BISHOP WALTER HARVEY
Bishop Walter Harvey served as the senior pastor for the Parklawn Assembly of God in Sherman Park for over 30 years until his retirement in 2020. He is deeply rooted in biblical teachings about manifesting the presence of God in our everyday life. He’s also the creator of Prism Economic Development, an initiative that empowers entrepreneurs in underserved communities to experience “economic flourishing.”
I'M A SON OF THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE.
I grew up in the 53206 ZIP code, which today has some notorious statistics of pain. Some see themselves as buried in this place, but I consider myself planted. We come from the same location, but that which is planted is here to give forth life.
My faith mandates works that disrupt the pain of people and places, and in 2016, I experienced that in a new way. I wept over Sylville Smith's death, as I watched buildings around our church go up in flames. As I led our congregation through the streets, we encountered a large crowd of protestors. People recognized me as a faith leader and asked me an important question: Where has the church been? They were right. It was time for us to be with the community in a new way.
That transformed our church budget and strategy. We began to really be with people, transforming our community through mentoring and using business as a tool of justice. That's why we created Prism, and out of that, UpStart Kitchen, an incubator for entrepreneurs who want to start or grow their food-oriented businesses. We also unleashed ordinary people to do the same where they live and work. One of our members launched Sherman Park Grocery Store, a place where people can buy healthy food at an affordable price in a food desert.
People say if you teach a person to fish, they'll eat for a lifetime. But that's not true. If there are systems and structures on their path, people can't feed themselves. In communities where there are systems and structures in place that keep people from thriving, we aim to love our neighbors by creating an ecosystem that allows people to overcome obstacles so they can manufacture and multiply dreams that bring about generational wealth.
A FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON … PEACE PEOPLE THINK PEACE IS JUST THE ABSENCE OF PROBLEMS OR CONFLICT, BUT IT’S SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. THE HEBREW WORD FOR PEACE, SHALOM, MEANS WELL-BEING AND FLOURISHING. TO HAVE TRUE PEACE, WE HAVE TO HAVE AN INCREASE OF HUMAN FLOURISHING.
This East Side museum isn’t just a place to learn about Jewish history. It’s a space to have meaningful conversations about oppression, justice and tolerance through the perspective of Jewish history, art and values. Founded in 2008, the museum is home to a permanent collection, special themed exhibits and events that highlight the pains and accomplishments of Jews throughout history.
OUR MISSION IS TO TELL THE STORY OF THE JEWS THROUGH THE LENS OF SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN and to use the history of the Jews to promote tolerance and build bridges between people and communities. Jewish history is unique in that there are centuries of intolerance and antisemitism. But the Jews have also contributed to history in so many meaningful ways. We use that history to spark conversation in a divided time.
We get kids on field trips here, and they'll sometimes say their docent is the first Jewish person they've ever met. When you learn a Jewish person is just another person with a story to tell, they become “known.” They're no longer the other.
We also try to build bridges between communities. What I love about this museum is the ability to use this rich and varied history to find similarities with other communities, and to foster dialogue between them. There is so much more antisemitism than people know, but there's also so much hate speech and crime toward other communities, even here in Milwaukee. We have to find ways to support each other.
We also use Jewish history to address important contemporary issues that affect all of us. In our “Scrap Yard” exhibit last year, we looked at the history of Jewish immigrants as scrap peddlers, who ultimately became the forerunners of recyclers. Through that lens, we explored environmental justice issues and the intersection of waste, race and health.
Whether someone's visiting for an exhibit or a special event, we ask people to put on their critical thinking hats to think about what's going on today in our culture, and what lessons we can take away from history and art as they pursue justice in their own way.
A FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON … DIVERSITY DIVERSITY ISN’T JUST ABOUT INCLUSION. IT’S ABOUT INCLUDING VARIOUS COMMUNITIES IN A MEANINGFUL, DEEP WAY. IF YOUR DIVERSITY DOESN’T EQUATE TO RELATIONSHIPS AND MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS, IT’S NOT DIVERSITY. TRUE DIVERSITY IS THE STEP TOWARD LEARNING ABOUT EACH OTHER AND FINDING OUR SHARED HUMANITY.
A storyteller, historian and community organizer, Adam Carr has devoted his career to telling the untold stories of our city. He started his career in community-based work as a producer for 88Nine Radio Milwaukee. Since then, he’s become a resource for helping people understand the city they live in, whether through public art collaborations, journalism, bus tours or in conversation with civic leaders.
