Karibu Night: Celebrating Diversity

Last Saturday, a lot of things were going on. There was Date Knight, an event on campus where you set up your roommate on a blind date, and vice versa. I heard a lot of people had fun and enjoyed getting to know different people.

At the same time, there was the Karibu Night, happening all the way over at St. Olaf, that had students of color from Carleton’s African Caribbean Association (ACA) and Black Student Association (BSA) performing.

The whole event moves forward with a story of an African royal family choosing heirs to the throne of a kingdom between a brother and sister. There were mixes of magical ancestors, women empowerment as the sister gets the throne, and of values in family, tradition, and culture along the way. Between the progression of the narrative, there were various dances and moving poetry performances that celebrated and paid tribute to different countries within the African continent.

The audience members, including myself, were up on our seats wanting to join the performers on stage!

Watching all these performances, I felt grateful to be there at that moment because I knew that it was a student-led festival, and a lot of work went into it to make it happen the amazing way it did. I also felt appreciative of the community we as students of color and international students, both from Carleton and St. Olaf, have built for ourselves in the little town of Northfield.

Well, at Carleton there is always a place where you can feel the support of your own culture or celebrate and learn of another’s culture. And if by any chance there isn’t? So what? There is always more room and support for you to start something of your own!

Until next time!

xoxo,

Lita

Lita hails all the way from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. When not riding horses, petting them, or sketching a picture of them, she blogs her philosophical brain dumps on Medium. Other than that, Lita is passionate about social impact startups and edu-tech. She plans on majoring in Computer Science, but who knows, she could simply switch to Studio Art and spend her days drawing horses. Hey, that’s why we’re at Carleton, am I right? Meet the other bloggers!