Cultural Harmony Week encourages Geneseo students to connect with their inner identities. Students who participate in the various events throughout the week help to facilitate a safe environment where they can engage in respectful conversations with each other (courtesy of Xavier Delcid/photo editor).
Getting to know yourself can be a hard journey, especially if you do not have the right tools to do so. It can be even harder to get to know and understand other people’s cultures, which is why Cultural Harmony Week is so important. These events span the course of one week, taking place from Sunday Oct. 20 to Saturday Oct. 26. This year’s theme is Identity in Action.
The week is hosted by the Cultural Harmony Week Committee, which has partnered with other organizations on campus to make these events possible. These events are important for many reasons, namely allowing one to become informed about some of the issues that are going on in the world today. Additionally, the week’s events provide opportunities to learn more about oneself and other cultures around them.
“I really think that Cultural Harmony Week should be a truly introspective kind of thing at first. I just feel like our college could use a little bit of access to these types of dialogues because you really have to hunt for them,” accounting major junior Alana Martin said. “Nobody forces you to be a part of these discussions and I think that’s good, but it also puts a lot of pressure on the student.”
Cultural Harmony Week is a great stepping stone for students to be able to learn many things. This week and these events are safe spaces for students to have respectful conversations and learn from each other.
“I really think it’s important for students to have this space, where we can have people to facilitate conversation [and] make it easy for users to express our vulnerabilities, whether it’s ignorance on a subject or a passive viewpoint that you had and now you’ve changed,” Martin said. “Just to feel open about sharing your thoughts and opinions, and to know that we can talk about these things respectively and it doesn’t have to always end in a fight.”
Even though Cultural Harmony Week is ending, it is not over yet, meaning that there is still time for students to get involved, even if they haven’t yet. There are two events taking place on Friday Oct 25. One is Modern Day Oppression of Marginalized Communities and the other is Open Mic Night: Express Your Identity. On Saturday Oct. 26, the two events set to take place are a film screening of Intersexion and the Intercultural Dinner, which costs $6 for students.
Cultural Harmony Week is a great opportunity for students to get more involved on campus as well as in the world around them. In order to learn more about yourself, about multiple cultures and about living in harmony with others, the events thrown this week are a must go.