ROC2CHANGE

JAMES THORNBURG

The Middle School presentation of Willy Wonka was very good. The set design was very clever, making use of the past set pieces of Beauty and the Beast. A special shoutout to Ethan Hildreth, who was incredible in the role of Willy Wonka. Ethan leaned into the eccentricity of Willy Wonka, being anti-social and often rude to the children. In particular, Ethan nailed the laugh at the end of the boat scene. Gracie DiPalma nailed the role of Violet Beauregarde, and I especially loved the ballet moves she did during the gum scene. The rest of the cast also had stand-out moments, and everyone did a great job with their characters. Overall, it was a show that made me laugh and I think AC has some good years of musicals coming up. •

On March 31, a group of Allendale Columbia students went to ROC2CHANGE. The theme of Spring 2023’s ROC2Change was Deconstructing Tolerance, Rebuilding Understanding. The keynote speaker for this event was Isaiah Santiago, a graduate from the School of the Arts, and a candidate for the Rochester City School District Board of Education. He delivered an excellent speech, in which he did not talk down to conference attendees but rather talked to us as equals.

Outside of speakers, the activities that we did at the conference were engaging and allowed conference attendees to really connect with the ideas and have meaningful conversations. I particularly enjoyed the privilege walk, an activity where participants were asked to step forward or backward depending on whether they had that privilege or didn’t have it. At the end participants are asked to look at where they stood relative to their peers and assess their own privilege. After the privilege walk we discussed the various privileges we all did and didn’t have. The privilege walk showed me how much I have compared to some people and thus was a helpful way to understand my privilege in the Rochester community.

The theme of deconstructing tolerance was rather clever. Throughout the conference as I talked with peers I saw how tolerance can be both negative and positive. In some instances tolerance had allowed people to peacefully coexist however in other instances it bred frustration between people. My peers also pointed out that there are things you might never understand. For example, a person with straight hair can’t personally understand the culture of natural hair in the Black community. My peers said that rather than try to completely understand someone’s experience you should simply accept their experience.

In summary, I found ROC2Change to be a wonderful experience and a great way to connect with peers. I would recommend that anyone interested in attending the fall ROC2Change can contact Mx. Oliveri or Indy Maring.

More information about ROC2Change can be found on their website • https://www.roc2change.org/