Oshkosh & Beyond
Oshkosh & Beyond is a portal for exploring the people and places of our region through interviews, a
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The Bad Plus gave a free master class to students and others at UWO yesterday afternoon, followed by an evening concert at the main campus's Music Hall. Organized by UWO's Students for Music and presented as part of the music department's Chamber Arts Series, this was a rare opportunity for Oshkosh people to experience the highest level of contemporary jazz (with lots of rock elements to it) in an up-close-and-personal manner. As noted in the event promotion, "Avoiding easy categorization, The Bad Plus has won critical acclaim and a legion of fans worldwide with their unique sound and flair for live performance." They certainly lived up to this reputation.
https://www.thebadplus.com/
![Eviction Prevention Planning Project](https://img3.findglocal.com/492/357/432781394923572.jpg)
More stories from where we live, in this case about the growing eviction and affordable housing problem in Winnebago County and efforts to address it.
Eviction Prevention Planning Project Did you know? An eviction can stay on your record for up to 10 years! That loss of security for a family is devastating. With the Basic Needs Giving Partners...
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More great stuff from The Kosh.
Please check this episode of THE KOSH: Stephanie Gyldenvand - Public Spaces / What Brings Community Together
https://anchor.fm/thekosh
https://www.breaker.audio/the-kosh
https://open.spotify.com/show/56ljac00vooGfaLeJ5i8a0
https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy80YjgxMzRmNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==
![Photos from Oshkosh & Beyond's post](https://img5.findglocal.com/465/866/402097124658666.jpg)
(O&B original post by Paul Van Auken)
Refugees fleeing Afghanistan have been in the news a lot lately. Roughly 9,000 people are currently being housed temporarily at Fort McCoy in Southwestern Wisconsin, with a total of as many as 13,000 expected by later in the fall.
World Relief -- one of nine nonprofit resettlement agencies that contract with the U.S. government and coordinate with them and the UN to find new homes for refugees from around the world -- expects to resettle about 100 Afghan people in the Fox Valley by March 2022 through their Appleton/Oshkosh offices.
A refugee is a person forced to flee their country due to violence or persecution. Further, refugees have a “a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so” (UNHCR 2018b: Para. 1). While the Afghans at Fort McCoy and who are eventually resettled in the Fox Valley as a result of the current crisis will likely not be refugees in technical sense (they will likely have the odd moniker of "humanitarian parolee", or in some cases, SIV-holder), they will all come as refugees, fleeing for their lives, in the broader sense.
Welcoming refugees is nothing new for Oshkosh and the Fox Valley. In fact, although it is only the 9th-biggest city in the state, Oshkosh has resettled the 2nd-most refugees in Wisconsin since 2002, behind only Milwaukee.
There have been Afghans resettled in Wisconsin (121 between 2002 and 2016 - very few refugees were resettled at all during the Trump administration), but there have been many more people from Burma, Laos, Somalia, Iraq, the Congo, and Bhutan resettled in Wisconsin during this period. So, there will be less of an established network of other Afghans in the Fox Valley for new arrivals to tap into in the critical, initial stage of their resettlement.
Through a collaborative research project centered at UW Oshkosh and funded in part through an applied research grant from WiSys, a group of us have had the privilege of surveying, interviewing, and spending time with residents with refugee background (RRB) from the Fox Valley, Milwaukee, and Madison. We also produced a photo-based exhibit, funded in part by the Wisconsin Humanities Council, which is now semi-permanently on display on the walls of the fourth floor of Sage Hall on the UW Oshkosh campus next to the Department of Sociology offices.
We had a very memorable interview a couple years ago with an Afghan, who like many of the people now housed at Fort McCoy, came to the U.S. on a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV). SIVs are granted to people who have assisted the U.S. government/military or NATO allies, for example as translators, as Jawad* did during the war in Afghanistan for over six years. SIV holders are not technically categorized as refugees but are eligible for most of the same services as RRBs (while "humanitarian parole" is a rarely utilized program that has still different provisions).
Jawad is not his real name. We changed it for the exhibit because people still want him dead because he worked with the U.S. military.
The son of a military officer, Jawad was a year away from completing a Bachelor's degree in law prior to joining the war effort.
By the time we met him, about three years after he arrived in the Fox Valley, he had finished an Associate's degree at the tech, enrolled in a UW system university pursuing a business degree, had a solid full-time job, and owned a house. He welcomed us into his home and treated us like old friends.
