First Wave puts hip-hop on the curriculum

When one imagines pop culture’s most common incarnation of hip-hop being squished into a ball with musical theater, it’s tough to conjure up anything realistic; Gucci Mane stumbling through Cats as Bustopher Jones with auto-tune? Horrific, right? Thankfully, the University Of Wisconsin’s First Wave program has a far different vision of the merging of those aforementioned elements, a vision that knocked us flat on our asses on several occasions in 2010. Perhaps the most obvious example is the rising popularity of slam poet and First Wave student Jasmine Mans, who openly challenged rising bisexual hip-hop star Nicki Minaj to—among other things—use her stardom to get behind the LGBT community and speak out against homophobia instead of allowing herself to be exploited. Mans performed this poem before Janelle Monáe took the stage at the Office Of Multicultural Arts Initiatives and First Wave program’s 2010 Line Breaks Festival in April, and it still resonates with The A.V. Club as one of the greatest moments we had the chance to cover in Madison last year.

Hell, the Line Breaks festival in itself was a monumental eye-opener, providing a serious challenge to anyone who still believes that hip-hop culture is limited to rap music. In fact, Monáe’s seamless patchwork of dynamic croons, spat couplets, frantic movement, and on-stage theatrics that rocked the Memorial Union Terrace seemed to fall perfectly in line with First Wave’s modus operandi. Needless to say, the delightfully unusual performances from both Line Breaks and Mans left us with many questions about the relatively young program (it began in the fall semester of 2007), the first being—what exactly is First Wave?

“First Wave is not a major,” says First Wave and OMAI office manager Lauren Rutlin Young. She continues, “It’s sort of a companion artistic program that is independent of whatever major the student chooses. A student could be pre-law, a business major, or math major—something that isn’t artistically inclined—and still be accepted into First Wave.”

While the student sticks with First Wave for four years, he or she is only required to take one year-long introductory course with the program’s artistic director, Chris Walker. “It’s an artistic introduction into the program, covering the basic principles of theatre, particularly movement and writing. The class starts with some basic reading and writing prompts that often draw from social justice issues. One of the books they read is Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy Of The Oppressed,” says Young. “This type of reading helps inform some of our students’ initial writing. Eventually Chris shows them how to add movement and other theatrical elements to the pieces that they write, and the entire freshman cohort produces a full ensemble show together as part of Line Breaks.”

While there may only be one primary class for freshmen, upper classmen continue to take workshops with Walker and develop smaller ensemble pieces. Eventually, seniors produce an entire piece together, and then work on a final project that develops their portfolios and gathers what they’ve learned over the four years.

While Line Breaks seems like the obvious focal point for First Wave, the program also sends a few of its finest slam poets to the New York Knicks poetry slam finals, which is held at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway. The program also extends its reach into local high schools, sending First Wave students to be “poet mentors.”

“They go in and work closely with a teacher liaison or faculty member from an affiliated high school that is interested in working on poetry and spoken word with its students,” Young says. “From here, First Wave students help with writing and help prepare the high school students for school-wide poetry slams. The winners of those slams get to join the winners from Milwaukee for statewide teen poetry slams.”

It was competing in youth poetry slams that ultimately lead Mans First Wave. “Urban Word NYC, the number one, non-profit youth literacy organization in New York City educated me on the program,” Mans says. “I wanted to practice art and receive a great education for free. I applied, got accepted, and realized it was everything I ever wanted. It’s the first hip-hop scholarship program in the country and only accepts 15 students per year. They saw me as an asset to their team.”

According to First Wave student and local rapper J. Dante, who dropped a couple of head-turning EPs this year (including a collaboration with Dumate’s Man Mantis), the program has touched his personal work in a huge way. “Just being around other artists with goals for themselves is very inspiring,” Dante says. “I learn how to present art on a professional level and get to learn from other artists’ experiences. I write songs with the intent of putting as much quality in as possible. Beyond that, I’ve learned the importance of collaboration by working with so many different artists.”

Mans offers similar sentiments: “First Wave has made my art more versatile and professional. My art is no longer a hobby. I give it time as if it’s a job, I nourish it as if it’s my baby, I celebrate it as if it’s my dream, and I share it as if it’s my God-given talent.”