The Daily Princetonian
Thursday February 19, 2015
page s1
PAGES DESIGNED BY LIN KING :: STREET EDITOR
“CAMPUS CULTURE” This week, Street gives an overview of the vibrant student cultural groups at Princeton. We reached out to the presidents of all the groups and spoke to the first eight to respond. For a complete list of groups, visit the Student Organization Directory on ODUS’ website.
COUTESY OF PRINCETON LATINOS Y AMIGOS
Students participating in the La Posada Christmas event held on Dec. 5, 2014. Princeton Latinos y Amigos was one of the many co-sponsors of the event.
PRINCETON LATINOS Y AMIGOS
PRINCETON AFRICAN STUDENTS ASSOCIATION DANIELLE TAYLOR
JENNIFER SHYUE
Contributor
W
ith about 209 active Facebook members and over 300 members on their listserv, Princeton’s African Students Association (PASA) offers an engaging community for anyone interested in Africa and the African diaspora. Seven of-
ficers, along with an additional board focused on diversity, lead PASA with the goal of making African students feel welcome. According to Olamide AkinOlugbade ’16, the president of PASA, the organization helps African students maintain a connection to their roots while at Princeton. The diversity board accomplishes this by representing broad geographical regions of Africa, such as West Africa and Central Africa, and incorporating different cultural aspects of those regions, such as food and music, into PASA’s events. “[PASA] has definitely helped me stay close to where I am from. I have been led to think about Africa while being removed from it in an American environment,” AkinOlugbade said. Recent events of PASA include “Sherehe,” a celeCOUTESY OF SANKOFA bration of African Rohey Jah ’16 models for promotional poster of the upcoming food and perforSankofa 2015 show, photographed by Injee Unshin ’15. mance culture, as
Associate Street Editor
well as bi-weekly discussion dinners that include topics such as African identity, often featuring professors in the African Studies department. Some other events throughout the year include a “meet-the-new-board” social and Sala Kale, which is the senior send-off that also serves as the end-of-year gala. One of PASA’s most high profile events is the upcoming “Sankofa: The African Fashion Show,” which will be held this Friday, Feb. 20 in the Mathey common room at 7 p.m. PASA’s future plans, according to Akin-Olugbade, involve not only celebrating African culture, but also changing perceptions about Africa. “The plans from the club involve expanding beyond a celebration of African culture and entertainment to shed light on the ways the African continent has grown as a land of opportunity for businesses and entrepreneurs,” Akin-Olugbade said. “We would like to raise awareness about the ways the African continent is rising, while changing the perceived narrative of an ever-broken continent.” With the goal of changing perceptions about Africa and fostering a community that welcomes African students, PASA encourages diversity and inclusion, while forming strong bonds between its members. “[PASA] has helped me create some great friendships with people from all over the continent,” Akin-Olugbade said.
I
n some ways, Princeton Latinos y Amigos can trace its roots back to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Acción Puertorriqueña, the group she co-chaired while a student at the University. After numerous national origin-specific groups such as Acción Latina, Acción Puertorriqueña’s successor; the Cuban American Undergraduate Students Association; Chicano Caucus; and Colombian Students Association and Friends faded into obscurity, PLA was officially recognized in spring 2013 as a pan-Latino organization for undergraduates on campus. “A lot of our programming so far works on three main things,” copresident Briana Christophers ’17 said. “We have a lot of stuff on identity, then like cultural stuff, and then we try to do a lot of collaborative events as well.” “It’s really about building a community for Latino students on campus,” co-president Nicole Gonzalez ’16 said, in reference to the group’s focus on Latino identity. Two discussion groups, Mujeres and Hablemos, bring together students to discuss issues pertinent to Latina women and to students who identify as both Latino and some other identity, respectively. In terms of cultural events, PLA starts off the year with Latino Heritage Month, which runs from mid-September to mid-October and concludes with the Fall Gala. It also
sponsors movie screenings, such as an upcoming screening of the Venezuelan film “Pelo Malo” in collaboration with the Black History Month Committee, and Caja Loca, a Latin dance party in Campus Club that PLA hopes to host monthly. As for the element of collaboration, Christophers said, “Even more recently, the collaboration stuff has been becoming bigger and bigger. We’re trying to engage the broader Latino community institutionally.” PLA has been working with the Association of Latino Princeton Alumni, the Latino Graduate Students Association and Latino Princetonians, a resource group for Latino University staff. In its first years, PLA was more focused on its cultural activities. In the past few months, however, recent campus political movements have created avenues to engage in discourse with University administration, which have allowed PLA to take on the role of advocate for Latino students on campus. “Another goal … was working more with the administration to work on topics specific to — or maybe not even specific to — the Latino community but that involve [it],” Christophers said. “[To] advance the needs of our population and hopefully also those of other minority or cultural groups on campus.” “It’s really a focus on equity on campus,” Gonzalez added. “Not just for us, for all of us,” Christophers said.
ORANGE PAN-HELLENIC ASSOCIATION LIN KING Street Editor
I
n the context of an American university, the words “Greek culture” may denote a number of things, but for the members of the Orange Pan-Hellenic Association (OPA), it means exactly that — Greek culture, including music, food, theater and, of course, language. OPA was founded in 2011, and according to president Stephanie Leotsakos ’16, the club had only 5 core members organizing campus-wide events in the beginning. “Due to the free Greek food and desserts that were offered at many of our events (traditional dancing workshops, cooking demonstrations, cultural
fairs), our club gained visibility and listserv subscriptions,” she said in an emailed statement. The group has now expanded to include 35 active members and six officers, with 70 signed up on its listserv. Leotsakos explained that since the group hosts three weekly Modern Greek language tables (Tuesdays 6 p.m. in Forbes Dining Hall, Wednesdays 6 p.m. in Rockefeller Dining Hall and Friday 1 p.m. in Mathey Dining Hall), most of its active members are Greek or Greek-American. While most of the language table participants are native speakers, Leotsakos added that there are also enthusiastic frequenters who are invested in learning the language. However, Leotsakos stresses that all interested in Greek language or culture are welcome. “[OPA] is open
to everyone — we make our events open to undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff, even the local non-university community,” she said. “We maintain a separate listserv for non-student members for our events open to the public. Our larger-scale cultural events draw more non-Greeks than Greeks.” In addition to language tables, OPA also organizes Greek concerts, incorporates a traditional dance group and participates in various cultural events on campus. For one, a Greek cooking event is in the works for the spring semester. The group also organizes numerous Greek arts events. “We are very excited about an upcoming concert that we spent almost a year planning. OPA has invited renowned Greek lyricist Lina Nikolakopoulou to come to
Princeton for a concert dedicated to her most enduring works on Sunday, March 1,” Leotsakos said. Another performance arts event, a master class with Greek actress and vocalist Martha Frintzila, will be hosted on Monday at 7 p.m. in the Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall. “These opportunities to collaborate with talented musicians and share that with the Princeton community are particularly rewarding,” Leotsakos said.
COUTESY OF FLOWMAGAZINE.GR
Lyricist Lina Nikolakopoulou, who will be performing in the Tarlin Auditorium in Fine Hall on Sunday, March 1.