Additional Links to check out:

→ Learn more about Garrett Bucks, a writer and organizer based in Milwaukee, here. 

→ The Declaration of Interdependence Relay is a year-long continent-spanning experiment in Community based on the simple idea of potlucks. Learn more here.

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→ “A lot of people think that archaeology has to do with digging things up and taking them away from where they are found, but there are many other ways to preserve history. I got into archaeology because I wanted to help preserve our way of life.” - Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings.  Check out his Love Wisconsin story here.

→ Learn more about the work of Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network here.

→ Check out Ogichidaa (“warrior”) Storytellers, a video series produced by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, funded in part with a grant from Wisconsin Humanities. 

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→ Yia Lor grew up alongside her mother in the garden. She shared stories about how those early experiences shaped her life path with Love Wisconsin, a multi-media story platform from Wisconsin Humanities. Check out the story here. 

→ Check out some of Yia Lor’s stories, told in her own words on Wisconsin Life, short audio segments celebrating the diverse voices and stories of our state from Wisconsin Public Radio. Listen here. 

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→ In 1980, there was an exodus of Cubans who left their homes for the United States as part of the Mariel Boatlift. This includes almost 15,000 Cuban refugees who were sent to Fort McCoy in Sparta, Wisconsin. Originally planned as a four-minute Wisconsin Life story, the eight-part podcast series from WPR, “Uprooted,” was produced to share untold stories from some of those people still living in Wisconsin. Find it here. 

→ PBS Wisconsin recently created a Wisconsin Life animated short following Ernesto Rodriguez from Cuba to Wisconsin, one of the stories shared in the “WPR Reportes: Uprooted” podcast. Watch it here. 

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→ Since 2017, Illinois Humanities program, Envisioning Justice, has created free public arts and humanities programs in partnership with communities and people affected by the carceral system and provided grant funding for individuals, nonprofits, and collectives. Learn more here. 

→ Humanities Unlocked is a series of six podcast episodes about the humanities in Wisconsin prisons, produced by Wisconsin Humanities and Field Noise Soundworks, co-hosted by Adam Carr and Dasha Kelly Hamilton. Listen here. 

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→ Visit the Wisconsin Humanities website and subscribe to the newsletter to stay abreast of the grant program and other projects in 2026. 

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→ Cabeatrice Hart lives and works in Milwaukee and was featured on Love Wisconsin, Wisconsin Humanities’ digital storytelling project. She has been part of urban/rural exchanges with Wormfarm Institute and a collaborative participant on the Farm/Art DTour mentioned in this episode. Read her story here. 

→ The Wormfarm Institute is based out of rural Sauk County, with far-reaching and groundbreaking programs that bridge the urban/rural divide. It was founded by Jay Salinas and his partner, Donna Neuwirth. Learn more here. 

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→ Terry Collins is a proud Wisconsinite who raised his kids, including Mary Beth Collins, in La Crosse. In this Love Wisconsin story, meet the father of our interview subject from this episode and learn more about the Mississippi River valley community of La Crosse.

→ The Civic Health of Wisconsin initiative of the Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies is dedicated to strengthening current civic health efforts around Wisconsin and fostering more connected and engaged communities. Learn more here. 

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→  Stand Up to Hate is a program for anyone who wants their communities to be great places to live.  It helps participants think about how their community might prevent hate and hate crimes by learning about real stories of hate, violence, and resilience from different communities across Wisconsin, from Milwaukee to Meteor and from the 1860s to today. The Stand Up To Hate resource is available from Wisconsin Humanities. 

Interested in receiving a free copy of the curriculum?

Email us at contact@wisconsinhumanities.org to schedule a consultation and receive your free copy.

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→  Danielle Hairston Green won The Moth grand slam in 2022 with a story called “Blessings in Disguise.” You can watch her tell this powerful story of hard truths learned from her mother on The Moth stage here. 

→  Danielle Hairston Green is a volunteer member of the Wisconsin Humanities board. You can learn more about the Wisconsin Humanities and their work here. 

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→  Ben Grignon shares his story and philosophy about teaching here.