Jawad had big dreams and, compared to other RRBs -- all of whom are dealing with very serious trauma, but many had not had the opportunity to be as well-educated or learn English like he had -- was making quick progress towards achieving them. He prized the safety he felt in the Fox Valley and reported that he was welcomed here and not only had a network of other Afghans, but also had made friends with majority Wisconsinites, too. He lamented, however, that many people seemed to not understand people from minority groups, let alone his Afghan culture or Muslim religion. His main worry, though, was that his parents and siblings remained in Afghanistan, despite his best efforts to bring them over to join him, and that they were unsafe. Just imagine how he and others like him are feeling now.
Describing his life back in Afghanistan, Jawad noted,
"I was a very social person. Calm, athletic. I used to play soccer. For a long time over there. A very friendly person and a very patriotic person. So, I always wanted to help my people in my country to succeed. You know, I worked in the Afghan military before. I started working with the U.S military just to bring peace just to help people you know live in safety. People describe me as a good Afghan soldier who always tried to protect people. "
His primary mentor encouraged him to join to apply to be a interpreter for the U.S.
"And he knew that I was almost done with the Afghan military. I was done with my term. Like three years. He said, 'Well, are you trying to enlist or do something different?' I was like, 'I don’t know, I’ll have to decide. That’s a hard decision to make.' And then he said, 'Well, your English is good you’re going to English classes and you have prior military experience, and you know three other languages as well, so why don’t you work for us?' I was like 'as a what?' He said, 'as an interpreter', I was like, 'I don’t know if I can interpret.' He was like, 'we have a lot of interpreters that speak like English so you are very qualified for that.' So, I said okay. So I took the test and I passed it and waited for a background check and as soon as I was done with the Afghan military I started working the next week."
He shared some recollections of his experiences working in this role.
"The reason I first joined the Afghan military was to help my people, you know, to have a safe living conditions. And I went to combat all the time and you know I fought as usual. When I became an interpreter for the U.S military I have a lot of crazy situations where I was in you know fight or flight for like 16-17 hours. Like all the time. The place where I was working as an interpreter was one of the worst places in the West. So I was there for 6-7 months then I could go home for a month and go back so I was like in … all the time, way far from home."
He continued,
"A lot of things as an interpreter, I was not only an interpreter, translator, cultural advisor, I was fighting just like a soldier in the U.S military against Taliban. We did not have ISIS at that time but we were on top of the groups fighting against things I did over there. I assisted the U.S military as much as I could. With their intels and you know the cultural barriers between the U.S. military and the Afghan forces. I saved lives, like two American lives that were in combat. Our gunner got shot so he couldn’t, you know, use a weapon anymore so I was in the vehicle, I got up I started helping my friends until we got support. Otherwise we would have been surrounded and killed by those people. That was the best thing that I can remember, when I was an interpreter. The worst thing was when I got injured in an I.E.D. attack. I got injured in twice, but luckily the injury was not really bad so I could recover after two weeks, that was one of the worst things to really happen to me."
After his service ended, Jawad was in grave danger. But he simply had to wait.
"Getting any kind of visa from U.S military, from U.S government is not easy. Going through the visa process is just like a nightmare, it takes forever, but it was a little bit easier for us as U.S military interpreters to get the visa a little quicker. The overall process took me three, three and a half years from the first day that I started the application to the last day I got to the U.S., and there are many forms that you have to fill out there are very long waits. The process is crazy. It’s very lengthy process but for other people to come without any like prior history with the U.S government it takes probably 10 years, 20 years,...like for me to sponsor my siblings to come here takes like 17 to 24 years."
He continued,
"The best time of my life when I got that email from U.S embassy saying your application has been approved, your visa has been issued. There are many many steps that they send you emails for but the last step was you know bring your passport so we can have the visa on it. And then what they said, the last email they sent me was your visa has been issued, bring your passport so you can come pick it up. That was the best time of my life ever. The best news ever. So I got that visa and I didn’t go back to where my parents were because a lot of people knew that you know I was going to come to the U.S. so I stayed the whole month in Kabul, the capital, until I came to the U.S., because I couldn’t go over there. I could go over there, a lot of people knew I had the visa in hand, they would have killed me. So the journey was really tough."
Jawad and his wife could hardly bring anything with them to start their new life in the Fox Valley.
"You could, all together you could bring like 27 pounds of, you know, stuff. In our luggages. Just brought our clothes."
