The University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of the Arts and the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) welcome writer, performer, and playwright Porsha Olayiwola to campus February 24–March 4 through the Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program.
Olayiwola’s residency will include participation as a performer in the annual Moonshine – A Black History Month tradition presented by the Dance Department and a panelist at the Division of the Arts’ February Arts Together event on Friday, February 24. Olayiwola will also be interviewed on Badger Talks Live on Tuesday, February 28 and appear as the featured artist at OMAI’s Just Bust! Open Mic on Friday, March 3 and Workshop on Saturday, March 4.
About the Artist

Porsha Olayiwola is a native of Chicago who writes, lives, and loves in Boston. Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator, and curator who uses Afrofuturism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman, and queer diasporas. She is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the founder of the Roxbury Poetry Festival. Olayiwola is Brown University’s 2019 Heimark Artist-In-Residence as well as the 2021 Artist-in-Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She is a 2020 Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. Olayiwola earned her MFA in poetry from Emerson College and is the author of i shimmer sometimes, too. Olayiwola is the current Poet Laureate for the city of Boston. Her work can be found in or forthcoming from with TriQuarterly Magazine, Black Warrior Review, The Boston Globe, Essence Magazine, Redivider, The Academy of American Poets, Netflix, Wildness Press, The Museum of Fine Arts, and elsewhere.
News
Events
Presenters
The 2022-23 Interdisciplinary Arts Residencies are presented by the UW–Madison Division of the Arts with aryn kresol as program coordinator and by the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) with Director Sofía Snow as residency lead.
Previous 2022-23 Residencies
November 2022: Jasmine Mans
Black poet, performance artist, and UW–Madison alumna Jasmine Mans cast and directed a group of UW–Madison scholars to debut a choreopoem performance during the second residency in the series for 2022-23.

October 2022: Jay Adana & Zeniba Now
Playwrights, musicians, and composers Jay Adana and Zeniba Now launched the Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program series for 2022–2023.