→  In early 2025, Ben Grignon was selected to be a Wisconsin Humanities Fellow and receive Community Powered training. The year-long training program was suspended when Wisconsin Humanities’ funding was cut, resulting in program cuts and staff lay-offs. Learn more about the Community Powered training here. 

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→  Love Wisconsin: The Food Doula was one of the most popular stories that Wisconsin Humanities ever shared. It was featured as part of Wisconsin Humanities’ 50 year anniversary celebration and can be read here.

→  Let’s Grow Stuff on Wisconsin PBS, a show to help beginning gardeners learn tools and techniques for success, was hosted by Qwantese Winters. Watch some of the segments here. 

→  A Bowl of Soul, in Winter’s own words, is featured in Edible Magazine August 2025. Read the essay here.

This episode of Human Powered was produced and audio edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→  Human Powered: The Power of Experience (Season 1) shares stories from people who experienced the flooding in Wisconsin’s Driftless region firsthand, from farmers to firefighters, all part of a project organized by the Driftless Writing Center that received WH grant funding.

→  'We're not FEMA, we're just brothers from Milwaukee': Meet the men helping with free flood cleanup”, a story produced by Jimmy Gutierrez for WUWM 89.7, Milwaukee’s NPR station, on August 12, 2025.

This episode of Human Powered was produced and audio edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→ “Basketry teaches me to be flexible” - Love Wisconsin feature story about Ojibwe basket-maker April Stone, produced by Alexandria Delcourt.

→  “I love creating characters with important life lessons to learn” - Love Wisconsin feature story about D&D gamer Aiden Sanfelippo, produced by Alexandria Delcourt. 

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→  Human Powered: Humanity Unlocked, six episodes about the humanities in Wisconsin’s prisons, co-hosted by Adam Carr.

→  Unbounded Imagination: A Love Wisconsin feature on Adam Carr.

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→  Wisconsin Humanities’ work with Odyssey Beyond Bars

→  Human Powered: Humanities Unlocked episode called “A Mic and Five Minutes”

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→  Community Powered training program

→  Puentes/Bridges

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

Additional Links to check out:

→  Hope is the Thing: Wisconsinites on Perseverance in a Pandemic

→  When Rubber Hit the Road

→  Falling in love with the game of Kubb

This episode of Human Powered was produced and edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

This episode of Human Powered was produced and audio edited by Chrissy Widmayer. All rights reserved.

As a result of the defunding of Wisconsin Humanities and all state councils' operational grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, this will be the last episode of Human Powered. The news of the cut to the WH was abrupt, and so we are still figuring things out.  If you want to know more, we have updates on the Wisconsin Humanities website: wisconsinhumanities.org

In this episode. you'll hear from April Stone, an Ojibwe Black Ash basketmaker from the Bad River Reservation who harvests the black ash logs by hand from the deepest parts of the marshes and swamps near her home in northern Wisconsin. April is a self-taught artist who is sought out by folks throughout the country who want to learn the techniques of a traditional black ash basket weaver. April only works with natural materials that she can gather herself and weaves her baskets by hand – which connects her to the land. She also has a lot to say about how the change to increasingly extreme weather is impacting her work. Yet the work continues to be healing for her and for the many, many people she has been able to teach.

To celebrate ten years of Love Wisconsin stories, we have been reconnecting with some of the people behind the most popular stories. We think April's ideas and work are as relevant today as they were when we first met her and we hope you enjoy the updated ‘Where is she now?” chapter.   

Read April Stone's Love Wisconsin story here: https://www.lovewi.com/april

In 1980, there was an exodus of Cubans who left their homes for the United States as part of the Mariel Boatlift. This includes almost 15,000 Cuban refugees who were sent to Fort McCoy in Sparta, Wisconsin. 

