Dear readers,

The state of Wisconsin is regularly explored through a black and white lens; liberals versus conservatives, the heartland versus the city, and innovation versus tradition. 

However, the most impactful stories come from the fusions found across our state, its people and their ideas.

Nearly 6 million people call Wisconsin home — molding together a rich, diverse culture and environment that cultivates both innovation and progress. Sometimes we come together and collaborate; other times we collide and clash.

Some partnerships and collaborations are synergetic. They provoke innovation, growth and development anchored in our state’s progressive spirit. Other fusions across our state come at a cost.  Often involuntary and coercive encounters expose long-standing injustices and inequities in Wisconsin’s social fabric.

But there is much to be learned from these interactions and how they propel our state and its people forward. 

Many of us have grown up in a cultural, social and political landscape where our leaders, mentors and elders have told us our state and world have never been so divided, so broken, so antagonistic. Curb: Fusion does not ignore these fissions. Instead, we highlight this richness in perspective and what can happen when we come together. 

We invite you to celebrate and scrutinize the diversity in experience found across our state. This issue of Curb finds unity in the shared and differing experiences of Wisconsinites, examining not how our differences divide us, but create the energy to fuse our path forward. 

Onward and upward,

Sophia Vento, Editor