2020 Curb Pause

CURB 2020

WISCONSIN’S

SCHOOL’S IN

URGENT

Offer safe escape from cabin fever

The virtual reality of one family, zoomed in

Health professionals fight racial inequality

OUTDOORS

THE LIVING ROOM

CARE

CONNECT ON LEARN ON DISCOVER ON ACHIEVE ON CELEBRATE ON ON CHEER ON TRAVEL ON SUPPORT ON

Badger

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TABLE OF

CONTENTS

05

2020 Rewind

06 Pause Essentials 07

It’s Your Move

08 Pause That. Play This.

REWIND Reflect on our surroundings and history

10

For What It’s Worth

13

Reduce, Reuse, Revolutionize

15

Farm to Fork

16

Generation COVID

18

Love Finds a Way

20

A New Wisconsin Experience

22

Safer at Home Doesn’t Mean Stuck at Home

PAUSE Look around, listen and absorb

24

404 School Not Found

28

Tale of Two Weddings

31

As the World Burns

34

Check the Tag

37

Faith Communities Meet the Moment

39

Purposeful Pause

PLAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

Press forward for progress

40

Take What You Need, Give What You Can

43

Music That Heals

46

Viral During the Virus

48

Bedroom Beats

51

A Perfect Storm

53

Worth the Risk?

55

The Tipping Point

58

Let’s Talk

60

White Coats for Black Lives

EDITOR’S

NOTE T

Business Abby Radewahn, Business Director Amanda Mizera, Public Relations Director Holly Anderson, Engagement Director Samantha Idler, Events Director Celia Golod, Marketing Representative Brighid Hartnett, Marketing Representative Design Abby Meyer, Art Director Channing Smith, Production Director Lizzy Stein, Production Associate Genevieve Vahl, Production Associate Brian Huynh, Photographer and Photo Editor Online Ellen Pucel, Online Editor Will Cioci, Online Associate Paige Haehlke, Online Associate Daniel Ziolkowski, Online Associate Hunter Ellis, Multimedia Producer Publisher Stacy Forster Editorial support from Jenny Price 4

CURB 2020

Thoughtfully,

Cara Suplee Editor in Chief There’s more to love! Visit us at curbonline.com Curb is published through generous alumni donations administered by the UW Foundation and in partnership with with Royle Printing, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin © Copyright 2020 Curb Magazine

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

Editorial Cara Suplee, Editor in Chief Elise Goldstein, Managing Editor Molly Liebergall, Lead Writer Ashley Obuljen, Lead Writer Ayaka Thorson, Lead Writer Dana Brandt, Copy Editor Laura Schultz, Copy Editor

he average person spends one-third of their life working and another third sleeping. So, this leaves us with the existential and painstakingly unanswerable question: How can we spend the remaining third of our lifetimes in a way that counts?

Society and the world tell us that we need to be in constant motion and intently focused on ourselves in order to be productive. However, sometimes the most deliberate thing you can do is stop moving, pause your ambitions and attempt to understand your surroundings more deeply.

That’s what this issue of Curb strives to accomplish.

2020 has challenged us in ways we did not foresee. The world is experiencing a new era of unrest and uncertainty, wrapped in a pandemic and spurred on by the ever-widening gap between those debating the best path forward.

Instead of trying to sort through the noise and find what’s at heart of it, we have stopped listening.

This is why Curb invites you to join us in taking an intentional pause to reflect and notice the many voices that have gone unrecognized. In our stories, we explore the ways so many Wisconsinites have experienced both universal and deeply personal obstacles, as well as how they are staying close to one another, even during a time when it’s not physically possible.

By reading Curb Pause, you will have the opportunity to get in touch with the Wisconsin outdoors, admire the strength of local business owners and peer into the sustainable world of thrifting. The fabric of empowerment and hope is threaded through each of these stories, and we sincerely believe that together we’ll create an environment where a moment of silence can lead to a movement.

Once COVID-19 emerged as a global health crisis in March, it was easy to forget about the many other notable things that happened this year.

01

AUSTRALIAN WILDFIRES

The raging fires took over the states of New South Wales and Victoria in January, and more than 27.2 million acres of bush, forest and parks across Australia burned.

BY AMANDA MIZERA

2020 REWIND

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHANNING SMITH

02

THE ROYAL SPLIT

Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, announced their “Megxit” from the British royal family, giving up their royal titles and stepping back from their official roles.

05

“TIGER KING” TAKEOVER

Binge-watching became a favorite quarantine hobby, and early on, everyone was watching “Tiger King,” a docuseries focused around zookeeper Joe Exotic and his life as the owner and operator of an exotic animal park. “Tiger King” was one of Netflix’s most popular series in recent years, with over 34 million viewers within 10 days of its release.

06

SUPER BOWL LIV

08

TRUMP’S TRIAL

The election year started with President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate on two counts: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He was acquitted on both counts by a Senate vote.

09

SPACE HISTORY MADE

On May 30, SpaceX launched two NASA astronauts toward the International Space Station in the Falcon 9 rocket as people around the globe watched. This milestone marked the first time in history that a commercial aerospace company sent humans into space.

Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s performance made them the first Latina artists to headline LEGEND a halftime show during the LOST big game. As for football, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers before a huge crowd at the Hard Rock Stadium MURDER Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant, in Miami Gardens, Florida — back when fans were still able his daughter Gianna, and seven HORNETS to attend live sports in person. other people died when their helicopter crashed on the way to a basketball game near Calabasas, California, on Jan. 26.

A species of Asian giant hornets THE found their way to the U.S. This OSCARS new species, nicknamed “murder hornets,” created panic after their discovery in Washington state.

IOWA Not only are these Asian giant CAUCUS hornets the world’s largest ever The South Korean film “Parasite,” recorded, measuring at 2 inches, directed by Bong Joon-ho, was but they can destroy entire hives the night’s big winner with four of honeybees and also cause trophies, including Best Picture, a painful sting to humans. becoming the first international Officials removed a nest that was feature film in over 92 years of found in late October near Blaine, Oscars history to win that prize.

On Feb. 3, Iowans caucused Washington, which might be to choose between a dozen a sign that 2020 is making a turn Democratic candidates still in the for the better. race. But there was a glitch in the app used for tallying votes, and voters waited for days before learning the final results.

03

04

07

10

5

PAUSE ESSENTIALS This year, we’ve all been forced to bend and stretch like we’re playing a game of highstakes Twister, yet we gained an opportunity that we may never have had otherwise.

This moment to pause, catch your breath and get your bearings offers us the chance to mindfully change our lives for the better. These products will help you get there.

For the CEO in Sweats

For Self-Care Enthusiasts

For the Activist

Bala Bangles shopbala.com, $49 Make your steps count with these 1-pound ankle or wrist weights.

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Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice target.com, $9.99 If “Becoming” is one of your favorite reads, this journal will help you discover your own voice.

Made to Move Mask 3-Pack athleta.com, $25 These breathable masks made of athletic material are perfect for a socially distant protest.

Muse Apothecary Mat Cleaner amazon.com, $9.98 This eucalyptus mint yoga mat cleaner is sure to leave your mat smelling as fresh as you feel after a good yoga flow.

AirPods Pro apple.com, $249 These headphones are not only wireless, but cancel out the sound of your kids in Zoom school while you work.

2021 12-Month Agenda riflepaperco.com, $16 If you’re having trouble keeping track of all your Zoom meetings, an old-fashioned planner is just the thing for you.

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CURB 2020

Solid Silk Eye Mask by Casaluna target.com, $15 Sometimes the world looks a whole lot better after a nap. Try this sleep mask to catch some afternoon zzz.

Acure Brightening Day Cream and Brightening Facial Scrub acure.com, $16.99 and $9.99 Fight “maskne” with these vegan products that will make you glow.

THICK: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom amazon.com, $18.99 A collection of personal essays from an unapologetically “thick” Black woman who discusses race, gender and capitalism.

ART DIRECTION BY ABBY MEYER

For the Displaced Gym Rat

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

BY ABBY RADEWAHN

IT’S YOUR MOVE In 2021, should you take a pause, hit rewind or press play and live life in fast-forward? START HERE →

BY HUNTER ELLIS

How has the pandemic left you feeling?

I’m lost...

What pace have you set for yourself this year?

Has this year made you more conscious of germs?

Fast.

Absolutely.

Slow.

Do you take time for yourself?

How do you like to get your groceries these days?

Plenty.

Masked up! Delivered.

I wish.

Are you informed on current events?

What events?

ILLUSTRATION BY ABBY MEYER

Ehh...

Duh.

How long does it usually take you to adjust to big changes?

I don’t.

I’m flexible.

I’m thriving!

How have you adjusted to working in different environments?

Love it.

Hate it.

Do you find yourself lost in thought about the last couple of months?

Never.

Often.

Are you getting enough sleep?

Running on coffee.

ZzZz...

Rewind

Pause

Play

Feeling stuck? Reflect on ways that you have been successful in the past and implement those practices in your life moving forward. Remember that change is a good thing!

You deserve a break! Take a moment to stop what you’re doing and appreciate how far you’ve made it in a less-thanperfect year. Now think of some ways to keep moving forward and begin!

You have paused and reflected on the past few months. Now, it’s time to hit play and live life in fast-forward! Do this by implementing a new routine, helping others and continuing to learn from your surroundings.

7

PAUSE THAT. PLAY THIS. If the pause of COVID-19 has left anything on play, it’s this: podcasts. While some keep a strict rewind of classics, others seek to fast-forward, venturing to unchartered artists, influencers and experts.

Here are the top four podcasts to play now:

BY LIZZY STEIN

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s asked myself this question. Dumping relationship books and deleting dating apps, I was hopeless — until I came across Nicole Byer. Bringing her humor and wit, Byer never fails to answer the question we’ve all been itching at: Why won’t you date me?

Where to start: “Rock Bottom”

03

FOR THE CSI BINGERS MURDER SQUAD

02

FOR THE FAME FANATICS ARMCHAIR EXPERT

04

FOR THE NEWSLESS NEWSIES THE DAILY

Dedicated to honoring the “messiness of being human,” this podcast celebrates individuality and innovation through a fresh lens. Actor Dax Shepard relays struggle, strength and success in ways we can all connect to, successfully branding him the “Armchair Expert.”

Where to start: “Jon Bon Jovi”

Grab your trench coat and badge If you’re going to start your day off as you ride with retired cold-case with anything, make it this. Timed investigator Paul Holes and inves- perfectly with your morning brew, tigative journalist Billy Jensen in “The Daily” serves the hardest scoop a hands-on attempt to solve the in the easiest way. Host and jourgreatest of unsolved murder mys- nalist Michael Barbaro is sure to teries. Warning: not for those prone deliver all today’s facts before you even walk out your door. to nightmares.

Where to start: “What Happened to Where to start: “What Happened to Carole Baskin’s Husband Don Lewis?” Daniel Prude?”

8

CURB 2020

ILLUSTRATION BY CHANNING SMITH

01

FOR THE HOPELESS ROMANTICS WHY WON’T YOU DATE ME?

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PHOTOGRAPH PHOTOGRAPH BY

BY WILL WILL CIOCI CIOCI

Demonstrators call for a policefree campus during a march organized by the UW–Madison BIPOC Coalition.

10

CURB 2020

FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH Two generations of Madison protest culture collide

BY WILL CIOCI

W

illiam A. Draves arrived the country in a reckoning over racial at the University of injustice. A new generation of students Wisconsin’s flagship have stepped into their roles as citizens campus in 1969, at the and changemakers, walking in the height of the Vietnam War. A transfer footsteps of those that came before student from a small liberal arts school them and grappling with a foe that, to in Minnesota, he had been looking for them, feels larger and more deeply firsthand experience in the co-ops he rooted than the war abroad. had studied in class and found one Like Draves, current UW‑Madison on the shores of Lake Mendota. The senior Tarah Stangler came to school campus was an epicenter for social in search of something new. From a revolution then, Draves remembers, small town in Minnesota, the daughter where the progressive “countercul- of a Korean immigrant and a white ture” of the time was really, perhaps, American, she has always been active in protests and social justice movements. the majority philosophy.

The anti-war movement was in At college in Chicago, Stangler was full swing. Protests were ubiquitous, struggling to find the community and Draves was eager to help. He says and opportunities she had hoped for he was “half observer and half on when the Wisconsin Idea — the UW’s the second line” of the protests. He guiding notion that education from organized an event in his hometown of the university should influence the Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, and invited world beyond the classroom — piqued his cousin, Peter Tork of the Monkees, her interest. to speak about the Vietnamese national Stangler was living on State Street liberation movement. He traveled to in Madison when George Floyd was Washington D.C., with a group of killed by police in her home state. other students to protest the federal As crowds of protesters and police government. He made sandwiches for gathered outside her window, she got striking Teaching Assistants. a call from a friend in her community “I was torn between going to class and nonprofit leadership program and going out on the streets. Not to who knew she had training as a street do something so much on the streets, medic. She did not hesitate.

“You make community really fast but to learn something,” Draves says.

Now, half a century after that when you’re trying to scrub each movement for peace culminated in other’s eyes out from the pepper a deadly bombing at the university’s spray,” Stangler says.

Army Math Research Center in Sterling Looking back now, Draves sees the Hall, the UW–Madison campus once 1960s peace movement’s story as a again finds itself in the midst of a social success, if not a perfect victory. In the revolution. Sparked by the killing of end, he says, students’ efforts to end the George Floyd in late May and sustained war made a difference. Their clear-cut through the summer and beyond by demands — an end to the war — make relentless devotion and a string of new for an easy way to measure that success.

“The protests saved thousands violence at the hands of police officers, protests have wracked the city and of American lives, and hundreds

of thousands of Vietnamese lives,” Draves says.

Troy Reeves sees things differently.

Reeves has been head of the oral history program at the UW–Madison Archives since 2007. As part of his job, he interviews alumni and community members to get their account of campus events like the anti-war protests and the Sterling Hall bombing.

He views the protests as one aspect of a broader movement for students’ rights to be part of the university’s decision making, such as the choice to allow recruiters for Dow Chemical Company, which made napalm for the war, onto campus. Also included in that era is the Black Student Strike of 1969, which led to the creation of the university’s African American Studies Department and little else, despite a considerable list of demands. In his mind, students did not achieve the change they were after.

“In the end, I think the structures that were in power before the war stayed in power,” Reeves says. “It’s still a faculty– and administrationdriven campus. It was in 1964, it was in 1974 and it is in 2020.”

The question of how students seek to be heard and taken seriously on such a campus is a contentious one, with a tragic history at UW–Madison.

On Aug. 24, 1970, at 3:42 a.m., a bomb set by four students in a stolen university van exploded outside Sterling Hall.

The target was the Army Mathematics Research Center, which was housed in the building. The explosion destroyed almost everything but the math lab, and killed Robert Fassnacht, a 33-year-old postdoctoral student and father of three.

Reeves says that in his interviews, almost everyone can recount the

REWIND

11

12

CURB 2020

PHOTOGRAPH BY J.D. PATRICK, WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES

While protesting against Dow Chemical in October 1967 for its production of napalm, a destructive Vietnam War weapon, two student activists take a break to hit the books.

were kind of laughing, because I think supremacy,” Stangler says. there’s all sorts of documentation The breadth of that goal, in her on the war-related things that some mind, sets the current movement people were doing in this building, apart from the anti-war protests of resulting in who knows how many half a century ago.

“They knew that they wanted out Vietnamese deaths,” Draves says of some of his friends at the time. “So of the war. There wasn’t a simple way they were kind of laughing — until a to get there but it was a simple ask.

And for us, what we’re asking is for police officer informed them.”

Students and residents of Madison the university to address the history faced a similar dilemma, though to of white supremacy,” she says. “We’re lesser extremes, this summer as some asking for people to change a way of protests against racial injustice and life that has existed in this country for police brutality turned violent. On so long. It’s not like we’re just saying, one night in June, demonstrators ‘We want the war on BIPOC people to toppled iconic statues around the end.’ Well, what does that look like?

Wisconsin State Capitol building and We don’t know what a time when there assaulted a state senator. That mode isn’t racism in the country looks like.”

Translating those lofty goals into of protest makes some students like tangible change is difficult. With so Jayda Griffin uncomfortable.

“There’s a lot of people that are much ground to cover, there is plenty going out and being violent, which I of room for disagreement and sticking can understand the frustration, but points. Some of the coalition’s demands, I don’t think that it’s necessarily the like the removal of the university’s right way to approach a situation,” iconic Abraham Lincoln statue at the says Griffin, a UW–Madison junior top of Bascom Hill, or abolishing the from Racine and a member of the campus police force, have been met Wisconsin Black Student Union. with strong pushback from other But to both Griffin and Draves, segments of the student body. public perceptions of their respective “I know that I want police reform. But activist movements were unfairly there’s some people out there that want colored by bad actors and what Draves the police completely abolished, which calls a “guilt-trip on a generation” after I don’t think is right,” Griffin says. “I the Sterling Hall bombing. don’t know the common goal of people “I feel like with any movement, right now. I think that’s a problem.”

For all the difficulties in fighting somehow we get skewed out of proportion, because there are people systemic racism, Stangler seems that take it way too far,” Griffin says. optimistic. She says the coalition has For Stangler’s part, on-campus been successful in building its platform activism is about making noise. Near and the necessary relationships the end of the summer she and to make change. The group takes sound of the blast. One subject claims a number of other UW–Madison inspiration from the campus’ past to have heard it from 17 miles away. students organized a local march protest movements, she says.

Draves was instantly awake.

“It leaves a legacy behind that is to coincide with the anniversary of “We did know immediately upon the 1963 March on Washington. The something that future student activists hearing of [Fassnacht’s] death, that university took notice of the event, can look back on or look at and think: this was different, and not good for and the students decided “then and They were able to do this,” Stangler the peace movement,” Draves says. there” to be a formal activist group, says. “They were able to organize, even “Protests kept going, but they were the UW BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and if it meant that their words weren’t more sober, and we were no longer People of Color) Coalition, in order to heard. They made enough of an impact perceived by others as being all right “utilize [that] moment and attention that I can be here today still hearing that we had gotten as organizers to about these things.” and all perfect.”

Draves says he doesn’t believe the uplift BIPOC voices on campus.”

Draves reflects on the group of bombing was justified, although in his While the coalition has a list of students he lived and worked with view the crimes committed by the U.S. 10 specific demands — one of which amid the turmoil of the 1960s and ’70s, government during the war far outweigh is for the university to revisit the and comes up with some defining traits. those of the peace movement. Though unfulfilled demands of the 1969 “One, we were and still are unintended, Fassnacht’s death changed Black Student Strike — their overall optimistic. Two, change-oriented. And the meaning of the bombing for many, goal is a bit more difficult to itemize then three, democratic and embracing and act upon. diversity,” he says. including some in Draves’ circle.

