Every year since 2021, Milwaukee Magazine has selected a group of people to receive their Unity Award — an honor that recognizes efforts “to make Milwaukee a more vibrant, welcoming place for all.” The local publication on Monday revealed its six recipients for 2026, which include our very own HYFIN program director Element Everest-Blanks.
We’ll wax poetic about her in a moment, but let’s start by sharing what the magazine had to say about Element in their initial announcement:
Element Everest-Blanks is a disruptor. She uses her various platforms — founder, DJ and program director at Radio Milwaukee’s HYFIN station; Amplifier in Residence at Marcus Performing Arts Center; advocate for independent music venues and many other roles — to elevate Milwaukee’s diverse communities in music and culture spaces that historically have often excluded people of color.
It was just a few months ago that Element was named to the Recording Academy’s inaugural Sound Board — a group of 14 creators sharing stories and real experiences of the music community. That national recognition was followed shortly by the Marcus Center announcing a partnership with Element as the organization’s first-ever “Amplifier in Residence.”
Those achievements and the most recent Milwaukee-focused honor reconfirm the positive force we all know Element to be. It’s something she has brought to Radio Milwaukee since our earliest days broadcasting out of the basement of an MPS administration building on West Vliet Street. It’s something she still brings today as the leader of HYFIN. Her creativity is seemingly boundless, as is her drive to improve — and demand more from — the city she calls home.
Element will get the full Milwaukee Magazine treatment in its February edition and at the Unity Awards event Feb. 24, along with the other five recipients:
- Jack Bolog, director of operations at People’s Table
- Katie Cummings, founder and executive director of the Pink Umbrella Theater Co.
- Ken Ginlack, CEO of Serenity Inns
- Kurt Owens, president/founder of Bridge Builders and lead pastor at Uflourish Church
- Levi Stein, president and CEO of Friendship Circle of Wisconsin
