as proof of COVID-19 vaccination and/or a negative test for entry. Before heading out for any in-person event, confirm it is still taking place and check for any attendance guidelines on the relevant business websites or social media accounts.