“When they heard the explosion, “The biggest enemy we have to He sees all of those things in the they went over to see it. And they just fight is the comfortability that people young people on the streets today. X assumed nobody was injured, so they have with accepting systems of white

REDUCE, REUSE, REVOLUTIONIZE Female farmers cultivate sustainability and equality

BY CHANNING SMITH

Dela Ends loves to experiment in the kitchen with all the fresh vegetables she grows. Scotch Hill’s website features some of her favorite recipes.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHANNING SMITH

F

ood and wine. That’s the foun- community, Kivirist was excited and dation of Soil Sisters, Dela eager to meet a group of like-minded Ends says. Ends and I sit on women. the patio outside her house “We had no agenda, no master plan. on Scotch Hill Farm in Brodhead, We just thought, ‘Let’s gather,’ and Wisconsin, about 40 minutes south of not surprisingly, we wanted to gather Madison. The top of her sunburned again,” Kivirist says. nose pokes out from her gray cloth About a dozen women met for mask, the marking of long days in the dinner on Kivirist’s farm that first sun. An array of plants in mismatched night. Some were organic farmers, pots decorate the patio among the first some were gardeners, some were of falling autumn leaves. At Ends’ feet, homesteaders, but they all had a an old Jack Russell terrier and a corgi passion for sustainability. puppy whip around, competing for her While the group has its roots in attention. The dogs are in good com- a simple social gathering, the Soil pany with the sheep, pigs and chickens Sisters are not afraid to get their who also call this farm home. hands dirty. Collectively, the group has Although the world paused to curb successfully sued for the right to sell the coronavirus, the hard work of home-baked goods in Wisconsin, one running a farm doesn’t stop. Farmers sister has run for both the state Senate like Ends continue to work long days and Assembly, others have served with seed trials, harvesting crops and as town clerk and treasurer, started tending to her animals. Luckily, she has over a dozen CSAs (communitythe Soil Sisters as a network of support. supported agriculture farms) and Soil Sisters is a group of female other farm-related enterprises, and farmers assembled by Lisa Kivirist advocated fiercely for sustainability in the fall of 2008. After attending a and independent farming. women in farming workshop at the While the pandemic hasn’t made Willy Street Co-op in Madison, Kivirist things easier for the Soil Sisters, they went home, dug out a map and drew are finding ways to pivot and adapt. an hour’s drive radius around her own April Prusia shifted her farmstay farm. She identified all the women- to long-term rentals. Jen Riemer owned farms in her area and invited of Riemer Family Farm now offers the owners to a potluck dinner. curbside pickup and delivery of her “So, we just started sharing thoughts selection of hormone-free meats. and ideas — it was a safe place,” Ends “There’s a lot of creativity there — says, remembering the first Soil reinventing in different ways,” Kivirist Sisters gathering. “Food and wine is says. “But I think there’s a lot of the foundation.” And as most of these opportunity because, again, people women were growing their own food, are looking for the kind of things we’ve been doing, we’ve been growing, we’ve the meal was top-notch.

Female farmers now make up 36% of been promoting for years now.” farmers in the United States, an almost What people are looking for is food 27% increase from 2012, according to that’s grown and sourced locally, with the 2017 Census of Agriculture by the an emphasis on sustainability.

USDA. While running a female-owned Several of the Soil Sisters’ farms farm in a male-dominated industry are engaged in community-supported posed its own challenges to building agriculture, a direct subscription-like

REWIND

13

“The current pandemic has created even stronger connections between people wanting to know where their food comes from.”

Even on an overcast day, Scotch Hill Farm, home of Dela Ends, is vibrant and picturesque.

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CURB 2020

partnership between consumers and farmers, which has seen an increase in subscriptions since March.

“Suddenly investing in a CSA seemed like it was another potential source of food security at a very basic level,” says Diane Mayerfeld, a senior outreach specialist for the UW–Madison Division of Extension Agriculture Institute.

Large industrial farms operate within a complex supply chain involving producers, consumers, processors, storage and transportation. When one of these points of contact is affected, as many are due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire system risks collapse.

“The current pandemic has created even stronger connections between people wanting to know where their food comes from,” Kivirist says. “It’s shown us that the large industrial food system doesn’t work in times of crisis, and we need to get back to knowing our farmer.”

Jacob Grace, of UW–Madison’s Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, agrees the pandemic has created a number of short-term

benefits for local farms. But in the “The CSA movement fundamentally big picture, Wisconsin’s agricultural alters many aspects of traditional agriindustry is suffering. culture and the farm itself — such as In 2019 more than two dairy farms shedding patriarchal norms — which per day went out of business in can explain the reductions in the gender Wisconsin, Grace says. Independently gap and the increased participation of owned farms continue to lose out to women principal operators in CSA farmmajor corporate farms, since larger ing,” the study says. farms can sell their products below Not only are there more women the cost of production for longer peri- per capita in sustainable agriculture, ods of time. there are also more opportunities “It would be easy for me to say, ‘Get for leadership.

“I would say overall, the more to know your local farmer and try to get food as locally as you can,’ but I towards that sustainable end of the think it’s a little more complicated spectrum you get, the more you see than that,” Grace says. close to equality,” Mayerfeld says.

Grace works closely with farmers While she does not work on a farm, to implement sustainable grazing Mayerfeld works with the Division of practices. However, down the line of Extension educators to promote susconsumption, he acknowledges that tainable practices to farmers. When there is a certain economic privilege she attends conventional farm events, involved in buying locally sourced food. they are male dominated. But at “I would say it’s definitely great to events such as the Midwest Organic & do what you can to buy your food Sustainable Education Service Organic locally, but I think also it’s important Farming Conference, the ratio is more for us to think about the bigger sys- evenly distributed. tems that we’re operating in and how “I think there is very much a role for to turn those towards more of a local or groups like the Soil Sisters because regional food system,” he says. even within that sustainable world, According to Grace, while the pan- there are things that are just more demic has generated some interest in comfortable for women to talk about local food systems once again, these to each other,” Mayerfeld says. She changes must be long-term to pro- uses the example of operating tractors mote lasting change. and other heavy machinery, which traThe perks of sustainable agricul- ditionally fall under the responsibility ture are plentiful. Not only are there of male farmers. human health and environmental benKivirist echoes this statement. efits, such as reducing the amount of “[Differential treatment] still very much harmful pesticides and hormones in exists. When you go to the mechanic our food, but sustainable agriculture shop to repair your tractor, they’ll ask, may be the key to reducing the gender ‘Where’s your husband?’” Kivirist says. pay gap in the farming industry.

The Soil Sisters know that advocatA study from the American ing for sustainable agriculture means Economic Association first published taking steps to preserve our environin December 2016 tracked the cor- ment, while also reshaping the culture relation between a rise in sustainable of farming. And according to Ends, agriculture and the simultaneous rise when the Soil Sisters put their minds to of women in farming. The study found something, opposition should beware: that farms engaged in CSAs, a form of “You get a bunch of women together, sustainable farming, reduce the gender fighting for a cause, you’ve gone into wage gap by one-third as compared to the lion’s den.” X conventional farming.

BY MOLLY LIEBERGALL

I

n the biting cold of Wisconsin winter, a hearty, 3. Braise wholesome meal feeds more than just the stomach.

Restaurants across the state take special care to pro- With a heated rooftop deck, Braise is set to withstand the vide customers with food for the soul that originates coming cold while offering its patrons a safer way to dine. from small Wisconsin growers. Organic, locally sourced If you’d still like to avoid public places altogether, though, meals connect patrons with farmers, a bond that some you can replicate Braise’s bolognese and other wholesome establishments manage to maintain even amid the COVID- meals in your own kitchen by calling them up and ordering 19 pandemic. Whether you’re looking for a socially distant a recipe kit, updated daily. dining experience, a carry-out meal or more, these five 1101 S. 2nd St., Milwaukee farm-to-table restaurants hit the mark.

1. Graze

4. Twisted Willow

PHOTOGRAPH AND ILLUSTRATION BY CHANNING SMITH

In the land of farmland and comfort food, Graze serves “Come as you are, leave like family,” reads the Twisted up both. The restaurant’s team puts detailed care not Willow’s homepage. Staffed by culinary experts with just into its dishes, but into the diets of the crops and decades of experience and passion for good food, the cattle. Graze gets almost all of its ingredients from small restaurant specializes in heirloom recipes and handcrafted farms throughout Wisconsin, taking extra care to choose cocktails that source ingredients from its namesake farm. locations where food is raised with its own well-being in Executive Chef Dan Wiken has catered for political and mind — from grass-fed beef to acorn- and whey-fed hogs. entertainment elites like Barack Obama and Elton John.

1 S. Pinckney St., Madison

308 N. Franklin St., Port Washington

2. Lark

5. Field to Fork

Unlike other farm-to-table restaurants, Lark uses local ingredients to spotlight the wide variety of influences on American cuisine. The word “lark” can mean an adventure or quest for amusement, which is what the restaurant’s team attempts to serve, according to its website. Fried stuffed olives to start, followed by Tuscan sausage soup and then hazelnut carrot cake for dessert, is just one combination of Lark’s colorful assortment of plates.

This restaurant/café/grocery store hybrid puts its receipts right on the menu. Field to Fork lists the farm where each ingredient came from, which lets you know that if you order The Ranger Omelette, for example, you will be getting eggs from Yuppie Hill Farms in Burlington, ham from Willow Creek in Prairie Du Sac and cheddar cheese from Widmer’s in Theresa.

60 S. Main St., Janesville

511 S. 8th St., Sheboygan

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15

GENERATION COVID Will the kids be all right?

BY AMANDA MIZERA AND LIZZY STEIN

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ightening her pigtails as she zips her down jacket, a jump off the third stair passes as an Olympic landing. Skipping to the kitchen table, a morning hug from mom followed by a homemade smoothie is all that’s needed for the long day of Miss Brettler’s first-grade class that lies ahead. This should be the norm for 6-year-old Joey Mclees.

But not this year.

Instead, the threat of COVID-19 has kept students home from school, replacing the rich experience of a classroom with online platforms, redefining learning and interaction.

For children, pivotal moments have been halted, challenging them in a crucial time of fundamental development and learned socialization.

The outcome has left children across Wisconsin and the world, at large, reconstructing normalcy and navigating the uncharted path that lies ahead.

Though stress poses an adverse impact on anyone, it deeply affects children. As school closures have increased the risk of widening the achievement gap, experts worry about growing components of inequality imposed on students. Virtual learning has targeted not only the level of learning, but the ability to learn at all.

A 2020 brief by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which uses data from the National Survey of Children’s Health and National School-Based Health Care Census, polled parents of children undergoing school closures. More than two-thirds of parents reported concern for their child falling behind socially and emotionally as a result of limited social interaction, including missing out on organized activities and personal engagement. The study also found that one in four families live in neighborhoods without access to walking trails and sidewalks, potentially limiting a child’s access to the

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outdoors — a critical component in health maintenance.

Further, a June 2020 survey by Gallup Panel found nearly three in 10 parents report their school-aged child experiencing emotional or mental health problems in light of distancing practices. The risk for children with preexisting behavioral conditions is even greater. For children of color, pre-pandemic mental and behavioral problems were significantly higher because this group is least likely to receive essential care.

As statistics of the pandemic’s harmful effects on children continue to rise, so do the concerns among parents. Jason Horowitz, a psychologist and clinical assistant professor in the School of Medicine and Public Health at UW–Madison, reflects on the detrimental, but also promising, elements of the pandemic as both a professional and a parent.

He admits the effects of COVID-19 are a “societal stressor,” which inevitably “affects people disproportionately based on what kinds of privilege or lack of privilege they had before it started.”

One trend that ties in with how online learning will affect children moving forward is the competitive pressure put on children at an increasingly younger age. It’s no longer a rarity to be welcomed into the world in a Bucky onesie awaiting the self-proclaiming bio of “Wisconsin Class of 2038.”

“In America, there is a push for more and more academics at younger and younger ages. My worry is that there might be this focus that’s just strictly academic. We’ve lost a year. We need to make up the gap and there will be this push to accelerate learning,” Horowitz says. “What I really want to focus on is, what did we learn about our community? What does our community need to heal? What moral lessons do we learn here? This is something I talk

about with kids a lot. One of the silver linings, and maybe the biggest one, is a chance to teach about what it means to be part of a community.”

Perhaps Horowitz is right: The thickest silver lining this pandemic has produced is the value of community — a community that exists within the walls of our own home and well beyond them.

“In some ways, it allows parents to see and get to know their kids even better,” Horowitz says. “It’s a chance to slow down and make life simpler.

We, as a society, are guilty of not looking or learning from our history. I think we would all benefit from being a little more humble and open to information as we form our own judgments about what to do here.”

From changing parenting styles to learning how to navigate through this new experience with their children, parents have had to deal with many obstacles when it comes to watching their children undergo such a life-changing event.

“The thickest silver lining this pandemic has produced is the value of community — a community that exists within the walls of our own home and well beyond them.”

Carol Mottram, from Middleton, a suburb of Madison, has five children ranging in ages from 3 to 13 and offers one word on how life as a parent has changed since COVID-19: exhausting.

“When all the children are home, you don’t have the outlets that you once had as a stay-at-home parent,” Mottram says.

In raising kids through a crisis, Mottram says her parenting style has

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

Sienna (right) has substituted softball practice and other pre-pandemic activities for more family time, like playing in the leaves with her sister Ari (left).

adapted to being “a more understandAmong the pandemic’s harmful ing, loving parent and trying to really effects is the lack of human interacenjoy this time that we have, because tion offered, specifically to children. we have more time with our children, Although technology has made socializing with others possible, it and that can be a benefit.”

Enforced stay-at-home time with is still a two-dimensional experience. their families can make children feel as Many parents have struggled with though they are being punished. The the consequences of their children dreaded feeling of not being able to not having enough face-to-face intergo to school or play with their friends action with friends. can take a toll on how children are able “It becomes a balance between to communicate with others. Many having to protect our kids’ physical parents have turned to a new way of health but also needing to think about doing things when it comes to helping their mental health,” Riddle says. their children socialize and maintain Mental health is a critical concern for meaningful connections with friends. children experiencing a pandemic, given Karyn Riddle, a professor of stra- the extensive time away from friends, tegic communication in the School of teachers and other meaningful connecJournalism and Mass Communication tions that teach self-confidence, social at UW–Madison and mother of two, skills and other developmental traits. has done extensive research on the “I really like being around my effects of media violence on children. friends,” 12-year-old Sienna Baldwin Despite her previous habits, the pan- says. “I really tried to FaceTime demic has offered a new outlook on because I miss them a lot.” the way her children socialize.

Sienna and her younger sister Ari, “My thoughts on screen time have who live in the Madison suburb of changed so dramatically,” Riddle says. Waunakee, have not been able to par“I’m letting my son have a phone in ticipate in many of their regular group his bedroom at night. I never, ever activities. Father Mike Baldwin says allowed him to do that before.” that Sienna was typically involved in

karate and softball, but that “those things kind of disappeared.”

For Joey Mclees of the Madison suburb of Monona, the loss of time with her friends hit hard now that her first-grade classroom has moved completely online.

“Well it makes me really mad that I don’t get to see my friends much,” Mclees says about her time at home.

Although COVID-19 has put children all over the world on pause, they will overcome whatever future obstacles come their way.

“People are resilient. Kids are especially resilient,” Horowitz says.

Though COVID-19 means less social interaction, this pause has also promised a new way for children to think creatively, as well as a chance for them to get closer to their family and community.

When asked what would be the first thing she would do if she didn’t have to socially distance around her friends, Mclees says, “I would just go up to the friend of mine and say, ‘Hi!’ to greet each other, and we would get to hug.” •

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LOVE FINDS A WAY Three couples navigate love in quarantine

BY PAIGE HAEHLKE

E

leni Tongas spent her sev- surprise him for his birthday. Her en-hour flight to Dublin, plans fell apart when she woke up to Ireland, staring at the tracker a text from his mother that said he on the seat in front of her as tested positive for COVID-19. the distance grew shorter and shorter.

“It was a terrible birthday,” Osgar says.

They stay connected by texting and She walked through the empty airport to find her boyfriend, Osgar O’Hoisin, trying to FaceTime daily, but the time eagerly waiting with flowers in hand. difference has complicated things.

After spending four months apart, they Sometimes their timing or moods finally had four days together in October don’t line up. to celebrate their two-year anniversary.

“When you’re both on completely Three couples who quarantined and separate pages and you can only talk lived together for part or all of the pan- over a phone line, then that’s where demic have so far found silver linings in I feel like you can clash,” Osgar says. the unexpected circumstances thrown “Whereas if we were together, it’s easier their way. They appreciated the new to kind of help each other through it.” ways they came to know each other, Eleni is still in Madison for her senior and they grew stronger as a result. year, and not having Osgar there with Osgar, originally from Dublin, her has been difficult. But if anything, Ireland, played tennis at UW–Madison the challenges they’ve faced instilled a when he met Eleni three years ago new level of resilience in them.

“Overall, I would say that our reladuring Thanksgiving break. The couple started dating about a year tionship has just gotten stronger, later, in 2018. After Osgar graduated because it’s not an easy thing to do, in December 2019, life — and love — to be away from someone that you’re in love with for so long,” Osgar says. “I got a lot more complicated.

When the coronavirus pandemic think it just becomes more clear what worsened in mid-March, Eleni, now 22, you want. It sucks, though, I’m not was studying abroad in Florence, Italy. going to sugarcoat it.”

Osgar, now 24, was in Mexico, playEleni is planning to go back to ing tennis professionally. The couple Dublin during the holiday season, but then quarantined together for 90 days is only cautiously optimistic. Days in Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee, after her visit in October, Ireland reinbefore Osgar returned to Ireland when stated strict lockdown measures. his visa expired.

They don’t know for sure when Eleni and Osgar made TikToks and they’ll reunite. But they view this chalbinged shows like “Normal People.” lenge as a testament to the strength of They assumed Osgar would return their bond. However their situation to America soon after he left, but changes in the coming months and it became clear as the coronavirus years, they’ll take it on together.

“If anything, it just makes you realspread and borders closed that he wouldn’t return for a while. ize that it’s all going to be okay, and “The last two weeks we were so even though we haven’t seen each sad,” Eleni says. “I feel like I was other in four months, we’ve just made crying the whole time.” it work,” Eleni says.

