High School Friday 2016

This is a great opportunity for high school students in Madison to experience a wide-range of book-related programming and see many of the exciting programs offered by Madison Public Library. A program-rich schedule is designed to engage students in the Wisconsin Common Core Standards within a dynamic learning environment. Through meaningful interaction with authors, poets, and peers, students will see themselves as active members of the Madison community. They will gain confidence, exposure, and insight while applying skills in reading, writing, language, speaking, and listening in the real world.  The focus of this year’s High School Friday is to highlight the diverse ways cultural programs encourage students to edify, educate, and explore.
 
Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis and will be limited to 200 students. Register by emailing Conor Moran at cmoran@mplfoundation.org.
 
Giving Voice: First Wave Performance
 
Everyone will start together at the Overture Center Promenade Hall for the Opening Session with spoken word artists from the UW-Madison. The presenters come from a variety of backgrounds and are participants in the First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Learning Community, the first university program in the country centered on urban arts, spoken word and hip-hop culture. The program will include a mix of live spoken-word performance and dialogue between the presenters and the audience about the importance of personal expression, finding voice, and using a written or performance medium to build self- confidence, heal personal and societal wounds, and change oneself and the world for the better.
 
The First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Learning Community is a cutting-edge multicultural artistic program for incoming students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Bringing together young artists and leaders from across the U.S and beyond, the First Wave Learning Community offers students the opportunity to live, study and create together in a close-knit, dynamic campus community. Administered by the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI), the First Wave Learning Community is the first university program in the country centered on urban arts, spoken word and hip-hop culture. The inaugural First Wave cohort of fifteen students began their UW-Madison career in the Fall 2007 Semester and currently there are sixty spoken word and hip hop artists on full-tuition scholarship or that have graduated from the First Wave Program. 
 
Creating New Worlds: Author Event - Metaltown by Kristin Simmons & Vicarious by Paula Stokes
 
Kristen Simmons knows the importance of fighting for what you believe in. She has explored controversial topics in all of her young adult novels, which have been taught and discussed in schools across the country and world. The Article 5 series (Article 5, Breaking Point, and Three) dealt with the dangers of an ultra-conservative moral authority imposing religious standards on citizens in a near-future totalitarian United States. And in 2015’s The Glass Arrow, Simmons explored a society in which women were treated as property, to be sold and owned and bred, and a young woman who fought for her freedom. Now, with an all-new gripping stand-alone novel, Metaltown, Simmons presents a tale of young people working under miserable conditions who take a stand – and press back – towards a better life. Simmons’ talent for combing a fascinating and frightening vision of a near-future with a thought-provoking take on political issues, Metaltown is a poignant tale of courage that even the most reluctant reader will not be able to put down. Just like the friends in the book, readers will be moved to #PressBack and fight for the issues that are important to themselves and their communities.
 
Paula Stokes’ Vicarious is an action-packed techno-thriller with a twisty plot and a questionably reliable narrator in which nothing is quite as it seems. Featuring science fiction, romance, and psychological twists and turns, Stokes’ new series has it all and will keep readers glued to the book from page one. An unforgettable, high-tech thrill ride, this near-future page-turner features a series of mysteries and the story of an unbreakable bond between two sisters. It’s a unique and action-packed read for fans of psychological suspense and near-future science fiction.
 
Telling Stories Beyond The Text: Author Event - Tetris by Box Brown
 
It is, perhaps, the perfect video game. Simple yet addictive, Tetris delivers an irresistible, unending puzzle that has players hooked. Play it long enough and you’ll see those brightly colored geometric shapes everywhere. You’ll see them in your dreams. Alexey Pajitnov had big ideas about games. In 1984, he created Tetris in his spare time while developing software for the Soviet government. Once Tetris emerged from behind the Iron Curtain, it was an instant hit. Nintendo, Atari, Sega—game developers big and small all wanted Tetris. A bidding war was sparked, followed by clandestine trips to Moscow, backroom deals, innumerable miscommunications, and outright theft.  New York Times–bestselling author Box Brown untangles this complex history and delves deep into the role games play in art, culture, and commerce. For the first time and in unparalleled detail, Tetris: The Games People Play tells the true story of the world’s most popular video game.