An OMAI tradition
OMAI’s Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival consists of performances, lectures and discussions by First Wave artist-scholars and invited professional artists engaging with the Madison community, on and off campus. Inaugurated through OMAI’s sponsored Interdisciplinary Arts Residency with Marc Bamuthi Joseph in the spring of 2007, the Line Breaks project culminated in a final performance of student work called “Just Bust!.” Now running for 15 years, “Just Bust!” has evolved into an open mic.
Hip Hop where it belongs
Line Breaks brings the top new aesthetics in contemporary hip hop and interdisciplinary performance art to the UW–Madison campus and the surrounding community. It has evolved into a space for the investigation of contemporary American culture through the lens of hip hop performance. Line Breaks is now one of the largest hip hop-centered performance festivals in the Midwest and continues to be a space for the cultivation and presentation of independent and collaborative work by First Wave artist-scholars. Here, unique responses to common human experiences are explored. The narratives, myths and legends, specific to these diverse communities, are unearthed, distilled and presented in an environment that encourages discussion and continued investigation.
- April
- April 1519th Annual Line Breaks FestivalIACS with Madison McFerrin6:00 PM, Playcircle Theater, Memorial Union
- April 1619th Annual Line Breaks FestivalMadison McFerrin Live in Concert7:00 PM, Playcircle Theater, Memorial Union
- April 1819th Annual Line Breaks Festival"See Memory" Film Screening with Viviane Silvera2:00 PM, Auditorium, Chazen Museum of Art
- April 2419th Annual Line Breaks FestivalClosing Gathering5:00 PM, School of Education Gallery, Education Building
19th Annual Line Breaks Festival
The 2026 Line Breaks Festival theme, Activation – is an exploration of how artists, communities, and cultures come alive through stimulus, context, and intention. Drawing from the idea of gene activation, the festival frames artistic expression as something already encoded within us, waiting to be called forth.
Rooted in Hip Hop’s origins as an art form born from necessity and reflection, Line Breaks serves as a space to reconnect with the ethos, history, and embodied knowledge of the culture—activating legacy, dialogue, and collective imagination in the present moment.
2026 Schedule
“My Name Became My Own.”: Community Performance Showcase
6:00 – 8:00pm
Madison Central Public Library, Room 301 & 302
201 W Mifflin St, Madison, WI 53703
Presented by OMAI, Go Big Read, and Madison Public Library – Public showcase of work developed in the “I have yet to choose a name.” workshop series. Includes work from community members and UW Madison Students. Culminating with performance by First Wave Touring Ensemble.
19th Annual Line Breaks Festival Visual Art Exhibition Reception
6:00pm
Common Wealth Gallery
100 S Baldwin St, Madison, WI 53703
19th Annual Line Breaks Festival Visual Art Exhibition Reception. This event is free and open to the public.
WDT Pop Up Shop
4:00 – 7:00pm
Wisconsin Design Team Storefront
417 State St, Madison, WI
Pop Up Shop in collaboration with Wisconsin Design Team. In person pre-order or purchase includes a free 1/1 customized tote bag. Limited release of Line Breaks Festival Collection Garments with portion of proceeds being donated to local youth arts and academic initiatives.
Line Breaks Showcase
7:00 – 9:00pm
Promenade Hall
Overture Center for the Arts
201 State St, Madison, WI
Performance by First Wave’s 18th Cohort, and a chorelecture by Erika Dickerson-Despenza (3rd Cohort).
18th Cohort Showcase by the 18th Cohort of First Wave
The 18th Cohort Showcase, is a multi-disciplinary performance that incorporates work developed by the Cohort over the course of their first year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Through their collaboration and the blending of original poetry, vocals, instrumentation, visuals and movement, they address questions of purpose and responsibility. They ask themselves and the audience what it means to be doing enough and what can serve as a catalyst for change. Through this work they illustrate the necessity of empathy, challenge the normalization of pain, and offer an invitation to unlearn systemic conditioning as a means to being a part of meaningful change in the world.
Fugitive Blue: haints, hoodoo, & hip hop by Erika Dickerson-Despenza
Fugitive Blue: Haints, Hoodoo, & Hip-Hop is a cartographic exploration of the blue landscape within Dickerson-Despenza’s fugitive artistic practice. Here, blue is a spirit, a crossroad, a depth, a sound, a feeling, a generation, and a people. Using Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s 1996 hit single “Tha Crossroads” and Grandma Baby’s 52 Blues Playing Cards to frame her analysis, Dickerson-Despenza’s choreolecture—part ritual, part oratory, and part performance—invites us into the blue to experience the colorfastness of the old tradition Hoodoo lifesystem and Hip-Hop.
Line Breaks Showcase
7:00 – 9:00pm
Promenade Hall
Overture Center for the Arts
201 State St, Madison, WI
Performances by First Wave 18th Cohort, 3 Months in the Ether by Teja Davis and Charbagh by Adina Shaikh. Talkbacks to follow performances moderated by Omari Carter.
18th Cohort Showcase by the 18th Cohort of First Wave
The 18th Cohort Showcase, is a multi-disciplinary performance that incorporates work developed by the Cohort over the course of their first year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Through their collaboration and the blending of original poetry, vocals, instrumentation, visuals and movement, they address questions of purpose and responsibility. They ask themselves and the audience what it means to be doing enough and what can serve as a catalyst for change. Through this work they illustrate the necessity of empathy, challenge the normalization of pain, and offer an invitation to unlearn systemic conditioning as a means to being a part of meaningful change in the world.
3 months in the Ether by Teja Davis
3 months in the Ether is an interdisciplinary multidimensional show that questions love lost and time stolen through its poetic, artistic, and performative nature. A brief glimpse into the unknown and the left behind, 3 months in the Ether asks what it means to live a life and how much our choices are worth.
Charbagh by Adina Shaikh
Charbagh is a multimedia work combining music, fabric, movement, and community art to explore how community cohesion is key to rebuilding a post-colonial world. A charbagh is an Indo-Persian, Islamic depiction of paradise characterized by four, symmetrical gardens. In combination with this is an idealized, decolonized society to represent heaven on Earth. This work, both through creation and performance, serves as a temporal and physical representation of community. Over the progression of Charbagh, the audience is challenged to actively relearn what it means to be in community and the mutual benefits we all yield from it.
IACS with Madison McFerrin
6:00 – 7:30pm
Memorial Union
Play Circle
800 Langdon St, Madison, WI 53706
Interdisciplinary Arts Community Session featuring Madison McFerrin and Professor Amy Lewis in conversation discussing legacy, innovation, and independence in artistic practice. In the first half of the event, McFerrin and Lewis will be in conversation, exploring creative process, lineage, and sustainability in artistry—both creatively and professionally.
The second half of the session will shift into a community listening experience, where Madison McFerrin and Professor Lewis will engage directly with students and community members by listening to selected original music submissions. Together, they will offer reflections, feedback, and insight into songwriting, composition, and artistic development, creating a shared space for dialogue, learning, and creative activation.
Madison McFerrin Live in Concert
7:00 – 9:00pm
Memorial Union
Play Circle
800 Langdon St, Madison, WI 53706
Madison McFerrin in Concert with opening support by Student Performers.
