Illinois Student Council, in collaboration with the University’s cultural and resource centers, hosted the first Crossroads of Culture event Friday. The block party style event celebrated diversity, equity and inclusion at the cultural houses located on Nevada Street.
The participating houses — the Asian American Cultural Center, the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center, La Casa Cultural Latina, the Native American House, and the Salaam Middle East & North Africa Cultural Center — set up tents along the street. They gave away free food from local vendors, raffle prizes and held activities like bracelet making inside.
The food was the biggest hit of the event, drawing students in long lines. Each cultural center brought food that best represented their culture, such as La Casa with Elote from La Mixteca, AACC, with rice and dumplings from Y-Thai and Salaam with their in-house chai tea. By the end of the event, most of the stations had run out of supplies.
Anika Manelkar, a junior in LAS and ISC DEI chairperson, said that the overall experience of the event went beyond just information and sampling.
“This is really a big festival to celebrate cultural wellness, rather than just knowing what the houses do — it’s taking that one step further,” Manelkar said. “You’d kind of be surprised how many people don’t understand the resources that are offered on this campus, and so I really hope that this event can serve to connect those students to resources that they haven’t seen.”
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Taking advantage of the unique ability food has to bring people together, Crossroads of Culture created a space for students of underrepresented backgrounds to come together and celebrate the work of the cultural centers.
One student attendee, Naomi Knapp, a freshman in LAS, praised the event for being both resourceful and enticing. Although she initially just came for the food, she “stayed for the vibes.”
“I love the amount of resources we have here, and all the different cultural houses,” Knapp said. “I need to take more advantage of all the stuff we have here, because there’s so much happening. Every day there’s something you can go to.”
Manelkar described the event as an overall success and said that ISC hopes they can make Crossroads of Culture an annual event.
“It’s really cool that we go to a university that has a really great support program for all the different cultural resources,” said Juliet Nickel, freshman in ACES. “It seems like everyone’s represented here, and no one feels excluded. It’s a place for us all to come together and do something.”
