Hip-hop artist Sa-Roc will perform in Madison on Dec. 5 in first-ever Black Box Sessions event
Posted: 11/26/24
Hip-hop artist Sa-Roc will perform in Madison, Wis., on Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. at the Play Circle Theater in the first event of the Wisconsin Union Theater’s (WUT’s) inaugural Black Box Sessions.
In 2016, Sa-Roc signed with Minneapolis independent hip-hop record label Rhymesayers Entertainment, which has called her one of the most vibrant emcees in the world. She has said she sees herself as a storyteller and historian and strives to encourage conversations about social issues. She sees art as a way to educate, inspire and create change.
The music video for her 2018 self-empowerment anthem “Forever” has garnered more than 7 million views on YouTube, and Sa-Roc’s 2020 album “The Sharecropper’s Daughter” has received widespread acclaim. The album title speaks to her father’s experience growing up sharecropping tobacco. Sa-Roc has said the album is “a sonic reflection on the generational inheritance of trauma and triumph that shapes our humanity and influences the way we see the world.”
Her most recently released track debuted this year and is titled “Amazing Grace.” This piece is about realizing how amazing one’s self is and becoming one’s own biggest champion. Sa-Roc has explained it’s about being in the place of accepting past compliments and feeling worthy of past accolades. She said the piece is also about how that feeling leads people to lift others up and help them realize their own greatness.
“Whereas some emcees come up, it’s as if Sa-Roc has always existed. She is a consummate artist and a timeless wordsmith,” said Kate Schwartz, Black Box Sessions curator and WUT artist services manager. “In her storytelling, lyricism and stage presence, Sa-Roc creates something that has never happened and yet has always been. This notion of timelessness is largely why Sa-Roc was asked to kick off the Black Box Sessions series.”
Through the Black Box Sessions, the WUT team hopes that audiences and artists alike will experience a strong sense of simultaneous nostalgia and novelty. The team designed the series intentionally as intimate, club-style performances that occur in WUT’s black box theater, the Play Circle.
“This year’s lineup was created and curated, in part, to remind us that hip-hop has always been and will always be an art form that transcends genre,” Schwartz said.
Tickets to all WUT performances are available online, in person at the Memorial Union Box Office or by phone at (608) 265-2787. Patrons can purchase a Black Box Sessions subscription for a 15% discount through Dec. 5. Additional Black Box Sessions events include Marlowe on Jan. 30, 2025, th1rt3en on Feb. 13, 2025, and Blackway on March 6, 2025.
WUT has a more than 80-year history of bringing what’s next now in performing arts to stages in Madison through student-led collaborative artistic direction.
Patrons can visit union.wisc.edu/theater for information about the full 2024-2025 season lineup and to purchase subscriptions or single tickets to WUT events, such as Sa-Roc’s performance on Dec. 5.