“See Memory” Film Screening with Viviane Silvera
2:00 – 4:00pm
Chazen Museum Auditorium
750-800 University Ave
Madison, WI
Screening of See Memory by Viviane Silvera, followed by an artist conversation and guided community reflection.
Following the screening, Viviane Silvera will join the audience in conversation surrounding the artistic process, the film’s themes, and the function images serve as a catalyst for memory.
19th Annual Line Breaks Festival Closing Gathering
5:00 – 6:30pm
School of Education Gallery
Education Building, 1st Floor
1000 Bascom Mall
Da Hoodzeum presents: In Direct Action – A decade of Activist Art at University of Wisconsin-Madison
This exhibition brings together student-created artworks from the past ten years that emerged through activism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Beginning in 2016, movements such as #RealUW challenged official campus narratives by naming lived experiences of racism, exclusion, and harm, opening space for art to function as testimony, refusal, and collective voice.
Alongside student artworks, the exhibition features a curated showcase of everyday historical artifacts connected to Black radical movements, including materials from the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. Newspapers, flyers, ephemera, and other ordinary objects reveal how activism has long depended on creative tools meant for daily use—objects designed to circulate, educate, and activate communities.
Placed in conversation with contemporary student work, these artifacts situate campus activism within a longer lineage of Black resistance. Together, the art and objects form a living archive, showing how activist art at UW is not isolated or new, but part of an ongoing tradition of creativity as action, care, and collective struggle.
2026 Featured Guest Artists
Matthew Braunginn (Higgs) is a self-taught artist from Madison, Wisconsin. He started painting in 2017, as he had to step away from activism due to the emergence of a chronic illness. Becoming a self-taught painter was a surprise in how it drew him in. Much of his work falls within a non-objective, contextual approach to abstract expressionism, mixing in more subjective expressions, starting in acrylics and now using oils.
His work is an exploration of what might be called contextual expressionism, a meeting point between his internal world and the external world, whether interpersonal relationships or global events. In doing so, they are a presentation and reflection of the context in which their creation exists, forcing the world and those observing the work to see the world, and their own intersection within the context in which they exist, including both the good and the bad— effectively they become a masculine act of creation and expression, during a time when masculinity is being sold as domination, power, and destruction. Matthew rejects that.
Drawing on his own lived context, growing up in a house filled with Black art, especially Jazz, and his experiences as a member of a mixed-race family, he infuses his art with the abstractness of Black music. Each piece is created within a musical soundscape of Jazz, R&B, Soul, Funk, and Hip-Hop. Musical movements and feelings are interwoven in the DNA of each piece, as he processes his contextual existence, and while his works are a part of his self-expression and creation, their existence shifts depending on each observer.
Erika Dickerson-Despenza is a writer, cultural memory worker, and historic preservation scholar. She is the creator and inaugural resident of The Ntozake Shange Social Justice Playwriting Residency at The Public Theater in partnership with Barnard College and the Shange Trust. Erika is also the independent steward of The Daughters Table, a 14-acre regenerative organic farm and herbiary in South Central Louisiana. She is the artistic producer of the forthcoming Alice Dunbar-Nelson & Shirley Graham Du Bois Going to the River Festival, a development residency and annual theater festival showcasing new works of Black women, femmes, and gender expansive feminine-of-center transdisciplinary dramatic writers. Awards: Jane Chambers Playwriting Award (2024), PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award (2023), The Antonyo’s Lorraine Hansberry Kinfolk Award (2023), Edgerton Foundation New Play Award (2022, 2019), Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (2021), Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award (2020), Thom Thomas Award (2020), Lilly Award (2020), Barrie and Bernice Stavis Award (2020), Grist 50 Fixer (2020), Princess Grace Playwriting Award (2019). Residencies & Fellowships: MacDowell (2024), Tow Playwright-in-Residence at The Public Theater (2019-2020), U.S. Water Alliance National Arts & Culture Delegate (2019), New York Stage and Film Fellow-in-Residence (2019), New Harmony Project Writer-in Residence (2019, 2021, 2023), Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow (2018-2019), The Lark Van Lier New Voices Fellow (2018). Productions: SHADOW/LAND (The Public Theater, 2023), CULLUD WATTAH (The Public Theater, 2021), [HIEROGLYPH] (San Francisco Playhouse/Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, 2021). Erika is crafting a Katrina Cycle decalogy underscoring (neo)colonialism, environmental racism, and the erasure of Black land legacies through the distress of disaster, evacuation, displacement, urban renewal, and the racial capitalism of heritage tourism. A graduate student in Tulane University’s Master of Science in Historic Preservation (MSHP) program, Erika is chiefly interested in the visual and material culture of 18th and 19th century dispossessed Black built environments and deathscapes of the American South, with a vested interest in Louisiana, where her family has resided for eight generations.
Sophia Michelen is a photojournalist, writer and ACTIVIST based in New York AND working everywhere.
Sophia’s work spans six continents and scores of countries as she’s worked, lived and traveled to some of the most remote and unconventional locations on earth – from North Korea, Cuba, the Empty Quarter and the Congo [to name a few]. Her activism for gender equality, women empowerment and children’s rights has engrained a passion in documentary photography and journalism. Premiering her work at a solo exhibition at Harvard University, Sophia continued to pursue impact storytelling and documentaries with international acclaim and within international publications and galleries within North America, the Middle East and Asia.
Viviane Silvera is an award-winning painter, filmmaker, and interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of neuroarts, psychology, and hand-painted animation. She is the creator of See Memory, a PBS- premiered, Telly Award–winning documentary composed of more than 30,000 individually painted frames that visualize the neuroscience of memory formation, trauma, and reconsolidation. Silvera’s work translates complex neurological and emotional processes into visual language, bridging fine art, film, and scientific inquiry.
Her films and installations have been presented at institutions including the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Yale University, Tufts University, Vanderbilt University, the Helix Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry, and the Edward Hopper House Museum. See Memory has been used in clinical, educational, and mindfulness-based settings as a tool for trauma-informed care, emotional regulation, and narrative repair.
In 2026, Silvera will serve as an Artist in Residence at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, an interdisciplinary research institute connecting neuroscience, psychology, and the arts. Her work has been commissioned for Art Basel Miami and Berlin Art Week, and her public sculpture The Fault is permanently installed at Vanderbilt University. Her portrait of President Bill Clinton is held in the Clinton Presidential Library.
Silvera holds a dual degree in Psychology and Political Science from Tufts University and an MFA from the New York Academy of Art. She is the recipient of the Edward Hopper House Award of Excellence in Painting, and her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time Out New York. Based in New York City, she is the founder of On Art LLC, an interdisciplinary studio dedicated to projects at the intersection of art, science, and human experience.
Maybe life on Earth, with all its miniature, momentary deaths and rebirths, really does have something to do with our zodiac signs. Singer-songwriter Madison McFerrin thinks so. Her sophomore album, SCORPIO, takes its name from her sign and its three phases (scorpion, eagle, and phoenix) which parallel her personal evolution since her 2023 debut, I Hope You can Forgive Me.
