The Eighteenth Annual

2011-2012 Cultural Awareness Series

          Over the past 18 years, the Cultural Awareness Series has grown more successful and has become highly anticipated thanks to your continued support. We invite you to join us for a new and exciting year. The speakers and performances scheduled for this year’s Cultural Awareness Series aim to promote a greater understanding and appreciation of diversity in race, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, religion, age, and culture.
The James Farmer Multicultural Center strives to honor the late Dr. James L. Farmer and to keep his legacy alive. Farmer was a dynamic civil rights leader and advocate for social change, and we hope that the Cultural Awareness Series helps members of the Mary Washington family and surrounding community to appreciate all aspects of diversity.
The James Farmer Multicultural Center believes that one way of educating about culture is through the arts. Arts allow individuals to see culture through a fresh lens. Artist Abby Willowroot said it best, “Art speaks the soul of its culture.” By highlighting the distinctiveness of culture through such media as poetry, theater, music, food, literature, and dance, the James Farmer Multicultural Center hopes to help students grasp new and meaningful concepts about culture.
As the world becomes increasingly globalized, we hope that the programs in the Cultural Awareness Series open minds among all individuals to appreciate our differences and commonalities. We also hope that our programs will encourage dialogue about these topics. The programs in our series are collaborative partnerships. Thanks to the offices acknowledged in this brochure, we are able to sponsor this inspiring line-up of authors, performers, pioneers, and activists. We thank you in advance for considering this invitation to join us in celebrating diversity.

With best wishes and kind regards,
The James Farmer Multicultural Center Staff

Latino Identities Month Keynote Speaker: Bobby Gonzalez

Wednesday, Sept. 21 | 7 p.m. | Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center

Bobby González is a nationally known multicultural motivational speaker, storyteller, and poet. Born and raised in the South Bronx, New York City, González grew up in a bicultural environment. He draws on his Native American − Taino − and Latino − Puerto Rican − roots to offer a unique repertoire of discourses, readings, and performances that celebrates his indigenous heritage.

 

GLBTTQQIAAP Cultural Celebration Keynote Performer: Andrea Gibson

Wednesday, Oct. 26 | 7 p.m. | Lee Hall, Room 411

A powerful live performer, Andrea Gibson is the winner of the 2008 Women’s World Poetry Slam and has placed third in world on two international poetry slam stages. With Gibson, the personal is political; her themes deconstruct gender norms, sexuality, class, patriarchy, and white-supremacist capitalist culture.

 

Asian Cultural Celebration Keynote Performer:
Tai Yim Kung Fu School Lion Dance and Kung Fu Demonstrations

Wednesday, Nov. 2 | 7 p.m. | Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center

Hung Fut Kung Fu was created nearly 400 years ago by Wun Lei, a Buddhist monk and kung fu grandmaster, in China at the Southern Shaolin Temple. Come learn about kung fu and be enthralled by performances of the traditional Lion Dance.

 

 

Taste of Asia

Friday, Nov. 4 | 7 p.m. | Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center

Co-sponsored by the Asian Student Association

A celebration of Asian culture, Taste of Asia is very popular at UMW. This free event educates the community about different cultures and lifestyles through a fashion show, dance performances, and a variety of ethnic foods.

 

Native American Cultural Keynote Performer: Bill Miller

Monday, Nov. 14 | 7 p.m. | Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center

For years, Bill Miller’s music has moved audiences around the world. An icon of the Native American music community, Miller has won three Grammys in the last four years. Through music and discussion, Miller illustrates the relationship between majority and minority cultures. Instead of teaching tolerance and assimilation, he promotes a redemptive culture of understanding and peace.

 

Jewish Cultural Celebration Keynote Speaker: Roya Hakakian

Wednesday, Nov. 16 | 7 p.m. | Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center

Celebrated poet and filmmaker Roya Hakakian is passionate about raising awareness of today’s human rights issues, many of which are overlooked. A founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and a fellow at Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center, Hakakian has written Journey from the Land of No, an account of her life growing up as a Jewish teenager in post-revolutionary Iran.

