Hip-Hop Hooray: A Beer-Line Trail Tale (Music on The BLT Post-Press Release)
/“La Di Da Di, we likes to party. We don't cause trouble, we don't bother nobody.”
Heyyy, hooo! Heyy, hooo! HaHa
Hip-Hop definitely brings out the best of us and makes us all have a good time, which is why we were excited for this years Hip Hop Week MKE. This was the second year of the groundbreaking week that “celebrates Hip-Hop through the lens of Financial Literacy, Health and Civic Engagement,” all of which are important to know within our culture.
One specific Hip-Hop Week event that shed light on a less talked about issue in Milwaukee, was the “Music On The BLT” and no, we’re not talkin’ ‘bout your classic Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato honey! This event, presented by Riverworks, was held on Holton Street on the Beer-Line Trail, bringing the communities of the Riverwest and Harambee neighborhoods together. Corey Pieper, Shle Berry, Jazzaveli and DJ Nu Styles were all on the lineup to perform on this family friendly evening. There were food trucks, drinks, and face painting for the kids, so there was something there for people of all ages.
Now there’s no secret that there is a disconnect between these two neighborhoods due to gentrification, which is why organizations like Riverworks tries to figure out unique ways to bring them together. Riverworks brings opportunities to the Riverwest and Harambee area through workforce, job development, also programs and services around financial literacy and creative place making. Creative place making brings the community together around their culture, interests and likes. Having an event during Hip-Hop Week was a great opportunity for that to happen because entertainment draws the people...and I mean, what brings people together more than music and food??
Darryl Johnson, the Executive Director of Riverworks, says each community has a different set of issues they deal with. For example, the Harambee neighborhood has more concerns about vacant and boarded properties, unemployment and crime, which also spills over into different neighborhoods. He says what’s needed to bridge the gap between these two communities is communication.
“Let’s have that dialogue and break what we call this “Holy Street Divide” down and start dealing with the issues of really communicating with each other about issues that impact our lives and how we can work together to make Milwaukee a better city,” Darryl said. “These are two great neighborhoods. I always say that we have the two best neighborhoods in the city of Milwaukee (Riverwest and Harambee), because they understand and they work toward communicating and working together to make change in the city of Milwaukee.”
The crowd at Music On The BLT was very diverse, with what you would assume were residents from both the Riverwest and Harambee neighborhoods. However, after speaking with a few attendees, that was not necessarily the case.
Tom and Amy Gutowski brought their daughter Ollie to the BLT event right after work. They said they live in the Riverwest neighborhood about five blocks away from the BLT and wanted to see what it was about, so they walked right over. They heard about it through 88.9 Radio Milwaukee and Urban Milwaukee. Plus they are fans of Shle Berry and never saw her perform before, so they figured it would be a great opportunity. And even though they were there for Shle Berry, they were living their best lives during all of the performances lol.
John Fitzgerald was another attendee, and he also said that he lives in the Riverwest neighborhood and walked over for the show. He’s also good friends with DJ Nu Styles so he came to show support. I saw him eating some bomb smelling jamaican food too, so that could’ve been another reason for attending (or maybe that’s just me always letting food be a reason for me to do anything lol). John was very candid with me when I brought up the topic of gentrification and the gap between the two areas. He mentioned the visible divide in class, race and crime, the rise in rent/property tax and him noticing more roads being done, bike trails being added and police presence in certain areas. I asked him how does he think the people feel who live in both areas and he says it depends on who you ask because one person isn’t speaking for an entire group.
“It’s inevitable for people to not like the changes when they feel like they’re imposing on them,” John said. “But hopefully events like this help that and bring it together. People coming together is good and not too many neighborhoods could pull this off. It’s beautiful.”
As far as the Harambee residents, a lot of them were not present. But to keep my credibility I will say it’s possible I didn’t talk to the right people. For the people I spoke with who were Black, because yes I assumed the Black people there were coming from the Harambee side, they weren’t from the area. They heard about this Hip-Hop Week event through Instagram, were showing support for the performers or attended because their friends were there. However, Lavelle Young was one person who was there for all of the above. Lavelle, who gave us his new official title as community builder (you heard it here first), and is spearheading the redevelopment project of the MLK Library, grew up in the Harambee area around King Drive and Locust Street. He says the biggest change he has seen on King Drive is that right now the prices in the area are going up. This is a good thing but he says, “We [Blacks] don’t want to be displaced too.”
“Gentrification is real, I see it everyday,” Lavelle said. “But Harambee is a strong community that is woke, conscious and committed.”
