The Madison Arts Commission will host the opening reception for the 2024 Madison Municipal Building Art Exhibition, titled “Everything but the Dinosaur: Art With & About Youth,” tonight at an event that will give the public a chance to meet the City’s newest Youth Poet Laureate.
The reception will be held from 4:30-6:30 pm in Room 206 on the second floor of the Madison Municipal Building, 215 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. The exhibition will include work by Jennika Bastian, Angela Johnson, Meghan Johnson, Poornima Moorthy, Roberto Torres Mata, and Sonia Valle.
The reception will also include the induction of the newest Madison youth poet laureate, Justin Festge Russell, a recent graduate of Madison East High School who just started his freshman year in the First Wave program at UW-Madison.
Festge Russell is the third youth poet laureate for the City of Madison, following 2022-2023 Madison youth poet laureate Madeleine Bohn and 2023-2024 Madison youthpoet laureate Maliha Nu’Man.
“Being from Madison, I want to put on for my city and be a role model to the youth. My goal is to become an educator and having this title would put me in the face of the public where I’m able to fulfill my vision,” said Festge Russell in a press release. “I desire to share the stories of the people and speak for those who are afraid. I truly believe in the power of the youth and must contribute to it as best as I can. For we are the future.”
The Madison Youth Poet Laureate serves a one-year term and will give three public readings alongside the current Madison Poet Laureate during that time.
