For the past several years, Tom Jenz says he’s been trying to tell the story of the black experience in a highly segregated urban area—in this case Milwaukee—through a collection of visual narratives. One day, Jenz met waitress Goldie (below) on 12th and Vliet across from the Milwaukee County Health & Human Services building.

“She was headed for the corner store and told me she worked as a waitress at a Chinese restaurant in the Pabst Building,” says Jenz. “‘The virus shut us down,’ she told me, ‘but I finally started back to work. I really missed work. Been in food my whole life, and these are the best bosses I ever had, the Chinese.’”  

Then, Goldie shared her career goals. “I wanna get my own food truck, park it outside the downtown bars after closing. You come out of a bar after a night of drinkin’ and you smell my delicious food? Whooooeeeeee!”

Check out more Photos of the Day, and email submissions to RF’s editor-in-chief at jacqueline.tobin@emeraldx.com.