Article in “Outpost Natural Foods Newsletter”

Are you invested in Milwaukee, wish to see it thrive and want to know what is happening, often behind-the scenes? Then check out MilwaukeeRenaissance.com, This local wiki site with global perspectives is a real treasure trove. Its founder, James Godsil, says” it is a mirror of what’s going on in Milwaukee.” Because the city is a polyglot and profoundly diverse, this is reflected in the site’s postings. The home page states it is “meant to be a platform for the projects of passion and the voice of reason” and it defines renaissance as “the best of the old with the best of the new.”

Godsil welcomed users to the site in 2005 saying “Build and grow with the earth, one neighborhood, one rural community, at a time… in quest of some kind of renaissance.” Optimistically he wrote “ Introducing an On-Line Magazine and Movement Resource, for Milwaukee first, but then for the Great Lakes cities, towns and rural communities, and always, God willing, open to the wider world, all of God’s children.” The results since then have thrilled him.

Godsil is president of Community Roofing and Restoration that he founded in 1975 – but he also describes himself as “a peddler of movements and worthy family enterprises.” Currently, the most dramatic movement is local food - and referring to community successes, he points to Outpost Natural Foods as “one of our miracles.” Local food is not exclusive to Milwaukee. A British group recently visited “edible cities” in the U.S. to study urban agriculture, including a visit to Growing Power. Their fact-finding was shared at the London International Food Conference.

Milwaukee Renaissance has also created a collaborative web platform to advance partnerships for the renaissance of New Orleans and Godsil will visit there in October to help set up a wiki site and explore restoration company possibilities.

Godsil doesn’t have patience with complaints about local media’s lack of coverage of many topics. “We are our own media and can’t complain if we aren’t covered in the usual publications, news shows, etc.” He invites people to participate in the wiki site and get their word out. He explains that wiki software, used to construct the website, “is designed from the ground up to not only allow for collaborative input from site users, but to encourage it.” Wiki is a Polynesian term for “quick” and wiki sites are super quick to use and update. The site is open to writers addressing controversial and “taboo” topics especially those pertaining to the color line, gender, ecology, mental health and “‘official violence.”

Godsil was inspired by the Bucketworks Wiki site and he and several friends took a class on how to develop a site. He also wanted to show his children and others that “an old dog CAN learn new tricks, he adds.

Coming here in 1969 to finish a PhD in political science, he realized he was not cut out for academia but was “more of a free range chicken.” A Renaissance man himself, he writes poetry, records the city and its people with his cell phone camera and says “life is rich.”

He describes himself as an old war-horse from the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s through the present. He was a Fulbright Fellow in Tunisia in 1972 where he studied “symbolic violence and the manipulation of culture by the state”; was one of the founders of the Eastside Housing Action Committee (ESHAC) and served as board chairman; helped create the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance (MPA) and Urban Anthropology’s Backstreet Tours of Ethnic Milwaukee. He also galvanized support for preservation of the all-denomination Soldiers’ Chapel on the Veterans’ Administration grounds and restoration of historic buildings and homesMilwaukee is blessed with a civil society of rich history and an eye toward renewal and evolution, he says. Site users are a self-selecting audience, people involved in movements, and he urges others to get involved. Hits to the site rose from 150 daily a year ago to 250 this year. People discover it through word-of-mouth but Godsil is well-connected through a variety of groups such as Bay View Matters, the Blueberry Pancake Movement (which meets Sundays at the Riverwest Co-op), Paths to a Sustainable Future, and others.

He says his involvement with the wiki site is a “labor of love” and not a high-cost operation.

People who are interested in posting on the site can e-mail Megan Wines-Godsil atmgodsil@gmail.com or e-mail him at Godsil@milwaukee,renaissance.com.

Check out the site – he generously provides the password that allows people to use the site and to date has had no problems with “vandals.”