We asked if that was difficult and he replied,
"Its, okay. I mean we didn’t really needed them to be with us to have something like that. But you know now that we don’t have them and kids are really entertaining you know. They just entertain us. We don’t really, you know have that, it’s so hard about those things. We are glad that we have these kids otherwise, you know, we really needed those sentimental things we had over there."
We asked, "So the kids help you live more in the present maybe?" and Jawad responded, "Yes, exactly. They make us forget a lot of things."
As noted, he had very positive things to say about living in this area overall.
"So far I had only one negative interaction with a person.... My wife and I were getting out of the public library in Appleton and there was a guy who was walking and he saw my wife wearing like a scarf and he said, 'Hey are you Muslim?' Like, of course yeah we’re Muslim because you see my wife is wearing you know a scarf. He was like, 'You’re not going to blow us up, right?' I was like, 'We’re not going to blow you up, trust me. We’re not those kind of people.' He was like, 'Well, I heard all the Muslims are bad people.' I was like, 'All the Muslims? There are like 1.3, 1.4 billion Muslims in the world and you have no idea who these people are, where they live. Can tell me one country that you know has a majority population, Muslim population?' He was quiet. He didn’t respond to me because he didn’t know what’s going on. So I was like and he was like, 'Okay okay let's talk about this.' And he said, 'I heard from a lot of people that Muslims are doing, you know, su***de attacks killing innocent people.' I was like, 'No, whoever told you is wrong because I’m a Muslim, as a Muslim not, you know, every single person is bad.' I said, 'I worked for the U.S military for six and a half years. I was in combat zone and I worked with the U.S military for like shoulder by shoulder as a soldier.' He was like, 'Oh you’re from us? You’re a good person?' I was like, 'Whatever you think' and then he apologized and left. That was the worst interaction I had with a person, since we got here.'
He told us about how wonderful it is to have a home, how he sees Americans working way too much and Afghans tending to have a lower standard of living but being content with less and having a huge commitment to family, and a lot more.
The photos taken by our collaborator, Colin Crowley, were designed to capture how he and his family live now and their hopes for the future. Jawad was clearly focused primarily on providing a good life for his children and reuniting with his family. He concluded our interview with,
"My hopes for the future are just to you know, be able to get my bachelor degree and master degree. More importantly, just see if I can bring my parents and siblings here. That’s the toughest thing that I’m really thinking about everyday, every second, every minute."
(And again, he said this before the Taliban retook the country.)
Because Jawad's identity needed to be concealed, he and Colin had to be creative to capture portraits of him and his family. The result was probably the most striking photos in the exhibit, as shown in triptrych from our first publication from the project (https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/8/3/73/htm), as they were displayed in the formal exhibit, and individually as attached. In the photo in which Jawad is looking out his door (perhaps pondering what the future holds), the precious father-daughter scene was not contrived; Colin captured the spontaneous moment when Jawad's daughter came to grab her father's hand in the doorway.
![Photos from Humans of Oshkosh's post](https://img3.findglocal.com/146/152/400735171461528.jpg)
![Photos from Oshkosh & Beyond's post](https://img3.findglocal.com/492/287/399455004922878.jpg)
(O&B original content by Paul Van Auken)
KennyHoopla made the above-the-fold headline on the front page of the Oshkosh Northwestern the other day. I have to admit that when I saw it, I was disappointed.
I interviewed Kenny about a year ago and hoped to be the first in this area to write about his amazing rise in the music industry and the fact that despite hitting #8 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, he remained largely unknown in Oshkosh.
Writing only occasional stories on the side, not having all the information I was hoping for, and then feeling the malaise of the past year, though, it just didn’t happen. Not only did I miss breaking the story locally, I also felt like I'd wasted Kenny's time.
So, I got slow-scooped by the Northwestern. It’s very cool for Kenny, who deserves to be more widely acknowledged for his talent and success in his hometown. Plus, Katy Macek wrote a nice article about him (the digital version is available to subscribers at this link: https://www.thenorthwestern.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/08/30/kennyhoopla-garbage-hill-more-oshkosh-shaped-music/8211925002/).
It’s also not about me, at all, so being disappointed was obviously dumb. The upshot is that now I can add to the story based upon my conversation with Kenny last fall.
Let me back it up just a bit first.
Because of pandemic fog it seems like eons ago, but I guess it would have been starting in fall 2019, a song called “Sore Loser” by a guy called KennyHoopla was in heavy rotation on 88.9 Radio Milwaukee (see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXRA1rcS5Kc).
