Ava Schultz and Hidayah Osman, “Environmental Injustice in Milwaukee Neighborhoods”
Mentor: Arijit Sen, History
Poster #70

In Milwaukee, certain neighborhood continue to face various forms of environmental injustice. These areas have long been plagued by segregation, elevated crime levels, inadequate access to nutritious food, and housing challenges. Nevertheless, within these neighborhoods, there are individuals who rise to the occasion as urban guardians. These dedicated locals are actively confronting these injustices, striving to foster positive change and improve the quality of life in their community. From 2014 – 2023 researchers of the BLC Field School have been going in the field to connect and collaborate with the community members, gardeners, and residents. Over the years, the BLC team hosted oral history interviews, hosted history harvest, observations in space, documented house layout and house histories, co-write stories, design website, etc. Through working with the community gardeners and homeowners, we had the opportunity to learn and tell, stories of positivity and pride in neighborhoods, how they use their own way as a form of resisting against environmental injustice to this day. This 2024 spring semester, we are sifting through all the research that has been collected over the years (interviews, house layouts, statistics, websites, etc.) with the goal to combine it all into a cohesive, educational exhibit for Milwaukee residents, community members, visitors from all over the Milwaukee area. When everything is put together, the exhibit will include; housing justice in the Milwaukee area, including ownership, foreclosure, making a house a home, decline, and the ultimate up-cycling of abandoned homes. It will also include stories of community gardens in the Milwaukee neighborhood, including the narrative of the urban guardian, stewardship that occur in a multigeneration garden.