First-year student beats cancer to lend voice to hip-hop, law

There will be more than 6,000 incoming first-year undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison this year, each of whom will face a transition as they embark on their college journey, make new friends, get through those power lectures, and find their place on campus.

One of them, Taniesha Broadway of Chicago, is no stranger to meeting a journey head-on. At 13 she became a cancer survivor, having battled nasopharyngeal carcinoma — a rare form of cancer that only seven in every 1 million people are expected to develop.

Broadway’s battle with the disease threatened to silence her, but she refused to let it win. She now comes to UW–Madison prepared to share her voice through the First Wave Spoken Word and Hip Hop Arts Learning Community, a multicultural education program for incoming students focused on hip-hop culture and spoken word poetry. She was one of 15 students selected this year to receive a four-year, full scholarship from the program.

“I really want to be able to touch someone through my poetry, my work or a smile on my face every day,” Broadway said. “I really want to be an inspiration to someone because I feel like I can be. I think I’ve had a second chance at life to be their voice.”

Broadway’s desire to be “someone’s voice” has also motivated her to major in legal studies, an interdisciplinary program that explores broadly defined questions about law from a variety of perspectives. Though many may consider poetry and law an odd combination, for Broadway, they are similar in their potential for expression.

“When I’m a defending lawyer, I am being someone else’s voice. With poetry, I am able to make my voice heard,” she said. “Either way, I have a voice. I really desire to have a voice. I don’t think anyone should go unheard.”

Broadway credits her battle with cancer with giving her the courage to make her voice heard and to attend UW–Madison.

“I grew ambition from being in the hospital, and the determination to go on to doing bigger and better things and find out who I should be,” she said.

She has big plans for further exploring her identity during her time on campus. She hopes to acquire a law-related internship, become involved in student organizations and volunteer in the local community.

“I really want to do all that I can while I’m here,” said Broadway.

—By Kayla Gross