Wisconsin Union Theater: Jazz Singer, Composer Cécile McLorin Salvant Will Showcase Rich Vocals and Stories During Feb. 7 Performance at Memorial Union

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 31, 2023

Contact Information:
Shauna Breneman, Communications Director
Email: sbreneman@wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-8862

DOWNLOAD PHOTOS: cecilemclorinsalvant.com/photos.

READ RELEASE ONLINE: union.wisc.edu/about/news/salvant.

JAZZ SINGER, COMPOSER CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT WILL SHOWCASE RICH VOCALS AND STORIES DURING FEB. 7 PERFORMANCE AT MEMORIAL UNION

MADISON – Three-time GRAMMY Award-winning composer, jazz singer and musical storyteller Cécile McLorin Salvant will blend sounds that reimagine the jazz genre when she performs at Shannon Hall in Memorial Union on Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m. CST. Salvant’s concert is part of the Wisconsin Union Theater’s 2022-23 Jazz Series.

Patrons can purchase in-person or virtual tickets to Salvant’s performance through the event webpage, by phone at (608) 265-2787, or at the Memorial Union Box Office. Wisconsin Union lifetime and annual members, patrons under the age of 18, and University of Wisconsin–Madison students, staff and faculty can purchase tickets at a discounted rate.

Salvant discovered her passion for music at a young age, beginning piano lessons at 5 years old, joining a children’s choir at the age of 8, and enrolling in classical voice training as a teenager. Since her early music education, she has shifted her focus from classical music to jazz and has established herself as one of the most highly acclaimed jazz singers of her generation.

Stylistic experimentation, heartfelt storytelling and velvety vocals characterize Salvant’s unique sound. Salvant considers herself an “eclectic curator,” as she draws connections between genres and time periods usually considered distinct, including vaudeville, blues, jazz, baroque and folkloric music.

Salvant’s repertoire contains new takes on jazz standards along with many original compositions. During her Feb. 7 concert, Salvant will perform a 90-minute set featuring songs from her 2022 album “Ghost Song,” which explores themes of love, loss and life, as well as selections from her previous discography. The New York Times recently named “Ghost Song” the Best Jazz Album of 2022.

Over the course of her extensive career, Salvant has received an array of prestigious awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship, the Doris Duke Artist Award, and GRAMMY Awards for best jazz vocal album.

“I have major respect for Cécile with her unapologetic rejection of jazz standards without alienating the traditional jazz audience,” Wisconsin Union Theater Director Elizabeth Snodgrass said. “She is remarkably talented and creative. Sometimes, the industry shapes the artist, but Cécile is one of those artists who is shaping the industry. I’m so glad we could have her back to the Wisconsin Union Theater.”

Remaining Wisconsin Union Theater 2022-23 season events include Pilobolus’s “Big Five-Oh!” on Feb. 1; Imani Winds on Feb. 5; Samara Joy on Feb. 16; Immanuel Wilkins on March 25; Anthony McGill with the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra on April 4; and the Danish String Quartet on April 18.

Click here for more information about the Feb. 7 performance by Salvant.

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About the Wisconsin Union Theater

For more than 80 years, the Wisconsin Union Theater has served as a center for cultural activity in the heart of the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. The Theater hosts performances in multiple locations, including Memorial Union, and has an extensive history of remarkable performances. The Wisconsin Union Theater is committed to social justice and works to create an equitable, diverse, and inclusive place for all who engage with the Theater’s programming, events, and activities. The Wisconsin Union Theater is part of the Wisconsin Union, a membership organization that blends study and leisure to create unique out-of-classroom opportunities. Learn more: union.wisc.edu/wisconsin-union-theater.

About the Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee

The Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee is part of the Wisconsin Union’s leadership development program for UW–Madison students and supports the Wisconsin Union Theater’s mission of serving students through the performing arts. By helping to program the Theater’s annual season of performing arts presentations, the students learn about program curation, relationship-building, marketing, communications, budgeting, and production. Learn more: union.wisc.edu/get-involved/wud/performing-arts.

