Line Breaks Hip-Hop Theater Festival

media release: OMAI’s Line Breaks Hip Hop Theater Festival consists of performances, lectures and discussions by First Wave artist-scholars and invited professional artists engaging with the Madison community, on and off campus. Inaugurated through OMAI’s sponsored Interdisciplinary Arts Residency with Marc Bamuthi Joseph in the spring of 2007, the Line Breaks project culminated in a final performance of student work called “Just Bust!.” Now running for 15 years, “Just Bust!” has evolved into an open mic.

April 4:

An Evening With Hanif Abdurraqib, 5:30 – 7:30pm (reception from 7-7:30pm), Wisconsin Historical Society

Join the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives and the Rebecca M. Blank Center for Campus History for a fireside chat with Hanif Abdurraqib as a part of the 18th annual Line Breaks Festival. An essayist, poet, cultural critic, and author of A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, Hanif will lead a conversation on the intersections of race, culture, and performance. A follow up Q&A/discussion with the audience will allow UW students to engage with a scholar, artist, and MacArthur fellow on the art of writing culturally relevant prose and the necessity of creating in our current moment

Just Bust! Open Mic with Hanif Abdurraqib, 8:00 – 10:00pm, Wisconsin Historical Society

Join the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives for an amazing open mic showcase. Featuring the essayist, poet, cultural critic, and author of A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, Hanif Abdurraqib.

April 5:

Just Bust! Workshop with Hanif Abdurraqib, 1:00 – 3:00pm, Red Gym On Wisconsin A/B Room

Join the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives for an interactive workshop lead by essayist, poet, cultural critic, and author of A Little Devel in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, Hanif Abdurraqib.

April 7: 

“On the Line” A Madison Music Community Listening Session with Dom Mclennon and Chuck Sutton, 6:00 – 8:30pm, Gamma Ray Bar

Join us for an evening of sharing what you’re cooking up with the Madison Music Community! This space is made for you to show your work to the people who need to hear it and to showcase independent work from the Madison Music Community on a professional scale at the Gamma Ray Bar, a premier local venue committed to supporting local Hip Hop Artists. OMAI Hip Hop Artist in Residence Dom Mclennon and guest artist Chuck Sutton will be selecting submissions from the community, providing critique and feedback, talking about composition, songwriting and offering professional insights about the music industry; as well as leading dialogue surrounding alternatives to the legacy music industry and provide information about alternative potential avenues to developing a career as a working musician.

April 8:

Line Breaks Gallery Opening, 5:00 – 7:00pm, Art Lofts

April 9:

“Expert Simple” Exploring Hip Hop Roots and examining history by demystifying the process through production, sound, movement and sampling with Dom Mclennon, Chuck Sutton and Omari Carter

5:00 – 6:30PM

Wisconsin Historical Society – Auditorium

Join us for a conversation with Dom Mclennon, Chuck Sutton, and Omari Carter that explores the roots of Hip Hop and examines it within a historical context. Through demonstrations of physical movements, live sampling and song deconstruction Dom, Chuck, and Omari will facilitate conversation about the history of the sounds and movements that create the current Hip Hop Landscape.

April 11-12:

Line Breaks Showcase, 7:00 – 10:00pm, Hemsley Theatre

The 17th Cohort Showcase by the 17th Cohort of First Wave is a multi-disciplinary performance that incorporates work developed through the First Wave First Year Curriculum spearheaded by their course work with Instructors, Mike Davis, Tehan Ketema and Eric Newble. Through creating work that explores themes of nostalgia, history, resistance, and hope, they use their talents to address their beliefs and ask both the audience and themselves the questions: “What do we do in a world without answers?” and “How do we use art to keep hope alive?” By examining these questions in their work they hope to provide a multitude of perspectives and offer potential futures in a world where little is certain.

Reza by Adrian Cyrus

Reza is a multidisciplinary reflection that follows Adrian’s relationship with his father over the course of their time together. Beginning in childhood and then following his fathers diagnosis with a rare neurodegenerative disease. Reza explores concepts of loss, grief, resilience, and happiness. The work is rooted in reflection of their time spent together through the artist’s current lens but also serves as an investigation of how we carry our people with us in the present and future. Reza is meant to not only provide an opportunity for the artist to address these concepts within his own life, but offer the audience an opportunity to explore universal human messages and apply them to their own lives.

Blur by Devin Smith & Eric Henkes

Blur is a surreal, hollow, and hazy look at the uncertainty presented within familial and interpersonal relationships. The piece examines the power dynamic that begins to blur throughout the aging process, and asks both the creators and audience how well we know the people we think we are closest to. It presents an opportunity to wrestle with guilt, confusion and all of the emotions that become real within this blurring process. Ultimately serving as a guide to growth, understanding and the creation of healthy and sustainable relationships with the ones we hold closest.

It Is the End of the World & I Am Looking for Love by Anaya Fraizer

It Is the End of the World & I Am Looking for Love is a multimedia show about a young Black girl’s bittersweet search for love and connection as the world crumbles around her. But for her, the end isn’t something to escape—it’s a moment to embrace, to hold on to love or find it before everything fades. It Is the End of the World & I Am Looking for Love challenges viewers to be present, to cherish what and who they can while they can, and to question and reconsider what love means in the midst of an ending.

Sandbox: 00 and Sandbox: 01 by Dom McLennon are improvisational live performance experiences by Dom McLennon. Dom’s obsession with Hip-Hop, Music History and Creative Expression has motivated him to conceptualize performances that blend DJing, Vocals, Live Production and Visual Art. The experiences are designed to engage the audience’s senses and tell stories through sound, sight and movement. The Sandbox experience is meant to be both a collaborative play space for Dom and guest Artist Chuck Sutton as well as an invitation for the audience to witness artists in their natural state. Sandbox serves as an experiential, improvisational and generative art experience that highlights the creative process, the necessity of the artist, participant and observer.