Gubernatorial Candidates Forum at North Division: What to Expect

Good morning. Good morning. What's happening, family? Welcome to the show. It is Michelle Bryant. Is it really? Here at WNOV 860 AM 106.5 FM. You are listening to say something real and just let everybody know.

The show is going to be a struggle this morning, because I can barely talk. The harassment has been unreal in the studio this morning from one party and one party only. While one brother is supportive, you are right, Shale. You need some shale. You OK, Shale? This other thing in the studio just got jokes. Now I know how Keith felt.

when, you know, you should be getting empathy and all you're getting is ribs, jokes. Let me say good morning to the good brother in the studio. Hello, Clark. Not your main. I'm not with Mr. Rideout. How are you today, sir?

I'm so I'm so happy about my daughter got the job. So you still you still talking about your dog at this job. Oh, well, you know, it's George and Weezy. Let's let's add a co-op song. And you, how are you this morning?

I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm good, girl. I'm

I'm trying to get Keisha to do it for me. She laughing like no you got to do that player so I Don't know what's gonna happen. I feel bad for them kids and their families if my voice still sounds like this I don't know I don't know but It seems like if I talk low it doesn't sound as bad So I guess this is my way to stop yelling But let me say good morning

to the sorry one in the studio. What up, Rod? I just want to say I'm so glad it's not Wednesday. That just that just would be all the way out. So glad it's not Wednesday. You know, first of all, I'd like to say that it's supposed to be a beautiful day. Dude, why was you talking all low?

Can't nobody hear you. I'm trying to match. Don't match me. Okay. Don't match. Say, oh, you know, I got my voice. You know, I was trying to match you. But out of all of the animals that God has created, why is it that when we lose our voice, we say we go on horse and not rabbit, dog and cat? What's going on with your voice? Why are you horse?

You got one. So no, I didn't. I didn't because I'm not going. I'm not going H.O.R.S.E. Greenfield. I'm going H.O.A.R.S.E. No, he didn't. Clark, why do you always try to be a team player when you know people wrong? But you know they wrong, Clark. Let them be wrong.

Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, he got a point. No, he don't. H-O-R-S-E animal. For the kids that's listening. Somehow, yeah, no, no, no, no. This feels like a Wednesday. It feels like a Wednesday.

I'm trying to help you get your voice out. I spoke too soon. It feels like a Wednesday. Somebody gonna make you get your voice out. I mean, H-O-R-S-E. That's not where we go. It's just, it's sad. It's sad. It is. And I'm telling you, it was some people, as soon as you said it.

They was like, he's so right. Why are you? I see people. I see people laughing a lot. Good morning to the family. Yeah, I see. I see somebody spilled it out. Oh, that's quite cool. Quite cool. It was like, come on, bro. You got to represent black men better than this. Come on. Somebody else said Jesus.

Somebody said Jesus. What? Horses natural sound is low and grovely. Y'all silly man. What's going on Colorado? What's happening girl? Y'all are ridiculous man. Hey y'all. I just love that the person put Jesus. You know when everything else fail, call his name.

I mean because I'm gonna I'll tell you it was some listeners that way He shall write that boy good Why do we say that instead of bunnies zebras? Cuz all y'all I don't like all it I don't like all the folks out they name but all y'all

You know let me let me go to the phone line. Hey crawler. What's happening? Hey

I'm going to run outside, jump into the wire, put the key in the ignition, activate the transmission, and put it on W, get it on B. And I'm going to say something real. You know what I mean? Hey, brothers, talk to the good brothers, the positive brothers, old school brothers, talk to the young brothers. Stop that killing man. We don't need you in our community. And stop the domestic violence, man. And don't say amen, man.

Oh my god, can you imagine me around Ray every day every day

it would be a problem every day to be around his brother. Can you imagine being him in the world at the same time? Being him in what? Me and Ray Mackers in the world at the same time. I can't imagine you and nobody in the world at the same time. It's the same. It's the same. Oh, let me see, let me see. Somebody said, oh, Wanda Montgomery is checking in. Good morning, although it is night here in Bali.

Wanda is the international traveler. Wanda, who has served for me, the village president of Brown Deer. She is on vacay and she is in Bali and she is listening to us from Bali. Good morning, Wanda. I hope everything is going well on the trip. You know, I hope you're looking for my pieces. I was like, bring me something back.

and I texted Mark White yesterday because they in Paris. I was like, hey, bring me something back. But can you imagine to go to Paris and then it ended up being the hottest days that they have seen in like forever? It was 100 degrees in Paris yesterday and they're there for a wedding. And like they said,

Their infrastructure really isn't built for that kind of weather like their buses are not air conditioned The bus though they just in there just burning I Think it looked like the wedding might have been outside I don't know but the way they were setting stuff up. It looked like the wind was gonna be outside Cass is over there

burned, they said it's going to cool off tomorrow. So just I thought about that when I was watching the news last night. I said, man, I'll be hot as a firecracker. Go all the way to Paris and then only to get over there and burn up. And in terms of Bali, you know, this is Indonesia. It's an Indonesian island, world famous southern hemisphere located near the Indian Ocean.

Just think about, like, Wanda is literally sitting eight degrees south of the equator. Y'all killing me. That's the same time. Y'all killing me. Y'all killing me at the same time. Too old being a church. But it was like several countries. Oh, somebody else said my daughter was just in Bali, right?

back. Oh, brought back a nice Harley. Wait. Oh, she brought back a Harley Davidson hoodies. What went all the way to Bali and brought back a Harley Davidson hoodie. Well, it's probably got Bali on it. It might be a different design. Yeah, but still. Oh, I like the hoodie idea. Wanda, if you're listening, if you see a hoodie, I like the hoodie idea. All right. Got guests coming in this morning in the eight o'clock hour. So

We, we were kind of cross wires on yesterday. So got the folks coming in to discuss the gubernatorial form that's happening this Saturday over at North division and also got a group of sisters coming in to talk about the neon block. Many of you will remember last year that for the first time ever Milwaukee.

