Pat A. Robinson
North Water Street banners August 7, 2020
A new public art project in Downtown Milwaukee will soon spread messages of hope and encouragement. Nearly 60 street pole banners are being installed along Water Street and Kilbourn Avenue to celebrate the virtues of democracy, as well as the public spaces and city streets that have hosted demonstrations of our First Amendment Right over the course of our nation’s history.
Photo by Kevin Miyazaki
Dasha Kelly Hamilton
Curated by Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21, “Road of Democracy” is a collaborative project among three Milwaukee artists – Milwaukee’s Poet Laureate Dasha Kelly Hamilton, previous Artist of the Year Della Wells and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Brad Pruitt. The street pole banners will feature collage work by Della Wells alongside excerpts from Dasha Kelly Hamilton’s 2020 poem, “Of.” Brad Pruitt will frame the significance of the project in a film narrative highlighting pivotal moments in history and parallels to the current climate. In this historic year of transformation, 2020 marks the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage. Pruitt’s film will debut in fall 2020.
“‘Road of Democracy’ commemorates the 2020 Democratic National Convention and aspires to spur local and national dialogue on race and democracy,” says Beth Weirick, CEO of Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21. “This project is dedicated to the countless individuals who have participated in historic movements near and far, and for the thousands yet to march.”
In all, 58 street pole banners with excerpts from Hamilton’s poem and images from Wells’ collage work will be on display near City Hall, between August and December 2020, before finding a permanent home at America’s Black Holocaust Museum, where they will be preserved for future installations and exhibitions.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
“Since its inception, there are many people and movements that have pushed America along its journey on the road of democracy,” says Della Wells. “And often there were and are those who either did or do not want to make the necessary trip to get there—either because they are too comfortable at the spot on the road we are currently at, too scared, don’t know how or don’t see the need to travel further. Fortunately, since our nation’s inception, there have been those that have forced America to continue the journey, so we may see and fix the holes and cracks. In doing so, all of us are allowed to travel on it unencumbered and achieve betterment and freedom for all of us, not just a chosen few.”
