Readers get ready

Tantalizing book-related events pepper Isthmus Picks for March 25-April 1

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The Necessity of Climate Equity, Thursday, March 25, 1 p.m.: Author Kim Stanley Robinson's science fiction best-sellers nearly always feature ecological concerns in some fashion. The newest, The Ministry for the Future, imagines a time when the direct effects of climate change become dire enough that a U.N. agency is created to protect the rights of generations to come. So it makes sense that he has some thoughts about the Paris Agreement, the international climate change treaty recently rejoined by the U.S. Robinson will discuss the agreement from the aspect of equity in this lecture sponsored by the UW Havens Wright Center and Center for the Humanities. Register here.

Challenging White Supremacy, Thursday, March 25, 3 p.m.: Rosa Clemente is a journalist and commentator on current events; an activist and community organizer; a scholar of Afro-Latinx identity and historic liberation struggles in the U.S.; and a former Green Party vice presidential candidate. And that list barely begins to describe her life's work so far. Clemente will be speaking virtually as part of the Madison College Office of Equity, Inclusion and Community Engagement's Counterpoint Speaking Series, featuring public lectures that aim to provide a discussion space to "disrupt and challenge whiteness and dominant narratives"; register here.

Don't Feed the Trolls: How to Navigate the New Terrain of Social Media and Academia, Friday, March 26, noon: It's the wild west out there, folks, and there ain't no sheriff in town. The lawlessness of the internet, the harm that can be done through both direct harassment and insider memes amid other misinformation and innuendo, has certainly been underlined over the last four years. This Center for the Humanities panel discussion asks the question: "What happens when these platforms, and the trolls who lurk on them, encourage harassment or doxing of academics and graduate students?" We can all learn something about our safety and our free speech from this intriguing webinar. Register in advance for a link to the Zoom livestream.

Bach Around the Clock , through March 26: This annual celebration of the March 21 birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach has traditionally been a day-long event featuring regional players performing the composer's works. For this virtual edition, Bach Around the Clock expands to a 10-day schedule of performances submitted by local performers, with new music posted at 8 a.m. daily; following its premiere, all content will remain available for the length of the festival. Still to come in the evening is the grand finale concert featuring the Brandenburg Players (7 p.m., March 26), an ensemble including BATC artistic director Marika Fischer Hoyt, Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble founding member Anton TenWolde, Fort Wayne Philharmonic principal violist Derek Reeves, and others. Find the streaming content at bachclock.com.

John Grisham + Ian Rankin, Friday, March 26, 6 p.m.: Mystery aficionados certainly will want to tune in for this virtual talk brought to us by a partnership between the Virginia Festival of the Book and Wisconsin Book Festival. John Grisham is the modern-day master of the legal thriller with a couple shelves worth of bestsellers; he returned to the characters from his debut, A Time to Kill, in the 2020 novel A Time for Mercy. Ian Rankin's 2020 crime novel, A Song for the Dark Times, is another installment in the Inspector Rebus series. The authors will discuss writing recurring characters and more; register here for a link to the webcast.

Amy Cutler, through May 16: The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art has re-opened its galleries with limited hours (noon-6 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays) and social distancing rules in place. Through mid-May, the work of Amy Cutler is highlighted. Detailed drawings and prints of mostly women engaging "in curious activities — from sewing stripes onto tigers to delivering elixirs while wearing boot-shaped wooden stilts" form the heart of Cutler's provocative, illustration-like, narrative work. Reservations are not needed but a mask is.

A Patient Enduring, Saturday, March 27, noon: The Grace Presents series returns for a webcast filmed in the historic Grace Episcopal Church, and the performers include a newly minted Grammy Award winner. "A Patient Enduring" is a program of medieval vocal works sung by sopranos Kristina Boerger and Sarah Brailey, accompanied by Brandon Acker on lute, percussion and theorbo. Brailey was recently named program coordinator for the Grace Presents concert series, and this month took home a Grammy as one of the soloists on the Experiential Orchestra's premiere recording of Dame Ethyl Smyth's 1930 choral symphony The Prison. Find the concert on YouTube, which will also include information on participating in a post-concert social on Zoom.

