International Festival to expose students to various cultures

By Kathryn Kelman and Victoria Pedersen

The International Festival will give NE Campus students a chance to experience cultures outside the U.S. April 10-11.

“This year, we’re just doing two days instead of three because of all the construction,” Spanish assistant professor Marsha Hall said.

The focus of the festival will be celebrations from around the world.

“It’ll be a good introduction into other cultures for students,” Hall said.

The festival will start at 12:30 p.m. April 10 in the Darlage Center Corner (NSTU 1615A) with the “What’s Your World View” roundtable discussion, which will explore the meaning and practice of holidays and holy days from around the globe, she said.

“Most of our holidays have some religious or spiritual significance,” she said.

The discussion aims to increase mutual understanding and appreciation of the perspectives presented, Hall said.

According to the schedule, the first movie of the festival, The Motorcycle Diaries, will be shown following the panel at 2 p.m.

The film talks about the motorcycle road trip Che Guevara went on after deciding to postpone his medical degree one semester away from finishing it. During the trip, the future revolutionary realizes his life’s calling.

The other movie scheduled is Cinema Paradiso 2:30-4:30 p.m. April 11. The film shows an Italian boy’s love of movies and the projectionist who teaches him the secrets of moviemaking, public service librarian Bonnie Hodges said.

The festival hadn’t incorporated films in a while until they included one during last year’s festival, and after getting positive feedback, festival organizers decided to include them again this year, Hall said.

“It’s fun to watch foreign movies in other languages,” she said. “Some people haven’t done that, so we’re hoping to expose them to that.”

In addition to movies, the festival will also have food from around the world for students to try. An Italian woman will even do a cooking demonstration so students can learn how to make Italian castagnole.

“We’ll all taste it, which I’m fired up about,” Hall said.

Students can also see some belly dancing, hip-hop dancing and samba during the festival.

The festival will run 12:30-4 p.m. April 10 and 9:30 a.m.-8:15 p.m. April 11 in the Darlage Center Corner (NSTU 1615A). The International Festival is sponsored by the NE world languages department and the campus diversity and inclusion council.

For more information, contact Hall at marsha.hall@tccd.edu or 817-515-6405 or ESL professor Mary Williams at mary.williams@tccd.edu or 817-515-6662.

“It’s a lot of fun, and it’s all free,” Hall said.