8 O'Clock Buzz

This Friday Madison’s Broom Street Theatre premiere’s a new play by Madison area poet, activist and playwright Charles Payne, “Da Classroom Ain’t Enuf.” Director Matt Reines came in to the WORT studio to talk to Monday Buzz host Brian Standing.

Broom Street’s production features an entirely non-white cast. It is presented as a series of choreopoems, which Reines describes as “slam poetry with movement added.” Much of the play reflects Payne’s reflections on how the American educational system serves, or doesn’t serve, African American students.

Reines talks about the audition process and development of the play. He also performs an excerpt of the play, a short spoken word piece called “Stop and Frisk,” about an unarmed young black man getting stopped at gunpoint by a police officer while walking to his car from a FedEx store.

“Da Classroom Ain’t Enuf,” will premiere at The Broom Street Theatre on April 19 and runs through May 2.

Photo courtesy of The Broom Street Theater

Web production by Nicholas Wootton

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In the world of psychedelia, April 19th is known as Bicycle Day, the date in 1943 when Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman experienced the first known “acid trip.” Hoffman experimented with the new chemical LSD on himself, by ingesting what he thought was an overly cautious 250 micrograms, only to discover it was far too much. Hoffman went for a bicycle ride, and his experience is now the stuff of legend.

In honor of the eighty first anniversary of Hoffman’s discovery, the Madison Psychedelic Society will host a “Psychedelic Variety Show” at Madison’s Bartell Theatre.  Variety show organizers, and Madison Psychedelic Society members, Neal Patten and Day Host-Jablonski came to the WORT studio to tell Monday Buzz host Brian Standing about some of the performers who will appear in the show. They suggested that listeners who would like to perform in the show can contact them at [email protected] to propose an act, if it is inspired by a psychedelic experience.

According to the Bartell website, Patten and Host-Jablonski are “seeking people to come share about their past psychedelic experiences, in whatever storytelling medium feels natural to them.” Performers can be “storytellers, poets, rappers, spoken word artists, songwriters, comedians, humorists, dancers, puppeteers, ventriloquists, clowns, mimes, acrobats, contortionists, poi spinners, hula hoopers, jugglers, and more!” Professionals and amateurs alike are welcome, so long as they have something to express artistically about their psychedelic experiences.

Host-Jablonski and Patten also elaborated on their vision for psychedelics in the future, including current research in psychiatric therapy, and legal status of psychedelics.

Photo courtesy of Madison Psychedelic Society

Web production by Nicholas Wootton

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Brian Skerry has one of those jobs you may have dreamed of when you were a kid. And indeed, he dreamed of it as a kid in Massachusetts, where he yearned to explore the oceans. Then he learned he could explore the oceans as a photo journalist. In his interview on WORT’s Monday Buzz, Skerry explains how he became a marine specialist and underwater photojournalist for National Geographic.

In his many assignments alongside oceans scientists of many different specializations, Skerry learned to “see the three dimensionality” of the ocean ecosystem. In his presentation at Madison’s Overture Center, Inside Secrets of the Whales, Skerry will talk about his experiences photographing orcas, right whales, and other species around the world.

On WORT, Skerry describes to Buzz host Brian Standing how he learned that whales have culture, dialects, learn from each other and learn from older generations of whales. In his career, Skerry sees his mission as “helping people to see the planet through a new lens, through a lens of culture with another species.”

Skerry is an eleven-time Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and has won awards from the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences.  His latest multimedia work, “The Secrets of the Whales,” includes a National Geographic magazine cover story, a book and a four-part documentary series streaming now on Disney plus.  On April 23, Skerry will speak as part of the Overture Center’s Changemaker series.

All photos courtesy of Brian Skerry

Web production by Nicholas Wootton

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Latin American music with Midwestern vibes can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but it’s unlikely that Los Chechos incorporates polka music into its wide-ranging repertoire. Band leader Alejandro Punbra, who joined 8 O’Clock Buzz host Tony Casteñeda, explains that it includes reggae, ska, cumbia and rock and a fair amount of improvisation. Punbra hails from Ecuador but impresses those of us impressed by polyglots by singing in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, and Quechua. For that, we’ll forgive the absence of a polka. You can hear this energetic group’s new album Sunday, April 14 at Lola’s Hi/Lo Lounge from 8-10.

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Today on the Too Turnt Up Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Tara Wilhelmi, Antoine McNeail featuring RR Moore and Lolo Lature, remembering Vicki Lynn, Antoine’s 10 years in comedy, putting on events in town and what’s going on…  and of course the power of the eclipse!

Catch RR Moore’s poetry solo in Las Vegas on 4/20, and with Lolo and more at Intimate Affairs in Beloit on May 4th follow him at https://www.facebook.com/rausea.moore.5 !

Keep an eye out for info Antoine’s 10th anniversary show coming up May 18th on https://www.facebook.com/AntoineMcNeail 

Tara and EOTO have a full summer of events coming up, looking up and coming catering, performers and more for the Father’s Day Brunch and more, contact Tara via https://www.facebook.com/EOTO.tribelife/

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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Mary McCoy, Outreach Director, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, and organizer of an upcoming multimedia event “Requiem for a Massacre: A Concert of Healing and Reconciliation with Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ & Screening of ‘The Whistleblower of My Lai'” on April 14,2024, 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM, at the Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium. This free event will include documentary showing how the Kronos Quartet produced a haunting opera, “My Lai”, that reveals the inside story of the tragic My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War, complimentary food, and conversation.

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White people in the U. S. are being discriminated against — at least that’s the opinion authors of the document “Project 2025” — a far-right playbook for their proposed changes to the U. S. society, according to Wendy Via, CEO and Co-founder of Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. This group tracks, monitors, and exposes the rise of far right extremism worldwide, and has identified over 100 sponsors of the document, spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, many with racist ties.

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Blocked by Zionists from becoming an “official” Madison Sister City in 2004, the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project nevertheless continues their efforts of humanitarian aid to Rafah and the entire Palestinian people through their collaboration with the Middle East Children’s Alliance. Organizer Amy Atalla Hill talks about an upcoming fundraiser “Remembering Rachel Corrie: A Benefit for Gaza Emergency Relief”, free, donation-supported event on Sunday, April 14, 2024, from 1:30-3:30 at the Christ Presbyterian Church, 944 E Gorham St.

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April is National Poetry Month.  To celebrate, the Wisconsin Book Festival will host a reading featuring three young poets from Texas, Mississippi, and Wisconsin.

Those poets are Joshua Barton, Patrycja Humienik, and Sadia Hassan.

Barton, Humienik, and Hassan will read their work on Wednesday, April 10 at 7:00 p.m. at Madison Central Library’s community room.

Photo: Patrycja Humienik (top), Joshua Barton (left) and Sadia Hassan, courtesy Wisconsin Book Festival website.

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If you are a fan of cinema you may have spent last weekend at the Wisconsin Film Festival, taking in films on a variety of different themes. Many festivals are like those that run out of Madison and Milwaukee, screening films on a broad selection of topics.

 

However, some festivals focus on individual themes and issues of public concern. With depression, suicide and drug addiction increasingly touching the lives of so many, one local activist decided it is time for a film festival about mental health.

 

Max Blaska is an accomplished writer, actor, filmmaker, and mental health activist who is organizing The Mental Health Warrior Film Festival. He is also the screenwriter of the film Last Rung on the Ladder, a short film adapted from a Stephen King story and which will play at the festival.

 

Max Blaska came by WORT’s studio to talk about the festival with Buzz producer Nicholas Wootton.

Photo courtesy of Mental Health Warrior website.

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