hosted Denay on block, which is this really cool affair that they do all over the world and Everyone wears white and they have entertainment and you know people Decorate their own tables and you order your food and you can bring your food with We had wine tasting event. I mean it was just really really nice. I was there

And but I was working because I was Wakisha. So, you know, she was doing the wine tasting tent. So I didn't really get to kick it, but I got to walk around and talk to a lot of people. In fact, I went Facebook live from the event. So we're going to have that group in because it is coming back to Milwaukee for a second year. So tell folks how they can get in on that early because a lot of people, you know how we are in Milwaukee, we'll wait.

to see like, ah, cause it was brand new. A lot of people wasn't up on it. So then as it got closer and closer, people was like, I want to go, I want to go. It's sold out now. Can't go. It's too late. So you want to make sure you get in on it this time early. Uh, so that's what's happening. Let me go to the phone line real quick. Get this person in. Hey, caller. What's happening? Oh, hello. How you doing? I'm good. How you doing this morning? Okay. I have a remedy for that call. What's that?

You take one big, really onion, cut that onion up in slices, put it in a jar with a top on it and pour honey in that jar until you fill it up and let it sit for eight hours. Like today is Thursday, Thursday morning, you begin to take that honey and onion at two teaspoons in the morning and two teaspoons at night.

and I guarantee you within a couple of days, maybe as a week, all the things have to come up out of it and you'll get where it comes. That's what I do. So let me, let me just go back. You said red onions. One red onion, cut it up and slice it. Okay. Put that sliced onion in a jar with a top on it, pour honey in that jar until you fill it up and screw the top back on and let it sit for eight hours.

Got it. If you're going to take two teaspoons in the morning and two teaspoons before bed and that'll bring up all that milk and stuff out because that's what I'm going to get ready to do now. So, where'd you get this recipe from? Off Facebook. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, thank you for passing it along. I appreciate you. You're welcome. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Dude, what's wrong with you? Two things. What?

By the time you do that, you'll be dead. You let it sit for 93 hours. He said eight hours. You'll be dead. As I say, 93 hours. And then, I mean, why don't you just give the doctor apples? Keep the doctor away. Oh, you know what? I was salty. I saw this thing on apples. Remember back in the day, they say apple a day keeps the doctor away? Yeah. So I like

Just that quick. I can't even think of the name of but I like this one brand of Apple Granny Smith. Nope, um Honeycrisp Yes, I love they like the best apples in the world. I love sweet. Yes, and then but it's Chris crispy. Yeah So I love honeycrisp apples and they cost more a little bit more than some of the others So I'm watching this the show and they're talking about you know, the impact of that Apple a day

And they said that the best apple that gives you the most bang for buck, most nutrients is actually that basic red. Really? Yeah, that that that that red apple that what is it called? Oh, so not the Granny Smith. Granny Smith is a green. Oh, whatever. Oh, yeah. Yeah, just that playing. Yeah, that was like, like you get more nutrients and everything from that apple than you do.

from all of the apples. All right, but that the Honey Christmas fire is unbelievable. I love that apple. But so I was like, and you know, sometimes you think and not not, I didn't think that in this case, but you think you're spending more money or you're doing this and it's no, that red basic plain apple has more nutrients than all of the others. Let me go to the phone line. Hey, Carla, what's happening? Good morning, Michelle. Good morning. Um.

It was good seeing you at June pink. And my question is, did you see anybody doing any line dances at June pink with all those people? Yeah, I didn't because I was posted up at the, um, the rising grind at our booth. So I didn't see anybody. Did you see it? Wonderful. Oh, so we had done it. Yeah. Okay. Put all those people there. Just imagine. Yeah, that would have been cool.

Yeah, because I saw that did it in Harlem. I watched some of the Juneteenth celebrations. Yeah. No, this was Juneteenth celebrations. Oh, for the Obama Center? No, no, no. In Harlem, for their Juneteenth celebrations, they were doing it in the streets. They had Harlem just on lock, and they were lying dancing and stuff in the streets in Harlem for Juneteenth. Was it one of the biggest lines there? Yeah, it wasn't the biggest, but they did it though.

Well, yes, there's something going on with Representative Hakeem Jeffers Jeffries and the iPad and him supporting Israel over America

and the new mayor there. Can you touch on that so that we can get a regular people understanding if you have time? Yes, ma'am. I will do that. My thing is, I thought we wanted Hakeem to be the speaker eventually, but he got this controversy going on with the Israel stuff. And then just a quick happy birthday to Mr. Keon Jackson Malone. His birthday is on June 28th.

All right. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Uh, yeah. So. Huh. The briefly yesterday mentioned that the results in some of the primary elections around the country yesterday and then in general elections, uh, that. There were a number of democratic socialists who won their races.

three, and thank you to my story because I hadn't seen it just because everything else that was going on. But three of the candidates that Mondani supported in New York emerged victorious, and Joaquin Jeffries had not endorsed any of those three people. And there is this burgeoning riff differences of opinion within the Democratic Party structure.

about how we move forward, particularly with long-standing ties with APEC, which is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or APEC is really the way it should be said, the Republican Affairs Committee, and Hakeem Jeffries, you know, and like most American elected officials at the federal level, very pro-Israel, and these

committees or these groups give a lot of money to these candidates. And people began to believe that it jades the way they make decisions about supporting Israel, the way they push back on questioning, you know, what's being done in the region, what's being done with American money in tow. And so there is this riff. And a lot of people are saying, I think Joy Reid,

The other day was talking about how she wouldn't be supporting many Democrats that align themselves with With a little scrutiny no room for questioning of Israel Because of all the things that are unfolding that haven't folded in Gaza that we see going on right now in terms of Lebanon and So I keep Jeffries is you know getting caught and squalls

And there's one thing I will say, and I got to go to break, but there's one thing I will say. And I talked about this when Bernie Sanders ran for office because Bernie Sanders, who was an independent, but many of the Democratic socialists, they run, they roll with Bernie Sanders. And when Bernie Sanders was running for president, Bernie Sanders, there was this whole riff back and forth that he thought that he should be able to have access to Democratic Party assets to help his campaign.

