🎤 Why Mad Lit concerts are off this summer

🎤 Mad Lit Concert Series Goes Quiet in 2026

• The popular Mad Lit downtown summer concert series has been cancelled this year due to a lack of funding. The series was created in 2021 by rapper and educator Rob Dz, aka Rob Franklin, and the Urban Community Action Network to showcase hip-hop musicians and other Black and brown artists in Madison.
• Last year, the series drew 12,000 people to four downtown concerts. But due to a change in how the city administers grants, Mad Lit is no longer eligible for the $30,000 in funding that financed it before.
• The organizers are looking for new funding to bring Mad Lit back in 2027. In the meantime, Rob Dz will be performing with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra as part of Concerts on the Square on July 1. [Isthmus, WCO]

🚆 Wisconsin Applies For Federal Grant to Bring Amtrak to Madison

• The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has applied for a federal grant to expand Amtrak’s Hiawatha train service, including to Madison.
• The proposal to the U.S. Department of Transportation would expand two daily Chicago-to-Milwaukee rail lines to Madison, Watertown and Pewaukee using existing rail infrastructure.
• The grants are expected to be administered in the next few months. If all goes smoothly, Amtrak wants to start rail service to Madison in 2030, and a local developer is looking to add a train station to the former State Human Services Building downtown. [WKOW, WPR]

🚲 New Bike Path Connects Madison to Sun Prairie

• The new Tancho Drive path connection is only a half-mile long, but will mean a lot to Madison-area cyclists. The path is the final piece of the puzzle that connects Madison to Sun Prairie on paved paths.
• Sun Prairie and Madison officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday for the path, which will allow cyclists to avoid the heavy traffic on American Parkway. Instead they can bike on Tencho through Northeast Park and up to Goodman Path in Sun Prairie. [City of Madison]