- This week on Wisconsin Life,
meet Madison's Poet Laureate,
who's trying to change the world
with his words.
A group of longtime friends
kayaking Wisconsin's waterways.
A Green Bay teen with a knack
for competitive reading.
And a couple who
could run circles around you.
It's all ahead 
on Wisconsin Life!
§ §

- Funding for Wisconsin Life
is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson
and Friends
of Wisconsin Public Television.

- Hello, and welcome to
Wisconsin Life.
I'm your host,
Angela Fitzgerald.
Murals in Milwaukee
are popping up all over.
I'm traveling
throughout the city
exploring some of the street art
and meeting the artists
that create it.
Our first stop is here.
An alley off
of 33rd and National,
where street artist Ramiro Sandoval is creating a mural
that celebrates Mexican culture and the Day of the Dead.
How's the mural going?
- Coming along good.
- Coming along good?
That's good to hear!
- Yes.
- What's your favorite thing
about doing murals?
- For me, it's like, when
I'm painting in the streets,
especially here in Milwaukee,
in this city,
you feel, like,
a connection with everyone:
kids, old people,
young people, everyone.
Everyone pass by you
and ask you something
and they give you a hug
or they give you good vibes.
- Thank you, Ramiro.
- Thank you so much.
- We'll explore more murals
in a bit, but first this:

Our team meets
Madison's Poet Laureate,
who uses his love of language
to lift others in his community.

- If a poet
is only as good as his poems...
- I'm going to read some
poetry,
but I'm also going to tell you
a little bit about my life.
- ...Oscar Mireles could be
considered writing royalty.
Today he's sharing his story
with 4th graders
at Nuestro Mundo Elementary
in the city of Monona.
- Which one do you think I am
in this picture?
- Raised in Racine, Oscar's first love was wrestling.
- In 8th grade,
I was 4 feet 10
and I weighed 85 pounds.
So I was probably shorter
than the shortest person
in this room.
- Eventually he began wrestling
with the written word.
- Because I was so little,
that probably made me a poet
because I had to listen.
Because when you're little sometimes people
don't listen to you.
- The long-awaited growth spurt
eventually materialized
and Oscar moved to Madison.
Poetry remained his passion.
He'd continue to put his
most personal thoughts to paper.
No rhyme, just reason.
- "Why did you name me Javier,
Dad?"
My son Javier
asked me this question.
I have poems
that talk about identity.
Talk about me trying to,
you know, as a father,
as a male,
as a Latino, trying
to find my place in the world.
I think that
I write poems about that.
- He published
some of his best work
in an aptly titled anthology.
- As I was traveling in
California, someone asked me,
"I didn't know there were Latinos in Wisconsin."
- The book highlighted
more than 40 Hispanic writers
throughout the state.
Oscar believes storytelling
can be a powerful tool.
- If you think
with your heart,
then you really have
an opportunity to move people
and get them to look at things
just in a little different way.
- That's why he's here
at Nuestro Mundo.
It's his first chance to bring
his message to these students.
- I want to encourage all of you
to be the best "you"
you can be.
- He'll also be there if
they ever need a second chance.

- So when someone says the word
"drawback,"
what it means is
"what's a negative."
- This is Oscar's day job.
Since 1994, he's been
the Director of Omega School,
an alternative school in Madison
that helps people obtain their GED or high school equivalency.
- When you're
a high school dropout,
there's not a lot of options.
There's not a lot of hope.
And what we do
is provide an opportunity
for them to kind of move on
to the next part
of their life.
We have individual rooms.
It helps the students
kind of concentrate
and focus on their studies.
We shut the doors.
It's a pretty quiet place
to focus and start to learn
and build your skills
and confidence.
It did just that
for Louis Bentley.
He attended Omega School
in 1996.
- Well, at that time, I was
very rebellious as a teenager
and not too many people
could reach me.
I think what he did was he took
that aggression and molded it
and showed me how I could use it
to create a positive impact
in my life
instead of
ending up in jail.

