Cutting-edge diversity program wins Governor's Award

Thursday, September 03, 2009 -

They’re talented, young and passionate. But members of the First Wave Spoken Word and Hip-Hop Arts Learning Community primarily describe themselves as UW-Madison students.

 “We are students and we are artists,” said Karl Iglesias, a 19 year-old sophomore from Milwaukee who learned about the program two years ago while studying at Rufus King High School. He is a member of the second cohort admitted to First Wave, which was founded in 2007.

“I was just at the birth of my art. Acting is a passion of mine,” said Iglesias, whose poetry is sometimes interlaced with Spanish and his experiences as a Puerto Rican growing up in Milwaukee.  But these are just contributing factors to the direction and depth of his art.  On stage, he evolves into an intriguing presence as his poetry lyrically paints the personal trials of his life. As an artist, he simply wants to share his story his way.   

“My culture is art. My culture and art is Hip-Hop,” Iglesias said.  He hopes that someday soon Hip-Hop can be better understood and respected as an art form and a movement that’s more than rapping and commercial music.

UW-Madison’s First Wave program just may be where that turnaround begins. The UW-Madison Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI), which oversees the First Wave Learning Community has been selected to receive one of the state’s top honors, a 2009 Governor’s Award in Support of the Arts. This is the first time a university arts program has won the award in its long history of recognizing arts programs and philanthropists across the state of Wisconsin.

“The quality of art has nothing to do with the age of the lips its being spoken through,” Iglesias said. “You don’t have to be twenty-five to be legitimate in what you do and the ability to express yourself isn’t age related.” But he’s still a student, said Iglesias, who is proud to be a Dean’s List student as a freshman. Now, focusing on his poetry and expanding into dance, he’s moving toward a major in theater. “The most important thing I’ve learned about in First Wave is sacrifice,” he said.

In order to nurture his art he has had to make sacrifices of time, fun and learning how to prioritize his studies. Working with the program’s instruction team, including School of Education-based faculty and Creative Director Chris Walker, and Russell Simmons Def Poet and First Wave Creative Director Rafael Casal, students combine pursuit of an academic degree with learning the language, communication and performance skills of Spoken Word and Hip-Hop.    

The cutting-edge multicultural artistic program for incoming UW-Madison students is the first university program in the nation centered on Spoken Word and Hip-Hop culture. Each year, the program admits a 15-member cohort. There are now 45 students in this close-knit, dynamic campus learning community.

“First Wave harnesses an artistic passion that students share across academic disciplines,” said Willie Ney, OMAI Executive Director. “They are a family of artists drawn from across the United States from diverse and dynamic Spoken Word and Hip-Hop communities who support each other in both their pursuit of education and in realizing their individual potential as expressive artists. To be not only recognized, but awarded, by the state’s art community is coveted praise and an affirmation that we’re reaching our goal of contributing to inclusion in the arts and exposing the broader arts community to youth-centered culturally relevant programming.”

Across the board, First Wave students have set a goal of changing how Hip-Hop and Spoken Word is viewed. “Hip-Hop has the connotation of being for street rats and drop outs,” Igelsias added, and that is undeserved stereotype for serious artists. “This isn’t a game or a fad. To be part of First Wave is definitely groundbreaking. It’s a time to be part of that voice.”

A native of Hawaii, William Giles, 20, had written poetry privately for several years, but didn’t discover the Spoken Word community until just over a year ago when he joined the international Youth Speaks organization in Hawaii.

“I started writing because I didn’t know how to talk to people,” he said. The non-profit teen organization, Youth Speaks, opened a door into an unexpected world stage for Giles. He went from a shy and frustrated teen to becoming a member of the winning Youth Speaks Slam team in Hawaii, then on to win the Brave New Voices International Poetry Championship in 2008. He never imagined being, or wanting to come to Madison, Wisconsin. “I didn’t know where Madison, Wis., was before I heard of First Wave,” he said. 

The Spoken Word community drew Giles in and he worked hard to earn a berth in UW-Madison’s program, transferring from the University of Hawaii to become a member of the third First Wave cohort this fall.

From the beginning, it was clear that UW-Madison’s First Wave Learning Community has nothing to do with the commercial Hip-Hop world. “Commercial Rap and Hip-Hop perpetuates negative stereotypes,” Giles said. “It traps a lot of youth into the negative roles it portrays. Spoken Word is an art form. In First Wave, I’m working with the most conscientious artists I’ve ever worked with and the art has sparked my pursuit of academics.”

Programs like First Wave are crucial to a place like UW-Madison, because it brings a different kind of individual into the university population, especially talented youth from multicultural backgrounds who already are socially and politically aware, Giles said. Through First Wave, they are developing into leaders. “It brings a critical element to the mix,” Giles said.  “First Wave creates really well-rounded individuals.”

On Thursday, Oct. 8, the public is invited to join OMAI in celebrating the Governor’s Arts Award as part of the opening festivities of the annual “Passing the Mic” series. Governor Jim Doyle and his wife, Jessica, will honor this year’s Support of the Arts award recipients on Oct. 22 at the Executive Residence.  For more information, contact Valeria Davis at vadavis2@wisc.edu.

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