Less than three months after Osgar left, Eleni was set to fly to Ireland to •••

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PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

It wasn’t love at first sight for Molly Burki (left) and Anna Kotecki (right), but it didn’t take long for their relationship to grow. Now, they’ve lived through quarantine together and have come out even stronger on the other side.

When Mary Ryan worked as a nurse in Chicago in 1982, her patient’s son left her a rose and an invitation for a glass of wine as a thank you for caring for his father. She has now been happily married to that man, Dennis, for 33 years.

••• Mary, 60, and Dennis, 69, live in Madison and both worked from home When Anna Kotecki, 21, and Molly during the pandemic until the end of Burki, 22, first met in 2018, they didn’t September, when Dennis went back get along. But a mutual friend playing to working in-person four days per matchmaker put them in a group chat week as an assistant district attorney together, and now they’ve been in a relationship for over a year. for Waushara County.

While marriages have been put to Anna and Molly are both seniors at the test — divorce rates rose in China UW–Madison. When classes moved after lockdown ended there — Dennis online in mid-March and a state public sees being home with his wife as a health order limited nonessential blessing he’s grateful for. gatherings, the couple spent the next “It’s allowed me to not just see six months quarantining together the person that I visualize as wife, — making forts in their living room, mother; there’s a whole other dimen- rewatching dystopian movie series and sion,” Dennis says. “To see that, and to choreographing dances — and their see how Mary does that — keeps the relationship flourished. house going, keeps the family going, “[We found] ways to make life excitand puts herself last — it’s opened me ing when you can’t go anywhere, like up quite a bit.” getting dressed up and doing dates in “He’s just saying that because I the living room,” Molly says. made him a peach cake tonight,” Mary In mid-August, Anna and Molly says, laughing. moved into new apartments they They established long ago how to signed leases for before the pandemic. create space for each other. Mary is They had become emotionally depenmore extroverted and social, while dent on one another and had to relearn Dennis likes to keep to himself. Now how to be alone.

Dennis walks their dog, does the dishes “It really felt like my emotions didn’t and helps with laundry more than he know how to regulate on their own,” Anna says. “Just being around somedid before, which Mary appreciates.

“You’ve got to be willing to change, one else all the time, never being alone, to accommodate, but I think most of the few times then that I was alone, my all, you have to be sensitive to the brain didn’t know how to function.” needs of that other person,” Dennis Both Anna and Molly struggle with says. “Those have to come first. You depression and anxiety, but living have to put yourself aside. And I don’t together helped them learn how to know how much I do that, obviously support one another on bad days.

“When I get really stressed or my not a lot since she’s laughing.”

When Dennis went back to work anxiety is bad, it’s really easy for in person at the end of September, [Anna] to calm me down,” Molly says. neither of them were thrilled. They “If [she’s] gone I’m just in my head came to love their new normal of being about it.” together all the time.

Quarantining allowed them to pre“Dennis is going back, and it’s view their life together after college. breaking my heart,” Mary says while They both want to pursue arts careers tearing up and taking her glasses off in bigger cities, but they know those dreams might have to wait. to blot her eyes.

“We know now that if we do stay “It’s been a spoiled couple of months,” Dennis says, rubbing Mary’s in Madison, if we have to, then we’ll back. “We’ll make it work, and we’ll live together, and we’ll make it work,” take advantage of the time that we Anna says. “If we do move somewhere have and focus on that, not on the else, we’ll know that we can live difficult things, which is how we got together, and we know that we can through this situation.” handle a pandemic.” •

REWIND

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A NEW

WISCONSIN EXPERIENCE UW–Madison students recount the pandemic’s effect on campus life

BY SAMANTHA IDLER

S

aturdays in Madison are reserved for Badger football. A year ago, home games meant “Jump Around” blasting throughout my apartment building, breakfast sandwiches at MacTaggart’s Deli and tailgates along the lake.

However, that was then. Game days, along with so many other traditions that have defined “the Wisconsin Experience,” fell away because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Aside from the handful of UW– Madison students dressed in full red for the first game on Oct. 23, State Street was relatively empty. It doesn’t truly feel like we’re on campus.

“Students are struggling. Face-toface socialization is critical for mental health and well-being,” says University of Florida psychiatrist Marcia Morris, as reported by CNBC. Students are ridiculed for unsafe behavior even when reckless people remain among the outliers. According to Morris, there needs to be more sympathy for the people trying to figure out the next chapter in their lives during this unprecedented time.

A New Day in History On March 13, the U.S. declared a national emergency concerning the coronavirus, and I got sent home from Europe.

I spent the spring of my junior year studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain.

I went from having the most freedom I’ve ever had, traveling the world, to returning home and transforming my childhood bedroom into my classroom for the remainder of the semester.

Five days after returning to the U.S., I tested positive for COVID-19.

Though today there is still so much uncertainty surrounding the disease, at that time no one knew what they were talking about at all.

I would get a call every day from a different doctor telling me different things to do and giving me different requirements for how long to stay in quarantine.

This confusion only continued after I was cleared: Can I get it again? Does this mean I have antibodies? What will the long-term effects be?

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Summer of Uncertainty Will there be a graduation? Will I ever UW–Madison dorms — Witte Hall Despite a general anxiety for the get the “normal” senior year I wanted? and Sellery Hall — were put under future, this summer, I was hopeful for Reality came and I quickly realized a two-week mandatory quarantine a normal senior year. my hopes for the upcoming semester in mid-September following a rise in “Once the bars opened up and would remain a fantasy. cases among students.

“When it first happened, it really felt [people] stopped caring as much, [coronavirus] started to spread again,” like prison because you could not get Campus Chaos says UW–Madison senior nursing stu- When I drove up to campus, there was outside,” Ovsak says. “As it progressed, an overwhelming sense of normalcy. you were allowed a 30-minute period dent Mallory Marsherall.

Marsherall spent the summer in While my suitcase included a few outside ... so that definitely helped.”

Madison. While nursing students were added essentials this year — masks, TikToks and memes helped capture able to continue clinicals during the hand sanitizer, gloves and Lysol wipes student experiences as people spent start of the semester, as cases began — the pontoon boats and kayaks lining their time reviewing quarantine meals to rise they took a three-week hiatus, the shores of Lake Mendota gave the and spelling out “help me” and “save us” causing students to lose 30 potential illusion of a typical Madison summer. in Post-it notes across dorm windows.

This changed when I saw State “It’s pretty difficult on a student hours toward graduation.

Street. Small shops and restaurants because your whole world, everything that had fallen victim to the pandemic is shifted,” Ovsak says. “Not only has lay abandoned, and the sidewalks the school aspect [changed], but also were eerily empty. the social aspect. Making friends is The local art that took over the ply- a lot harder.” wood on storefront windows turned State Street into a gallery highlighting Last Firsts community goals and drawing atten- With senior year comes the impending tion toward pressing injustices. “last firsts.” Your last first day of school, There’s a grave misconception that your last first football game, your last college students don’t care about first midterm — although this one contracting COVID-19: getting it, I cannot say I will miss — all leading spreading it and everything in between. up to graduation.

“In the beginning everybody thought “There’s obviously people still living “Campus is a lot more sad in genthat [the pandemic] was going to their lives, but I would say the majority eral,” Marsherall says.

My apartment has become where be over by the time school started,” of the student body is [being safe on Marsherall says. “Then once [cases] campus],” Grellinger says.

I sleep, where I have my classes, where kept getting worse and worse, everyWhile Dane County did see I eat, where I work out, where I socialbody started getting more scared.” a decrease in case rates after its early ize. It pretty much houses every other According to The Chronicle of Higher semester spike, the New York Times aspect of my life, too – including all of Education, as of October, 44% of schools COVID-19 data tracker shows the state my last firsts. surveyed were fully or primarily online, consistently among the very worst in I stood up from the couch in my 27% were fully or primarily in-person, the country for new cases. apartment before the fourth quarter to and 21%, like UW–Madison, were hybrid, “[In Wisconsin] I don’t think [the prepare for the infamous “Jump Around” meaning a mix of both.

COVID-19 outbreaks] are due to the during that first game in October.

Despite UW–Madison’s Smart campus,” Grellinger says of the initial Though I doubt the Richter scale in Restart plan for the fall, there was still autumn uptick in Wisconsin’s case- the geology department was able to a lot of confusion over the logistics of load. “A lot of the places that have pick up signs of an earthquake, nearly bringing over 30,000 undergraduates been affected so severely are more 22 years later, students are still carryback to Madison. northern, rural areas who probably ing on this part of the Badger legacy in Emma Grellinger, a senior who has didn’t have any direct impact from their apartments across town. been working as a University Health the university resuming.”

While it is easy to note the hunServices COVID-19 tester since August, While students continue to nav- dreds of missed experiences, it is also says she was nervous when students igate new challenges, several think important to recognize the opportunireturned to campus. “I knew people it’s unfair to only blame students for ties COVID-19 has afforded us. were taking flights and coming from all spreading COVID-19. “[Alumni] are not going to remember over different parts of the state, which “I don’t think it’s fair to put the blame quarantining for two weeks — I will obviously led to that influx in cases.” on college students,” says Michael never forget,” Ovsak says. “I feel like There were — and still are — so Ovsak, a first-year UW–Madison stu- that’s a huge part of college now, these many questions: What if I get COVID-19 dent from Bloomington, Minnesota. crazy experiences with COVID.” • again? What will online finals look like?

Along with added pressures, two

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

“I went from having the most freedom I’ve ever had, traveling the world, to returning home and transforming my childhood bedroom into my classroom.”

Left: Samantha Idler, a UW-Madison student studying strategic communication, prepared herself for the typical last firsts of senior year. She never imagined that it would include surviving a global pandemic and virtual schooling.

REWIND

21

A bicyclist rides along a walking path in Grant Park in South Milwaukee.

T

SAFER AT HOME DOESN’T MEAN STUCK AT HOME Wisconsinites find respite in the outdoors

BY HOLLY ANDERSON

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he last thing Zach Roberts expected to do this summer was camp in the middle of a Utah canyon. Through a set of chance circumstances — largely driven by the coronavirus crisis — Roberts, a Madison resident and college student on a gap semester, found himself embarking on a backpacking adventure with two friends during the final weeks of summer. They invited him on a road trip departing from Madison to backpack and camp in seven national parks.

Deciding to join them was a spontaneous decision for Roberts.

“My friend planned the whole thing and another one of their friends couldn’t make it — two weeks before, they were like, ‘Do you want to do this with us?’

And I’d never backpacked in my life before, or even been out West, so it was really split second — in the moment, I just said, ‘Yeah, I’ll go,’” Roberts says.

The three friends drove 11 hours from Madison, stayed one night with a friend in Denver and then began their 11-day camping and hiking adventure. They visited the “Mighty Five” national parks in Utah: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Arches. The group also stopped at Great Sand Dunes at the beginning of the trip and Rocky Mountain, both in Colorado, at the conclusion of the trip.

Roberts is not alone in pursuing adventures in the outdoors, which provide a pandemic-friendly slate of activities. Many Wisconsinites have opted to go outside, engaging in everything from hour-long rooftop yoga classes to renting a boat or Jet Ski. While there are seasoned veterans, there are also plenty of people like Roberts who are trying new things.

“I was anxious. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life,” he says.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin’s Department of

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

“I was anxious. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life.”

Natural Resources sold about 55,000 and hope that there was going to be conservation patron licenses — which a summer,” Johnson says. provide privileges for hunting, fishing, Both Christianson and Johnson trails and more — to state parks by May noticed an increase in novices in 12. Weekend attendance at Wisconsin their respective activities. Johnson state parks was up 44% compared to says many tried boating for the first 2019 for the weekend of May 16-17, and time because it’s easy for groups to up 52% by June 14 as camping began to physically distance themselves. open. In addition, there were 11% more “We had a lot of first-timers doing campsites reserved in July and a 14% boat rental because they didn’t want to increase in fishing licenses and stamps be with other crowds,” Johnson says.

Nicole King manages Dragonfly since 2019.

Jamie Christianson is the head golf Hot Yoga, a studio in downtown professional at Horseshoe Bay Golf Madison with additional locations Club in Egg Harbor, located in Door in Madison suburbs. She quickly County in northeastern Wisconsin. modified her operations when the Back in March, Christianson was pandemic hit, which included moving apprehensive about how summer amid certain classes outdoors. a pandemic would look for the club.

“We opened for maybe like three He was in for a nice surprise. weeks in the summer before the mask “When the summer kicked in, we saw mandate went into effect,” King says. a lot of people stay in Door County that “At that point, we realized that people typically wouldn’t,” Christianson says. are not going to want to come inside Members of the club come from in 95 degrees with a mask.”

30 states, including Massachusetts, King and the other studio staff New York, Florida, Texas, California worked with their landlords to use and Arizona. People used the pan- their outdoor space at the downtown demic to spend more time at their Madison location. At their other locaDoor County properties. tions, they blocked off ample space in “They feel safer, they feel like parking lots. Instructors also designed there’s less risk being in Door County classes that could be done without than there is being in a big city,” equipment to minimize contact.

Christianson says.

Dragonfly also developed a mobile Working from home allowed golf- app to offer yoga classes virtually. ers even more freedom. Christianson While the studio had wanted to create knows some members personally who an online platform for a while, it was used remote work to spend more time the pandemic that finally provided the away from home. push — and the time — to do it. King “We have members who own busi- noted that adaptability was essential, nesses in Chicago, and this is the first both for in-person yoga classes and year they kind of realized they can maximizing the reach of remote seswork abroad, they can work via com- sions via the app. puter or by phone,” Christianson says.

“We had to think quick on our feet Thor Johnson, owner of Sister — what are we going to be able to do Bay Boat Rentals and Fish Creek not only for our clients, but for ourBoat Rentals, both also located in selves?” King says. “Our ‘new normal’ Door County, noticed a similar has been shaken ... we need to figure uptick in business. out what to do, and we need to figure “It was all kind of up in the air it out quickly.” X ... you just could only stay positive

Educate.

Measure.

Improve.

Connect.

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www.wisconsinsustainability.com

404 SCHOOL NOT FOUND A look at one family’s day of virtual learning

BY BRIAN HUYNH

A

n orange T. rex lies on its side at the exact spot on the wooden floor where Skyler and Sofia lost interest in it. Nearby, action figures with missing limbs lie face down on the ground only feet away from the small plastic folding table littered with pencils, an assortment of crumpled paper filled with past assignments and a school-issued Chromebook right in the middle.

For the next few hours, Skyler will stare at the dim screen from the leather ottoman bench tucked under the lip of the white makeshift desk. To his right, his cousin Linda Huynh acts as his tutor behind a cloth face mask she sewed after months of boredom.

It’s a role she reluctantly accepted along with Skyler’s uncle, Vanchhoeng, who is making the best of his freshman year of high school in an adjacent bedroom. He’ll have to battle through the constant noise of running water, traffic speeding past the living room windows and, of course, his restless kindergarten student and niece, Sofia.

She will run and scream through the house to pass the hours until it’s her time to learn. This is what a classroom looks like in 2020.

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In homes all across Wisconsin, some version of this scene plays out every school day to varying degrees of success and frustration. Many school districts opted to start the fall semester online or with a hybrid model, giving parents the option of in-person or virtual classes. This choice, however accommodating it might appear on paper, is often not as simple as it might sound for many families like Aylin Sok’s. We’re cousins and Skyler’s tutor is my older sister, so I see and hear this struggle from multiple perspectives.

8:45 a.m.

As a single mother of two, Aylin has to be up at 7:30 a.m. every school day to get her kids ready for their Zoom meetings at 8:45 a.m. Her son Skyler, 8, and her daughter Sofia, 5, sleep for an extra 30 minutes before she makes sure they brush their teeth and change their clothes. She tries to simulate a normal school day — so no pajamas in the virtual classroom.

Aylin starts the school day managing the chaos of two separate Zoom calls, on two separate school-issued Chromebooks, at the exact same time.

She wishes there was more time to run from one to the other. Once the

kids are done, they have a cup of milk while their mom heads to the nail salon to start her 8-hour work day.

9:40 a.m.

Shortly after Aylin leaves, Linda arrives to assume the role of Skyler’s tutor and Sofia’s babysitter. Normally, Linda would only babysit on occasion. But in a pandemic, family roles are redefined and those who are capable, though not necessarily qualified, take on new responsibilities. Linda is a 23-year-old taking a gap year after graduating from UW–Madison with a bachelor’s degree in psychology last summer.

ELA For the first part of the day, Skyler focuses on English Language Arts.

He watches an instructional video from his teacher before reading independently for 20 minutes. His current book of choice is the brightly illustrated “Doctor Strange: Mystery of the Dark Magic.” Linda helps sound out words and guides him through reading assignments that range from annotating key passages in the story with sticky notes to writing plot summaries to recording videos where he describes the book.

Above: Skyler presses a stuffed animal against his face while working through an assignment at his home in Greenfield.

Opposite, top left: Sofia hugs a stuffed bear named Tomato as she starts her lessons in the virtual classroom.

Top right: Sofia eats a cracker and joins Skyler as he watches a video for class.

Middle: Linda walks her young cousin Skyler through an assignment.

Bottom left: While the kids eat lunch, Linda gets through science class, which usually consists of short videos.

Bottom right: Skyler reads the brightly illustrated “Doctor Strange: Mystery of the Dark Magic” as part of his ELA lesson.

PAUSE

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN HUYNH

A Bored Kindergartener through virtual third grade using Kindergarten is a time for kids to play. Google Classroom. Sofia has to wait To interact and learn the basic rules to learn until her uncle is done workof the game. Teachers are authority ing through his own virtual schooling figures who are caring but strict, and for the day. The kids have come to Sofia needs this kind of structure to expect this assistance. While it may learn. Aylin says Sofia is more chal- seem normal to them, this isn’t a lenging than Skyler because, “...she guarantee for every child. That’s why wants to play more and she will listen Aylin says she feels lucky to have her to her teacher more than me. Because younger brother and Linda, “Because I’m her mom, she says, ‘You not my without them, I can’t go to work, and teacher. You my mom.’” then I wouldn’t have any income. And Linda doesn’t exactly fit the bill I have to choose between my kids’ either. At the end of the day, they’re school and financially supporting family and that comes with a differ- them. So it’s hard. Sometimes I don’t ent set of expectations. Because Sofia know what to choose.” has nothing to do in the morning, she wants to steal some of the attention Noon Linda gives to Skyler. Sofia will often Despite the pandemic upending virsit next to her brother or on Linda’s lap tually all aspects of the school day, and listen to Skyler’s videos or doodle. the kids’ appetite and excitement for Linda has to make sure Sofia doesn’t lunchtime has not changed. As noon bother Skyler too much, which is hard approaches, they become increasingly given the endless amount of noise a less focused and silly. Throughout bored 5-year-old is capable of generat- the day, the kids repeatedly ask when ing. Skyler enjoys talking to the camera they get to eat as if their constant and thinks of it as making a movie. For questioning will make the clock skip those assignments, Linda becomes a ahead to lunchtime. For Skyler and production manager and editor, ensur- Sofia, being at home has its benefits. ing Sofia stays quiet and out of frame. They raid the refrigerator and cabinets In the morning, she guides Skyler for snacks whenever they want. It is

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not uncommon to see Sofia stuffing her face with marshmallows or Skyler playing with a crinkled candy wrapper as he works. To maximize time, Linda knocks out science class while they eat since they’re generally just quick videos. Skyler says it’s his favorite subject but, “...it’s too easy. All we have to do is look. They don’t really teach us anything.”