When I say assets, so we're talking about our mailing list. We're talking about our funding sources. We're talking about the names of all, you know, the people in the different parts of the country that are allies, that could be resources. They wanted access to the infrastructure. And even I said then, you want access to an infrastructure that you did not help create.

that you did not help build, that you have not put anything in on it. And one of the things that Hawkeying Jeffrey said yesterday is that, you know, y'all want some seats in terms of being democratic socialists, but make no mistake. This infrastructure in terms of the way the Democrats are currently in play, it's a solid infrastructure.

And y'all still got to come through this way. As I said yesterday, roughly about 100,000 people right now around the country are identifying as democratic socialists. That in comparison to the two main parties, Republicans and Democrats, that number is, you know, it's a very small fraction of engaged voters.

That does not mean you don't have the ability to influence local races You don't have the ability to influence outcomes as we saw in New York because again What I have been saying for the last several months 90 million voters who are eligible to vote stayed home in the Harris Trump election in the November 20 24 election they stayed home so

Even if you are small in numbers, but you show up and the folks that have the you know could run off the board easily stay home You can end up swaying and impacting the election outcomes So let me take a break. I'll mention a couple other quick things that Hakeem has said speaker Jeff I mean, I'm minority house leader Jeffrey's has said but they can really have a real problem on

on the East in terms of some of this stuff. How does that translate in Wisconsin and around the rest of the country? It'll be interesting to see. But let me take a break. I'll be right back. Michelle Bryant WNOV, 860 AM, 106.5 FM. Michelle Bryant on WNOV. All right, folks, welcome back to Jesus Christ. One voice down. Trosha's man is bad. Welcome back to the show. Let me go to the phone line. Hey, Carla, what's happening?

Hello Good morning, how are you? Good morning. I'm fine. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. I'll try to take a minute. I hate to do this to you, but Yesterday you had a great conversation You know very very deep and very profound talking about the world affairs. I appreciate it. I really do way beyond my

understanding. I'm stuck on a different 40 square miles in the world. I'm stuck on a 40 square mile section of my town where I live that has no food, that has no pharmacies, no medical, no development for the past five, six, 10, 20 years, no safety.

being controlled by a mercenary force of people from the suburbs, telling us what to do. Obviously, I'm talking about the north side of Milwaukee. And this thing going on with Midtown is a perfect, there's a word, a perfect example of this whole situation for 20 years. Midtown was formed in 2001.

And the common council just closed the Midtown TIF district, which is a financing district. So this TIF district where they got 6 million, 8 million, 10 million, 20 million over the years, supposedly put into Midtown. And it was all a scam, Michelle. The original builder of Midtown walked away

with his money. And that was resold and now we're stuck with a lows that is a storage unit. No jobs, no activity, no concern for the neighborhood. We have to find out who was responsible for all those weeds last year. Nobody seemed too concerned about fixing that up. But now I found Michelle that they've taken

5 million dollars out of midtown cash To pay off the debt over at Century City, you know where the slaughterhouse is gonna go But not just that Michelle they took 3.3 million dollar dollars out of a development fund You have to listen to this. This is unbelievable. It's development fund of 3.3 million dollars is one who

It was formed in 2013. Tom Barrett, Rocky Mark Who, all the guys downtown, a development fund because of the lowly situation, they put this $3.3 million into a development fund to placate the neighborhood, to placate the alderman, to get them off their back. Well, do you know what happened just this past couple of months? They took that $3.3 million of cash,

and took it back downtown. That money sat there from 2013 until today, never being used. No concern about the neighborhood. I actually talked to a guy from redevelopment authority. This is the entity downtown that handles all of the cash, all of the money, all of the financing that would go into Stamper's district.

and Rainey's district all over the years. This is where the money comes from. This gentleman said that Midtown was a success. Can you believe that, Michelle? This is the guy working for development in the city of Milwaukee, and he says that Midtown is a success. Well, anyway, let me just finish with this. The whole situation right now is to enable

this new developer who got stuck with this building and he thought he could come in and steamroll the city and put another storage unit. I hope everybody can see. This is all that they see the north side as being. This is just a storage unit. They don't have to worry about people dying. They don't have to worry about safety. They don't have to worry about children. They don't have to worry about weeds. They don't have to worry about anything.

if they can get their storage unit into these big, beautiful buildings that you and I paid for. You and I paid for these buildings. And these developers are walking all over us. And to put the data center in there, that is, in my mind, that is just a ploy. That is a diversion. The whole effort here is to allow the zoning to be changed. And Michelle?

There are lawyers out there better than me. But as soon as you get that lawyer, excuse me, as soon as you get that zoning change, that developer has property rights. Then he can take you to court. Then he can do anything he wants with that property. This is all I've watched for 26 years. I've been to every meeting, I've been to them, I've watched and read and studied all of the meetings, all the planning questions, all the money, spend every budget hearing.

This is a scam. Just follow the money show. I really appreciate the time. I know I'm going long but. No, you're fine. You're fine. And thank you as always for the cause. Definitely always appreciate the commitment to make sure that the local issues are being covered. Some of the things. Just one last, I just looked at my notes. In 2004, Midtown.

had an incremental value of $31 million. Today, it has an incremental value of, say with me, $31 million. And we live it. I live in the North Side. We live in the North Side. We've seen this. There has been nothing as far as development, no vision, no plan, affordable housing, low-income housing.

slaughterhouse cutting down thousands and thousands and thousands of trees. That's on the agenda pretty soon. We're in a serious world of hurt here. Where is the commissioner of city development? Duke graduate should be on top of the game here. I don't think anybody even knows his name. Thanks Michelle.

All right. Thank you. I appreciate it. So I did note that there was going to be the closure of what was considered the TIF and that's the tax incremental financing districts and this area which is Hilton. So it's like downtown. It spans from downtown.

to Grandville, quite frankly. And so you got the Hilton Hotel Parking Ramp District, Midtown, Grand Avenue, and New Arcade, and Grandville Station. So all of this is included in what's getting ready to close. It's not just Midtown in terms of this TIF district. It is

it's a span of properties that will be included in areas that will be included in what's happening. I share concerns about what development looks like. Again, the questions that were raised by people that attended the Midtown meeting. For me, when this caller says that some of this is a rules, this is a shield cover for something else,

That was one of the first things I said when I started to look at what I was beginning to hear that if the 19,000 foot AI center that's being proposed from midtown wasn't able to get approved, that the deal could fall through. So the low income housing units, 200 units, the capital library, new renovation would be, you know, there or new build would be there. Like.