The confident woman you hear on SCORPIO was born from the ashes of heartbreak. After years of fighting, Madison ended her relationship with her then fiancé/manager. “We was ‘posed to get married today/ instead I’m here, all alone/ in a home/ with no one to call my own/” Madison sings on the revelatory “I Don’t” conveying a feeling somewhere between sadness and the thrill of liberation.
On “Run It Back”, she paints a picture of post-breakup lust: “Do you think about the sex just a little … / Thinkin’ ‘bout your hands up on my waist/ we can run it back non-committal” she coos. But thoughts of backsliding aren’t as loud as the inner voice screaming at her to let go and move on. The piano-driven “Lesson” floats in like a dream, describing how her relationship died so that she could be reborn. “I think the biggest lesson for me was that if it doesn’t feel right, it’s not.”
For Madison, love — specifically self-love — is a revealer of truths. It’s this album’s inspiration: “I truly believe that I went through it because I’ve created art that’s going to change my life.” SCORPIO is what it sounds like when the stars align.
LineBreaks Student Showcases
The 18th Cohort of the First Wave program are a dynamic and globally rooted community of Scholar-Artists who hail from cities across the United States and carry the cultural heritage of Mexico, Nigeria, India, Peru, Taiwan, Greece, Ethiopia, and Jamaica. They possess a wide range of cultural perspectives and lived experiences and embody the collaborative and socially engaged spirit of First Wave. Their academic pursuits span the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Health, and professional fields – from Spanish, English, Education, Psychology, and Global Health to Business, Communication Arts, Kinesiology, Violin Performance, and Art Rehabilitation – reflecting a shared commitment to interdisciplinary learning and creative innovation. Across mediums including poetry, spoken word, dance, music, visual art, acting and film, production, and metal arts, they use their practices to tell urgent stories, build connection, and move audiences. United by a desire to create meaningful change, this cohort is dedicated to inspiring younger generations, cultivating spaces for marginalized communities, challenging inequitable social structures, and expanding access, awareness, and opportunity through their art.
Teja Davis is a dynamic performance artist with a passion for creative storytelling through theater, poetry, and music originally from Aurora Illinois. She’s a Senior double majoring in Environmental Studies and Human Geography while pursuing 5 certificates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Teja is a member of the 15th Cohort of First Wave, a Davis and Putter Fund Scholar, and a passionate social justice advocate who hopes to do ethnographic environmental work exploring the relationship between people, their culture, and the planet after finishing her education. She also plans to have a research foundation of her own alongside a successful acting career and life on a happy family farm in the country after meeting Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube.
Adina Shaikh (she/her) is a musician and visual artist from Lincolnshire, Illinois. She explores the intersectionality of social issues through a variety of mediums ranging from composition, performance art, writing, and visual art. As a musician, she has a diverse palette to dip in– percussion, music production, voice, piano, and bass– to paint bigger pictures that evoke a multisensory experience. Pluralism is at the core of all her endeavors, starting from her Ukrainian-Pakistani roots to her interdisciplinary interests in neuroscience and music. Her works primarily explore themes of collective power, ties to land, decolonization, and generational bonds. Adina is an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison majoring in neurobiology and percussion performance with a certificate in science communication.
LineBreaks Student Visual Artists
It’s common knowledge that creativity and Western philosophical thinking converged to create what is known as the Renaissance. However, not many venture into the realm of African philosophy and its own creative renaissance. What is often regarded as art history follows a thorough line across Western eras of thinking, a line that only follows eras directly impacting the present. We incorporate non-Western influences only if they affect the trajectory of that line. Our thinking, therefore, is limited to Western modes of thought, defining the philosophies we align with and the art we value. As a Ghanaian-American, Ahema Oforiwaa Odeng-Otu is interested in how wisdom is expressed in West African visual art. Her approach is to use proximity to Ghanaian expression as a starting point for understanding creative thinking more broadly. Her range of influences is broad, including anonymous Ghanaian woodworkers, El Anatsui, JC Leyedecker, and Yoshitaka Amano, to name a few. She focuses on graphic design and illustration, using primarily watercolor or acrylic.
Natalie Furtado is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, but is currently pursuing a dual degree in Pharmacology & Toxicology and Biology, with certificates in Global Health & 3D Studio Art from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is a young professional that is developing her skills across 2D, 3D, and 4D mediums. Natalie pushes the boundaries of realism and surrealism in her artworks and explores controversial topics in hopes to spark conversation. She has had artwork on display in Congressional offices, university galleries, and national web-galleries; and has participated in live shows in Las Vegas, NV, as well as Madison, WI. She continues to perfect her craft through personal projects as well as commissioned works that bring creativity to the community.
Raised in the South Island of New Zealand and St. Paul, Minnesota, and currently attending UW-Madison as a sophomore, Navarre Iliff is an artist and a scholar in the First Wave and STAR programs. Living in St. Paul since 2014, her work is heavily impacted by the murders of George Floyd, Daunte Wright, Renee Good, and many others at the hands of the justice department, and the resulting mass protests. Working primarily with oil and acrylic paints on canvas, Iliff explores topics of dissonance relevant to her everyday life through portraiture and surrealism. Utilizing human and animal subjects in her work, she invites the audience into a conversation about the difference between belief and action, perception and reality, justice and morality, and the effects they have on our relationships with others. In a broader context, Iliff aims to contribute to the long tradition of visualizing reactions and resistance to a violent system.
Rayane (pronounced Hi-ani) Prado Nunes is a Brazilian artist, researcher and scholar. She grew up dancing multiple styles, from ballet to hip hop, since she was 4 years old. In college, Rayane expanded her practice in visual art and began her work in photography and videography. Always informed by her heritage, different philosophical approaches, and their research in social psychology; Rayane seeks to uplift marginalized voices and tell stories of diaspora, authenticity, sifting and becoming. Through her work, Rayane’s goal is to connect those who wouldn’t otherwise be connected, question our paradigms, and create belonging.
Past Line Break Festivals
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Line Breaks - First Wave and Guest Performers 2025
April 4th, 2025
An Evening With Hanif Abdurraqib
5:30 – 7:30pm (reception from 7-7:30pm)
Wisconsin Historical Society
Join the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives and the Rebecca M. Blank Center for Campus History for a fireside chat with Hanif Abdurraqib as a part of the 18th annual Line Breaks Festival. An essayist, poet, cultural critic, and author of A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, Hanif will lead a conversation on the intersections of race, culture, and performance. A follow up Q&A/discussion with the audience will allow UW students to engage with a scholar, artist, and MacArthur fellow on the art of writing culturally relevant prose and the necessity of creating in our current moment
Just Bust! Open Mic with Hanif Abdurraqib
8:00 – 10:00pm
Wisconsin Historical Society
Join the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives for an amazing open mic showcase. Featuring the essayist, poet, cultural critic, and author of A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, Hanif Abdurraqib.
April 5, 2025
Just Bust! Workshop with Hanif Abdurraqib
1:00 – 3:00pm
Red Gym On Wisconsin A/B Room
Join the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives for an interactive workshop lead by essayist, poet, cultural critic, and author of A Little Devel in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, Hanif Abdurraqib.
