Stories, slam poets turn up the volume at Wisconsin Book Festival

The performers at several spoken word events will also be working with poetry, but with the drama (and volume) turned up considerably. In what seems an unlikely genesis, the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble was born out of the Wisconsin Book Festival in 2003. That year, the book festival included a Latino/a Film Festival called “Cinefest.” As part of that, First Wave executive director Willie Ney brought in several spoken word artists, including educator and performer Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Bamuthi and several other poets “became influential allies to our program” at UW-Madison, Ney said. “There was not any institution of higher education that was tying their recruitment to this incredible network of spoken word artists.”