Community
Beyond Tasting Culture provides students with club awareness and culinary delights
by Evelyn Atkinson
Friday April 28, 2006
On Thursday, March 30, a coalition of culturally-oriented clubs on campus, ranging from Students for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (SIPP) to UNIDAD, joined together to create Beyond Tasting Culture, a cultural-awareness event.
The food element of the night was resoundingly successful. Your correspondent learned the difference between Mexican and Ecuadorian empanadas and why SPAM is an integral cultural food product of the United States. As at all events that offer tables full of free food, the line stretched out the door and up Bates Hill. Over three hundred students came to the event, constituting an impressive turnout by Sarah Lawrence standards.
The clubs hoped the event would reach beyond last year’s Tasting Culture to achieve, according to senior Ofer Ziv, who was also one of the hosts at the event, “a more balanced event that would go beyond the cultural food” in order to educate students more about the participating cultures.
One way the participating clubs hoped to accomplish this was by having “a more extensive talent show and cultural content.”
Due to the fact that several performers cancelled, the talent portion of the event consisted of only three performances: a screening of a Russian cartoon; a poem in Spanish read by senior Yaffa Seraph about cultural roots in the Dominican Republic; and an impromptu Capoeira dance performed by sophomore Kayla Ankeny and seniors Heliana Mezzabolta and Matt Weiss.
Seraph said that her desire to participate in the event was fueled by attending Tasting Culture last year, which also featured cultural food and performances.
“I had a great time [and] I decided that I would like to be part of it this year,” Seraph said.
The three performances held the show together admirably, and drew much attention from the crowd. Regarding the Russian cartoon, senior Casey Rich remarked, “It’s crazy—I don’t understand a thing that’s going on—but I love it!”
The hosts offered time for an open mic, but no one accepted the challenge. Senior Alisha Desai remarked that had she known volunteers would be needed, she would have prepared to perform Bharata Natyam, a form of Indian classical dance.
Ziv, an active member of SIPP, said that perhaps “we weren’t efficient enough” in terms of advertising effectively.
The food, which was the greatest success of the evening, also provided the greatest metaphor for cultural peace and unity.
The plates, after all, were rather small, and in the process of dishing it out various cultural delicacies got piled together and mixed around. Israeli couscous topped Southern fried plantains, which then mixed with Russian beet and cabbage salad. It was all delicious together, creating a cultural connoisseur’s delight.
