Portia Cobb came to Milwaukee from Oakland, California, in 1992. She spent time working with kids and teens and women, observing the ways that Milwaukeeans cared for the people around them. When she talks about citizenship and democracy, those experiences come back to her and she uses the words “ownership” and “neighborhood” a lot.

She looks at those ideas through a lens that goes beyond the U.S., too. Portia is a nationally and internationally known video artist and producer of short experimental documentary films whose work explores issues of place, politics and identity. Forgetting and history are central themes in her work, which is often rooted in urban and rural communities in America and West Africa.

She is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she teaches a course on multicultural America, looking at the roots of the ideas of democracy as well as how unequally those ideas have been and are applied in the U.S.

Portia is also a Buddhist, who practices radical gratitude and believes every person has a Buddhist nature, or, in other words, the capacity to change and evolve. Last year, Portia wrote about her experience being racially profiled at a beloved Milwaukee eatery, one she had been faithful to for nearly 28 years, and how the reactions that followed led her to reassess how she navigates segregated and privileged Milwaukee.

We sat down with Portia in February, when we were all just beginning to talk about coronavirus. She talked about her mom and the words she used that renewed her. She talked about the unraveling brought on by former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the disappearance of the middle class, peace, Bob Marley and the need for respect and balance.