Time to Type Once their stomachs are filled, Linda summons her remaining patience and directs what’s left of Skyler’s attention to online math games and his sworn enemy: typing lessons. Linda says doing so much on the computer frustrates him. He struggles using the trackpad to navigate. Skyler wishes there were less glitches. If Skyler had it his way, Linda would do his typing for him and he’s not afraid to ask.

She tries to get him to progress from typing exclusively with his index fingers, which never fails to frustrate him.

Skyler drags on through the assignment, oscillating between periods of intense focus and moments of unbridled energy. Linda rolls her eyes in frustration while battling to stay awake.

Linda struggles to get Skyler to focus after lunch.

Early Afternoon Sofia finally gets her turn in the virtual classroom when Vanchhoeng finishes his classes for the day at around 2:30 p.m. At 15, he looks like the prototypical high school freshman — lanky and bright-eyed with a touch of acne he is well aware of. Sofia’s desk sits adjacent to Skyler’s. It’s the same wooden table where they eat lunch. He removes the remnants of their food with a Clorox wipe before setting down his new touchscreen laptop to start her lessons.

Vanchhoeng is being forced to grow up much faster than most kids his age, and it shows. He has the quiet and calm demeanor of an adult taking one for the team. He doesn’t want to do this, but he understands that this is a sacrifice he has to make for his family.

He says, “I mean, Sofi — no one’s gonna teach her so, I have to do it.”

Skyler stretches across the ottoman that doubles as his desk chair after typing lessons — his nemesis.

Full Classroom The classroom reaches peak volume as Skyler finishes his work while Sofia starts her first lesson. Skyler says he can’t focus, and neither of the siblings can resist the urge to talk across the classroom with their outdoor voices.

Randomly, Skyler or Sofia will check on what the other is doing. Every now and then, an uncertain peace washes over the room as the kids try to focus.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN HUYNH

Three Long Hours Vanchhoeng sets aside three hours for tutoring Sofia. In that time, she learns about syllables using chopsticks to clap to the beat. Then, the living room transforms into a gym where she breaks a sweat running around. Her heartbeat returns to normal with a coloring activity. Vanchhoeng directs the last of Sofia’s energy to the alphabet and reading comprehension. His irritation gets the best of him here, and he raises his voice whenever Sofia clicks random answers — it’s self-imposed stress from his decision to actually teach rather than give her the answers.

Waiting for Mom When they’re done for the day, the kids head to the playroom littered with years of birthday and Christmas presents. The multicolored scribbles on the walls offer a glimpse into Skyler’s mind. They were his sketchbook before he started making his own comics. The kids pass the time playing until their mom comes home. X

A bored Vanchhoeng watches Sofia’s instructional video for music class as Sofia taps chopsticks together to practice syllables.

Sofia dances along to a music video for physical education class while Skyler watches.

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TALE OF TWO

WEDDINGS When and how to say ‘I do’ in a pandemic

BY ABBY MEYER AND ABBY RADEWAHN

Michael Mulhaney and Alex Schad pose for a photo in Yosemite National Park. The couple was engaged to be married in fall 2019, but after weighing the threats of the pandemic, they decided to postpone the reception until next October.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JENNY COLLEN PHOTOGRAPHY

I

t was the best of times, it was at Concordia University Wisconsin the worst of times. They had in physical therapy school, and they everything before them, they had have been trekking across the country nothing before them. Brides and together ever since. grooms recently engaged and planning The couple set their wedding date their dream weddings were trapped for October, but the state went into in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. lockdown in March. Their reception Families could not travel to attend, venue did not offer an option to postvenues limited guest lists and even a pone without losing their deposit, first kiss as a married couple felt sus- so Alex and Michael continued with pect. Couples were not worried about their plans despite growing concerns catching cold feet, but lived in fear of from their family and friends. As the common cold symptoms that could be big day grew closer, the guest list got the coronavirus. smaller, bridal shops were closed and Even under normal circumstances, ring shopping was put on hold. The wedding planning pressures couples threat from the virus grew and relato meet high expectations. With limits tives began to express their concerns on in-person gatherings, both couples about attending. and vendors have had to find ways to “That was really hard, because everycelebrate in more creative and intimate one wanted to give their opinion, ‘Oh, ways. Couples are worried about some- you should postpone!’ But we literally thing much bigger than a rowdy uncle couldn’t unless we wanted to lose all who had one too many at the bar — how of our money,” Alex says. to prevent the spread of a deadly virus.

Torn between protecting her loved In April, state officials imple- ones and her dream wedding, Alex mented restrictions on gatherings did not know what to do. The wedand nonessential travel. According to ding she had planned went from fairy the Centers for Disease Control and tale to nightmare seemingly overnight.

Prevention, group gatherings should “I honestly felt like I was planning a be restricted to fewer than 50 people, funeral,” Alex says. while state guidelines currently proJust two months before their pose no more than 10 people. Couples wedding date, Alex and Michael’s are faced with the moral dilemma of reception venue allowed them to postholding a wedding during a public pone until October 2021.

“It was so hard,” Alex says. “I’d say health crisis or a potentially costly postponement. Coronavirus couples it probably was the hardest decision are now searching for creative solu- we’ve had to make so far as a couple.” tions to get hitched, while still abiding Postponement poses the chance by ever-changing coronavirus guide- of losing expensive deposits on lines as they redefine the traditional venues, catering, photographers and wedding ceremony and reception. other vendors. Opting for a smaller and more intimate outdoor wedding isn’t always cheaper either, accordI Do, Take Two Wisconsin native Alex Schad dreamed ing to Kirstie Warren and Mallory of being surrounded by family and Wedel, sisters and co-founders of friends at her fall wedding. She met Elevate Events, a wedding and event Michael Mulhaney, her future husband, planning firm based in Madison.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY RACHEL NICOLE PHOTOGRAPHY

While the church pews remained Though her approach to wedding Above: A bride and empty and their family members were photography captures a range of groom wear masks scattered around the globe, they live- moments from a couple’s special day while sharing a kiss in Milwaukee. streamed the ceremony on YouTube — not just the picture-perfect ones — Below: Sarah Best and played a photo slideshow of friends she has never photographed a moment and Dan Bjerre and family in place of a wedding party. quite like one of her favorites from this relax on their front “While the musicians were play- year: the bride and groom masked-up, lawn following their live-streamed ing their final songs, we got to look kissing in front of a graffiti wall that wedding ceremony. through everyone’s comments, and reads, “Everything’s F---ed.” X that helped because that made us feel like they were there, too,” Sarah says.

Instead of a traditional wedding reception, the couple sat on their front lawn with a “Just Married” sign fixed to their picket fence. Local guests stopped by to throw confetti at the newlyweds and enjoy celebratory doughnuts.

Vendors have seen these non-traditional weddings become more popular, says Rachel Nicole, a wedding photogStill Getting Hitched After rescheduling twice, Sarah Best rapher in Milwaukee. Her clients had and Dan Bjerre were forced to make to think creatively if they wanted to a difficult decision: stream the cere- pull off their weddings this year. mony online with no family present or “Moving forward, obviously it’s delay for an indefinite period of time. going to be traditional, big weddings.

With only 10 people allowed at their Absolutely,” Rachel says. “But I think church ceremony, the Bjerres’ guest fewer people will do that and more list already included a pastor, tech people will go elope somewhere. And crew, a photographer and a live string I think the wedding industry has been quartet. Music was an integral part of moving towards that for a while.” their love story, since they met at an Specifically, Rachel has seen a huge orchestra, so having live music made uptick in small, backyard weddings (think “Father of the Bride” with 200 their day special.

“Even though people weren’t there fewer guests) that have created space with us in person, it filled the space. It for more personal touches, like a wedfilled the space with joy and love and ding pizza instead of a wedding cake, PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE KNOLL, SNOLL PHOTOGRAPHY music,” Sarah says. something she hopes is here to stay.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE NOLL, SNOLL PHOTOGRAPHY

“People are now thinking, ‘Well, I have a smaller guest count, let’s up the game in terms of floral and details,’ which is so fun and we would encourage that because now is the time,” Warren says.

Once health officials deemed outdoor gatherings safer, Warren and Wedel encouraged their clients to move events outside or postpone to 2021. Many are opting for a more intimate ceremony now and making plans to hold a larger reception next year. “There are some couples who are like, ‘Let’s just make it small. Let’s just have a wedding.’ And they’re good with that,” Warren says. “I think it comes down to people’s priorities.”

AS THE WORLD BURNS Activists fight to keep climate change on the agenda

BY LAURA SCHULTZ

ILLUSTRATION BY GENEVIEVE VAHL

W

isconsin is almost as speeches a week, planning events far as can be from the connected to Earth Day and lobbying parts of the United legislators — all while working and States where the keeping up with school.

For Salgado, the sudden end to effects of climate change are most visible. But remnants of a tropical climate activism as she knew it first storm fell here in June for just the brought anxiety and panic attacks. But fourth time in recorded history, and slowly, she began to understand that

by September, plumes of smoke from 2020 was going to be a year of change the western fires drifted into the state. no matter what — a feeling solidified The crisis is at our doorstep, with no by the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement later in the spring. way to pause it.

There is no shortage of pressing “COVID changes all,” Salgado says. crises in the U.S. in 2020 — most “Activism has to look a lot more like apparent are the coronavirus pan- online petitions, a lot more donademic, racial injustice and historic tions and showing support by sharing levels of political division. With all important information about protests, of these issues demanding our atten- and that’s why I admire so much all the tion, it’s understandable for climate leadership or the planning or energy concerns to fall to the wayside for the that it took to make all the protests for the Black Lives Matter movement.” average citizen this year.

But the climate emergency looms.

Though traditional climate activIn October 2018, the United Nations’ ism did take a hit, other climate work Intergovernmental Panel on Climate continued on. Salgado continued Change published a report declaring her role virtually as a representative that the world has until 2030 to cut on the Governor’s Task Force on human-caused emissions of carbon Climate Change, led by Democratic dioxide to limit global warming to 1.5 Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. The group, degrees Celsius. With that deadline which Democratic Gov. Tony Evers now less than a decade away, 2020 is start- established in 2019, delivered formal ing to seem like a climate tipping point. recommendations at the end of Despite the numerous obstacles that October to help the state reach 100% this year has presented, Wisconsinites carbon-free energy by 2050. still press on to continue the fight for While Salgado says many of the original recommendations the task force a livable planet. discussed were deemed too expensive by legislators when so much immedi••• ate community investment is needed Stephanie Salgado was in the thick in the wake of the pandemic, its progof activism when COVID-19 hit the ress has not been completely stalled.

U.S. in March. The UW–Madison Task force member Dylan Jennings, sophomore, an organizer with the a Bad River tribal member of the Wisconsin-based Youth Climate Lake Superior Anishinaabeg and the Action Team, was giving three director of the public information

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office at the Great Lakes Indian Fish the writing and collaboration tools & Wildlife Commission in Odanah, that have sprung up. “But in terms of Wisconsin, is positive about the task actually sitting down with people and force’s achievements. getting on the same page and brain“We had a lot of different commu- storming ideas together — boy, I think nity sessions online, and we were able that really helps to be in person.” to reach quite a wide swath of people Despite so much public attention from throughout the state to get input on the pandemic, Nemet doesn’t from them. We’ve met multiple times think that means people care any less throughout the year,” Jennings says. about the climate. He remains optiHe values the diverse backgrounds mistic both for his work writing about and expertise of task force members, low-carbon policy solutions on the which helped with analyzing data and assessment report and the ability of information to make policy decisions the planet to tackle the climate crisis.

“There’s co-benefits of opportunifor climate mitigation and adaptation.

In state government, Maria ties to grow businesses to have more Redmond, the director of the Office jobs; and then co-benefits of cleaner of Sustainability and Clean Energy, air and more active lifestyles that is responsible for coordinating with come out of this transition that we can state agencies and utilities to reach look forward to, and not be afraid of as the state’s 2050 carbon-free energy a sacrifice — it’s a good thing,” he says. goal. Redmond, who started the job in Nemet also finds optimism in the January, is currently the only member youth movement for climate action of the office. But she doesn’t work alone. and the shift of young Republicans “I’m working with a ton of people calling for climate action to be incorwho have a ton of subject matter exper- porated into their party’s platform. tise, and it’s a matter of connecting the However, Salgado and Crystal Zhao, dots and bringing the people together also a UW–Madison sophomore and and bringing different perspectives, Youth Climate Action Team organizer, different communities together to hope to see more progressive avenues have the conversation to figure out the of political climate action pursued path forward,” Redmond says. after this year’s election.

“I think the most important thing The sudden switch to virtual work soon after beginning a new job was for us right now is to get people out definitely not easy, she says. Redmond to vote,” Zhao says of the group’s had hoped to launch a clean energy pre-election priorities. planning process for policy options Both emphasize the importance in April, which would focus on clean of voting to elect candidates with energy workforce development in the climate-friendly political views at all state. But with so many state workers levels of government. focused on the pandemic and other East Madison pediatrician Andrew core duties, the planning process has Lewandowski, a non-voting member been moving along more slowly — but of the Healthy Communities & is still coming.

Strong Economy subcommittee of For others, the switch to primarily the Governor’s Task Force on Climate virtual work was not too much of a Change and several other health and challenge, especially in academia. medical organizations devoted to Greg Nemet, a professor of public climate action, agrees with the need policy in the LaFollette School of to elect climate-friendly politicians.

Public Affairs at UW–Madison and a He says it’s critical for the public lead author on the Intergovernmental to value information they get from Panel on Climate Change’s upcoming public health experts on issues from Sixth Assessment Report, had already pandemic response to the climate and decided that he was traveling and racial inequities. flying too much for someone working “We need to find a way to let people know that they shouldn’t be upset on climate change.

“It gives a blueprint for how to when public health recommendations continue in the future to not be trav- disagree with their political candieling as much,” Nemet says, noting dates. And instead, we need people to

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A pillar of smoke emerges from a factory behind the Hoan Bridge as the sun rises over Lake Michigan in Milwaukee.

understand that they should be upset with their political candidates when they disagree with our public health recommendations,” Lewandowski says.

••• Climate activists and policy advocates acknowledge the need to incorporate justice and racial equity more fully in climate action moving forward, which was already a priority for the governor’s task force, because there is a growing recognition that communities of color are often on the frontline of climate changes.

“What 2020 has done, if anything, for the better, is it’s really propelled the idea of a climate justice movement,” Lewandowski says.

In the wake of George Floyd’s death in May and the ensuing protests across the country, “racial justice is climate justice” became a common rallying cry for climate activists seeking to center racial equity in the climate movement. Historically, the mainstream American environmental movement often excluded people of color and could be explicitly racist. In July, the Sierra Club’s executive director posted an essay acknowledging for the first time the racism of its founder, famed naturalist John Muir, and the harm

What do you know about climate change in Wisconsin?

What is the biggest “climate risk” that faces the state? a. Extreme rainfall b. Water stress c. Extreme heat d. Wildfires

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

that the group has caused Black and Indigenous communities throughout its history.

Climate justice uses a “human rights lens” to look at the climate crisis, because the impacts of the warming planet are not borne equally among us, as defined by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals blog.

Though the U.S. is not a developing country, climate injustice still exists here. It’s often people of color who live in the most environmentally hazardous locations, whether that means in the shadows of toxic chemical plants or in rapidly warming cities with little vegetation to cool the areas where communities of color live.

In Wisconsin, an estimated 10% of the population lives within one mile of a hazardous chemical facility — the majority of which are people of color.

None of those challenges or others of climate injustice can be easily resolved, though public awareness of them increased so quickly this year.

But 2020 may prove to be the best opportunity for change in a generation.

“I do think that COVID and racial justice incorporated into climate justice will be everlasting,” Salgado says.

“If we take the whole idea and actually solve the problem from the root.” X

Wisconsin’s intensifying water cycle will make droughts in the state worse. a. True b. False

Which climate change factor would not impact Wisconsin tourism? a. Beach closures from increased disease pathogens after a storm b. Declining lake water levels, resulting in less attractive beaches c. Longer and colder winters that will shorten the tourist seasons d. Damaged fisheries from wetland loss and increasing erosion

Which is not an increasing threat to Wisconsinites’ health due to climate change? a. Distribution of ticks and mosquitoes carrying disease (like Lyme or West Nile virus) b. Life-threatening heatwaves c. Flooding d. Food insecurity Answer Key: 1. (b) 2. False 3. True 4. (c) 5. Trick question, all are serious threats!

ILLUSTRATION BY GENEVIEVE VAHL

Climate change will ease burdens on Wisconsin’s dairy industry and might end the “dairy crisis.” a. True b. False

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CHECK THE TAG

Look good while doing good

BY ELLEN PUCEL

T

hrift stores are like magic.

They are vibrant and mysterious in a way that intrigues a shopper to keep sifting through the racks and tables of clothes until they find the perfect piece. Once they do, the mystery builds behind each piece of clothing.

Who wore this once? What decade was it made in? What type of closet was it in before mine?

Thrifting can help reverse the overconsumption trend in fashion; in the last two decades, American textile waste has doubled from 7 million to 14 million tons, Newsweek reported in 2016. It starts right in our own closets: recycling clothes, buying from thrift or vintage stores, and donating items that sit in closets for years on end.

Why Thrift?

Clothing that ends up in landfills contains dangerous chemicals and synthetic materials that don’t biodegrade.

With the right tools and information, consumers can look to update their buying patterns to reduce waste. Many local thrift stores work to promote sustainability and community involvement, including those across Wisconsin.

Thrifting keeps fashionable clothing out of landfills.

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Sustainability in Wisconsin Since the spread of the coronavirus, there has been a correlation between stay-at-home orders and a spike in clothing exchanges at stores like ReThreads, a sustainable fashion boutique that promotes a new way of shopping for clothes. Shopping secondhand keeps clothes out of landfills and harmful fabrics from polluting the land with synthetic fibers and dyes.

