Cactus Club

Cactus Club artist-run music venue
community event space
friendly neighborhood tavern
(873)

Artist-run, queer-owned music + arts venue
Community event space
Friendly, storied neighborhood staple

05/29/2026

🍭🍭The Lollipop Generation (2008) Presented by Cactus+ and QZAP w/ shorts curated by SEEN 🍭🍭

✨ Returning to Milwaukee for the first time in 18 years! Screened in its first year at the Milwaukee LGBT Film and Video Festival of 2008. Milwaukee’s Q***r Zine Archive Project was the community partner then and bringing it back to Milwaukee, this time with short films curated by Milwaukee originated q***r film coalition SEEN.

📹 Filmed piece-by-piece for over a decade and a half, The Lollipop Generation is a loose narrative that pays homage to the grungy, life-on-the street subculture of writer-director G.B. Jones. Shot on grainy Super 8 with spurts of jarring video, the fast cuts and simplistic dialogue belie the subject matter of social deviants, hustlers and s**t peddlers who revel in defying society’s norms of decency.


🚫 This film is 18+ because of language and sexual themes including sexual violence. There will be a more contextual introduction at the start of the event.

📑 Q***R ZINE ARCHIVE PROJECT
The Q***r Zine Archive Project (QZAP) was first launched in November 2003 in an effort to preserve q***r zines and make them available to other q***rs, researchers, historians, punks, and anyone else who has an interest DIY publishing and underground q***r communities.

For more information please visit our main site at QZAP.ORG

👀 SEEN
SEEN is a q***r coalition of moving image makers, researchers, and curators who aim to disrupt the system of pay to show festivals and censored q***r spaces. Through collaboration with other community driven and alternative art spaces, SEEN highlights self defined and nonconformist works to build a foundation for the rise of the Cinematic Gaze/Gayz. Our approach tries to make moving image art accessible to all, while making it sustainable work for ourselves as working class artists and programmers. More information at our website.

🌵Cactus+
Our mission is to create an artist-centered model for multimedia arts education and community building that champions accessibility, inclusivity and sustainability. Founded in 2022, Cactus+ is our effort to formalize and broaden the reach of our arts education and

Friday, May 29th ˚ ⟡˖ ࣪Force (Album Release) • Poison Hand • Mindharvester▪️▫️ $15 • 6:30pm • All AgesMilwaukee heavy me...
05/29/2026

Friday, May 29th ˚ ⟡˖ ࣪Force (Album Release) • Poison Hand • Mindharvester
▪️▫️ $15 • 6:30pm • All Ages

Milwaukee heavy metal rockers Force celebrate the release of their first full-length album "We Carry Heavy Blood." The group is joined by Poison Hand, a punk and hardcore group that meld elements of street punk with lyrical emotional depth. Mindharvester opens with pure crust punk.

Transport v. 18 • whorl • Honeyboy • Language Models
▪️▫️ $10 • 10pm • 18+
Spinning out from a moving center, turning into whatever’s out there: air and relationships and happenstance and happy dance in a techno trance.

10-11 Honeyboy [live PA & visuals] drifts at the corners of dance floors between shadows cast by speakers stacks, patiently absorbing hectic vibrations – taming them and entertaining them – only to redirect them back at the freak bodies who need them so bad.

11-1230 whorl [vinyl] is traipsing through Milwaukee for a night of trippy pads and percussive synths. whorl brings a tinkering artist’s mentality to the decks and, subsequently, to your soul.

1230-2 Language Models [vinyl] stomps home through the warm darkness to wrap you in a hug effervescent with healing spells. Open up! You can trust this Language Model.

𝔘𝔭𝔠𝔬𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔖𝔥𝔬𝔴𝔰Death Valley Girls: CC Presents at Anodyne • Saturday, July 18 • 7:00pm▪️▫️ $17 ADV // $20 DOS • All AgesM...
05/28/2026

𝔘𝔭𝔠𝔬𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔖𝔥𝔬𝔴𝔰

Death Valley Girls: CC Presents at Anodyne • Saturday, July 18 • 7:00pm
▪️▫️ $17 ADV // $20 DOS • All Ages
Mystic rockers from the West Coast bring their scrappy enchantments to the Anodyne stage. With more than a decade of releases, these magical spirits are adept at conjuring elemental powers with savvy composition, catchy riffs, and careful songwriting: music for the alchemy of the self. Transform us into spiritualized gold!

Brotherkenzie • Tuesday, July 28 • 7:00pm
▪️▫️ $16 ADV // $20 DOS • All Ages
Lead guitarist and singer of band Hippo Campus further elaborates his indie rock inclinations with poppy experimentations and folk distillations. Adventurous, 'verby leads and vocal harmonies will sparkle on the Cactus PA.

Buffalo Nichols • Friday, August 14 • 6:30pm
▪️▫️ $20 ADV // $25 DOS • All Ages
Fuzz and distortion contribute a signature texture to Carl Nichols’ contemporary take on the blues. From The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to NPR’s Tiny Desk series, Nichols has been adamant in spreading the word with personal, political lyrics and sonic missions into the void. Wherever he leads, curious minds will follow.

