What to do in Madison this week: Bread & Puppet Theater, B.o.B and more Isthmus Picks

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Melissa Etheridge, Monday, Sept. 26, Orpheum, 8 p.m.: In October, rock icon Melissa Etheridge debuts a new Off Broadway show of songs and stories, My Window. But before that, Etheridge visits Madison for another look back of sorts: a tour for the 2021 album One Way Out, a set of recordings made in 2013 with her original band for a box set project that was not to be. The songs themselves were also orphans written throughout her career and which didn't fit on earlier albums.

Anne Winkler-Morey, Tuesday, Sept. 27, A Room of One's Own, 6 p.m.  Former Madisonian and writer Anne Winkler-Morey will speak with local historic preservationist Elizabeth Miller about her new memoir, Allegiance to Winds and Waters: Bicycling the Political Divides of the United States. It chronicles Winkler-Money's 12,000-mile bike trip around the Lower 48, during which she meets many people and learns their stories. Her travels instill an understanding of the unique regions of the country, beautiful and yet troubled with unsustainable practices and many inequities. Three chapters take place in Wisconsin. Winkler-Morey has a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and taught history and ethnic studies at colleges and Universities in the Twin Cities for three decades.

Bread & Puppet Theater, Tuesday, Sept. 27, Performing Arts Pavilion, Mazomanie, 6:30 p.m.: This groundbreaking political puppet theater, founded in 1963, is on a rare cross country tour and making a stop in Mazomanie, thanks to that community's Wild Rumpus Circus/Mazo Movement Arts Center. The show, The Apocalypse Defiance Circus, encompasses many puppetry styles. And the puppets are big! Big puppets, with masks and stilts — in a number of short performances dealing with everything from the pandemic to climate change. Suggested donation $10-$25, but no one is turned away for lack of funds. After the show, Bread & Puppet will serve its traditional sourdough rye bread.

B.o.B, Tuesday, Sept. 27, Liquid, 7 p.m.: Hip-hop artist and six-time Grammy Award nominee B.o.B will stop in Madison on his Better Than Drugs Tour. B.o.B’s 2010 debut single “Nothin On You” featured Bruno Mars and topped the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. With more than a decade under his belt, B.o.B has had many memorable hits, including “Airplanes,” featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore and rapper Eminem, and “Magic,” featuring Rivers Cuomo from the band Weezer. The artist released his latest album, Better Than Drugs, in August, and is currently touring the country. Purchase tickets for this Midwest Mix-up concert on Eventbrite. With Nino Cruz, Tha Mid City, Freddie Da King, Praise da Wolf.

Faisal Abdu’Allah, through April 2, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art: Faisal Abdu’Allah is professor of printmaking at UW-Madison, an artist and a barber. And yes, that figures into his practice, as the multi-disciplinary artist sometimes combines his roles as artist and barber, cutting hair and using the clippings as raw material to create a portrait of the sitter. In the major new exhibit DARK MATTER, which draws from his past and current work, Abdu’Allah explores and questions the ways we are represented in the world, in light of power systems, privilege, exclusion and the voyeuristic gaze.

Jason Mott, Tuesday, Sept. 27, Central Library, 7 p.m.: When you title your latest novel Hell of a Book, you better deliver. And that’s exactly what Jason Mott did. His book about a Black author on a cross-country promotional tour won the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction. Mott’s work is more than just a fictional travelogue, though, as the story also tells the parallel tale of Soot (a young Black boy living in a rural town) and The Kid (who might or might not be figment of the narrator’s imagination). With unflinching honesty and humor, Mott cuts to the core of the American experience in the 2020s, replete with racism, police violence and dire consequences. Mott will speak about the book at this free Wisconsin Book Festival event.

Pete Souza, Tuesday, Sept. 27, Orpheum, 7 p.m.: Pete Souza, former chief official White House photographer during the Reagan and Obama administrations, is celebrating the release of his newest book, The West Wing and Beyond: What I Saw Inside the Presidency. The Madison-based photographer’s newest will feature never-before-seen photographs from the White House and beyond. The best-selling author will show photos and share stories at this event hosted by Mystery to Me and The Cap Times; CT photo director Ruthie Hauge will join Souza for a discussion, followed by an audience Q&A. Purchase tickets online.

An Evening of Dreaming, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 810 W. Badger Road, 4-6 p.m.: This outdoor event kicks off a community campaign to build a new home for Centro Hispano. Come for the community picnic and live music, and as a bonus take a tour of the site and look at architect renderings of the new building. RSVP required; register here. Learn more at micentro.org.

Dinosaur Jr., Wednesday, Sept. 28, Majestic, 8 p.m.: Dinosaur Jr. epitomizes late 1980s/early 1990s alt guitar rock. After years of lineup changes, the band is back with founding members J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph. The tour in support of the band's latest album, Sweep it into Space, is sweeping through the Midwest before heading to, not space, but Europe in early October. Sold out.

Echoing Overseas: Asian Artistic Exchange, Through Nov. 28, Chazen Museum of Art: East meets West; West meets East. The artistic influences each has had on the other is the subject of Echoing Overseas: Asian Artistic Exchange, a new exhibition with 50-some artworks from a range of time periods. Curators have broken down the influences, from imitation to appropriation, alteration, misunderstanding, and rejection. More exhibit-related events are yet to be scheduled, including a papermaking session and a tea ceremony.

Russ Feingold + Peter Prindiville, Thursday, Sept. 29, Mystery to Me, 6 p.m.: Feingold, a former U.S. senator who represented Wisconsin for 18 years, is currently president of the American Constitution Society. His latest book, co-written with Washington-based attorney Peter Prindiville, examines a campaign that has been threatening democracy since long before Trumpism. The Constitution in Jeopardy: An Unprecedented Effort to Rewrite Our Fundamental Law and What We Can Do About It, focuses on the right's efforts to force a national constitutional convention. Register on Eventbrite for the in-person talk, or on Crowdcast for the livestream.

Shrek: The Musical, Sept. 23-Oct. 8, Bartell Theatre: Mercury Players Theatre, generally one of Madison's more experimental troupes (leaning toward new or unusual works), is starting the season unusually — with a crowd-pleasing surprise: Shrek: The Musical, a Broadway concoction based on the animated film. It's produced in collaboration with OUT!Cast Theatre. Shows at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays (4 p.m. on Oct. 8) and 4 p.m. Sundays.

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