April 7, 2025
“On the Line” A Madison Music Community Listening Session with Dom Mclennon and Chuck Sutton
6:00 – 8:30pm
Gamma Ray Bar
Join us for an evening of sharing what you’re cooking up with the Madison Music Community! This space is made for you to show your work to the people who need to hear it and to showcase independent work from the Madison Music Community on a professional scale at the Gamma Ray Bar, a premier local venue committed to supporting local Hip Hop Artists. OMAI Hip Hop Artist in Residence Dom Mclennon and guest artist Chuck Sutton will be selecting submissions from the community, providing critique and feedback, talking about composition, songwriting and offering professional insights about the music industry; as well as leading dialogue surrounding alternatives to the legacy music industry and provide information about alternative potential avenues to developing a career as a working musician.
April 8, 2026
Line Breaks Gallery Opening
5:00 – 7:00pm
Art Lofts
April 9, 2025
“Expert Simple” Exploring Hip Hop Roots and examining history by demystifying the process through production, sound, movement and sampling with Dom Mclennon, Chuck Sutton and Omari Carter
5:00 – 6:30PM
Wisconsin Historical Society – Auditorium
Join us for a conversation with Dom Mclennon, Chuck Sutton, and Omari Carter that explores the roots of Hip Hop and examines it within a historical context. Through demonstrations of physical movements, live sampling and song deconstruction Dom, Chuck, and Omari will facilitate conversation about the history of the sounds and movements that create the current Hip Hop Landscape.
April 11, 2025
Line Breaks Showcase
7:00 – 10:00pm
Hemsley Theatre
The 17th Cohort Showcase by the 17th Cohort of First Wave is a multi-disciplinary performance that incorporates work developed through the First Wave First Year Curriculum spearheaded by their course work with Instructors, Mike Davis, Tehan Ketema and Eric Newble. Through creating work that explores themes of nostalgia, history, resistance, and hope, they use their talents to address their beliefs and ask both the audience and themselves the questions: “What do we do in a world without answers?” and “How do we use art to keep hope alive?” By examining these questions in their work they hope to provide a multitude of perspectives and offer potential futures in a world where little is certain.
Reza by Adrian Cyrus
Reza is a multidisciplinary reflection that follows Adrian’s relationship with his father over the course of their time together. Beginning in childhood and then following his fathers diagnosis with a rare neurodegenerative disease. Reza explores concepts of loss, grief, resilience, and happiness. The work is rooted in reflection of their time spent together through the artist’s current lens but also serves as an investigation of how we carry our people with us in the present and future. Reza is meant to not only provide an opportunity for the artist to address these concepts within his own life, but offer the audience an opportunity to explore universal human messages and apply them to their own lives.
Blur by Devin Smith & Eric Henkes
Blur is a surreal, hollow, and hazy look at the uncertainty presented within familial and interpersonal relationships. The piece examines the power dynamic that begins to blur throughout the aging process, and asks both the creators and audience how well we know the people we think we are closest to. It presents an opportunity to wrestle with guilt, confusion and all of the emotions that become real within this blurring process. Ultimately serving as a guide to growth, understanding and the creation of healthy and sustainable relationships with the ones we hold closest.
It Is the End of the World & I Am Looking for Love by Anaya Fraizer
It Is the End of the World & I Am Looking for Love is a multimedia show about a young Black girl’s bittersweet search for love and connection as the world crumbles around her. But for her, the end isn’t something to escape—it’s a moment to embrace, to hold on to love or find it before everything fades. It Is the End of the World & I Am Looking for Love challenges viewers to be present, to cherish what and who they can while they can, and to question and reconsider what love means in the midst of an ending.
Sandbox: 00 and Sandbox: 01 by Dom McLennon are improvisational live performance experiences by Dom McLennon. Dom’s obsession with Hip-Hop, Music History and Creative Expression has motivated him to conceptualize performances that blend DJing, Vocals, Live Production and Visual Art. The experiences are designed to engage the audience’s senses and tell stories through sound, sight and movement. The Sandbox experience is meant to be both a collaborative play space for Dom and guest Artist Chuck Sutton as well as an invitation for the audience to witness artists in their natural state. Sandbox serves as an experiential, improvisational and generative art experience that highlights the creative process, the necessity of the artist, participant and observer.
April 12, 2025
Line Breaks Showcase
7:00 – 10:00pm
Hemsley Theatre
The 17th Cohort Showcase by the 17th Cohort of First Wave is a multi-disciplinary performance that incorporates work developed through the First Wave First Year Curriculum spearheaded by their course work with Instructors, Mike Davis, Tehan Ketema and Eric Newble. Through creating work that explores themes of nostalgia, history, resistance, and hope, they use their talents to address their beliefs and ask both the audience and themselves the questions: “What do we do in a world without answers?” and “How do we use art to keep hope alive?” By examining these questions in their work they hope to provide a multitude of perspectives and offer potential futures in a world where little is certain.
Reza by Adrian Cyrus
Reza is a multidisciplinary reflection that follows Adrian’s relationship with his father over the course of their time together. Beginning in childhood and then following his fathers diagnosis with a rare neurodegenerative disease. Reza explores concepts of loss, grief, resilience, and happiness. The work is rooted in reflection of their time spent together through the artist’s current lens but also serves as an investigation of how we carry our people with us in the present and future. Reza is meant to not only provide an opportunity for the artist to address these concepts within his own life, but offer the audience an opportunity to explore universal human messages and apply them to their own lives.
Blur by Devin Smith & Eric Henkes
Blur is a surreal, hollow, and hazy look at the uncertainty presented within familial and interpersonal relationships. The piece examines the power dynamic that begins to blur throughout the aging process, and asks both the creators and audience how well we know the people we think we are closest to. It presents an opportunity to wrestle with guilt, confusion and all of the emotions that become real within this blurring process. Ultimately serving as a guide to growth, understanding and the creation of healthy and sustainable relationships with the ones we hold closest.
It Is the End of the World & I Am Looking for Love by Anaya Fraizer
It Is the End of the World & I Am Looking for Love is a multimedia show about a young Black girl’s bittersweet search for love and connection as the world crumbles around her. But for her, the end isn’t something to escape—it’s a moment to embrace, to hold on to love or find it before everything fades. It Is the End of the World & I Am Looking for Love challenges viewers to be present, to cherish what and who they can while they can, and to question and reconsider what love means in the midst of an ending.
Sandbox: 00 and Sandbox: 01 are improvisational live performance experiences by Dom McLennon. Dom’s obsession with Hip-Hop, Music History and Creative Expression has motivated him to conceptualize performances that blend DJing, Vocals, Live Production and Visual Art. The experiences are designed to engage the audience’s senses and tell stories through sound, sight and movement. The Sandbox experience is meant to be both a collaborative play space for Dom and guest Artist Chuck Sutton as well as an invitation for the audience to witness artists in their natural state. Sandbox serves as an experiential, improvisational and generative art experience that highlights the creative process, the necessity of the artist, participant and observer.
Line Breaks - First Wave and Guest Performers 2024
Can A Song Be A Revolution?