Wisconsin Humanities awarded a grant to the La Crosse Public Library in support of an interactive online exhibit on the history of the 1980 Cuban migration. 125,000 Cubans fled to the US and it was a paramount moment of the Cold War. The exhibit is called Uprooted and you can browse the stories and collection at  lacrossehistory.org/online-exhibits/uprooted 

Additionally, a podcast series called “WPR Reports: Uprooted” explores this history and shares stories from people like Enrique Moré. Moré is a musician who came to Wisconsin from Cuba and now is a big part of the La Crosse-area music scene. He and other Cubans share stories about their early lives, moving to Wisconsin, and what life is like living in limbo.

The People’s Recorder tells stories about the Federal Writers’ Project, which was created by the Federal government as part of the New Deal during the Great Depression to provide jobs to out-of-work writers. The podcast traverses the country to explore the Project’s legacy — what it achieved, where it fell short, and what it means for Americans today.

This episode is called “A Voice for the Land.” It features Nationally influential UW-Madison professor and wildlife expert Aldo Leopold, who brought a new way of thinking about how people engage with nature during the Dust Bowl era. When the Federal Writers’ Project recruited him to write for the WPA Guide to Wisconsin, he described a path toward the modern environmental movement in a section called 'Conservation.' 

In this episode, you’ll hear some clips from the first season of Human Powered, when we spoke with Leopold’s biographer, Curt Meine. Be sure to check out that episode, called “Stories from the Flood,” after you listen!

The People’s Recorder is produced by Spark Media with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Florida Humanities, Virginia Humanities, California Humanities, Humanities Nebraska, and Wisconsin Humanities.

The Community is a multi-dimensional nonprofit based in Milwaukee. It connects and empowers people on all sides of the criminal legal system through its Pre-entry and Correcting the Narrative strategies. The Community has been awarded  Wisconsin Humanities grants for their work, and founder Shannon Ross was featured in an earlier episode of  Human Powered.

In this episode of All In All Out from The Community, you’ll hear founder Shannon Ross in conversation with trauma therapist Simmone Kilgore, LPC. Shannon and Simmone both work with people who are justice-impacted and formerly incarcerated. They discuss 'leaving space for hope,' learning to carry our baggage gracefully, and the language needed to talk about the realities of trauma, shame, and guilt. Their conversation offers insight into the important work of building connections and empathy for stronger, healthier individuals and communities. 

In this episode, we talk to Jerome and his colleague Tamra Oman about the implications of the disenfranchisement of individuals who have been incarcerated. After serving prison sentences themselves, they learned first-hand that civic health and community health depend on knowing that you belong.

Visit the Episode Extras on the Wisconsin Humanity website to read an essay from Robert Taliaferro and to learn more about voter disenfranchisement and the work that EXPO is doing.

Once he was released, James attended a college course on Native American history as part of the Educational Preparedness Program (EPP) at Marquette University. This humanities program integrates students on Marquette’s campus in Milwaukee with currently and formerly incarcerated students to create blended classrooms where all kinds of knowledge and experience come together, offering everyone a chance to see themselves as an intellectual. In this episode, we talk with professors and program co-founders Teresa Tobin and Rob Smith. As Prof. Smith tells us, the work of the humanities — understanding the human condition — is critical in today’s conversation around prisons.

Visit the Episode Extras on the Wisconsin Humanities website to learn about EPP, and to hear a bonus interview with Brian Rindfleisch and Wade Fernandez, who co-taught James's EPP class. 

In this episode, we meet Joshua Gresl, John Tyson, and Sarah Demerath, three of the more than sixty artists whose work is part of an exhibition called “Art Against the Odds.” We also talk with Deb Brehmer, the co-curator of the exhibit, which opened in January 2023 in Milwaukee and included 250 works by currently or formerly incarcerated individuals. The artworks ranged from a series of concentric circles made daily with pencil on typing paper, to highly detailed portraits, to creatures shaped by hand from scraps of food packaging.  But no matter what materials they were using, each artist told us that these art practices helped them get through their time inside.

Visit the Episode Extras on the Wisconsin Humanities website to see images of Joshua, John, and Sarah's artwork, and to learn more about the exhibit.

Find episode extras, resources, and more information about prison newspapers and our guests on our website.

