Performances and dances from cultures around the globe will shine together Friday night in Memorial Union as part of one of UW-Madison's most attended student orientations.
The 26th annual Multicultural Orientation Reception, organized by the Multicultural Student Center, is designed to bring students from a variety of backgrounds together for celebration, along with introducing on-campus resources that can assist with navigating the university.
The center is in charge of five ethnic groups on campus - o - oAfrican Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Chicano students and Puerto Rican students.
We try to identify each ethnic group that we work with and strive to showcase the different talents of each group,"" said Charles Holmes-Hope, assistant director of MSC.
Last year the crowd totaled around 800 and this year will include possibly even more with door prizes from Target and other local corporations.
Holmes-Hope said simply the diversity of cultural talent and heritage has students, faculty and staff returning in great numbers each year.
This year the African Student Association, a Native American student group and First Wave - o - oone of UW-Madison's newest diversity efforts to attract urban artists of color - o - owill perform showcases at the Wisconsin Union Theatre.
Danez Smith, a UW-Madison freshman and First Wave spoken word poetry artist from the Twin Cities, said First Wave will collaborate with singing, dancing and beat boxing at their showcase.
He said the performance environment of MCOR will be especially inviting, calling it a ""beautiful thing.""
""When you're performing in a place that is not celebrating diversity sometimes you feel that you're representing your culture, but here it's more like we're celebrating our diversity and the things that make us different, as well as the things that make us similar,"" he said.
""It's kind of a great feeling to get on stage and know that everybody out there is different but that we're all connected in some ways.""
According to a statement from MSC, MCOR will start with performances at the Wisconsin Union Theatre from 7 pm to 9:30 pm. An academic research fair will follow in Great Hall, along with a dance at 10:30 pm.
MCOR is only one of several events MSC will coordinate this year. In late October, the center will bring together a variety of ethnic groups to a mission conference for UW students at UW-Whitewater.
