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
Jessie Garcia is an award-winning sports journalist who has risen the ranks in television news, first as an anchor/reporter, then to newsroom management. She is the News Director at the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee. Her non-fiction books My Life with the Green and Gold: Tales from 20 Years of Sportscasting and Going for Wisconsin Gold: Stories of our State Olympians won Midwest Book Awards, and her documentary Leaps and Bounds: The Men Who Changed Track and Field was featured in over a dozen film festivals. She also taught journalism at four universities. A native of Madison, WI, Jessie has two adult sons and resides in Milwaukee with her husband, dog and cat.
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).