A Public Affair

On this strange Wednesday, the first day of the federal government shutdown, host Ali Muldrow looks to poetry and two local poets for respite and guidance. We’re joined by Madison poet laureate Steven Espada Dawson and Madison youth poet laureate Octavia Ikard. They talk about the role of poetry in self-expression and healing but also in response to political life.

Dawson says he’s still figuring out what it means to be a poet laureate, but he takes seriously the work of using writing to put reality into perspective. He reads the sonnet, “A River Is A Body Running,” from his collection, Late to the Search Party, a book about his mother and his brother who grappled with addiction. Dawson says that poetry helps him reach into the past and think about it differently. Writing about family can be challenging, but Dawson says that “the shadow of addiction is larger than the individual.”

Ikard describes what it’s like to be a writer at a time in life when you’re still figuring out who you are. They say that it takes honesty to investigate parts of yourself. They take inspiration from their elders, the Black women in the rural South who didn’t have access to writing poetry as such, but who were poets in their own lives.

They also talk about privilege and politicized identities, how art responds to and drives political life, the idea of selfishness and self-expression, how formal poetry can bring order to chaos.

Steven Espada Dawson is the author of Late to the Search Party (Scribner, 2025). From East Los Angeles and the son of a Mexican immigrant, he has received fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Foundation, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. His poems appear in many journals and anthologies. He has taught creative writing at universities, libraries, and prisons across the country and lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where he serves as poet laureate.

Octavia Ikard is a creative writing major and First Wave scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They are also the city’s current youth poet laureate. They got their start in spoken word clubs, and they write about moving far away from family and their experience as a young Black poet.

Featured image: photo of Steven Espada Dawson, Octavia Ikard, and Ali Muldrow courtesy of Sara Gabler/WORT.

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The new Bartillion Men’s Shelter in Madison will include an art installation created by mosaic artist, Laurel True. She joins host Dana Pellebon to discuss the process of designing this installation and her career of community-based projects and creative placemaking.

True says that she enjoys working on projects that bring art to populations that don’t typically have access to public art, like in shelters. She took feedback from community members, staff, and over 40 men’s shelter clients to make sure the installation would reflect the feelings they want the artwork to evoke and what messages they want it to send. They expressed a desire for art that reflects nature, hope, care, and possibility. One man asked for the installation to “make me fell like I can make it.”

True tells Pellebon about her work as an educator through the Institute of Mosaic Art in Oakland, California and the Global Mosaic Project. True taught her first mosaic class at the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center in Madison and installed some of her earliest pieces at cafes along Willy Street.

True also describes how art fits into difficult spaces, drawing on her community work in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. There, she and her students transformed Jacmel into a city of mosaics. Across her projects, True explores creative expression and wellbeing, finding that mosaics can have soothing and therapeutic effects. 

Laurel True is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator and arts advocate. She has been exploring the intersection of creative expression and well-being for over thirty years. Her company, True Mosaics Studio, specializes in creative placemaking, public art and architectural mosaics. Through her professional studio and teaching practice, True has created hundreds of murals and sculptural forms in public spaces. Her work can be found in parks, hospitals, social centers, transit systems, and in commercial and residential spaces the US, Haiti, Latin America, Africa, and Europe

Featured image of one of Laurel True’s mosaics, courtesy of the artist.

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Last week in New York City, tens of thousands of people gathered for Climate Week, which was observed here in Wisconsin with a march at the state capitol. Despite the Trump administration’s anti-science and pro fossil fuel agenda, many people remain committed to the fight against ecological disaster. On today’s show, climate scientist Kate Marvel takes up this fight, saying that the knowledge that climate change isn’t a mystery helps her stay grounded and motivated so she can focus on solutions.

Marvel tells host Douglas Haynes about her new book, Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet. She reminds listeners that while humans are unpredictable, it is not human nature to be selfish. Instead, she looks to times when people have come together to fight ecological problems, like the killing of whales, the Clean Air Act, and the ozone hole. 

