On January 31st, the Foreign Language club hosted Four Corners Upper School’s annual Multicultural night. This event showcases the many cultures around the world with traditional dishes, performances, clothing, and more.
To enter the event, students would be charged a fee of $7. Upon entering the gymnasium, attendees were met with people in all kinds of cultural dressings, from flowing dresses to draped country flags. In the center of the room were rows of benches in front of a large, raised stage, with the culture’s displays along the walls.
“For me, it is a very beautiful and joyful celebration because it allows us to share the most of our culture’s heritage of our country,” freshmen Genesis Fukuda said.
On top of the decorative aspects of the event, there were specialized areas for each different heritage, showcasing the highlights of their respective countries and cultures.
“There are definitely a lot of different cultures that I like. Some of them that I can list is definitely going to be the Philippines, Brazil, and also Peru. If I had to choose one, I would probably say Brazil is the best because I just like their positive energy, and just their outgoing personalities that are represented by the students that are Brazilian in this school,” senior Yi Shao said.
Around the room, the cultures offered special-made traditional treats to share with those who attended. Teacher, Shantae Holmes-Benton mentions some of the memorable plates they sampled.
“I did love the Jamaican food, they had the best jerked chicken and curry chicken I have ever tasted, and I believe it was Honduras, their empanadas were really good. It was a good experience and I think the kids loved it too,” Benton said.
Members of all different cultures emerged to show off their country’s special fashion of clothing. Some donned stockings and corsets, others, long, head-to-toe, colorful garments.
“I saw some Puerto Rican outfits, there were many cultural outfits, from Brazil, China, Colombia- I was wearing the clothing for Colombia- Venezuela, and the thing with the outfits they were wearing, is most of them were for a cultural dance. Most of the Latin ones look alike, and the rest, like Asia was so different, but so interesting as well,” teacher, mrs. Cathy said.
Taking auditions in November, students came together to perform the song Tradition from the film Fiddler On The Roof at Multicultural Night. Arranged in long lines, wearing all black, the performers passed around the microphone to each other.
“Since Multicultural night is about cultures, traditions, I feel like the song [Tradition] is mainly about the everyday traditions in Judaism, so the song fits pretty well as a topic for Multicultural night,” freshmen , Layla Johnson said.
The Coyotes Elite team performed a special dance in black clothing and colorful tutus. Student and dancer, junior Tatiana Almodovar participated in their team’s performance at Multicultural Night.
“I was feeling a little nervous, I don’t get stage fright, but that was the first time I had performed anything in about a year, and I was just really pushing with these girls to make sure we could give it the best that we could,” junior Almodovar said.
By the end of the night, guests were given the chance to taste food from around the globe, listen to beautiful music, and dip into the wonderful, diverse world of cultures this past January 31st.
“For me, Multicultural Night is about celebrating the culture, celebrating everybody’s countries and their traditions, what they do, and everyone coming together to appreciate each other,” Johnson said.
