On The Table Milwaukee comes to UWM library

Diverse groups of people begin flowing through the elevator leading to the fourth conference room of the Golda Meir Library doors at around 7:51 a.m. All with different shades of skin color, all with unique backgrounds, and all here to talk about race, community, education, and healthcare. At 8:04 a.m., Angie D. Izard announces the beginning of the On The Table Milwaukee talks.

“Alright, time for me to get off this podium and for you all to get to gabbing,” said Izard, director of multicultural projects in Global Inclusion and Engagement.

All around Milwaukee at 160 different places, the noise at tables of diverse representatives of Milwaukee and its unique communities grow from low murmurs to vibrant conversations and boisterous laughter.

The conversations at the UWM tables mainly centered around conversations of improving higher education opportunities for impoverished or under-represented people as well as improving the higher education experience for under-privileged people who are currently in college. The specific topics relating to higher education could range anywhere from a dialogue about students managing their time so they can eat during the day, to talking about the diversity of students within specific programs like UWM’s Entrepreneurship program.

“On The Table is an excellent way for UW-Milwaukee and the community to come together and have some amazing and important conversations. This is just one of the vehicles or tools that we can use to foster that,” said Director of Multicultural Relations and Global Inclusion and Engagement Twyla McGhee.

At these tables, community leaders help advise younger generations on how to succeed and achieve their goals. They talk together to figure out ways to overcome adversities faced by younger and older generations of people. Older table members even go as far as to offer proof reading of high school students’ essays.

“We talked more of struggles that us college students are having on campus,” said UWM Freshman Kalen Walker. “Like finding time to study or a place where we can study effectively. Solutions to how we could be able to fix those problems. The food problem. Half of us in the program commute, we have to get up really early to get to class on time. We usually don’t have time to make breakfast or lunch. I don’t think that people understand the struggles that us students go through. We don’t have many events like this. It’s very good to talk with people who can actually help with our problems.”

Walker also plays football for the Panthers, is a member of the MKE Fellows and is starting a student organization drum line. He was invited to the MKE Fellows table at UWM to talk about what black students in higher education need to succeed.  

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation organized On The Table to bring community members together to create a meaningful and continuing dialogue after the meeting is over.

“I just really love the fact that this whole event is centered around the art of conversation, which I think is sometimes lost in present day society,” said Izard.

Community leaders at each table discuss with each other how they can work together to make their efforts more effective and broaden their reach to help people in need. Milwaukee is a city full of non-profit organizations designed to help people in need, but the aim of this event is not necessarily to create more nonprofits, but rather to make those nonprofits more effective by working together.

“We don’t need to reinvent the community. We need to leverage the resources already in place and make the connections we need to make. Make the nonprofits more effective rather than creating new ones,” said Planning Assistant for the Department of Black and Latino Achievement David Castillo.  

On The Table MKE is a conference between community leaders and individuals designed to help bridge racial, cultural and other divides with the goal of improving relations between people in the larger community of Milwaukee.

“The #mketechclub effort is to really see Milwaukee as a tech hub and digital tech startup hub,” said Jason Dietenberger, instructor and STEM, Business, Innovation, & Design Internship Coordinator. “We’re looking horizontally across all of our populations and to ensure that this dialogue continues as we build in Milwaukee and surrounding communities.

Many of the returning attendees use this event as a recurring yearly check up to examine problems that were identified in previous years and how those problems are being remedied.

“We’ve championed a similar conversation each year to continue the dialogue forward and a yearly unofficial barometer check on how things are going across all demographics,” said Dietenberger.

Milwaukee has a long-standing history of segregation, and if you live here for any length of time and explore outside of your own neighborhood, that segregation will become very apparent. This segregation is detrimental to Milwaukee as a whole because it limits our ability to not only share commodity resources like healthcare, emergency services, and grocery stores, but also resources such as knowledge and experience.

Some people at the event think the human connections made and continuing dialogues created were the most important take away from On The Table.

“Diversity and inclusions are so much more than that,” said entrepreneur and UWM Graduate student Michael Kirsanov. “It’s about creating a sense of belonging. Having those uncomfortable conversations and liftin’ each other up to be on the same playing field. It’s that constant effort to create a more communicative and kinder society. Culture in society is changing and we have to look at the unique aspects of individuals rather than trying standardization.”

Milwaukee’s segregation makes the on the Table conferences all the more important to growing a healthy Milwaukee. However, you would never recognize that segregation if you walked into this room full of people because On The Table is specifically designed around the inclusion of all kinds of people.

During the event, the feeling of happiness permeated around the room and smiles began to creep across all the different faces. These talks truly succeeded in bring many different groups of individuals and organizations together in more than a literal sense.

This is the third year The Greater Milwaukee Foundation is organizing On The Table, and the event seems to grow larger and more effective every year.

“I think this year there are definitely some new people attending the tables, which is really good because it means more awareness of the conversations and the impact on Milwaukee On The Table cane make,” said Izard.