Milwaukee Residents Share Local Events They Want to Return

UniverSoul Circus Absent From Milwaukee Since 2012

Sherman Park resident Melody Williams said she hopes to see the UniverSoul Circus return to the city. Williams attended the Atlanta-based, all-Black-performer circus twice with her son, but noted it has not visited Milwaukee since 2012. “It had a great turnout and we supported them, so I don’t know if it was because of a location problem or if they were being overcharged by whoever was bringing them here, but I know they just stopped coming,” Williams said, They come to Chicago every time, so why not Milwaukee anymore? Williams praised the interactive and family-friendly nature of the production, contrasting it with traditional circuses like Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. UniverSoul Circus gets the crowd hyped up and they play our music, Williams said. Everything that was for us (Black people) seems to fade away.

Desire to Revive the African World Festival

Other residents, including Mac Strawder and Akilah Young, have expressed a desire to bring back the African World Festival, which ran from 1983 to 2013 at Henry W. Maier Festival Park located at 200 N. Harbor Drive. The event celebrated African and African American heritage. The African World Festival holds a special place in my heart and I attended each year as it was such a cornerstone of Milwaukee’s summers for three decades, Strawder said. According to Strawder and the Shepherd Express, the festival closed due to financial challenges. He noted that the event’s music, food, and marketplace created an unmatched sense of community pride. It was a huge, vibrant family reunion, Strawder said. Akilah Young, a Lincoln Park resident and former volunteer at the festival, remembered seeing attendees dressed in traditional garb and families gathering for performances. My grandmother was a volunteer for the festival for as long as I could remember and I joined her the last three to four years that the festival was around, Young said. Since the event ended, Young feels a noticeable loss of cultural representation in the city. The city currently hosts a day-long event called Black Arts Fest MKE at the same location where the African World Festival was traditionally held.

Proposals for Citywide Youth Reading Challenges

North side resident Brion Nash, 29, suggested that Milwaukee introduce more citywide reading challenges for youth to address community engagement and literacy. While the Milwaukee Public Library hosts an annual Summer Reading Challenge and local schools host Scholastic Book Fairs, Nash noted a lack of broader agency-involved events. Maybe I’m too young, but I don’t remember a citywide reading challenge where multiple agencies and schools were involved that was pushed by the city or MPS, Nash said. Nash proposed hosting a teleprompter reading challenge for children, inspired by the social media trend where participants read a script as fast as possible without mistakes. It would not only address the reading crisis but it also builds confidence in children and teaches them public speaking, Nash said.