At times, 2025 was acid.
Tragedy again came for Milwaukee’s arts community. Precious members from our local arts and culture family, gone too soon. Especially painful was the loss of mid-career artists whose life and work were far from finished.
Alongside other beautiful souls we lost too soon, I felt and witnessed shockwaves of grief for Shatehris “Queen Tut” Roberts, John “Kid Millions” Kuester, Anwar Floyd-Pruitt and Will Bush. Each built lives of substance, as artists and community members.
To close 2023, I wrote a tribute to dear local musicians. In 2024, I celebrated profoundly good Milwaukeeans. This year, I invited friends and family of Shae, John and Anwar to write tributes as a celebration of their loved one’s life and work. The Radio Milwaukee team also stepped forward to contribute following Will’s death on Christmas Eve.
A sincere thank you to each of the writers and Radio Milwaukee for providing the space to celebrate these remarkable individuals. May we hold their memory sacred and keep their light alive.
Adam Carr is the director of strategic partnerships at the Milwaukee Parks Foundation and worked at Radio Milwaukee as a producer from 2008-2011.
Shatehris “Queen Tut” Roberts
There are not enough words to describe a woman who would walk into a room the same way a storm emerges in a field — self-assured, intentional, inevitable. I remember meeting my future best friend at Samuel Morse Middle school for the first time and thinking, “This girl’s energy is so big! She takes up the entire room!”
Everything about Shae was love. Each space that she occupied, whether it was a stage or the hearts of her closest friends, was made better for it. She implored you to love yourself more, to have the audacity to do the unconventional, to expand your vision of what’s possible for yourself.
Everything about Queen Tut was powerful. She believed deeply in the power of community and the importance of taking care of one another. The beautiful thing about Shae’s art is that in every manifestation, it was about elevating others and giving people the tools to see the beauty in themselves:
- Her lyricism in songs like “Heroes” spoke to the power and privilege of Black womanhood, while also highlighting the social and systemic injustices faced while growing up in Milwaukee.
- She used her vintage clothing label Gold Lion Underground as a mechanism for plus-size body positivity and personal expression.
- Her work as a talented hair stylist landed her in green rooms and backstage with her clients, and even being featured by Nylon Magazine.
- We collaborated several times in the activist space, raising money for various causes through performance and advocacy.
The mark Shae has left on all who knew her is indelible. However, her greatest legacies are her daughters, Shaavi and Seheli. She loved being a mother, and she made raising two kids in Brooklyn look easy. It was motherhood, I think, that helped her through some of her most difficult times. She wanted to be here for her girls.
Shae had been advocating for herself and her health right up until the day she transitioned. She’d been trying to get a diagnosis that would explain her symptoms for years and was met with racial medical bias at every turn. She fought so hard for someone to give her the answers that would come just too late. I know she would want me to use this opportunity to tell all women of color out there to keep records of everything and to advocate for themselves. We are losing too many great women, mothers, artists, and friends to the medical industrial complex.
For the short time she was here, Shae’s impact has reverberated through crowds, hearts, and minds of the people. It was the honor of my life to call her my sister. Everything about Shatehris was love. And she made sure you felt it every time she walked into a room — self assured, intentional, inevitable. Thank you, Milwaukee, for giving me my best friend. Long live Queen Tut.
Lilo Allen is a multidisciplinary artist, poet, owner of Papyrus & Charms and co-founder of The Bronzeville Collective MKE. She is Shae’s best friend and sister.
John “Kid Millions” Kuester
Kid Millions Memorial Mixtape
I made a mixtape
From ’93 till … this is how we chill
95th to KK, Meadows to the Bay View side
Extended bus rides, skate jams, Summerfest stomps, house parties, Mad Planet teen nights, too many concerts and street festivals to count
Get Downs and Prince vs. Michael Jackson discos
Over the years, Milwaukee spaces and stages, so many we traversed
The Rave, The Globe, Shank Hall, all the Mad City ska shows… the Nobles know
3’s Company, adolescent white boy rapper teens
We shared our hopes and dreams
We was local famous
You already had national skateboarding accolades from that Transworld magazine issue
In 1995
We made a cassette tape
In 2025
We celebrated 30-plus years of brotherhood
And your last birthday
I joked about how close you were to 50
We shared
A last I love you
And a hug
That's track one.
