Pookie (pseudonym) walks briskly down W. Chambers St. at the south end of Clinton Rose Park as the sun begins to set on Juneteenth Day. A gaggle of Milwaukee police turn down a nearby alleyway but Pookie walks on, un-phased.
“Born and raised here, right here on the east side,” he says. “I didn’t have no momma — momma was a crackhead — so, you know what I’m sayin’, I sold drugs.”
Continue reading ““I’ve been in and out of jail since I was 13””
Darlene Rogers gracefully covers a stretch of sidewalk pavement followed by a brightly colored, flowing dress, the Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Juneteenth Day celebration behind her. Rogers who grew up in the neighborhood points down the block to the house where she lived.
“I haven’t been down here in a couple years so it was nice to come out and see familiar faces,” she says calling the occasion “an out-of-body experience.” “It’s like the cycle just keeps repeatin’ itself.”
Continue reading ““It’s not what they try to make it out to be””
Dave Wroten lounges against a concrete sidewalk border on West Chambers Street in the waning hours of Juneteenth Day. The 54-year-old Wroten remembers a time when things in Milwaukee, where he was “born and raised,” were different.
Wroten grew up on 10th and Locust. “It was beautiful,” he says. “That’s when black people actually had black establishments and, you know, you neighbor was your lawyer … That’s when black people knew black people.”
This story is part of a series focusing on the 30th Street Industrial & Economic Corridor.
Lorenzo Williams walks across an empty lot that sits between a row of houses near 29th and Chambers as sunset casts shadows across the open space. Williams sports a heavy leather jacket that sags below his shoulders, despite the still-warm early-fall air.
Williams says he grew up in, “this neighborhood, right here.” It was nice, back then, but, after some time, the area took a turn for the worse. “Man, growin’ up, it was pretty decent. The neighborhood was nice but it changed, over the years,” he says.
This story is part of a series focusing on the 30th Street Industrial & Economic Corridor.
Wanda Matthews sits in a chair on the sidewalk near the corner of 30th and Chambers on Milwaukee’s north side.
Matthews grew up right in the neighborhood, near 30th and Concordia. She says life was good back in the day. There were some bad things but there was good, as well. “We had everything we wanted,” she says, referring to her and her siblings.
If you ask Eric Berry where he grew up, he’ll tell you “everywhere.” Berry has lived in neighborhoods all over Milwaukee from 95th and Beckett to 3rd and Burleigh and 3rd and North.
As a result of moving around – and some other factors – Berry attended a number of different schools, as well, including Northwest Secondary School and Bay View and Custer high schools. “I just didn’t like the schools I was going to because I was always getting into trouble…not, like, big trouble but I always stayed in trouble.”
But cooking has always been a constant for Berry. And after graduating in 2013, he enrolled in culinary school. “I’ve been in the kitchen since I was 9 years old,” he said. “I just like playing with food.”
