Waves of Creativity: Inside OMAI’s February
To kick off the busy month, the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) co-hosted, in partnership with Marcille J Lee and People program, the Level Up conference on January 24, 2026. Second-through-fourth-year PEOPLE Scholars, second-year MJL Scholars, and First Wave Scholars met at Union South for a day of growth, reflection, and connection. Scholars participated in a series of large and small group workshops to learn about their strengths and areas of growth, academic and personal identities, values, mental health and wellness, financial literacy, social justice, and creative arts.
Three weeks later, First Wavers were invited to a weekend of learning and fun at OMAI’s annual First Wave Retreat. Scholars of every cohort spent February 21 and 22 at Menona Terrace participating in various workshops, team-building activities, and games. Among the workshop facilitators were notable First Wave Alumni and community members.
Nat Losbaker (3rd cohort alum) hosted an Advertising, Branding, and Sign Painting workshop to teach students how to create a sign intended for branding and how to use these skills after school as a self-employed artist and/or business. Students also learned the fundamentals of design and layout while producing their own hand-drawn rendition of their personal logotype.
Mackenzie Berry (10th cohort alum) educated students on how to get access to funding as a student-artist at UW-Madison. She walked scholars through the process of seeking funding by taking a creative approach and writing about their artistic practices to get closer to it. She also shared some of the many opportunities available to students at UW-Madison to fund work.
Hiwot Adilow (7th cohort alum) shared her unique use of Acoustemology, a hybridization of the words “acoustic” and “epistemology” that emphasizes sonic ways of knowing and being in the world. She led students through a generative poetry workshop that unveiled new ways of knowing and being known through poetry. Participants studied the use of sound in Black poetics before applying those lessons to their own work.
Mariam Coker (8th cohort alum) engaged participants through hands-on activities in her workshop on art therapy and how to become an art therapist. She taught students how to pursue Art Therapy as a career and how to use their own art to promote healing and connection.
Lastly, Michael A.R. Davis, founder and curator of Da Hoodzeum and current First Wave graduate mentor, hosted ‘(Re)Memory is Key: Archiving as Activism,’ an interactive workshop that invited participants to explore activism as re-memory through personal archiving and object-based making. Participants made a portable “memory key” to honor both a public organizer and a woman from their personal life. The workshop centered on Black radical community memory, the complexity of womanhood, and archiving as a lived, embodied practice rather than an institutional one.
To wrap up the month, OMAI completed its recruitment for its incoming 19th cohort. We eagerly anticipate all the incredible work to come from the next generation of First Wave. February was a busy month for the First Wave Community, and we look forward to making March just as exciting, eventful, and fun!
Article written by Polly Drebin.