Nearly 26,000 meals donated by National Guardian Life Insurance Company to fight hunger

Donations for Share Your Holidays campaign benefit Second Harvest Foodbank

Madison, Wis. (January 25, 2023) – National Guardian Life Insurance Company (NGL) proudly supported the 27^th Annual NBC15 Share Your Holidays to eliminate hunger campaign to benefit Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin. The food/fund drive campaign helped raise 5.37 million meals surpassing its goal of 5 million meals.

NGL’s $10,000 Bronze sponsorship provided 25,000 meals for people who are struggling with hunger in our community. In addition to NGL’s corporate sponsorship, three of NGL’s team members volunteered during the Grand Finale Phone-A-Thon and seven team members volunteered for the Sort-A-Thon on December 14. Including the volunteer value time, NGL’s commitment to help those facing hunger meant nearly 26,000 meals were donated! The impact means that 23 people in our community will be fed for more than a year.

“We are grateful to support Second Harvest Foodbank and proud to be part of the positive impact they are making in our community. The unfortunate reality is that all area food banks are experiencing an increase in demand for food assistance. Second Harvest helps fill a crucial role for people who are facing hunger. At NGL, we believe everyone should have access to healthful, nutritious foods and that no one should feel hunger or worry where their next meal will come from,” said Maria Lubick, Assistant Vice President, Corporate Communications & Community Engagement at NGL.

For every $10 donation Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin is able to provide up to 25 meals to adults, children and seniors who are struggling with hunger.

About Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin

Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin, southwestern Wisconsin’s largest hunger relief organization, is a nonprofit that is committed to ending hunger in 16 southwestern Wisconsin counties through community partnerships. Learn more at:  www.secondharvestmadison.org.

About NGL

Established in 1909 National Guardian Life Insurance Company (NGL) is an insurance company headquartered in Madison, Wis. Licensed to do business in 49 states and the District of Columbia, NGL markets preneed and individual life and annuities, as well as group markets products. Information about NGL can be found at www.nglic.com; Facebook: Facebook.com/NGLIC and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-guardian-life-insurance-company.

National Guardian Life Insurance Company is not affiliated with The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America a/k/a The Guardian or Guardian Life.

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UW–Madison to host Porsha Olayiwola and Eve L. Ewing for Spring 2023 Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, January 26, 2023

Media Contact: aryn kresol, Arts Residency Programs Coordinator at UW–Madison Division of the Arts, akresol@wisc.edu

URL: artsresidency.wisc.edu

Link to media assets: https://uwmadison.box.com/s/j0964y9njsyyt2p3be0e3oucmyi3axv9 

Link to article: https://artsdivision.wisc.edu/2023/01/26/iarp-spring-2023/ 

UW–Madison to host Porsha Olayiwola and Eve L. Ewing for Spring 2023 Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program

Madison, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of the Arts and the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) welcome Porsha Olayiwola and Eve L. Ewing as the spring 2023 Interdisciplinary Artists-in-Residence. 

An academic year-long partnership between the Division of the Arts and OMAI, the collaboration presents a series of short-term residencies with interdisciplinary artists. Launching in October 2022 with artist-collaborators Jay Adana and Zeniba Now, each artist-in-residence in the series represents the three pillars of OMAI: academics, arts and activism. Each residency also includes presentations and conversations in partnership with arts departments on campus.

Writer, performer and playwright Porsha Olayiwola will be on campus February 24–March 4, 2023. Olayiwola’s residency will include participation as a performer in the annual “Moonshine – A Black History Month tradition” presented by the Dance Department, and a panelist at the Division of the Arts’ February Arts Together event on Friday, February 24. Olayiwola will also be interviewed on Badger Talks Live on Tuesday, February 28 and appear as the featured artist at OMAI’s Just Bust! Open Mic on Friday, March 3 and Workshop on Saturday, March 4.

Writer, scholar and cultural organizer Dr. Eve L. Ewing will be on campus March 29–April 1. As part of the residency, Ewing will be the featured performer at the annual Line Breaks Festival, and engage in public conversations with UW–Madison faculty.

Public Events: Porsha Olayiwola

Friday, February 24 | 3:30 p.m.

