North Central events seek to embrace diversity

For one week every year, students at North Central College observe Anti-Hate Week, a campaign designed to educate and raise awareness about various forms of oppression and discrimination.

This year's campaign features a public keynote address by Omi Osun Joni el Jones at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, in North Central's Smith Hall at Old Main, 30 N. Brainard St., Naperville. Jones will discuss the "Six Rules for Allies," helping individuals work toward accountability, understanding and transformation. Admission is free.

An artist/scholar, Jones is an associate professor of performance studies in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her theater for social change has been conducted through workshops for the Forum on Governance and Democracy in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, Theatre of the Oppressed training for Educafro in Sao Paulo, and facilitation for the Austin Project - women of color who use art for re-imagining society.

The work of the Austin Project is documented in "Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia and the Austin Project."

Publications about her theater for social change include "Diasporic Collaborations" in The Journal of the Institute of Cultural Studies at Obafemi Awolowo University; "Performance Ethnography: The Role of Embodiment in Cultural Authenticity" in Theatre Topics; and "Re-Presenting Blackness" in Text and Performance Quarterly.

Other activities are planned during North Central's Anti-Hate Week and are sponsored by various campus groups. These public events are free.

The Oxfam Hunger Banquet begins at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, in the Harold and Eva White Activities Center, 325 E. Benton Ave., Naperville. At this interactive event, the place where you sit and the meal you eat are determined by the luck of the draw.

Just as in real life, some of us are born into relative prosperity and others into poverty. The banquet is sponsored by the offices of International Programs and Multicultural Affairs.

A student panel discussion, "Unpacking Political Correctness," starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, in the Harold and Eva White Activities Center. The discussion will be interactive and focus on current issues of political correctness and microaggressions. The panel is sponsored by the student-led multicultural organization Mosaic.

A community panel discussion, "Steps Toward Religious Understanding," will take place at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, in the Harold and Eva White Activities Center. The panelists represent Muslim, Sikh and Christian faith organizations and community and political leaders. They will dispel popular myths and look toward interfaith solutions to peaceful, productive lives together. The panel is sponsored by the Office of Ministry and Service.

For information about Anti-Hate Week activities, contact Dorothy Pleas, director of multicultural affairs, at (630) 637-5156 or djpleas@noctrl.edu.