Meet Queen. She was 9 years old in 2022. Her extended family lives in the neighborhood surrounding Melvina Park where she and her siblings enjoy the swings.

“Our family lives in this whole neighborhood. Just family,” she says. “And we get to be by our family.”

Queen likes that the plans for Melvina Park include environmentally friendly features. “I think it is very nice that they are helping the Earth,” she says.

When thinking about water in her life, Queen thinks about juice, soda, and drinking water. “It’s healthy. It’s good. You can’t really taste it but it’s good. Water is so tasty, even though you can’t taste it.”

When she grows up, Queen wants to interview famous people on TV. “I would like to interview Michelle Obama,” she says. “I would ask her how does she keep everything in place? How does she balance her life and her fame life?”

Queen would also love to meet a famous rapper and also meet Taylor Swift. “I love her songs.”

She thinks the future of our city is likely to be messy because so many people throw trash. She does not have a phone, even though her brother and even her younger sister have phones, but she expects the future will be filled with more technology and more gadgets. This is not always good, she says.

At the Melvina Park Fall Fest 2022, Queen was dressed up as a Princess Butterfly but her real costume for trick-or-treating was It: the Stephen King clown creature. Her favorite candy is the Kit Kat.

Queen enjoys playing outside. “I like to use my hula hoop and I like to play hopscotch. And sometimes I just make up games…”

One game Queen made is called Chase. You run between the median strips of grass between sidewalk and curb. If you are tagged you become “it.”

Another game she made is called Don’t Get/Be Seen. It is like Hide And Seek but you build and hide in a fortress. The other player throws a ball at your fortress. If any part of your body sticks out from the fortress and gets hit by a ball, you become “it.”

She is not sure exactly what she would ask Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson if she were to interview him, but expresses curiosity about how politics works. “I never knew how to become a president, but if I were to interview him, I would ask how did he become mayor. And does votes actually make the president go up if they are running?”

Queen is a courageous, thoughtful, and articulate young lady.