Join headliner, Digable Planets, special guest MIKE and host Dr. Jonathan Øverby before the week's culminating concert for a special installment of the Interdisciplinary Arts Community Sessions (IACS) where we will explore legacy, Hip Hop, and the power of the word as an agent of social transformation.
Limited Capacity
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Play Circle Theater at Memorial Union (2nd Floor West)
2:30-3:15 PM Free and open to the public. Limited capacity.
Calling on Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” this conversation is meant to examine how artists use language, storytelling, and memory to activate communities and imagine new futures. This event is free, with no registration required, but the timing is brief and space is limited so please plan accordingly. Please also note that no signing will take place at this IACS. Thank you for your understanding.
Interdisciplinary Arts Community Sessions (IACS)— provide a platform for scholars, students, campus partners, and community members to engage with artists across disciplines, grounding real-world practice in academic context and cultural inquiry. Each colloquium event is developed in collaboration with relevant departments to strengthen curricular connections, deepen artistic discourse, and foster sustainable interdisciplinary relationships. IACS launched in 2025 in partnership with OMAI and WUDPAC, replacing the Wisconsin Union Theater’s performance classes that are periodically offered as engagement opportunities with the WUT's season's artists
Jonathan Øverby is a distinguished broadcaster, ethnomusicologist, and conductor with a long career in music, radio, and public service. He hosts and executive-produces Wisconsin’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute and Ceremony, the oldest state celebration of Dr. King in the nation.
Known for introspective, subtly profound rhymes that explore grief, family, and identity, and melt over muffled, soul-seasoned samples, on his expansive new record Burning Desire MIKE reaches new heights far above the sonic foundation he laid with his previous projects.
Digable Planets are a legacy artist group that began in the early 1990s, with their Grammy-winning single, “Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)”. Made up of Ishmael Butler (“Butterfly”), Craig Irving (“Doodlebug”) and Mary Ann Vieira (“Ladybug Mecca”), the trio carved out a unique style of jazz-informed Hip Hop that maintains and honors historical context while transcending genre-specific expectations.