And then all of this room for storage facility, all of that just seemed off to me. So if you tell, and then the fact that Mark Chambers, the Alderman for the area was reported to have said that they could not disclose who this developer was in terms of or who this individual was or company is regarding the AI data center or.

Computational research, whatever you want to call it. All of it began to sound real shy, shy. See folks in the meeting began to feel the same way. How can an entire project of this scale be anchored on if this small little piece of it doesn't get done, then the whole deal could be scrapped. So, uh, it definitely requires understanding a lot more about the issues, but.

these TIF districts, they're supposed to freeze base property value and then direct the growth above that baseline to pay for all project costs. So when you see a district getting, this is supposed to help the community. As the caller points out, we're no better today in some regards than we were when this whole thing was first created.

How do you get to you know manage this project now or these dollars now I should say That have been sitting on hold for all this time untapped unused and then now we see him going to other places So what at the end of the day that was intended to help that midtown area and other Areas included in this. What does that look like? Where does that money go? I understand the frustration

I haven't done the deep dive that probably is required. But the city did include this in their 2025 budget actions. So it has definitely been talked about already. And I'm looking, it's one piece in particular I'm looking for. Because the way somebody tried to frame it was.

Closing the four districts was a one-time bookkeeping and policy moment, a reset that returns previously captured growth to the regular tax rolls, hands with walking leaders, fresh choices. Because I had seen the article about it and I want to go pull it up. They can use the added breathing room to lower rates, retire obligations, bolster services. The real story will emerge as the Common Council finishes its budget work and follow what reporting reveals how much of that 15 million

Actually reaches Milwaukee property owners and the form of lighter tax bills because that was what was being pushed that by tapping into some of these dollars We are going to be able to offset tax bills, but I'm like 15 million dollars is not a lot of money So you start talking about offsetting property tax bills. What you talking about $10 $15 That money literally being you know

using in the area and produce a greater return on the investment. But we'll see. Let me do this. Let me take a quick break. I got callers on the line. I'll get them when I come back. Michelle Bryant WNOV, 860 AM, 106.5 FM. We'll be right back. With your host, Michelle Bryant on WNOV. All right, family, welcome back to the show. Got a caller. Let's go straight to the phone line. Hey, Carl, what's happening?

Good morning, Michelle. Good morning, Angela. How are you? Ah, under the weather right now. I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you get better. Me too. So anyways, I don't know exactly what you're talking about this morning, but I just wanted to say this, like the police want the

neighbors to get involved in whatever they see, maybe something that's disabandoned in the neighborhood to report it just down the third. So, but then they ain't doing what they supposed to do when it is being reported. You know, I'm not understanding that theory there. Because, you know, it was a big incident that went on over here for three days, finally one night, I can see.

They woke me up. So, you know, I'm doing whatever I'm supposed to do. And so they didn't do anything. The first time they never showed up. The second time these people came back in two big OSUVs with a whole bunch of people. You know, the one girl she was helping her to love and got on.

But then when they came back and, you know, I did what I did, they still didn't do enough. That's the life on the people at your room. So this was, this was like a fight going on in the area. Yes. And so you call the police the first time they don't show that you call a second time somebody shows up, but they don't intervene. Nope.

All they did, the kids sat down and I'm letting them know none of them people live there. So they just lasted for life. The kids touched and thawed fingers up at them and they kept going. Did they get out the car? No ma'am, they did not. They did not. Have you called the department?

in your area to speak to the community, liaison or to complain to anybody? No, I didn't know who I was supposed to call after that. So you probably are in the Silver Spring. I'm in the voice district. Yep, that's Silver Spring. So it's easy to get the, hang on, the name of the captain over there.

to be able to make a formal complaint about, you know, how the officers, in your opinion, failed to respond. Didn't even get out the car. The captain over there. It's a one man. What's her name? Hang on. Janic is the name of the captain over there and.

You can say her name is Teresa Janic J. A. N. I. C. K. J. A. N. I. C. K. OK. Yep. And then to, you know, to request to speak to her or at least the community liaison and I'll have to figure out who let me see if I can figure it out real quick. Who is the community liaison for force? Do you ever go to their meetings?

I don't be knowing nothing about it. I just talked to Mr. Taylor and he told me I talked to Miss Pratt and June T. We had a nice conversation. She had something going on at McGovern Park, but I didn't know anything about it. I don't get no information. And the block chapter we so-called have, you know, she ain't doing whatever he's supposed to be doing because I'm doing his job when I'm able to.

So yep, they have a regular community meetings and I'm looking Because yep, they just did they save summer kickoff not even Like on June 23rd not even a couple of days ago. Right. I don't get any information about nothing

So yeah, so you can reach out to the fourth district police department, tell them you want to be connected to the community liaison and you want to get on their email list. So you'll because you'll know when they meet and I think most of these community liaisons meet once a month with the district residents to tell them what's going on in the district, get complaints, get information, provide resources. So yeah, just tell them.

One, you want to complain about what went on yesterday, but two, you need to be connected to the community liaison. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Sorry. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, you all most of these districts, they do. They hold monthly meetings. I remember a lot about fourth district because when the kitchen was a state rep, that was her district.

that she did a lot with. But you can meet with these people to figure out what's going on. And always, if you don't get the response that you are looking for in terms of response times to a situation, an incident, call into the district, access speak to the chief or supervisor so that people can be made aware of what's going on. Let me go to the phone line. Hey, Carla, what's happening? Hey, Michelle, I know you got somebody, so I'm just going to make something really quick.