- Louis earned
his high school equivalency
and success soon followed.
Today, he has a family, a home,
and a full time job.
He's a branch manager
at an insurance agency.
- I couldn't ask
for anything better.
I love my life right now.
§ §

- These are the stories
that move Oscar.
Scan the walls of Omega School
and you'll see dozens of them.
Oscar estimates
that he and his colleagues
have helped
more than 3,000 people
earn their high school degree.
- You see how proud they are.
You see how proud
their families are.
You see how proud
their children are.
I'm proud to be a part of that,
but I'm more proud
of their success.
I think some people are drawn
to the work of helping people.
I think I'm drawn to the work of helping people help themselves.
My challenge to you is
to find what works for you.
- In 2015,
Oscar was named Poet Laureate,
the official poet
of the city of Madison.
It's one of
the most distinguished honors
a writer can receive.
It's given Oscar more visibility
to share his story.
- As I walked away,
I knew what they were thinking.
"Who is this guy?
How can he not speak
his mother's tongue?"
- It's also allowed people
to learn more about a man
who's spent decades making
a difference in his community.
- Plants need
carbon dioxide and water
to carry out photosynthesis.
Every person I helped,
I feel that I'm blessed
that I had the opportunity
to help them.
- Ask Louis and he'll say
that Oscar Mireles
isn't as good as his poems.
- Oscar is the reason
why I graduated.
You're the reason
why I graduated high school.
- He's even better.
- He should be very proud of,
of the impact that he made
in his community.
§ §

- We've traveled from 33rd
and National to Bay View,
home to a mural project located on Milwaukee's south side.
Five female artists were
commissioned
to create giant artworks
throughout the neighborhood
in an effort
to beautify the community.
All the murals
are within blocks of each other
which makes the art
easy to access.
The collection
includes these murals:

a portrait of women
at Lulu's Café,

a modern mural at Mr. P's Tires,

an artistic self-portrait
at D-14 Brewery and Pub,

a colorful abstract
at the Shape Up Shoppe.

And finally, there's this mural
created by
another local female artist.
I'll head to the next stop
on our mural tour,
while you watch this story.

Our team heads
to Manitowish Waters
to meet up with a group of women
who have formed a special bond
around their shared love
of kayaking.

- Right side again?
- There are many ways
to explore nature
in the North Woods.
- I'm part of the Lady Yakkers.
- And paddling a kayak
down the Manitowish River
is one of the best.
- It is an absolute delight.
§ §

- Especially when you're joined
by 20 of your best friends.
Every Thursday in summer,
this group of women
known as the Lady Yakkers
[laughter]
finds a new section
of water to kayak.
- That is true.
- Melinda Pearce
joined the group in 2003
when a neighbor invited her
to come along.
- It wasn't so much
the paddling.
It's the ladies
that were so awesome.
They just are genuinely
so nice and...
It's the ladies
that makes the group.
- Now Melinda helps organize
and schedule their trips.
And they're not afraid
to tackle some rougher water.
- I think ours
is the adventure group.
They're always up
to trying more rivers.
- There's always an opportunity
to see some wildlife.
- Hi, tree eagle.
- Is he still there?
- There's certain people
that are bird watchers
and they can identify
when they hear something.
But if you want
to see the wild life,
you have to get
in the front of this group
because some of the people
in this group just like to yak.
That's why
we're Lady Yakkers.
[background chatter]
- It's even dangerous
for them boating.
- There have been times
when we've had a leader
take us somewhere
and half of them
aren't paying attention at all
to the interesting things
we could be learning.
We're just busy chattering
the way we usually do.
- Not that I want to admit that
too much, but it is well-earned.
[laughing]
Great stories are told.
What happened last week,
dot-da-da-da,
or the grandchildren
have been visiting...
Tell me what happened.
- Sounds like a bunch of geese
coming across the lake
when we come.
[chattering]

- Well, it sounds like
they're all having fun.
- Melinda says they put
a new twist on the definition
of "silent sport."
- Because we're not motorized,
it's considered a silent sport.
And I understand
that we do like to yak.
- So, it wasn't me.
- But it could've been her.
- But this is more
than just a social outing.