With more people at home sifting through wardrobes and dressers, prospective consumers are eager to donate and resell their items.

ReThreads owner Jacqueline Irivarren also looks to incorporate labels that promote local artists and sustainable practices and is selective with items since ReThreads aims to provide unique clothing with a second home.

The store’s mission is “to give others the opportunities to wear those items that are still in great condition, that still have many, many miles on them, and that are great labels, and are fashionable and are clean,” Irivarren says.

When preparing to donate or exchange clothing at a secondhand store, make sure each piece is in good condition with no rips, holes or stains, so it is able to make it through a second life.

Open a Virtual Closet If there are no local thrift stores or secondhand shops within the area, buyers and sellers can look toward online consignment.

Poshmark allows consumers to buy and sell right from their closets at home by adding items to their virtual closets.

If you’re looking for higher-end goods, The RealReal sells authenticated luxurious consignment items, and has both an in-store and online presence that allows shoppers to buy secondhand clothing and accessories for discounted prices. Users send in their clothing, and if it is accepted for resale, consumers are offered store credit or a check in return.

Subscribe, Don’t Buy Rent the Runway cultivates a new way to get “new” clothing that further pushes sustainability by encouraging shoppers to rent instead of buy. The subscription-based retailer offers monthly subscriptions for those looking to frequently rotate their closets in an eco-friendly fashion. Once shoppers

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN HUYNH

choose a plan, they are able to pick out inclined to research its guidelines and a certain number of items and then brand mission. In 2018, a report from return them by the end of the month. Accenture Strategy found that 62% of consumers want to buy products from companies with ethical values Time to Avoid Cotton One reason we have so much to donate and authenticity. is that we’ve simply overshopped withWhile green marketing has proven out thinking about how our clothing is to be a powerful business tool in made. Today’s mass cotton production strengthening a company’s brand practices are hazardous, require large reputation, consumers are also amounts of water, energy and materi- seeing a rise in greenwashing — an als, and leave traces of toxic chemicals exaggeration of green marketing and in clothes and waterways. overemphasis on possibly dubious Erin Schaut, a senior studying eco-friendly practices. In recent years, textiles and fashion design at UW– some companies have been exposed Madison, points to cotton as an for over-promoting their only slightly example of a material with a harmful sustainable products. effect since it’s a common textile used H&M, the Swedish retail fashion widely across the fashion industry. company, was recently accused of greAs consumers purchase new items, enwashing a new line, the Conscious they should learn what companies Collection. This line was marketed as are doing to incorporate sustainable eco-friendly, but these products still supply chain practices. Information use new materials and don’t necessarabout what a business stands for can ily slow down textile overconsumption.

Some businesses are straying often be found on company websites, from green marketing altogether and in stores or even printed on tags. instead are urging consumers to participate in alternative buying habits Beware of Green Marketing Before deciding to buy an item from such as thrifting new items, donating a specific brand, shoppers are more clothes and shopping local.

ReThreads, a recycled fashion boutique in Madison, provides a second home for unique clothing.

GOLD PLATED • WATER RESISTANT • STUDENT-OWNED

EVIE JEWELRY WWW.EVIEJEWELRY.COM

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Shopping Vintage is to cultivate style, authenticity and art, A different form of recycling and create a community for people to involves vintage stores, which sell retro discover a creative side. pieces of clothing from different eras.

“More specifically, that’s about what Shoppers in Madison can visit Good you can find on our racks of clothing Style Shop, a vintage clothing store that — as fashion, as art, the ever-changing features unique and stylish articles of perspective of what you could make out clothing. Many shoppers consider vin- of your own wardrobe or the people tage to be a sustainable clothing choice, you might meet or the people you though Good Style Shop owner Peter might interact with on social media,” Benck says the true mission of the store Benck says.” X

FOLLOW FOR A FIND @patagonia Patagonia is a clothing brand that aims to create clothing and equipment for outdoor activities.

The brand consistently spreads awareness about the changing state of our ecosystem and aims to educate consumers on what they can do to help. Additionally, Patagonia offers a lifetime warranty and is dedicated to recycling old clothing and repairing rips and tears to encourage the cycle of sustainability.

@thepangaia Pangaia is a London-based clothing brand that is doing its part to combat climate change.

It has a strong mission statement pledging to use only sustainable fabrics to make its clothing and other products. Along with clean fabrics, it participates in direct change such as planting or restoring one tree for every product purchased.

@renttherunway As consumers start to look for new ways to shop vintage and buy secondhand clothing, check out Rent the Runway, an online shopping platform that allows customers to swap, buy and rent clothing that has been worn before. Consumers can sign up for a subscription and rent clothes on a monthly basis, which helps encourage the continuous cycle of wearing secondhand clothing.

Veja is a shoe company focused on being transparent to the public with its mission and supply chain methods. It has started “project transparency” to answer all questions consumers may have about the brand, such as how its shoes are made and what materials are used.

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ILLUSTRATION BY ABBY MEYER

@veja

FAITH COMMUNITIES MEET THE MOMENT From outdoor worship to text messages, congregations find pandemic-friendly ways to connect

BY ELISE GOLDSTEIN

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

Gaven Foster (above) is a student leader of Chi Alpha, a UW-Madison Christian organization that overcame physical distancing this fall with virtual community group meetings via Zoom.

D

ozens of people gathered under a group of old maple trees at the tip of Door County’s peninsula every Sunday morning during the months of April through October. The people spread out on the lawn beside the white building, sprinkling their blankets and lawn chairs out on the grass at a safe distance from their fellow congregants at Bethel Baptist Church.

“There’s a lot of people that are third, fourth, fifth generation that have lived up here and worked up here, which is kind of an unusual thing because it’s such a transient area of people coming and going,” says Joel Rose, the church’s pastor.

The tight-knit setting in Door County allows congregations there to work in cooperation with one another to serve their communities. When the local fire department asked Rose and a local Moravian church pastor to organize a way to help those who might be lonely or more susceptible to the coronavirus, the pair set up a phone call system among churches in the area to offer a friendly and helpful voice to their most vulnerable neighbors.

Churches and synagogues across Wisconsin have established unique

ways to foster a sense of community still following all protocols and presince the outbreak of COVID-19 — cautions at 25% capacity. While other which has limited people’s access to religious organizations might wish houses of worship — as a quarter of to consistently serve their commuadults report their faith has become nities in person each week, it’s not stronger, according to a Pew Research possible under current COVID-19 Center study. conditions based on their locations Religion has a material side, and environment. a physical side and an essential side, says Ulrich Rosenhagen, the direcFaith Beyond Walls tor of the Center for Religion and There are approximately 100 students Global Citizenry at UW–Madison involved with Chi Alpha, a Christian and an ordained Lutheran pastor. organization at UW–Madison. The This means that materially, commu- group strives to live by the motto nities might celebrate religion with “everyday, everywhere, always,” meansinging, liturgy and prayer. Physically, ing that they live for Jesus wherever religions have a meeting place and they are. religions have an essential aspect of “I do believe that the church of Jesus their faith, such as weekly Shabbat for Christ is not bounded by walls,” says the Jewish community.

Chi Alpha student leader Gaven Foster.

“So now the question is, what is “It’s more of a lifestyle and how you there now instead of that regular expe- live, and the building is just a place rience of before?” Rosenhagen asks. where we meet.”

“You can’t go and celebrate in The members can now join “cona religious community and put your- nect groups” on Zoom, created with self at risk or put other people at risk,” the goal of building community with Rosenhagen says. “You just can’t. others. The groups — ranging from Putting someone else at risk would movie appreciation to cooking and be totally unethical.” baking to the great outdoors — susNow that it’s too cold to be out- tain feelings of community beyond side, Bethel Baptist Church has watching a sermon each week. moved services inside to its gym- “We actually do things together,” nasium and main sanctuary, while Foster says.

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High Holy Days During COVID-19 This year’s Rosh Hashana was the largest Jewish event ever on the UW–Madison campus for the Rohr Chabad house. In previous years, High Holy Day events at Chabad hovered around 500 students. In September, 718 students broke into pods of four to five people to pick up homemade kosher to-go meals from Rabbi Mendel Matusof and his wife, Henya. Matusof distributed 230 pounds of brisket, 190 pounds of challah, 110 pounds of honey and 85 kugels along with honey cake, rice and vegetables. Students also picked up candles, High Holy Day guides and cards for reflection. Before the dinner, the pods joined together on Zoom to feel the energy of their religious community on campus and to ring in the Jewish New Year.

based on the guidelines, then I think it’s my responsibility to do it,” he says.

Off campus, similar sentiments resonate with the Chabad of Madison.

There, Matusof ’s brother, Rabbi Avremel Matusof, helps with weekly food distributions for families with children, supplying a week’s worth of food for anyone who signs up. Chabad in Chicago does the bulk of the packing and then sends it to Milwaukee Chabad, where Avremel hauls it to Madison for pickups and deliveries each Thursday.

This year, Chabad of Madison also created 60 “High Holiday Toolboxes,” geared towards children to help them experience the holidays with different crafts, challah, sweet treats and shortened prayers to do at home.

“As in any time of uncertainty and a heightened level of stress and worry, it’s crucial for us to sort of be the anchor in everyone’s lives,” Avremel says.

the care packages.

Chabad uses a new text message “In order to love like Jesus does, system for students to reserve and and to love the city, we’ve been doing pick up Shabbat and holiday meals. It’s things online,” says Michael Knapstad, also used to RSVP to attend a Shabbat pastor of college aged and young adult dinner, which has a maximum capacity ministry at the church. of 25 people with four shift options, Each week the evangelical church and once the shift is full, the texting records a story with worship songs and a brief message and encourages system automatically closes.

Of course, like many things in the people to get together with their they can further explore the message pandemic, countless plans have also friends or family to watch together from that week’s sermon and apply it fallen through for religious groups. on its YouTube channel. Knapstad to their lives.

In May, Matusof planned to lead his also includes tools that can help the Knapstad says a significant number largest Birthright Israel trip yet, with ministry during this time by sharing of people who don’t usually go to 162 students signed up to tour the different spiritual practices. One week church actually feel more comfortcountry for 10 days. Looking forward, was centered around anxiety, which able tuning into Blackhawk’s current Matusof is planning one step at a time included the clinical definition and online events. to stay aligned with campus protocols also tied to an ancient practice called “It’s really cool that a lot of people in hopes of making the trip next year. “breath prayer.” have placed their faith in Jesus, but Matusof feels that it’s his duty to Each week, the general Blackhawk also a lot haven’t and they’re just like, uphold feelings of unity and togeth- community can tune into the Next ‘There’s something here we feel, but erness for Jewish students on campus. Steps Podcast on multiple platforms, we still feel comfortable to watch from “If I can do it in a safe way, in a legal way, produced by Blackhawk Church, where our home,’” Knapstad says. •

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In September, Rabbi Mendel Matusof and his wife, of the Rohr Chabad House near UW-Madison, distributed hundreds of hot meals and candles to students for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

“As in any time of Spreading Love uncertainty and a Through Care Packages heightened level of When the coronavirus crisis hit, 1,000 students in the Witte and Sellery stress and worry, it’s dorms at UW–Madison received snack packages and letters from Blackhawk crucial for us to sort Church, which has a college-aged ministry to reach youth between the of be the anchor in ages of 18 and 25. Students quarantined in hotels and student athletes everyone’s lives.” at Edgewood College were also given

Purposeful Pause

BY ABBY MEYER

ILLUSTRATION BY ABBY MEYER

“Take a few minutes at the start of each day or in the evening to pause and think about what matters most to you,” Christine Whelan says. “Then, make a plan for how to make it happen.”

Whelan, a clinical professor at UW–Madison and author of “The Big Picture: A Guide to Finding Your Purpose in Life,” advises making a daily purpose statement to guide your day.

While there are many ways to pause, it is more important than ever to make time, even for just a few minutes. The Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin recommends taking purposeful pauses to reset. Finding moments to reset your day will leave you feeling more fulfilled as you accomplish your goals and practice your values.

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TAKE WHAT YOU NEED, GIVE WHAT YOU CAN Community fridges cast a lifeline

BY GENEVIEVE VAHL

T

here are a lot of double takes as passersby wonder at this anonymous fridge. Necks crank back as bodies continue onward. It sits out front of a baby blue house with white shutters and a side porch decorated like ornaments on a fir. The fridge is a retro green, like something you would see in a 1950s kitchen. A droopy-eyed face is painted on the front with its mouth gaping open like it’s going to eat all the food inside. It has a four-fingered arm bent at the elbow and an ear of a mythical creature drawn on its side.

A white board reading “Free Produce” sits between its blue eyes.

Community fridges like this alien ice box located on East Johnson and Brearly streets in Madison have filled gaps this pandemic has exacerbated. The fridges are plugged in and stocked at the disposal of the community, providing aid in the fallout from the coronavirus.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

The Madison Community Fridge is free to anyone.

It contains fresh produce usually with adjacent shelves for additional free items like canned goods and pasta.

Wisconsin’s community fridges are basic human right.” a part of a national trend. A New World Food insecurity — defined by The In Our Hearts, an anarchist network of Journal of Nutrition as the inability autonomous collectives and projects to afford enough food for an active, in New York City, served as inspiration healthy life — has left one in six for many of these fledgling fridges. In children in southwestern Wisconsin an interview with The Cut, Thadeaus hungry, according to Second Harvest Umpster, a member of A New World Foodbank. Black and Hispanic people, In Our Hearts who spearheaded much as well as those with lower socioecoof the work to get the 13 community nomic status, are those most affected fridges plugged in across the city, said, by food insecurity, increasing their “We believe in organizing in a way odds of developing mood, anxiety, where there is no hierarchy. I started behavior and substance disorders the fridge, but that doesn’t put me in while fostering chronic disease, poor a position of power over anybody else. metabolic control, less healthful I think that’s the difference [between] eating and decreased mental health charity and mutual aid.” and cognitive performance.

And that was without a pandemic Where charity can imply a wealthy savior allocating to those believed ravaging the globe. “The pandemic has to be lesser, mutual aid exists on a laid plain how flawed a lot of our syscommunity-based exchange of tems that we rely on are,” says Caitlin resources for mutual benefit.

Cullen, the owner and chef of The “Share the wealth, share what is Tandem. “It didn’t seem like anyone coming from your kitchen, share what was going to come help. Anyone.” you would eat,” says Hataya Johnson, Johnson and Tramonte both saw a co-founder of the Milwaukee the potential for a community fridge Community Fridge, hosted at The in Milwaukee after separately encounTandem restaurant on 18th and Fond Du tering A New World In Our Hearts on Lac Avenue in Milwaukee’s Near North social media. They acknowledged that Side Lindsay Heights neighborhood. communities of color are too often The free fridges are filled with a stranded in food deserts — lacking grocery-store quality selection of access to clean, fresh food, especially goods, including fresh produce, usu- in Milwaukee — finding gaps they ally with an adjacent pantry holding wanted to fill. shelf-stable items.

Each sent the organization a direct “This isn’t just, ‘You cleaned out message on Instagram, asking for sugyour fridge,’” Johnson says. “We don’t gestions or resources to start a fridge want to just give something that is of their own. In Our Hearts connected already kind of accessible … we want the two instead, the best resource each to give new things to show that even other could have had, initiating a powif you don’t have the greatest income, erful collaboration operating through October. Supporters stock the fridge you still deserve quality food.”

One woman perusing the fridge through food and monetary donations shared how she stops by on her way via their social media pages. home from the store — the fridge sup- “This project gives us both a way plements her grocery runs. Everything to channel … wanting to specifically offered at community fridges is free help people who are food insecure for the taking. No questions asked. in Milwaukee, one of the most segre“That is the one thing that sets gated cities in the U.S., that is largely us apart,” says Sarah Tramonte, the the Black community,” Tramonte says. other co-founder of the Milwaukee Food insecurity’s consequential Community Fridge. At places like poorer health conditions are feeding Feeding America, “you have to jump ground for the coronavirus, threatenthrough so many hoops to be eligible, ing already vulnerable communities and if you’re just not eligible enough, with a higher likelihood of contracting ‘Ope, you can’t have it, sorry’ … At the a potentially lethal virus.

Milwaukee Community Fridge, you Most low-income people cannot can just walk up and take food and usually afford to buy goods for the nobody is going to ask you … [to] immediate future, much less large prove to me that you deserve this shopping purchases for a quaranfood. Everybody deserves it, it is a tine. Most low-wage jobs cannot be

performed at home, so workers are either losing wages or continuing to work at the cost of their health.

For those who do continue to work with children at home due to school closures, child care costs arise, and children lose access to meals typically provided during the school day.

The genesis of the Madison fridge drew inspiration from those in larger cities such as Milwaukee, New York and Los Angeles. An overgrown lawn serves as its backdrop. A makeshift bench made out of two 5-gallon buckets connected by a wooden plank holds squash of many varieties. A blue, three-level bookshelf used as a pantry mingles with the flowering bushes grasping their last bit of color before winter strikes. It’s stacked with canned green beans, pasta, a bag of red sauce and lentils. A case of plastic water bottles sits on the ground.

“...even if you don’t have the greatest income, you still deserve quality food.”

“I got some hamburger last time for Taco Tuesday,” a woman told me in her deep Midwestern accent. She was a middle-aged white woman with a cloth mask around her chin, wearing a quilted fall jacket and backpack, smoking a cigarette as she perused the selection.

A social worker shared with the Milwaukee organizers how clients with mental disabilities have especially benefited from the community fridge model.

“They don’t have to talk to people … they don’t have to show proof of who they are … because just interactions alone for some people is too much and will deter them from getting what they need,” Tramonte says.

The anxiety about seeking help is even more acute for underrepresented groups, Johnson says. “All that you have to do to prove yourself that you do need this [help] — it can make people not even accept the help that is there for them.”

Hosting community meal and tutoring programs out of The Tandem, while also hosting the community fridge, has

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For All, a Madison grassroots project working to ensure all Dane County families have access to food for a better quality of life. Beyond that, the fridge relies on the community to function.

“The food pantry just gives me so much that I bring a lot of it here,” says one donor, an already food-insecure person donating his limited excess to the community. He was off to deliver another box of food for his blind friend across the street next. It’s exactly this cycle of reciprocity community fridges look to facilitate.

“I have seen Festival [Foods] employees pull to the side of the road … and they put out turkey sandwiches, and whatever else they have, and then drive away,” Levine says.

In a text message, Levine shared with me how she expressed her concern to a fridge regular that not enough people in the neighborhood know about the fridge. But he reassured her: “There is power in the word of mouth. If you were to advertise it and have a bunch of signs, maybe then people will come and take a lot of the food, and feel like there isn’t enough to go around. But when people get to discover it themselves, they feel a sense of responsibility to it.” X

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

been Cullen’s attempt to help those in understand its impact.