Track two.
Unbreakable bond, matured over time
From underage Heineken sipping at Blue's Oasis hip-hop night
Enamored by Professor Pitt freestyling
Fueled by doing dumb ish
Laughing until we cried about even dumber ish
Can't forget about these moments
The elements that shaped us
The fine line between foolishness and focus
From early on, you had goals
Track three.
One conversation I remember vividly
We were rolling down Port Washington Road, Love’s Liquor on the left
We got deep, considering life and legacy, you were only 17
Wanted to own your own business
Seeds planted long before Lotus Land and Dope Folks Records realization – 100 releases,
Kid Millions, you gave us “Victim to the Beat,” flew so free
Lived life on your own terms
With every Wiggle
Those who knew you
Might understand a gleek, Krazy- K, catching a gruber, or a life long homie called 2fer
Track four.
So many speak of that love and light
You humbly embodied it
Curiosity, care, compassion
Genuine interest in every interaction
Sly grins, snickers and chuckles
Saw the silliness along side the daily life struggles
You survived cancer
We survived your snoring
From Johnny Modelos to Soundset shenanigans
Time together was never boring
Even if the record skipped, the music never stopped
You felt like home to me
I never dreamed you’d leave in summer
And that song will never sound the same to me
Milwaukee will never feel the same to me
A sentiment shared by so many
Somehow you were everyone’s best friend
The city gave you a proclamation
Your people gave you a three-day, end-of-summer
Memorial celebration with all your favorite DJs
Kuester lapel pins were the craze
Sad eyes and smiles were the praise
Of a life that connected countless beings from all walks of life
Just being authentically you
Kept it true, no ego trip
Just a witty conversationalist
Everyone had a story about how you showed up, a light heart that softened a hard time
The KID from the 414
You never lost your sense of awe
I take solace in seeing you in the things that soar
Track five.
As I reflect on your existence and the impact you left behind
I know I can always find you in the memories, well beyond that of mine
In The Sounds of Time
Common’s Resurrection will always take me back
And that Life’s a Bitch and then you die … you never know when you’re gonna go
We used to holler out the window
Is no longer colloquial
Cuz you did
Grateful we made La Vie
In my heart and mind till infinity
Long live the KID.
James Sokolowski is a Milwaukee poet/rapper, sociologist, education program evaluator and consultant. He is one of John’s oldest and closest friends, was his first music collaborator in the early 90’s in the hip-hop group 3’s Company, and is the first person you see come through the door in the Kid Millions “Victim To The Beat” video.
Anwar Floyd-Pruitt
Anwar Nafis Floyd-Pruitt was born Aug. 25, 1977, to Charlotte Floyd-Pruitt and Dr. M. Eugene Pruitt. A planned dream: their first child, their first love.
In 1984, while writing the poem “Baby,” Charlotte reflected:
Anwar, at 6, you have made me surprise myself.
You've made me realize that you are separate from me.
I thought I knew you, but I realize that you are still evolving.
I'll be patient as you discover yourself.
Anwar … Ozzy, Oz, Ozwar, Ani, Big Daddy, Big Man. Ever evolving, Anwar’s many identities — actor, star athlete, hip-hop head, scholar, standup comedian, filmmaker — neatly reconciled, effortlessly interweaving, when he declared, “I want to be an artist.”
Embracing reinvention, Anwar tucked away his Psychology BA from Harvard and enrolled at UW-Milwaukee. While earning a bachelor's degree in sculpture, Anwar tested the limits of the department’s studio and exhibition spaces with his over-the-top projects.
Anwar was equally prolific in making friends, carrying these lasting bonds as he set off to earn an MFA from UW-Madison. His senior exhibition, “SUPERNOVA: Charlotte and Gene’s Radical Imagination Station,” won the 2020 MFA Prize and was displayed at the Chazen Museum of Art. “SUPERNOVA” is an exploration of identity, where Anwar assembles self-portraits with features sourced from images of his family. When interviewed by the Chazen, Anwar described the show as “me telling my parents I love them.”