Please look up Daliya Ziyada. D-A-L-I-A. Ziyada. Z-I-A-D-A. Daliya Ziyada. And if you get a chance, because she's really incredible, I think it'll change your life. I think it'll seriously change your life. D-A-L-I-A. Z-I-A-D-A. Daliya Ziyada. She's an Egyptian Muslim woman, what they call part of the Muslim reform movement.

So really incredible individual, really incredible story. All right, thank you. Can you remember her name? Can you say her name to me? Oh, I mean, I know who she is. Oh, you do? I do. I do. She does a lot of. I know you gotta go. I will just say anytime somebody is advocating, you know,

to make people understand culturally what's going on. She does a lot of TikTok videos, media. And so I find some of her points interesting. But yeah, we can have a conversation. We can have a conversation about her. But I'll just take anything with a grain of salt. Let me just say it like that. And only because I got guests coming in, I can't get all the way to it. But yeah, we can talk about her. But yeah.

Thank you. Talk to you later. Have fun. You're not going to be back till Monday, right? Right. Thursday is my last day for the week. Oh, that's so sad. It's okay. Help, Misty. Help, Misty. I've got to wait till Monday. So horrible. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. No, she, when, when, if you listen to her, she talks about like when you,

reading the Quran and she talks about Palestine and you know if there's supposed to be such a thing of Palestine and Because this is a whole two-state nation thing. So like I said, I don't have time to really deal with it right now, but Let me see. I must say this she kind of well I won't I won't say it right now because I did I need to be able to back up what I said So I'll I'll do it. I'll do it later but

not really life-changing for me, but okay. All right, so let me do this, because I'm expecting guests, but if they're not here, I'm gonna bring in the other guests. Jemaine, can we bring the other guests in, please? And then when the other folks arrive, I can move them or see if they're here. Yeah. All right, y'all, sorry. We tried to make sure we got this thing together. Hmm.

I'm sorry, I was just trying to look and see while I do that. Let me go back to something real quick on the Hakeem Jeffries because somebody said, could you expand more? Somebody else just hit me up with a text message because what's the problem with Hakeem?

And it is the, hey, it's the allegiance, again, in some cases, blind in terms of Israel. And one of the things that I will always caution, particularly in the Black community, because APEC will sponsor, like most Black pastors, they have gone to Jerusalem. They've gone on a dime of APEC. They have...

Pay to bring people over, you know, you you get a Certain version of events and then a lot of these black pastors come back to the states and as far as I'm concerned they carry in water for a pack and I Just think in order to To be fair

about how you look at some of these issues impacting that region, that you gotta hear from both sides. You gotta, you have to be careful about, you know, who influences your opinion. And I just watched Black Pastor after Black Pastor, you know, run over to Jerusalem, or Apex Dime, and then you listen to them when they come back. And I'm just like, yeah, nah, nah.

because y'all got one one side of this story and I'm not saying That everything you heard was wrong bad or incorrect, but I'm saying you got one side of the story and as we know there are always two to any Conflict and then there's a truth somewhere in the middle So Hakeem Jefferies has done, you know, like a lot of legislators that same junk it a pig pays for you to go to you know, Jerusalem a

put money in your coffers in terms of campaign contributions, it just becomes a whole thing. And as far as I'm concerned, it jades away people critically, critically look at what's happening. It just does. All right. So with that being said, let me take one quick break so I can just go cough and then I'll be right back.

With your host, Michelle Bryant on WNOV. All right, family, welcome back to the show. So I told you I had a couple of guests coming in. The first set of guests are here to talk about something that is relatively new to Milwaukee, but that has been happening around the world. In fact, the neon block, which I had an opportunity to attend last year, although

you know, limited capacity because I was there as the help. Working in the wild. I got a 15 minute break to walk around and see everything. It was beautiful and incredible. But we have some folks that are here today that are part of the organizing team that brings this amazing event to the city. We understand that it is returning for a second.

iteration that we have, I think, a day confirmed. So let me welcome to the show a few people. On the phone lines, we have Demetria Morgan and Trineta Pitts. And then in studio, we have Vivian King decked out in her Delta Sigma Theta regale yet.

Good morning, everyone. How's everybody doing this morning? All right, so let's kick this old conversation off.

Viv, you call to get a schedule and set up. Where do we begin in terms of describing to the community what they are in store for? Well, I went last year and it was amazing. And I think Dimitra does the best job in explaining what this is because she has been to ones in Atlanta in Chicago. She's been all over. And so Dimitra, can you tell everybody what we have in store for them on

August 15. Oh, we got our day. We got our day. Absolutely. And I can share to a certain extent one of the one of the

We do not share a lot of details about the event because we like for the magic to unfold as the night progresses. So, as you mentioned, Michelle, the Amblanc has been around since 1985. It originated in Paris and it's currently in 120 city, 40 countries. It moved to the United, it came to the United States in 2001 in New York of all places.

and we are excited to be breeding it here at the Milwaukee again for the second year. As Vivian mentioned, the date is Saturday, August 15th at a location to be a undisclosed location. That's part of the magic of the name Blanc, is that our guests do not know where they will be having their experience and they won't know that until they actually arrive.

on the night of the event. So they will go to various departure points throughout the city based on the departure points that they select. They will be met by a table leader who will escort them and a group leader who will escort them to the secret location. And once they arrive at that secret location is where the magic unfolds.