The Tandem need more quickly, without any strings “The reciprocity and the mutuality restaurant in attached like the “clunky institutions.” of mutual aid is something I am still Milwaukee hosted the community It’s at this intersection of collaborative working to understand,” Douglass fridge (pictured organizing that the two parties wit- says. “The shared livelihood that I above) at 18th nessed their impact in real time. would love to have is one of sharing and Fond du Lac “We had these four young women resources that we have access to.” And Avenue in the Lindsay Heights under the age of 10, walking to the how to do that ethically is a point of neighborhood. fridge to get food … completely by interest for the organizers. Douglass themselves, at all times of the day,” says there is a lot of power, and conseCullen says. “Seeing that, and knowing quently disparity, when those running that was what they were going through: nonprofits — who are often white — They were hungry, they’re interested dole out resources to others of varying in some attention other than whatever identities with unique needs. the hell is happening wherever they are “Every idea of food justice comes coming from, they’re clearly not engag- from … Black organizers, and they’re ing in school if I see them five or six still and will always be at the cuttimes a day between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.” ting edge of the design of what the “It was like three or four girls came next step in this society should be,” up and grabbed a ton of strawberries,” Douglass says.

Tramonte later says. “They were liter- “I am not saying we have done anyally like, ‘Ooo, strawberries!’ So excited thing really particularly different with … We brought like six containers and the community fridge,” Levine says. they were like 7 years old, and these But Tramonte says the fear of doing four girls grabbed all of them. One, something perfectly should not stop I have never seen a kid that excited you from doing it. for fruit. Two, I have never seen a kid Douglass supplies the Madison take that much fruit. It is because they fridge twice a week with excess prodon’t normally have access to it.” duce during harvest seasons from Julia Levine and Sam Douglass, Troy Farm, a community garden on facilitators of the Madison fridge, the north side of Madison. He also recognize they have never been food brings the excess industrial food waste insecure themselves, so it’s hard to donated to the farm from Healthy Food

MUSIC THAT HEALS When tragedy strikes, volunteers grab their instruments and show up for the community

BY CARA SUPLEE

A

mid clouds of tear gas, On these days, Hallmon sits at his police barricades and desk and monitors Milwaukee 911 call impermeable crowds of logs, looking for situations that could protesters, an orchestra involve the most turmoil, pain and plays. A symphony of violins, violas, damage to the neighborhood. Most cello and bass resist the trauma of the time, these are scenes of fatal beginning to blister in the aftermath gun violence.

“With shootings, it just seemed of the Jacob Blake shooting.

This is what Dayvin Hallmon calls a like there had to be something that “peacekeeping mission.” His orchestra, occurred in the space between the The Black String Triage Ensemble, time when the event occurs and just travels alongside other musicians when it sinks in,” Hallmon says.

The trauma that’s experienced in to places like Kenosha to soothe tensions surrounding incidents of predominantly minority neighborhoods racial injustice and violence. Although in Milwaukee is only a microcosm of this effort is relatively new, Hallmon’s what happens across the United States. vocation as a musician is not.

According to the National Commission Since the age of 9, Hallmon played on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice, a the piano at church, often in the face nonpartisan, independent organization of grief. This experience showed him that advocates for a fair criminal justice that music has the capacity to heal system, homicide rates increased in a way that nothing or no one else substantially this past summer across can. This understanding became the 27 U.S. cities, including Milwaukee. catalyst for The Black String Triage With the chaos from the 2020 Ensemble, the all-Black and Latinx election wrapped in a pandemic and orchestra Hallmon founded to play topped with a resurgence in the civil at crime scenes. The purpose of the rights movement, these rates are unusual venue is to interrupt the unfortunately unsurprising. What cycle of trauma before it has a chance is surprising, however, is the lack of to form. focus on how to reflect, heal and repair “I’m accustomed to walking people to move forward from these moments. through all phases of their lives That’s where music comes in.

— weddings, funerals, baptisms,” “In the absence of effective Hallmon says. “In a lot of ways, this de-escalation, the first thing the music is simply an extension of that work.” does is it activates the entire brain The ensemble has 15 volunteers at once,” says Dale Taylor, a worldwho practice together weekly, renowned music therapist based socially distanced in public parks in Eau Claire. “If that music can be more recently, and reserve certain heard by every person there, then days to be “on call.” This means that automatically and immediately, you musicians wait for Hallmon’s signal, have every person responding to the instruments packed at their doors. same stimulus, and depending on the

quality of the music, it can be a very nice, beautiful stimulus.”

This phenomenon that Taylor describes is exactly what Hallmon and his ensemble aim to do. In the aftermath of a crime, they play music at the scene to try to refocus people’s minds on something calmer than the situation around them.

“That is when we should be there,” Hallmon says. “Between the time of the event happening and the time that the investigation is over and everybody is gone, the anger, the unease, all of that, by that point in time has calcified because there has been no response to those emotions.”

The Black String Triage Ensemble responds in the form of soulful, elegant notes from string instruments.

Hallmon selects the pieces the group plays based on the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Each stage of grief is tied to a specific style of Black music.

There is no need for lyrics: the tone matches that of the scene and the space to allow the community to channel its reaction through the outlet of music.

All of the compositions are written by musicians of color, and some are dreamed up by Hallmon himself. One piece he wrote stems from Psalm 137, which is interpreted as being about prisoners who are forced to entertain their captors. Hallmon uses this as a parallel to the anger of how Black people in the U.S. feel as though they are refugees, trapped and ordered to entertain their oppressors. With the group being entirely Black and Latinx, the members often have profound levels

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of connection to the music they play and activate the entire brain unlike the crime scenes where they perform. anything else and get people’s minds “They’re showing their compassion thinking in unison. When The Black and showing their, not only protest or String Triage Ensemble plays, it brings disgust with the situation, but their everyone’s minds toward the music, emotion and sadness,” says Isaiah as opposed to all of the predisposed Spencer, a Chicago-based jazz and emotions and prejudices that they blues drummer and an active figure bring to a crime scene. in the minority music scene. “This is a There is also poetry in the ensemble’s living testament to what this music is, choice of string instruments, which and what art is and why it’s needed.” can produce notes that mimic tones of Spencer spoke to his own experience the human voice and embody a unique with the curative properties of music form of empathy. and through this, knew undoubtedly “People who are on the verge of tears, of the sincere empathy and relief that who might be trying to be real strong, they might sense that those tears are The Black String Triage has to offer.

The ensemble deviates from the five building up in the music instead of in stages of grief by adding a fundamental themselves,” Liebold says. “So they’re step: faith. In their eyes, there must be kind of letting go in a different way, one step beyond simple acceptance. without directly doing it. They can sense There must be hope. that the music is doing it for them.”

This notion is the foundation of “If we do not believe things will be better, we as humans cease to move music therapy and fuels The Black forward,” their mission states.

String Triage Ensemble to continue This addition fills a space that lending its sound to cushion the grief many therapists have attempted to others feel. Especially in the case of articulate themselves. Brenna Liebold, recent incidents of police brutality a music therapist based in Milwaukee, and subsequent protests, Hallmon has appreciates the ensemble’s addition of made it his mission to continue his art, the sixth stage of faith. Liebold works even if it puts him and his orchestra in with mainly geriatric patients, some of dangerous situations. whom are just now learning to connect “I think we all also realize by coming with trauma-related emotions that together and playing, it’s the best way they have held onto for 30 to 40 years. for us not to be dragged down into This experience gives her an even hopelessness and despair and anger,” better lens on how important music Hallmon says. therapy is for grief and how powerful What Hallmon and his ensemble it can be in the moments when post- undertake has everything and nothing traumatic stress disorder is forming to do with music. It’s far more complex in real-time. and threaded with empathy for the “When you’re going through the human condition. The orchestra uses stages of grief, there’s a lot of chaos, music as its avenue for compassion. in your thoughts and in your feelings Hallmon feels this is at the heart of and by the time you work through what art is about. those stages of grief, hopefully, you’ve “I know there are 30,000 different reached a balance where you accept ways we can use art,” Hallmon says, the emotions, you understand what “but if we’re not using it to bring people they are and you begin to understand together, to have a different sense of what you need to do to get to the who they are and who they can be, place you desire to be,” Liebold says. particularly in this moment, then I “That balance can happen with music.” wonder what we’re doing.” X According to Liebold, music can

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ILLUSTRATION BY CHANNING SMITH

“[There is a] lack of focus on how to reflect, heal and repair in order to move forward from these moments. That’s where music comes in. “

VIRAL DURING THE VIRUS TikTok creators find global fame from home

BY CELIA GOLOD

W

hen 31-year-old Geo Rutherford moved into her parents’ Madison basement in March, she knew this meant one thing: lots of burritos. Four years ago, Rutherford and her family started a tradition of getting burritos every Sunday from their favorite burrito shop, El Rancho. “We don’t order a lot of food out,” Rutherford says. “But that was one of the things that we always do.” So, when Rutherford saw the Park Street restaurant’s “open” sign, to signify they were back in business during the coronavirus outbreak, she knew she wanted to take action to preserve her family tradition.

The plastic sandwich board sign bore neon green poster paper, ducttaped thoroughly, with “We R Open” scribbled across the front in black Sharpie. “As an artist, it hurt my soul

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a bit,” Rutherford says. the store. In the following days, the Rutherford had 100,000 followers video reached 1 million views and on TikTok at the time and wanted to gained thousands of likes.

“We still have people coming in, even use her platform to help.

“It was also thinking about, ‘How can people from Milwaukee and Eau Claire I motivate my audience to do something have driven all the way here just because good for the world?’” she says. of that,” store owner Jose Torres says.

She enlisted her two sisters, who TikTok has been downloaded over got to work building the restaurant 2 billion times and amassed more a more eye-catching sign. The three than 800 million active users. The spent a month and a half sawing, screw- app’s visitor count doubled during ing, nailing and painting. All the while, the first three months of 2020, driven by a surge of new visitors in March Rutherford recorded the process.

When Rutherford finished the sign following the coronavirus lockdown. in mid-September, she dropped it off Social media experts studying emerging technologies cite many reasons for and uploaded the video to TikTok. “I wasn’t sure if [the video] would the app’s growth during quarantine. work. So I didn’t tell [the owner],” “In a pandemic with the social and Rutherford says.“I just decided to do political unrest, you need things that it. And I knew that if it did well, then are lighthearted,” says UW–Madison faculty associate Don Stanley, who his business might do better.”

By 3 p.m. dozens of people who saw teaches courses on social media in Rutherford’s video on TikTok flooded the Department of Life Sciences

Irish dancer Mary Papageorge went viral on TikTok over quarantine for choreographing and performing Irish step dances to pop songs. Her videos reached millions of viewers.

to his 1.9 million followers, was Papageorge, @Marypapageorge to no stranger to TikTok by the time her 645,000 followers, became a TikTok Wisconsin entered a mandatory quar- sensation this June when a video antine in March. By then, he already of her Irish step dancing to Fergie’s had 950,000 followers under his belt. “Fergalicious” exploded on the app.

Lakes Get Likes Vicchiollo joined TikTok a year Celebrities ranging from Jason While Rutherford is known in the earlier as a joke when he was still a Derulo to Diplo to Will Smith used Madison area for her viral burrito student at Hortonville High School. TikTok’s “duet” feature to photovideo, she is known around the He downloaded the app while sitting shop the top half of their bodies onto globe for her educational lake videos. with his friends during lunchtime Papageorge’s legs. The video, the most Rutherford, @Geodesaurus to her in the cafeteria. “We thought it was famous of Papageorge’s choreography followers, downloaded TikTok right stupid,” he says. videos, now boasts 34.6 million views before the pandemic but started to But he experimented with the app and 4.7 million likes.

Papageorge hung up her Irish step use it more when lockdown hit. A and filmed a few clips of himself walkscroll down her feed leads to older ing around his bedroom. He added shoes in August 2019 as she prepared videos of her papermaking, a tour of a few comical captions and hit upload. for college. A back injury led to surher parents’ living room and footage Overnight he went viral. gery in January and, ultimately, bed of her dog playing in the snow. A quick “That first video that I made ended rest. While she recovered, she turned swipe up reveals a collection of videos up getting 1.8 million views, and ever to the app for entertainment, someRutherford posted in July about her since then, I continued making videos, times uploading an old dancing video. artist book, a work of art featuring and it just spiraled into what it is In April, Papageorge started to feel items she has collected over the last today,” Vicchiollo says. better and began uploading new content. year on the shores of the Great Lakes.

In the months leading up to quar- “Having coronavirus hit and the Viewers seemed to like what antine, he felt unmotivated to post boredom of that just really sparked she had to share. Her first artist on TikTok and got into a pattern of my interest in [dancing] again,” book video collected over 1 million making videos that were not doing well. Papageorge says. “I never expected to views and almost 300,000 likes. “My follower count was at 950,000 get back into it to the point that I’m Rutherford continued to share more followers for four straight months, and at right now, especially physically, and about artist books, with each video I remember thinking I could not get at the rate I was going this summer, raking in thousands of views. to a million, I cannot grow anymore,” considering my back surgery as well, But Rutherford knew she needed Vicchiollo says. “I was struggling, and I never would have expected it.” to prepare for when she ran out of I just couldn’t figure out why I was Since returning to Irish step, content. She transitioned her feed stuck at that number.”

Papageorge has shared the sport with to educate her growing follower When Vicchiollo returned home followers across the globe. “It’s really base on the Great Lakes and other from school in mid-March, he turned not that big of a sport, it’s growing, but important lakes across the globe. to his built-up platform TikTok as an it’s just pretty unknown for the most “There’s a gap in people’s education outlet to distract himself from reality. part,” Papageorge says. when it comes to lakes, but every- “I was like, f— it,” he says.

“Since this whole TikTok thing blew body has a relationship with lakes,” Vicchiollo says he began posting what up, people in the industry alone have Rutherford says. “This is what’s so he wanted to post. And when he finally started reaching out to me and saying funny about this as a topic.” did that, he got the boost he needed to how cool it is that what I’m doing is For months, Rutherford con- hit the 1 million follower milestone. giving Irish dance more attention,” tinued to post educational lake Lockdown not only brought the Papageorge says. content, ranging from lakes as close resurgence Vicchiollo’s account Wisconsin TikTok creators like to home as the Isthmus to those needed, but also smiles and laughter Rutherford, Vicchiollo and Papageorge as far as Mars. Today, Rutherford’s for his fans coping with quarantine. connected with individuals across the page features dozens of lake videos, “If I have the power of making globe during the pandemic. Social each with hundreds of thousands someone’s day better, I’m going media experts like Stanley say that’s of likes. to do everything I can to do that,” a testament to the app’s ability to conFor Rutherford, TikTok has Vicchiollo says. “To think that I can nect people and allow them to share become more than a quarantine have such a big impact on so many laughs over little things like jokes, hobby — it’s a call to action. “You people — not just in Wisconsin, not dance moves and music. need to worry about the lakes in just in the country, but across the “In this day and age, with all the your neighborhood,” Rutherford world — is insane to me.” heaviness and the way algorithms says. “You need to worry about the pummel us with heavy content and lakes in your region. And you need Famous For Her Fast Feet stuff that often makes us feel disemto vote to try to protect those lakes.” When Mary Papageorge walks around powered and at the mercy of what’s the UW–Madison campus this semes- going on in the world,” Stanley says.

Small Town Star ter, she might not be recognized by her “I think things like TikTok are more Sam Vicchiollo, a UW–Madison stu- followers on the street. But there is a important than ever before.” • dent who goes by @Samvicchiollo good chance they have seen her feet.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

Communication. “I think that TikTok provides that, an opportunity just for little bursts of silly, goofy content that’s quick and clever.”

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BEDROOM

BEATS Even a pandemic can’t stop the music in the digital age

BY MOLLY LIEBERGALL

I

n their final moments together, Matthew and Vanessa tearfully nestle into each other’s arms.

“I was really getting strong feelings for you,” she says into the nape of his neck. Matthew lets out a sob into Vanessa’s shoulder, barely able to utter a word. The mood in the villa is somber — and tense.

“That was the fakest cry I have ever seen in my — ” Vanessa, now talking to two of her friends elsewhere, says before freezing.

Jack Wright sits up, remote in hand, while Vanessa remains plastered on-screen. Wright, a UW–Madison senior, turns to his bandmate William Lorenz with an idea. It’s March in Twin Lakes, on the border of Illinois, and the pair, known on stage as the musical duo Staring in Spaces, haven’t seen a soul in days.

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They’re holed up with their instru- ground out “a bunch of really cool stuff,” ments and digital equipment in Lorenz’s Wright says, including the music for grandmother’s house, where they will their late August single “Float,” which ultimately spend two weeks writ- outperformed most of their previous ing, playing and creating music while songs in Spotify streams within months.

COVID-19 lockdowns commence across Just a few decades ago, none of the United States. Safe from infection this — the band’s creation, producbut isolated from the rest of the world, tion and promotion of a new song Wright says the lack of human contact — would have been safe or possible sometimes led their creative process during a global health crisis. But with down rather interesting routes. recent developments in music produc“We started writing songs about peo- tion technology and the rise of social ple’s relationships in those reality TV media, countless independent artists shows,” Wright says over Zoom with a like Staring in Spaces can keep making laugh. “When you don’t have any social music from the same place where they interactions, you run out of ideas.” always have: at home.

Matthew and Vanessa’s dramatic split Now sitting in his apartment in in season two of “Love Island Australia” Madison, Wright holds a small keyboard inspired Wright and Lorenz to write — maybe a foot long — up to the camera. a breakup ballad that they may eventu- “MIDI is sick,” he says, admiring ally release, but it’s on the back burner the pseudo-piano’s plastic ivories and for now. At grandma’s house, the duo thumb-sized buttons. MIDI stands for

ILLUSTRATION BY CHANNING SMITH

Musical Instrument Digital Interface, computer editing that has since is the best time to have a pandemic,” which is a device — typically a minia- evolved into a stand-alone market of says Daniel Grabois, a UW–Madison ture keyboard or button pad — that competing softwares and devices. music professor who teaches elecconnects directly to a computer to Though it was not the first, Apple’s tro-acoustic ensemble. “Price points digitize the notes an artist plays. It’s 2004 user-friendly GarageBand is unde- have made it reasonable, and available programmable, so people can down- niably the most widely-recognized help has made it doable by everybody.” load a plethora of sounds that link to program for creating, recording and Aaron Zinsmeister, founder and the keyboard. Buttons independently mixing tracks of any genre all in one audio engineer at White Raven make multi-instrument tracks with place. DAWs introduced this capability Audio in Appleton, now spends more just one MIDI, which can range from to the main frame, but much like the time virtually teaching clients how MIDI, it was a while before modern- to set up devices and software for $50 to $100.