Marvel breaks down how climate models work to study Earth systems and theorize what might happen to the planet if humans took different actions. She describes climate models as toy planets that live on computers. A key insight of Marvel’s book is that emotions are key to who we think about and understand climate change. She says there’s no conflict between getting the facts right and having feelings about them, feelings like awe and wonder, fear and anxiety, as well as hope and love.

Kate Marvel is a climate scientist and one of the premier science communicators working today. A former cosmologist, Marvel received a PhD in theoretical physics from Cambridge University. She led the “Climate Trends” chapter in the U.S. Fifth National Climate Assessment, has given a TED Talk, appeared on Meet the Press and The Ezra Klein Show, and testified before the U.S. Congress. She has written for Scientific American, Nautilus magazine, and the On Being Project. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Featured image of Kate Marvel’s new book, Human Nature, published by Harper Collins.

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A proposed bill getting bipartisan support in Wisconsin would require state agencies to follow the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism. Our guest today, Raz Segal, tells host Esty Dinur that this definition is not only vague but actually produces antisemitism contrary to its stated goal.

The IHRA working definition of antisemitism conflates criticism of Israel and its policies with antisemitism. It imagines there is one way to be a Jew and so it can be used to targeting anti-Zionist Jews or Jews who criticize Israel. The definition offers 11 examples of antisemitism, the majority of which focus on Israel and not on Jews. Segal says that the goal of the definition is to shield Israel from criticism.

They also discuss why the US government would be interested in regulating free speech about a foreign country. Segal says that if we came to terms with the atrocities that Israel is waging against Palestinians, we would have to face settler colonialism. Then, we’d have to face that settler colonialism is a reality in the US as well, says Segal. He argues that we don’t need the IHRA definition because there are already protections against discrimination and singling out antisemitism contributes to Israel and Holocaust exceptionalism. You can read more about the how the IHRA working definition threatens free speech here.

Dr. Raz Segal is Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Endowed Professor in the Study of Modern Genocide at Stockton University, where he also serves as the director of the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and founding coordinator of the Refugee Studies Initiative.

Featured image of a Jews for Peace rally in LA via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0).

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On today’s show, host Allen Ruff is joined by friend of the program, Henry Giroux, who reflects on the state of US politics in the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk. Earlier this month, Giroux wrote an article arguing that Kirk’s assassination is “a symptom of a national political culture in crisis.” This is a crisis of democracy, culture, politics, and social responsibility. 

Giroux says that Kirk’s murder is a terrible thing, and it is symptomatic of fascism. As the president and other elected officials mourn his death and even celebrate it, they’re also at work institutionalizing violence at every level of society.

Giroux and Ruff also discuss the role of corporate and legacy media in stoking the flames of political violence at a moment that Giroux calls “the death rattle of democracy.” It’s particularly alarming that the Trump administration is working to erase the history of Black resistance and the history of slavery. This form of scholasticide is ushering in a resurgence of the Confederacy.

Giroux concludes by reminding listeners that hope is a way to imagine a democracy that actually works for everyone.

Henry Giroux is an internationally renowned writer and cultural critic who has authored or co-authored over 65 books. He is McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest and the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy.

Featured image: illustration of Henry Giroux by Jared Rodriguez / Truthout via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

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On today’s show, host Dana Pellebon discusses the history of maroonage in the Black diaspora with Amari Johnson, author of the new book, Under a Black Star: The Maroon Impulse in New Orleans. 

Maroons were enslaved Africans in the Americas who escaped the plantation system to make their own way. Johnson was inspired by the maroon communities of Jamaica and Brazil but also wanted to understand what happened to the “maroon impulse” after chattel slavery ended. He found contemporary resonances in the Algiers parish of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. 

Johnson moved to New Orleans in 2009, just 5 years after Katrina destroyed 118 of the city’s 126 public schools. Those public schools were notoriously replaced by charter schools. In response, he and a few colleagues founded the Black Star Cafe, which economically supported a homeschool collective in Algiers. At the cafe, folks debated ideas, held fairs, and educated children in culturally sensitive ways. Algiers is a community with a long history of maroonage. There, on the fringes of the plantation system, the maroons built a community for their families over miles of often watery terrain. 

