Beth Ridley visits Sherman Phoenix, a Milwaukee community hub with food, retail, and wellness spaces. Co-developer Joanne Sevier talks about the upcoming Dance Fest featuring Alvin Ailey and other dance groups, and plans for longer-term cultural programming that centers local artists and community.
Hi, everybody. Beth Ridley here with no Studios Live, we have taken the show on the road. We are at Sherman Phoenix to see what this is all about, because we are gearing up for Dance Fest, which happens here in a week. And so let's learn a little bit about Sherman Phoenix, the great community that exists here and all the fun things there are to do and lots and lots of really good eats. All right, so first, it is my point. Pleasure to meet Joanne Sevier, co developer of Sherman Phoenix. For someone who hasn't been here before.
What do we need to know?
Why should someone come down?
Someone should come down. And first. So happy to have you here. Just, this is an inspired space. So it's not just a place where you can eat, do yoga, have coffee, pizza, but it's really an opportunity to invest in the neighborhood, and it's a cultural experience. So we have Dance Fest, which will be here, which our hope is that this is just one point of possibility that we're able to curate space. So when you come in, you can have ice cream, a little pizza on top, some vegan food, and then you can have a cultural experience which is a true expression of all that is great and all the assets in our community. So our hope is that this becomes a hub for not just folks who are. Are directly living in here, living in the neighborhood, but all who really live, work, and serve in our beautiful state.
Yeah, I love it. I love the inspiration. This is actually my first time here.
I'm so glad you're here. I'm so excited.
And as soon as I walked in the doors, like, the vibe hit me. It's vibrant. There are people here, they're working. So it's kind of like a coffee shop. But then I said, I can do yoga, I can get my spices, I can get my little shopping on. So there's something. And I was like, I gotta bring the family, because there's something for, like, you know, people of all ages.
That's it. That's what we have to think about. What can't you get on Amazon? You know, you can't get this sense of community, and you walk in a building and you feel nurtured. So that is what we're trying to create. So to hear you say that, I love it. We're doing something right.
I love it. We'll score. I thought you did that very well. Okay, so now you mentioned Dance Fest is going to be here, and it's actually happening, like, right where we are. If you can actually imagine, we're going to have Alvin Ailey dancers, dancers from all over the community performing right here. Give us a visual of how this place is going to transform on that day.
It is going to be filled with hundreds of folks. So that's when we thought about this main area. We wanted it to be a flexible space. So when you think about it, think about this vibrant hub filled with neighbors from across sector of our community. So people are going to have, you know, I'm a New York, I came from New York and I wanted to find, I wanted to find, find a space or create spaces that welcomed all of us. So Milwaukee has been challenged by that. And so for me, when you think about visually, what does this look like? It looks like everything that exists, all the people that exist, being able to have a home and a place to enjoy art and culture here. So we'll have Code the dance company, we'll have our Irish dancers here. So really when we think about what community looks like and having a space that holds all of us, this is a container for that. So excited people will be able to eat. So all vendors will be open. And that's one of the significant things, is that there are people. Dance Fest is bringing folks that might have had the opportunity or knew that the Sherman Phoenix is here. As loud as we think that we are, we know that we're missing a great deal of our community that they don't know that we're here. So this would be a significant opportunity to increase our exposure to neighbors and to increase the possibilities. Our hope is that when we engage the art community, what else can happen? What's next? So there's Dance Fest. How else can we curate our community in partnership with no studios?
So I was going to ask you, I love the fact that you're open to activating this space beyond what it's used for on a day to day, you've got a beautiful venue for it. Any other ideas of what you'd like to see here that would help to bring community together?
Absolutely. I think one of our biggest things is that we're going to Unification. So south side, north side artists, we're going to have DJs, we've had live bands here. We're going to have a Phoenix Fest in which we'll have some national artists come in. So we're going working with Gina Belafonte to figure out what does that lineup look like. So there's going to be this point where it becomes a response so our neighbors will inform us what does this cultural activation look like. We've hired a curator from the community that's going to come in and help us with that. But our work has always been in response to the desires of the hearts of our neighbors, so we're going to continue to do that. So when you think about what does that look like? It looks like music. It looks like an art curation. It looks like a gallery. It looks like, you know, all those things that, well, communities have. We'll have that here. Yeah. I love it.
I can totally see the partnership with no studio. I feeling it. I'm feeling it. Hey, thanks so much for spending time with us.
Absolutely.
I'm hungry, and I see some shoes over there. I see popcorn. I see cookies. I gotta get started, get it going. I'm just gonna, you know, do a.
Lap around, show them how to do it.
All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. We're so much looking forward to Dance Fest. And actually, so sorry, but it is sold out. But more to come here at Sherman's new episode. Stay tuned. More opportunities.
Thank Sam.