Shotgun Mary, Saturday, March 27, 6:30 p.m.: One of the most consistent presences helping keep Madison's acoustic music scene front and center with weekly livestreams over the last year has been Cargo Coffee East's "On Location" series, most often filmed at the shop's stage area. Sure to whet the appetite of live music goers for the After Times when we can see and hear live music in person again is this weekend's Facebook Live set by Madison band Shotgun Mary, regular denizens of local stages since 2006 whose gleefully skewed take on folk music is always a treat.

Hip Hop Architecture Camp, March 29-April 2, 10 a.m.: Madison College's Michael Ford, the hip-hop architect, is hosting a virtual spring break edition of this workshop, especially for middle and high school students. Participants will use the lyrics of Nipsey Hussle and other artists as inspiration to design a neighborhood using 3D modeling and printing, with a chance to win prizes and perhaps even a paid summer internship. Space is limited for this free program; register here by March 27.

The McCarthy Era and its Echoes: A Story of Family, Journalism and the Search for Truth, Wednesday, March 31, 5 p.m.: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian David Maraniss has written biographies of legendary figures from both politics (presidents Obama and Clinton) and sports (Lombardi, Clemente), but his most recent book, A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father, was a much more personal tale delving into his own family history (read more in a 2019 Isthmus cover story by Doug Moe). Maraniss will discuss the book with UW-Madison Law School Dean Daniel Tokaji for this year's annual Fairchild Lecture; register here for the Zoom presentation.

Winter Arts Mosaic, through March 31: It's not just the professional companies that have been missing from our arts landscape during the last year. A lot of performers of all ages and experience levels have also been missing the chance to learn and practice their craft. To that end, Central Midwest Ballet Academy, Madison Savoyards and Upstart Crows Productions collaborated on Winter Arts Mosaic, a pre-recorded variety show featuring dance, light opera and scenes from Shakespeare, as well as a collaborative piece featuring new music by Mark Wurzelbacher. Find tickets ($18) here; Winter Arts Mosaic is available for streaming on demand through March.

Sheltering with Poems, Wednesday, March 31, 7 pm: Poets, like all of us, have been coming to terms with our homebound lives over the last year. The new anthology Sheltering with Poems: Community and Connection During COVID shows us what they've come up with in dealing with this weird new world. A virtual reading sponsored by Mystery to Me Bookstore will be hosted by anthology editors Steve Tomasko and Angela Voras-Hills, and readers include Marilyn Annucci, Callen Harty, Mark Kraushaar, Richard Merelman, Margaret Rozga, Shoshauna Shy and Alison Townsend, among others. Register here to listen to the reading.

ALL Prize artist talks, Thursday April 1, 5 p.m: Arts + Literature Laboratory focuses on the recipients of the 2021 ALL Prize, awarded to graduating MFAs from the UW-Madison; this year's recipients are Rita Mawuena Benissan and Conley Clark. The exhibitions will be on view at ALL through May 1; on April 1, Benissan and Clark discuss their work on Facebook Live. Benissan is a narrative photographer interacting with other media (painting, printmaking, textiles) to explore the narrative of being Black and her Ghanian-American heritage. Clark is a multimedia artist interpreting culture through a queer perspective, questioning especially gender-conformity The gallery is open noon-5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, or by appointment.

PhotoMidwest Spring Member Show, through April 3: The spring PhotoMidwest member show is actually up on the walls at the very nice gallery space at the surgery waiting area at UW Hospital. However, unless you are actually waiting for surgery there, you cannot go see it in person. "The show will exist to boost morale for the dedicated hospital employees and patients and their families who are suffering through the pandemic and really appreciate the art being displayed in the hospital," the PhotoMidwest group writes in a statement. But all can enjoy it virtually at the PhotoMidwest website in a nice gallery presentation. Many images will nudge you to see the world, and especially this corner of the Midwest, in new ways.

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.