Essentially, DeNan Blanc is an upscale, elegant, picnic-style dinner that takes place in a very public location that is generally not meant for a picnic-style dinner. So we go to iconic locations throughout the city that will highlight some of the history of the city that is meaningful in some way. And then we just kind of let

the magic happened between entertainment, sponsor activation, the community, the culture, the food, the fashion, the music. It's just a wonderful experience. We don't call it an event because it's not like any other event we've ever planned or attended. So Trineta, did you attend last year and had you been to previous

uh experiences if so how does how did what we did in Milwaukee uh compare yes um I have attended previous events in Jamaica Atlanta Detroit Chicago and and it was wonderful and Milwaukee event as well Milwaukee event I was wanted to host last year

And it was a great event. It was just, it was the magic that unfolded and being a host of the event just made it even better because I was able to plan it from the beginning and see all the behind things that goes behind work that goes into it, behind the scenes, which was magical. And then just to see a place that we take from a blank canvas and just fill it with beautiful art of people dressed in all white.

with activation points and, you know, something that you would never see. And then when you leave the place, it's spotless clean. You go back the next day, you would never know that our event was there. So a number of people either had the opportunity because people were like, okay, so I know I'm supposed to wear white, but in terms of food and, you know,

table settings and people were just over the top about do I order food do I bring my own food how does this aspect of it work and so I remember all of the the antsiness leading up to this moment last year so can you take just a second to talk about that because some of the table decorations were so

over the top, beautiful, that, you know, people are like, is this custom? How did this happen? So talk a little bit about that piece of it. Well, for the table? Yes, go ahead, Janette. Okay, for the table decorations. For this year, we are bringing Paris to Milwaukee, so that is the Milwaukee theme. So for the table decorations, a lot of people did all of their work pre. They set up their tables at home first to see exactly what this one will look like.

and they brought all the material. So everything on your table should be white. You can have accent of gold and accent of silver, but everything should be white. And you can go out, you can have an eye for a tire on your table. You can have purses, bags, pearls, jewelry, but it is a thing that each person set a fair style or the whole table. Sometimes the group, whatever table you have, you decide to do something together. And the whole everybody brings this.

their part. That makes it easy to say, you know, I just need to bring the tape and the silverware. Someone else may bring the wine glasses and the champagne glasses. So it makes it easy if you get together with your group, your table leader and decide to do a theme together. So you can make it a theme together because it's basically a party within a party.

Because that's the one thing I want to make sure that our listeners understand. You are helping to create this experience. So you are decorating and, you know, setting out your own table. You're bringing those things with you. In terms of the food, I know last year there was an option, I thought, to potentially place a food order. Is that still in place for this year? Yes, it is. And we have a wonderful caterer that has some. We want to taste the food last week. It was delicious.

My favorite was like the salmon, but Dimitrios was a vegetarian dish. But when I say the food from Donna DeLastable is amazing. So yes, we have an e-store set up where you purchase your wine. You have to buy all your wine because the state of Wisconsin from us. But you can bring your own food if you like. But to make it easy on yourself, you can just go to our e-store. And in our e-store, we have a list of items for you. From vegetarian dishes to salmon.

We also have faith, so we have it packaged up for you to even make it even easier. So this year, we went all out on Friday. I guess we have a lot of surprises set up. All right, so for folks that are like, I'm here, I want to do it. Where do they go to get tickets? Who do they talk to? Is there a website? What should they be doing? Yes, we would like for them to join our fan list.

Also, first of all, we like for them to go like our pages on social media at Instagram and Facebook, which is the name block Milwaukee and for Facebook and as Instagram and then from there, they can also go directly to our page, which is the name Milwaukee that the name block which is D. I. N. E. R. E. N. B. L. A. N. C. That time.

and backslash fan and then they can register and purchase their tickets as all phases open today. So all of our phases are open. So everyone is able to purchase a ticket before it sells out.

And look, I mentioned it before you guys came on. Folks were trying to get in. Because in Milwaukee, we wait. We wait. We not sure this was new. Girl, what they talking about? Bring your own food and set up your own table. You know how we can do. Bring your own chair. Yeah. Wait, what? And so we should. Go ahead, Demetria. One of the things that we did last year, just kind of on a small level, a small scale,

is we offer tables and chairs to be included with your ticket price. And this year we have increased that number. So we have substantially more tickets available this year that actually includes the tables and chairs. So that was one of the things that Milwaukee has to get used to is doing that. And so to alleviate that being one of the pressure points for people,

We've just included more tables and chairs. And so you just pay $20 more if you'd like to have your table and chair included. Well, look, I'm just encouraging people to get your tickets early. Because as I said, after the last minute, we have folks calling the radio station texting me, Michelle, how do I get in? You don't. From what I understood, it was sold out. You don't. There is no plug. You got it.

Be on time. There's no wait list. Ladies, well, I will tell you, I would love to have you guys back in before we actually hit the August 15th date. Just spend a little bit more time explaining to people what the experience is, because like I said, this is still new for us. And, you know, but to see it, as I said, people had sparklers out there, you know, the little napkin.

Dancing the neck away. And it was so funny because I think they play sweet Caroline.

I'm waiting to see all these black people sing Sweet Caroline. They were all in. I was loving it. And it was, it was, it was racially diverse. You know, it was people from everywhere, all walks of life that were there, uh, in a generational group, but it was definitely the grown and sexy crew. I want to be clear. I want to be clear about that. And the outfits were.

Just incredible the thought that people put in to what they were wearing I was I felt like I was transported for a moment only on one level I was like it didn't feel like Milwaukee, but then on another level It's like this is what Milwaukee is. We just don't always appreciate it

Absolutely. So to you, organizers, thank you all so much for bringing this to the city again. I know it's a lot of work and look, y'all got like, what is it? Less than 60 days. So we will get you back in and talk about it just to remind people because right now, where do they go to find the tickets? Somebody just

Inbox me. I mean, your messenger, where do they go to find the tickets? Milwaukee.DNAinblank.com and that's D-I-N-E-R

Okay, family. For the listeners that are hitting me up, I'll make sure that we post that information. Ladies, thank you so much. I appreciate you making time for us this morning. It's good to hear your voices. Dimitri and Trineta and always good to see Viv and we will get you ladies back on once before because again,

This was a huge success last year, and folks are ready for it this time. And we want it to be bigger and better, and it will be if everybody comes out. Definitely. All right. All right. Thank you, ladies. Appreciate you this morning. Thank you so much, Michelle. Yes. Yes. Thank you.

All right, family. So look, I'm getting ready to get the folks in that are going to be talking about the upcoming upcoming gubernatorial candidates form happening at North Division. So give me just a quick second to make a quick transition and we'll get those folks in. Viv, I appreciate you, sis. Always working.

I understand real quick before you go accolades are in order. Can you bring the other guest in please? I am a finalist in the International Impact Awards, author of the year.

