First Wave - Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives

The Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) 19th Annual Line Breaks Festival was unlike anything we’ve done before! Thank you to our community, guests artists, and partners for contributing to this year’s monumental experience.

The Line Breaks Festival is a flagship initiative of OMAI that consists of performances, workshops, lectures, and discussions by First Wave artists-scholars and invited professionals artists engaging with the Madison community, on and off campus.

For more information about this festival, visit: OMAI.wisc.edu

Madison McFerrin amazed us all with a powerful display of talent and vulnerability! Our First Wave Artists began the night with rhythms and rhymes that matched their ambitions. This is what the Line Breaks Festival is about.

For more on the 19th Annual Line Breaks Festival, visit: go.wisc.edu/LineBreaks2026

The 18th Cohort Showcase was a multi-disciplinary performance that incorporated work developed by the Cohort over the course of their first year at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

For more information about this legendary community, visit: OMAI.wisc.edu