Our 3D Vision group is working on a community art and beautification project.
We want to beautify and make our neighborhoods safer and we’d like to use one or two of our alleys (or streets) as pilot projects which might spur more interest throughout Riverwest and beyond. In the short run we hope this will result in us being part of ArtWalk and getting a little press, and in the long run we hope this idea spreads out into other parts of the city.
Specifically, we’d like to bring art, and perhaps mini gardens, into the alleys. We’re working right now to hook up with some artists (of all ages and genres, come on over!) who would be willing to paint murals on garage doors. Property owners would receive a rough sketch of the work to be done, and would have input and say in what goes on their space. This could expand to stencils for use in alleys (or on trash cans, to encourage their use), or personalized stencils to go in front of each house, according to the specifications of the resident/homeowner. We could also do a little gardening in the occasional small patches that are found in some alleys.
Continue reading ‘Art on the Streets and in the Alleys’
5 Aug 2008 | 10:19 am | Art, Safety, DIY - Do It Yourself, 3rd District | No comments yet - Add your comments
Join us at our planning meetings. Ideas on the table include:
- Discussion/study groups
- Alley/Street Art and beautification (garage murals, stencils, flowers)
- Local currency
- Tool sharing
- Car sharing
- Better bike lanes
- Information kiosks
- Community Supported Bakery
- Community Pharmacy, including natural remedies for medical autonomy
- Small scale and community solar ovens
- Victory gardens, urban agriculture
We’re narrowing down the focus. Join us now or for future meetings!
Call or email for location.
21 Jul 2008 | 6:31 pm | Art, Environmental Sustainability, Streets, Bicycles, Pedestrians, DIY - Do It Yourself, 3rd District | No comments yet - Add your comments
Friday through Sunday, July 18 - 20, 2008
Sponsored by the UWM Library.
Free and open to the public.
Friday, July 18 / 4pm -10 PM
4-6 PM: BBQ & Baseball and Kickball, King Park (1 block from Nowhere Central)
6-10 PM: Bands play, including: Acne Attack!, Prohibition, Crappy Dracula, Dinosaur Pills, The Mistreaters. Nowhere Central, 1315 McKinley Ave. Milwaukee, WI
Saturday, July 19 / 11 AM-11 PM
11 AM - 5 PM: Zine fair, dialogues and workshops (see below), UWM Library 4th Floor Conference Center
6-11 PM: Bands play, including: Dallas/Marie, Irock Z, The Candliers, Gerald Prokop, Truthdealer, Kid Millions, Mutiny Amongst Friends, Porches, Bromance, The Vault 927 E. Center St. Milwaukee, WI 53212
Sunday, July 20 / 1-10 PM
1-5 PM: Films, dialogues and workshops (see below), UWM Library 4th Floor Conference Center
6-10 PM: Bands play, including: Number 9 Hard, Kickin’ It Poolside, The Jack Moves, The Brief Candles, The Fishtank, 2866 Fratney St. Milwauke, WI 53212
For a list of full workshops, including copier tricks, teen education, feminist and queer discussions, film screenings, and gallery previews, and a list of confirmed tablers so far, check the Midwest Zine Collective Website
14 Jul 2008 | 3:10 pm | Art, DIY - Do It Yourself | No comments yet - Add your comments
Seeing Green: Art, Ecology, and Activism: Digital Arts and Culture at UWM
Seeing Green: Art, Ecology, and Activism opens Saturday, April 12, 5:00-9:00pm at Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 E. Locust St., Milwaukee, WI.
Seeing Green encourages artists to leave the confines of the studio and take an active role with the community, to collaborate and address issues of the environment, and to open a dialog with the public. Guest curator Nicolas Lampert invited over 40 local artists to work on a project for the duration of eight months. During the month of April, 2008 the show will be exhibited at Woodland Pattern Book Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where the gallery will serve as a hub space, informing the viewer and the public of the many environmental projects taking place throughout the city, exhibiting visual work and books, screening films and holding discussions and events based around the exhibition.
