Author: jnweaver

A decade ago, when journalist Sonia Nazario found out her housekeeper, Carmen, left four children behind in Guatemala and hadn?t seen them in 12 years, she was pretty judgmental, she told a Madison audience Thursday night.

?What kind of a lousy mother leaves her children?? Nazario wondered. It was a question that would eventually lead her on a harrowing journey. The Pulitzer Prize winner talked about her 2006 book, ?Enrique?s Journey,? before a rapt hall of 1,000 people at Union South. The nonfiction story of a Honduran boy who made eight attempts to reach the U.S. in search of his mother was this year?s pick for Go Big Read, the UW-Madison?s common-reading program, now in its third year.

In five years, Joel Waldinger has gone from not knowing the name Mildred Fish-Harnack to trying to make sure everyone else does. It has meant three trips to Germany for Waldinger, a Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) producer. He has conducted interviews, scoured archives and raised funds in an effort to learn and then relate the story of Fish-Harnack, a tale well worth telling. Mildred Fish-Harnack was a Milwaukee native, a UW-Madison student, a Wisconsin State Journal reporter ? and the only American woman executed by the Nazis on the direct order of Adolf Hitler.

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the new $43 million expansion of the Chazen Museum of Art on the UW-Madison campus is a true sight to behold. The new facility, paid for largely through a $25 million gift from alums Simona and Jerome Chazen, had a grand opening last weekend, with rave reviews coming from the museum goers showing up for the festivities.

A Work of Art: Russell Panczenko

As director of the renamed Chazen Museum of Art, Russell Panczenko has skillfully balanced ongoing operations of the existing facility with a mission to create one of the leading university art museums in the country.

Locksley bassist Jordan Laz remembers what Halloween in Madison was like before the city clamped down and established Freakfest as a more family-friendly alternative to the costumed chaos that reigned prior.

?There were riots, and it was the best party on earth,? said the one-time city resident, who currently makes his home in New York. ?Or the worst, depending on what time you showed up.? The now-tamer celebration, which attracted an estimated 55,000 revelers last year, returns to State St. on Saturday, Oct. 29 with a diverse slate of music acts in tow.

James Carroll was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, then gave up the priesthood a short five years later. Those were turbulent years ? for Carroll and for the country. As a chaplain at Boston University, he was a self-described “radical priest” and anti-war activist, opposing U.S. involvement in Vietnam. His 1996 memoir, “An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us,” covers that difficult journey and won the National Book Award. Carroll, 68, a columnist for The Boston Globe, was in Madison last week for a series of events as a visiting fellow of the Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions at UW-Madison.

The Pro Arte Quartet has built its reputation as a group that champions new work. At the first concert of the ensemble?s centennial season, Walter Mays? new string quartet proved why that?s still a good idea.

Over the years, journalist Sonia Nazario has resisted taking a public position on illegal immigration, the defining topic of her career. Lately, though, having exited daily journalism for book writing, she is “gingerly walking toward” sharing more of her own thoughts on the issue, she said. Madison audiences will get to delve into the topic with Nazario this week when she visits the city for several days as part of Go Big Read, UW-Madison?s common-reading program. Nazario?s 2006 book, “Enrique?s Journey,” is this year?s pick.

Five-year-old Sarah Best admitted she was a little scared when she first crossed the new yellow glass walkway over the lobby at the Chazen Museum of Art.

“When you look down, it looks like you?re falling,” she said. But by the time Sarah had crossed six, eight or 10 times, she seemed quite comfortable with the tempered glass bridge in the newly expanded museum. Sarah and her family were among the crowd that attended Saturday?s open house celebrating the $43 million expansion of the museum on the UW-Madison campus.

Art lovers can soon see the latest addition to the Chazen Museum of Art on the UW-Madison campus. Donors funded the $43 million building, which officially opened Thursday. The building includes a 160 seat auditorium and more than doubles the current exhibition space. New galleries feature African, Asian and modern art.

“What a benefit to the community and the university to have a collection as rich as this and it?s the building that made it possible,” said Russell Panczenko, director of the Chazen Museum of Art.