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Lakes are among the Upper Midwest’s greatest treasures and most valuable natural resources. The Great Lakes define the region, and thousands of smaller lakes offer peace, joy, and recreation to millions. And yet, in large part because of the numbers of people who enjoy the local waterways, the lakes of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota face numerous challenges. Invasive species, pollution, defective septic systems, inadequate shoreland zoning laws, and climate change are present and increasingly existential threats. We are, quite possibly, loving our lakes to death.

In his engaging and conversational style, Ted Rulseh details each of these challenges and proposes achievable solutions. He draws on personal experience, interviews, academic research, and government reports to describe the state of the lakes, the stresses they are under, and avenues to successful lakeside living for a sustainable future. Ripple Effects will be a go-to source for all who love lakes and who advocate for their protection; its driving question is summed up by one of Rulseh’s interviewees: “We love this lake. What can we do to keep it healthy?”

What is the work that music festivals do in the world? In asking this question, Ripple Effects explores the varied ways in which festivals can act as spaces where new social relations are cultivated, as places for envisioning and enacting repertories of embodied memory and care, as alternatives to fragmented private consumption of culture, as sites for unexpected conversations.

While some case studies discuss structures of dominance inside mammoth corporate-sponsored festivals, other chapters find insubordinate spaces in festivals designed to honor traditional folk musics, to protest the proliferation of nuclear weapons, to deploy cultural exchanges in defiance of Cold War politics, to build pan-African unity, and to embrace the links between humans and the more-than-human world.

Ripple Effects brings together leading and emerging scholars, artists, and arts presenters to consider the challenges, rewards, and responsibilities associated with the improvisational culture and ethos of music festivals as alternative public spheres.

Contributors: Amina Boubia, Jody H. Cripps, Chris Dodd, Ben Finley, Simon Frith, Maria Giaever Lopez, Chris Greencorn, Jo Haynes, Michael J. Kramer, David A. McDonald, Patricia Nicholson, Melissa Noventa, William Parker, Jeremy Reed, Andrew Snyder, Cheryl Thompson, Steve Waksman, Katharine White, Deborah Wong, and the editors.