They referred to it as local music, but that was all I knew. I really liked the song, with its catchy hook, ‘90s alt rock pathos, and youthful vigor.
Later, driving with my family through Oshkosh with 96.9 on in the background, I caught part of a different song with similar vibes (which I later learned was “How Will I Rest In Peace If I'm Buried By a Highway?”). I thought the DJ said something about “Oshkosh’s own KennyHoopla”, but I must’ve heard wrong, because how could something so cool have come from Oshkosh and I not hear about it? (Probable answer: You’re getting old and aren’t as down with what’s up as you think you are.) At any rate, I basically forgot about it for a while.
Fast forward a few months and I met Brandon Williams after he made some impassioned statements at a Black Lives Matter rally on the square in Oshkosh. Eventually, we met up at Red Arrow Park so I could interview him for a new video series I was trying to start, called “DISCussion”, for this fledgling Oshkosh & Beyond thing we were trying to get going. (It ended up being the first and only installment so far. But O&B nominally still exists, with Brandon being part of a large proportion of the content to this point).
While disc golfing and chatting, Brandon (aka DJ Bwoop) was telling me about his background and mentioned that we might see his brother Kenny at the skate park behind Garbage Hill, which is an element of several holes on the course. That Kenny? He's your brother? Yup. We didn’t run into him, but it was a cool surprise to be able to close that loop and get his digits so I could try to do a piece on a guy who, as I was learning, must be one of Oshkosh’s all-time most successful musical artists already, but one who could still skate at the local park pretty much incognito.
A couple weeks later, I caught up with KennyHoopla (Kenneth La’Ron Beasley) on the phone from New York City, where he’d just arrived for some studio time, after his EP, "How Will I Rest In Peace If I'm Buried By a Highway?" and energetic live shows had created an international buzz. He seemed excited, amazed, and humble, and was happy to talk to me while he was walking around, checking out the place. Here’s part of our conversation.
PVA: So, you’re off to New York, is that right? What’s going on out there?
KH: Working on my album here for a month, then L.A., then the UK…might be a mixtape, aiming for a full album.
Definitely exciting…it’s insane. I’m extremely grateful.
Just started working on it a week ago. Hoping for the same sound and sonic palette, but more honed, cohesive.
(Meeting studio people while we talked.)
What the hell? It’s supposed to be some crazy studio…and it is…like 40 guitars in this room!
PVA: How’d this come about?
KH: There’s an artist that liked my music, and her dad owns this studio, and my manager was talking to her….
I’m not used to it but grateful. I never let it get to my head; instead, I try to be grateful and let it help me grow.
PVA: Did you expect to make a career out of music?
KH: I dreamed about doing music since I was kid, but I didn’t grow up with any resources. My mom moved to Wisconsin with like $20 in her pocket, so I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get out of that.
I graduated in 2014 from (Oshkosh) North. I did choir in middle school, played drums but didn’t qualify for band in middle school, and didn’t want to stress my mom out with money issues. But I always loved drama classes, writing poetry, rapping.
PVA: You were born in Cleveland but mostly raised in Oshkosh. What was it like growing up here?
KH: I see things universal, from all perspectives. It was beautiful, it was tragic, it was traumatizing, it was adventurous, bountiful, and fleeting all at once.
The way I dealt with things, the mental illness attached to the energy of this place... Kids of color looked as more ‘ghetto’, but we were more ‘left’, and then you had white kids gangbanging (laughs)… ‘Left’ is not the typical stereotype. I’m making rock music and my big bro is actually a gangbanger.
From traveling, what I’ve learned is that it’s all different, but people are all the same, so what matters is the world you create in your head and what you stand for. People are miserable in NYC and in Oshkosh, happy and fake, etcetera. Escapism is found everywhere, too.
PVA: Can you tell me about how your career got started, how you ended up getting signed to Arista Records and all?
KH: My friend was recording music and I just went in and recorded this trap/hip hop song and it just went viral back in 2016. It the first time I really did anything with music. Started getting out in Madison.
The strong point was my shows. Hitting it hard, until people couldn’t ignore my work ethic. Even if my music wasn’t that strong – it still isn’t – they couldn’t ignore my work ethic.
(He was very low-key about having a major label record deal and about his success in general.)
PVA: What have been some of your career highlights so far?
