Human Powered
A podcast from Wisconsin Humanities, because being human is a shared experience, and we are here to explore it together. In season three, we are celebrating the people who make Wisconsin home. For ten years, our Love Wisconsin producers have been excavating beneath the surface of our state by talking with people and sharing what we learn, one story at a time. In this series, Love Wisconsin producer Jen Rubin reconnects with some of these people who generously shared their stories to offer nuance, delight, and complexity to our understanding of what it means to be a Wisconsinite.
In our first season, we went out to communities around the state to learn more about how our neighborhoods and lives are impacted by small but meaningful local projects — like getting hands dirty at community gardens in Green Bay, revitalizing history around a cooking fire on the Red Cliff Reservation, and collecting stories in small towns impacted by historic floods. Hosted by Jimmy Gutierrez and produced by Field Noise Soundworks.
Humanity Unlocked, the second season of Human Powered, is a series of six episodes about the power of the humanities in Wisconsin prisons. From a storytelling workshop at Oak Hill Correctional Facility to a poetry workshop with people who were formerly incarcerated to a conversation with writers and editors of prison newspapers, we explored the importance of finding tools for deeper understanding. Hosted by Dasha Kelly Hamilton and Adam Carr; produced by Field Noise Soundworks.
Human Powered
Art Against the Odds
People in prisons are cut off from their families, their communities, and in some cases their own feelings. Making art in prison — even with very few resources — can be a way to affirm your humanity in a place that is so often dehumanizing. So when the organizers of an exhibit of prison art put out a call for submissions, they were flooded with responses from incarcerated artists working without support, formal programs, or materials.
In this episode, we meet Joshua Gresl, John Tyson, and Sarah Demerath, three of the more than sixty artists whose work is part of an exhibition called “Art Against the Odds.” We also talk with Deb Brehmer, the co-curator of the exhibit, which opened in January 2023 in Milwaukee and included 250 works by currently or formerly incarcerated individuals. The artworks ranged from a series of concentric circles made daily with pencil on typing paper, to highly detailed portraits, to creatures shaped by hand from scraps of food packaging. But no matter what materials they were using, each artist told us that these art practices helped them get through their time inside.
Visit the Episode Extras on the Wisconsin Humanities website to see images of Joshua, John, and Sarah's artwork, and to learn more about the exhibit.