- Hey girls,
let's put our paddles up.
One, two, three.
Whoo!
- Melinda says
there's empowerment
in an all-women group.
- There's some women who
are very strong women
of the North Woods
and they want to be able
to do these things
without the help of men.

They're in,
a lot of the older ones,
are in the generation of "the
husband is always there to help"
and they are finding that
they can do this
without them.
It's kind of nice
for those ladies.

- Sometimes,
I have asparagus in there.
- Melinda is one of the few
Lady Yakkers who isn't retired.
- Even working,
I made the condition of
I have to be free on Thursdays.
So, no.
Doctor appointments
will never get in the way
of my kayaking.
- And she has no plans
to give it up.
- I use it
as a decompression time.
It's like, relax,
breathe in,
look at the scenery,
enjoy friends and it's just--
I'm totally relaxed
at the end of the day.
§ §

- There are all sorts of murals
to discover in Milwaukee.
Some of them
are historical in nature.
Others are meant
to make a statement.
All of them
showcase unique forms
of artistic expression.
Still more to see on
our tour of Milwaukee's murals,

but first we meet
a Green Bay teen
whose love for reading
takes a competitive twist.

[keys clicking]
- A good writer
starts every decent story
with a hook.
- So close.
- Meet Baylee Alger.
This Green Bay 16-year-old
loves playing video games.
A teenager playing video games
isn't unusual though.
The main character
needs to be tested,
an obstacle to overcome.
In Baylee's case...
- X-Box, turn on narrator.
- X-Box voice:
Starting narrator.
- It's that he can't see
the TV screen.
- I was diagnosed with cancer
and a brain tumor,
which destroyed my optic nerves
so I was totally blind
by the time I was four.
[mechanical clunk, clunk, clunk]
- Around that time,
Baylee's family
began teaching him to read.
- I started... early childhood,
when I was three and a half,
I believe.
And they started
teaching me braille right away.
- He fell in love
with literature.
- They started giving me
small books
and I would just read them
over and over and over again.
- By 2nd grade,
Baylee could
speed-read braille.
He decided to try his hand
at the Braille Challenge,
an annual competition
in Janesville,
where his comprehension, spelling and proofreading skills
were put to the test.
[mechanical clunk, clunk]
- You read each sentence.
You see if there's an error
and you just keep it
in the back of your mind.
Then you get down to the
question and it'll ask you,
"Where's the error?"
- Baylee's entered
this regional event
nine years in a row.
The top 60 scorers nationwide
travel to Los Angeles to compete
for a national championship.
How has Baylee fared?
A true storyteller
never gives away the ending.
- Stop.
- It's better
to develop the main character
by drumming up
another storyline.
[ba-dum ching]
- I started practicing
on the one at school.
And then my uncle Jason
bought me one
that I play on at home.
- Baylee plays the drum kit
in the school band.
- And then I just sat there
and kept working at it.
And within a couple months,
I was really, really good at it.
- That's not all he's good at.
- Someone showed me
fighting games.
My friend Dustin, actually,
he got me really into them.
And he started teaching me
how to play.
- How does a visually-impaired
person vanquish a video game?
- Electronic voice:
Selected games, one of three.
Game item Mortal Kombat.
- I just navigate everything
mostly by sound.
- Stereo sound.
- But, see,
I'll go next to subzero,
and it'll
[electronic crash]
and that's all the way
on the left
so now I know I'm player one.
- And by using
a vibrating controller,
Baylee manages to hear
and feel his way through a game.
- All right.
Let's try this again.
[controller buttons clicking]
- Technology continues
to make Baylee's hobbies
more accessible,
but his first love
will always be books.
- I'm getting really into
this book all of a sudden!
It's Starless Night.
The mercenary hadn't heard
of any missing high priestesses
except, of course,
Jerlys Horlbar,
and she wasn't really missing.
I mean there's a lot movies that don't have audio description
and there's a lot of games
that I can't play,
but there's no book
that I can't read.
- As for the Braille Challenge, Baylee's qualified
for the national championship
in California
six times and counting.