When it came to the performance lineup, we loved the mixed group of Hip-Hop artists. We already did a pre-interview with a few of the performers who hit the stage (make sure y’all check that out btw), but I also wanted to speak with Shle Berry, who was a clear fan-favorite, to see how she felt about being included in the lineup and the gap between the two neighborhoods.
“I’m a woman, gay and bi-racial so I’m trying to bridge a lot of gaps,” Shle Berry said. “I bring a unique story to the scene.”
Shle Berry said Hip-Hop is the most authentic form of expression she’s ever experienced, which is why she pursued it. Because of the way it makes her feel. “It’s so political. You can talk about uncomfortable shit...and I’ve got some shit to say,” she said. Shle Berry says with Hip-Hop you can talk about vulnerable things thinking you’re alone and then find out you’re not. It’s all relatable.
And that’s just it. Hip-Hop is relatable. Music is relatable. It’s something everyone from any background can come together for. Which is why the “Music On The BLT” event during Hip-Hop Week was a great way to keep these conversations going. Just from the attendees I talked to, it’s clear people are willing to talk about what’s going on in the community. And we all know these concerns aren’t only happening in these two specific areas. Milwaukee by itself is known to be the most segregated city in the country. And of course this one event isn’t going to make us all join hands and sing “Kumbaya”, however, it’s a step. And by continuing to be open and honest with one another about what’s going on and having real conversations about the issues, there’s hope for not just Riverwest and Harambee, but for all the communities in Milwaukee to follow in their example.
Shout-out to Milwaukee for making this important week happen. And man, just shout-out to Hip-Hop.
U.N.I.T.Y. that's a #unity!
/Carrie for CW
Riverwest FemFest 2019 Deadline Coming Soon!
/We want you to apply!!!
PERFORMERS | VISUAL ARTIST | WORK SHOPS
*Application deadline is February 28, 2019*
This year we are behind the scenes consulting with Riverwest Fem Fest to make sure we bring all the city out including YOU to be apart of the action. We want Women/Femmes of all backgrounds, ethnicities, classes, and creativities to be apart of this years festival. As a women owned business CopyWrite will stand with all of those determined to make positive change in the movement!
SnapShot Press Release: Riverwest FemFest 2018
/If you’re familiar with MKE, then you know that festival season has arrived! Art, music, community, culture and everything in between become large festivities that activate the city with an aura that feeds off of creativity and cultivates all streams of Urban life.
This years festival season has started off with movement pulsing right from the cities east side with Riverwest FemFest 2018 (which was held May 27th - June 3rd). As stated on their website:
“Riverwest FemFest is a community music and arts festival celebrating the powerful and positive impact we can have on each other and the community around us. Founded in 2015, we celebrate the empowerment that comes with surrounding yourself with people who push you to push yourself. We celebrate through music, visual arts, poetry, and comedy. We not only celebrate the feminine impact within our own community, we aim to celebrate, empower, and provide platforms for those who have been historically left out of creative spaces.”
Kendra Swanson
When our team at CopyWrite heard how this year’s festival would be pushing and empowering some of our favorite feminine creatives, we had to reach out and make sure that Riverwest FemFest knew that as the only female owned and operated Urban creative media press outlet in the city, we are here for it! To share these amazing moments with our audience, #SupportTheLocal, and help cultivate the narrative of feminine creativity is something we just could not pass up.
To get a bit more insight on what Riverwest FemFest is all about, we sat down with two of the festival coordinators, Olivia Doyle (the original founder of Riverwest FemFest) and Ellie Jackson.
Olivia: “I started it because I was just really inspired by all the women musicians around me. They were not just only musicians but some were getting their masters, or becoming professors. They were just doing everything. So I originally wanted to have a show to celebrate them and it turned into a two-day show and a fundraiser. We got a lot of press from that and it just exploded.”
Olivia admits that her original idea was to have the first showcase in her basement but a few of her roommates convinced her that it had the potential to be much bigger than that…and they were right.
Riverwest FemFest has surpassed not only its original thought but even has grown from its two-day expansion show at the late Cocoon Room, to a week-long festival of creative feminine genius.
CW: “What kind of effort does it take to organize something like this? You have so many components to it, like the gallery walk and all the different performances. How does something like that come together?
Olivia: “It takes months.”
Ellie: “Probably like 8 months, out of the year.”
Olivia: “So there are central organizers, then there are other subgroups of organizers that are organizing all those other events. Like the gallery walk today, or there was a film portion that was curated by Naomi Shersty and Grace Mitchell...So it takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of human power.”
Ellie: “And we are all volunteers!”
The initiative that these volunteers have shown, further reveals how important the community efforts to support local creativity can have on all of us, making Riverwest FemFest a must in MKE.
