Author: Staff

Kids will be who they see: What Cavalier Johnson as a Black Mayor means to the Black youth of Milwaukee

The day after Cavalier Johnson’s historic and landslide victory to become the first elected Black Mayor of Milwaukee, he held his first public press conference from the Mayor’s office at City Hall. The press gathering on April 6 offered members of the news media their first chance to ask the new Mayor about his experiences during the campaign, his reactions on election night, and his vision for the next two years of his term. There were a range of questions, but four of his answers stood out above the rest. They expressed the significance of his election, and what...

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Klondike: Award-winning motion picture from Ukraine to show at 2022 Milwaukee Film Festival

Milwaukee Film kicks off its 2022 Film Festival from April 21 to May 5, marking the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that the signature cinema event will be held in-person and during its new release season. Taking place at three cinemas, the Oriental Theatre, Avalon Theater, and Times Cinema, it is Milwaukee Film’s second year hosting a spring festival after its fall schedule was changed in 2021. A variety of films will still be presented on a virtual platform, but organizers are excited to have audiences again sitting in theater seats. “We are ecstatic to see all our...

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Photos from the frontlines: Sergi Mykhalchuk gathers haunting visual evidence in aftermath of occupation

As Russian forces have been dislodged from their occupation of towns around the Kyiv region, journalists have finally been able to document the aftermath. The scope of viciousness by Putin’s military has been revealed in a continuous wave of images showing the levels of cruel savagery that took place. The haunting photographs and heartbreaking videos confirm what has been reported on for weeks, about the acts of violence against the civilian population of Ukraine. The atrocities committed by Russian armed forces under the orders of Putin meet the criteria for a direct comparison to Stalin and Hitler. The gathered...

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Maks Levin: Missing Ukrainian photojournalist known for documenting Russian war crimes found dead

In the early days of the Russian invasion, the photo of a family carrying their German Shepherd while fleeing across a destroyed bridge in Milwaukee’s sister city of Irpin went viral. It showed the world the humanitarian crisis unfolding from Putin’s brutal attack against its neighbor. Maks Levin, one of the greatest Ukrainian war photojournalists and documentary filmmakers was found dead in Kyiv Oblast on April 1. Presidential aide Andriy Yermak made the announcement on April 2, after a two weeks of searching. “He went missing in the conflict area on March 13 in the Kyiv region. His body...

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Scenes from the frontlines: Sergi Mykhalchuk details the wreckage of Irpin in the wake of its liberation

Since the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, Milwaukee’s sister city Irpin has been a strategic roadblock thwarting the Russian advance to capture the capital of Kyiv. After weeks of bloody fighting to dislodge the enemy from its foothold in the area, Ukrainian forces declared victory on March 28. Irpin’s Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn announced the liberation of his city via social media, which was later confirmed on the ground by Illia Ponomarenko, a war correspondent with The Kyiv Independent. “Following the liberation of Irpin, it looks like Ukrainian forces have made new advancements west of Kyiv pushing Russians...

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Images from the frontlines: Sergi Mykhalchuk photographs the people of Kyiv living daily with war

Kyiv-based photojournalist and cinematographer Sergi Mykhalchuk, has been on the ground and capturing images of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine since February 24. Milwaukee Independent previously published his evacuation images from Irpin, Milwaukee’s sister city, in early March. Thirty days since it was invaded by Russian forces on February 24, Ukraine still stands and remains an independent nation. Russia has claimed no major military victories. It has so far only seized the city of Kherson in south Ukraine, located near the illegally annexed region of Crimea. Russian leadership expected its blitzkrieg of Ukraine to succeed within a few days....

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