Portrait by Holly Schisler

Samer Ghani is our keynote speaker!

Event details
🗓️ Date: Friday, June 20th
⏰ Time: 8:30 – 10:00 AM
📍 Location: X-Ray Arcade – 5036 S Packard Avenue; Cudahy, WI 53110
🎟️ Tickets are FREE! 

All about Samer Ghani

Samer Ghani is a first generation Palestinian American, born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Raised in a single mother home and taught through Milwaukee Public Schools, Samer’s first encounter with art was with his time spent at Wedgewood Academy (formerly Bell Middle School), where he played violin and won both National and International awards with his orchestra class. In high school Samer’s senior art gallery of photography was highlighted in an OnMilwaukee article (2011), furthering his future career as an artist in the Milwaukee community. In his adult life Samer excelled in university, but more specifically his time at Apple, he became one of the youngest leaders at his store, helping create an environment of innovation from the customer experience to employee relations.

Samer’s time as an artist has bled into the Milwaukee community and beyond, bringing community initiatives to life with partners like The City of Milwaukee, The Bucks, Visit Milwaukee, Imagine MKE, Milwaukee Ballet, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Light the Hoan, Vivent Health, Jigsaw, Hanson Dodge, Bader Rutter, Google Arts & Culture, Universal Music and more, as well as highlighting some of Milwaukee’s best artists in a number of astonishing venues across the city and nationwide.

“Samer Ghani is an artist. An artist with an exceptional eye and a passion for capturing moments. He has built a career combining his camera, curiosity, and community into works that stand out from the noise, that elevate the subject of each shot. The Milwaukee based director, producer, photographer, videographer, and journalist may have honed his skills by documenting live music, but his hard work and eagerness to grow have expanded his versatility and tools, emerging with one of the most distinctive styles we’ve seen. Samer gives authentic artistic insight and shares his thoughts on working in Milwaukee, connecting his art to being a Palestinian American, and more.” -Nathan Honoré of the License Lab

Our theme for June is PUNK.

It was chosen by our Bologna chapter in Italy and illustrated by Cristina Portolano. 

🎸The description for this month’s theme is written in the style of lyrics to a punk rock song. If you know a band that wants to put them to music, we’ll feature their cover song of our punk rock anthem on the CreativeMornings blog and social. 🎵

Does the system feel broken
Staring at our screens
Not hearing the screams

Wake up wake up wake up

We’re not meant to go it alone
Find your people lift them up
Do what you can with what you got

Wake up wake up wake up

Your creativity can save you
What you gonna make
What you gonna change

Wake up wake up wake up

🎸🎵🧷

Photo + directions by John December

About X-Ray Arcade

X-Ray Arcade is an artist-owned and operated venue that aims to provide the Milwaukee area with the finest in Electric Entertainment: live music, food & drink, games, movies, DJs, art vendors, pop-ups, weddings and more.

“Touring and being a part of the Milwaukee punk scene have been the most formative experiences of my life,” says Woods. “So a big part is making this a fun place for touring musicians.”

The 10 owners are 100 percent volunteer and there are a few paid staff members who work the bar and kitchen. “The intent was never to make money,” says Woods. “We wanted to create a place we could all be proud of and to pay back some of what we got when we were younger from the DIY scene.”

[Pull quotes from OnMilwaukee’s article, “X-Ray Arcade is DIY to the bone.”]

🚌 Bus Route: The Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) bus route 15 stops on South Packard at Somers Avenue two blocks north of X-Ray Arcade.
🅿️ Parking: Plenty of street parking on S Packard Ave and E Martin Ave

🎶🎵 DJ Jim Q’s PUNK playlist + blog is LIVE and always a great read & listen.

An excerpt—

Come all rebel rousers, nonconformists and weirdos, this month’s playlist is for the defiant at heart. The theme is Punk, and through this tracklist we will examine all angles of the culture and characters. “Our band could be your life”, The Minute Men open the playlist with that invitation from the first verse of their uncharacteristically sentimental tune, “History Lesson pt II”. The Replacement, examine the loneliness and melancholy of the a traveling independent band with “left of the dial”, X-Ray Spex celebrate the expressive exibitionism of punk with “I am a Poseur” and closing with Neil Young’s assessment of the new wave of rebels in “My My Hey Hey, Out of the Blue”, in true punk fashion he sings “it’s better to burn out than to fade away”, a line Kurt Cobain would later borrow to bid the world a farewell in his final note.

Did you know the #1 way people learn about CreativeMornings/Milwaukee is through their friends? 

This month, we invite you to forward this email to a friend. Invite them to sign-up for our newsletter & register for this event with you!

We can’t wait to see you and your buds, pour out some more coffee, and expand our circle of morning people.