Voices in this episode:

• Shannon Ross is the founder and Executive Director of The Community and the Correcting the Narrative Campaign, which uses story-telling to promote acceptance of people with criminal records. Shannon was born and raised on Milwaukee’s north side, where he received a 17-year prison sentence when he was 19 years old. Over the course of his incarceration, he acquired his bachelor’s degree, created and ran a mental health program in the prison for 2 years that still exists, and published his own and others' writing. Since his release in 2020, he helped to found Paradigm Shyft, is an Education Trust fellow, a Marquette University EPP fellow, and a graduate of the Masters in Sustainable Peacebuilding program at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.
• Robert Taliaferro is a working journalist, graphic artist, and community activist currently living in Minnesota, after serving over 38 years of confinement. He edited The Prison Mirror newspaper at the Minnesota Correctional Institution at Stillwater from 1985-1989. His work is published in News and Letters Committees and he is the author of Always Color Outside the Lines: Freedom for the Artist Within (2018). He recently graduated from Metro State University in St Paul, MN where he was the Outstanding Student Award recipient for the College of Individualized Studies and also gave the Commencement address. He is beginning a graduate degree program in the fall and will be studying Urban Developmental Initiatives and Adult Education.
• Dasha Kelly Hamilton is a writer, performance artist and creative change agent. She applies the creative process to facilitate dialogues around human and social wellness. She is the author of novels, poetry collections, spoken word albums, and a touring production called Makin’ Cake. She was Poet Laureate for both the City of Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin. Her A Line Meant project is a statewide poetry exchange for traditional Wisconsin residents and residents of Wisconsin prisons.
• Adam Carr is a storyteller, artist, filmmaker, radio producer, urban explorer, community organizer and historian. He is also a lifelong Milwaukeean and works at the intersection of community and communication. He helped organize events to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the open housing marches in Milwaukee and is the author of “Explore MKE: Your Neighborhood, Our City,” a children’s book made in collaboration with third graders. He works for the Milwaukee Parks Foundation as the Director of Strategic Partnerships.

Find episode extras, resources, and more information about Odyssey Beyond Bars and our guests on our website.

Voices in the episode:

• Mark Español is a DJ, artist, and barber currently living in Madison, after serving 9 years in prison. He is an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin Odyssey Project and Odyssey Beyond Bars.  
• Kevin Mullen is an Assistant Professor of Continuing Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Director of Adult Education for the UW Odyssey Project. Kevin’s academic work focuses on expanding access to higher education for low-income adult students from marginalized communities. In addition to the core Odyssey class, he teaches English 100 (Introduction to College Writing) courses for Odyssey alumni and incarcerated students in the Odyssey Beyond Bars program. Nothing makes him happier than seeing people pick up the mic and use their voices to impact the world around them.
• Peter Moreno is the Director of Odyssey Beyond Bars Director. He is an attorney and former clinical law professor at the University of Wisconsin and University of Washington, where he represented incarcerated clients in wrongful conviction cases.  He created the Odyssey Beyond Bars credit-bearing course program in 2018 and is thrilled to introduce students in prison to the transformative power of Odyssey courses.
• Dasha Kelly Hamilton is a writer, performance artist and creative change agent. She applies the creative process to facilitate dialogues around human and social wellness. She is the author of novels, poetry collections, spoken word albums, and a touring production called Makin’ Cake. She was Poet Laureate for both the City of Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin. Her A Line Meant project is a statewide poetry exchange for traditional Wisconsin residents and residents of Wisconsin prisons.
• Adam Carr is a storyteller, artist, filmmaker, radio producer, urban explorer, community organizer and historian. He is also a lifelong Milwaukeean and works at the intersection of community and communication. He helped organize events to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the open housing marches in Milwaukee and is the author of “Explore MKE: Your Neighborhood, Our City,” a children’s book made in collaboration with third graders. He works for the Milwaukee Parks Foundation as the Director of Strategic Partnerships.

Find episode extras, to listen to poetry, and to learn more about our guests on our website!

