Hello, Neighbor! I want to let you know that I'm happy to water your plants while you’re out of town. I can take in your mail, too, and shovel if it snows. I’m here if you need help, and to let you know if you’ve left a light on inside your car.... |
Let me be the first to welcome you here, to this special issue of Wisconsin People & Ideas on the theme of Finding Home. Each of you is an honored guest in this conversation.
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Born and raised a New Yorker, I have strong opinions about what makes for a proper bagel. My mother was the culture-bearer of my family’s Yiddish roots. |
There is a tradition in every culture that brings people together to share food. In the stories of our foodways, we find a sense of belonging, both in the specifics of a place and in the diversity of a community. |
Dorm A at Green Bay Correctional Institution was one hundred and twelve beds arranged in rows, separated from a dayroom with four phones, a bank of showers, and a few televisions mounted too high on the wall. |
Rural housing in Wisconsin is as diverse as the landscapes of the state and the people who live in it.
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“Adam. It’s Fred Reed. When you come up for air, give me a call.” Over the course of a decade, I received that voicemail more than 100 times.
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The idea of home has never been a stable, physical place for me. When I was born, a war decided by leaders on the other side of the globe shaped every aspect of my family's life. |
When I was a kid, my family cherished our trips Up North to the family cabin. We went as often as we could. |
Beneath the heel pad of Wisconsin’s open palm (kitty-corner its frostbitten thumb) the bluffs of Dubuque clasp the cuff of Illinois with a rail bridge that pivots like a toggle.
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Milwaukee artists Marna Brauner and Hai Chi Jihn collaborated to create “a cabinet of curiosities” in an exhibition called Curio.
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Lillian Luft’s exhibition Deliberate Acts is inspired by river ecology and the environmental consequences of the 19th-century pearl button industry. |
Tom Antell’s paintings delve into cartoon imagery and dark humor, playing out absurd, colorful allegories to present an alternative view of American history and the traditional symbols of exceptionalism and bounty.
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With their flat forms, vibrating patterns, and explosions of color, Romano (“Mano”) Johnson’s large-scale works fill the room with energy and power.
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The word community comes up almost as frequently as the word book in a conversation with Tracy Grigus, owner of The Shade Tree, a former Book World store on the main drag in Minocqua.
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You can’t miss it. Standing just blocks from the state capitol in downtown Madison, Bayview’s townhouses and apartment units announce themselves with vibrant colors: peacock blue, poppy red, burnt orange, earthy green. |
It began with a cough. It came from the next room, formerly their daughter’s but now the “guest” room, though they rarely had guests.
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