“Exploring Korea” series honored for chronicling 72 Milwaukee-connected stories across generations

The Milwaukee Press Club awarded “Milwaukee Independent” top honors for excellence in Wisconsin journalism for its flagship 2024 editorial project, recognizing the 72-part series “Exploring Korea: Stories from Milwaukee to the DMZ and across a Divided Peninsula” with a Gold award for Best Explanatory Series.

The accolade, announced during the 95th Annual Gridiron Awards on May 9, marks a significant milestone for the publication’s most ambitious work to date. Spanning more than 117,000 words and 2,200 images, the series ran in October 2024 and traced deep-rooted connections between the Korean Peninsula and Milwaukee, a relationship rarely acknowledged in mainstream media.

Told through the lives of nearly two dozen individuals with direct ties to Korea, “Exploring Korea” offered readers a rare glimpse into the global intersections that shape our local community.

At its heart was the editorial tagline: Milwaukee Voices. Korean Experiences.

From Milwaukee’s North Side to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the reporting team documented personal, cultural, and historical narratives that reflected how the city’s Korean diaspora, alongside the veterans, adoptees, and artists who have built meaningful lives across continents and generations.

The stories shared intimate perspectives on identity, migration, memory, and conflict, positioning Milwaukee not as a bystander to history but as an active participant in its unfolding.

A second Gold award also singled out an individual installment in the series that profiled artist Jason S. Yi, whose sculptural work and photography confront questions of immigration, belonging, and cultural inheritance. His feature joined a broader mosaic of interviews across the series, including a rare interview with a North Korea defector, whose stories speak to the legacies of war, displacement, and discovery.

Among those featured were Korean adoptees like Jessica Boling and Emma Daisy Gertel, artists such as SeonJoo So Oh and Jinseon Kim, veterans including Dick Cavalco and Glenn Dohrmann, and Milwaukee figures whose lives intersected with Korea through education, humanitarian work, and family ties. John T. Chisholm, Pastor Heechang Kang, Hyunjoo Han, Hoyoon Min, Tina Melk, Rick Wood, all represented deeply different but connected stories that formed a cohesive lens into Milwaukee’s quiet but powerful relationship with Korea.

“Exploring Korea” was also more than a collection of portraits. Structured across 72 parts, the series guided readers through interwoven personal histories, cultural reflections, and geopolitical realities. It brought context to the post-war migration waves that shaped Milwaukee’s Korean American presence, highlighted the complex identity journeys of Korean adoptees raised in the Midwest, and revisited memories of military service along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, where local veterans guarded one of the world’s most fortified borders.

In a media landscape often driven by rapid cycles and reactive coverage, “Exploring Korea” stands out for its deliberate pace and immersive scope. Rather than a one-off feature, the project built a sustained platform for reflection on language, lineage, separation, and reunion across continents and generations.

For “Milwaukee Independent,” the award affirms not just editorial excellence, but a deep investment in journalism that bridges local and international narratives. By amplifying voices often left out of regional reporting, the series leaves behind more than headlines. It becomes a record of community memory.

As the local news organization continues its coverage into 2025, recognition of the series serves as both an endpoint and a foundation. “Exploring Korea” is no longer just a special series. It is now a benchmark for Wisconsin media, one that redefines what local journalism can accomplish when it follows the thread of a story as far as it leads.