Since the beginning of January, the Madison Circus Space has hosted an eclectic performing duo as their artists-in-residence, Avi Kritzman and Trevor Whittow.

Avi Kritzman describes himself as a foot juggler and wannabe contortionist.

Trevor Whittow is a clown, juggler and geek stuntman. He is also a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

They are wrapping up their residency with a performance at Madison Circus Space this Saturday, February 3rd. They paid a visit to our studio to tell us more, and for Avi to demonstrate his foot juggling skills on the radio.

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When Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers declared 2024 “The Year of the Worker” he outlined ambitious plans for child care, paid family leave and worker education.  But what about immigration reform or organizing non-union workers?  Robert Christl, program director for Worker Justice Wisconsin, came on the 8 O’Clock Buzz to talk about his organization’s fight for health, dignity and organizational power for all workers. Worker Justice Wisconsin and its predecessors, the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice and the Workers Rights Center, have focused on these issues since 1997.

Photo: Robert Christl, courtesy of Robert Christl.

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Kristie Goforth, executive director of Bikes for Kids Wisconsin, joins the 8 O’Clock Buzz to discuss her organization’s attempts to make bicycling sustainable, equitable, and affordable as a means of everyday transportation for under-served communities in Dane County and beyond.  Started in 2017 the “bikes for kids” program in Madison was initially organized as a local chapter of a national organization with a four-month operations model providing free bikes.  However, the organization wanted to be a year-round operation of accepting, repairing and providing bicycles and they became their own independent 503c organization for 2024.  They accept bicycle donations at their warehouse and clean and refurbish thousands of bikes each year.  Information on donating a bike or volunteering opportunities can be found on the link to their website.

Photo by Jawhar ben Abdallah on Unsplash

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The goal of providing permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless in Madison will be taking a big hit if a proposed sale of the properties at Rethke Terrace and Tree Lane Apartments goes through as planned.  After opening in 2016, the Housing First Initiative projects have been plagued by mismanagement and have recently gone into receivership.  Attempts to find new management, which have not been transparent, have supposedly failed and now tenants at these properties will be evicted with the properties being closed and put up for sale.  Dean Loumos, a representative of Affordable Housing Action Alliance, joins the 8 O’Clock Buzz to stress the need for court action to protect the tenants from being displaced and homeless once again.

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

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Did you ever wake up at night and wonder why Trump is the favored son of the Evangelical right? After all, he has proven he barely knows the Bible. Professor and Chair of the Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University in Montreal, Andre Gagne, explains in his book entitled “Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times” how the New Apostolic Reformation is working on a movement featuring the Political Theology of Power, with a strategy for Christians should take dominion over every aspect of society — political, social, and cultural institutions.

 

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Thirty-eight years ago, in the middle of an armed conflict, Arcatao, El Salvador, became the first of many Madison Sister City Projects. Joan Laurion talks about their involvement in the national US-El Salvador Sister Cities, a grass-roots network of U.S. citizens and residents who have formed ongoing partnerships with rural communities in El Salvador, working for social change. Laurion also discusses their planned summer trip to Arcatao, and how you can get involved in their work.

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Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Tara Wilhelmi and Antoine McNeail, joined by Lolo Lature and RR Moore, it’s a snow day show!  Everybody is staying home safe from the ice, talking about all the things going on around, showing up on time, boundaries and more!

Coming up this weekend: Gary Knowledge and the Madison Hip Hop Festival at the High Noon Saloon Saturday (1/27): https://www.high-noon.com/event/wisconsin-hip-hop-fest-2/ … And lots more in February!

Listen in Madison at 89.9FM or online anywhere at wortfm.org.  Support your community radio with a donation online at wortfm.org!

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An exhibit in the main floor of UW-Madison’s Memorial Library seeks to showcase pivotal moments in the history of experimental and electronic music. Many of those pivotal moments are available to play (and available to check out) in Memorial’s basement, amidst the vast musical collection of the Mills Music Library.

The exhibit is arranged in a loose chronology over roughly eight decades. Yet, some of these recordings sound much more contemporary than you would think.

Pauline Oliveros’s “Bye Bye Butterfly” sounds like it could be a selection on WORT’s RTQE… but it was realized at the The San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1965.

The most well-known composition from Don Voegeli (pronounced “vaguely”) is the original theme to NPR’s All Things Considered, but some of his other “beautiful and lovely” music was composed at Madison’s own WHA/WPR in Vilas Hall, in the 1970s, on one of his Moog synthesizers.

George Lewis’s improvised duos between human and computer musicians are an early example of computer improvisation dating back to the 1980s.

Steve Meyer, Data Strategist for the Mills Music Library and Tom Caw, Music Public Services Librarian teamed up to curate the exhibit. It’s titled Oscillators, Resonators, & Tape, Oh(m) My! (get it?) and runs for just a few more weeks, until February 2.

Meyer and Caw join host Brian Standing in-studio to play some of their careful selections.

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The Madison Bubbler is the Madison Public Library’s artist outreach program. Over the past decade, the Bubbler has brought painting, dance, poetry, fabric arts, printmaking and other community collaborations to the central and branch libraries, showcasing the talents of artists from the Madison community. The Bubbler is looking for its next crop of talent and has issued an open call for artists. Carlee Latimer is the Bubbler Program Administrator for the Madison Public Library and joins host Brian Standing to talk about the Bubbler Program’s open call.

Photo courtesy: Nicholas Wootton/WORT-FM, used under CC 2.0.

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A series of new bipartisan proposals in the state Legislature would expand rights for DACA recipients in Wisconsin.

Senate Bill 78 would allow local sheriffs to hire DACA recipients as law enforcement officers,  Assembly Bill 820 would grant a $250 nonrefundable tax credit to DACA recipients, Assembly Bill 821 would grant a tuition exemption for recipients to attend UW System,  and Assembly Bill 822 would allow DACA recipients to obtain certain other professional credentials. 

One immigrant rights activist group, Wisconsin WISDOM, has found surprising bipartisan support for these series of bills. Organizers Tony Gonzalez and Amanda Ali join host Brian Standing for more about this legislation.

Photo courtesy: Susan Ruggles on Flickr, used under CC 2.0.

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