Sri Vamsi Matta
Can a song be a revolution? Gaddar is a poet, singer, performer, intellectual, a creative mind associated with people’s resistance movements in India and most importantly he is a revolutionary! But to many peoples’ movement he is a revolution, a cultural revolution. In the exercise of telling the story of this revolution, we came to ask a question, can a song be a revolution? This is a love letter or actually a letter of love to that song… to that revolution! An experimental storytelling piece that brings Gaddar’s songs and reimagines them in jazz and hip-hop genres for the American audience. This piece will talk about caste, art, and cultural revolution. It is conceived by Sri Vamsi Matta and performed by Sri Vamsi Matta, First Wave Students, and Musicians from Madison.
First Wave 16th Cohort Showcase
The 16th Cohort of First Wave
The First Wave 16th Cohorts show is a culmination of their work created through the First Wave First Year Interest Group curriculum, spearheaded in their FW101 course with Faculty Creative Director, Mark H. The work is in response to the course’s four main themes which are Power, Beauty, Migration, Otherness. The work is an intervention and revisionist work that is in conversation with Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. The 16th Cohort uses their talents to imagine an answer to the question of “How do you restore power to the powerless?”, while reimagining ways of dealing with external and internal conflict to create a sustainable future for their community.
The Mountains that No One Will Name
Maria Freese
The Mountains that No One Will Name is an investigation into the nature of womanhood and the role aging plays into the woman’s understanding of their personal and societal value. The work is meant to engage the audience in conversations surrounding womanhood by using a framework of an intergenerational dialogue. By weaving together poetry, movement, and a series of interviews with women across different backgrounds and stages of life, Maria seeks to encourage these conversations to become more commonplace and less isolated. Creating a reflection that works to name and share the collective knowledge of women across all stages of life not only generationally, but in the present; to bring these conversations to the forefront and not have them be relegated to the mysticism of ancestry or the wonder of youth, but a part of the fabric of the world of the living.
All of My Very Own
GG Christensen
All of My Very Own is a film as well as a memorial. Overdoses (particularly from fentanyl) are the no. 1 cause of accidental death for young adults in the US. All of My Very Own aims to not only bring awareness to the opioid epidemic but raise money for the National Harm Reduction Coalition. Supplementary material on Naloxone/Narcan to be distributed at Linebreaks. Rest in peace Bere (16), Goose (19), and Victor (20).
Bars is Back
Jason Hill
Bars is Back details the journey of Jason from Philadelphia, to the University of Wisconsin Madison. It addresses issues of loss, grief and struggles of acceptance, and presents us with how to deal with these issues using gratitude, and patience. By using spoken-word poetry, and rap, Jason works to promote messages of peace, positivity, and prosperity. “Bars is Back” will use Jason’s journey to illustrate the way these themes and issues have shaped him and offer the audience a perspective into the way they can find them and utilize them within their own lives.
Planet 88: A Faded Halo, Shadow Boxing, and A Black Girl Somewhere Else.
Kyla Pollard
Planet 88: A Faded Halo, Shadow Boxing, and A Black Girl Somewhere Else. is an exploration of the self, and hyper awareness of mortality. It is a world built across mediums, time, memory and presence. It is both a resurrection and a burial, an ode to Niggas everywhere, in every world. It is at its core an Afrofuturist work, it is a revision, and reimagining of the past and a place “somewhere else” to envision potential futures. Through this multidimensional, interdisciplinary work Kyla not only examines, but creates the reality that she and the work exist in, by pairing presence with absence she contends with the benefit and setbacks of mortal awareness
Heaven’s Inside
Tilla
Heaven Inside is an original musical production written and performed by the Madison-based band Tilla. With poetic scenes, bluesy vocals, and a robust musical score, this 50-minute show is carefully curated to speak to the current moment. Tilla’s poignant lyricism encompasses themes of black identity and diaspora, existentialism, interpersonal relationships, and spirituality. Each song creates a distinct world that the audience shares in, and encourages listeners to reflect upon the ubiquity of the human experience. Heaven Inside features performances from the legendary Kongolese percussionist Papa Titos Sompa and Mount Zion’s esteemed choir director Leotha Stanley. Together their musical contributions help make this project as delightfully ethereal as it is grounding.
Line Breaks - First Wave and Guest Performers 2023
Thursday, March 30
5:30–7:00 p.m.
Page & Stage: An Evening with Eve L. Ewing and Paul Tran
A Room of One’s Own (2717 Atwood Avenue)
UW–Madison’s Division of the Arts, the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives and A Room of One’s Own are thrilled to welcome Eve L. Ewing to Madison in conversation with poet and UW–Madison Assistant Professor of English and Asian American Studies Paul Tran.
Friday, March 31
4:30–5:30 p.m.
Pre-Show Reception
Sunset Lounge, Memorial Union (800 Langdon Street)
Join the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) and the Division of the Arts in celebrating the opening of the 2023 Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival! Doors for Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival Showcase open at 5:30 p.m. Register here for the Friday evening Showcase.
6:00–8:00 p.m.
Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival Showcase
Shannon Hall, Wisconsin Union Theater, Memorial Union (800 Langdon Street)
Join the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) and the Division of the Arts for the 2023 Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival! This Friday night Showcase features performances by First Wave artist-scholars in the 15th Cohort; Diya Abbas (14th Cohort) and Azura Tyabji (13th Cohort); Jackson Neal (12th Cohort); and featured performances by guests of Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Eve L. Ewing including Jamila Woods and Nate Marshall. The Showcase will conclude with a talkback with the featured performers and Eve L. Ewing, moderated by Amanda Torres.
Register here! This event is all ages, free and open to the public. Masks are encouraged.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 1
6:00–8:00 p.m.
Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival Showcase
Shannon Hall, Wisconsin Union Theater (800 Langdon Street)
Join the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) and the Division of the Arts for the 2023 Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival! This Saturday night Showcase features performances by First Wave artist-scholars in the 15th Cohort; First Wave alumna, Shasparay Irvin; the First Wave Touring Ensemble; and headlining performance by Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Eve L. Ewing. The Showcase will conclude with a talkback with select performers and OMAI Artistic Director Mark H.
Register here! This event is all ages, free and open to the public. Masks are encouraged.
8:00–9:30 p.m.
Post-Show Reception
Sunset Lounge, Memorial Union (800 Langdon Street)
Join the Division of the Arts and the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) to close out the 2023 Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival!
Learn more and register here for the Saturday evening Showcase.
First Wave 15th Cohort Ensemble
We Remember: An Anthological Performance Exploring Time and Memory
In this devised performance, the 15th Cohort of First Wave explores the transportation of time and memory using an anthology format. They will present collaborations of song, dance, poetry, visual illustration, and movement as they seek to understand deeper how memories can alter existence, how the way we navigate through time can change our experience, and what it means to remember something as a collective. Audiences are called to reflect on our personal history and the history of our community as we ask ourselves…who is in charge of remembering? Who is allowed to forget? And who is doing the labor? Travel down memory lane with the 15th Cohort of First Wave. Directed by Denzel Taylor.
First Wave Touring Ensemble
Keepin’ It Right
Selections from First Wave Touring Ensemble’s full-length multimedia work in progress, tentatively titled Keepin’ It Right. Directed by Mark H.
