Overview
The Arts Institute is proud to welcome Marc Bamuthi Joseph to the University of Wisconsin-Madison as Spring 2007 Artist in Residence. The Arts Institute Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program brings world-class artists to campus to teach semester-long, interdepartmental courses and to publicly present their work for campus and community audiences.
Internationally-renowned spoken word artist, Marc Bamuthi Joseph is one of an emerging class of hip-hop theater artists who combines a variety of art forms in his work. He has been a featured artist on Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry on HBO, is a National Poetry Slam champion, Broadway veteran, and an inaugural recipient of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship (one of three Arts Institute Artists in Residence to be so honored). Bamuthi uses theater; West African, tap, and modern dance; spoken word poetry; and live music to stretch the bounds of traditional hip-hop and create a new forum for expressive performance art. His works challenge audiences of all ages to reevaluate the relationship between spoken language, body language, and the body politic. He is redefining the possibilities of the integrative arts and is demonstrating the revolutionary potential of hip-hop culture to serve as a vehicle to address issues of social injustice, political hegemony, institutional racism, and other social maladies.
Bamuthi will kick off his residency at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Saturday, February 24th by hosting the Fourth Annual Youth Speaks Wisconsin Teen Poetry Finals and then presenting “An Evening with Marc Bamuthi Joseph,” featuring different components of his award-winning one man shows. Tickets are available at the Wisconsin Union Theater box office (262-2201).
Starting on Monday, February 26th, Bamuthi will host a free public series Line Breaks: A Lecture and Performance Series on Spoken Word and Hip-Hop Featuring Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Friends, featuring special guest artists Rennie Harris, Jeff Chang, Alix Olson, Kamilah Forbes, Danny Hoch, Dennis Kim, Mayda del Valle, Lauren Whitehead, Rafael Casal, and Dahlak Brathwaite. He will also teach an accompanying interdisciplinary arts course for university students, which will focus on writing and performing spoken word and hip-hop theatre.
Bamuthi’s residency is hosted by the Department of Afro-American Studies, sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI), and co-sponsored by the Dance Program, the Wisconsin Union Directorate Theater Committee, the Integrated Liberal Studies program, Madison Metropolitan School District, and Wisconsin Humanities Council.
In 1984 I got my first pair of tap shoes
Black and patent leather like the Nicholas brothers used to rock
My pop wasn’t cool with me tap dancing
It reeked of America to him
Coming from Haiti my dad desired American wealth but he shunned American culture
He didn’t understand that the two are really one
Nor did realize that tap dance is African drum