By Esta Pratt-Kielley, originally published by Curb Magazine
The woods are silent at 4:30 in the morning.
Like every year, the hunters are out as the sun creeps above the horizon.
Like every year, the hunters wear blaze orange and camouflage, wrapped in layers to brace against the Wisconsin cold that penetrates their bones.
Like every year, they hold their guns ready, senses attuned to what nature tells them. They listen to the birds and squirrels emerging from their nests and hear the forest start to come alive.
Like every year, the family is ready for another deer hunting season, finally in the woods after a year of excitement and anticipation for opening day.
MADISON, Wis.—Pepto-Bismol pink painted walls. Large, orange brushstrokes spelling out the phrase “feeling my feelings” scribbled on top. Queer images scattered here and there. And a few curvaceous, alluring paintings of butts.
Cooking, organizing, cleaning, buying food, running a business, finances, advertising: all are part of daily life in cooperative housing. Fundraising and campaigning to save your home, though? That’s something new.
In the shadows of the endurance races of the 1920s and the entertainment spectacles of the 1980s, Roller Derby has emerged from the darkness, exploding with energy and character, as one of the fastest growing sports in the world.
Walking into the Red Dragon TV clubhouse, you may feel as if you have entered the Garden of Eden. Except instead of a tree of knowledge, there is a soundboard of reverberations. Instead of beautiful gardens, there is a spot lit stage. And instead of a serpent, there is a red dragon.
MADISON, Wis.— Walking down Williamson Street on the East Side of Madison, where many University of Wisconsin-Madison students never venture, it would be difficult to find the Madison InfoShop if you were not looking for it.
A building block, an introduction, a prelude. Every great endeavor starts with something.
The beginning of an anticipated expansion is bringing together community, sustainability and new perspectives at the Meadowridge branch of the Madison Public Library system.