July/August 2025 Issue: Summer / Art in Wisconsin (Print Edition)

Fresh Mango

The classic novel by Sandra Cisneros becomes an opera

"Poet and novelist Sandra Cisneros’ most famous book is “The House on Mango Street,” a story of a Chicago childhood that has sold more than seven million copies. But it isn’t her favorite, since she wrote it more than forty years ago and she’s always trying to improve. “Every book I write, I try to do something I haven’t done before and get closer to the target, so it’s not my favorite book,” says Cisneros. “I’m interested in trying to write the book I want to be known for, and I don’t think I’ve written it yet.” But Cisneros has again fallen in love with “Mango Street” since writing the libretto for an opera adaptation, with music by three-time Grammy-nominated composer Derek Bermel."  (Mary Wisniewski)

Don’t Look Back in Anger

Oasis now and forever 

"Already known for buzz-worthy live shows, Oasis, with the extraordinary 1994 debut “Definitely Maybe,” would usher out the extremely offline era and give new life to the term “British invasion.” Brash, bold and relentlessly future-focused, Oasis made music with a sound and sensibility well-suited to the stadium. They were a band that stood for dreaming, for ambition and arrogance, for the triumphant belief that if you wanted it badly enough, it was destined to happen." (Anne K. Ream and R. Clifton Spargo)

Who Was John Jones? 

How an early Richard Hunt sculpture found its long-lost footing

When the young sculptor Richard Hunt was asked in 1965 to create an homage in metal to a long-forgotten Black leader, he was already on the career trajectory to international acclaim as Chicago’s greatest sculptor. The commission was not only an honor, coming from organizers of the Illinois sesquicentennial celebration, but an intrigue, with a subject who was all but lost in the fog of history.  (Andrea Holliday)

A Summer Without Pitchfork

Who killed the best indie music festival on the planet?

"Pitchfork was the first music festival I ever attended, and the first concert I’d been to without parental supervision. It was 2011 and I had just turned fifteen. I had asked for tickets to the Sunday set for my birthday, to see Odd Future play with a tight group of pals. For us, it was just a venue—the only place we’d be able to see our new favorite hip-hop collective we’d been obsessing over for the previous year. It was hot. We drank warm whiskey from plastic pints. It was an afternoon set. We moshed. We sang along, white, sweaty, lame and drunk. And then we stuck around." (Dylan Weinert)

Midwest Amalfi

Exploring the brawny and beautiful coast of Illinoia

"These days big shots like George Clooney, Mick Jagger and Beyoncé sip on limoncello in trattorias along the thirty-four-mile Amalfi Coast that incorporates nearly one-hundred beaches along the bright blue Gulf of Salerno. I promised to return someday when I exceeded the speed limit in wide-eyed love. I haven’t yet. But I’ll always have the Illinoia Coast. A constellation of towns stretch across a shoreline enveloped by natural beauty. But while the Amalfi region embodies the height of Italian glamor, this coast is punctuated by industrial grit, architectural curiosities and, above all, Midwest Americana." (Dave Hoekstra)

Art in Wisconsin

A Guide for Collectors, Curators and the Curious

A Mind of Its Own: Wisconsin and the Arts

Myth and Imagination: Finding the Dark Soul of a State in Wisconsin Death Trip

What’s Wisconsin Art? MOWA Knows

No Place Like Home: The Extraordinary Surprises of Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts

Out on the Farm: Rural Art Residencies Thrive in Wisconsin

Muscular Ideas: Milwaukee’s Commitment to Contemporary Public Art

Factory Direct: Insider the Kohler Arts Residency

Art and Science and Art: The Semi-Hidden Wonders of the James Watrous Gallery

Hotels for Art Lovers

Connective Tissue: Flexing Milwaukee’s Art Muscle

The Art Geography of Wisconsin

Arts & Culture

Art: "City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago" at MCA Chicago spotlights the fight

Dance: The Seldoms "Superbloom" at the Chicago Botanic Garden

Design: Floating Museum's inflatable monument

+ Mood: Summer

Film: Jacqueline Stewart talks two decades of South Side Home Movie Project

Lit: An interview with Mary Jo Bang on Dante’s “Paradiso

Music: Classical music to see this Ravinia Festival summer

Stage: Oak Park Festival Theatre celebrates its fiftieth anniversary

Reviews

Take an art road trip up the highway or down the street

Poetry

"Vexillology”: A new poem by Scott Zieher

156 Pages

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