Amari Johnson is an independent scholar, musician, and filmmaker based in Philadelphia.

Featured image of the cover of Under a Black Star.

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The beloved Madison autumn exhibit GLEAM is an annual evening art and light exhibit at Olbrich Gardens in September and October. This year, there are 16 artists with exhibits scattered throughout the gardens, offering the community an opportunity to walk through the gardens after the sun goes down. The exhibit runs Wednesdays through Saturdays 7:30-10:30 until October 25th. Today we are joined with two of the creators of GLEAM: Missy Jeanne, the Public Programs Manager at Olbrich Gardens, and Ben Smith, the Director of Operations at the University Center at UW-Whitewater.

The exhibit attracts community members all over Madison, highlighting nature, art, and the beauty of the gardens at night. GLEAM is an immersive experience which is designed to foster a sense of wonder and play. This year, the theme is Reflection: reflecting a language of love for the natural world. 

Jeanne and Smith noted that certain plants and trees at Olbrich Gardens which might not stand out during the day often pop out at night when everything else is dark. Gleam highlights plants, trees and nighttime pollinators that are often missed during the day. This gives people a chance to follow their curiosity and return another time to discover more about that plant. 

Attendance and interest in Botanical Gardens across the country has been at a steady increase since the pandemic. Attendance at GLEAM alone rose from 18,000 to 30,000 since 2020. The conversation stressed the importance of accessibility to these spaces, and how spending time in nature is becoming a higher priority for everyone. Jeanne credits this increased interest to people taking time to enjoy the little things during a time when everything else can feel like a big thing.

Missy Jeanne has served as the Public Programs Manager at Olbrich Botanical Gardens for the past 16 years. In this role, she designs and implements innovative programs and exhibits that connect visitors to the Gardens through visual and performing arts. Collaborating across departments and with community partners, Missy fosters creative engagement and inclusivity in public programming. She is a co-creator of GLEAM, Olbrich’s annual exhibit featuring large-scale light installations throughout the outdoor gardens and Bolz Conservatory.

Ben Smith is the Director of Operations at the University Center, UW-Whitewater, bringing 28 years of experience in audio, video, and lighting technology engineering and construction management. His transition to higher education operations reflects a passion for creating dynamic and engaging environments that support student life and campus events. A seasoned lighting designer and video projection artist, Ben has contributed to major productions including the 2010 Winter Olympic Ceremonies and NBC’s Tonight Show, as well as public art installations like Madison’s Olbrich Gardens Gleam exhibition.

Photo courtesy of Kate Paape.

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On today’s show, we’re joined by author and scholar Dr. Sagashus T. Levingston who talks about her new book, A Pot to Piss In. She tells host Ali Muldrow about economic shame and the power of homeownership for her “little disheveled band of humans.”

Dr. Levingston wrote her first book, Infamous Mothers, while in graduate school researching feminism, motherhood studies, and rhetoric. She wanted to write a dissertation on the teen moms, recovering women, single moms, and/or divorces, who are “infamous mothers,” but the source material didn’t exist. She had to create it and to create a space for Black women outside of respectability politics to see themselves as heroes.

She says a core principle of her work is that mothering isn’t martyrdom. Research shows that women are more dissatisfied as wives, partners, and mothers when they take traditional roles out of pressure or expectation versus women who choose their own roles. These women who reject convention are less likely to resent their children or partners and are more likely to raise children who know how to fulfill their dreams. 

They also talk about the chapter in the book called “The Orgasm Project” and how it became an exploration of pleasure, fulfillment, and sacrifice. And they pull the curtain back on what it means to shift your parenting when you transition from being a renter to a first-time home owner. Enjoy the call outs to Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Erykah Badu, James Baldwin, and more. 

Dr. Sagashus T. Levingston was Born in Chicago and raised in Bronzeville. She is a mother of six, a scholar, and the founder of Infamous Mothers, LLC. She is the author of several books including Infamous Mothers and A Pot to P*ss In as well as journal articles that have been featured in Forbes, Essence, BRAVA, Demeter Press, and more. She serves as Chair of the Board at End Abuse Wisconsin and sits on the Board of Directors at Doyenne.

