Lawrence's artist statement

I've always been a big advocate of blogging. I hate to admit that I have a myspace page, but it's not so embarrassing because I was introduced to writing and posting blogs and the rest is history. This project was very enjoyable for me because it was an extension of one of my pastimes, and I truly felt like I put out some information that isn't exactly common knowledge. I wasn't aware of this knowledge at the outset, so I'm a generally more informed individual because of it.

I hold this contention that the governments in any country at any time, whether local or federal, have a longer track history of depriving its people rather than aiding them. So when I heard about the eviction and destruction of houses that took place around the Walnut Way area some fifty years ago, I knew I had to focus my project on it. History is usually my guide. It allows you to see why things exist as they do today, and without that reference you're just kind of lost without anything to compare your subject to. I immediately started doing research on the governmental decisions that were made pertaining to housing and road construction in the mid-20th century. What I found was a story mixed with elements of racism and segregation.
A lot of the research I conducted through almanacs that contain stores of information. If there was a reference too recent then I would scour the internet for a source. On one of my trips to the library I came across a dissertation written by a former graduate student right here at UWM. His thesis essentially dealt with migrating African Americans from the post-Civil War South to the industrialized North, and I learned that many of these travelers opted to go to Milwaukee over Chicago because the former was less hectic.

Other references that helped me were news articles pertaining to Bronzeville provided by MKE magazine. They discussed a lot of the issues that faced Bronzeville of yesteryear, and they juxtaposed that with some information about the proposed, 21st century rejuvination. Since most of the work is being conducted by the Department for City Development, their website offered a wealth of information on the topic as well.

Finally, the gentlemen that visited our class that had also compiled a book on Bronzeville, Paul Geenen, had many great photos and quips about the old days. Ivory Black's book about Bronzeville also provided a good historical context. The last, and perhaps most heartfelt information, I gathered came out of the interview I helped collaborate on with Colin and Marta. I got a touching description from Sharon Adams about how every time you drive on the interstate around North Avenue, you're essentially driving atop destroyed homes.

As for the blog compiling, I conducted a lot of research that dealt with reading comprehension and formulating the information into a coherent historical story. I posted information about legislation at the federal level as well as the local level and detailed how and why Bronzeville was torn apart. I then broke the story into numerous parts, first writing up a quick introductory foreward, and then putting in an informative account of what Bronzeville was in its heyday, as well as what it looks like now and what it will potentially become. Gathering photos, coming up with interview questions, and manipulating photos was also part of the job. I'd also like to thank Marta and Colin very much.

(I guess I don't have to write "written by Lawrence" here)