“What’s the point of a college campus if not to engage in learning, to talk to those who are different from you and to enter spaces of cross-cultural interaction?” asked co-president of ALANA Intercultural Programming Board, Leslie Monter-Casio ’28.
That very question sits at the heart of Culture Fest, ALANA’s annual celebration of campus diversity, set to take place on April 10 from 7 to 9 p.m. in Willard Straight Hall’s Memorial Room. On Monday evening, I sat down with Monter-Casio and ALANA’s other co-president, Alexis Forbes ’28, to discuss the planning process behind this year’s event.
ALANA, a byline-funded organization by Cornell University, currently supports over 120 student groups by allocating funds to programming events that encourage diversity and intercultural engagement across campus. ALANA encompasses five main “umbrellas” of multicultural groups (Black Students United, La Asociación Latina, Native American and Indigenous Students at Cornell, South Asian Council, Cornell Asian Pacific Student Union) that include their own, more specific sub-organizations. Because such a large number of cultural groups exist on campus, Forbes expressed, “ALANA provides organizations with money, but sometimes we’re not able to attend the events that we fund. Culture Fest is a unique opportunity to connect with E-Board members, and through the event, I’m able to see where funding goes, what different organizations represent and what values are most important to them.”
As one of ALANA’s most anticipated annual events, Culture Fest typically draws an attendance of over 200 students and features upward of 10 cultural organizations. During the event, groups have the opportunity to host their own activities and offer traditional foods for the Cornell community to try. Beyond its efforts to showcase the extensive work of its sub-organizations, attendees of Culture Fest can also expect ALANA to organize its own program-specific activities. “We’re partnering with some local restaurants and businesses for Culture Fest. ALANA will be catering Taste of Thai, and we’re also working with Qawah House,” said Forbes. “We’ll provide giveaways, snacks and a playlist of different types of music from around the world, which is really exciting.” In addition to a lineup of five performances from different clubs, attendees will have access to a photo booth and an international snack table to enjoy during the night.
As an organization whose main focus is to support campus diversity and its celebration throughout the Cornell community, Culture Fest is a direct product of ALANA’s core commitment to cross-cultural interaction. For Monter-Casio, it’s important that, “our sub-organizations do a lot to create spaces of safety and trust within their own communities. ALANA is very privileged in that we have the capacity, funding and manpower to create a space of cross-cultural interaction for our community.” It is in this manner that Culture Fest serves as both an expression and manifestation of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into each cultural group’s efforts to remain visible on campus. “There are over 100 cultural organizations on campus, and there’s very little programming done to highlight the work they do. For many students, it’s almost like a second job, but no one really acknowledges how much effort they put in.”
Beyond promoting multicultural visibility at Cornell, Culture Fest works to bring together a myriad of student organizations that don’t normally get to interact with one another in the same space. “Something that I find beautiful about Culture Fest is that it’s an opportunity for anyone on campus to come together and learn about other cultures,” said Forbes. Monter-Casio specifically stressed the significance of events like Culture Fest, which function as hubs of learning outside the classroom: “It’s important to acknowledge that the interactions we have with people who are different from us are what fuel learning. Giving people the opportunity to experience the intersections between our similarities and differences can create spaces of learning, community and joy.”
For both co-presidents, growing up in predominantly white communities encouraged them to seek out organizations like ALANA at Cornell that foster the kind of education and cross-cultural interaction they didn’t typically experience in high school. Even within ALANA’s own E-Board, “there are people from all walks of life that I get to learn from while listening to how they come to terms with their culture and how their experiences inform their everyday life,” Forbes stated. For students looking to learn more about their own heritage in the process of educating others, Culture Fest helps encourage an atmosphere of rich dialogue amongst a large variety of organizations.
Now more than ever, events like Culture Fest keep the beating heart of education alive at Cornell. According to Monter-Casio, “We need to welcome diversity and dialogue, but we also need to welcome empathy and humanity for each other. There’s humanity on campus and we want to show that people of color are still here, and we’re going to stay here no matter what.” In the spirit of those words, I encourage you to attend Culture Fest ready and hungry to learn.
Charlotte Feehan is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a staff writer for the Arts & Culture department and can be reached at cgf47@cornell.edu.
