High School Friday
High School Friday brings 150 students to the Wisconsin Book Festival for a full school day of book programming. 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.
For more information about the event, email Jessica Becker at jebecker2@wisc.edu.
Jessie Garcia
Madison native Jessie Garcia has been a TV sportscaster for twenty years, first with WISC in Madison and currently with WTMJ in Milwaukee. A graduate of the Boston University College of Communication, Garcia was one of the first women in the country to host an NFL coach’s show. When not reporting or anchoring for WTMJ, Garcia can be found teaching journalism at Carroll University in Waukesha, writing her next two books, or enjoying time with her husband and their two sons.
Library as Incubator Project
The Library as Incubator Project was created by Erinn Batykefer, Laura Damon-Moore, and Christina Endres, and was inspired by a discussion about creative advocacy for libraries in one of their courses at the UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies.
The Project highlights the ways that libraries and artists can work together, and works to strengthen these partnerships. At a time in which both libraries and arts organizations are often having to do more with less, it makes sense for these two parts of our culture to support each other. The Library as Incubator Project calls attention to one of the many reasons libraries are important to our communities and our culture, and provides a dynamic online forum for sharing ideas.
First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble
The First Wave Hip Hop Theatre Ensemble (FWTE) is a groundbreaking collective of spoken word poets, emcees, dancers, singers, actors, and activists from across the United States. FWTE represents the First Wave Hip Hop & Urban Arts Learning Community at UW-Madison, the world's first and only full tuition scholarship for Hip Hop and urbans arts. They create works that unpack the personal narrative as a route to academic engagement, artistic productivity and community engagement.
They have performed in England, Mexico, Panama, Africa, Australia, and Jamaica as well as across the USA including featured performances on Broadway and annual performance keynote at the Boys & Girl Club Keystone Conference. Touring Members host workshops and performances in local and regional high school and community spaces.
FWTE Members for 2021-22 are Azura Tyabji (Seattle), Jackson Neal (Houston), Marjan Naderi (DC), Sarah Abbas (St. Louis), & Zachary Lesmeister (St. Louis).