An engineer created the first MIDI ization and commercialization made at-home production. in 1978, but it took decades to slim the them readily available and accessible.

While turn-of-the-century tech initial technology down to something Now, for less than the cost of development improved independent so light and portable that Wright could a decent professional session, which music production, it also birthed the wave it around with one hand. This can be more than $200 per hour, new and prolific social media. Each technology grew up alongside its part- artists and interested amateurs can platform released since then had ner in 21st century music production: effectively transform any space into a greater emphasis on photo and video a fully-functioning production studio, than the last. digital audio workstations.

Digital audio workstations, com- which is crucial in a time when people TikTok, the latest addition to the monly known as DAWs, are a 1980s are largely confined to their homes. market, underscored this trend with marriage of audio recording and “In terms of self-produced music, this its meteoric rise in popularity: from

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11 million monthly active users in the put music out of his mind and relaxed United States in 2018, to more than for a few days, but the calm quickly 100 million this year. passed as the race to produce COVIDThe app allows users to splice 19-related content ramped up.

“It just felt like it was open season on together video, sound and special effects to create skits, performances, the internet,” Lorenz says. “No one had public service announcements or made the coronavirus song, so people just bizarre “randomcore” that they were like, ‘We have to do it ... this could can post to the public. With the right be our opportunity to put something hashtags and interactions, the plat- out that’s really good and timely.’”

Lorenz composed a song in a form’s algorithm can catapult any TikTok user to viral fame — and with matter of days and Wright added them, the artist whose song they used. edits, but because they want their Clairo, formally known as Claire songs to sound better than what their Cottrill, is a 22-year-old self-made “surface-level knowledge” of digital singer/songwriter/producer who rose production can provide, Wright says, to the forefront of the bedroom pop they regularly outsource an indepenscene — a genre of contemplative dent artist, producer and friend, Nick lyrics and hazy electronic rhythms Pedraza, for mixing.

Since the pandemic, collaborating that spawned from the availability of at-home production technology. from afar is possible, but Wright says Cottrill’s breakout song “Pretty Girl” scheduling challenges and back-andkick-started her career on TikTok, gar- forth video chats and texts has made it nering millions of views. take “five times as long to do everything.”

Many artists have transferred TikTok fame to professional fame, aided by the crossover between social media and music streaming platforms — Spotify has a curated playlist dedicated to viral hits. It’s a combination of songs new and old, like Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” which one TikTok Now, if he wants Pedraza to create user single-handedly revived this fall and send over a sound, it could take in a viral video in which he careens a full day, which Wright says holds down the street on a skateboard while up the “flow” of working on a song. lip syncing happily to the 1977 classic. Nevertheless, he says Pedraza’s value Combined with TikTok’s algorith- to the band is worth their reliance on mic affinity for new sounds, many his production skills. up-and-coming artists flourished on “Nick is huge for us. Without him the Gen-Z-dominated platform that our music would definitely sound received overwhelming attention worse,” Wright says. “It’s a crutch for over quarantine. But with any oppor- sure that we rely on quite a bit, but I tunity comes competition. wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Lorenz lives in New York but travTechnology managed to fill in eled home to Lake Geneva, near the many gaps left behind by social disIllinois border, to quarantine with his tancing, but some, says Jeremy Morris, family before he met up with Wright, UW–Madison professor of media and his Staring in Spaces bandmate. Since cultural studies, are unfillable.

An expert on the current industry, it was supposed to be spring break, he

“In terms of self-produced music, this is the best time to have a pandemic.”

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Morris says one crucial feature of the music landscape is still missing: concerts. Instagram live shows, a popular quarantine tool among artists, provide the real-time experience, but lack the third dimension of performance, which is being there.

“Concerts are a unique and singular experience,” Morris says. “For independent musicians at least ... it’s entirely a business of you and your fans, and how you connect to your fans.”

Zinsmeister says many independent or part-time artists in the Appleton area took a hit when the virus struck because they relied heavily on live gigs to propel their music careers. For some, it’s made an already-difficult line of work even harder to pursue.

“A lot of them are in really rough states, and a lot of them are thinking about giving it up,” Zinsmeister says. “You’re always on the verge of giving up.”

Until he can once again perform in person for packed crowds, Pedraza is devoting isolation’s “abundance of time” to channeling his passion for his own music into a surplus of new projects. Producing alone in his room, he says it’s difficult to gauge how well a song will be received, but he is trying not to overthink things.

Musicians are staring down a tunnel.

They know there is a light at the end of it, but no one can be sure of how far away it lies. Pedraza treks toward the exit one foot in front of the other and keeps his mind’s eye on the promise of reunion.

“We are creating with reckless abandon right now, with everything to gain and nothing to lose,” he says. “So I am just making as much as I can, however I want, without getting too into my own head ... because the next time I’m on the stage, I know it’s going to be such a huge release for everyone.” •

A PERFECT

STORM Black candidates navigate a dual pandemic on the campaign trail

BY HUNTER ELLIS

ILLUSTRATION BY CHANNING SMITH

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

S

hayna Griffin was barely three weeks into her new role as a member of the Kenosha Common Council when a police officer shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back. “Initially, it was kind of like being in shock, not knowing what to do,” Griffin says.

Black women in elected office and on the campaign trail in 2020 face what amounts to a dual pandemic — the ongoing COVID-19 crisis disproportionately hitting communities of color and the ongoing reckoning with racial injustice. For Griffin, Sen. Lena Taylor of Milwaukee, Rep. LaKeshia Myers

“I like to say we’re winning, because for the most part ... we’ve not stopped… ” of Milwaukee and Kimberly Smith of Oregon, the experience goes beyond the usual trauma and challenges of being a candidate or public official who is a woman — especially a Black woman — in Wisconsin. There was confusion and sorrow, along with new perspectives and experiences.

Sen. Lena Taylor While Taylor lost her mayoral (D-Milwaukee) bid, she campaigned again in the fall, Taylor was in arguably the most mostly virtually, to hold onto her important race of her life April 7, the Senate seat for four more years. And spring primary in Wisconsin, but she throughout the year Taylor fought was also in the midst of one of the hard to end voter suppression and most controversial and problematic create equity for Black people in voting situations in state history.

Milwaukee and across Wisconsin.

“We have gone from being the Like it did with everything else, the pandemic upended the normal rou- place that Black people came to for tines of Election Day. Only five out of a better way of life. And now we are the usual 180 polling locations were literally the worst place in the nation open across the entire city. Something to raise a Black child and to be a Black else was different about the primary: American,” Taylor says.

Taylor, 54, was running to become the Even with some of the work being first Black female mayor of Milwaukee. done in the state Legislature, like a “The Republicans making us go out task force on racial disparities, Taylor to vote, well, it’s horrible. But what the questions what potential outcomes and Democrats in Milwaukee did was even actions her colleagues might end up with.

Taylor continues to be optimistic more horrific, and I’m disgusted by it.

And I’m even more disgusted by the fact for Milwaukee’s future and the state that people were silent,” Taylor says. as a whole. Her experience this year The state’s Republican leaders taught her not to take time for granted decided to push through with an and to be more conscious of just how in-person election despite the rising short life is. number of coronavirus cases, but it “You know, we’re winning. I like to was a local election commission in say we’re winning because for the most Milwaukee that limited the number of part … we’ve not stopped what we’re in-person voting sites to five, which doing, and I think that’s a good thing,” the commission said was a decision Taylor says. based on a shortage of poll workers.

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Kimberly Smith, Oregon Democratic candidate In the middle of June, when almost Shayna Griffin, everyone was still getting used to the Kenosha Alderwoman drastic changes happening around the state and country, Smith announced Although Griffin, 31, has had little time her candidacy for the state Assembly. on the Kenosha Common Council, It was just two months before the pri- she’s had plenty of experience. As a Black woman, Griffin felt the same mary election.

Smith challenged the 17-year shock and pain many in her commuDemocratic incumbent, Sondy Pope. nity did after the police shooting that Being a fairly new candidate, Smith caught national attention. initially found it challenging to clear Griffin listened to members of her some of the early thresholds to start community and people of her district her campaign, such as raising money after the horrific event. She found that and collecting hundreds of signatures. many in her community were looking “It was very tiring. It was taxing. And for the same things she was: social jusit was probably more difficult than it tice and equity. has ever been for people who are new,” “As a community, we’ve had some Smith says. great feedback, and there are so many Even though Smith lost the primary great people in Kenosha who really election in early August, she pulled want to see things get better, just like one-third of the votes despite a rela- me,” Griffin says. tively short campaign. She doesn’t rule Events like Blake’s shooting are out running again in the future. the reason Griffin sought a seat on Although Smith wasn’t successful in the Kenosha City Council. As a practhe traditional sense, she came out of ticing nurse working third shift since her experience with new perspectives. the pandemic started, Griffin’s care “I learned a lot in this election, in for others has always come first. She this primary and in running for office. I decided it was finally time to serve her believe that more people who are young community on a larger scale. need to run for office and have that After the events of this year, Griffin experience, even if they lose,” Smith believes she is not the only one who says. “More people need to be taught notices the importance of being civics. More people need to be taught involved in the community and how and go to the Capitol and lobby for their the largest changes can happen at the own cause and educate themselves.” smallest levels.

Smith hopes her run can inspire “People are really waking up, really other Black candidates to run and win wanting to know how everything offices, especially in Dane County. works,” Griffin says. “There’s been so “How can I help bring other Black many positive organizations, people community members up and help really stopping to think about where them get elected? What’s my role?” they are, where they want to be and Smith says. “It’s going to be taking how important it is for them to be action like that that’s going to produce involved and to fight for what they the change that we need.” feel is right.” X

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHANNING SMITH

Rep. LaKeshia Myers (D-Milwaukee) In the midst of campaigning during a pandemic for re-election to the state legislature, Myers, who is 36 and has a compromised immune system, had two tough tasks. She needed to keep herself safe and try to save the lives of her constituents in her northwest Milwaukee district, home to multiple skilled nursing facilities filled with residents extremely vulnerable to COVID-19. Myers and others in her community focused on how to take action themselves.

“We were in competition for protective equipment, company versus company or skilled nursing facility versus skilled nursing facility. And then the manufacturers drove up prices,” Myers says. “We didn’t have a good national response.”

This concern for health and safety in Myers’ district at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak wasn’t the only thing adding to the chaos. Because of social distancing and the cancellation of many in-person events, many people in Myers’ district didn’t have access to the resources they normally would to learn more about voting and connect them with candidates.

Because of this, Myers made it a personal priority to get out and help those looking for assistance and make those who were voting a little more comfortable while doing so.

“I was passing out cheeseburgers to people in April to help them stay in line because the lines were so long,” Myers says. “[Voters] were wrapped around the high school that I went to.”

Even with all the negativity in 2020, Myers believes one positive outcome is the emerging power and energy of young people across the state who are registering to vote and standing up for their beliefs.

“I think there have been some blessings in disguise when it came from these dual pandemics,” Myers says. “I think the wool has been taken off of people’s eyes. They have been able to wake up and see what is happening.”

WORTH THE RISK? Youth basketball clubs find ways to play on

BY DANIEL ZIOLKOWSKI

ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL ZIOLKOWSKI

N

ot one athlete, coach or parent knew what awaited them when they walked into a gym for a basketball tournament over the summer. But the rapid growth of the club basketball scene throughout Wisconsin and the increased presence of college coaches at those events meant most were willing to take the risk — in the middle of a pandemic.

Some tournaments went above and beyond to assure the safety of the players and their parents, intent on creating a safe environment for kids to win back a sense of normalcy. Others ignored or barely enforced mask mandates and social distancing protocols.

I attended a high school fall league event at the Center Court Sports Complex in Waukesha in suburban Milwaukee, which also hosted club tournaments throughout the summer.

While there were temperature checks at the door and signs that asked people to wear masks, no one stepped in to enforce those rules. Players walked around freely without masks and sat together to watch games, and there was no limit to the number of fans coming in through the single entry point.

Yet parents came in droves to watch their sons and daughters play in fall leagues, which essentially offer a preseason for high school programs.

The demand for competition is even higher in the summer for Amateur Athletic Union events, when the NCAA allots multiple time periods for college coaches to actively recruit high school athletes.

“If you want to play basketball and you want to be serious, to get that college level or further, it’s something you have to do,” says Jason Coker, president of the Evolution Basketball program and head coach of the girls’ varsity team at St. Joseph’s High School in Kenosha. “We’ve sent several kids that had never gained interest through

their high school program, but did through us, that are playing in college.”

The summer season was in jeopardy from the moment the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association shut down high school season in midMarch due to the coronavirus.

Erica Cook is the program director of Wisconsin RAP, which operates primarily out of New Berlin and fields teams from the Milwaukee area. Instead of having open gyms running five-onfive games, Cook and the coaches sent out videos of driveway drills. Players won rewards in the form of merchandise for becoming “video champions.”

The club expanded to holding team practices at local parks and in the yards of players who had outdoor courts at home so they could stay outside.

Coker and his Evolution squad were the primary users of a Kenosha gym for much of the summer.

Jasin Sinani, a senior at Oak Creek High School who played for RAP this summer, started playing club basketball in sixth grade. His goal from day one was to play Division I college basketball. Following a strong junior season, Sinani gained some interest from NCAA Division II and III programs, but knew he needed a big summer if he wanted to hear from bigger schools. On top of all the program’s drills, Sinani worked out with a private trainer and played on the half court in his backyard.

“During quarantine I changed my focus onto working out, whether that was in the weight room or on the court,” Sinani says.

But practices and drills don’t earn scholarship offers if no one can see what they’ve developed. So after roughly two months of deliberation, programs emailed parents to gauge their comfort level with starting a season. Of the 130 responses to RAP’s parent survey, over 80% wanted to “move forward with some sort of

season.” Evolution saw similar results within their program.

“I’d say we lost maybe 10% to 15% of our players on our teams because they just didn’t want to come back with COVID. Everyone else was like, ‘Man, let’s go, let’s play,’” Coker says.

Some other clubs saw similar reactions. Matt Bredesen is a head coach for teams from ages 15-17 of the Wisconsin Swing of Waunakee, as well as a teacher and boys’ varsity coach at Janesville Parker High School.

Swing didn’t officially sponsor teams, but didn’t have a hard time filling out rosters and “got everyone” they wanted at their tryouts for next year.

“What we ended up doing for the teams who wanted to keep playing, which was 10 of the 11 high school teams, was getting our own insurance and covering it,” Bredesen says. The coach also noted the importance of basketball for a lot of the kids goes beyond earning scholarships to their mental and physical health.

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A nationwide survey conducted over quarantine by UW Health and the UW School of Medicine and Public Health showed a 37% increase in student athletes who reported “feelings of anxiety and depression at levels that would normally require medical intervention,” and found that physical activity levels were down 50% from before the pandemic.

When tournaments finally started around Independence Day, coaches met a dizzying amount of paperwork and inconsistency. Especially before a state mask mandate which took effect on Aug. 1, sports complexes were largely on their own to determine the best way to curb the spread of coronavirus. They had Anthony Fauci’s guidance and a baseline document from the high school athletic association outlining safe practices to follow, but nothing was necessarily required beyond masks.

Those who attended tournaments over the summer say some organizers were willing and able to enforce strict protocols to keep everyone safe — procedures included clearing and sanitizing entire gyms, requiring masks and temperature checks and limiting numbers of guests. Many only allowed one parent to attend.

Some didn’t allow even that. In other cases, complexes asked for a flat-rate payment for 10 spectators, even if there were only four coming.

Both Cook and Coker referred to the constant cycle of paying and getting refunds for canceled tournaments as a “nightmare,” but also necessary.

Other facilities remained oblivious to what was happening around them.

“There was one that didn’t have any restrictions, and I lost seven or eight

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players [who left] after that weekend winter sports through the fall semester, because they didn’t have anything in which ends Jan. 22.

On Sept. 1, the Wisconsin place, it was like the wild, Wild West, and they didn’t even charge for people Interscholastic Athletic Association to come in,” Coker says. The coach issued an extensive document advising also believed there may have been athletic administrators how to safely some teams and coaches “guilty of operate athletic events for fall sports kind of sweeping it under the rug.” that largely aligns with what teams In the Wisconsin Dells area, have considered safe. One thing that JustAgame Fieldhouse was linked to stands out, however, is a statement an outbreak of at least 22 athletes, that says athletes should wear masks according to reporting by WISC-TV. while practicing or playing indoors, The fieldhouse told WISC it had which impacts winter sports more since added a mask requirement for than fall sports. Cook doesn’t fully people in the building except for those agree with the precaution, preferring participating in a game. rules that require players wear masks Where restrictions were well while entering and exiting facilities maintained, however, athletes say but not while they play, but trusts amateur clubs were successful in whatever the association decides.

If the season is postponed or accomplishing their main goal of getting players to college. Sinani canceled, one big question remains: received heavy Division I interest Will club programs decide to let high by the end of the summer, after school level teams play on through the performing especially well against winter to fill the void?

The programs’ representatives a team featuring four players in 247Sports’ Top 100 recruits in the were adamant they prefer to see the Class of 2021. He is now committed high school season move forward to UW–Milwaukee on a full basketball because of how many more kids are scholarship. involved — roughly 540,000 boys and “Without AAU, to be honest, I girls participated across the U.S. in don’t know if I would’ve received any the 2018 season — but didn’t leave Division I interest until the midway or anything off the table. But a winter end of my high school season, which club season may also be a possibility. is pretty late in the recruiting process,” Cook has had RAP ready to go through Sinani says. “I don’t know if things winter for weeks now. would’ve worked out.”

“I support the high school season.

Now all attention turns to the high And I think it’s really great for tradition school season, which started in mid- and for kids,” Cook says. “But if for November. The governor of Illinois, some reason the WIAA shut it down, J.B. Pritzker, announced the state and we’ve told our club members this would upgrade basketball to a “high too, we would step in and provide risk” sport on Oct. 27, postponing something for kids that was safe.” X the season. In Wisconsin, the Badger Conference in Dane County has already announced it will not host

THE TIPPING POINT

A make-or-break moment for small businesses

BY BRIGHID HARTNETT

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

I

nstead of hibernating this winter, July report from the agency Zak Koga is going to set up measuring the economic igloos. To combat the Wisconsin impact of COVID-19, Wisconsin cold, Koga’s brewery, Karben4, businesses reported a collective is creating an outdoor space for $22 million in lost income since the customers to eat, drink and be merry state first went into lockdown. “[Their] dream has basically been — at a distance, of course.

