Prepare your eyes for a feast. Cultural Kaleidoscope Week is Feb. 18-23. Shirley Dixon and the office of diversity initiatives organize Cultural Kaleidoscope Week. Dixon is hoping that the week will celebrate individual and group diversity.
On Sunday, Feb. 18, the week kicks off with the African-American Music Workshop. This presentation is entitled, “The Gift of Blackness: The Contributions of African-American Music to Catholic Worship,” and will be held in the Bruckmann Chapel of St. Joseph.
Valerie Lee-Jeter, the director of liturgy and music at St. Vincent de Paul Church, will present the interactive workshop while Our Lady of Hope Gospel Choir, led by Tonya Taylor-Dorsey, will provide the entertainment. Following the workshop is an informal dinner and evening mass. The workshop begins at 3:30 p. m.
Shelley Nixon will be a featured student throughout the week. Nixon has quadriplegic cerebral palsy. She is also a junior here at Cabrini. Nixon recently published her first book, “From Where I Sit – Making My Way with Cerebral Palsy.”
Donna Jo Napoli, the chair of linguistics at Swarthmore College will be reading excerpts from the book over audiotape, on Mon., Feb. 19, in the Grace Hall Board Room at 1 p. m.
Also on Monday, Nirmala Narayan, a member of the International Club will be designing temporary tattoos for students in the cafeteria from 11:30 a. m. to 2 p. m.
On Tuesday, the Floating Lotus Magic Puppet Theater presents “The Mystical Romance of Layla and Majnun” in the Grace Hall Board Room at 8 p. m. Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore is the solo performer in this poetic puppet show of a classic Arabic romance.
Flutist Keith Marks and his quartet of musicians perform in the Widener Center food court at 1 p. m. on Wednesday. That evening at 8 p. m. in the Grace Hall Atrium, essayist and lecturer Nikki Giovanni, the keynote speaker for Cultural Kaleidoscope Week will be reading from her collections of poems and will speak about the junction of her life and writings. The lecture is titled “Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea.”
The following day, Giovanni will host two discussion sessions on her book “Racism 101” in the Grace Hall Atrium, the first at 9:35, and the second at 10:55 a. m.
Friday, Shayla Hasic-Stamps, assistant director of residence life, will discuss the differences between her life here in the United States, and her native war-torn Bosnia, from where she fled in 1992. This will be held in the Commuter Lounge in the Widener Center from 12:10 to 1:10 p. m.
The week concludes with a presentation of the film, “School Ties” at 7 p. m. in the Grace Hall Board Room.
