ACC celebrates cultural diversity

This semester's Unity Jam activities will be held at each ACC campus. The Student Life event is meant to expose students to a wide range of cultures and traditions.

Each of the 7 ACC campuses was assigned a country by John Jacobs, the Student Life coordinator at the Eastview campus in charge of diversity programming. The Unity Jam celebrations began on Oct. 14 and continue to Oct. 21. On Oct. 14 Eastview presented India, Oct. 15 brought Cuba to Rio Grande, then on Oct. 19 South Austin will present Myanmar. Riverside will celebrate North Korea on Oct. 20, and Pinnacle will finish out Unity Jam with Denmark on Oct. 21. At the Oct. 13 Northridge campus presentation of The Republic of the Congo, traditional food was served including fried plantains, candied peanuts and stew. All the food was prepared from traditional recipes by members of the African Student Association (ASA). The student lounge was transformed with plants and other decorations to make it appear like a jungle. Even the lights in the ceiling were covered with stars, to simulate a night time sky, and to help raise the temperature in the room, and to try and simulate a warm tropical atmosphere.

"Right after Welcomepalooza, we started planning and prepping and buying decorations to turn the student lounge into a jungle. So, it took us probably about a couple of weeks to get the decorations and plan out the food," said Toniette Haynes Robinson, Student Life coordinator for Northridge campus. "The reason we chose Republic of Congo is that it is known for human trafficking. A lot of people don't know that, so we have several posters up in the lounge to teach students what is going on. They can get involved with community outreach and other things with the ASA that help to inform about the African continent as a whole."

The ASA also performed a coup'e d'ecal'e dance. Coup'e d'ecal'e is modern hip hop out of the Ivory Coast that is heavily formed by percussive rhythms from the Congo. Performer Owen Nyatanga said that the ASA students that performed the dance spent two months learning the choreography.

"I could hear the music and then saw part of the dance. It was totally sweet," said Northridge student Alex Foster. "I just wish I had made it in time to try some of the food."