Featured image of Dr. Sagashus Levingston from Infamous Mothers.

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We simply do not have enough affordable housing in Madison and Dane County. This is a topic we cover regularly on A Public Affair. As both the city and the county prepare their upcoming budgets, the issue of how to address housing, especially for unhoused folks, is front and center. On today’s program, host Dana Pellebon speaks with Alder Davy Mayer and Supervisor Heidi Wegleitner. They talk about the different ways that the city and the county have supported and can support the Dairy Drive community, especially as the winter approaches.

The Dairy Drive community was set up by the City of Madison in response to the closure of temporary encampments that were sanctioned in places like Reindahl Park. The unhoused folks who lived in these temporary encampments were experiencing exacerbated health risks due to COVID. So the city opened Dairy Drive to house and provide on-site support. It has been seen as a successful bridge solution, says Wegleitner.

Now, the Dairy Drive campground is in jeopardy of closure as federal COVID funds run out and the city and country are unable to fill the funding gap. Mayer says that this program is important and meaningful enough to continue financially supporting, but elected officials differ on how to do that. There is a Madison Common Council meeting tonight, where the Council will take up a measure sponsored by Alder Mayer to fund the community.

Not investing in projects like Dairy Drive have financial costs, including the costs that come from criminalizing homelessness, says Wegleitner. Meanwhile, the unhoused population is growing, and the amount of beds proposed in the new men’s shelter won’t be able to meet the needs when it opens its doors. They also talk about tax credit housing, housing as a human right, and the process of getting into emergency and permanent housing. But the bigger issue remains, how do we get people into housing when there isn’t enough housing?

Alder Davy Mayer was elected to the Madison Common Council on April 1st, 2025. He comes to the Common Council with 15+ years of experience developing, managing, and coordinating high-value projects and websites in the technology, research, education, and financial sectors. He currently serves as the Web Operations Manager at the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center. Mayer graduated with a B.S. in Art and Graphic Design and an M.F.A. in Fine Arts.

Supervisor Heidi Wegleitner represents the near east side of Madison and works for Legal Action of Wisconsin. For the past ten years she has worked as a public interest attorney representing low income tenants in eviction cases and subsidized housing disputes. She has served on the Boards of Tenant Resource Center, the Public Interest Law Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin, the Madison chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, and the Emerson East Neighborhood Association.

Featured image of the Dairy Drive community courtesy of Madison Street Medicine.

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As the fall term kicks off, we’re ready to get a unique perspective on the value of a college education with the editor of the Washington Monthly which just released its 20th anniversary college ranking issue. Paul Glastris tells host Douglas Hayes that he and his team rank schools on what the schools do for the country and hope to change how families, policy makers, and higher education officials imagine the purpose of a college degree. 

Higher education excellence is not catering to the wealthy, but meeting the needs of the average student, says Glastris. Whereas the US News and World report uses a set of metrics based on school exclusivity, wealth, and prestige, the Washington Monthly ranks schools on upward mobility, research, and service. Glastris says that these qualities are what most Americans want out of a college education. 

They discuss the purpose of rankings, the highest rated school (Berea College in Kentucky), the media’s overreporting on elite universities, the erosion of free speech on college campuses, and the status of vocational education. Glastris says that the highest rated schools are in states like Texas, Florida, and California where the schools have a political commitment to keeping tuition low for in-state students of modest means and have highly centralized governance structures. These schools are good at keeping costs down but their centralized structures can be used opportunistically by politicians, like Ron DeSantis is doing in Florida.

Paul Glastris is the editor in chief of the Washington Monthly with extensive media experience as a commentator and author. He worked as a correspondent and editor at the US News and World Report before joining President Clinton’s staff as a special assistant and senior speechwriter. Paul also co-founded the President’s “DC Reads This Summer” program, which placed over 1,000 federal employees as volunteer reading tutors in Washington, DC public schools. 

Featured image of Berea College, the top school on the Washington Monthly’s 2025 ranking. Image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). 

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