While Milwaukee never ended up getting its blue shirt art installation at Mitchell Airport all those years ago, Downtown is getting some blue jeans, it seems.
If you’ve been Downtown today, you might have noticed jeans hanging from light poles along West Wisconsin Avenue and perhaps wondered if they were a new trend, like tying a pair of sneakers together in the ‘70s and launching them up over the overhead utility wires.
Nope, Milwaukee is breaking out the acid wash, stone wash, etc. as part of this year’s Denim Day awareness campaign, set for Wednesday, April 26. It’s a day on which everyone is urged to don denim as a means for raising awareness about sexual assault and rape.
You can learn more about Denim Day here.
A media alert from the mayor’s office today noted that Mayor Tom Barrett would appear at O’Donnell Park at 12:45 p.m. to, "highlight the jeans hanging from light poles on West Wisconsin Avenue as part of this year’s Denim Day awareness campaign. The City’s Department of Public Works will be hanging the jeans at 12:45 p.m. today.
"The jeans will be displayed throughout the entire month of April, which is also Sexual Assault Awareness Month."
You can follow other Denim Day information on Twitter by following #DenimDayMKE.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
