UW-Madison: Diversity Office to Celebrate Opening with Multicultural Extravaganza

MADISON – Latin music and spoken-word poetry champions will raise the rafters at the
Majestic Theater, 115 King St., at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 28. On hand will be two
renowned singer-songwriters, Guillermo Anderson of Honduras and Romulo Castro of
Panama, as well as poets from the Madison Slam Team that are headed to the National
Slam Championships next month.

The all-ages evening is a multicultural arts event organized in conjunction with
Fiesta Hispaña 2006 to celebrate the creation of a new diversity office at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives
(OMAI). OMAI is producing this year’s entertainment for Fiesta Hispaña. Also, the
MAGNET program, an organization serving area professionals, is initiating its
partnership with OMAI through this event.

The event, “Rhythm and Poetry Sin Fronteras,” will also feature Greg Landau, former
lead guitarist for Nicaragua’s distinguished ensemble Moncotal, and spoken-word
performances by teens from OMAI’s Youth Speaks Wisconsin division.

OMAI is a new diversity office at UW-Madison that is housed in the School of
Education. Its primary goal is to help recruit students of color to the UW-Madison
campus by serving as a clearinghouse for multicultural arts programming.

“Through community partnerships, OMAI will foster a deeper and broader understanding
of diverse art forms. Workshops and performances ranging from spoken word and hip
hop to Latin jazz and world music will also create a more welcoming climate at
UW-Madison for students of color and others through artistic activities,” says
Willie Ney, director of the office and former assistant director of UW-Madison’s
Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program.

In addition to Youth Speaks Wisconsin, which is part of a national youth poetry,
spoken word and creative writing program, OMAI also administers Latino Arts, a
partner of Milwaukee’s United Community Center’s office of the same name; Cinefest,
a Latino film festival highlighting the films, culture and stories of South America
and beyond; and Sin Fronteras, a teacher training and multicultural outreach
program.

Tickets for “Rhythm and Poetry Sin Fronteras” are $10 and are available at the door
the evening of the show. For more information about the event or OMAI, contact Ney
at (608) 890-1006 or wney@wisc.edu.