Azura Tyabji & Diya Abbas
The Dream of a Common Woman
Borrowed from the titles of two 1978 lesbian poetry collections, The Common Woman by Judy Grahn and The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich,The Dream of a Common Woman written by Azura Tyabji and Diya Abbas follows two women in a long-distance courtship who, when they fall asleep over the phone, wake up in a shared dream. Through honest testimony and heightened language they couldn’t share in real life, they come closer to vulnerability and understanding through the stories of women in their families, attempting to end their lineages of loneliness.
Jackson Neal
ALTARCATION I
ALTARCATION I is an encounter between dancer, writer, and choreographer Jackson Neal, and his own mother, Shaelyn Neal. For twelve minutes, Jackson and Shaelyn will run on opposite facing treadmills while engaging in a dialogue about love, care, effort, and memory. Jackson will sprint at the treadmill’s top speed for two consecutive minutes at the conclusion of the piece.
The primary question of ALTARCATION I is how much are you willing to work for love? Using physical and emotional effort, Shaelyn and Jackson will create an exercise of the heart, one which demands attention, commitment, and effort in order to be fulfilled.
In preparation for this piece, the Neals have participated in a series of in-depth interviews, which broaden their understanding of each other, and the nature of the roles of mother and son. The Neals have also participated in a serious training regimen to physically prepare their bodies for the task.
Cast: Jackson Neal, son of Shaelyn Neal; Shaelyn Neal, mother of Jackson Neal
Video Production: Kyla Pollard
Kyla Pollard is an artist and aspiring filmmaker from the South Side of Chicago whose art focuses on urban inequalities and the existence and necessity of Black Joy.
Sound Design: Dawry Ruiz
Dawry Ruiz is an interdisciplinary artist, First Wave Scholar, and is the recipient of a 2022 Truman Scholarship.
Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Eve L. Ewing and Guest Artists
Performances by Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Eve L. Ewing and guest artists will be featured in both Friday and Saturday night’s showcases, including Jamila Woods, accompanied by Justin Canavan, and Nate Marshall. The Friday Showcase will conclude with a talkback with the featured performers and Eve L. Ewing, moderated by Amanda Torres (AT). The Saturday Showcase will feature an interdisciplinary performance by Eve L. Ewing of selections from 1919.
The Chicago Race Riot of 1919, the most intense of the riots that comprised the “Red Summer” of violence across the nation’s cities, has shaped the last century but is unfamiliar or altogether unknown to many people today. In 1919, her second collection of poems, Eve L. Ewing explores the story of this event—which lasted eight days and resulted in thirty-eight deaths and almost five hundred injuries— through poems recounting the stories of everyday people trying to survive and thrive in the city. Ewing uses speculative and Afrofuturist lenses to recast history, illuminating the thin line between the past and the present.
The Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives within the Division of Diversity, Equity, & Educational Achievement at the University of Wisconsin-Madison provides culturally relevant and transformative arts programming to promote positive social dialogue and to give cultural art forms an academic forum.
The Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival seeks to bring together communities on and off campus, locally and nationally, to embrace the values and guiding principles of OMAI/First Wave. This year’s festival culminates an academic year-long partnership between OMAI and the Division of the Arts’ Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program, presenting a series of short-term residencies with interdisciplinary artists who represent the three pillars of academics, arts and activism. The residency series has brought Jay Adana and Zeniba Now, Jasmine Mans, Porsha Olayiwola, and headlining performer Eve L. Ewing to UW–Madison. This gathering would not be possible without the generous support of our presenting partners: Division of the Arts; Wisconsin Union Theater; A Room of One’s Own Bookstore; Professor Mark H. of the Department of Theater and Drama; Professors Nate Marshall, Paul Tran, and Amy Quan Barry of the Department of Creative Writing.
Please note that masks will be required at all indoor Line Breaks events on and off the UW-Madison campus, while vaccines and booster shots are highly encouraged. Details about UW-Madison event policies can be found at covidresponse.wisc.edu.
Additionally, to offer the safest environment possible for our patrons, artists, employees, volunteers and community, the Overture Center has implemented the following requirements for everyone who enters the building, whether visiting the ticket office and galleries or attending a show, meeting or event.
Line Breaks - First Wave and Guest Performers 2022
Fri, April 1, 2022
2:00 – 4:00 PM UW-Madison Arts Crawl in partnership with the Division of the Arts
Arts Crawl highlights a collection of arts events held over several days in the arts departments and co-curricular arts units at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Arts Crawl is an opportunity to have creative arts experiences, which may take the form of demonstrations and workshops, as well as the chance to visit arts classes, lectures, talks, performances, exhibitions, and rehearsals. The Arts Crawl will run from Thursday, March 31 – Saturday, April 2, culminating in performances at the Line Breaks Festival.
Details available at go.wisc.edu/ArtsCrawl
5:00 – 7:00 PM Line Breaks Opening Reception in the Wisconsin Studio, Overture Center
In partnership with the Wisconsin Alumni Association, the Line Breaks Opening Reception will feature refreshments, light catering, bar, and sounds by DJ Pain 1! Throughout the space, we will install an exhibition of First Wave visual and design artists to present and discuss their work with guests.
The programme for the reception will take place 5:30 – 6:30 p.m., where we will host WAA’s Wisconsin Idea Spotlight Panel, featuring key First Wave alumni Danez Smith and Erika Dickerson-Despenza; Professor Chris Walker, founding Faculty Artistic Director of OMAI and Director of the Division of the Arts; and Dr. LaVar Charleston, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion, Vice Provost and Chief Diversity Officer at UW-Madison.
7:00 – 9:00 PM Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival Showcase in the Playhouse Theater, Overture Center
This evening showcase will include performances by First Wave 14th Cohort Ensemble, FW 12th Cohort member Jackson Neal’s Glitch, First Wave Touring Ensemble, and conclude with a debut staging of summer, somewhere by First Wave alum Danez Smith, featuring a small ensemble of First Wave scholars directed by Professor Chris Walker.
Sat, April 2, 2022
2:00 – 4:00 PM Badger Meet Up: Line Breaks Edition
In partnership with the Wisconsin Alumni Association, UW alumni from Classes 2007 – 2017 with an interest in multicultural arts are invited for a brunch mixer with refreshments, music and performances honoring the 15th Anniversary of UW-Madison’s Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives.
6:00 – 8:00 PM Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival Showcase in the Playhouse Theater, Overture Center
This evening showcase will include performances by First Wave 14th Cohort Ensemble, 12th Cohort member Dawry Ruiz’s Speakeasy, and the JVN Project’s Fashion Show. Featuring special performances by musical trio Klassik, B~Free, and Quinten Farr.
First Wave 14th Cohort Ensemble
The first-year of the First Wave curriculum includes a course instructed by Professor Chris Walker where the newest cohort in the First Wave community engage in Walker’s First Wave Process. Dance 259: Collaborative Arts Performance Lab is a unique course designed to further engage students in creative problem solving and devising performance processes. Students work together under facilitation to create work and produce performances of hip hop theater, experimental theater and other collaborative performance art works for public viewing. The course content is repeatable and the work is developed in stages in each workshop. Students are introduced to the three pillars of the First Wave Program – Arts, Activism and Academics and how they interact with and within multiple contemporary art processes. They work together in a creative workshop space to practice, collaborate and engage in creative research processes using the elements of Hip Hop and the creative problem solving tools that shape them as points of engagement and departure. The FW 14th Cohort will present their collaborative work both evenings of the Line Breaks Festival and participate in a talk back with the audience.
