Author: Lee Matz

Milwaukee officially ushered in the 2018 holiday season with the city’s Christmas tree celebration and Holiday Lights Festival on November 15, events that took place on both sides of the Milwaukee River that once divided the early settlements of Juneautown and Kilbourntown in the 1840s. Staff from the Department of Public Works decorated the 105th annual Christmas tree, positioned across from City Hall by the Frank P. Zeidler Municipal Building, with more than 5,000 lights and 150 ornaments. Milwaukee’s Christmas tree lighting is the second oldest celebration of its kind in the United States, behind New York City. This...

The city’s first rainbow crosswalks were installed at the intersection of Jefferson and Wells streets at the southwest corner of Cathedral Square on November 3, recognizing the LGBT heritage of the location. Milwaukee joins dozens of communities worldwide who have established permanent and visible tribute to their local LGBT communities. Milwaukee Pride, in partnership with the East Town Association and with the support of 13 LGBT organizations, began negotiations with the City of Milwaukee in August 2018. “We are a community that accepts people, and embraces people that we want to be together,” said Mayor Tom Barrett. “I think...

Fundraising efforts are still underway to “Save the Soldiers Home,” but the project is in the final stretch and anticipates reaching its financial goal in December 2018. More than 150 years after the women of the West Side Soldiers Aid Society raised funds give Civil War veterans a safe place to heal, local citizens and area organizations have been working together to preserve the result of that effort, the historic Solders Home. “An updated construction timeline has been set where all buildings are condensed into one phase, with construction commencing in the first quarter of 2019, and anticipated completion...

“Which is why Huffman’s gut-wrenching performance is so startling. A bundle of barely concealed fury, Huffman forces us to invest in a woman who thinks her bigotry makes her not just right, but noble.” – Robert Bianco, USA TODAY / March 4, 2015 Nō Studios hosted a conversation with longtime collaborators John Ridley and Felicity Huffman on October 20, as a special Milwaukee Film Festival event that shared stories about the creative process of Hollywood. Ridley and Huffman worked together on three seasons of “American Crime,” the Emmy Award winning show he created and directed. For her role in...