Documentary on spoken word community to premiere in Madison

A documentary that creates an emotional and personal profile of students in the First Wave Spoken Word and Urban Arts Learning Community at the University of Wisconsin–Madison will premiere in Madison on Tuesday, April 22.

The documentary will be featured as the kickoff to "Line Breaks: The Remix," a lecture, symposium and performance series. The event takes place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 22 at the Majestic Theatre, 115 King St.

"First Wave — An Unfiltered Story," uses only the voices of the students and those close to the program to dispel myths about hip-hop and spoken word. The documentary also highlights UW–Madison as a model for spoken word programs as part of higher education across the country.

Produced by John Roach Projects in collaboration with University Communications at UW–Madison, the documentary is slated for its broadcast debut on Thursday, April 24 at 4 p.m. on the Big Ten Network, seen in more than 30 million homes nationwide.

The documentary showing will be followed by live performances by Dahlak Brathwaite, Mayda Del Valle, Rafael Casal and Get Back Crew. All ages are welcome for the showing and performances.

For more information on the documentary, call Peter Kleppin at (608) 262-8292. For more information on the First Wave program or the spoken word performances, call Josh Healey at UW–Madison’s Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs, (608) 890-1006.