Black Lens Kick Off & More about 2022 Milwaukee Film Festival

If you are a Milwaukee native or a film fanatic, we are almost positive that you’ve heard about the annual Milwaukee Film Festival. It is officially back onsite for in-person screenings! That’s great, right?! But have you heard of the Black Lens extension of the festival?

Created in 2014, Black Lens has a focal spotlight on Black film and filmmakers. While exploring stories in relation to Black roots and culture, these films are relevant to a wide array of different demographics—including you. How do we know? You’ll have to check it out to see for yourself.

The Black Lens Kick Off event started off with light food and refreshments while soothing music set the tone for the event. We were then greeted by the hostess with the mostest, Lexi S. Brunson  [owner & active editor-in-chief of CopyWrite Magazine], who then introduced us to the co-founder of Black Lens, Donte McFadden and Chief Innovation Officer, Geraud Blanks. During the event we had our first look at the trailers for the featured films with Black Lens this year. We were then engaged in a range of activities during the entirety of the event including trivia whereas guests had the opportunity to win prizes, tickets, merchandise and more. They even previewed an episode of Black Reelness, the Black Lens Podcast. 

Here are a few stills from films we can’t wait to see:

QUEEN OF GLORY

Director: Nana MensahUnited States | 2021 | 1 Hr. 18 Min.

BEBA

Director: Rebeca HunttUnited States, Mexico | 2021 | 1 Hr. 19 Min.

BITCH ASS

Director: Bill PosleyUnited States | 2022 | 1 Hr. 25 Min.

Director: Bill PosleyUnited States | 2022 | 1 Hr. 25 Min.

While in attendance at the Black Lens Kick Off, we got a chance to speak with Tiera Trammell from Milwaukee Film + Black Lens. 

Can you tell me a little about what we can expect from this year's Black Lens/Milwaukee Film festival?

“The Black love through Black Lens short series where they showcase Black filmmakers and Black actresses. It gives us a sense of who they are on and off the screen. The short series works to amplify their voices and really show them in a light of love and support rather than the traumatic images that we’re used to seeing. The documentaries are also a hot spot for the people.”

What was your inspiration for wanting to be part of something like this?

“What we noticed in Milwaukee was that, Black people like film too. And there was a lack of Black representation in film and around Milwaukee through film outlets. Being a part of the Black Lens program, we really get to go into communities, go into schools and actually reach the people in the community to provide this resource to people in our neighborhood.” 

While most of the film fest will be screened at Milwaukee Film’s Oriental Theater, they’re able to pour back into the north side community, Black stakeholders, and creatives doing these types of events. Black Lens brings film back to our community. 

We’ve piqued your interest and you want to know “How can I help?” Come out and support! While donations and monetary support is always welcomed, the major investors are impacted by seeing how beneficial these types of events are for our people. It further shows that we need these types of resources in our community and by just merely showing up, that’s affirmation that this genre of interest does, in fact, exist and is, in fact, an important factor of the culture. 

We hope to see you at this years’ Milwaukee Film festival running April 21st through May 5th. 

Show up and show out!

Get your tickets here!

Imani for /CW

Feel the SHIFT! CopyWrite Magazine Issue 19: Shape Shifting | Official Drop 4-15-22

SHAPE SHIFTING | ISSUE 19 | COPYWRITE MAGAZINE | 4-15-22 |

SHAPE SHIFTING | ISSUE 19 | COPYWRITE MAGAZINE | 4-15-22 |

Are you ready to feel the shift?

Your official count down starts now!

CLICK HERE TO PRE ORDER YOUR COPY!

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Presents THE ISLAND | April 8th-May 1st, 2022

*info provided by Nicole Acosta, Marketing Director
nicole@milwaukeechambertheatre.org
414-276-8842 ext. 4

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Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Presents 

THE ISLAND 

By Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona,  

April 8th-May 1st, 2022 

Studio Theatre, Broadway Theatre Center 

MILWAUKEE, WI – April 5th, 2022 Milwaukee Chamber Theatre is proud to announce full casting and production details for THE ISLAND by Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona, directed by Mikael Burke. THE ISLAND opens Saturday, April 9th at 8pm. Preview night is set for Friday, April 8th at 7:30pm. A Pay-What-You-Choose performance is scheduled for Monday, April 11th at 7:30pm. Tickets can be purchased via the MCT website, milwaukeechambertheatre.org/tickets or by calling 414-291-7800. 

Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona’s THE ISLAND celebrates the depths of human resilience and offers a scathing indictment of the injustice of white supremacy. Inside a notorious maximum-security political prison, two cellmates toil at brutal hard labor by day and rehearse Sophocles’ ANTIGONE for a prison entertainment by night.  When one is unexpectedly granted his release, envy and empathy, triumph and loss, and hope and despair all collide in the concentrated atmosphere as they dig into a two-thousand-year-old play that explores every human’s moral obligation to defiance of unjust government.  After a critically acclaimed run in MCT’s 20/21 virtual season, this modern classic from some of South Africa’s most esteemed theater-makers is back by popular demand for a live in-person run.  

“Dimonte and Sherrick were the first two Wisconsin actors approved by Actors’ Equity Association to rehearse in-person last season when we created our virtual production of THE ISLAND,” shared Artistic Director Brent Hazelton. “It is our honor to close our 21-22 Season by sharing their work in this remarkably moving production with an in-person audience who is able to react, respond, and engage in the conversations this play sparks." 

THE ISLAND is Directed by Mikael Burke, with Composition and Sound Design by Peter Goode, Costume and Makeup Design by Amy Horst, Scenic and Properties Design by Stephen Hudson-Mairet, Lighting Design by Ellie Rabinowitz, Dialect Coaching by Nathan Crocker, Stage Management by Kira Neighbors, and ASM/COVID Safety Management by Sydney Smith. 

“THE ISLAND speaks to our current American moment as if it were written yesterday,” said Burke. “These two men, Winston and John, are sent to the Island to be broken, to have their spirits broken. And even under the most extreme circumstances, these men manage to hold on to their spirits and conviction, through the power of art and story.” 

THE ISLAND is presented by Executive Producers John Shannon and Jan Serr, and Producer J. Michael Reavis. 

TICKET INFORMATION 

THE ISLAND runs April 8-May 1, 2022, in The Studio Theatre located inside the Broadway Theatre Center. To purchase tickets, go to www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org/tickets , call 414-291-7800 or visit in person at 158 N. Broadway in the Historic Third Ward. For more information about MCT, the 21/22 season, how to purchase tickets, and how to donate can be found at www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org.  

TALKS AND EVENTS 

Pay What You Choose: April 11th 7:30pm 

Talk Theatre: April 20th 12pm 

TalkBacks: April 14, 21, and 28. All post-performance.  

For more information on talks go to  https://www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org/continuing-the-conversation. 

COVID AND ATTENDEE EXPERIENCE 

Beginning March 28, 2022 the Broadway Theatre Center will no longer require proof of vaccination for admittance to the facility. Milwaukee Chamber Theatre continues to require masks to be worn at all times while inside the Studio Theatre. This policy is in effect for THE ISLAND April 8 - May 1, 2022. For full details of our health and safety plan, go to https://www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org/safety 

ABOUT MILWAUKEE CHAMBER THEATRE  

Founded in 1975 by Montgomery Davis and Ruth Schudson, guided until 2020 by Michael Wright and Kirsten Finn, and now led by Brent Hazelton and Amy A. Salat, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (MCT) partners with other arts organizations, community-based organizations, and universities to produce thought-provoking productions and innovative outreach programs on an intimate, human scale. As a leader in developing Milwaukee and Wisconsin’s theater community, MCT provides regular employment and a stable artistic home to local theatre professionals through a five-play subscription season, the Young Playwrights Festival (YPF), and the Montgomery Davis Play Development Series (MDPDS). MCT performs at the Broadway Theatre Center in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward and is a proud Member Group of the United Performing Arts Fund. For more information, to purchase tickets, or to make a donation please visit milwaukeechambertheatre.org. 

HomeWorks: Bronzeville Development Initiative is "Re-imagining" Gentrification w/ Artist in Mind

HomeWorks: Bronzeville purchases City-owned foreclosure,

 reviving the decade-long vacancy as part of an artist housing cluster

As renovation will soon be on its way, the Press and community is invited to attend

HomeWorks: Bronzeville “Press Launch”, March 26, 2022 at 10:30am at the north east corner of

N. Vel R. Phillips Avenue & W. Meinecke Avenue.

“Community” development is at an all time high in Milwaukee's Bronzeville Cultural and Entertainment District. While this development spike has several stakeholders, critics, and polarizing advocates, its existence grants opportunity for communal investment that has not been seen since the disruption and displacement of the 1960’s. One group of creatives has taken on the idea of community development as a personal call to action, understanding the plight of gentrification with longing for urban life that respects new and existing neighbors. They call it HomeWorks: Bronzeville.

