Author: Anna Miller

Forest Home Cemetery began tours this year for Girl Scout troops that focus on the inspiring women buried at the historic cemetery. Located on the Southside of Milwaukee, Forest Home Cemetery was founded shortly after the city’s establishment in 1850. Two of Milwaukee’s founding fathers, Byron Kilbourn and George H. Walker, along with beer barons like Pabst, Schlitz, and Blatz, Wisconsin governors, Milwaukee mayors, military heroes and captains of industry are all buried there. However, less public attention has focused on the pioneering women also at rest in the cemetery, like Dr. Laura Wolcott, Wisconsin’s first female physician and...

The documentary Almost Sunrise chronicles the journey of two Milwaukee war veterans as they walk across the country. Accompanying the documentary is an impact campaign raising awareness for the mental health issues faced by returning veterans. Local Iraq War veterans Tom Voss and Anthony Anderson walked 2,700 miles from Milwaukee to Los Angeles to cope with the depression that had haunted them since returning home. Their journey was brought to life by Emmy-nominated director Michael Collins in the documentary Almost Sunrise, which was featured as a spotlight presentation in the Milwaukee Film Festival. The documentary grapples with the harsh...

The Milwaukee Film Festival’s Black Lens program screened the film Can You Dig This? and inspired a crucial discussion among local leaders in urban agriculture during the panel that followed. A film about urban agriculture in South Los Angeles, directed by African-American filmmaker Delila Vallot, Can You Dig This? was featured at the Milwaukee Film Festival‘s Black Lens Program. After the first screening on September 24, a panel was hosted, Can You Dig This: Health, Peace, and Community Substance in the Inner City, that included Vallot and Milwaukee leaders in urban agriculture. Can you Dig This? featured various urban...

Local peace organizations celebrated U.N. International Day of Peace with a march and speeches. The event brought these groups together in the hope of finding shared solutions for building a more peaceful Milwaukee. Organizations supporting peace and justice gathered in front of Milwaukee City Hall on September 21 for a march in celebration of U.N. International Day of Peace. After the march, participants filed into the atrium of City Hall to listen to speeches by 11 prominent leaders of local peace organizations. The speakers represented a diverse array of peace initiatives throughout the city and state, from Janan Najeeb,...