A good writer might call that
a "Hollywood ending."
[soft music]
- I'm actually trying
to build a career in writing.
- And a good writer
is what Baylee
aspires to be.
- It was on and off.
Back in 7th grade,
I kind of
really started getting into it.
And then I'd start a story,
get nothing done with it,
try to move on to the next one.
And that was putting me off
from it.
But then I started
reading more fantasy books,
which caught my interest,
and then I started
wanting to write again.
- And like most writers,
he'll be tested by
every scribe's greatest enemy,
writer's block.
- I'm actually starting a story
that I keep hitting dead ends on
but I'm working on it.
- And in Baylee's eyes,
that's the only obstacle
he needs to overcome.
- I feel like people have this
stereotypical thought
that blind people
are kind of secluded.
That they don't really
talk to sighted people.
You know, I'm not like that.
I'm just like everyone else.
I'm a normal teenager.
[phone's screen reader narrates the icons Baylee touches]
I gotta wait 'til he texts back.
I wish more people would
just look past the fact
that I can't see
and just realize that
I'm just trying
to be a normal teenager,
like other people are.
§ §

- How do these fantastic murals
in Milwaukee come to be?
Some are from artists
commissioned
by local businesses.
And some murals
are created by young people,
under the guidance of organizations like TRUE Skool.
I'm here with
Shalina Ali and Fidel Verdin,
Co-Executive Directors
of TRUE Skool.
How are you all doing today?
- Good.
- Fantastic.
- Wonderful.
Thank you for having us.
- Thanks for coming.
- Shalina, this first question
is for you.
Can you tell us
about TRUE Skool?
- We're a non-profit
organization
and we engage young people,
specifically, high school age,
by using the culture of hip hop in the urban arts.
So they can take different
classes here
like music production,
video production,
graffiti art,
DJing, art of MC,
live band performance.
We have all these different
skill-based arts classes
that they can get involved in.
And then on top of that,
all of our young people
get engaged
in something called
True Knowledge Workshops.
We do social and emotional
development through that
but then also
different social justice topics,
especially
as they relate to Milwaukee.
- Wow, that's amazing.
So we've been checking out
some of the street murals
around the city.
Fidel, why do you think
it's important
that youth become
involved in the murals?
- Well I think one of the
reasons that young people
need to become more involved
in the murals is because
these murals generally
will stay in our community
from 10 to 15, 20 years.
And it's important
that young people have a stake
in ownership
of what is seen visually
in the community.
And it's very important also
that adults
and different arts organizations recognize that
young people can take leadership in designing the future.
It's kinda metaphorical,
but it's really, really,
really that serious for us.
- I love that 'cause they're
getting that investment,
like you mentioned,
into their own community.
- Absolutely,
and they get to vision
what people will see
for years to come,
whether it's on a wall
or a canvas,
our murals generally
have a lot of messaging
that go along with them.
So it's a conversation starter.
We are always doing murals.
That's one of our services
that we provide at TRUE Skool.
So if people
are looking for murals,
if people are looking for office artwork, any of that thing,
they can reach out to us.
- Wonderful.
Thank you so much.
- Thank you.

- This next story
has us spinning.
We meet a Middleton couple
who have mastered
an unusual sport
that was once shown off
at the Olympics.

