An Ode to the Union: Meet Joshua Brazee
Joshua Brazee is a marketing intern at the Wisconsin Union and a new Terrace Views contributor.
By Joshua Brazee
Long before I began working for the Wisconsin Union, I was something of a fixture there. Just passing by, you would not have noticed me. Like every other student, I had my books in front of me, Facebook updating inconspicuously in the background, and sometimes my headphones issuing gentle study music. But I was in the Union for the noise, for the sounds of life. The rhythms of people coming and going, being tutored in math and science, quizzing each other for the exam tomorrow, just meeting for a coffee or a beer; this had become the soundtrack of my long working evenings on campus. I don’t know these other students, we’ve never been introduced, but sometimes we trust each other to watch our things during quick bathroom breaks, or when one bag of M&Ms won’t be enough for the evening. We are a community of Union citizens, learning, living, and laughing in each other’s friendly company.
I came to Madison in August 2008 as a PhD student in English Literature. Since the moment I first read Shakespeare, I knew this was going to be my life. On my first evening out in Madison, my friends took me through the Terrace on our way home. I could not believe my luck. This place was alive, teeming with intellectual exchanges and cultural experiences. My moderately-sized undergraduate college in upstate New York had offered nothing like the Union. Not only was I fortunate enough to be working with one of the best English Renaissance Literature faculties in the country, but I also had Memorial Union. I have made a home in the Union: I work here, I study here, I play here, I relax here.
If you know any graduate students, you will know that our greatest complaint, next to our ceaseless work, is our poverty. I wish I could say it is genteel, but there is honestly nothing gentle about it. Graduate students have to eat, too, and my wife did not want to pay for comic books any more, so I got another job. The Wisconsin Union Theater hired me at the start of the summer of 2012 as a Marketing Intern, just in time for long nights on the Union Terrace. Among other things, I write pieces for our blog, maintain our newsletter, write press releases, and enjoy the excellent music, dancing, film, and drama. Just this weekend I had the great pleasure to watch The Acting Company’s production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. The show was a real delight, taking risks that many Shakespeare productions cannot take. A particular highlight was the character of Jacques, who has never come quite so alive for me.
Working for the Wisconsin Union Theater has been a little weird this year. Owing to the Memorial Union Reinvestment, our offices and our productions have been moved to various places across campus. We are a diaspora, spread across three different campus buildings. The downside is that I’m often on the run. The upside has been getting to know parts of campus I’ve never seen, finding a temporary home in Union South, and looking forward to our improved performance space.
In all of this, I have forgotten to introduce myself. Hi! I’m Joshua Brazee, graduate student in English, lover of Shakespeare, poetry, theater, and Batman, learner of languages, over-enthusiastic-participant in reading groups, Union employee, husband to Ulli, father to Eli, friend to some, teacher to many.
Just this summer, almost five years to the day since my wife and I arrived in Madison, my first son was born. Two weeks later, Eli joined me in congratulating my friends who had just finished their PhD qualifying exams. We celebrated on the Terrace with cake, cookies, and beer, and looked forward to years of working together, triumphing together, and making new memories.
