The Associated Student Government’s Justice and Inclusion Committee celebrated diversity with a lively mix of food and music at the Fall Cultural Summit on Sunday, showcasing various campus cultural organizations.
Dubbed “Northwestern’s largest cultural gathering” by ASG, numerous ethnic organizations set up poster boards detailing their clubs in Norris University Center’s Louis Room. The event ran from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and featured live performances from groups like Mariachi NU and NU K-Dance, along with various selections of cultural foods for students to enjoy.
“The goal for the summit is to create a space for affinity and cultural orgs to demonstrate what they’re about, what identity group they’re representing and more importantly, to expose a broader and new community to different cultural and affinity groups they might not interact with otherwise,” said Weinberg sophomore Catherine Ndovu, the co-executive officer of ASG’s Justice and Inclusion Committee.
Ndovu said the committee reached out to various groups via direct messages to ensure effective communication and give everyone the opportunity to participate. She said they discovered cultural groups through Wildcat Connection and by searching for those they knew previously on Instagram.
The most exciting part of the summit is seeing all their planning “come to life” and watching multiple organizations interact with one another, Ndovu said.
Communication junior and NU Deeva President Meera Trivedi said she enjoyed showcasing the Bollywood-fusion team, as well as connecting with other ethnic groups outside of her “South Asian bubble.”
“I’m walking around tables, and I’m seeing things I’ve never even seen at the club fair before,” Trivedi said. “The club fair is really big, and you don’t really get a good chance to get to know everybody because it’s so big.”
Trivedi said live performances allowed cultural organizations to highlight their cultures through visual expressions like dancing and singing, rather than relying on traditional presentations.
McCormick senior Deniz Yoruk and Weinberg senior Deniz Uzun, co-presidents of the Turkish Student Association, filled their table with Turkish delights and coffee for students who were interested in trying Turkish delicacies.
“I feel like Turkish culture doesn’t really get represented to its full extent in the media,” Uzun said. “I have loved being able to showcase those parts of my culture to people here at Northwestern.”
Various members of TSA read students’ fortunes based on the residue left by a particular Turkish coffee after it’s consumed — a traditional practice that Uzun said is popular in Turkey.
Yoruk said the summit is a great way to show appreciation for each other’s cultures, something she doesn’t often get to do during regular school hours. She also said she hopes for greater publicity of these clubs so more students are aware of their existence and can attend the events.
“I know these kinds of events happen,” Yoruk said. “But they’re so separate and kind of a ‘if you know, you know’ type of thing … They try to announce (these events) by posting about it on their social media accounts or word of mouth, but it’s sometimes not enough. The nice thing about this event was that everyone had something to present their culture with.”
Yoruk said that while NU takes pride in its international student presence, this diversity should be more pronounced through additional events like the summit on campus.
The Justice and Inclusion Committee has future plans to increase cultural inclusivity by placing more action behind statements, such as expanding land acknowledgements to be more than just words, Ndovu said.
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Twitter: @Janelle_Mella
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