From My Buddy “Ho”

Hello:

The person handing you this letter of introduction is Jim “Spunky” Godsil. Behind the impish grin is a giant brain, a generous heart, and an embracing spirit. He is a gentle subversive—a peace-loving revolutionary—habitually focused on making the world a better place. He brings many tools to bear on the task, including:

• Communication savvy, from “interpersonal” to “Internet”
• Wisdom, especially with regard to the human condition
• Trustworthiness (He keeps promises and confidences)
• Energy (Once he engages in a task/mission he pursues it tenaciously)
• Knowledge (Godsil has a huge vocabulary and soaks-up information like a sponge)
• Humility (He is genuinely self-effacing and will not compete with you for the limelight)
• Giving (If he offers to help, let him. He has no ulterior motive except to help advance your cause and/or well-being)
• Humor (Count on laughing a lot, even under adverse conditions)
• Experience (He is a veteran social organizer with a long-standing track record of success)
• More (All of it good)

If you have questions or doubts, call or email me. I am:

Howard Lewis Hinterthuer

howard.embeddedreporter.lewis@gmail.com

(262) 573–0325

From Grace Lee Boggs

My friend, James Godsil, is a poet and roofer who lives in Milwaukee,and works closely with Will Allen, the retired basketball player who is known nationally and internationally for Growing Power, the 2–1/2 acre urban farm with five greenhouses which produces over 100,000 pounds of chemical-free vegetables a year and is also a fish farm.

To date, Will has taught farming and food processing to more than 1,000 students and helped launch more than 25 urban gardens, some in the poorest counties in the U.S.

For example. Sharon Adams has eliminated blight and reclaimed her Walnut Way neighborhood not far from Growing Power with youth community gardening programs developed by Will Allen.

“We’re not just growing food, we’re growing communities,” says Will.

Godsil is the webmaster for Milwaukee Renaissance and works tirelessly not only to spread the good news about Growing Power but to create a national network of urban farmers as the surest way to rebuild and respirit 21st century U,S. cities. See www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/BillSell/AnUrbanManifesto/
e has also created a cooperatie

Greta Gladney is the executive director of The Renaissance Project in New Orleans,. Her project works with the Farmers Market in the Upper Ninth Ward. The New Orleans Food and Farm Network envisions a vital community that values its agricultural and culinary heritage by celebrating regionally and sustainably produced food and ensuring its access to everyone.

Last week Greta emailed me that she was going to be in Milwaukee. So I put her in touch with Godsil . He arranged for her to tour Growing Power and Walnut Way. One evening he organized a cookout at Alice’s Garden so that Greta could brainstorm with Milwaukee folks about worker-and community-owned cooperative enterprises to restore cities, green habitat transformation, urban farming, fish farming, and creating a Wiki. During the magical evening they also discussed plans for Milwaukee dwellers to visit New Orleans in January after Obama’s inauguration.

As a result, Greta is returning to New Orleans inspired and convinced that gardens, large and small, can have a similar transformative impact in New Orleans. And Godsil has written a new poem which begins

You know I’m movin to New Orleans,
I’m movin to New Orleans,
Gonna rent me a house
Grow me a farm
I’m movin to New Orleans.

Not gonna winter in Milwaukee,
No more winters in Milwaukee,
Gonna move on down South,
Gonna rent a battered house,
Help fix up New Orleans,
Help fix up New Orleans.

There’s a freedom train a comin
There’s a freedom train a comin
From Detroit, Milwaukee,
Chicago and St. Louis…
A freedom train’s a comin

Cars with black gold from Milwaukee,
Filled with black gold from Milwaukee,
The world’s finest soil,
Red wrigglers gifts to us,
We’ll bring black gold from Milwaukee.

This is the kind of story I like to share these days when it is becoming clear that our whole food and farming system is sick. It is unsustainable because it is based on finite supplies of oil, whose use contributes to climate change. It is so industrialized and so controlled by agribusiness, that it has displaced millions of small farmers who end up in the slums of Third world cities.

Our industrialized food system is also causing health problems, like last year’s spinach-induced illnesses and this year’s salmonella–tainted tomatoes. Year in and year out, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, some cancers, and diabetes come from eating processed foods..

800 million people on this planet are starving, both for calories and nutrients , while one billion people are overweight, which means they are getting ample calories, but not necessarily nutrients.

That is why we need to grow our food closer to where people live, in a way that enhances rather than destroys the environment we depend on, and that safeguards our health.

And that’s why the Will Allens James Godsils and Sharon Adams in Milwaukee and the Greta Gladneys in New Orleans are so important. They are creating a movement for food safety and security.

