Milwaukee is really the only hometown I’ve ever known. I was born in Washington, DC, but I’m the youngest of five, and I was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back. Before I was one year old, we moved to Milwaukee so we could live closer to my dad’s family in Chicago. I …
My father was an English teacher. When I was seven years old, he asked me, ‘Masood, when you graduate, where would you like to go?’ I said, ‘I want to go to America.’ Photos by Hedi Lamarr Rudd He said, ‘Why is that?’ I answered, ‘Well, I’m reading a lot about America and learning about …
“I believe that if people can be taught to hate, they can easily be taught to love.” Read More »
My life is never dull. I’m the co-director of the Wild Rumpus Circus in Mazomanie, Wisconsin. The name ‘wild rumpus’ was inspired by Maurice Sendak’s great book, Where The Wild Things Are. Photos by Hedi Lamarr Rudd In the book, Max says, ‘Let the wild rumpus start,’ and we thought rumpus was such a fun …
I was born and raised on the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Indian reservation in northern Wisconsin — I had a lot of fun growing up there. Photos by Andi Stempniak As kids, we were outside all of the time. In the summer we spent the majority of our time swimming, and in the winter it was …
I was born in Taiwan, and my dad was a very poor preacher. When I was just a little tot, I remember my dad took my brother and me to the zoo in Taiwan. This was a huge treat for us. We saw something there that day we had never seen before—an American with blonde …
“It all began with my father smiling and saying, ‘Hello’.” Read More »
A long time ago, I dated a pilot who took me flying—multiple times, actually. And I fell in love with it. Photos by Hedi Lamarr Rudd It was one of those moments where a light bulb went off and I thought, ‘Hey, I could do this.’ And I thought more about it and decided if …
My name is Dylan Jennings, or Bizhikiins—Young Buffalo, as we translate from Ojibwemowin, our language. Photos by Megan Monday “My parents were really young when they had me, just out of high school. They met down by Waaswaaganing, or the Lac du Flambeau Reservation, near Minocqua. They stuck together to raise me and to take …
“I dedicate my life to educating others about Native people.” Read More »
I was born in 1950 in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. I lived literally between two lakes, a woods, and a swamp. We were on the edge of the city limits, and quite a few of our near neighbors were on small farms. Photos by Megan Monday “In my family, we have some Welsh and some Scottish …
I am a water girl, and absolutely love being on, in, or near the water. Just yesterday my husband, 16-year-old son and I spent a few hours in our boat fishing for smallmouth bass near Ashland on Lake Superior. This is one of my favorite places because the Big lake has a special beauty that …
I grew up in a multi-generation dairy farm family. My parents got married at 18 and 19, and dad started dairy farming right away, a mile from where he grew up. Photos courtesy of Corey Geiger My dad had been studying to be a Catholic priest; but in 1966, when he was 16, his dad …
I was born in Ban Vinai refugee camp in Thailand in September 1976. I am the oldest of six children. Photos courtesy of Annie Vang When the Vietnam War ended in 1975, thousands of Hmong families were displaced from their homes. The Hmong people were recruited by the American military to fight in the war …
My maiden name is Kennedy. Growing up in the 1960s as a Jewish Kennedy was a story. Classmates asked me, ‘Oh, do you live in the White House?’ And then with the assassinations, everyone wanted to know how I got the name Kennedy. Photo by Gary Porter My dad’s last name was Ungar, which is …
