Author: Lee Matz

“We got to where we are because we never once negotiated down with ourselves about what we were aiming at. And we were united in one common belief that in Milwaukee, we are world-class whenever we want to be.” – Chris Abele Milwaukee County Executive and co-founder of the Milwaukee Film Festival Chris Abele welcomed the opening night audience for the 2018 Festival on October 18, with a recap of the past decade that saw an impossible idea transform into one of the nation’s largest cinematic events. Running from October 18 to November 1, the annual two-week celebration of...

The Danceworks Performance Company kicks off its 2018-19 season with a collaboration between theatre, film, and dance in the original production of “Against the Grain: The Life & Times of Levi Fisher Ames,” from October 20 to 21 and 25 to 28. Levi Fisher Ames was a self-taught woodcarver, and a Civil War veteran who carved a menagerie of real and mythical animals and took his show on the road. This interdisciplinary piece imagines Levi on his final day, his memories, family, showmanship, and his fantastical relationship with the creatures he created. “Against the Grain is a dance and...

Community partners and volunteers gathered at Alice’s Garden on the morning of September 15 for a Blox Party to build a massive underground cistern to divert stormwater runoff in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood. The building project was expected to take five hours, but was completed in just over two. A dedicated group of participants assembled, moved, and stacked 640 AquaBlox rain tank storage modules in the area excavated for the cistern. “The Alice’s Garden Rainwater Harvesting Project achieved a major milestone. More than 150 volunteers of all ages came to the garden to build the 20,000 gallon cistern that...

The Milwaukee Fortress, one of the city’s most recognizable historic buildings, has nearly completed its unique transformation into a center for apartments and business offices in the Brewer’s Hill neighborhood. A recent media tour hosted by the Alexander Company highlighted the significant progress of renovation within The Fortress since the previous visit on March 29, when the public was given a first-look inside the iconic brick-masonry structure. The Madison-based Alexander Company has been rehabilitating the six-story, roughly 193,000 square-foot building in an adaptive reuse project to create a new community along the Milwaukee River. “This is the largest historic...

A somber memorial ceremony was held in remembrance of the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, at the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center along Lake Michigan.