Moonshine – A Black History Month tradition

Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space, Lathrop Hall (1050 University Avenue)

“Moonshine” is a traditional performance gathering in celebration of Black History Month featuring dance, spoken word and experimental contemporary performance.

Friday, February 24 | time TBD

Arts Together with the Dance Department

Virginia Harrison Parlor, Lathrop Hall (1050 University Avenue)

Following “Moonshine – A Black History Month tradition,” join the Division of the Arts for Arts Together, a reception and panel discussion with Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Porsha Olayiwola and others. Arts Together events bring faculty and staff together to meet each other, share in collaborative ideas and explore opportunities for funding creative research as we celebrate the arts on campus.

Tuesday, February 28 | 12 p.m.

Badger Talks LIVE Quick Picks: The Impact of Interdisciplinary Arts

Live on Facebook

A short-form (15 min) virtual talk series featuring talent from the University of Wisconsin-Madison which brings exciting happenings, resources and talent to the people of Wisconsin and beyond. This Black History Month, the Division will highlight the various ways in which the arts create and activate spaces of belonging at UW–Madison, and in turn, improve individual wellbeing through conversations with arts faculty and staff, guest artists, and students. In this talk, learn about the Arts Residency Programs and the impact of interdisciplinary arts at UW–Madison through a conversation with Black, queer performing artist Shasparay Irvin and Black writer, performer, playwright and current Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Porsha Olayiwola.

Friday, March 3 | 8–10 p.m.

Just Bust! Open Mic

Wisconsin Historical Society (816 State Street)

Madison’s long-running, all-ages open mic, Just Bust! Open Mic, includes community performances, First Wave and alumni spotlight performance and a performance by Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Porsha Olayiwola. Interested in performing during the open mic portion of the event? Sign up (in-person) begins at 8 p.m. and goes on throughout the night until all slots are filled. Make sure to arrive early to guarantee a spot in the lineup! Free, all ages and open to the public.

Saturday, March 4 | 1–3 p.m.

Just Bust! Workshop

The Bubbler at Madison Public Library (201 W. Mifflin Street)

An artistic workshop led by Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence Porsha Olayiwola. 

About the Artists

Porsha Olayiwola is a native of Chicago who writes, lives and loves in Boston. Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses Afrofuturism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman and queer diasporas. She is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the founder of the Roxbury Poetry Festival. Olayiwola is Brown University’s 2019 Heimark Artist-In-Residence as well as the 2021 Artist-in-Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She is a 2020 Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. Olayiwola earned her MFA in poetry from Emerson College and is the author of “i shimmer sometimes, too.” Olayiwola is the current Poet Laureate for the city of Boston. Her work can be found in or forthcoming from with “TriQuarterly Magazine,” “Black Warrior Review,” “The Boston Globe,” “Essence Magazine,” Redivider, The Academy of American Poets, Netflix, Wildness Press, The Museum of Fine Arts and elsewhere.

Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a Chicago-based sociologist of education. She is the award-winning author of four books, including a book for young readers, “Maya and the Robot;” the poetry collection “1919,” the nonfiction work “Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side” and her first book, the poetry collection “Electric Arches,” which was named one of the year’s best books by NPR and the “Chicago Tribune.” She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall, assistant professor of English at UW–Madison) of the play “No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks.” She also wrote the Ironheart series and the Champions series for Marvel Comics. Ewing is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.

About the Presenters

The Division of the Arts’ Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program (IARP), originated through the Cluster Hiring Initiative of the Office of the Provost, brings innovative, world-class artists to the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. Since 1999, the program has hosted over 40 residencies involving more than 100 guest artists from 20 different countries, engaging over 60 university units and community organizations. 

All residencies center interdisciplinary arts, recognizing that interdisciplinarity can break down barriers and silos, advance intellectual artistic diversity and give opportunities to people who do not fit into the traditional modes of inquiry and practice (see the Division of the Arts’ guiding principle of The Arts for Everyone, Everywhere). The program often brings together artists, faculty, staff and students from various disciplines across the arts, sciences and humanities. Integrated with curricular activities, all arts residencies in this program are proposed by academic departments or officially recognized interdepartmental programs, centers or institutes at UW–Madison.