🌵 Tickets live now on the Cactus Club website 🌵

The Riot Fest 2026 Lineup is here.September 18-20. Douglass Park. Chicago, IL.Tickets on sale now at www.RiotFest.org
05/28/2026

The Riot Fest 2026 Lineup is here.
September 18-20. Douglass Park. Chicago, IL.
Tickets on sale now at www.RiotFest.org

🎟️🎬 Don't forget to grab your tickets for ASCO:Without Permission June 3rd 8pm 📽️This is the only booked screening in th...
05/28/2026

🎟️🎬 Don't forget to grab your tickets for ASCO:Without Permission

June 3rd 8pm 📽️


This is the only booked screening in the area you don't want to miss it ✨ Read more about the film at . Thanks for covering our event

This special screening is presented by Cactus + Moving Image 🌵

This sect of our nonprofit’s vision is to create an environment conducive to critical engagement by showing work that takes risks, challenges norms, and opens conversations by showcasing a wide range of artist-driven independent media. As a series, we hope to offer a space for inter-generational attendees to engage with film, expanded cinema, and integrated moving image arts practices made by artists from a variety of backgrounds.

To keep a flow of new perspectives, the monthly programs are curated by Cactus+ as well as visionary guest programmers. We have hosted installations, video jockeys, workshops in stop motion, teen film-making, hosting screenings, and cinema studies. Please reach out if you'd like more information!

Thursday, May 28th ⋆. ࿔*:･ The Serve! Drag Competition Edition▪️▫️ Free • 10:30pm • 18+The Serve is back with a second ...
05/28/2026

Thursday, May 28th ⋆. ࿔*:･ The Serve! Drag Competition Edition

▪️▫️ Free • 10:30pm • 18+

The Serve is back with a second edition of So You Think You Can Serve!

Eight sickening local drag artists compete, but only one can win...

Don't miss this edition of The Serve 💋

June 1st screening is SOLD OUT for advanced tickets 🎟️✨ If you want to catch the film and didn't get a ticket we will h...
05/27/2026

June 1st screening is SOLD OUT for advanced tickets 🎟️

✨ If you want to catch the film and didn't get a ticket we will have some standing room available at door, but cannot guarantee entry for walk ups

🎬Cactus Plus is looking for a passionate individual to teach Take One, our free youth filmmaking class this fall.The sem...
05/26/2026

🎬Cactus Plus is looking for a passionate individual to teach Take One, our free youth filmmaking class this fall.

The semester-long program introduces teens to many elements of visual storytelling, video production, editing, and collaborative artmaking through hands-on workshops and short film creation.

We’re looking for an instructor that is enthusiastic about filmmaking, mentorship, arts education and supporting the next generation of Milwaukee’s emerging artists.

Please apply at teachtakeone.cactusplus.org

If you have any questions reach out to Liv at [email protected]

Applications are due June 16 11:59pm!💚

📡 Sunday, May 31 • 1pm • Community Resilience at Cactus presents “10-4 Good Buddy,” a series of meet-ups, info sessions,...
05/26/2026

📡 Sunday, May 31 • 1pm • Community Resilience at Cactus presents “10-4 Good Buddy,” a series of meet-ups, info sessions, and workshops focusing on community powered communications ☎️

📟 Join us this Sunday afternoon to connect with community members and learn about off-grid/private communication strategies like LoRa radio and FRS and GMRS walkie-talkies, and other alternatives to cell tower dependence!

Sunday, May 31
1:00-3:00pm
all ages • free

05/25/2026

June 3rd 8pm 🌕
ASCO: Without Permission 🎬
Currently on limited theatrical screening run, Cactus+🌵 is honored to host the only screening in the region of this revelatory, genre expanding documentary about the art group ASCO!

In 1970’s LA a group of young Chicano’s were sick of the war, the government's violence against their people, their own people’s nationalism, the art landscape that barred them and those like them. Asco, the Spanish word for disgust or revulsion, became their groups identifier.

Now Director Travis Gutiérrez Senger, executive producers, Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna and a many artist inspired by the work of ASCO being the legacy of ASCO, starring the artists themselves: Patssi Valdez, Harry Gamboa Jr., Willie Herrón, Gronk.

for more !

🎞️ Cactus+ Moving Image programming:

This sect of our nonprofit’s vision is to create an environment conducive to critical engagement by showing work that takes risks, challenges norms, and opens conversations by showcasing a wide range of artist-driven independent media. As a series, we hope to offer a space for inter-generational attendees to engage with film, expanded cinema, and integrated moving image arts practices made by artists from a variety of backgrounds.

Address

2496 S Wentworth Avenue
Milwaukee, WI
53207

Opening Hours

Tuesday 6pm - 12am
Wednesday 4pm - 2am
Thursday 4pm - 2am
Friday 4pm - 2:30am
Saturday 1pm - 2:30am
Sunday 11am - 2am

Telephone

+14148970663

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Cactus Club posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Cactus Club:

Shortcuts

Share