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Thursday, October 19
Fabrications: An Artists Collaboration Celebrating Madison's Sesquicentennial
Thursday, October 19 | 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Venue: Family Centers
Nine 6'x6' fabric collages celebrating Madison's 150th birthday in 2006 include artifacts from more than 130 Madison individuals, families and groups collected by local artist Sharon Kilfoy and assembled at community sewing bees. "Fabrications" is accompanied by a booklet available to the public for free, which describes the history of those who contributed items to the project, and two artworks made by artists at Wisconsin Center for Book and Paper Arts in which a poem written in honor of the project by Madison Poet Laureate, Andrea Musher, is printed on paper made from leftover fabric from the items contributed. Additional viewing times can be arranged by contacting Sharon Kilfoy at 256-8878. Runs through October 31st.
Category(s): Art & Visual
Museums, Zoos and Botanical Gardens of Wisconsin: A Brown Bag Lunchtime Talk
Thursday, October 19 | 12:00 - 1:00 PM
Venue: Wisconsin Historical Museum-Capitol Square
Presenter(s): Anton Rajer
Tony Rajer's talk is a must for anyone interested in the cultural attractions of Wisconsin. Rajer spent years researching, grouping and rating them all for his new book, Museums, Zoos and Botanical Gardens of Wisconsin: A Comprehensive Guidebook to Cultural, Artistic, Historic and Natural History Collections in the Badger State. This is the first guidebook of its kind! Rajer will share his insights into what the state's cultural collections have to offer...and what they could do differently.
Bookseller: Wisconsin Historical Society
Category(s): Wisconsin Ties
David Maraniss
Thursday, October 19 | 5:30 - 6:30 PM
Venue: Wisconsin Studio/Overture
Presenter(s): David Maraniss
David Maraniss is an associate editor at The Washington Post and the author of four critically acclaimed, bestselling books: Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero; They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967; When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi, and First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton. He is also the author of The Clinton Enigma and coauthor of The Prince of Tennessee: Al Gore Meets His Fate, and "Tell Newt to Shut Up!" During his nearly three-decade career at the Post, he has won virtually every major award in journalism, including the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. He has been a Pulitzer finalist two other times. Raised in Madison, Wisconsin, he began his journalism career covering high school football and student protests at the University of Wisconsin. He lives in Washington, D.C. and Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife Linda. They have two grown children.
Category(s): Memoir & Biography, Wisconsin Ties
The Maharishi Effect: Geoff Gilpin
Thursday, October 19 | 5:30 - 6:30 PM
Venue: Wisconsin Historical Museum-Capitol Square
Presenter(s): Geoff Gilpin
Back in the Sixties, millions of Americans discovered Transcendental Meditation (TM) and its promise of inner peace and personal growth. It was the first contact that most Westerners had with Eastern spirituality. Many subsequent New Age movements took off thanks largely to TM and its iconic founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, best known as "the Beatles' guru" due to his association with the Fab Four. Geoff Gilpin learned TM in 1973 and spent five years as a member of Maharishi's organization. In 2000, after a 20-year absence, he returned to the group's American headquarters in Fairfield, Iowa. He found a colorful community of enlightened but troubled souls who accept magic as their everyday reality. The Maharishi Effect is a road trip into the heart of American alternative religion. It will appeal to any reader who wants to understand contemporary spirituality.
Bookseller: Wisconsin Historical Society
Category(s): Wisconsin Ties
Marge Piercy: Sex Wars and A More Perfect Union
Thursday, October 19 | 5:30 - 7:00 PM
Venue: Orpheum Theatre: Main
Presenter(s): Marge Piercy
Prolific and respected feminist poet and author Marge Piercy will read from her latest work of historic fiction, Sex Wars: A Novel of the Turbulent Post-Civil War Period. In this epic tale, Piercy has interwoven the stories of some of the most important figures of the second half of the 19th century, including Victoria Woodhull, the first female candidate for the U.S. presidency, the suffrage leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and Victorian reformer Anthony Comstock in this midst of a personal crusade against the corruption of society by pornography, birth control, and abortionists. Piercy will read some of her poetry and give a talk based on Sex Wars to discuss the laws, conflicting beliefs, and social customs that first provoked women in the U.S. to organize for change. The author will read from this A More Perfect Union: To Establish Justice discussion series selection, take questions from the audience, and be available after the event for book signing.
