When Brady Street resident Frank Alioto became a fireman 25 years ago, he fulfilled his boyhood dream. When he published his first book earlier this year, he realized one of his greatest adult aspirations: to chronicle the history of his neighborhood. Milwaukee’s Brady Street Neighborhood, published as part of Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series, is an engaging visual survey of the area and its people from the mid-19th century through today. It also serves as an excellent primer to the changing face of Brady Street.

One by one, the three sails of the historic Denis Sullivan are released to begin a sunset cruise for Capt. Hugh Covert and his six-man crew. This Great Lakes schooner, which resides in port at Discovery World from May through October, is both home and work for Capt. Covert, who was named senior captain in 2007.

Before Jason Rae begins his senior year as a history and political science major at Marquette University in the fall, he’ll be heading to Denver for the 45th Democratic National Convention. As the youngest superdelegate in the country, he will be one of 793 individuals who could decide the Democratic Party’s nominee for president.

A write-or-die guy, Kwabena Antoine Nixon—Chicago native, Milwaukee dweller—was part of the movement that brought spoken word to the forefront of the city. He meanders through clubs and cafes with Poetry Unplugged open mic nights that audiences call “church” and he calls “the ministry.”

The Avalon Theatre remains dark, Oriental Drugs and Goldman’s are gone. The last 10 years have been bad for local landmarks. Art’s Concertina Bar was another symbol of Old Milwaukee that was about to disappear. The city’s last remaining polka bar was rescued last fall by a new owner, an energetic young St. Francis firefighter called Andy Kochanski. Now called Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall, the bar is getting a gradual facelift while remaining true to its purpose of preserving polka in a city where polka once was king.

Dogs can bring great joy to their owners, but can they change lives? They do in storybooks, especially the canine chronicle called Sandy & Garbo. According to Milwaukee author Chuck Hajinian, Sandy, the literate and well-spoken yellow Labrador of the title, is an imaginative re-creation of his own dog.

Trista Marie, second-place winner in the Shepherd Express Flat File Contest and a professional tattoo artist by trade, is one of only six women who practice the art of tattooing in the metro Milwaukee area. In fact, only 30% of all tattoo artists worldwide are women.

For nearly 25 years RSE Video (118 E. Dakota St.) has sold, rented and swapped videocassettes, DVDs and video games, building a devoted clientele in Bay View and beyond. RSE is one of Milwaukee’s last family-owned video stores, operated all these years by Rod Eglash, his wife, Helen, and daughter Michele. It will close in June.

Since the 1980s, local author and UW-Milwaukee instructor has been using poetry to usher in a greener, more environmentally aware city. After immersing himself in the eco-inspired poetry scene of the West Coast in the late-’70s, he came back to Milwaukee in the early ’80s to find a community of like-minded individuals.

Radio advertisements touting the flawless merit of diamonds, hallmark holidays urging couples to demonstrate their affections through expensive, timeworn tokens… These are just some of the commercial trappings of the jewelry industry that have robbed it of its greatest asset:

As she moved out of her teen years, NaMia Moore didn’t exactly experience a “roaring 20s.” She wrote her mother’s obituary at just 23, took on the responsibility of raising two adolescent girls (her sisters) and worked as a full-time editor at a growing urban magazine, Ya’ Heard.

Denny Rauen, settled in a modest building in Riverwest, is a master luthier who specializes in the restoration, repair and modification of acoustic and electric guitars, basses, mandolins and banjos. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Keith Richards and Buddy Guy are just a few...

Actor Lee Ernst, a consummate performing artist and resident at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, views his profession as a complex set of skills. His personal repertoire includes the added dimensions of fight choreographer and makeup artist. Ernst’s current season at The Rep began with the demanding role of Cyrano, where he also crafted the famous nose and directed the swashbuckling sword scenes. It continues with his part in Samuel Beckett’s classic Endgame. Ernst, a 15-year veteran with The Rep, speaks about the art of being an actor.

Milwaukee’s chapter of the worldwide organization Food Not Bombs is a group concerned with raising awareness of homeless and hungry people. It is their contention that our society directs too many funds toward military endeavors while neglecting the health care and nutritional needs of its members.

Paula Suozzi, who has been breaking rules since she was in college, continues to think outside the box as artistic director of Milwaukee Shakespeare. This season’s new innovations include Director’s Brunches and Milwaukee Shakespeare Coffeehouse Chats at the Third Ward Starbucks to allow audiences...

Nick Waraksa is redefining what it means to be a free-lance artist bit by bit. The MIAD design and UW- Milwaukee music graduate who fused passions for painting, fashion, performance and motion graphics has cropped up in Milwaukee and Chicago commercial and indie scenes.

The Milwaukee Network for Social Change (MNSC) is a group that formed to promote “free culture,” the ultimate goal of which is a sustainable society that offers shelter, clothing and warmth for all. John Revord, one of the founding fathers of the group, talked about their mission and tactics.

Without an agent, you’d have better luck getting an audience with the pope than with a Hollywood studio executive. That hasn’t stopped Milwaukee’s Eric Joy, however, from completing and promoting his sitcom, “Playback.” The actor-musician has been busy shopping the show’s pilot episode...

Dewey Gill’s resonant voice has been familiar to WMSE listeners for decades. Unlike many DJs, he not only sounds as if he genuinely enjoys what he’s doing, but actually has interesting things to say about the music he spins. And for the most part the music does spin.

Interviewing the director of any organization, arts or otherwise, often requires a good deal of mental fortitude—not least because of the selfmarketing minutiae one has to endure. Not so with David Gordon.

He is an actor, a published writer, a playwright and a native of Long Island, N.Y., who makes his home in Spring Green, Wis. He is Jim DeVita. And this artist-for-all-seasons will be appearing in the Rep’s production of David Mamet’s Glengarry...

Change and loss are such defining parts of the human condition that it’s impossible to imagine art without them. Dani Kuepper, fresh in her role as artistic director at Danceworks, can surely attest to this.

Change and loss are such defining parts of the human condition that it’s impossible to imagine art without them. Dani Kuepper, fresh in her role as artistic director at Danceworks, can surely attest to this.

Reginald Baylor has one finished painting and two still in progress hanging on the white brick walls of his basement studio.

Russian Wulfgar, Vegalum, Niacin, Banshee, Socky and Donnybrook: Though they sound like characters from a science-fiction novel, they’re actually a group of Milwaukeeans who are giving new meaning to the expression “playing with fire.”