Author: Staff

SistaStrings, Klassik, and Milwaukee music’s growing avant-garde, genre-bending sound were the big winners of the 2019 Radio Milwaukee Music Awards, which were announced on December 14. The non-commercial (WYMS-FM 88.9) station’s 12th annual music awards were based on 6,278 votes online by area music fans and selections of 88Nine music staff and local music writers. The top award winners were SistaStrings and Klassik, who each won two awards. SistaStrings, made up of sisters Monique and Chauntee Ross, took home Best Band and Best Album. The groundbreaking duo’s members are black classical string musicians and vocalists who uniquely combine classical,...

Wisconsin will be a swing state in the 2020 presidential election, and the ongoing dirty tricks to disenfranchise voters and place Jim Crow-style barriers in place for citizens from the Democratic-leaning cities of Madison and Milwaukee has begun to accelerate. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has been critical of the effort to remove a quarter million voters from the state’s rolls, after Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Paul Malloy sided with a rightwing legal challenge that targeted liberal strongholds. “More than 1 in 10 of Milwaukee’s registered voters would be affected,” said Mayor Barrett. “The legal maneuver came from individuals who want...

The Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) shared the warmth of the holiday season by surprising riders with gifts and pop-up caroling at bus stops on December 17 and 18. Earlier this month, MCTS bus drivers helped a “Secret Santa” hand out cash and gifts to random people in Milwaukee. That heartwarming expression of the holiday spirit was documented by TV crews from “On the Road with Steve Hartman,” a popular segment that airs on CBS Evening News and CBS Sunday Morning. MCTS followed up with a pop-up caroling event at Water Street and Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Milwaukee. Classic...