Author: NNS

Ex Fabula Fellow Chelsea Tokuno originally shared this story about her experience as the only person of color in a women’s book club on March 8 at the Zeidler Center for Public Discussion, as part of a series on Interrupting Racism.

Mirjan Abdul Ghaffar recently told her friend and mentor Cindy Angelos that her heart hurt. Alarmed, Angelos asked Abdul Ghaffar if she needed a doctor. But Abdul Ghaffar, who is still learning to express herself in English, explained that the pain came from her sorrow over not belonging to any place. What she said is, “There’s no place that’s my home,” meaning she was “homesick and heartsick and lonely,” Angelos said. It may be quite a while before Abdul Ghaffar feels like she belongs in her lower flat just south of the Lincoln Village neighborhood. Refugees from Myanmar, she...

Near West Side Partners Inc. (NWSP) and representatives from its five anchor institutions announced Tuesday the Near West Side Economic Development “Challenge Fund,” a $5 million, three-year fundraising and investment initiative. The goal of the Challenge Fund is to create sustainable sources of investment for the Near West Side, explained NWSP Executive Director Keith Stanley. “The Challenge Fund will provide critical resources for us to invest in priority projects in the Near West Side,” Stanley added. NWSP is a nonprofit organization working with five anchor institutions: Aurora Health Care, Harley-Davidson, Marquette University, MillerCoors and Potawatomi Business Development Corp. Its...

America Works, a nationwide organization that connects job seekers and employers, recently held its first large-scale job fair in Milwaukee’s central city. The employment event, which focused on connecting people with jobs in the transportation industry, drew almost 100 companies. About 1,100 out-of-work and struggling Milwaukee residents attended the event, which was held at North Division High School, 1011 W Center St. The school’s hallways and tables were crowded throughout the day as people spoke with employers and filled out job applications. Deshawn Nabors, who most recently worked at Habitat for Humanity for five years doing home demolition, has...

A transformation has occurred along 46th street from Center Street to North Avenue in the heart of the Sherman Park neighborhood, where homeowners have completed various home improvement projects such as repairing their roofs and replacing gutters and windows. The rejuvenation along this small stretch has been spurred in part by the renovation of eight homes on the street by Milwaukee Rising, a campaign to improve the real estate market in Milwaukee by addressing the disproportionate number of foreclosures in Sherman Park. “They are reinvesting in their homes because the neighborhood will not be so transient,” said Toni Wagner,...

Undeterred by rain, hundreds of people, including state and local leaders, gathered in the Supermercado El Rey pedestrian plaza, 916 S. Cesar E. Chavez Drive, for the unveiling of a statue of labor activist and Mexican-American civil rights leader Cesar E. Chavez. “Cesar E. Chavez Drive showcases the best of the Latino community here, and there couldn’t be a more fitting location for this statue,” said District 12 Alderman Jose Perez, who was credited with helping spur the revitalization of Cesar E. Chavez Drive, once known simply as South Sixteenth Street. Perez pushed for a streetscape redesign of the...