As of March 15th, 2022 the long anticipated acquisition of the final property in their piloted three building cluster has been achieved. The site was previously a City of Milwaukee foreclosure that has been vacant for over a decade. HomeWorks: Bronzeville can now begin its renovation of the south-facing duplex and quad demolition at 322-340 West Meinecke. The duplex will be rehabilitated into a two-story single, Artist Live-Work Space for Local and Visiting Artists (3-bedroom upper with lower level art studio) with initial tenant Alexia S. Brunson and CopyWrite Magazine. The quad will temporarily become Greenspace for year-round art installations and programs by Jazale’s Art Studio, MKE<->LAX, Food4All, I Am Milwaukee, and CopyWrite Magazine. 

“While others build a place and then find the people, we find the people and then build the place,” said Vedale Hill of Jazale’s Art Studio in discussing the need for this type of creative development.

HomeWorks: Bronzeville is a development initiative based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that emphasizes community development in its physical, economic, and social form by way of authentic arts and culture applications. At the foundation of this initiative are co-owners Vedale Hill, Sara Daleiden, and Mikal Floyd-Pruitt, who are all active members of the arts community. Their collective experiences in navigating real estate for their professional, communal, and personal creative practices have helped them form an effective ideology on creative placemaking and developing community holistically.

HomeWorks: Bronzeville centralizes their development efforts on specific qualities that are meant to challenge traditional practices and emphasize niche community needs including:

• Client Specific - artist and community cultivators who are also entrepreneurs

• Creating Ownership - providing opportunities to add + retain economic, cultural, and influential value 

• Stability - building directional infrastructure for communal longevity 

• Reimagining Gentrification - by changing the “how” not the “who”

• Narrative Shifting - focusing on ownership as a tool for stability and growth

• Transferable value - facilitating experiences that elevate authentic community practices + interest via a creative economy

• Retaining creative talent pool - through genuine opportunity and consistency for artists

“It’s crucial that our shared values and aspirations frame and guide this initiative. If goals and practices aren’t part of the process, they won’t be part of the product. It’s as simple as that.” - Mikal Floyd-Pruitt, I Am Milwaukee

Their collective ideology through real world experience of displacement, eventually led them to find a location in the heart of Bronzeville with a three building cluster that they will turn into the anchor home they all envision [located at the corner of W. Meinecke Ave & N. Vel R. Phillips Ave]. This will be a place that will hold all the programmatic elements of their respective organizations and businesses, residential property for artist housing, rental studios, and community space. As of 2018, HomeWorks: Bronzeville has completed its first fully developed property in the cluster co-developed with Strong Blocks; a fully gutted duplex turned two-story artist live-work space designed for Vedale Hill and family, featuring a public gallery space on the lower level.

“We seek to cultivate Bronzeville by concentrating on properties that surround America's Black Holocaust Museum in the Harambee neighborhood portion of the district. We honor the re-emergence of the museum as a beacon for change and an archive of pertinent history for this community” - Sara Daleiden, MKE<->LAX

Homeworks: Bronzeville notes that without active collaboration reviving the site's decade-long vacancy under this type of incentive would not have been possible. Collaborators include the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin Preservation Fund, Thurman Grant Architect, CopyWrite Magazine, Toki & Associates, Darren Hill, Jeff Lamar Brown, Gray Development Group, Food4All, Strong Blocks and other cultural leaders from the district and the city. The project has also been guided by City leadership including Alderwoman Milele Coggs, the Bronzeville Advisory Committee, the Department of City Development and the Neighborhood Improvement Development Corporation in connection with the City’s Bronzeville Redevelopment Plan, the Bronzeville Artist Housing Report and the Art and Resource Community Hub (ARCH) Loan Program. 

Through support from the City’s ARCH Loan Program, Greater Milwaukee Foundation and Wisconsin Preservation Fund, HomeWorks: Bronzeville is actualizing on this artist housing cluster, in alignment with the neighboring America’s Black Holocaust Museum.

As renovation will soon be on its way, the Press and community is invited to attend HomeWorks: Bronzeville “Press Launch”, March 26, 2022 at 10:30am at the north east corner of N. Vel R. Phillips Avenue & W. Meinecke Avenue.

