Articles by Lauren Breunig

While very few fishermen will admit to being superstitious, fishing culture in New Bedford is rife with superstitions and rituals.  Women are not allowed on a boat before it leaves on a trip, according to Chris Wright. If women do come aboard, they are supposed to pee on the deck to get rid of the […]

The waterfront of New Bedford is lined with piers, boats arranged in the harbor like a game of Tetris and warehouses made of pale metal siding. A faint breeze stirs up the scent of fresh fish. It is evident the fishing industry has claimed its territory.  However, that claim is now being challenged. New Bedford, […]

NEW BEDFORD, Massachusetts — One might say that the fishing industry got its hooks in Tyler Miranda at a young age. Born into a family of fishermen, Miranda grew up on the water, going out on trips in his father’s lobster boat—a wooden vessel about 14 feet long and half-covered in ocean-worn lobster traps—since he […]

New Bedford is an industrious town about an hour south of Boston that has the distinction of being the nation’s largest fishing port. With a population of nearly 101,000 people, according to 2020 census data, New Bedford is a mix of historical colonial houses converted into dentists’ offices, upscale seafood restaurants dotted along the waterfront […]

The single-vessel scallop boat owner is all but extinct in New Bedford. On a regular scalloper’s salary, it is challenging to pay the average price of $8,000 for a boat and the necessary permits, not to mention general upkeep and the cost of gas.   “No one really owns their own boat now—it’s really expensive,” […]

LAC DU FLAMBEAU, Wisconsin — Perched in a rust-colored armchair next to the wood-burning heater in his garage, Tom Maulson points out all the fishing equipment—traditional Anishinaabe five-pronged spears, more modern poles, worn lures and ice cutting tools—nestled between the Folgers cans, hunting gear and boxes in the room. Maulson, a proud grandfather, smiles from […]

There are more snowmobiles than cars in the parking lot of Hornwinkels Bear Stube, snow-coated pavement that acts like a continuation of the trails that carve through the woods that cover large swaths of Lac du Flambeau. The buzz of revving snowmobile engines periodically cut through the white noise of the surrounding nature as customers […]

Nervous laughter echoed in the James Madison Academic Campus’s auditorium before Tiff Polzin’s students took the stage. Stragglers in the small group are ushered away from messing around with the piano, which is missing a few keys that chime like an uncomfortable chuckle, and banished to the edge of the stage near the stairs. Polzin, […]

Some parents and community members say that Milwaukee Public Schools’ focus on restorative justice is not doing enough to keep students safe or reduce racial discrimination, concerns district employees discussed at their quarterly Community Conversations meeting on Mar. 15.   In its efforts to comply with a 2018 agreement U.S. Department of Education’s Office of […]

In this short documentary, Lauren Breunig introduces us to her grandmother. Since retiring, she has been sewing with a group at her senior center and donating projects to various charities. Lauren follows her along and shows us how the emotional value of sewing has changed for her, and how the development of technology has changed […]

A vein trailing east from I-41, North Avenue stretches from Milwaukee’s western suburbs, through the heart of the city, and all the way to the shoreline of Lake Michigan. In Wauwatosa, the street is lined with office buildings defined by sharp lines and modern exteriors cut into precise rectangles, their olive-tone sheens too new to […]

Debra Breunig has taught English for 25 years. The high school teacher reflects on how teaching has changed, both in the classroom and in what it means to her. Lauren Breunig reports.