City Life

City Life

The Kit Man: Kevin “K-Dog” Harter Keeps Forward Madison Ready to Win

By Gabrielle Orum Hernández | August 22, 2019

 Kevin Harter has been in the locker room for a few hours already when I meet him in the cramped space under the stone grandstand at Breese Stevens Field. Still, he’s behind his usual schedule -- the Forward Madison FC equipment manager usually has the locker room prepped the night before home matches.

Forward Madison FC, playing in its first season in the inaugural season of the new 10-team USL League One, is the city’s first foray into professional soccer, and seems to have touched a nerve. With fans following the team on social media from literally around the world and home attendance that far outpaces the rest of the league, Forward Madison has embraced the quirky weirdness that is Madison -- including the adoption of the pink plastic flamingo as its mascot.

Harter’s official job description as equipment manager, or “kit man,” for Forward Madison FC, puts him in charge of cleaning, prepping, and organizing the team’s clothes and practice equipment. In Harter’s case, it also means coordinating logistics with host sites for away games, screenprinting fan gear, coordinating with Forward outfitter Hummel, ensuring that every player has his specific superstitious “lucky” thing for game day, DJing the hype music in Forward’s locker room before games, howling from the sidelines during the games, razzing players about their choices in facial hair, keeping his team from getting into it with officials, and generally having the time of his life.

City Life

“It’s Bigger Than Me.” Lilada Gee Comes Out as an Artist, Seeks to Empower Women and Girls

By Mackenzie Krumme | August 21, 2019

From our content partner, Madison365. Everything in Lilada Gee’s life has been hard. Her childhood was hard, she divorced, raised two kids on her own, and lived through sexual abuse, verbal abuse and posttraumatic stress. 

“Everything in my life has been hard,” says Gee. “But these are the only thing that hasn't been hard. Nothing has been hard about it.”

Gee is referring to the digital paintings she’s been creating, paintings that celebrate Black girlhood and womanhood with joyful colors and child-like exuberance. 

Gee, founder of Lilada’s Livingroom, an organization to help women and girls deal with the trauma of abuse,  revealed herself as an artist on social media earlier this summer.

City Life

Community Partnership Helps People Get a Good Night’s Sleep

By Defang Zhang | August 20, 2019

Gwendolyn Diemer, 69, the vice president of Triangle Neighbor Organization, had been sleeping on an air mattress for almost a year before she landed in an apartment at the Community Development Authority’s Triangle complex, just south of downtown Madison, six years ago. 

“You have to light it up, put it down and you have to sink all the way on the floor to get on it,” said Diemer, “It was just not comfortable.” 

Fortunately, Diemer was able to get a bed through a partnership between CDA’s Triangle complex, UnityPoint Health-Meriter and Steinhafel’s which is providing beds for residents on a monthly basis.

City Life

Artist Jenie Gao Seeks “Uncommon Ground” in New Exhibit

By Mackenzie Krumme | August 13, 2019

Full time artist, creative director and entrepreneur Jenie Gao said when opinions, clash people often want to find common ground to bare solutions. 

Gao, however, sees it differently. 

“From personal to professional to political spaces, I have paid attention to disputes between people who plead for common ground yet gloss over perspectives and leave issues unresolved. I have wondered that if instead of common ground, we should advocate and claim space for identities and representations that are rare,” Gao said. 

City Life

Mellowhood Foundation Gets Big Grant for “People on Premises” Program

By Defang Zhang | August 5, 2019

Mellowhood Foundation, a non-profit organization nestled in Madison’s Meadowood neighborhood, received a grant to empower youth and create deep understandings of the community. 

In early July, the Madison Common Council awarded close to $120,000 as a part of a U.S. Department of Justice grant to the organization for its “People on Premises” initiative. 

“I feel blessed but also a major responsibility,” said Tutankhamun “Coach” Assad, the executive director of Mellowhood Foundation.