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🙁 As of April 2026, Tone Madison is no longer actively in operation.

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Sami Schalk

Sami Schalk is an associate professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction (Duke University Press 2018). Schalk is a fat Black queer disabled pleasure activist who loves fashion, cursing, and writing.

July 7, 2023

Pleasure Practices: Welcome to the Age of Pleasure!

Pleasure Practices

Janelle Monáe’s latest album invites us to explore physical and sexual pleasure of all sorts.

Sami Schalk
June 9, 2023

Pleasure Practices: Get thee to a farmers’ market

Culture, Pleasure Practices

Taking joy in a Madison tradition we often take for granted.

Sami Schalk
May 12, 2023

Pleasure Practices with Sami Schalk: Reconnect with friends

Pleasure Practices

When intimacy holds up despite time and distance.

Sami Schalk
April 7, 2023

Pleasure Practices with Sami Schalk: Support trans joy

Culture, Pleasure Practices, Politics

How to help as trans people face unrelenting attacks across the country.

Sami Schalk
March 17, 2023

Pleasure Practices with Sami Schalk: Make it cute!

Culture, Pleasure Practices

The value of embracing adorable things.

Sami Schalk
February 17, 2023

Pleasure Practices with Sami Schalk: Black joy

Culture, Pleasure Practices

“We recognize that pleasure is an experience of freedom and also a measure of it.”

Sami Schalk
January 20, 2023

Pleasure Practices with Sami Schalk: Spice up your life

Culture, Pleasure Practices

In these winter doldrums, reach for a flavorful kick.

Sami Schalk
December 9, 2022

Pleasure Practices with Sami Schalk: Lean into lights

Culture, Pleasure Practices

Embracing the comfy cozy glow of the holiday season.

Sami Schalk
November 18, 2022

Pleasure Practices with Sami Schalk: Countdown calendars and daily delights

Culture, Pleasure Practices

Many twists on an advent tradition, for you and those you love.

Sami Schalk
October 21, 2022

Pleasure Practices with Sami Schalk: Apple sitting

Culture, Pleasure Practices

A leisurely fall trip to the orchard, plus a pie recipe.

Sami Schalk

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Tone Madison was a journalist-owned, reader-supported website covering culture and politics in Madison, Wisconsin. We launched in October 2014 and kept publishing our journalism until April 2026, when Tone Madison’s worker-owners made the painful decision to close the publication.

The site remains online as an archive of the work we created over nearly 12 years, but Tone Madison is no longer actively in operation.

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