Voices in this episode:

• Dasha Kelly Hamilton is a writer, performance artist and creative change agent. She applies the creative process to facilitate dialogues around human and social wellness. She is the author of novels, poetry collections, spoken word albums, and a touring production called Makin’ Cake. She was Poet Laureate for both the City of Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin. Her A Line Meant project is a statewide poetry exchange for traditional Wisconsin residents and residents of Wisconsin prisons.
• Adam Carr is a storyteller, artist, filmmaker, radio producer, urban explorer, community organizer and historian. He is also a lifelong Milwaukeean and works at the intersection of community and communication. He helped organize events to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the open housing marches in Milwaukee and is the author of “Explore MKE: Your Neighborhood, Our City,” a children’s book made in collaboration with third graders. He works for the Milwaukee Parks Foundation as the Director of Strategic Partnerships.
• Josh Wells is a poet and spoken word artist, a guitarist, a singer, and a songwriter,  and self-proclaimed "incurable coffee snob with eclectic music obsessions and a passion for great art of all kinds."  While he was in the Wisconsin prison system, he was part of Prose & Cons, a writing group led by Dasha Kelly Hamilton. Prose & Cons uses both written and spoken verse to restore voice to people who have been rendered voiceless.
• Additional poetry and conversation with Fontaine Baker, Adron Lane, Caliph Muab'El, Servant Ventae Parrow Bey, and Jeffrey Bodine.

The show is brought to you by Wisconsin Humanities and Love Wisconsin, and produced by Field Noise Soundworks.

To learn more, visit wisconsinhumanities.org/podcast.

Voices in this episode:

Tracey Robertson co-founded and directed Fit Oshkosh, Inc from 2014-2020. Fit Oshkosh, Inc. was a non-profit social justice organization with the mission to promote social transformation, race equity, and justice through Color-Brave conversations, education, advocacy, and research. Tracey specializes in anti-racist curriculum development and has delivered workshops to clients across the United States and Canada. Her 2017 TedX Oshkosh Talk, “Black Girls Aren’t Magic,” received a standing ovation and has been viewed worldwide. She is currently a trainer with Quad Consulting DEI Consultants.

Colleen Bies was born and raised in Wisconsin. Prior to her role as Regional Project Director for Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC), Colleen served in the Army National Guard, worked in finance, and created 2 businesses as an entrepreneur. Married for 14 years and a big believer in community, her work is dedicated to servicing her community and supporting her family. You can find Colleen's 2019 TEDxOshkosh talk on Why Children of Immigrants Work so Hard here and her photography here.

Mushe Subulwa is the Director of SEPO Zambia, a non-profit dedicated to sustainability, education, and progress in western Zambia. Subulwa received the Daisy Frazier Social Justice Award in 2019 for his work with SEPO Zambia.

Shawn Anthony Robinson, Ph.D. is a leading scholar on African American boys with dyslexia. Dr. Robinson has over 40 publications and is a public speaker, consultant, and educator. He is affiliated with Wisconsin’s Equity & Inclusion Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison Area Technical College, American University, and an active Board member with the International Dyslexia Association. His goal is to change the narrative around dyslexia. His website can be found here.

Aaron Sherer has served as the Executive Director of the Paine Art Center and Gardens since 2002. Sherer leads a varied exhibitions program, including shows by artists such as Dale Chihuly, Normal Rockwell, and Ansel Adams, as well as lamps by Louis Comfort Tiffany and costumes from the television show Downton Abbey. Sherer also initiated the annual Nutcracker in the Castle holiday presentation, now preparing for its 15th year, and he has overseen more than $10 million of historic preservation and capital improvements to the historic estate. Sherer lives in Oshkosh with his husband and four sons.

