With event titles such as “fiery words,” “flaring dynamics” and “the burning of epithets,” this year’s Unity Week was on fire — or so the theme insisted.
The United Minorities Council scheduled six events last week to celebrate culture and spread awareness of minority issues. Beginning on Sunday with a cultural food fair, and ending Friday with a health fair, all events fell under the theme of “FIRE,” or fostering intercultural relationships and engagements.
“The fire theme helped to communicate the urgency of our work,” College and Wharton sophomore and UMC financial Co-chairman Juan Carlos Melendez-Torres said. “It definitely lent itself to people getting excited.”
“It’s something powerful and passionate,” Nursing sophomore and UMC Programming Tri-chairwoman Elizabeth Park added.
UMC Chairman G.J. Melendez-Torres, a Wharton and Nursing senior, characterized the week as “marked by innovative partnerships with groups and communities that we haven’t had a chance to work with in the past.”
Tuesday’s event, “Flaring Dynamics of Politics!” spotlighted the election, and was co-hosted by Penn Political Review, Race Dialogue Project and the Philomathean Society.
Collaboration was a focus across the boards. Sangam, Penn’s South Asian interest organization, hosted a discussion on developing nations as part of the UMC Hotel Party Thursday, and three non-UMC groups joined the Transcultural Health Fair Friday, which featured free HIV testing.
“We’re also working really hard to expand and develop relationships around the community,” G.J. Melendez-Torres said.
The all-around favorite event of the week was Wednesday’s “Burning of Epithets,” where students gathered on College Green to share experiences and spread awareness of minority discrimination.
“The idea was to take back or take ownership over things that were said to you that were stereotypical, or reduced you to an idea that someone applied to you,” College senior and Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention President Liat Fleming-Shemer said.
After sharing their experiences, students lit candles to symbolically burn away the pain, and metaphorically bring light to the darkness.
The event’s location especially resonated with students. For Juan Carlos Melendez-Torres, the event was especially moving because its location was “so symbolically powerful. Right in front of the College Green in front of Ben Franklin.”
As students rose to speak at the podium, many passing community members stopped to listen and join in the discussion. College senior and UMC Political Chairwoman Mariama Perry, who was in charge of the microphone, remembers continually asking people to “make the circle bigger.”
“People just felt drawn for some reason to join in the conversation,” Perry said, who spoke about micro-aggressions.
“I spoke about how people often don’t know how to categorize me ethnically,” Fleming-Shemer said.
For Fleming-Shemer, it was easy to speak “in a very supportive community with people who were voicing similar concerns about being a minority.”
“I think we really did indeed foster interculturalism,” Perry said.