Bookseller: A Room of One's Own
Category(s): Fiction, History, Poetry, Society & Politics
Laurie Lawlor -- Exploring the Spiritual Dimension of Nature Writing: A Workshop
Thursday, October 19 | 5:30 - 6:45 PM
Venue: Madison Public Library-Main Branch
Presenter(s): Laurie Lawlor
What can we as observers learn from deep observation of change in wild places? A celebration of nature, the elements, and humanity, This Tender Place: The Story of a Wetland Year tells the story of refuge and renewal refracted through the lens of life within a rare wetland -- one of the most productive, yet endangered, ecosystems in the world. Participants are invited on a journey through the decade-long creation of this book in a hands-on workshop which includes a reading, slide images, and time for questions and answers.
Bookseller: Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative
Category(s): Memoir & Biography, Wisconsin Ties, Writing & Publishing
Spoken Word Sisterhood: Women's Voices of the Latin and African Diasporas, featuring Mayda del Valle and Dasha Kelly
Thursday, October 19 | 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Venue: Wisconsin Historical Society-Library Mall
Presented by Youth Speaks Wisconsin
Presenter(s): Mayda del Valle, Dasha Kelly
Mayda del Valle and Dasha Kelly are visiting spoken word artists for the Youth Speaks Wisconsin program. Separately, they offer unique perspectives and creative energy that, when together, will create a truly invigorating event.
Mayda del Valle has taken the national spoken word scene by storm. In the last five years she has gone from being a virtual unknown to becoming one of the most accomplished and unique voices on the scene, proving her ability as both a writer and performer. She was an original cast member and writer for the critically acclaimed Tony award winning Broadway production of Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam. She has also been featured in various publications such as El Diario, Urban Latino, Mass Appeal Magazine, Latina Magazine, Trace, The Source, and The New York Times. Her one-woman show won an Audience Favorite Award at NYC's 3rd Annual Downtown Urban Theatre Festival.
Milwaukee's Dasha Kelly has also made a name for herself on the urban poetry scene. Kelly has published a novel entitled All Fall Down; produced three audio compilations of her poetry; had essays featured on Def Poetry Jam's website; and been a contributing writer to local and national publications such as Upscale, Black Enterprise, Today's Black Woman and Milwaukee magazines. Her work earned her a place in Written Word Magazine as one of the Top 10 Up-and-Coming Writers of the Midwest. As a spoken word artist, Dasha performs her work at venues across the country. In her own community, Kelly has established and advanced its longest-running urban open mic, Poetry Slam Inc., often hailed as the home for Milwaukee's urban poetry community and the breeding ground for new and inspired voices.
Bookseller: Wisconsin Historical Society
Category(s): Poetry, Youth & Kids
Michael Feldman
Thursday, October 19 | 7:00 - 8:30 PM
Venue: Barnes & Noble (East Side)
Presenter(s): Michael Feldman
Which brilliant mathematician broke enemy codes during World War II, laid the foundation for artificial intelligence, underwent 12 months of "hormone therapy," and then was found dead in his bed, poisoned by cyanide? Which fitness champion walked barefoot to work carrying a 40-pound bag of sand and preached the virtues of nudity and sleeping on the floor? If something is worth knowing, it's in Michael Feldman's new book, Glad You Asked: Intriguing Names, Facts, and Ideas For the Curious Minded.
Bookseller: Barnes & Noble East
Category(s): Wisconsin Ties
Three Wisconsin Poets: David Graham, Kate Sontag, and Marilyn Taylor
Thursday, October 19 | 7:00 - 8:00 PM
Venue: Wisconsin Historical Museum-Capitol Square
Presenter(s): Marilyn Taylor, David Graham, Kate Sontag
Kate Sontag and David Graham, both extraordinary poets as well as English professors at Ripon College, co-authored a collection of essays titled "After Confession: Poetry as Autobiography" which deals with the often controversial ethical and historical considerations related to autobiographical poetry. This collection represents, in the words of one reviewer "an important and impressive touchstone." Marilyn Taylor, Ph.D. and former poet laureate for the city of Milwaukee, has been called an "unabashed formalist" whose "sheer virtuosity of rhyming and....sound structures is a constant pleasure for the reader." Enjoy these accomplished and inspiring Wisconsin poets who collectively have treated the world to their unique perspectives through the publication of over 15 books.
