AUGUST 2020 was Taking Back month!
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Social isolation and health concerns due to COVID 19 have negatively impacted networks around caring and human relationships – the core strength of our communities. In order to respond to this condition, we have planned a multi-scalar response to connect people. During the month of August 2020, we shared conversation starter kits with local block leaders selected by our community partners. These kits included fresh produce made by local growers and artistically crafted zines describing the history of local struggles and solidarities around housing and food justice. Armed with these, our community partners restarted civic conversations that had lulled due to the pandemic. At a national scale we held 4 webinars around housing and food justice that will brought together Humanities experts, local activists, community residents, and students (MIAD and UWM) from Milwaukee, WI and Newark, NJ in conversation with each other. Solidarities thrive with conversations and the goal of our project was to explore the power of conversations to unite communities and resist intractable forces of injustice.
Unity Orchard Stories, A podcast series by Daniel Macias, Class of 2021, Marquette University.
Hear this a 3-episode podcast about the transformation of a north side Milwaukee community through beautification and acts of caring. |
A podcast by Lena Jensen explaining practices of everyday life in Milwaukee's Center Peace neighborhood. Jensen walks the Center Peace neighborhood to find places and activities that demonstrate the power of caring. Participants: Tremerrel Robinson, Camille Mays,Cheri Fuqua, Christie Melby-Gibbons
This podcast discusses the idea behind caring and how it is defined in a community, and how community members specifically embody it in Sherman Park. Participants: Charles Grice, Yvette Washington, Jermaine Alexander, Donna Johnson, Willie Weaver-Bey, Bama Grice
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Our conversation starter kitsEach week a few pre-selected block leaders received a bag of produce with some carefully-designed zines, newsletters, and posters. The food was meant to be cooked, smelled, eaten, and shared. The zines were designed to raise questions, encourage curiosity, and offer suggestions for actions. Each weeks the zines focused on different issues: week one examined what environmental justice means for a city; week two discussed housing justice, its precedents and its impact; week three explored food justice and the power of food to bring people together; and week four identified ways to act in transformative ways. Photo Credits: Virginia Small
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Our webinarsTraditionally our focus has been local. Micro-local. But while local stories articulate how we can organize against structural and systemic problems, keeping our foci on larger scales could offer us opportunities to explore solidarities and intersections across geographic, social, and cultural distances. In Summer 2020, we planned four webinars to bring together residents, community leaders, students, and university professionals from Milwaukee, WI and Newark, NJ to discuss how connecting and caring across distances could help us build stronger communities.
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Week 1: Taking Back our Worlds
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Week 1 Zines
These zines were made by UWM students. They are meant to be conversation starters. We pack them in a bag full of groceries and hand them to local block leaders. These recipients share the food and zines with their neighbors and begin new conversation. Could these zines and the produce that comes with them, offer an opportunity to begin conversations around citizenship, community, and injustice?
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Week 1 Webinar
Taking back our world. Introduction to a city, its history, and what environmental injustice means for citizens. Saturday August 8, 2020, 11 AM CDT/ Noon EST Moderator: Adam Carr Participants: Reggie Jackson, Camille Mays, Anthony Diaz, Neil Maher, and Christian Rodriguez
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Week 2: Taking back our Homes
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Week 2 Zines
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Week 2 Webinar
Taking back our homes. What do we mean when we say housing justice in our city? Saturday August 15, 2020, 11 AM CDT/ Noon EST Moderator: Adam Carr Local expert: Robert Smith, Lamont Davis, Elizabeth M. Pierson, Daniel Wiley, Christian Rodriguez.
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Week 3: Taking Back our Bodies
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Week 3 Zines (Coming soon)
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Week 3 Webinar
Webinars are conversations across distances. We are inviting a humanities scholar and a resident from Milwaukee to connect with two individuals from Newark NJ. Could conversations across distances spark solidarities around justice? Talking back out bodies. How is food production, distribution, and consumption a contested process in each city? Saturday August 22, 2020, 11 AM CDT/ Noon EST Moderator: Adam Carr Local expert: Michael Carriere, Caroline Carter, Fidel Verdin, Tobias Fox, Carena Miles What is food justice in the context of our city? Give us a historic overview and explain how historical inequities show up in contemporary contexts. What are we doing (or not doing) to address food apartheid issues? List some real difficulties that stymie success?Discuss some best practices and good ways we are responding/reacting to issues of injustice. How can cross city (Milwaukee — Newark) collaboration help? And how can such relationships be sustained?
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Week 4: Action! Now!
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Week 4 Zines
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Week 4 Webinar
Webinars are conversations across distances. We are inviting a humanities scholar and a resident from Milwaukee to connect with two individuals from Newark NJ. Could conversations across distances spark solidarities around justice? Action!: Taking back our world. What is Action! What can we act? A conversation with community leaders about best practices. Saturday August 29, 2020, 11 AM CDT/ Noon EST Moderator: Adam Carr Local expert: Muneer Bahauddeen, Tremerell Robinson, Cheri Fuqua, Gregory Powell, Anthony Diaz, Nyheim Carter. How can we plan intersectional solidarity around justice? What can we do to connect, share, and resist? How can cross city (Milwaukee — Newark) collaboration help? And how can such relationships be sustained?
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Taking Back our Worlds is a publicly-engaged-humanities project that explores the historical and contemporary conditions of social and environmental injustice in the city of Milwaukee. This collaborative project engages residents from Milwaukee’s Washington Park and Sherman Park neighborhoods, students from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (UWM) and Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD), scholars associated with the Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures field school, and a group of community experts from a network of 20 cities connected by the Newark-based Humanities Action Lab organization. This is a truly collaborative project. We are grateful to all our partners.
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Funded in part by a grant from Wisconsin Humanities, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Wisconsin Humanities strengthens the roots of community life through educational and cultural programs that inspire civic participation and individual imagination. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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