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.

-###-

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.

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.

###

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

Read the press release here

Acton Madison Children’s Business Fair

Could a ten-year-old create the next Uber? Find out at the Acton Madison Children’s Business Fair, showcasing children’s entrepreneurial genius!

On Saturday, March 18 from 9 am – 12 pm, the 1st annual Acton Madison Children’s Business Fair will host 24 young entrepreneurs ages 6-12 at 4100 Nakoma Rd, Madison, WI 53711. This event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Children from all over the greater Madison area will have the opportunity to create a product or service, develop a brand, build a marketing strategy, and then open for customers at this one-day marketplace. Each young entrepreneur is responsible for the setup, sales, and interaction with customers.

This event is sponsored by Acton Academy Madison West, Acton Academy, Next Great Adventure, local businesses within Madison, and the generous support of our donors and volunteers, who all believe that principled entrepreneurs are heroes and role models for the next generation.

“Today’s youth are tomorrow’s business innovators and leaders. The Children’s Business Fair gives students the opportunity to spread their entrepreneurial wings and get a head start on promising business careers,” said Jeff Sandefer, founder of the Acton School of Business, one of the sponsors of the fair.

Cash prizes will be awarded in each of the three age groups (6-7, 8-10, and 11-12) for “Most Business Potential,” “Most Creative Idea,” and “Most Impressive Presentation.”

Every important step in the business process is meant to be tackled by the budding entrepreneurs themselves.

“We are thrilled to host the Children’s Business Fair and bring this kind of community-wide event to Madison,” said Marisa Palmer, Co-Founder of Acton Academy Madison West, a new K-5 school situated in the Nakoma neighborhood. “The children who participate show real courage in taking this on, and being willing to bring their ideas to life. We celebrate that willingness to take a risk and make things happen in life.”

Both adult sponsors and entrepreneurs are available for interviews on camera or off. For more information, please contact Marisa Palmer, Co-Founder at Acton Academy Madison West at marisa@actonmadison.com or Ellie Heiking, Director of Engagement at Acton Academy Madison West at ellie@actonmadison.com.

ArtLitLab: 2023 Summer Youth Arts Registration Opens February 1

Once again, we’re planning an exciting schedule of full-day and half-day camps. Spaces are limited, so early registration is encouraged.

ArtLitLab offers 10 weeks of summer arts for youth ages 7-10 and 11-14 taught by professional artists. Explore two new themes each week, such as printmaking, drawing, sculpture, Indigenous arts, photography, fiber arts, writing, letterpress, and more.

Summer youth arts is taught by professional artists. Stay tuned for the 2023 teacher roster!

Thanks to a partnership with Goodman Community Center, a snack and lunch (for all youth staying during lunchtime) will be provided every day!

Camp Tuition Assistance:

ALL seeks to make summer arts enrichment accessible to all youth. Please contact Education & Outreach Director Ceara Yahn at education@artlitlab.org to learn more about tuition assistance options prior to registering.

Schedule:

Summer Arts Camp will be held June 12 – August 18, 2023 at Arts + Literature Laboratory. Morning session will begin at 9:00am and end at 12:00pm. Youth can arrive no earlier than 8:40am and must be picked up promptly at 12:00pm unless the Lunchtime option is added.

During Lunchtime from 12:00-1:00pm, youth can enjoy lunch provided by the Goodman Commnity Center or a packed lunch from home, and teachers will lead campers on walks to nearby parks and playgrounds, or youth can relax and read, play games, or continue creative activities. If you register for a full day of camp, you must also register for Lunchtime Activities.

Afternoon session will begin at 1:00pm and end at 4:00pm. Youth should arrive at 1:00pm and must be picked up promptly at 4:00pm. Youth attending afternoon sessions are also wecome to add on Lunchtime for earlier arrival.

Camp participants will explore two different artforms each week – morning session 9:00am-12:00pm, and afternoon session 1:00pm-4:00pm. There may be some special camps that are only offered all day.

Campers are encouraged to bring water bottles clearly labled with their names each day. You may send your own snacks, or a snack provided by Goodman Community Center will be available. If your child has food allergies, please be sure to include this information in the registration form.

Registration Procedure & Policies:

Registration for individual weeks can be completed through our online registration platform on this page under Camps & Events.

TIP: Filter for the desired age group to simplify the options displayed!

Contact: Please email education@artlitlab.org or call 608-556-7415 if you have questions or need assistance with registration.