Multicultural Fair: Student leaders in Multicultural Student Union are planning a Multicultural Fair on April 23 for the first time in over 20 years

The Multicultural Union is hosting a Multicultural Fair on April 23 with 20 student-led stands representing worldly cultures from the Dominican Republic to the Philippines, each bringing in snacks and artifacts like Moroccan gummies, white rabbit candy and Gambian wooden carvings. 

SM North’s Hispanic Heritage Program will perform a traditional fast-paced dance, and Chinese Club will perform a lion dance. MCSU is hosting the fair to celebrate the diverse backgrounds of our community and expose the student body to global cultures.

“I hope students will get to see their peers in a light they don’t normally see and that different elements of their diversity will be highlighted in a positive way,” District Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director Kaitlin Shulman said. “That’s beautiful and awesome, and should be celebrated.”

Each grade will cycle through during seminar in the auxiliary gym. All stands are led by student volunteers from MCSU, and each stand will have a tri-fold poster with pictures, decorations, fun facts and music. After making the Year of the Dragon mural for Lunar New Year and designing a bulletin board of underrepresented historical figures, the 65-member club has spent the past two months preparing for the culture fair in the cafeteria.

“We wanted to find a way to celebrate people’s different cultures instead of always focusing on [discrimination],” MCSU co-leader and senior Katie Murphy said.

The idea for a culture fair was inspired by SM North’s annual “International Night,” which mainly represents South American countries. Although a similar event was held at East by Student Council in 2002 called the “Diversity Festival,” this will be the first event celebrating cultural diversity at East in over 20 years. 

Murphy and co-leader senior John Mendy secured funding for fair decorations and food after presenting a $2,000 funding proposal at a STUCO meeting on March 6, securing enough funds to subsidize every stand with $50. 

“We believe in helping some of the other organizations that need some help getting off the ground and have some good ideas but don’t have the funds to do them,” STUCO sponsor Brenda Fishman said. “It’s a good thing we were about to help them out.”

The MCSU was established following backlash caused by the racial assault in East’s hallways in November, which triggered a series of meetings with student leaders, East administration and Shulman to create a safe space for everyone at East.

“The incident really sparked a lot of activism and unrest with a lot of students,” Mendy said. “A lot of different groups were trying to start their own student unions like Black Student Union and Latinos of Tomorrow, but there’s not so much diversity at East, so we decided to bring all of those groups together so we could stay unified and organize events like [the fair].”

Some stand organizers are worried about how effective the fair will be at educating the student body and how well it will be received. East’s minority enrollment is 15.9%, more than three times less than the national average.

“Being a part of the East area growing up, there isn’t a lot of appreciation for other cultures and in fact, at times, there’s some pushback,” India stand leader Shubra Durgavathi said. “I really hope that [the fair] is appreciated and that people have a positive response to it because it is East.”

MCSU teacher sponsors Anna Thiele and Samantha Feinberg however, are more optimistic about the fair’s potential because of the quality of the work of the volunteers. 

“I really hope that when students encounter somebody else’s culture, they do so with respect and a willingness to listen and learn,” Thiele said. “If East students maintain that attitude, this will absolutely be a success because the work that the MCSU students have been putting in has been really, really consistent.”

Although MSCU and the culture fair has been mostly led by seniors, Murphy and Mendy hope that the club will become self-sustaining and that the culture fair will happen every year, without the need of administrative supervision or financial support. Murphy’s vision is for MSCU to have representation in many of East’s programs, giving input at Student Council and Pep Club meetings and helping plan school-wide events.

“I’ve always wished that there was some sort of Asian affinity group at East or a culture club in general, but that never existed when I was an underclassman,” Murphy said. “Now, even as a senior who’s about to graduate, it’s important to me to help start up a sustainable club to be the kind of safe space I wish I had.”