Facebook page or or LinkedIn or Instagram and which book is this for me? This is for grace welcomes the lady next door book one in the growing up polite series Wonderful, so we'll make sure making waves. Yeah Keep us posted. Let us know. Let us know what we doing. Well huge honor. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Come on in a bra and We got Walter to all right, we got three chairs

He's coming too. Where is he? Hey, uh, pastor, how you doing today? Oh, Rogers. Hey, Brian, how are you today? Oh, look, the voice is tore up today.

And I'm sorry, I didn't realize I would add another cheer brought in. We okay? All right. Are we still on? All right, folks. So as I told you, and we're trying to get folks situated here in the studio, we have a gubernatorial candidates forum that is coming up on June 27th this Saturday over at North Division High School.

the time that they have listed 10 a.m. to 12 30 p.m. And all of the candidates have been invited. A number of them have affirmed that they plan to be in attendance. We do know that since the flyer was made, one candidate has actually dropped out of the race. Missy Hughes, but everyone else is tapped in on board. So we have some of the key organizers and individuals connected to this effort here in the studio with us. So let me just say good morning. Good morning to everybody.

everyone. Hey, hey, let me just start with you, Abra. And then we'll go down, have folks introduce yourselves, tell them what organization you're connected to. So, Abra, we'll start with you. So, my name is Abra Fortson. I am a 20 year plus Walnut Way resident, but I am also a community engagement strategist and I consult

two organizations to help them with strategic community engagement. And so I'm consulting on this opportunity with Walnut Way. I get to work where I live and play where I live and do all those things unbridled that I wasn't able to do before. So I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to collaborate with my residential organization that's helping

get up off its knees and advocate for itself. And I'm excited about this unprecedented event right in the heart of the city of Milwaukee at North Division. This is big. All right, well, let's get moving. What's going on, Pastor? Hey, how you doing? How you doing up in here? Yeah, you got to take care of that. Man. That's the moneymaker. Come on now, and you got to keep.

keynote of graduation tonight. I feel sorry for them. I don't need a sign language in turkish. Yeah, they used to it. Good, good. So yeah, so uh pastor linear waltz linear pastor the progressive Baptist church uh also collaborating with uh pastor lewis uh was sold to the polls and uh pastors united uh focusing in particular on those organizations to generate turnout and then we also recently formed in December of

Last year, 2025, the fight for our lives coalition, which is up to about 30 organizations now protect lives, build power, and advance a healthy democracy. If you know my work, I'm always trying to just connect us and get our puzzle pieces together because I believe we have all the talent that we need to be powerful. We just have to get it aligned and connected and moving in the same direction.

So those are the couple of organizations. We're really looking forward to seeing this down at North Avenue and for people to understand that the government is supposed to be responsive to our wants and needs. But we got to have some wants and needs and make some demands. Absolutely. All right. Young man on the end down there. Hello. Good morning, Milwaukee. This is Wayne Ashley. I'm here representing the Community Brainstorming Conference as a co-chair with Marfa Love.

The main reason I'm here today is to make sure that all the community brainstorming conference community support the Guba National Forum and be down at North Division tomorrow or Saturday, June 27th. All right, Brian. Yeah, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I saw in the.

comments, they said, who are those fine black men? So Wayne and Walter, yeah. My wife with me. I work at Walnut Way Conservation Corps. And I run a statewide organizing initiative called the Web, which is Wisconsin Eco Justice Base Builders. And we're the ones with a lot of other organizational support.

putting on this forum. I appreciate Pastor Lanier bringing up the Democratic question because I think that's really who I'm represented in addition to the great neighborhood of Lindsay Heights. Just people who are tired. Like I was at Walgreens this morning getting some like a box of cereal for like $12 a $12 box of cereal.

It was like $7, but still, just crazy. Either way, just for a buck. And some milk. And the dude outside, a woman had walked by him like he didn't even exist. And he was like, yo, I exist. And I stopped and talked to him for a little while. Mike, he's from Denver. Serious situation on his leg. He's got blisters on his hand. Like he's due to suffering, right? Nobody's asking him what we should do about that.

nobody's asking him. So he feels the indignity and so we have a society that is, we have contempt and hatred for the poor. Look at any of our policies and you see like, we don't give, we don't care whether people are okay. So we're going to have to take care of each other.

All right, so folks, what we'll do is take a quick commercial break. And then when we come back, we'll dive into what some of the goals of this forum are and how do we make sure that the community understands the significance of this upcoming election, why it is important to play in that primary on August 11th. So give us one quick second, we'll be right back.

is my mic on. I'm good. Thank you. I appreciate you. All right, family. Welcome back to the show. So as I said, we have a coalition of folks, organizers, groups that have come to the table to bring a gubernatorial form to the community. We don't get these opportunities often yet alone. You know, it's amazing how North Division has been pivotal.

in a lot. I think about a lot of people for the first time saw Barack Obama at North Division and Martha Love was in the background on that saying he coming to the city, he coming to North Division. So the ability to make sure that our community is included and relevant. So let's take a minute and talk about the necessity of this form.

One of the things I mentioned during the commercial break is that we've seen some of them be broken down in terms of specificity along a particular issue or set of issues. Let's go with Walter for a second. In terms of some of the things that you all are hoping to cover in this forum, what comes to mind or what are you planning? Well, it comes to mind. So I'm going to be talking about workforce development. But for me in particular, what I'm interested in with the candidates is

kind of goes along with what you were saying is is your accessibility to community. You're not only a willingness, but understanding that you need to be responsive to the demands. You don't have to do what the community says do. But we do need to hear from you. You do need to be accessible and transparent with your work. And so that's what is fundamental with with me is this should not be so rare that candidates make their way to North Division or to the community we were talking at the break.

about that. You were saying how rare that it is. And so it's really in part for Walter, for the candidates, but it's almost more for me for the community to get a deeper understanding that when we come together, we can make demands more powerfully of the system. And so that's my, I've got a message for candidates, but it's really for the community. So, Ryan, let me pull you into the conversation. When you did your opening, you talked about

seeing someone who maybe was homeless outside of a store and that people walk past indifferent to the issues that they were facing. What do you all in your organization come to the table anticipating what will happen with this forum? And pull up to the mic for me, please. So they've done these before, right? You were saying on the break,

They have political ambition. So they're trying to get our votes. This is not about the candidates, however. It is in some way, but it's actually, it is about public discernment, right? The community, can we ask more powerful questions of these individuals who presume to lead our state out of what, if you're living in it, we're definitely in a crisis moment and things don't seem to be getting better. So what,

not just policy ideas, but what kind of I need to know what kind of human being these people are. Do they have the empathy? Do they have the critical thinking skills? Do they have the deep listening skills? Do they have the intellectual humility to recognize that wisdom is widely distributed? Do they have the moral imagination to create things that don't yet exist? And do they have the political courage to actually bring that into being?

