- This event has passed.
Story Cart: Attention with Madeleine Doelker Berlin – Open Attention Walk
Oct 4, 2025 @ 1:00 pm – 7:00 pm
In the middle of a neighborhood block party, we’ll send people on undirected wanders. If they come back, we’ll ask them how it went.
Madeleine will be taking interviews from 2:00 – 5:00 PM.
C21 will be present to vibe and distribute C21 info from 1:00 – 7:00 PM.
This event is free and open to the public.
Madeleine Doelker Berlin (LPC-IT) is an Associate Licensed Professional Counselor, Social Scientist, and a few other things—like an immigrant, a parent, and someone who’s lived through big transitions. Born, raised, and partially professionally trained in Germany, she has a background in social inequality research and a professional path that weaves through mental health, public service, and community advocacy. In both her life and work, Madeleine brings an intersectional, systems-aware lens to understanding how people move through the world. Her current work draws on liberation psychology, existentialist psychology, and feminist psychology to explore how personal healing is connected to social context, meaning-making, and resistance. She’s especially interested in the stories we carry, the cultures that shape us, and the quiet, radical act of paying attention. Madeleine holds graduate degrees in Social Sciences and Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Her approach is grounded, curious, and deeply human.
Beet Street Fall Festival is the Cactus Club’s annual, all-ages block party, featuring bands on an open-air stage and community organizations and local vendors along the streets.
Story Cart is a mobile story collection program that travels to community spaces and engages Milwaukeeans in conversations about their lived experiences. Our Story Fellows craft questions related to the current C21 research theme, record participant responses to those questions, and add them to our Story Cart digital archive (forthcoming). Supported by the Wisconsin Institute for Citizenship and Civil Dialogue, Story Cart’s current run introduces Milwaukeeans to practices of radical attention. From September 2025 through May 2026, our community Story Fellows will lead workshop pop-ups throughout the city and will record discussions with participants about the experience of paying attention.