I GREW UP IN THE ABUNDANCE OF
MILWAUKEE. Attending great public schools and playing in great public parks, I felt something that's scarce in this city: freedom and connection. When I started my career, I began to realize I had grown up inside of this really beautiful, complex story I didn't know, and that really lit a fire in me. I was confronted by the untold stories of those around me and how little I knew. The average person growing up here is offered so little of what this city has to offer.
Telling stories is a way to address the bitter truth of what's happened in our history. We want to get to reconciliation and repair, but we can't do that without addressing the truth. We have to grasp the complexity of how we got here and the roots of our situation before finding solutions.
At the same time, there are so many people who have established incredible bodies of work, durable communities that have developed their own culture here. We're almost proud of how we treat the city as small, but Milwaukee is a big, amazing place already. It's not just potential. The problem is, we've become so complacent about systems that reinforce the status quo.
Telling stories is a way to address the truth so we can create change, while also finding inspiration to resist oppressive systems collectively. A lot of my favorite stories to tell in Milwaukee, whether the story of the open housing marches or the Chapman Hall takeover at UWM, are about collectivity. While so many of us just accept the status quo, there are people banding together who see solutions in their neighbors. I think that togetherness is the way forward for Milwaukee. We don't need a superhero to save us. There are already beautiful things happening in every community.
A FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON … SEGREGATION PEOPLE OFTEN FRAME SEGREGATION AS A CHOICE BY PEOPLE OF LIKE RACES LIVING AROUND EACH OTHER, BUT THAT’S NOT INHERENTLY PROBLEMATIC. SEGREGATION, IN REALITY, HAS A LONG AND INTENTIONAL HISTORY THAT’S FAVORED WHITENESS ABOVE BLACK AND BROWN PEOPLE. THAT’S THE SEGREGATION WE SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT AND CHALLENGING.
A FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON … SOCIAL JUSTICE TOO MANY PEOPLE THINK SOCIAL JUSTICE MEANS THE POSSIBILITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND RESOURCES. SOCIAL JUSTICE IS THE CERTAINTY OF EQUITABLE ACCESS TO SUFFICIENT OPPORTUNITIES AND RESOURCES – ABSENT AND CORRECTIVE OF HISTORICAL PRIVILEGE AND OPPRESSION. THE PERCEPTION IS THAT THERE ARE ABUNDANT JOBS, HOUSING AND WEALTH TO BE OBTAINED BY EVERYONE – THIS IS AMERICA, AFTER ALL. BUT THAT’S NEVER BEEN TRUE.
A veteran nonprofit executive, community activist and lifelong Milwaukeean, Tammy Rivera has served as executive director of the Southside Organizing Center since 2015. The organization is dedicated to the development and sustainability of the city’s near South Side neighborhoods, working to ensure residents have a voice, vote and vehicle to enact positive change on issues that matter to them.
AS A LATINA ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF MILWAUKEE, I've witnessed and experienced injustice play out both personally and in the community. Central to my response is my personal faith conviction that love is primarily an action, and that loving my neighbor includes addressing social justice. To truly serve my fellow neighbors, I need to center their dreams, needs and lived experiences. That's what drives our mission at SOC today.
While many of us have good intentions, we are constantly making decisions from a place of privilege, ignorance and negligence. Social justice problem-solving needs to be focused on the systems level. We need to focus on and deeply understand what our neighbors are actually going through before we try to help them.
I can plainly see our community's needs. There's an affordable housing crisis, an addiction crisis, a sex trafficking crisis, an economic crisis, a violence crisis and a criminal justice crisis. But I believe it's disrespectful to speak out about what my neighbors need without consulting and centering them first.
Attempts to solve social problems without a thorough understanding of and holistic approach to the ills that plague our systems are futile. You can't make a plan to address the housing crisis without understanding Milwaukee's history of redlining and examining the new or retooled systems you are trying to impact through a justice lens. How are the governance, resource allocation, distribution of power and decisions being handled? Who is benefiting most, financially or with influence?
Now, it's a great honor to be able to serve the least loved and attended-to folks in our community – people of color, undocumented immigrants and the working poor. This year, we're conducting surveys to reprioritize where we put our efforts in alignment with how our neighbors have reprioritized their lives post-pandemic. Our goal has always been to have authentic relationships with our neighbors; to listen, understand and honor our neighbors. To me, that's what it means to love my neighbor.