KH: Making Billboard #8 Alternative Airplay in the nation (with "How Will I Rest…?", which was also selected as the 10th best song of 2020 by the rock staff at Billboard and now has over 4 million views on YouTube -- see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm_PPNbgMjg -- and over 18 million listens on Spotify.)
The whole point with doing “Sore Loser” was about wanting to do a song with that particular producer (Jackson Phillips), so that was cool.
Got to meet Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy.
Just talked to Albert (Hammond, Jr., lead guitarist) from The Strokes and am going to work with him in L.A.
Like any other gig, I just want to connect.
PVA: Do you think people who knew you back in the day would have any idea you’d bust out like this?
KH: I don’t think people know. I don’t think they care. You’re the first person to ask me for an interview or anything.
PVA: What have you been up to during the pandemic? Has it put a damper on your momentum?
KH: I was supposed to work with Travis Barker of Blink-182, go on the Vans tour (but they were canceled. As Macek’s article mentions, he has since collaborated with Barker, which has added to his acclaim. Their collaboration, “Estella”, also reached #8 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay charts, in May 2021).
Lots of life changing situations, being in it, being able to express myself like what I’ve wanted to since I’ve been a kid. I’m finally feeling like I have a voice. It’s wild when you trust in something that physically wasn’t there and then it happens.
Being able to live out what I stand for: Living fluidly on your own your terms, not letting the world cripple you, constantly being in your own world, and protecting it no matter what and have it keep growing at all costs.
PVA: I’ve read some other interviews where they compare you to other artists and such; how would you describe your style, and where do you think it comes from?
KH: I don’t think I’ve even gotten there yet. I’ve just being doing little distractions that help keep me out there until I can really do what I want to do. So far, that’s not really me full-fledged.
It comes from growing up in Oshkosh and the Fox Valley and going back and forth to Cleveland.
PVA: When you are here, you’re often out at the skate park, right?
KH: (laughs) Garbage Hill…I feel like that’s one of the hearts of the Fox Valley. There’s an energy…It’s so beautiful and important to me. I guess maybe it’s the lifestyle…me and my friends and all the walks of life.
No, it was not at all easy to fit in there. I’m always different anyways, even if not Black, then more left…But I’m one of the people that can be in it and see it from the outside, too, and knowing all these stories….everyone has their story….a lot of artists have their small town and this is kind of the story. I want to make that a historical place, and give life to it, to inspire kids who came after me. All artists romanticize places….yes, about belonging there….it all comes back to Garbage Hill.
PVA: What do you plan to do next?
KH: To try to start a label called Garbage Hill Records. I want to start a skate team with my friends from the Valley, want to start a nonprofit, to help kids get counseling and other issues. Growing up in Oshkosh, I was around a lot of su***de and depression here and it was under the radar…mental health issues are real.
I didn’t go to college in Madison. Got in with these artists, wrapped into the curse of being an artist. There’s ups and downs…I’ve always been trash at school, but I if I could, I would (go).
One thing I’d like to do is play the Grand Opera House in Oshkosh, but I’m not good enough yet….I would be playing to no one.
I have no house at all and I’m just trusting that the universe will lead me to where I should be, doing what I’m supposed to do.
(The universe sure seems to be taking KennyHoopla to good places and it’ll be exciting to see where it leads him going forward.)
![Street Cred: Oshkosh artists and entrepreneurs find a home along with historic buildings of Main Street](https://img3.findglocal.com/072/625/374754570726255.jpg)
Nice segment about downtown Oshkosh and some of the local character.
Street Cred: Oshkosh artists and entrepreneurs find a home along with historic buildings of Main Street OSHKOSH, Wisc., (WFRV) – The city made famous by trucks, experimental aircraft, and dungarees B’gosh is also home to the burgeoning arts community. Oshkosh is the namesake of the Chief …
![](https://img3.findglocal.com/444/852/370865234448522.jpg)
“We’re the first member-owners of the Oshkosh Food Co-op. It’s hard to describe how I felt to see the doors open and for us to walk through those doors. I’m proud, happy, slightly teary. It’s been a lot of work for a lot of people. When we moved here to Oshkosh 9 or 10 years ago, I noticed there were no stores where you can get clean healthy food. I’ve been a member of a food co-op since the 1970s, first in Milwaukee and then in Madison. This co-op is going to serve an area of the city of Oshkosh and the University with service that they haven’t had before. People in this area had to go to these gas stations to buy a gallon of milk. There were things like some granola and organic honey that I haven’t been able to get for a long time without having to go to Milwaukee or Madison. I was the first treasurer for the Oshkosh Food Co-op board of directors. Now my work is to support them as a shopper.”
