17th Year On 17th Street

Walnut Way Conservation Corp.’s annual Harvest Day celebrated its 17th year on 17th Street last weekend.

The festival, which took place on the 2200 block of 17th Street and the SDC parking lot on North Avenue, featured food vendors and a range of acts, such as DJ Steve Watkins and local rappers Munch Lauren and C-Mills, acrobatic performances by the Milwaukee Flyers tumbling team, and Nefertari African Dance Company.

“Walnut Way is giving people knowledge, intellect and education on healthy eating. It’s a public garden, and it’s all organic food,” said Valerie Kolen, a local resident. “Walnut Way helps people figure out how to get in touch with the community, and get help with things that they need, not just food,” she added.

Harvest Day is the largest Lindsay Heights neighborhood festival, welcoming an average of 400 visitors, including residents, elected officials, community stakeholders and partners from across Milwaukee, according to Walnut Way.

In addition to live entertainment and food vendors, various organizations set up tents to reach out to Milwaukeeans.

Rick Banks, a coordinator at Riverworks Development Corp. who was at the event representing MKE United, said the organization is working to create a shared vision and action agenda for downtown Milwaukee and the surrounding neighborhoods. “We’re bringing people together and we’re having community conversations and encouraging people to give their feedback and input on what they’d like to see in the Greater Milwaukee downtown area,” Banks said.

Progressive Insurance, the Medical College of Wisconsin and Rid Racism Milwaukee also had representatives at the street festival.

‘I am involved in a media project called the Digital Quilt,” said Rid Racism liaison Ahmad Muhammed. “To the run up for the 2018 mid-term election, we are doing a video project asking two salient questions: ‘Why do you vote?’ and, ‘What do you consider at stake for you your family, nuclear and extended, and neighborhood locally and nationally?’”

“This is our first year having a table here,” added Sue Shearingen, also with Rid Racism. “It’s a great event, and we’ve had a lot of interesting conversations. People have shown a lot of interest, so we’re glad that we’re here.”

This story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find other stories reporting on eighteen city neighborhoods in Milwaukee.