• Marvin Defoe is an educator, teacher, birch bark canoe builder, and Red Cliff elder. He grew up in the Red Cliff community and is part of the sturgeon clan. Named Shingway Banase in Anishinaabe, he is passionate about maintenance and revitalization of the Ojibwe language. Marvin is past Vice Chair on the tribal council and has been the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for four years. Learn more about the Red Cliff Ojibwe from Marvin in this video from PBS and Wisconsin First Nations educational resources.
• Edwina Buffalo-Reyes is from Red Cliff and of the eagle clan. In her words, "Ziigwaanikwe nindizhinikaaz. Miskwaabekaang nindoonjibaa. Migizi nindoodem. I am a mother first and always. I have three children - one adult and two still living at home. My passion is serving my community in all aspects and spectrums of need. I am currently the Assistant Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for my community. My life path has come full circle and has returned me to my community to raise my children and learn as much as I can about the history and ways of life of my people, the Anishinaabe - past and present."
• Heather Walder is a lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, and a research associate at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Since 2018, she has co-directed Gete Anishinaabeg Izhichigewin Community Archaeology Project, a collaborative endeavor of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and academic archaeologists. Her research interests include copper metallurgy and glass bead studies to better understand Indigenous trade networks of eastern North America.
• John Creese is an anthropological archaeologist in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Dakota State University with research interests in archaeological theory, landscape and settlement archaeology, GIS, personhood and the body, and community and Indigenous archaeologies. His current fieldwork focusses on collaborative Indigenous archaeology in the Western Great Lakes region of North America. He has published on topics such as rock art and relational ontologies, emotion-work and material culture, and Iroquoian architecture and settlement organization. Dr. Creese is also currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Archaeology.

In 1994 Karen went to the city of Green Bay with the results of surveys done at area food pantries. They gave her a vacant lot and said she could start a community garden. That first year, they had six families. Three years later, there were 176 families working across four gardens. In the 2021 summer season, there will be 250 families working on 12 different garden plots! This is most people in the program’s history.

In 2019, Wisconsin Humanities awarded Brown County Extension's Community Garden Program a Mini Grant for a project called "Exploring Cultural Roots."  A public event gave community members the opportunity to interact and learn from the gardening traditions and foods of Brown County’s non-European cultures.

The Community Gardens were developed in 1996 as part of an initiative to increase food security in Brown County. Learn more about Brown County Extension Community Gardens program and the Friends group, the fundraising arm that helps to support the garden program.

Voices in this episode:

• Margaret Franchino was the Community Garden Coordinator for the Brown County Community Gardens Program from 2014 until June of 2021. During her time with the program, Margaret worked with hundreds of families to empower them to grow affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food. Margaret's interest in gardening and food security stemmed from volunteering with the Madison Area Food Pantry Gardens while growing up. 
• Karen Early is the FoodWIse Coordinator at UW-Madison Division of Extension Brown County. As a registered nutritionist and food advocate throughout her career, Karen has been passionate about sustainable eating, local food systems, and their benefits to the health of all individuals and the environment. Her work with U-W Madison Extension FoodWIse addresses food security, local food systems, food access equity, and nutrition education.
• Cheryl Williams helped stabilize the gardens as an important food source for local immigrant and low income families in 2013. She worked with the Hmong community and the greater Green Bay Community Foundation in 2019 to establish the Friends of the Community Gardens 501c3 & endowment fund to improve the sustainability, growth, and future opportunities of the Brown County Community Gardens.
• Nhoua Duffek loves to share her passion for Hmong food and cooking. She teaches cooking classes and was part of a program called 'Exploring Cultural Roots' organized by Extension Brown County’s Community Garden and funded in part with a grant from Wisconsin Humanities. The garden open house gave community members the opportunity to interact and learn from the gardening traditions and foods of Brown County’s non-European cultures. Nhoua served as an interpreter for this episode.

Every year, pre-COVID, they host a spring showcase with workshop participants. Wisconsin Humanities is proud to have supported this project for many years through our grant program.

Check out this short video from the 2018 event.

Some of the artwork and writing from the program is published in magazines, available from the website here.

Additionally, the Untold Stories 2020 Interactive Gallery and a series of videos bring these works to life.

It's important to know your rights. This document from LOTUS Legal Clinic provides Victim & Witness Rights in Wisconsin.

