Special Projects

Award-winning special projects created by Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

A few blocks away from the levee breach site that flooded the Lower Ninth Ward during Hurricane Katrina sits the Ninth Ward Nursery, owned by Mark Sanders, a self-proclaimed bamboo enthusiast. At first site, the nursery almost looks like a shack like house, but once inside, it transforms into a little oasis of serenity and […]

After spending five days planting trees in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward during a spring break service-learning trip, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign student Ariel Russell recapped how the experience gave her a firsthand look at the neighborhood’s ongoing recovery from Hurricane Katrina, along with the power of efforts driven to improve the quality of life […]

In 2016, Susannah Burley founded Sustaining Our Urban Landscape (SOUL) from her dining room table. SOUL is a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring the urban landscape of New Orleans. “We are strategically reforesting the city,” Burley said. “There are other tree planting groups, but we created the New Orleans Reforestation Plan, which was the first […]

In late August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the city of New Orleans. For many, the hurricane is viewed as a catastrophic natural disaster, but Sandy Rosenthal credits the destruction of the city to something else. According to Rosenthal, the demolition of New Orleans could have been far less disastrous had the city’s levees not […]

Situated on the corner of Fats Domino Avenue and Galvez Street, a building covered in colorful murals stands as a symbol of resilience in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward. Across the back, bold letters spell out “Lower 9 Strong.” Benches painted with uplifting messages surround the entrance, welcoming visitors to the first grocery store to […]

Nearly 21 years after Hurricane Katrina, Robert Green still calls New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward home. The neighborhood where he grew up looks different from what it did before the storm. A majority of residents never returned. Vacant lots stretch where family homes once stood, and many of the replacement houses built after Hurricane Katrina […]

Preston Stanley sat on his front porch, gently swaying back and forth in a white rocking chair. Surrounding him, there are several lots full of overgown weeds, swarming with mosquitoes that are buzzing through the humid air. Stanley points from lot to lot, recalling the families from his youth whose houses once stood there before […]

It’s August 2005. It’s dark outside, and the floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina keep rising higher and higher. Yvonne Blue and her family are forced into their attic, as their alternative option is to wade through the waist-deep water that has consumed the main level of their home. For one long night, Blue and her family […]

The scars of Hurricane Katrina stretch far beyond New Orleans, lingering in damaged homes, partially repaired neighborhoods and communities across Louisiana. Damage throughout New Orleans is still prevalent, even almost 21 years later, but what tends to get overlooked is the damage outside of the city. “You can still walk by houses today and see […]

For photojournalist Ted Jackson, covering Hurricane Katrina was not just about documenting destruction. It was about deciding, in real time, whether to capture suffering or step in to stop it. “I think what made my coverage different was that I found myself alone in a lot of situations, in moments of highly charged ethical decisions,” […]

Nestled just 15 minutes from New Orleans’ bustling French Quarter sits the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. Nearly 21 years later, the storm is still here. It lives in the weeds that rise chest-high across vacant lots. It lingers in homes slowly collapsing into their foundations, their roofs […]

In a world where African spirituality is often reduced to Bourbon Street caricatures and neon “Psychic” signs, Andrew McKee approaches his practice with a quality of quiet covertness. Based in Milwaukee, McKee’s journey into the spiritual arts is deeply personal, rooted in his own family background and cultural inheritance. While he lives far from the […]