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Wisconsin People & Ideas – Spring 2022

In this issue: Travel to the south shore of Lake Superior and see how creativity is branching out to the rest of the state and beyond. Thomas D. Carr profiles Matthew Warren Lee, a scientist’s artist, whose work draws upon experiences ranging from such far-flung locales as Antarctica and the Hell Creek Formation in Montana. Renee Gasch looks at the ways in which agroforestry, an agricultural practice from the past, is emerging as a natural climate solution. Dig in to Booyah, John McCracken’s deep dive into this regional dish from the Green Bay region of the state. And read the timely third-place story from the 2021 fiction contest, more honorable mention poems, and reviews of four books by Wisconsin authors.

Volume:

Issue Number:

From the Director

A Time of Awakening and Re-emerging

By:

Erika Monroe-Kane

I step enthusiastically into the Academy Executive Director role at a time of guarded optimism and cautious dreaming.

Editors Note

The Power of Stories, Resistance, and Hope

By:

Christopher Chambers

I’ve been thinking about spring lately like most of us, I imagine, in anticipation of sunshine, longer warmer days, and rebirth. I’ve been thinking too about war, and the damage it does to individuals and to us collectively.

Dan Nitka, owner of The Booyah Shed in Green Bay.

Wisconsin Table

Booyah: A Noun, A Verb, An Exclamation!

By:

John McCracken

It’s a noun, a verb, an exclamation, and a hot bowl of everything but the kitchen sink. Booyah, a regional soup, holds a firm grip over the people of Green Bay and northeast Wisconsin at large.

Lake Superior's South Shore. Photo by Hope McLeod

Essay

Authentic Superior: Branching Out on the South Shore

By:

Hope McLeod

The creative sector of Northern Wisconsin, prior to the pandemic, was supported primarily by visitors searching for escape and enchantment.

Wandy Peralta of Branches and Berries Farm in Wisconsin's Driftless Area partners with the Savanna Institute to educate farmers about food safety in agroforestry systems.

Essay

Agroforestry as a Natural Climate Solution

By:

Renee Gasch

Although this year is off to an unusually dry start, it is likely to stand out as an anomaly among the wetter and warmer years that are forecast to come.

Matthew Warren Lee, Una Historia Una Veritas, 2018. Oil on panel, 24 x 36 inches. Cropped

Profile

Matthew Warren Lee: A Scientist’s Artist

By:

Thomas D. Carr

The relationship between science and society is an important one and arguably a measure of the intellectual and aspirational health of our civilization.

Left to right: Nate Mason, Maddie Hunt, Adia Hardt, Kam Glamann, Bella Biederman, Taylor Simonson. Images taken by Nicholas Gagnon using a dual thermal and visual camera used to detect heat loss.

Spotlight

Student-Centered Energy Solutions

By:

Ashley Vedvig

Wisconsin K-12 schools are playing a vital role in incorporating innovative climate and energy solutions in the state.

Fiction

Protocol of Print

By:

Yvette Viets Flaten

Jelis stopped digging. She shrugged her harness off, letting the old-fashioned Exo-Shoveller drop to the ground. Who cares, anyway. It was obsolete. It only moved up and down, and then only a maximum of fifteen inches.

Book Review

Waterbaby by Nikki Wallschlaeger

By:

Wendy Vardaman

Nikki Wallschlaeger’s latest poetry collection, Waterbaby, invites and resists reading.

Book Review

Jordemoder by Ingrid Andersson

By:

Catherine Young

In Ingrid Andersson’s first collection of poetry, Jordemoder (the Swedish for “earth mother” or “midwife”), the poems serve as passionate witness to human experience

Book Review

Waiting for the Fall by Rose Ann Findlen

By:

Nancy Jesse

“Who were you?” a stranger in the checkout line of Trader Joe’s asks Mae, in the opening story of Rose Ann Findlen’s collection, Waiting for the Fall.

Book Review

Geosmin by Catherine Young

By:

Robin Chapman

Unflinching in their catalogue of environmental loss, the poems in Catherine Young's fine collection, Geosmin, are generous in their celebration of natural life in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, where the poet lives and farms.