Annual Diversity Day performances broaden horizons for Wildcat audiences
Diversity Day is officially three years old, moving beyond the fragile state of infancy and into toddlerhood. On April 11, the Alberta Kimball Auditorium was filled with people coming and going between each hour to see a different performance, presentation, and sample the diversity of West.
A major attracting factor of Diversity Day is the wide range of activities including a Taiko drum circle, dance performances, and informative presentations and speeches courtesy of the Youth to Youth group. With the variety of activities to experience, every spectator could find some part of the experience they’d enjoy.
“Being able to see things you don’t normally see is all really exciting,” senior Asha Abraham said.
Diversity Day is one of the biggest events West has, yet teachers have to toe the line on honoring its importance while keeping up with the often tight schedule of class work. Senior Leah Hollis expressed disappointment in how little of Diversity Day she was able to attend.
“Only one of my teachers brought us this year,” she said. “In the past, I’ve had to go during W-hour and not my actual classes.”
Some of the discrepancies in audience size could be due to a lack of advertisement on the hours and their respective performances.
“A lot of the ones that took place during actual class periods had a pretty good turn out; there weren't a lot of people that came during W-hour, but that’s mostly because people didn’t really know it was an option,” Abraham said.
As with all activities held during school hours, like the haunted house, some students have ulterior motives for getting out of class. But disinterested audience members are just par for the course.
“Obviously, you’re going to have a few people who don’t want to be there and are just bored, but for the most part it seemed like people were really enjoying it,” Abraham said.
It also serves as a way to highlight clubs that some may not have realized West has.
“Before I went to Diversity Day last year, I did not realize that we had a K-Pop club or a Hmong dance team, but I felt incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to watch them,” sophomore Aria Boehler said. “I think that we should be treating those groups with the same respect that we have for, say, our sports teams, because the things being done in these organizations and by these individuals are truly amazing, and Diversity Day is one way to help accomplish that.”
Diversity Day continues to grow and expand on more groups that have yet to be spotlighted as much.
“At our last Y2Y meeting, we talked about arranging more student presentations and highlighting more groups within West, such as the newly-established Arab Culture Club and LATAM,” Boehler said. “This is something we want to do because student presentations and performances seemed to be the best-attended and most-liked activities of the day.”
Following the K-Pop Club’s performance was junior Sameer Ahmad’s “Coming to America” presentation. His goal in the presentation, rather than talking about Pakistan, was discussing his transition in moving to the US in October of 2021.
At the end of Ahmad’s presentation, the audience presented him with hard pressing questions such as his skin and hair routines, as well as his relationship status. But amongst those was a question on how Ahmad adapted to the culture here in the US.
“Who you are is the best you can be,” he said. “It’s better than trying to change yourself to fit in with other cultures.”
The struggle of fitting in is something everyone can relate to on some scale.
“At some point in all of our lives, we have felt like an outsider to a community we are expected to participate in because of some aspect of our identity,” Boehler said. “That is a terrible and overwhelming feeling, and I think that it is important to help celebrate the diversity of our interests and backgrounds to help alleviate it.”
This event opens students’ and teachers’ minds to all of the people here at West and allows them a better chance to get to know them.
“Diversity Day is ultimately being done to help students feel included and gain knowledge about the diversity of their community of peers,” Boehler said.
By Addi Isely
Published April 29 2024
Oshkosh West Index Volume 120 Issue VII