Staff, Author at Milwaukee Independent

Year In Review 2022: The ugly path from hateful speech to systemic violence

Posted by Staff | Dec 26, 2022

2022 began with Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The traumatic war crimes against the Ukrainian people the escalating humanitarian crisis has strained the global economy and every level of civilized society. While taking place a continent away, the war remains deeply felt across America and at home in the neighborhoods of Milwaukee. 2022 also continued a third year with the deadly COVID-19 coronavirus, but with the worst of the pandemic left behind from the previous two years. American Democracy remained imperiled, with weaponized politics undoing decades of Civil Rights work. But results from the midterm elections offered...

Year In Review 2022: Whitewashing history and a racial reckoning that never was

Posted by Staff | Dec 26, 2022

2022 began with Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The traumatic war crimes against the Ukrainian people the escalating humanitarian crisis has strained the global economy and every level of civilized society. While taking place a continent away, the war remains deeply felt across America and at home in the neighborhoods of Milwaukee. 2022 also continued a third year with the deadly COVID-19 coronavirus, but with the worst of the pandemic left behind from the previous two years. American Democracy remained imperiled, with weaponized politics undoing decades of Civil Rights work. But results from the midterm elections offered...

Year In Review 2022: When a poisoned political ideology resembles a modern-day Confederacy

Posted by Staff | Dec 26, 2022

2022 began with Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The traumatic war crimes against the Ukrainian people the escalating humanitarian crisis has strained the global economy and every level of civilized society. While taking place a continent away, the war remains deeply felt across America and at home in the neighborhoods of Milwaukee. 2022 also continued a third year with the deadly COVID-19 coronavirus, but with the worst of the pandemic left behind from the previous two years. American Democracy remained imperiled, with weaponized politics undoing decades of Civil Rights work. But results from the midterm elections offered...

A War by any other name: Covering America’s Cultural Revolution from the streets of Milwaukee

Posted by Staff | Dec 25, 2022

“It has been a privilege and honor, and sometimes a burden, to tell stories about Milwaukee from my hometown and from distant but connected points around the world.” – Lee Matz Milwaukee, Wisconsin • Washington DC • Bucha, Ukraine • Reynosa, Mexico | 2022 Back in May I wrote about how going to a country at war felt like taking a vacation from America. That experience has since made me consider the perception of war in our modern way of life, here in Milwaukee. It has been reported by news networks, going back to the 1990s, how young Black...

Ukrainian-Americans responds to Russia’s invasion with book of poetry that shares both grief and hope

Posted by Staff | Dec 21, 2022

Milwaukee’s Boswell Book Company hosted an evening with Olena Jennings, editor of “Ukrainian-American Poets Respond” on December 14. She talked about the anthology of poetic responses to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as Russia continued to indiscriminately target the civilian population with missile attacks.

Lola Vaganova: Poems written in Ukrainian bomb shelter offer a powerful witness of war to Milwaukee

Posted by Staff | Dec 21, 2022

During a poetry reading by Olena Jennings and Krystia Nora, from their book “Ukrainian-American Poets Respond,” there was a Q&A session with the audience at the Boswell Book Company on December 14. Instead of presenting a question, however, one young woman asked if she could read her own poems. Lola Vaganova began by apologizing for standing up to speak, instead of asking a question. The 21-year-old explained in English that she was a refugee from Izium, Ukraine. It was a tremendous act of courage for the audience to witness. “I really wanted to say thank you, to each and...