International Day

On November 19th, I attended International Day at the Engineering building on Campus. Jenna and I arrived right on time before the actual festivities were beginning so we started talking to some of the people that were running the celebration as well as artists sitting at the tables showing off their creations. The first lady I spoke to was creating cards for all of the different ethnic cultures around campus. She said how she wanted to make something that would appeal to everyone. If we wanted a card that said hello in Ghana she was willing to do it. The next booth was an African American artist by the name of Julian K. Van Dyke. He painted murals and portraits that displayed African American culture. After admiring all the different paintings he had done he talked to us about his inspiration that mainly derived from bible readings he had read and learned about.
After speaking with Julian I immediately I spotted a women across the room wearing a non-traditional type of garment. Jenna and I asked her what type of dress she was wearing and she said her dress was from an African culture and it was called a "bu bu". She said typically one would wear this at a wedding, such as the mother of the bride or a bridesmaid. It turns out this women, Maggie Blair-Ramsey was in charge of the celebration and was so excited we had come to see everything going on. She said International Day was designed to take into account all the different cultures of people that come from all over and end up here, at Michigan State. We were handed an agenda that showed us what was going on throughout the event such as bongo players and dancers. We saw many people walking around in their nations traditional garment and it was a real eye opener. It was nice to see how proud people are of their heritage even if their outfits are not the standard here in America. International Day was a success and I had a great time walking around and talking with people.