Islamic Cultural Celebration Banquet

Thursday, Dec. 1 | 6 p.m. | Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center
Co-sponsored by the Islamic Student Association

The Islamic Cultural Banquet offers traditional food, fellowship, and a keynote lecture from Imam Yahya Hendi. Imam Hendi is the Muslim Chaplain at Georgetown University, the first American university to hire a full-time Muslim Chaplain. He has written numerous publications on many topics, including Islam and biomedical ethics, and religion and Islam in the United States. A sought-after speaker, Imam Hendi has presented a multitude of interfaith and general lectures in the U.S., Asia, Africa, Europe, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Australia, and the Middle East over the past 14 years. He has traveled to more than 63 countries and 45 U.S. states for conferences.

Kwanzaa

Monday, Dec. 5 | 6 p.m. | Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center
Co-Sponsored by the Black Student Association

As a means of unifying the African and African-American communities, Dr. Maulana Karenga established Kwanzaa, a non-religious holiday celebrating and honoring African culture and heritage throughout the world. A seven-day celebration, Kwanzaa features candle lighting, pouring of libations, and the culminating feast and gift giving. Please join us as we partake in the activities and rituals of Kwanzaa and enjoy a feast together.

 

The University of Mary Washington’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Keynote Speaker:
Dr. Marc Lamont Hill

Wednesday, Jan. 18 | 4 p.m. | Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall sponsored by the office of the president

Activist, social critic, and scholar Marc Lamont Hill is consistently recognized as one of the nation’s most notable African-American leaders. An associate professor at Columbia University, he has emerged as an important voice in a new generation of public intellectuals. With a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, Hill has focused his research on the intersections of youth culture, identity, and educational processes.

 

The James Farmer Visiting Lecturer and Black History Month Keynote Speaker: Dr. Angela Davis

Wednesday, Feb. 15 | 7 p.m. | Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall

Co-sponsored by the James Farmer Visiting Professor Committee

An icon of the nation’s quest for social justice, activist and scholar Angela Davis has spent decades building communities of struggle for economic, racial, and gender equality. The author of eight books, Davis has served for the last 15 years as professor of feminist studies and professor of history of consciousness, an interdisciplinary doctoral program, at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

 
 

Step Show Competition

Saturday, February 25 | 7 p.m. | Doors open at 6:30 p.m. | Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall | Cost: $7 general admission, $5 UMW

Stepping began in the early 1900s. Today, the dance form uses the entire body to resonate complex rhythmic beats and sounds. Join area high school teams for this high-energy, entertaining competition.
 

Women’s History Month Keynote Speaker: Dr. Danielle McGuire

Thursday, March 22 | 7 p.m. | Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center

Danielle McGuire is a writer and assistant professor in the history department at Wayne State University. Since receiving a doctorate from
Rutgers in 2007, McGuire has won numerous teaching and research awards. Her dissertation on sexualized racial violence and the African-American freedom struggle received the 2008 Lerner Scott Prize for best dissertation in women’s history. She is the author of At the Dark End of the Street.

 

Passover

Monday, April 9 | 6 p.m. | Faculty/Staff Dining Room, Seacobeck Hall

For cost please contact the James Farmer Multicultural Center. Co-sponsored by the Jewish Student Association

Passover is the Jewish celebratory feast that honors the emancipation of Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. It is traditional for Jewish families to gather on the first few nights of Passover for a special Seder dinner. The Seder is a ritual performed by a community or by multiple generations of a family in which the group retells the story of the liberation. Please join us for a traditional Seder ritual and feast.

22nd Annual Multicultural Fair

April 14 − rain or shine | 10 a.m. − 5 p.m. | UMW campus

Each year, the Multicultural Fair attracts thousands and exemplifies UMW’s commitment to multicultural awareness. The fair provides an entire day packed with entertainment, children’s activities, international and American food, and ethnic arts and crafts.