IT IS a long way from Madison to Madison Square Garden, and once Willie Ney was there, sitting wide-eyed on the New York Knicks’ bench one night earlier this month, he thought it couldn’t get much better than that.
Ney, executive director of the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives at UW-Madison, was in Manhattan as part of an extraordinary new program that will bring a New York City high school graduate to Madison next fall on a full college scholarship. The Knicks, New York’s storied National Basketball Association franchise, are involved, along with a New York City UW-Madison alumni group.
Best of all, a bunch of New York high school students with big talent and big dreams are involved. They are writing and performing poetry, proving there is more to hip-hop culture than a scowl and a snarl.