Dance is perhaps the cruelest art form. The physical toll on the body is immense. Most professional dancers, who probably started dance classes in elementary school, have begun second careers by their early 30s.

But we retain the ability to move into old age, even if it's limited. So why should expressive and artistic movement be limited to the young?

Of all the iconic names in Milwaukee history, among the most enduring on the musical front is the Violent Femmes. The band emerged from the punk scene more than 35 years ago and scored hits such as Gone Daddy Gone and Blister in the Sun, and became one of the top alternative rock bands of the 1980s. 

The late Lloyd Barbee is perhaps best known as the lawyer and state legislator who fought to desegregate Milwaukee’s public schools. A new book lays out just how broad Barbee’s fight for justice was.

Beyond education, Barbee pushed for open housing, women’s rights, and decolonization. He would often sign his letters with the quote - “Justice For All.” And that’s the title of the new book, Justice for All: Selected Writings of Lloyd A. Barbee.

The book is edited by his daughter -- another civil rights attorney -- Daphne Barbee-Wooten.

October is prime apple picking season in Wisconsin. Orchards not far at all from Milwaukee’s city center allow people to pick their own and for many families doing so is a rite of passage.

Wisconsin Foodie host and food contributor, Kyle Cherek, is all about good food. And he says apples certainly qualify.

"Wisconsin is an ideal place to grow these things between our sun, between our good soil, between our great source of water and then the crisp nights," explains Cherek. "We're really ideal for this things that came from the other side of the world originally."

The stated mission of Tonia Sina’s organization, Intimacy Directors International, is to “create safe places for dangerous work." The dangerous work in question is intimacy on stage, which at first glance might not seem terribly dangerous. But if not handled correctly, intimate scenes can place actors in awkward, uncomfortable, or even abusive situations - even when no malice was intended.

Low-income public housing projects used to be thought of as islands, often cut off from the rest of city life. They were densely populated, high-rise apartment complexes, often troubled by gangs, drugs and other criminal activities. But over the last decade or two, public housing design has shifted. High rises are giving way to a more neighborhood-based approach.

The Florentine Opera kicks off its fall season in a decidedly lighthearted mood. Franz Lehár’s operetta, The Merry Widow, premiered in Vienna in 1905 and has been wildly popular on stages across the world since then. The story concerns a wealthy widow, a series of misunderstandings between her and a long lost love, and attempts to hang onto her money by marrying her to the “right” man.

The Milwaukee Bucks open their NBA season this evening in Boston, against the Celtics.  They’ll play their first game at the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Friday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.  It’ll be the last opening night at the arena the team has called home since 1988.

In a feature in the October issue of Milwaukee Magazine, writer Zach Brooke explores the new arena that is rising downtown.

Writer David Barclay Moore worked for eight years for the New York-based anti-poverty nonprofit, Harlem Children’s Zone. His work involved shooting short-form videos that told stories about the people the group was seeking to help. This experience helped him to understand, first hand, the challenges faced by many of the people living in concentrated pockets of public housing.

A lot has happened in the last year and a half for singer-songwriter Tift Merritt.  A new baby, a new album, and a new creative outlet - textile design. 

Almost none of it has come simply or easily.