Bookseller: Wisconsin Historical Society
Category(s): Poetry, Wisconsin Ties
Laura Kipnis & Tina Cassidy: Birth and The Female Thing
Thursday, October 19 | 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Venue: Madison Public Library-Main Branch
Presenter(s): Laura Kipnis, Tina Cassidy
Laura Kipnis, professor of media studies at Northwestern University and outspoken author of The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability, exposes the contradictions of being female post-feminism and reveals that women themselves are conflicted about femininity and power. Her fresh and funny book explores gender, desire, fulfillment, and biology with keen observation -- and a sharp tongue.
Journalist Tina Cassidy focuses on the biological in Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born and shows that not even this most painful and fundamental female experience is free from the pressures of changing fashion and idealized expectations. From midwives and epidurals to dying in labor and self-inflicted c-sections, Birth is a lively and fascinating history of how we come into the world.
Bookseller: Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative
Category(s): History, Society & Politics
Stuart Levitan on Madison: The Illustrated Sesquicentennial History
Thursday, October 19 | 7:00 - 8:45 PM
Venue: Wisconsin Studio/Overture
Presenter(s): Stuart Levitan
Madison media personality and author Stuart Levitan presents an unvarnished look at Madison history, complete with slides of eye-opening historic photographs, many never before published. Based on Levitan's extensive research for his forthcoming book, Madison: The Illustrated Sesquicentennial History, Volume 1, 1856-1931, this presentation will focus on the years 1920-1931, crucial years about which very little has previously been written.
Category(s): History, Wisconsin Ties
Science, Religion, and the Difficulties of Democracy: Philip Kitcher
Thursday, October 19 | 7:30 - 9:00 PM
Venue: Chazen Museum of Art, Rm. L-140
Presented by the Center for the Humanities at UW-Madison
Presenter(s): Philip Kitcher
Philip Kitcher is a renowned philosopher of science and mathematics. His current research concerns the ethical and political constraints on scientific research, the evolution of altruism and morality, and the apparent conflict between science and religion. Kitcher is the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University and the author of multiple books on the scientific case against creationism: The Nature of Mathematical Knowledge; Vaulting Ambition: Sociobiology and the Quest for Human Nature (1985); The Lives to Come: The Genetic Revolution and Human Possibilities (1997); Science, Truth, and Democracy (2001), and In Mendel's Mirror: Philosophical Reflections on Biology, (2003). Most recently, he co-authored Finding an Ending: Reflections on Wagner's Ring (2004).
Category(s): Society & Politics
Michael Chabon
Thursday, October 19 | 8:00 - 9:30 PM
Venue: Orpheum Theatre: Main
Presented by the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies at UW-Madison
Presenter(s): Michael Chabon
The author of the Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon is one of the most important and beloved writers working today. He will read from his brilliantly original forthcoming book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union (due in May 2007), a thriller set in an imaginary world inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt's short-lived plan during WWII to create a Jewish homeland in Alaska, rather than the Middle East. A ravelled, Yiddish-speaking strip of 'Alyeska' serves instead of the former Palestine as the comically unlikely new homeland for Jews. This is a monumental novel of love and faith, boasting the same compassion, wit, and warmth that have garnered him such passionate fans worldwide.
Bookseller: A Room of One's Own
Category(s): Fiction
Emergency Press Readings: Poetry & War
Thursday, October 19 | 8:00 - 9:30 PM
Venue: Avol's Bookstore
Presenter(s): Jayson Iwen, Chad Faries
Jayson Iwen is author of Six Trips in Two Directions, Co-Winner of the 2005 Emergency Press book contest, and a smart and arresting account of his first years teaching and living in Beirut during renewed political upheaval in Lebanon and the onset of the second Iraq war. Six Trips alternates between a rare lyrical grace and straightforward, dire dialogue punctuated by dark humor, giving readers multiple angles on global debates over identity, economy, religion, and science.
Chad Faries is author of The Border Will Be Soon: Meditations on the Other Side, Co-Winner of the 2005 Emergency Press book contest. Faries leads us through the wars in the former Yugoslavia while dismantling the friction and growth that are born from any major conflict. He pits the sentimental against the profane, art against survival, the unfamiliar against home, and love against violence while navigating private and public history in his poems.
Bookseller: Avol's
Category(s): Poetry, Wisconsin Ties