- A daily trip to the dog park
is routine for Carly Schuna.
- Ready?
Okay.
[ruff, ruff, ruff]

- As a freelance writer, she comes here to clear her mind.
- Good girl!
- At the same time,
Jeremy Perkins arrives for work
at a medical software company.
When most people are getting
"out of work"
Jeremy and Carly's "work out"
are just beginning.
- Work it, Jeremy.
You've got it.
Yeah!
Whoohoo!
- I thought it looked really interesting
and I gave it a spin.
I find
I'm completely in another world when the wheel is moving.
- I had never seen one before.
I was fascinated,
so I stepped on
and I never wanted to get off.
-I usually describe German Wheel as a human sized hamster wheel.
- It was invented in 1925
by a German railway worker
named Otto Feick.
He became a prisoner of war.
And he had these ideas
when he was sitting in prison
about this new gymnastics device
that he could roll
along the railroad tracks.
When he finally
got out of prison,
he built a prototype
and it caught on.
- It was premiered
at one of the Olympics
in, I think, the 1930s
in Germany.
It has stayed kind of
a niche sport ever since then,
and has also spread
into the circus world
as a performance art.

- This art form spread
in Wisconsin
when it rolled into Madison
only during the last decade.
- We found this place,
which at the time
was a used car dealership.
It became
the Madison Circus Space.
- "This space" set the wheels
in motion to make Madison
a mecca for German Wheel
in the United States.
- There are really
less than half a dozen places
in the country where
you can even train German Wheel.
We have one of
the most popular
German Wheel programs
in the U.S.
We have many more participants
and classes than Chicago.
There are probably fewer
than 300 people in the U.S.
who are wheeling.
Whereas there are thousands
and thousands in Germany.
- Jeremy trained
at the Madison Circus Space
and won his first
U.S. Men's title in 2016.

- That felt great.
It was a blast.
I love competing and performing
German Wheel,
and winning the United States
competition
gave me the opportunity
to compete
in the World Championships.
I am a performer.
When the actual competition
comes,
the adrenaline is pumping.
You go out.
You do your thing.

- Carly is
a three-time national champion
and has other motivations
for competing.
- So, I'm just trying
to get through it,
trying to not freak out,
trying to stay focused,
and trying to enjoy
as much as I can.
I hate competing.
It's very stressful.
Honestly,
the main reason I do it
is because
I get the best coaching
from the best coaches
around the world
as a competitor.

- Jeremy and Carly
make it look easy,
but the sport can be dangerous at every turn.
The more daring the trick,

the more risk involved.

- It can be really dangerous.
It's very different
from a lot of circus arts
because you can't use mats
because it's a dynamic apparatus.
You kind of get into the danger
zone when you're at a point
where you can do some tricks
that involve inversions
and flips by yourself.
You can get into some pretty
hairy situations that way.
- Carly hopes
to forego freelance writing
and to turn the German Wheel into a teaching career.
- Pull up, good.
Well, it's kind of changed
my entire life.
- Extend good, tuck, nice, yes.
I love everything
about German Wheel,
so to be doing what I love
and getting paid to do it
every day
is just awesome.
I feel so lucky.

- At the end of the day,
I would really like to have been
part of starting a community
that will exist long after
I stop doing German Wheel.
Like, I finally found this thing
that I had been waiting for
my whole life
that I didn't even know
I had been waiting for.

- We've seen
so many cool murals today.
And there are still
so many more to see!
If you're inspired to hit
the streets
and explore for yourself,
there are several
resources available
to help you map out
your own car or bike tour.
We collected a number of them
to give you a head start.
So hop online and go to our
website WisconsinLife.org
and check it out.
And, as always,
we'd love to hear from you!
What's your Wisconsin Life?
Tell us by sending an email to
WisconsinLife@WPT.org.

Thank you for joining me
in Milwaukee
for our street art tour today.
Until next time, I'm your host, Angela Fitzgerald,
and this is our Wisconsin Life.
Bye!
§ §

- Funding for Wisconsin Life 
is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of
Wisconsin Public Television.