"Def Poetry" lit up New York and HBO — and now it's coming to Madison.

Internationally renowned hip-hop theater artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, who has been featured on Russell Simmons' "Def Poetry" HBO show, will bring his talents to the University of Wisconsin this spring as the university's artist-in-residence.

Joseph will present "Line Breaks: A Lecture and Performance Series on Spoken Word and Hip-Hop Theater" beginning Feb. 24. The show will run until April 26.

"Hip-hop is in the verse of our time," Joseph said. "I create dancer-theater works composed in this verse and use my body as moving metaphor for the verse I speak."

Joseph said he hopes to charge the UW community to approach hip-hop in a different way, while demonstrating — based on his own living success — that artists like him are responsible people who contribute to society.

Besides hosting a lecture series of various artists, Joseph will be in the classroom working closely with students.

As a former high school teacher and a father of a five-year-old, Joseph said his experiences will give him the sensitivity for meeting and understanding people in the current state of their lives.

While Joseph has an idea of what to teach, his plan is to find where people are in class and act accordingly.

"I do not teach material," Joseph said. "I teach people."

Kate Hewson, arts residency coordinator at the UW Arts Institute, said Joseph's work is based around interdisciplinary elements of dance, theater and drama as well as a connection to African-American culture.

Hewson said Joseph's work presents hip-hop theater in a positive way while still maintaining its original artistic formation.

"It's an in-depth experience," Hewson said. "And a course with the artist develops [more of a] relationship with students."

According to Joseph, art is a pathological tool for education. He describes his performances as spiritual experiences where he successfully facilitates the emotional charge of the room.

Joseph hopes to guide individual growth within the collective construct of his classroom.

Joseph will be joining the other artist-in-residence this semester, art curator Ute Ritschel, on the UW campus in the spring.

Ritschel, Hewson said, is a well-known curator who combines visual art, performance art, environmental elements and cultural anthropology to create alternative spaces in forests.

Ritschel's recent works include a biannual exhibition, "Vogelfrei — Art in Private Gardens" in Darmstadt, Germany. The project now includes 38 gardens and 75 artists representing various countries.

While at UW, Ritschel said she would teach "Curatorial Practice — Alternative Places and Concepts," a class devoted to training students on the aspects of curating, specifically to ensure that the vision behind an exhibition comes to life.

"My students are excited to learn from my practical experience in the field and take this knowledge with them later on in their own lives," Ritschel said.

Besides teaching, Ritschel said she would conduct a conference called "Native-Invasive," which will focus on the conflict between native and invasive trends in ecology and society.

Hewson said Ritschel will curate an art exhibition in a northern Wisconsin forest where the community will experience the "gentle way" of displaying art in society.

Ritschel encouraged people to come see the exhibit this spring and described it as an adventurous educational opportunity.

"I am very grateful they invited me to come here," Ritschel said. "It is always exciting to work in a different country."