Friday, 5/2/97 WorldFest ’97 seeks to promote multi-cultural
appreciation Week-long festival to feature food, workshops and
exhibits
By Frances Lee Daily Bruin Contributor Take a tour through the
Australian wilderness, sample Russian cuisine and watch a
performance by a Filipino dance troupe – all in one week, and all
without leaving UCLA. This Saturday, WorldFest ’97 will kick off a
week of cultural celebration, starting with the 12th Annual UCLA
Pow-Wow. For the event organizers, it will be the culmination of
countless hours of time and energy they have invested in the
project. For the UCLA community, WorldFest will be an opportunity
to sample a multitude of cultural activities, free of charge.
"Everyone’s contributing (to WorldFest), putting together a
cultural mosaic representing UCLA and the L.A. community," said
WorldFest co-director Dean Cheley, a third-year New and Electronic
Media student. Sponsored by the Cultural Affairs Commission, the
ASUCLA Board of Directors, the Center for Student Programming, the
Student Committee for the Arts and various student groups, the
eighth annual WorldFest is inviting students to "stop, look and
listen." Since last October, the organizers of this year’s
WorldFest have been working to prepare for the week-long
celebration, which is traditionally held in the first week of May.
Unlike past WorldFests, which focused on a specific culture each
day, this year’s staff "didn’t want to divide the days, but
(instead) wanted people to learn about different cultures
everyday," said commissioner of cultural affairs Jaime Nack, a
third-year international economics student. The concept behind
WorldFest is to "celebrate the cultural diversity that L.A. and
UCLA has," said co-director Genevieve Lau, a third-year American
Literature student. "There’s so few inter-cultural-type
programming, we’re trying to get a mix of everything." Over 60
events are scheduled, ranging from dance workshops to music
performances to food fairs – all aimed at promoting cultural
awareness within the UCLA community. "The thing that makes me proud
we do this event is that it doesn’t leave anyone out; it tries to
incorporate all cultures," Nack said. All student groups are
invited to participate in WorldFest. It is largely through student
effort and support by the UCLA faculty and administration that this
event is possible. "Cultural Affairs’ goal is to gather all the
resources and talent we have (at UCLA), and to work together on the
same goal," Cheley said. Originally, WorldFest was started by the
university in an effort to promote racial harmony at UCLA after a
racially-incited fight broke out on campus. Since then, the
festival has evolved into an event that not only educates but
celebrates the "cultural mosaic" that is Los Angeles. Trying to
cram the wide variety of cultures into one week would have been a
daunting task had it not been for the support and participation of
the various organizations on campus, according to Nack. But as they
approach opening day, after six months of working on this project,
the organizers of the event are ready to "relax and enjoy the
show," Cheley said. WorldFest ’97 runs from May 3 to 9, on various
campus locations.