First Wave Touring Ensemble
The First Wave Touring Ensemble, consisting of Jackson Neal, Sarah Abbas, Azura Mizan Tyabji , and Zachary Lesmeister, fuses music, poetry, and movement to put forth new work exemplary of the First Wave collaborative experience.
Selected Line Breaks Proposals by First Wave Scholars, Creative Direction by Karl Iglesias
- Glitch by Jackson Neal (FW 12th Cohort), is a multimedia performing arts piece that examines the enormous pleasure of the internet and its sinister underbelly, inviting audiences to pause and consider how their own choices, when closely examined, might not be their own.
- Speakeasy by Dawry Ruiz (FW 12th Cohort) combines the aspects of a concert and Hip-Hop theatre to confront and explore survivors’ guilt and how our lead musician can escape the consequences that his childhood friends could not.
- True to the Root, produced by Corina Robinson (FW 12th cohort) for the JVN Project is a sustainable hip hop fashion show. We believe fashion is an important way to showcase hip hop; the clothes we wear reflect the culture we walk in on the daily. Hip hop is a culture that builds off itself and the people in it, we feel that emphasizing sustainable fashion (upcycling, rewearing, etc.) reflects this as well. True to the Root will be a multimedia fashion show highlighting pieces that embody the 5 elements of hip hop (breaking, DJing, MCing, graffiti, and knowledge). Other media will include a DJ, spoken word poetry, and more.
summer, somewhere
This is a section from a long poem taking place in an imagined afterlife for black men shot by the police, where, as the narrator says, “dead is the safest i’ve ever been.” Danez Smith is a slam-poetry champion as well as a recipient of several more traditional literary awards; the poetry in “Don’t Call Us Dead” reflects the strengths of each of those worlds.
– Matthew Zapruder, New York Times, June 9, 2017
In a semester-long residency with OMAI this Spring 2022, Danez Smith and Professor Chris Walker workshopped a staging of Smith’s choreopoem summer, somewhere from the book don’t call us dead for a cast of all Black masculine presenting bodies. The residency invited current First Wave scholars to create a new work in partnership with Smith and professional artists from Walker’s company, a core educational experience of the Line Breaks Festival.
Please stay after the performance for a talk-back with the artists.
Line Breaks - First Wave and Guest Performers 2021
The First Wave 13th cohort presents: Only Human
Line Breaks - First Wave and Guest Performers 2019
First Wave Flash Talks
- Emeka: Art Creates Art Creates, Tiffany Ike
- Research & Documentary Film: A Case for Muhammad Ali’s Influence on Hip Hop, Mackenzie Berry
- Research in Practice: A Case for Addressing Mass Incarceration through the Arts, Mackenzie Berry
- In the Peak of Summer, Francisco Velazquez
- Providing an Accessible Art Education, Masha Vodyanyk
- Black Arts Matter, Shasparay Lighteard
Visual Arts Showcase featuring Nikolai Hagen, Joi Brenson, Isha Camara, Auzzie Dodson,
Janaé Hu, Masha Vodyanyk, and Adjua Nsoroma
First Wave Poetry Showcase featuring Natasha Oladokun, Isha Camara, and Mackenzie Berry
UpRise Poetry Collective
Thiahera Nurse Writing Workshop
James D. Gavins Movement Workshop
Feast of Flowers, Jamie Dawson
DAL: Stories of Black Motherhood, Tiffany Ike
Citizen X, Ricardo Cortez de la Cruz II
Cicada, James D. Gavins
Fifth Year: A Collaboration, Nia Scott
The Help, Jasmine Kiah
Return Home to Us, Solomon Roller
Unlearning God, Tiffany Ike
Love U(s) First, Dequadray White
First Wave Music Showcase
Line Breaks - First Wave and Guest Performers 2018
When I was a kid, Kenneth Dizon
Diary of a Shapeshifter, Mariam Coker
First Wave Music Showcase, Obasi Davis, Hiwot Adilow, Dequadray White, Tehan Ketema, Chetta Hill, First Wave cypher
Louisville Lip: MC Muhammad Ali, Mackenzie Berry
Line Breaks - First Wave and Guest Performers 2017
Tearing Down the Walls, First Wave Touring Ensemble (2017)
First Wave Poetry Sharing (2017)
First Wave 10th Cohort
Dancing Towards Change, Featured Local Dance Artists
Music Workshop, led by Nathan France, Daniel Kaplan & Eric Newble
Love Has No Season, Featured Artist, Rain Wilson
Music Workshop, led by Nathan France, Daniel Kaplan & Eric Newble Garrett Pauli
2017 LINE BREAKS FESTIVAL PERFORMERS
Line Breaks - First Wave and Guest Performers 2016
Line Breaks - Guest Performers (2005 - 2015)
Jessica Care-Moore (2005): Internationally renowned poet, publisher, activist, rock star, playwright, actress, educator, thespian, filmmaker, performance artist, producer, five-time Showtime at the Apollo winner, and CEO of Moore Black Press.
Kalamu ya Salaam (2005): Poet, author, filmmaker, and teacher.
Marc Bamuthi Joseph (2005, 2007, 2008, 2010): Spoken-word poet, dancer, and playwright who frequently directs stand alone hip-hop theater plays.
Jeff Chang (2007): Author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop and Who We Be: The Colonization of America, co-founder of Culturestr/ke magazine and Coloredlines daily news site, and Executive Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University.
Dr. Rennie Harris (2007, 2008, 2014): Artistic Director, Choreographer and Director.
Sambada (2007): Brazilian band.
Alix Olson (2007): American poet and Spoken Word artist.
Kamilah Forbes (2007, 2009): Assistant Director and Artistic Director.
Danny Hoch (2007): American writer, director, and performance artist.
Dennis Kim (2007, 2008): Hip-Hop and Spoken Word artist from Chicago, and a co-founder of I Was Born With Two Tongues, an Asian American spoken word quartet, and Typical Cats, a Chicago-based hip hop collective. He is a teaching artist at Youth Speaks, Inc.
Mayda Del Valle (2007): Poet, performer, teaching artist.
Lauren Whitehead (2007): Spoken Word artist.
Rafael Casal (2007, 2009, 2011): American writer, performance poet, recording artist, educator, playwright and founding member of The Getback.
Dahlak Brathwaite (2007): musician, actor, poet, and educator
Omar Sosa (2007): composer, bandleader, and jazz pianist.
Roger Bonair-Agard (2007): Poet and Performance artist.
Willie Perdomo (2007): Poet, children’s book author, Artist-in-Residence, Workspace, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. He is co-founder/publisher of Cypher Books.
Gambian Griot Alhaji Papa Susso (2007): Griot or jeli, master kora player, and director of the Koriya Musa Center for Research in Oral Tradition.
Staceyann Chin (2008): Spoken-word poet, performing artist and LGBT rights political activist.
Rokafella & Kwikstep (2008): Hip-Hop dancers, Artistic directors of Full Circle Productions, a Hip-Hop dance theater company.