Anybody can memorize some talking points. Anybody can memorize what their staff put together, as you know what I'm saying, as far as platform. We don't need politicking. I know y'all can do that. So what we need, again, to Pastor Lanier's salient point, we need a public who is ready to actually assume the full responsibility of freedom, or we're not free. So either we are or we're not.

And right now, I think we're living relatively slavishly, and we don't like ourselves for it, and it makes us very difficult to actually treat other people with dignity. The purpose of this forum is part of a larger, more long-term, radical, democratic project to actually govern the institutions that are required for it leading a basic, dignified life. Water, food, energy, education, childcare, transportation. Why are we not talking about these things as though we own them, be we own them?

So either we were going to let people that are, the ancient Greeks warned us very clearly about this. They said, if you have elections, you will see a concentration of power. You will see a hierarchy of power form with those people who have education, social connections, wealth. What do we have in this country? So either we're gonna do democracy, which is a daily discipline of practice, or we're going to be governed.

And that's what this is about. And any one of these candidates, if we want to select the best of those who can get as close as to our ideals, they're going to have to give us more than talking points. And they're certainly going to have to give us more than whatever platforms are up on their websites. So as a group that has been at the driving force of many of

these kinds of conversations, community brainstorming. You know, there is not an elected office in this, the city, the state, this town, that if you were running, you didn't come through community brainstorming. So Wayne, for you all, and you all are doing something kind of different. So, because community brainstorming normally would be happening

on this Saturday. So how is this going to work? Do we still go to St. Matthews and then go to North Division or what do we, what are people doing this morning or Saturday? The community brainstorming community is not going to have a forum this Saturday at St. Matthews. What we are doing is supporting the Gouver National Forum at North Division. So we want all of our people to show up at North Division and to support this forum.

We want you there asking questions. We want you there in front of the candidates. We want all of our people there. You'll have a light continental breakfast, but you're supposed to show up and support the forum. Do not show up at St. Matthew's. Please show up at the forum and get into the candidates head.

Okay, that's a tar order. Get into the head. Ava, so as you have been helping to kind of spearhead and figure out the logistics of this whole thing, what do you all come into the role? One of the things on the flyer, no more background politics. Help folks with that particular portion of this. Anybody who knows me knows that I have been challenging community to get up off its knees.

We cannot continue to treat. I'm sorry. What does that mean? Well, because a lot of times in community, we are powerless because we have been rendered to our knees. You know, we don't know how to. We've lost our ability to self advocate. We treat our elected officials like rock stars. We hold nobody accountable and we and we're crawling. This is our community being dismantled systemically. And so I.

often tell people that it's time for us to get up off of our knees and and walk in our power. We elect officials to go represent us, not to think for us. So it's for me. This is especially when you talk about people who are in the lived experience of poverty. I live in the center of

the lived experience of poverty. And people are so inundated with survival that they can't even focus on thinking about who's going to represent them. So these are the conversations that I'm having with the brother that is standing outside of Gault's foods on his knees, literally. That's where this comes from. You know, the panhandlers, you know, let's be honest, we have a whole subculture of people who are

doing what they need to do to survive. I talked to the dope boys. I talked to everybody and tell them listen.

This ain't gonna change until you start to learn how to advocate for yourself. And so that's who I've been telling. You need to be at North Division to find out who these people are and to know who you need to hold accountable. When you can't go get the resource you need to help you move beyond your circumstance and your situation. When you don't know who to call because somebody is consistently dumping in your backyard and garbage is full.

We're trampling over garbage and police sirens all night in the community. You need to know how to engage. And that became evident to me.

When I realized many of my neighbors didn't know who to call when we had issues, they didn't feel safe calling MPD because they couldn't cause they didn't know that they could call anonymously and not be pointed out when they came to support. So for me, this is teaching civic engagement, not just engagement, but responsibility. Yes, Brian.

Um, no, I see. All right. So look, so for folks that are like, okay, it sounds good. I want to attend. Do I need to register? What do I need to do to be able to attend? Yes, registration is priority. So if you we are expecting that people register for this event, they can go to Walnut ways website at www.walnutway.com. But for the org dot org and for the people who aren't

tech savvy who can't scan the QR code on a flyer, they can call Walnut Way at Brian. 414-458-1984. And a person can register you to, uh, to attend the forum. Now we, I don't expect that we're turning people away that day because we want everybody there, but we have limited space. Okay.

Got it. I was just going to reiterate what she said. You do want people to register, but people will not be turned away at the door. People can register on the day. Hopefully it'll be packed up and be a packed house where people can register on the day at the door. Also free childcare, like continental breakfast starting at 9 AM until supplies last and a lot of different cultural moments. So there's going to be acapella singing. There's going to be a live song at the end. There's going to be.

drumming and youth drumming outside. Are we still doing that? Alright, folks, so you have heard it. There is every reason to show up and participate. June 27th this Saturday, 10 a.m. to 12 30 p.m. What time do doors open? 9 9 a.m. for the doors open at 9 a.m. for the breakfast. North Division High School 101 West Center Street. Make sure that you are there. This is an incredible opportunity. Do not sit up and talk about it.

and don't be about it and don't show up. Thank you to the guests that came in today. Family, y'all know this is my last day for this week. I will talk to everybody next week. Hope to see you on Saturday. Team, I appreciate you. Peace y'all.