While in residence, artists teach interdisciplinary workshops and participate in public programming with campus and Madison communities. The program provides students with extended learning experiences with a working artist, including options to earn course credit; increases diversity of teaching staff on campus; and strengthens programmatic ties among individual departments, programs and other campus and community arts entities.

The Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) within the Division of Diversity, Equity, & Educational Achievement provides culturally relevant and transformative arts programming to promote positive social dialogue and to give cultural art forms a legitimate academic forum. By harnessing the broad cultural influence of spoken word, hip hop and emerging as well as traditional art forms, OMAI’s events and programming create learning environments that directly affect UW–Madison’s campus climate, improving retention and graduation success, preparing future leaders to reinvest in their communities. By continually refreshing this paradigm that integrates traditional academics and cutting edge arts activism, OMAI empowers transnational leaders with new tools for inclusive community building.

One of OMAI’s most prominent initiatives is the First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Learning Community, a cutting-edge multicultural artistic program for incoming students which offers a four-year full tuition scholarship to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Bringing together young artists and leaders from across the United States and beyond, the First Wave Learning Community offers students the opportunity to live, study and create together in a close-knit, dynamic campus community. First Wave is the first university program in the country centered on urban arts, spoken word and hip-hop culture.

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Madison Originals member restaurants leading a food drive for 4 local food pantries

Read the press release here

Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin Receives Anticoagulation Center of Excellence Designation

MADISON, WISCONSIN – Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin (GHC-SCW) is honored to announce it has received the Anticoagulation Center of Excellence designation. The three-year designation illustrates GHC-SCW’s commitment to providing the highest level of care to patients taking antithrombotic medications.

What is Anticoagulation Care?

Anticoagulation Care is also known as blood thinner therapy. It is important for treating blood clots and preventing strokes caused by a heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation. Blood thinners need more attention than some other drug therapies to keep the risk of clots balanced with the risk of bleeding. It needs special management around the time of surgeries.

The Anticoagulation Forum awards organizations the classification if it meets all criteria associated with five pillars, including drug therapy management, disease state management, transitions and coordination of care, service operational performance, and patient and family education.

“We are honored to receive the Anticoagulation Center of Excellence designation because it reaffirms GHC-SCW’s commitment to provide our patients with a high level of care and also to continuous improvement,” said Jillian Dougherty, GHC-SCW’s Anticoagulation Team Lead. “There’s always new information coming out that may help a patient, so it’s important for providers to be at the forefront of the most up-to-date research and drug therapy practices.”

In addition to recognizing the work already done, the Anticoagulation Center of Excellence aids organizations and health care providers in staying up to date on the latest research and best practices through a resource center that contains the most current comprehensive set of standards and workflows.

“Our primary purpose is to provide education and be a resource to patients and providers,” adds Dougherty. “We often form strong relationships with our patients as we work closely with them on their anticoagulation care. It’s one of my favorite parts of my role here at GHC-SCW.”

About Anticoagulation Forum

The Anticoagulation Forum is a multidisciplinary non-profit organization that works to improve the quality of care for patients taking antithrombotic medications. The AC Forum promotes the clinical application of evidence-based practices and provides education and networking opportunities for health care professionals. To learn more about the program, visit acforum.org

About GHC-SCW

Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin (GHC-SCW) is Wisconsin’s first and Dane County’s only member-owned, non-profit health care cooperative. With the largest primary care network in Dane County, the Cooperative has more than 83,000 members and serves the greater Dane County area and the South Central Wisconsin region with insurance and clinical services. GHC-SCW is the first health plan in Wisconsin to offer patients a money-back guarantee if they are not satisfied with their experience at a GHC-SCW clinic. GHC-SCW is perennially a national leader for quality. In 2022, GHC-SCW achieved a rating of 4.5 out of 5 rating among commercial plans; no other health plan in Wisconsin scored higher, according to the National Committee for Quality Assurance. To learn more about GHC-SCW, visit ghcscw.com. 

Media Contact
Katelyn McLaughlin
Marketing and Communications Manager
608-251-4156 Ext. 4453
kmclaughlin@ghcscw.com