The voices in this episode:

Rachel Monaco-Wilcox is an artist, lawyer, mentor, teacher, and consultant. Her work has served marginalized and exploited people (elders, those with special needs, and victims of human trafficking, sexual exploitation or assault).  Merging the power of the humanities with legal and social justice has been her unique professional niche. Rachel is the founder of LOTUS Legal Clinic, teaches Art Therapy doctoral students, and has a private practice in Trusts and Estates. In 2021 she founded a small publishing company called Minerva Press, LLC. She is also an accomplished ultramarathoner and raises Vizslas. Read Rachel's Love Wisconsin story here.

Traci Powell lives in Orlando where she is a writer and psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner offering counseling to other survivors. She is working to start an Untold Stories program in Orlando.

Lisa McCormick is a mother and parent advocate. She served on a task force with former Governor Scott Walker to help end trafficking in Wisconsin.

Austin M. Reece is Director of Survivor Empowerment at LOTUS Legal Clinic, Lecturer in Philosophy at Mount Mary University, and a poet. At LOTUS Legal he develops and implements trauma-informed, humanities-based educational programming for survivors of sexual violence and human trafficking, and edits Untold Stories, a literary magazine that publishes survivor writings alongside visual art responses. His poems and essays have recently appeared in Crannóg, Rise & Thrive, The Milwaukee Independent, Bramble, and Coffin Bell, among others.

Tim Hundt has worked as a journalist in the Driftless Region for the last 20 years: as a reporter for the Vernon County Broadcaster, News Director for three radio stations in Viroqua (WVRQ-Q102-WKPO), and as a freelancer livestreaming under the VernonReporter name. He has covered the flooding that has impacted the region as well as environmental issues, local government, and politics. Born and raised in La Crosse County on a dairy farm at the top of the Coon Creek watershed, Tim now lives in Viroqua where he works as a district representative for Congressman Ron Kind. He has written about the watersheds including the Lessons of Coon Creek and worked with the Driftless Writing Center on the “Stories From Flood” project that included a video he produced about the watersheds.

Curt Meine is a conservation biologist, historian, and writer who serves as a senior fellow with both the Aldo Leopold Foundation and the Center for Humans and Nature, and as associate adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has written several books, including Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work (University of Wisconsin Press, 1988).  You can read his reflections on The Driftless Area, where he lives, in "The Edge of Anamoly" and hear him interviewed on Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.  He also edited The Driftless Reader, which includes writings by Native people, explorers, scientists, historians, farmers, songwriters, journalists, and poets.

Ellen and Nick Voss live with their coonhound Loki on a small farm near Soldiers Grove in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area. They spend their free time fly fishing for trout and muskies, finding new rivers to paddle, and road biking. Ellen is the Aquatic Invasive Species Program Director with River Alliance of Wisconsin, and Nick is the head fly fishing guide at the Driftless Angler fly shop in Viroqua.

Camille Mays is the founder of Peace Gardens MKE. She explains that with the blessing of families who have lost people due to gun violence, she plants perennial flowers as a way to care for her neighbors while improving the neighborhood. She speaks as part of local and national forums about her work and serves on city and local committees. Camille has been featured in many articles, including:
- Picturing Milwaukee
- My Block: The Peace Gardens of Sherman Park
- Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service: How Camille Mays finds peace after gun violence took her son

Cheri Fuqua is the founder of The Middle Ground, a community organization that provides employment opportunities, along with resources and life skills, to help Black youth in Milwaukee. She is an AmeriCorps Alumni and a graduate of the Neighborhood Leadership Institute. In 2016 Ms. Cheri was honored with a Resident Leader Award from Mayor Tom Barrett. For over twenty years, she has maintained a strong presence in her community by connecting residents, leaders, and stakeholders at monthly meetings.

Chelsea Alison Wait is a PhD candidate in Architecture at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP) at UWM. Chelsea focuses on community collaboration, storytelling, public history, local architecture history, and finding ways to integrates her public art practice. Chelsea’s research looks at how people practice care as it relates to the built environment and urban landscape. She is an adjunct faculty at SARUP, teaching introduction to design and local architecture histories, and an associate lecturer in the Peck School of the Arts, where she teaches teaches multicultural history of America and artwork.