You may not be familiar with Groundwork Madison or Operation Welcome Home, local grass-roots groups working for racial justice, but you probably heard about the ruckus last spring when Take Back the Land Madison placed a family in a townhouse left vacant after a foreclosure.
Z! Haukeness was one of the band of local activists who worked in support of the high-profile action, which dovetails with his efforts at Groundwork, a white, anti-racist collective; and Welcome Home, a community of homeless people and their allies. Haukeness, 29, is a native of tiny, homogenous Strum, Wis., who came to UW-Madison for its Afro-American Studies program and never returned home.