“I’m sort of a wartime-general-type turned upside down and shook out of person,” Koga says of his plans onto the floor,” Hughes says. to brave the winter and the tough For Koga, the shutdown demanded climate for small businesses in the a pivot in Karben4’s operations. pandemic. “There’s a lot of focus “Two-thirds of my business just that’s offered when stuff starts falling evaporated in 24 hours,” Koga says, apart. It’s like, ‘OK, good. I know recounting the uncertainty he felt exactly what to do. Let’s do this, and when Wisconsin restaurants and bars this, and this — let’s survive now.’” were restricted to carryout options Business owners across the state only. “So in a lot of ways, I just dove have shared Koga’s demanding right into action.” experience over the past nine months.

In March, Gov. Tony Evers declared Karben4 a state of emergency to stop the Based in Madison, Karben4 beer is a spread of the coronavirus, eventually staple in fridges and grocery stores banning all gatherings of more than across Wisconsin. One of its most 10 people. The Wisconsin Department popular brews, the Fantasy Factory of Health Services also issued a safer- IPA, features a label with a cat riding at-home order, which required certain a unicorn. These types of quirks are businesses to close or reduce their what make Karben4 unique — the operations. The restrictions left brewery doesn’t shy away from many businesses reeling, with rent anything bizarre or amusing. In and utilities to pay but no customers addition to an eccentric tap list and playful branding, Karben4 emphasizes coming through the door.

Wisconsin Economic Development community connections between local Corporation Secretary Missy Hughes businesses — which is what inspired likened the experience to a natural Koga to plan a COVID-19-safe drive-up disaster — and businesses across taproom. the state are still trying their best to Set up in local church parking weather the storm. According to a lots, cars at Koga’s drive-thru events

Fantasy Factory, brewed locally in Madison, has become a staple in fridges and grocery stores across Wisconsin.

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“The quote of the year: All we have to do is wait.” drove through the lot and filled found renewed purpose in Butter Buds. their cars with a variety of food and The company, born out of a farming beverages purchased from nearby tradition passed down through genbusinesses. Karben4 also partnered erations, develops and manufactures with area farmers, increasing the sales dairy flavoring and butter products for of locally sourced farm products. restaurants and cafeterias and for sale “[They were] hugely successful at grocery stores. events that were able to generate “I think it was definitely an impetus over half a million dollars for dozens for getting into the business,” Buhler of businesses,” Koga says. “The says of his dairy farming heritage. With direct-to-community model is what beginnings in Racine, Butter Buds has I’m starting to call it.” expanded to distribute its products But Koga recognizes his work isn’t — including butter, cheese and dairy over — that’s where the igloos come flavoring — on a global scale.

But like Koga, Buhler couldn’t have into play.

“We’re going to try to set up an array foreseen an economic shutdown of igloos outside so that people can spanning several months. The corostill have a place to go,” Koga says. navirus is something the company’s “I’m definitely concerned for the gen- leadership team is still working to eral morale and mental health of our mitigate in both development and community in the winter.” distribution. “We’re still adjusting Aside from plans to accommodate and adapting,” Buhler says. for Wisconsin’s harsh winters, Koga Butter Buds’ main pivot occurred in also hopes people will continue to its sales department, where employees explore options for safe connectivity typically make in-person appointand engagement — not only as a way ments to work with customers on to get out of the house, but to maintain product development and selection.

The Purple Goose The Purple Goose flexibility as communities move into Due to social distancing protocol, Halley Jones didn’t plan on moving her is a women’s these meetings have transitioned to a entire storefront during a pandemic — fashion store new seasonal realities.

“We have to continue to look at the virtual format. But due to the world- it was the sort of decision that came located in Paoli. information that’s being made avail- wide scope of Butter Buds products, to her swiftly and without hesitation. able to us,” Koga says. “We have to the samples travel well and salespeo- “Long story short, I signed the lease adjust.” ple can still engage with customers the last week of May, and I opened But he notes that his community over video chats. there the first week of June. So that While restaurant closures and was a snap,” Jones says of her new has already come together in some remarkable ways. Koga says at least limits on gatherings reduced Butter store location. one of his neighbors from Waunakee, Buds’ sales to food service providers, Jones owns and operates The Purple Wisconsin, showed up at every brew- Buhler noted a surprising uptick in a Goose, a clothing store that opened ery event or drive-thru taproom. different type of clientele.

15 years ago in Verona, a suburb of “We didn’t have to explain how “We were feeling the effects,” Buhler Madison. Now, the store has found screwed we were as a food and bev- says. “And then we saw the opposite its new home in nearby Paoli. As an erage industry. Everyone knew it, and effect in the other side of the business, instructor at the UW–Madison School they acted,” Koga says. “They took which is products that you find in a super- of Human Ecology and a veteran in the the time to preorder beer, to preor- market, where business was going up.” retail industry, Jones is well-attuned der food, to show up, to wait for us to While the ratio is unusual within to market fluctuations. However, the come out and put it in the trunk, all the scope of Butter Buds’ normal pandemic produced unpredictable this really convenient stuff. They were sales, Buhler says his business is up retail trends, and Jones sought to meet willing to get on board with it.” for the challenge. the needs of customers by developing “It is an unprecedented time, and an app for her store. we don’t have a lot of best practices Butter Buds “We were able to build our online Though recent years brought a wave that we can turn to. So I guess that’s presence in the course of a month and of reduced demand and dairy farm another way of saying we’re all trying ramp it up to not replacing our store closures, Tom Buhler and his family to figure it out,” Buhler says. inventory, but probably doing 30%

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PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

of it online, which would have taken me five years and lots of marketing dollars and hair-pulling to try to get that,” Jones says.

Jones is already looking to the future with plans to hold socially distant outdoor events to keep customers engaged throughout the winter season.

“We’re Wisconsinites — there’s nothing to say that people won’t put on a winter parka and cute fuzzy Uggs,” Jones says. “We’re actually, in Paoli, putting in fire rings in outdoor areas that hopefully will go through the holiday season, and make it not only possible to sit outside, but almost inviting to come and enjoy a cup of cider or a beer.”

These plans are consistent with many other businesses looking to ensure longevity as the pandemic persists. For Jones and The Purple Goose, it’s all a matter of observing how the next few months play out in order to plan for her next move.

“The quote of the year: All we have to do is wait,” Jones says.

The process of shutting down the store, reopening and eventually moving locations reinforced the community-first attitude Jones fosters within her business. Now more than ever, Jones recognizes the importance of her store as a third space for local shoppers to develop interpersonal connections and establish relationships within the community.

“People feel connected when they come to The Purple Goose — it’s not only a gathering place for the community, but it’s a place where people can get re-energized and feel good about themselves again,” Jones says. “Those places are definitely missing right now, and we need to figure out a safe way to bring an element of that back for those people who need it most.” X

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LET’S TALK

How to confront racism in your own circle

BY ASHLEY OBULJEN

A mural by artist Shiloah Symone (@blckslimshady) covers the side of the Overture Center for the Arts in downtown Madison. Many shops around State Street were boarded up during the summer protests and have become canvases for a variety of art.

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e’ve all heard the to try to bring the issue up in a way learned something.”

Language also can be pivotal in news stories about that doesn’t attack them,” Oliver says. racist acts: Black “You’re supposed to talk about actions, these situations, Oliver says.

“A term like white supremacy, Lives Matter count- not personality.”

It’s important to take into account which I use a lot, some people comer-protesters using the N-word, a white woman calling the police on a the type of relationship you have with pletely freak out about,” Oliver says. bird-watching Black man and even a the person you’re confronting, Oliver “So I think part of the problem is woman at a gas station telling a Latina explains. Whether the person is willing that in this area, all vocabulary has girl to, “Go back to Mexico.” to listen to you at all is one factor, but if become really emotional.”

But racism doesn’t always announce you’re trying to correct misinformation, Those who are committed to itself with bigoted, public rants. What another issue is raised: Will you agree defending racist attitudes are not happens when you encounter it in your on what the standards of evidence are? worth having these conversations own circle? Racism has always existed, One debate about gun control with with, Oliver says. but amid a social justice movement fol- her brother-in-law showcased how “I have some relatives who are lowing violence against Black people at honest conversations with people who just straight-up white supremacists,” the hands of Kenosha and Minneapolis are open to digesting new information Oliver says. “There’s no point at all police this year, it has pushed itself to can be promising. Oliver claimed most in engaging them, because engaging the forefront of Wisconsinites’ minds. gun-related deaths were accidental, them just makes for wars.”

UW–Madison sociology profes- while her brother-in-law claimed Paige Anderson, a field organizer sor Pamela Oliver, whose research they were mostly murder. But upon for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin focuses on social movements and collective research, the two found out who grew up in a politically divided racial disparities in criminal justice, suicide represented a major chunk of household in Stillwater, Minnesota, has confronted her family about their gun-related deaths. tries to avoid one-sided conversations.

“We were both shocked,” Oliver “Some people listen to conversaracist commentary.

“The usual thing, if you’re trying says. “You can disagree, but you can tions to actually hear what you have to to confront somebody else for what have a decent relationship and have say. Some people listen until you stop you consider to be racist attitudes, is a conversation in which you both talking so they could tell you what they

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were going to say either way,” Griffin says.

While discourse between Anderson and the more conservative people in her life doesn’t always yield desired results, her Republican father remains supportive of her career ambitions.

Her relationships with people who she disagrees with remain strong, but some over-the-line comments motivate her to respond. When she noticed people in her life were misinformed and trying to justify the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer in May, Anderson stepped in.

de Royston appreciated the women reaching out, but following up with conversations about anti-racist action produced telling results.

“What actions are you engaging in, in the community and in society, to sort of shift these dynamics of power?”

McKinney de Royston would ask them.

Those conversations reveal if people understand how racism operates, she says.

Some people who engaged with McKinney de Royston in 2016 missed the mark by asking her to explain the state of the nation and tell them what they should do to fix it.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HUYNH

ILLUSTRATION BY GENEVIEVE VAHL

“You need to look at the whole picture, not just what you want to see.”

“It’s also asking me for my labor, Pointing back to the facts of what happened, Anderson says, was help- to help them make sense of things,” ful in deconstructing arguments based McKinney de Royston says. “If you’re on misinformation. She recommends really worried about my well-being, “sandwiching,” a response to racism you wouldn’t be asking me to do more using this three-point process: “What work right now. If you really underyou said is racist; this is why it is racist; stood how race works, to always put it just reiterating: what you said is racist.” on the onus of the minoritized person Body language and cues are absent to do the work, then you wouldn’t be from phone calls and Facebook posts, asking me those questions.” but this new blueprint has benefitWhite guilt has also become a ted Anderson. In-person debates can common encounter for McKinney result in emotional responses that de Royston. Though often unintenrisk diminishing conversational goals, tional, expressions of white guilt can and people may not have accurate place unnecessary burdens on marfacts at their fingertips in live conver- ginalized people.

Like Oliver and Anderson, McKinney sations, Anderson says.

Dismantling misguided arguments de Royston says there’s a distinction is also effective for people who have between who’s worth confronting misconceptions about what it means about racism and who’s not. to be racist, including those who make “The line is different for every person the “I’m not racist because I have a depending upon what you’re trying to Black friend” argument. get out of it,” McKinney de Royston says.

Interracial relationships can expose These conversations are less burpeople to others with different life densome for white people because for experiences, but they are not evidence people of color, it can be harmful if the that someone understands systemic person they’re conversing with denies racism, says Maxine McKinney de their humanity.

Royston, a UW–Madison assistant pro- “These conversations on our campus fessor of curriculum and instruction. and in white-dominated spaces are “What I would tell people is, ‘I’m glad the work of white people,” McKinney that you’re engaging in those kinds of de Royston says. “While I advise lots relationships, but you need to reflect of white students and I teach lots of on those relationships,’” McKinney de white students, I don’t think that it is Royston says. “Why do you have them? my job to educate them about everyWhat keeps you all together? What is thing. I think it’s my job to begin to give them the tools to begin to help your role in this relationship?”

McKinney de Royston, a Black them speak in critical ways about race woman, noted that multiple con- and about racism, anti-Black violence cerned white women reached out to and anti-Blackness more generally. her following the election of President And then it’s their job to do the work Donald Trump in 2016. McKinney for themselves.” X

GUIDE TO BEING

Do the Work.

Don’t ask others to do it for you.

It’s important not to place unnecessary burdens on people of color — it’s not their job to inform you.

Take Action.

Reaching out to check in is okay, but ask yourself what you’re doing to change the situation: What actions are you engaging to shift dynamics of power?

Be Considerate.

Consider how asking for advice from people of color about racism could impact their well-being.

Avoid the Guilt Response.

Don’t tell your Black friends how badly you feel about what’s going on. This puts burden on them to make you feel better.

Remember.

Remember that having Black friends or family does not exempt you from racism. Anti-racism is about acting on an understanding of systemic racism of anti-Blackness.

Reflect.

Reflect on your interracial relationships. Consider your role in the relationship: What work have you done to make sure that it is a healthy and not harmful relationship?

Listen & Learn.

Continue to listen and learn.

Remember that your actions could result in unintentional harm.

Get Started.

Watch “13th” on Netflix or read “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi or “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Sources: Maxine McKinney de Royston, UW–Madison assistant professor of curriculum and instruction; Pamela Oliver, UW–Madison professor of sociology

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FOR BLACK LIVES A UW medical student crusades for equity in health care

BY AYAKA THORSON

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aillie Frizell would have never imagined herself to be standing before a crowd of a thousand people on a blazing hot day in mid-June.

For two weeks after George Floyd’s murder, Frizell, a medical student at UW–Madison, made phone calls, distributed mass emails, gathered volunteers and sent press releases to every local media outlet to help spark a movement to dismantle systemic racism in health care. She expected no more than a few hundred people to show up outside the state Capitol to rally for the cause. But her exhaustion quickly turned to excitement as the crowd grew into a sea of a thousand white coats.

At the beginning of the summer, Frizell, 23, and her mentor, Dr. Jasmine Zapata, an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics, worked on an infant mortality research project — Wisconsin leads the nation with the highest infant mortality rate for non-Hispanic Black women. After Floyd’s death, they decided to shift gears; they needed to address everything that was going on.

The coronavirus has exposed long-standing systemic health and social inequities. Black Wisconsinites are about five times more likely to be diagnosed or die from COVID-19 compared to white Wisconsinites, according to the UW Population Health Institute. Two years before the pandemic, the Wisconsin Public Health Association declared racism as a public health crisis in Wisconsin.

The two women organized the statewide rally to launch UW–Madison’s Chapter of White Coats 4 Black Lives, a national student-run organization dedicated to dismantling racial inequality and racism in health care.

It was an unconventional student research project — an initiative to mobilize words into meaningul actions.

Medical students play an integral role in overturning one of America’s foremost public health crises: racism.

“You need to start with these conversations on day one of med school as you walk in. Making sure that it’s known, that it’s important and it’s going to impact how you take care of your future patients,” Frizell says.

The disparate impacts of COVID–19 on communities of color highlight the fact that people of color face discrimination in many aspects of their daily

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN HUYNH

lives, from police brutality and education to housing and health care.

The White Coats 4 Black Lives rally on June 13 was a diverse event power-packed with speakers, physicians, medical students, residents and community leaders. Local hospital administrators ordered their employees to work together and cover shifts to ensure that everyone could attend, Frizell says. Zapata and Dr. Tracy Downs, an associate dean in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, kick-started the event, followed by speeches from physicians, residents and Black community leaders in Wisconsin health care.

“The dean of the med school actually came, too and he stood at the front,” Frizell says. “I thought that was a super powerful statement, just showing how much our school cared to show up for us.”

For many Black community members, it was the first time they had a platform to amplify their concerns and experiences with providers in the health care system, including the need for more Black doctors. “Doctors need to start taking their own medicine” was the most powerful refrain that emerged, she says.

“It was powerful to see them get out there with the confidence they did to call out these issues, and I think a lot of people took it to heart,” Frizell says. “They are real people.

They have lives. We need to listen to their wants and needs.”

Frizell found a common theme among respondents in a survey conducted after the event: the desire to mobilize talk into concrete action.

Many rally attendants realized that being “not racist” wasn’t enough; they need to be affirmatively anti–racist.

In the months that followed, Frizell helped assemble a network of leaders in Wisconsin health care to help dismantle systemic racism. She also organized a monthly webinar series for Black physicians to dive deeper on how they talk about systemic racism in health care. About 90 doctors, medical students and residents participated.

The success of the White Coats 4 Black Lives initiative makes Zapata, Frizell’s mentor, hopeful for the future and proud of the next generation of medicine and public health leaders. “It took the burden off me knowing that there are so many outstanding and amazing up–and– coming leaders that will carry the torch,” she says. “I want them to know that we need them in this fight and they should never give up.”

Frizell is now a second-year medical student at UW–Madison, where her peers describe her as brilliant and determined. She is the event coordinator for UW’s Student National Medical Association chapter, a national student organization for Black students in medical school that has long worked toward change.

Highlighting her belief in “power by the numbers,” Frizell notes that her cohort is the most diverse class that the school has had until this year.

This summer, she and her peers at the student organization worked together to advocate for hiring a new Black guidance counselor to improve the Black medical student experience

Frizell says discussion of health care equity should be integrated into medical school spaces from the start, as a central initiative of the UW–Madison Chapter of White Coats 4 Black Lives is to turn words into action.

and increase faculty representation.

Administrators from the University of Washington also reached out for help creating a mandatory, anti-racism curriculum for its incoming first-year medical students.

Frizell continues to attend regular meetings with the UW–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health administrative board to improve the institution’s diversity and inclusion initiatives and increase its efforts toward addressing racism in medical education. “I can’t do everything, I’m a med student,” Frizell says. “It’s about bringing [issues] up to people who have the resources and the power and the ability to make changes.

They’re actually doing more of the heavy lifting than us, but I think if we wouldn’t have said anything, that would have never changed.”

The White Coats 4 Black Lives initiative helped Frizell gain confidence in her ability to bring people together and make a difference. She hopes that the rally will become an annual event, and she is determined to carry on the community movement for eliminating racism in health care. Frizell’s passion and energy radiates to the students and faculty around her as she works to pave the way for change for the next generation of doctors and medical professionals.

“Being able to open the doors for students behind us to be like, ‘This is what we did, this is how we did it.’

That’s been huge,” Frizell says. “Some of the facilitators I was with told me, ‘You’ve done more in the last three months than we’ve seen in 18 years.’” X

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