Calendar:
Saturday, April 12, 2008, 5:00-9:00pm
Seeing Green opens at Woodland Pattern Book Center (720 E. Locust St., Milwaukee, WI.)
Sunday, March 30th, 2:00pm
Reading by California author Rebecca Solnit
Wednesday, April 16th, 7:00-9:00pm
Curator talk by Nicolas Lampert 4:30-6:00 / Film Screening
(Screening of 5 minute films and videos on urban ecology issues by: Lane Hall, Lisa Moline, Lindsay Holden, Brandon Bauer, Ray Chi, Laura Klein, Eddee Daniel, Suzanne Rosenblatt, Spencer Tepper, Zachary Nesgoda).
Continue reading ‘Seeing Green: Art, Ecology, and Activism: Digital Arts and Culture at UWM’
25 Mar 2008 | 9:07 am | Art, Environmental Sustainability | No comments yet - Add your comments
Here’s a cool little piece about a design competition in NYC funded by the Cooper-Hewitt and the DOT. Maybe we can get something similar here in Milwaukee. I see a collaboration between MIAD and the city.
http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2008/03/five_better_bik.php
20 Mar 2008 | 10:03 am | Art, Streets, Bicycles, Pedestrians | No comments yet - Add your comments
Aldermanic Poetry Reading & Open Mic
Friday, February 15, 2008, 7pm
Woodland Pattern, 720 E. Locust
Eight candidates for Alderman were invited to address Milwaukee’s 3rd District voters, not with speeches - with poetry!
Here are two of my poems:
I Love America
(Dedicated to the People of Lebanon, Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq)
Your
supersonic love
spans the distance
spans the oceans
comes to greet us
in the morning
Your
supersonic love
roars through skies
whistles its song
punctures the air
tells us what’s wrong
and drops like rain
Your
supersonic love
comes in so many flavors
tomahawk missiles
stealth bombers
apache helicopters
shock and awe
Your
supersonic love
spreads democracy
in the same wind
that scatters depleted uranium
and ensures birth defects
your love sets up elections
announces human concern
while creating a humanitarian crisis
Your
supersonic love
crosses borders
creates checkpoints
builds walls
and bulldozes houses with the inhabitants still in them
because a free nation
must defend itself
against terrorists
Your
supersonic love
told me a story
about
America the Great
and I suckled at the breast of freedom and justice
drinking in tales of life, liberty and the land of opportunity
but the pursuit of happiness
is a hard-core sport that needs to be won
and is just dressed-up fascism that says
“kiss your children goodbye.”
So I kiss them good night
and your supersonic love
tucks them in
and kisses them awake
with post traumatic stress disorder
nightmares and night sweats
and out-of-control sobbing
Your supersonic love
is always with us
calls in the morning
with a rumbling greeting
that shakes the whole house
comes in the evening
like rioting constellations
lighting up the sky
and will be here in the days to come
with yet one more funeral
for the ones I love
.
For the Other Black Cat
Coming home I see a small, black cat, a few houses down.
Scared and running.
Is that Kushi, my black cat?
I panic.
Inside, I look.
Here she is safe at home, and I breathe a sigh of relief.
My cat.
My cat who wouldn’t know what to do, how to survive outside.
My cat who needs food and shelter and love and warmth.
Not like that street cat.
I look up “Arab” in the dictionary.
“Street Arab” is one of the definitions.
I look up “Street Arab.” It says, “Vagabond, an outcast boy or girl living in the streets.”
Dirty little kid, little orphan.
I listen to my friend talk about the abortion she is going to have: Blob of tissue.
And to my neighbor who is pregnant and wanting the child: fetus, embryo, baby.
What is the difference?
Why does one black cat roam without food or love and one is safe inside?
Why can one child go to sleep in a country that secures her safety,
and the same country will starve and bomb another child?
Why does one sperm and egg get burned or cut up, and one gets nurtured?
What is the value that is placed on one over the other?
Desire.
If I want you, then my desire increases your value.
But the most revolutionary act is to separate value from desire.
The most radical idea is still that of equality.
—
25 Dec 2007 | 5:25 pm | Art | No comments yet - Add your comments
