MADISON, WI – The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s award-winning Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI), home of the First Wave Scholarship program, partners with the Wisconsin Book Festival to present the 12th Annual Passing the Mic (PTM) Festival. This year the theme of the festival is “Hip Hop Education in the Classroom and Beyond” and is in recognition of the growing importance and impact that hip hop pedagogy and education is having at the local, national and global levels. Guest artists will also meet with K-12 educators and students during their visit.

Passing the Mic is an annual event that celebrates the transformational potential of hip hop and multicultural arts expressions in the Madison community and on the UW-Madison campus and involves First Wave scholars and alums, teen artists from across the Midwest as well as internationally-renowned performing artists and scholars. It also serves as a recruitment tool for future OMAI’s First Wave Hip Hop Scholars.

This year’s festival will include the First Annual Hip Hop Education Summit, featuring the signature artists headlining the Passing the Mic Festival and also Wisconsin educators who have attended OMAI’s ground-breaking Hip Hop in the Heartland Educator’s Institutes.
Guest artists this year include:

Toni Blackman (New York City) | Actress, artist and former American Cultural Specialist in Hip Hop to the U.S. Department of State | http://www.toniblackman.com/

Jeff Chang (San Francisco Bay area) | Author and Executive Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University | http://jeffchang.net/

Chris Emdin (New York City) | Professor at Columbia University and STEAM Ambassador for the U.S. Department of State | http://chrisemdin.com/

Brian Mooney (New Jersey) |Author and Educator | http://brianmooney.com/

Xuman (Senegal) | Hip Hop artist, activist and TV co-host for “Journal Rappe” |

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCImRGQL_sK7OHi1h823Nc0w

Rain Wilson (Chicago and Madison) | Writer, performer, teacher and director

All of the events are free and open to the public and registration is only required for the 1st Annual Hip Hop Education Summit. Registration is available at the website above.

SCHEDULE

All events are at the Overture Center for the Arts Promenade Hall (201 State St, Madison) unless noted otherwise.

Thursday, October 20

7:00-9:30 p.m.

Passing the Mic / All Elements Hip Hop Arts Showcase featuring Midwest Hip Hop All Stars

Hosted by Toni Blackman & First Wave

Includes performances by youth poetry slam and hip hop artists from Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Madison, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities.

Friday, October 21

5:30-7 p.m.

First Wave Voices

Gloria Ladson Billings hosts First Wave poets as they put their unique poetic spin on the theme of the Passing the Mic festival, “Hip Hop Education in the Classroom and Beyond.”

8-9:30 p.m.

Showcase: Making Waves Across the World

A joint performance by MC Legend Toni Blackman and Senegalese Sensation Xuman along with a special presentation by the 10th Cohort of First Wave.

Saturday, Oct. 22

10 a.m. – 2:45 p.m.

Hip Hop Education Summit

Please note that you must register to attend this event. go.wisc.edu/ywfj73

Passing the Mic guest artists will meet with K-12 teachers and students to showcase the power and potential of using hip hop methodologies in the classroom.

3 p.m.

Jeff Chang Book Release

“We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation”

Madison Central Library, Rooms 301 & 302 (201 West Mifflin St)

In these provocative, powerful essays acclaimed writer/journalist Jeff Chang, author of “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” and “Who We Be,” takes an incisive and wide-ranging look at the recent tragedies and widespread protests that have shaken the country. Through deep reporting with key activists and thinkers, passionately personal writing, and distinguished cultural criticism, “We Gon’ Be Alright” links #BlackLivesMatter to #OscarsSoWhite, Ferguson to Washington D.C., the Great Migration to resurgent nativism.

Chang explores the rise and fall of the idea of “diversity,” the roots of student protest, changing ideas about Asian Americanness, and the impact of a century of racial separation in housing. He argues that resegregation is the unexamined condition of our time, the undoing of which is key to moving the nation forward to racial justice and cultural equity.

6-7 p.m.

Brian Mooney and Chris Emdin Book Signing (more details available on the website)

A Room of One’s Own (315 W Gorham St)

About Brian Mooney’s “Breakbeat Pedagogy”:

“Breakbeat Pedagogy” provides a groundbreaking framework for the inclusion of Hip Hop culture in schools. Working from the perspective of a classroom teacher, Mooney reflects on the story of Word Up!, a Hip Hop and spoken word poetry event that began with students in a New Jersey high school, making the case for a pedagogy with the potential to transform urban schools and the way we think about them. This is essential reading for any teacher committed to social justice and culturally responsive education.

About Chris Emdin’s “For White Folks Who Teach In The Hood…And The Rest of Y’all Too”:

Merging real stories with theory, research, and practice, a prominent scholar offers a new approach to teaching and learning for every stakeholder in urban education. Drawing on his own experience of feeling undervalued and invisible in classrooms as a young man of color and merging his experiences with more than a decade of teaching and researching in urban America, award-winning educator Chris Emdin offers a new lens on an approach to teaching and learning in urban schools.

8-10 p.m. (Overture Center)

Xuman featuring Rain Wilson, First Wave alum Myriha Burton, and follow-up panel discussion featuring community leaders.

Esteemed performance artist, Rain Wilson, will be joined by First Wave alum Myriha Burton and other artists to perform pieces that will broaden, deepen, and stimulate conversations about police brutality and how it can be changed. A talk back with the artists and performers and a panel discussion featuring prominent community leaders will immediately follow the performance.

PARTNERS/SUPPORTERS

Passing the Mic is held in conjunction with the Wisconsin Book Festival. It is presented by the UW-Madison Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) within the Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement. Community partners/supporters include the Overture Center for the Arts, Breaking Barriers Mentoring, Project 1808 and the Madison Metropolitan School District. UW-Madison partners/supporters include the Arts Institute, Department of Afro-American Studies and the School of Education’s Outreach and Partnership Office and Partner School Network.