Returning home, Anwar quickly became a pillar of Milwaukee’s art community. With a mission to better the world and improve the lives of youth of color, Anwar used his art to spread kindness, understanding, belonging and inspiration. His Hip-Hop Puppet Party workshops shined as an effervescent fusion of his passion for craft, his love of hip-hop music and performance, and his years in youth enrichment work with organizations like Express Yourself Milwaukee.
Anwar was awarded a Curatorial Engagement Fellowship by the Museum of Wisconsin Art to aid the museum in fostering connections to underrepresented communities. He excelled, eventually becoming the museum’s Curator of Contemporary Art — a role he used to highlight outsider artists and many of Milwaukee’s artists of color.
Over the last year, many had the chance to interact with Anwar while he was Artist in Residence at Saint Kate – The Arts Hotel. His year-long, ever-changing installation was an explosion of color and activity. One wall was covered floor-to-ceiling in vibrant self-portraits, another showcased a hanging memorial garden of beautifully community crafted flowers, another displayed a collection of hundreds of polaroids featuring — and taken by — all who came to visit his gallery.
More than just portraits of himself, his artwork depicted a portrait of loving community and created spaces for that community to come to fruition. In Anwar’s words: “It’s going to take an artistic approach to communication to get people on board to perhaps find the common ground, to get people to find a way forward.”
Even in death Anwar, continues to bring people together. Over 300 people from every cross section of life attended his funeral service. In his final days, in preparation of building community on the other side, Anwar asked friends and family for photos of loved ones who had passed away so he could “find them in the afterlife.” He planned to introduce them to each other and his recently passed friend Doug.
This beautiful embrace of death allowed his family to find peace in letting go. In a last conversation with Anwar, his mother told him, “Be happy, all your work here is done." Two days later — mother, father, sister, brother and partner holding his hands, friends by his side — Anwar passed away peacefully. He was ready. He was smiling.
In a casket of pure pine as requested, clad in natural linen with pink petal accents, Anwar was entrusted to the Earth on Sept. 23, 2025, after words of parting from a poem penned by his father, Eugene:
It's love Ozzie! Mom’s and my love that makes others green with envy.
No socks son. We come to this world naked and depart the same.
I love you son! Mom loves you. Anjail and Mikal love you. Legions of people love you.
Look for me, mom, Anjail, Mikal and Doug. We will be looking for you.
Anjail Floyd-Pruitt is a singer, dancer, thoughtful friend, and extraordinary giver of advice. She is Anwar’s favorite (and only) sister. Mikal Floyd-Pruitt is an artist whose practice is an interdisciplinary intersection of visual art, performance, fashion, media, and community engagement. He is Anwar’s younger brother.
Will Bush
In the introduction, Adam Carr used the term “especially painful” to summarize how deaths like these — ones with the added sting of unfinished work — hit the community. He wrote those words prior to the holidays, prior to Christmas Eve, when 2025 delivered one more blow with the passing of Will Bush.
Everyone at Radio Milwaukee acknowledges we can’t supply a tribute like the ones above because we aren’t Will’s family. We aren’t his bandmate or best friend. We’re merely among the many people whose lives were better because they had the good fortune to cross paths with Will in one way or another.
Our way was through music. We were always happy to share the latest from Immortal Girlfriend, and the latest could get pretty out there in all the best ways. Yes, it included the fairly “standard” new music video or concert announcement. But even those would occasionally involve something like clotheslines and table slams or performing live while flanked by fully operational Tesla coils.
Just as important as the music, though, were the conversations. Will was happy to sit down with us for a chat pretty much anytime — sometimes with his brother and Immortal Girlfriend bandmate Kevin, who joined him to talk about soundtracks and cinema; sometimes flying solo, like when he generously shared details about his health battle in March of 2025.
Will’s particular fight was with colon cancer. And when it ends like this one did, you’ll see the phrase “lost his battle” used pretty often. But that’s not accurate. Will was initially diagnosed in 2018. That’s seven years of victories. Every time he stepped on stage with his brother, every time he blessed a podcast or other interview with his personality, every time he brightened a space with his presence, Will won. We all did.
The solace we can find with all four individuals highlighted here is that their art remains. Their portraits, their poetry and their songs — all available for us to visit and revisit as a lasting piece of the people who created them.
Immortal, indeed.
