On the fifth floor of Lathrop Hall, every new cohort is taught the pride of the phrase that heads this article. Each student shouts in boisterous unison the phrase that welcomed them from across the country. Students proudly hail from cities like Phoenix, Ariz., Brooklyn, N.Y., the Bay Area in California, Chicago, Ill., and, of course, Madison, Wis. They hold dear the cultures they carry together in this room. They are the movement of the hip-hop and urban arts scholarship program First Wave, who speak with poetry, rap, beat, vocal, dance and visual art, and I am blessed to use my talents for this program.
First Wave offers a unique development opportunity for student’s artistic talents, admitting 14 to 16 students into each cohort, and every semester, the UW-Madison campus can experience the results. Iconic events include the program’s heavy participation—with fellow UW-Madison students in the performing arts—in the annual Moonshine showcase, an event that honors Caribbean celebratory culture, and the First Wave annual Line Breaks Festival, a weeklong opportunity for selected students to demonstrate their work from the year. The student and program activity throughout the semester is always with the guide of three pillars: academics, artistry and activism. Admitted students are charged with merging their academic and career goals for professional development of their craft.
The program reflects their guide through annual events like Hip Hop in the Heartland, when high-school teachers are invited to the UW-Madison campus to learn and discuss a positive integration of art into the classroom, and are invited to witness an embodiment of art and scholarship in the First Wave students. First Wave also hosts Passing the Mic, an opportunity for high-school student artist to visit the UW-Madison campus introducint them to opportunities in First Wave, workshop with successful professional artists and perform for each other. Many students like myself have come through this event with inspiration of furthering their talents as a part of the learning community. It is a success First Wave proudly holds.
In all of its events the program seeks to enlighten the campus with a multicultural experience that moves people to take creative action for what they believe in, and understand the intersectionality we encounter with any community of which we belong. What has become a popular effort of the program to provide this enlightenment is through the First Wave participation at SOAR.
First Wave has a young involvement in the SOAR process, beginning in summer 2012. Since then, the multicultural program has obtained a sustained contribution to SOAR, in which selected students present a performance that opens the new students to discussions about intersectionality and maneuvering who they are through the many influences and encounters of college. The performers prepare months in advance and then take full advantage of the summer opportunities to demonstrate how First Wave students are taught to collaborate their talents in an inspiring, edutainment way. It’s an experience that introduces the First Wave program to newcomers of the campus, setting up the many shows to be expected of the program in the upcoming year.
“We are First Wave” is a phrase that accurately embodies all that the student artist are when arriving on the shores of the UW Madison campus. Talents and relationships are developed that will never peak, but always grow. I challenge readers, be on the lookout for the wave. There will always be an experience where even you can grow.
Denzel Taylor is a member of First Wave.