Always learning from the world around them, challenging the systems before them, and advocating for authentic progression in creative place-making, HomeWorks: Bronzeville believes “Community thrives on cultures.”

HomeWorks: Bronzeville is currently looking for investors for their future development projects. You can support them through their non-profit financing partner Wisconsin Preservation Fund.

Press Inquiries

Lexi S. Brunson, CopyWrite Magazine, Media Relations

copywrite.mke@gmail.com

General & Development Inquiries

Vedale Hill, Jazale’s Art Studio, Co-Owner

(414) 403-3000

Sara Daleiden, MKE<->LAX, Co-Owner

(323) 630-7272

home@homeworksbronzeville.com

www.homeworksbronzeville.com

About: 

HomeWorks: Bronzeville is a development initiative based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Titled by its namesake, the Bronzeville Cultural and Entertainment District, this initiative emphasizes community development in its physical, economic, and social form by way of authentic arts and culture applications. Learn more at: https://homeworksbronzeville.com/CHARTER

Happy Women's Her-story month from your /CW Fam!

We are going "Clueless" w/ Milwaukee Film for Women's History Month

CopyWrite is going “Clueless” as community sponsor for

Milwaukee Film’s screening of the movie for Women’s History Month!

It’s giving us fashion honey! It’s the nostalgia of the flip phone, mini skirt two pieces, and a whole lot of money to blow! Come enjoy classic, dress the part, see your /CW Fam indulge in the Clueless vibes, and have a few laughs with Milwaukee Film as they celebrate womanhood in every form.

FILM: Clueless

TIME: Saturday 3/5/22 at 4:00 PM

WHERE: Oriental Theatre, 2230 North Farwell Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53202

DESCRIPTION: At the height of popularity at her Beverly Hills high school, Cher has never known for things not to go her way. After successfully playing matchmaker with her unsuspecting teachers, she decides to extend her charity to the new girl in town but quickly learns how misguided she can be as if her live-in stepbrother couldn’t point it out enough.

Event Page

Happy Valentine's Day From Your /CW Fam!

Morning dime pieces! Happy Valentine’s Day!

I know we are all happy to get the cute little bears and flowers, and that chocolate that we never eat (sorry fellas). Celebrate today with ya boo but don’t focus too much on the material love. Take today to appreciate and recognize each others’ unconditional love, respect, support and growth. If you are single, take today to pour into yourself. Go buy yourself some flowers, get cute, take some selfies and love on you! Either way, show love for everything you receive but appreciate the REAL priceless moments, cause real love doesn't cost a thing! 

Alexa, play “I Want” by Devv Lo! 

Pam from your /CW Fam

Meet the our Media & production Intern, Pam Williams

Say what’s up to Pam!

Pam Williams is a cultural organizer born and raised in Milwaukee, WI. She attends Bryant & Stratton College and will be graduating in May 2023 with an Associates in Nursing, with which she plans to pursue holistic nursing and the development of a women’s center to ensure and support the health of Black women. Although her major is nursing, journalism, media, and organizing are her true passions. She has worked diligently with her multifaceted skills hosting open mics, working as an activist for local organizations, and creating a journalistic voice in local media. Pam has a true love for the 414. She plans to expand her resume and continue organizing to improve the state of Black livelihood in the city as well as continue to celebrate the culture.

/CW Team.

Partnership Content - Artist Eats: SistaStrings at Villa Terrace

Partnership Content - Artist Eats

SistaStrings at Villa Terrace

We met in early May 2021 at Villa Terrace. The unusually cold day was even colder as we were situated on Milwaukee’s east side across the street from our lakefront. 

On this particular day, Monique Ross (older by 2 years) and Chauntee Ross are exhausted but ecstatic. Just 2 days prior, they announced their farewell show before moving permanently to Nashville, TN. Their departure is a harsh reminder of the importance of creating and cultivating an arts community that allows artists to flourish and get paid. 

Their farewell show sold out in 72 hours. Another reminder of how incredible their contribution is to Milwaukee’s music scene and how much we’ll miss them. As of today’s writing, they’re doing well in Nashville including recently sharing the stage with Thee Brandi Carlile. 

Not too shabby for the Queens of Strings. Not too shabby at all.

It’s hard to encompass all that is SistaStrings in a 10-minute video. Our conversation over FlourGirl and Flame pizza and drinks from Vibez Creative Arts Space navigated the journey of 2 black women who’ve made a home in classical music with a bit of gospel and a bit of soul. 

Here’s our interview.