From My Roofing Clients Over 34 Years of Community Roofing in Milwaukee

Jim Godsil is a Milwaukee treasure. He has worked tirelessly to preserve Milwaukee’s heritage. He has taken the lead in uniting diverse neighborhood groups through e-mail, picnics and simple, individual face-to-face contacts.

Jim has promoted historic home bed and breakfast tourism in the city; fought for an aesthetically valuable design for a planned Harley Davidson museum; contributed greatly to the fight against unneeded, unwanted and obscenely obscene freeway expansion in the area; and is helping lead the effort to preserve the historic structures in a Civil War era veterans hospital.

He is an intelligent, committed advocate of urbanism, diversity and creativity.

Milwaukee’s life is richer because Jim Godsil is in it.

Sincerely,

Gretchen Schuldt,
Editor, www.storyhill.net

I am happy to endorse James Godsil’s efforts to foster historic tourism in Milwaukee. His dissertation manuscript on “Ethnic Identities and Class Coalitions in Wisconsin, 1850–1920″ is ample evidence of his intellectual grasp of the possibilities of inspiring visitors with Milwaukee’s rich ethnic past yet embodied in its architecture and its neighborhoods. His 30 year day-to-day efforts as the owner of a company that specializes in the restoration of historic buildings and homes and his voluntary work on behalf of the social enterprises of our historic working class neighborhoods nicely complements his intellectual background.

Julia Taylor
Executive Director
Greater Milwaukee Committee

In the short few months that I’ve had to get to know Jim Godsil, I’ve found him to be an absolutely tireless advocate for the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance, the restoration of historic homes, and heritage tourism designed to realize a connection between job growth and historic preservation in Milwaukee. His ability to make connections where they did not previously exist amazes me and I’m happy to be part of his network of people who care about Milwaukee’s future.

Michael Strigel
Executive Director
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters
Madison, WI
www.wisconsinacademy.org

James Godsil, a co-founder of the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance, is now focusing his efforts on galvanizing support for preservation of the Veteran’s Administration all denominational Soldiers’ Chapel. His interests extend beyond preservation and include promotion of our ethnic diversity, cultural heritage and architectural history as the back bone of economic development that promotes our rich history for present and future generations.

Annemarie Sawkins, Ph.D, Associate Curator, Haggerty Museum of Art

That’s a fine mission and you’re a worthy emissary.

Stephen Filmanowicz
Communications Director
Congress for the New Urbanism
Chicago, IL

City of Milwaukee
Department of City Development
Housing Authority
Redevelopment Authority
City Plan Commission
Historic Preservation Commission

To Whom It May Concern,
June 16, 2004

This letter will serve to introduce Jim Godsil of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Historic Preservation staff at the Department of City Development is familiar with and appreciative of Mr. Godsil’s roles as community organizer, preservation advocate,and roofing craftsman. About 18 months ago, he founded the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance, an advocacy group that has brought significant attention to preservation issues in Milwaukee. He has organized citizens to appear at public hearings on behalf of preservation, and keeps many in the community updated on the issues through frequent e-mails and public events.

Mr. Godsil is a skilled roofer. In this role he has done sensitive construction work on scores of architecturally and historically significant buildings in Milwaukee. His interest in mentoring younger workers has resulted in others making the decision to direct significant talents to the building arts.

Mr. Godsil is truly one of Milwaukee’s most visible preservation practitioners.

Sincerely,

Martha L. Brown
Acting Commissioner

To whom it may concern:

For the last several years I have watched and supported the efforts of Jim Godsil to find and nurture the often-natural connections among those interested in promoting urban centers as vibrant working environments as well as those seeing our cities as repositories of cultural, architectural, and social history. Jim’s background in the trade’s with “hands on” experience restoring the structural and aesthetic integrity of Milwaukee’s historical homes and buildings is nicely balanced by his lifelong understanding of the role of compromise and collaboration in bringing social support to all members of a community. Perhaps most importantly, Jim is tireless and persistent in strengthening these “natural connections” among those of disparate factions, ideologies, and yes, classes.

Bruce Jacobs
President and CEO
Grede Foundries, Inc.
bjacobs@grede.com