My spring 16 Understanding the Visual II class participants at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design paid a studio visit and received a tour of the art collection at the Pfister, courtesy of Artist-in-Residence 2015-2016, Todd Mrozinski. 

Todd talked us through part of his process painting his Shadow Series. As a MIAD alum, Todd had a lot to offer my students, welcoming us into his studio for an intimate chat.

 Todd Mrozinski, Pfister Artist-Artist-Residence 2015-2016, invited Molly to read at his curated "Teachers" show, at which he displayed a retrospective of his work alongside selections from his Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design teachers. 

Kavon Cortez Jones also performed some of his work at the January 22, 2016 event, including "Paris of the Midwest," an ode to Milwaukee that's become one of my favorite of his poems.

Molly paid homage to many of the teachers in her life, including her father, Ronald Snyder, professor of American History at Milwaukee Area Technical College and UW-Milwaukee.

It was a privilege accompanying Molly and Carolynn Buser as we descended on Clicks, 1916 E Capitol Dr., to talk with Darryl McDaniels, DMC of RUN-DMC. McDaniels co-owns Clicks, a "unique boutique" sneaker shop specializing in, what else, Adidas. Read (and watch) Molly's interview here. 

Here are some of my photos from today:

Molly was on WUWM's Lake Effect Monday, 23 March and Fox6's Studio A program on Wednesday, 15 March, to discuss her long-form essay, "Breaking down racial barriers: Hopeful Milwaukeeans build a better Brew City." The essay is a special feature in OnMilwaukee.com's "Living" section that was published on Tuesday, 24 March, in which Molly profiles 11 Milwaukeeans who work toward racial and economic justice in the city.

I shot some fotos at the band Panalure's release party for their new album, The Bones. Five storytellers, including Molly, were invited by Ex Fabula to retell a winning story from the last few years. The theme of the event was "love, lust, and murder." Ooooh.

Molly is also telling a story on the theme of "nitty gritty" at the next Ex Fabula All Stars event, Wednesday, 13 May 2015, at Turner Hall. 

Below is a slideshow featuring photos from some of our recent poetry readings. The first series is from a reading by members of the Wednesday writer's workshop of the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (MARN), organized by Ànjà Notànjà and hosted at Milwaukee's Downtown Books. The middle series is from our Mabon Reading, which is one of the Brevväxling's quarterly in-house poetry nights. The last in the set is from the Middle Coast Poets Reading at the Riverwest Public House, hosted by Robert Vaughan and Paul Scot August. 

The Milwaukee launch party for Turn Up the Volume: Poems about the States of Wisconsin is 7:00 p.m. on Friday, November 15th at Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 E. Locust St., Milwaukee. 

Molly contributed a poem, "Rotunda Singers," to the hand-bound chapbook. 

Visit the Facebook page for the event for more information. 

Molly and Royal are offering a kids zine workshop again at the Milwaukee Zine Fest, Saturday, November 9, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the Center Street Free Space, 703 Center St. 

The 6th Milwaukee Zine Fest is held at the Polish Falcon Nest, 801 E. Clarke St. 

We are tabling kids’ zines (as well as our own) again this year. Royal’s Writing Studio students at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design are also tabling with zines they designed in class.

This is our fifth zine workshop: we’ve held two at our home, one at the studio of the Pfister artist-in-residence, Stephanie Barenz, and once before at Zine Fest. 

The Fest runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Stop in and see us, have a drink at the bar and food at Tess’ Vegan Cafe, talk zines and share in a vibrant DIY publishing culture. 


Visit the Milwaukee Zine Fest Facebook page for more information. 

Molly has contributed a non-traditional haiku, "Rotunda singer," to the chapbook Turn Up the Volume: Poems about the States of Wisconsin, published by Little Bird Press. Proceeds from sales go to the First Amendment Protection Fund which helps the legal defense costs of activist singers in the Wisconsin state capitol. The Rotunda or "Solidarity Singers" have been issued citations and arrested for protecting our first and fourth amendment rights and for standing up to that bully currently in the governor's office.

To order your copy, go to the Fund's site, click on donate and type "chapbook" in the "purpose" box. Payment is through Paypal and you have to enter the cost ($20.00 per copy) and postage ($2.00).

There is a chapbook launch reading at Woodland Pattern, 720 E. Locust St., Milwaukee, on Friday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m.

Our zine-making workshop at the Pfister was a lot of educational fun. Mr. Zach Wiegman, a teacher at St. Marcus School in Milwaukee, has been designing extra-curricular projects in writing and arts with his partner, Stephanie Barenz, the current Pfister artist-in-residence. 

Molly and I were given the opportunity to inaugurate a new project in zine making with seven St. Marcus students, three of whom typically work with Stephanie on visual art interests while the others tend toward writing projects with Zach.

The zine workshop was a good way to bring those interests together.

From a tap-dacning  rooster who doesn't dance (at least until the sequel) and "Destiny," the story of two super heroes who (or course!) are about to save the world to typed poetry and a stick-figure Superman, these kids had great ideas. 

Thanks Zach and Stephanie: we had a great time spreading the word of and love for zines. 

Here's a slideshow of the students at work: