The City of Milwaukee Arts Board (MAB) has announced the winners of two local art awards on Wednesday.
Artists Amal Azzam and Aaron Boyd are the 2025 Mildred L. Harpole Artists of the Year and Nakeysha Roberts Washington and Symphony Swan-Zawadi were named the 2025 Friends of the Arts.
The awards – which are in their third year of accepting public nominations – will be presented on June 10, at 4:30 p.m. in the City Hall lobby.
“The Milwaukee Arts Board is proud to recognize this year’s honorees. Our arts community is a cornerstone of Milwaukee’s identity,” said Ald. Milele A. Coggs, Chair of the Milwaukee Arts Board.
“We honor Amal Azzam, Aaron Boyd, Nakeysha Roberts Washington, and Symphony Swan-Zawadi for their voices, vision and service in shaping and elevating Milwaukee’s vibrant arts scene.”
The winners are (with information provided by the Milwaukee Arts Board):
2025 Mildred L. Harpole Artists of the Year
Amal Azzam is an artist from the Midwest. Her work reflects the layers of trauma, freedom, and misconceptions she carries within her identity. Through a multidisciplinary approach that includes wearables, screen printing, found objects, and photography, Amal explores the inner struggles of identity, belonging and cultural preservation.
Her practice centers the narratives of SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) and Muslim communities, using art and storytelling as tools for resistance, collective healing and unapologetic self-expression.
“Receiving this award is a meaningful reminder that supporting artists who give back to their communities is essential to the overall health and vitality of our cities. I'm grateful to be recognized for work that is rooted in care, cultural expression, and collective healing.”
From Milwaukee’s Williamsburg Heights to the East Side, for five decades, Aaron Boyd has practiced his craft and called Milwaukee home. Falling in love with art at five years old, Boyd knew by six what he would do with his art – make children’s books. Filling every scratch of paper and time with art as a kid, when it came time for college, Boyd looked no further than our own Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, receiving a BFA for Illustration in 1993.
Through his winding creative journey, Boyd’s art now harkens back most to those earliest of mediums: watercolor, crayon, paper, and found objects as he seeks to touch that child in us all while sharing the beauty and color of our world.
From his first book, “Juicy Peach” (Lee and Low Books 1999), to his first written and illustrated book, “Giving Good” (Albert Whitman 2024), and to his latest, “Valiant Vel Phillips and the Fight for Fairness and Equality” (Wisconsin Historical Society Press 2025), Boyd is always grateful to share his art first and foremost with his hometown of Milwaukee.
“To receive this award from my home, my friends and neighbors, the people who know me best, is one of the highest of honors one can receive. So much of who I am as an artist and a person comes from Milwaukee. The colors I use, the streets I capture, and the faces of the people that grace my art all come from Milwaukee. Simply, I wouldn't be me without my city, and I am grateful for this and I am grateful for this award. Thank you.”
2025 Friends of the Arts
Nakeysha Roberts Washington, M.S. Ed, is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, Creative Director, and Arts Curator whose work bridges education, storytelling, and social advocacy. As the founder of Genre: Urban Arts (GUA), she has created a dynamic global platform that amplifies underrepresented voices through publishing, exhibitions, and arts-integrated education.
As a mixed media creative, Nakeysha's work explores themes of identity, life, and cultural resilience. Through mentorship, curriculum innovation, and creative expression, she continues to redefine the future of inclusive education and the arts, ensuring that storytelling and artistic excellence remain at the heart of transformative learning experiences.
“For 10 years, Genre: Urban Arts has nurtured a global community of artists, writers, and creative minds through our publications, exhibitions, educational offerings, and cultural events. Still, there is truly no place like home.
“To be honored for my arts advocacy here – where my inspirations were first born – is an immense and humbling gift. Creativity is divinity.”
Symphony D. Swan-Zawadi is an interdisciplinary artist, educator and arts advocate dedicated to fostering creativity, arts and cultural preservation, and community engagement. With over a decade of experience in arts education, philanthropy, and nonprofit leadership, she is the Founder and executive director of THE CR8TV HOUSE, a project-turned-nonprofit designed to provide space for radical imagination, support and collaboration. What if a house could heal, create and inspire?
THE CR8TV HOUSE is about transforming her childhood home into an exhibition space and community archive for artists and storytellers. Her efforts have not only earned national recognition but also support from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. Rooted in wellness and artist workforce development, her work emphasizes the power of art to create sustainable opportunities for creative professionals while fostering healing and belonging.
Symphony is a Gener8tor Art Fellowship recipient and currently serves as a board trustee for the Milwaukee Art Museum. She was named the 2013 Shepherd Express Milwaukeean of the Year and has been recognized as a notable arts and culture leader in Milwaukee by BizTimes Milwaukee. Committed to creating lasting impact through art and advocacy, she continues to shape spaces that honor memory, inspire radical imagination, and empower communities to reclaim their narratives.
“I am truly honored to receive the 2025 Friend of the Arts Award. This recognition means so much, as it reflects the spirit of collaboration and care that guides my work through THE CR8TV HOUSE and beyond. Thank you for celebrating the power of community, imagination, and the arts. I remain committed to uplifting Milwaukee’s creative voices and am grateful to walk alongside so many brilliant artists and advocates in shaping a more vibrant and inclusive cultural landscape.”
The Artists of the Year program was inaugurated in 1995 by former Alderman and MAB Chair Wayne Frank and renamed in honor of late arts board member Mildred L. Harpole five years later.
Each recipient receives a $1,500 cash award from funds included a memorial bequest in honor of Milwaukee artist and former MAB member Jim Chism and from Milwaukee Arts Board members.
The Friends of the Arts Award was established in 2012 to recognize individuals, often behind the scenes, who have distinguished themselves through exceptional service to the city’s arts community.
“Milwaukee’s arts community is essential to shaping a stronger, more connected city,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson. “I congratulate the 2025 Artists of the Year and Friends of the Arts for their outstanding achievements.
“Their passion and dedication to our city are a true investment in creating a vibrant, inclusive and thriving future for all Milwaukeeans.”
For more information on the Milwaukee Arts Board, visit milwaukee.gov/MAB.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