(Note from Humans of Oshkosh: We are big fans of anything that supports local. We met this awesome couple, who hold the No. 1 member-owner designation, at the grand opening of the Oshkosh Food Co-op July 22, 2021. For more information about the co-op, please visit https://www.oshkoshfoodcoop.com/)
!['Be the change': UWO alumni couple upend careers to help bring equity to healthcare - UW Oshkosh Today](https://img5.findglocal.com/694/405/279243226944057.jpg)
'Be the change': UWO alumni couple upend careers to help bring equity to healthcare - UW Oshkosh Today UW Oshkosh grads Kou and Sheng Lee Yang opened Us 2 Behavioral Health Care in Appleton in 2019 in hopes of bringing equity to healthcare in the Fox Valley and beyond.
![Pat Goetz, UW Oshkosh’s oldest graduate, had passion for writing—and for life - UW Oshkosh Today](https://img3.findglocal.com/027/749/279242190277494.jpg)
Pat Goetz, UW Oshkosh’s oldest graduate, had passion for writing—and for life - UW Oshkosh Today Pat Goetz, UW Oshkosh's oldest known graduate, died Feb. 14 at the age of 85. She is remembered as a beloved student and classmate.
![New prof offers UWO professional counseling students perspective on racial battle fatigue - UW Oshkosh Today](https://img5.findglocal.com/694/427/279241086944271.jpg)
We at O&B still strive to produce more of our own content about interesting Oshkosh area people and stories, but in the meantime, we'll keep sharing cool stuff that fits with what we're about, like this.
New prof offers UWO professional counseling students perspective on racial battle fatigue - UW Oshkosh Today In joining the professional counseling faculty, Teysha Bowser brings crucial expertise in racial battle fatigue and microaggressions to the UW Oshkosh at a time when the nation faces ongoing social unrest.
![THE KOSH • A podcast on Anchor](https://img3.findglocal.com/447/111/270639294471117.jpg)
Check out this brand-new podcast, The Kosh!
THE KOSH • A podcast on Anchor A podcast focused on spotlighting interesting people associated with Oshkosh, WI from the past and present.
![](https://img4.findglocal.com/462/478/269102594624787.jpg)
Deep stuff from our friends with Humans of Oshkosh and Winnebago County Public Health.
“The third time I overdosed I was in the driver's seat of my car. I reached my arm back, and I had the person sitting in the back inject me intravenously with he**in. I blacked out shortly after and the two other people in the car threw it into park, cleared out, and called the cops. I’m glad they did. The officers gave me Narcan and brought me back to life. While I was in the hospital, recovering, one of the responding officers told me that I am better than the person who I had become. That message, and me finally being ready to give it up and make a change, is what got me to two years of sobriety.”
(Note from Humans of Oshkosh: The FIXED Storytelling Project, which began in the Fall of 2019, is a collaborative effort among UW Oshkosh students and community members to localize the growing addiction crisis in America. Faced with the global pandemic in early 2020, the FIXED project public showcase was postponed and, subsequently, canceled. However, the stories remain even more relevant than ever. While the public health crisis of Covid-19 continues to ravage the nation and the world, the opioid crisis did not disappear. It is still here in our community, and it’s incumbent on us all to do what we can to help. For those struggling with addiction and seeking help, dial 2-1-1 or visit www.211.org to be connected to resources and services in your community. You can also text your zip code to 898211. 2-1-1 is a 24/7 confidential service that will connect you to substance abuse treatment and resources free of charge.)
![](https://img4.findglocal.com/196/419/262375151964198.jpg)
Cool stuff happening next month where we live.
![Here's a sound bite: New UWO radio services director says medium remains 'very nimble' - UW Oshkosh Today](https://img3.findglocal.com/241/880/257829052418808.jpg)
Randall Davidson, one of Oshkosh & Beyond's founders, a longtime stalwart of public radio, and most recently the director of UWO's radio station, recently retired and will be missed. We're happy that his excellent replacement is now on the job, though. Read more about him here.
Here's a sound bite: New UWO radio services director says medium remains 'very nimble' - UW Oshkosh Today As the new director of radio services at UW Oshkosh, Wendell Ray finds nothing outdated about the medium he first encountered as a high school student in Indianapolis.