When asked for the best way to describe the festival to those of our readers that have never attended, Ellie urged that it is a community of people who support feminine identifying art in every form. In addition to this support all the proceeds are donated to organizations in Milwaukee that assist in the help/protection of women and families. This year’s recipients include great causes like Courage MKE, Casa Maria, and The Milwaukee Women’s Center.
The celebration of feminine empowerment had several highlights including the locally curated film shorts showcase at Microlights Microcinema (832 E Chambers St, Milwaukee, WI 53212), the Riverwest FemFest Gallery Walk, which included pop-up shows at five venues: The Ski Club (3172 N Bremen St, Milwaukee, WI 53212), The Yellow Wallpaper Project (1126 E Wright Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53212), The Jazz Gallery (926 E Center St, Milwaukee, WI 53212), Yours Truly (833 E Center St, Milwaukee, WI 53212) and The Lunchbox @ AfterSchool Special (731 E Center St, Milwaukee, WI 53212). Unlike in past years, these sections of programming were given their own shine, where usually they would be transpiring at the same time as the more active music sets that Riverwest FemFest also offers.
Ellie: “I feel like Milwaukee does a really good job of supporting musicians [like venue performance availability i.e. bars] but there aren’t as many ways for people to see poets, or go to galleries that don’t feel elitist.” (Can we repeat that? That DON’T feel ELITIST!!!)
Other happenings included Riverwest Spoken Word Night at Rise & Grind Cafe #2 (2737 N Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53212), which our sources tell us was to die for, the Keg Stand Up at Lakefront Brewery (1872 N Commerce St, Milwaukee, WI 53212) and the Makers Market at Company Brewing (735 E Center St, Milwaukee, WI 53212), that featured several local artists, crafters, and businesses. Company Brewing also is the host for the large weekend music sets for Riverwest FemFest, where one of the only local female brewers makes them a special beer for the occasion.
One interesting piece of information that fell under most of our radars are the workshops that occurred through the week that also promoted feminine empowerment and self-actualizing. “The Revolution Will Not Be Processed: A Vegan Femfest Workshop” being one of them. (Who attended? Give us all the ‘deets! Eco-Feminism for the win!)
As stated above Riverwest FemFest had much to offer, but our /CW team unanimously agreed that our favorite moments were the ones that seemed natural, where we could experience our favorite local “feminine” musicians, catch displays of witty art, and could see the efforts of the process throughout the festival and its participants.
Moments we loved:
• The Gallery Walk: We have been saying that Milwaukee is a hotbed for visual talent, but we don’t get to see it enough. This gallery walk gave us the opportunities to check out some new names, concepts, and spaces. We had never been to Yours Truly (833 E Center St, Milwaukee, WI 53212) and were quite flattered by a “Press for Progress” illustration of a female journalist hanging on their wall (Who is the artist? You deserve a shout out!). Also, artist, Lacey Prpić Hedtke project, “Spells For…” displayed at the Lunchbox @ AfterSchool Special was simply enthralling. We made sure to snag a spell for keeping our $ in our community, while we were there. We also learned that Corn Flakes may be a cure for masturbation at The Ski Club...(PAUSE). So yeah, art is life.
• SistaStrings at The Back Room @ Colectivo was brilliant. The duo’s uncensored sisterly chemistry is absolutely refreshing. Their artistry with string instruments is very unique in our community and their mastery of craft, storytelling and stage presence during their Riverwest FemFest set showed that they are creatives with that “it” factor, and authenticity. Their performance of “Ave Maria” and “Deep River” crossover, absolutely did it for us! Worrrrrrrkkkk!
• Ms. Lotus Fankh’s set at Club Timbuktu was intimate in all the right ways. Her voice buzzed over the room, her “impromptu” production as always added depth to her lyrics, and her style of blues-infused, r&b, folk, jazz, mashup just made us smile. She also made sure to end her set on a positive note, which is what this world needs; positive energy in all things.
We believe that Riverwest FemFest 2018 has set the tone for this year’s festival season in MKE. It is inspiring, it is cultivating, and it is communal, which are all things that this city really should celebrate.
CW: “Where do you expect it to go from here? Is there anything that you want to grow more as this progresses?”
Ellie: “I have been using the word: movement. I would like to see it become at least a Milwaukee movement because every year it becomes harder and harder to fit everybody we want to see in Riverwest and in one week. Eventually, we would like it to become a city-wide expansion.”
Well, we are down for the movement and we are down for the cause. Make sure you become apart of the Riverwest FemFest movement by following them @rwfemfest and getting involved by visiting their website at www.rwfemfest.com/getinvolved
Empower the feminine.
Empower the community.
#SupportTheLocal
/CW
