United Minorities Council kicks off Unity Month

This month, the United Minorities Council is all about building community.

In order to bridge the gap between different cultural communities at Penn, UMC decided to host an entire month full of events.

In the past, UMC organized Unity Week, but this year’s events will be more spread out.

“The reason that we’re trying out the Unity Month idea is that we really want people to be able to take part in each and every one of our events,” UMC Co-Chair and College senior Lucia Xiong said. “And when that gets crammed in a week, usually people will only participate in a fraction of them based on their time commitments, so by spreading it out, it fits better into the typical Penn student’s hectic schedule.”

UMC kicked off the month on Nov. 2 by bringing in Valerie Kaur, an award-winning filmmaker, civil rights advocate and interfaith organizer. According to Xiong, the event really set the tone for the rest of the month and opened up the dialogue.

“Everyone throughout the entire two hours was fully engaged in everything that she was saying, and the question and answer part went on and on,” Xiong said. “For me, that’s an indicator of success.”

The open dialogue continued with a discussion of affirmative action in higher education on Nov. 8.

In another effort to continue the community building, UMC hosted a celebration in Houston Hall on Friday, showcasing local Philadelphia artists and student performing groups. The event was meant to bridge the gap between Penn and its surrounding community.

UMC will also be holding be an event at the end of month at Lea Elementary School. Students will head over to the school to teach dances from various cultures.

Through this event in particular, UMC hopes to deepen the connection between Penn students and the West Philadelphia community.

“For a lot of Penn students there is a stigma against going beyond certain parts of West Philly,” College sophomore Joyce Kim said. “It’s understandable given the history, and, yes, safety comes first, but West Philly is such a rich community. You definitely miss out by not visiting West Philly at least once.”

Back on campus, UMC will be hosting a discussion on diversity in the workplace as well as One Mic, an open mic event.

UMC is collaborating with Penn Monologues and the Race Dialogue project to put on One Mic ­— a night of performances that will focus on expressing identity, be it cultural, religious, racial, gender or sexuality-oriented.

“We decided to have the One Mic event because we wanted to create a safe space for people to share their stories about race, culture and identity,” College senior and UMC Political Chair Elsy Compres said. “We hope that the event serves as a stage for activism through the sharing of stories and that it builds a solidarity for the continued conversation around these important themes.”

Throughout the month, Xiong hopes that the events will “set the foundation for more of the cross-cultural exchanges” that UMC promotes, be it within Penn’s campus or Philadelphia.

Compres shares similar hopes for Unity Month.

“For me, the most important aspect of Unity Month is the exchange of ideas that it fosters between students from all different backgrounds,” she said. “Unity Month is about raising awareness of diverse issues just as much as it is about finding ways to come together and share in our learning experiences.”

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