Browse Exhibits (2 total)
Politics as Unusual
This exhibit focuses on the city of Milwaukee and the way its governing branches--the Common Council and the Mayors office--have dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. Via a series of press releases, internal communications, and the actual language in proclamations adopted by these legislative bodies you will get a sense of the tumultuous nature of politics during this pandemic. Every 24 hours a new cycle would begin and with it could come a new ruling, a new policy, a new piece of legislation or new data that could alter or completely change everything done in the previous 24 hours. That has become the world we live in where uncertainty and the anxiety it develops rules the day, politics has not been spared this.
Votes and Viruses
This exhibit details Milwaukee's experience during April 7, 2020, election. Held in the midst of the pandemic, the election was for both the presidential primary and several state and local offices--the most important of which was a state supreme court seat. I conduct an oral history with Lee Wagner, a poll worker for the election as well as Patricia McKnight, the UWM student who took the iconic photo that so aptly captured the spirit of that day. This exhibit chronicles the events that led up to election day and what the results were.