Good City Brewing is just one of numerous area breweries making its own version of the Black is Beautiful Imperial Stout created by Marcus Baskerville at San Antonio's Weathered Souls Brewing as a means to supporting, "local foundations that support police brutality reform and legal defenses for those who have been wronged."
Many area brewers signed up immediately to make the brew, including 1840 Brewing, 3 Sheeps, Broken Bat, Company Brewing, The Fermentorium, Lakefront, Racine Brewing, Tank 8, Third Space and Vennture. Others later joined in.
These beers have been starting to release in recent weeks, benefiting a variety of local causes, and Good City – whose version will not be packaged, but available only on tap, for now – is teaming with The 30th Street Industrial Corridor to co-host the launch of that brewery's version, which will support a new housing initiative in the Garden Homes area, located not far from Good City's Century City facility.
The event will take place at noon on Saturday, Aug. 15 and will a special tapping of the new Black is Beautiful brew as well as the a presentation on the new initiative it will help fund.
That initiative, a partnership between Impact Seven, the Garden Homes Neighborhood Association and the 30th Street Corridor, will revitalize 30 homes on Milwaukee’s North Side, including 10 homes in the historic Garden Homes planned neighborhood built in 1921 as the first municipally sponsored housing cooperative in the country.
"In our efforts to revitalize Milwaukee’s once thriving manufacturing corridor, we
recognize that we cannot be successful without empowering the residents that live here," said Cheryl Blue, executive director of the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corp.
"Since 2016 we have been convening stakeholders in the Garden Homes neighborhood, in 2018 we released an official plan. Quality housing, and homeownership are major factors in the success of a community. We are grateful to WHEDA for awarding us the tax credits that will allow this project to come to fruition."
The partnership seems a natural for the first Milwaukee craft brewer to open a facility on the city's North Side.
"We are honored to partner with and support the historic Garden Homes
neighborhood as we all work together towards seeking the good of the entire city of Milwaukee," said Good City co-founder David Dupee.
The Aug. 15 is free and open to the public with masks and proper social distancing required.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