Josh Healey (2008): Award-winning writer, performer, and creative activist.
Kevin Coval (2008): Poet, playwright, educator, organizer, Artistic Director of Young Chicago Authors.
Patricia Smith (2008): Poet, spoken-word performer, playwright, author, writing teacher, and former journalist.
Wale (2009): American rapper.
Colin Munroe (2009): Canadian singer-songwriter.
First Wave Music Ensemble (2009): Student performers.
Amir Sulaiman (2009): Poet, recording artist, activist and newly appointed Harvard Fellow.
K Swift (2009): American DJ, MC, radio personality and entreprenuer.
Lemon Andersen (2009): American poet, spoken word artist and actor.
Beau Sia (2009): American Slam poet.
Christopher Walker (2009): UW-Madison assistant professor of Dance and First Wave Hip-Hop Theater Ensemble artistic director.
Janelle Monae (2010): Grammy nominated American singer, songwriter, composer, and record producer signed to Bad Boy Records, Wondaland Art Society, and Atlantic Records.
Colman Domingo (2010): Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, and Drama League Award nominated and OBIE, Lucille Lortel, GLAAD Award winning film, stage, and television actor, playwright, and director.
Stew & Heidi (2010): A four-time Tony nominee, Stew leads, along with his collaborator Heidi Rodewald, two critically acclaimed bands: The Negro Problem and Stew. Works: Post Minstrel Syndrome (TNP 1997), Joys and Concerns (TNP 1999), Guest Host (S 2000), The Naked Dutch Painter (S 2002), Welcome Black (TNP 2002), Something Deeper Than These Changes (S 2003) and the cast album of Passing Strange (2008).
Queen GodIs (2012): International Poet, MC, Artistic Director and Performance Art Therapist whose work serves a host of communities seeking transformation through art.
Hapasan (2012): multiracial Japanese American capoeirista and house dancer based in the Bay Area.
Chanel Matsunami Govreau (2012): Performance storyteller, printmaker and costume designer.
Paul Oakley Stovall (2012): Playwright.
Brad Simmons (2012): Musical director.
GIRLilla Tactics (2013): Devan Rode, Macca, Peipei Yuan – Bgirl workshops
Dawn Crandel (2013): Performing Xenophobadelica. Dawn is a dancer, choreographer, theatre artist, poet, grassroots cultural activist and educator.
Michael Sakamoto (2014): Interdisciplinary artist active in dance, theatre, performance, photography, and media.
Jamila Woods (2015): Poet and vocalist.
Line Breaks - First Wave Performers (2008 - 2015)
First Wave 1st Cohort Ensemble (2008): Performing The Wheatley Prompt, Chisel me Man, On Loving and Learning, Puppets, I am Woman, Hear us Roar, Casualties – Casualties, The Sound Of, Yusef, Immigrante, Goodbye.
Alida Cardos-Whaley (2008): Performing Underground Rail Hop Revolution.
First Wave 2nd Cohort Ensemble (2009): Performing Boomboxed.
Ben Young (2009): Performing The Void.
Karl Iglesias (2009): Performing If a Tree Falls.
Gabriel De Los Reyes (2009): Performing Formal Introduction.
First Wave 3rd Cohort Ensemble (2010): Performing The Issue.
Danez Smith (2010): Performing The Problem With Sundays.
Camea Osborn (2010): Performing Langely Street.
Jessica Diaz-Hurtado (2010): Performing El Viejo Detras Del Escritorio or The Old Man Behind the Desk.
2nd Cohort Works (2010): Asia Elliot, Gabriel De Los Reyes & Angela Thompson – Performing Built into the Walls // Rebekah Blocker, Leslie Thomas, Camea Osborn, Dianna Harris & Asia Elliot – Performing Get a Room // Michael Sherer, Ben Young, Krystal Gartley, Rebekah Blocker, Andrew Thomas, & James Gavins – Performing Home is Where
First Wave 4th Cohort Ensemble (2011): Performing Control Alt Delete.
First Wave 1st Cohort Ensemble Show (2011): Performing Dog Years: A Wisconsin Experience
Danez Smith (2011): Performing For Those Who Pray in Closets.
Jasmine Mans (2011): Performing Bloody Mary
Asia Elliot (2011): Performing Working Class
Gayle Smaller (2011): Performing In Other News
William Giles (2011): Performing Still Born
Kelsey Van Ert (2011): Performing Birdies
Cydney Edwards (2011): Performing Get a Room
First Wave Music Ensemble (2011): Boomboxed – The Remix.
First Wave 5th Cohort Ensemble (2012): Performing Common Denominator
Shameaca Moore & Myriha Burton (2012): Performing Duo Show – Failing with an A
Ashley Street (2012): Performing The Silent Streets are Burning
Nakila Robinson (2012): Performing Little Big Woman
First Wave 2013 Touring Ensemble: Performing Shock
Dominic Nicholas & Jill Fukumoto (2012): Performing Duo Show – Forget It
First Wave 6th Cohort Ensemble (2013): Performing Welcome Mat at Capacity.
Dakota Alcantara-Camacho (2013): Performing Buried Beneath Bombs and Lattes
Asia Elliot (2013): Performing Working Class
Nakila Robinson (2013): Performing Little Big Woman
Natalie Cook (2013): Performing Some May Think Light isn’t Heavy
Gethsemane Herron-Coward (2013): Performing Witness
First Wave 2013 Touring Ensemble: Performing Kingdom Bequeath
Dominique Ricks (2013): Performing Cross-Walk
Richard Jones Jr. & Rebekah Blocker (2013) Performing duo show PPK: Parenting Preachers’ Kids
Erika Dickerson (2013): Performing Cult of Blk Bodies
Marlon Eric Lima (2013): Performing Don’t Just Stand There
Niko Tumamak (2013): Performing The S**t We Go Through
First Wave 7th Cohort Ensemble (2014): Performing Fire Under the Skin
Erika Dickerson (2014): Performing Cult of Blk Bodies
Elton Ferdinand III (2014): Performing Flounder
The Bellhops (2014): Performing Honey in my Tea
T Banks (2014): Ensemble Performing Loud and Unchained
Nakila Robinson & Ashley Street (2014): Performing Duo Show – The Miseducation of Mil Chet
First Wave 8th Cohort (2015): Performing Staying Hungry.
Hiwot Adilow (2015): mine.
Melana Bass (2015): What does In/Justice Look Like
Jill Fukomoto (2015): Liminal Creatures.
LaLa Bolander (2015): SPILL.
Zhalarina Sanders (2015): Rose Gold.
Natalie Cook (2015): Manikin.
Garrett Pauli (2015): Skeletons of Silence.
Ajanae Dawkins (2015): Atlantic.
John Paul Alejandro (2015): In the Belly of the Iron Beast.
T Banks (2015): Loud and Unchained – Spiritual.
Kelsey Pyro (2015): Break the Cycle.
Joseph Verge (2015): Labels.
FXFW: First by First Wave (2015): Featuring CRASHprez, Lord of the Fly, Broadway, Amy Alida, Sean Avery , with Special Performance of Joseph Verge’s “Labels”
Rich Robbins (2015): Opening for Jamilia Woods