Students encourage diversity through food and art

About 60 students gathered to promote diversity through the arts Saturday night in the Marvin Center. The BLAZEN student organization hosted the evening’s event, which featured performances and a dinner of eclectic cuisine.

The two-hour event, which included song, dance and poetry, began with a dinner featuring American, Indian, Thai and Caribbean food.

“(BLAZEN is an organization) intended to reach out and inspire young people throughout the city,” said junior Tamishia Brown, a member of BLAZEN.

Voices of Inspiration, a coed gospel choir, filled the room with songs advocating cultural awareness, backed up by a piano. Attendees sang along, dancing in their seats and clapping to the beat.

Members of Think Tank Revolution recited poetry expressing negative feelings towards prejudice. One writer compared his approach to life to a hip-hop concert. He said during a concert, people do not mind bumping into each other because they are all dancing to the rhythm of the music. However, as soon as people leave the concert, they begin labeling each other and stop speaking to each other, breaking into various ethnic groups.

BLAZEN ended the event with a skit titled “Diversity High” that

portrayed Hispanic and black students stereotyping each other before learning about a relationship between a black male and a Hispanic female. The relationship was kept secret because of negative feelings between the groups. Their friends eventually found out about the relationship, and put their biases aside in support.

Students said they were impressed by the variety of talent at the event.

“I wanted to come support the groups sponsoring the event,” sophomore Kimberly McConkey said.

-Miriam Alkazemi

MCGB may change office space allocation

The Marvin Center Governing Board discussed Friday a possible restructuring of student group office space on the fourth floor of the Marvin Center. The MCGB is responsible for allocating space to student groups at the beginning of each year.

Blythe Purdin, chair of the MCGB, said the MCGB will try to accommodate more student organizations on the fourth floor. She suggested that by having multiple groups share offices, more organizations could be accommodated.

“There are a lot of different groups using those offices,” Purdin said. “Some of them are there a lot and have their office regularly, but in some offices, the lights are always off.”

-Aaron Huertas