Vol. 22, No. 4 Spring 2006
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Townsend Harris High School at Queens College
149- 11 Melbourne Avenue, Flushing, NY 11367
Festival ·of Natio-ns-puts on Multt~cultural week dazzling display of diversity ce/ebrates·HarnSitesf ,
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by Linda K,ong The school was alive and thriving with culture as family · members, students, and friends crowded into the auditorium on March 16 for the Festival of Nations. After months of preparation , the annual show had finally arrived. Performers scrambled backstage, squeezing in last-minute r~hearsals and fixing their dazzling costumes. Everyone was ready by seven despite a few glitches with the lighting. After a wonderful performance of the national anthem by the THHS chorus, Ms Lisa ·Mars, the Assistant Principal of the Departll}ent of Languages other Than English, introduced . the night as a sharing of "each other's cultural heritage." That 1--------- ·was fo.li?)Yed by another,-'pe~~ formance from the chorus with an inspiring version of John Lennon's "Imagine."The performances of the night included at least one from each corner o.f the multiethnic world. The first performance was an Israeli dance with a tra~ ditional dancing _of the Hora. Then from East Asia, the Chinese traditional fan, ribbon, handkerchief, and ·· lantern dances were presented. To add a little modern taste to the traditional Chinese perfonnances, students also belted out a popular song, "Tong Hua (Fairy Tale)." After the performance of Chinese dance, there was a song in Korean performed by Jennifer Shim and Gong Joo Paik, along with many backup dancers. They sang " Girls on Top" by fariious Korean pop singer Boa .- Later on in the night, Andrew Oh did exhibition of Korean Tae K won Doe. The Japanese performance . rounded out the East Asian performances with an enlightening dance called "Soran-Bushi."
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varied backgrounds . by Julita Mienko · rr\ulticultural experience, food Maya Angelou once · said, day brought the tastes and . "In diversityth~re lsbeauty and _ smells df each country into the there is strength." Townsend Townsend cafeteria. Traditional Harris put its own diversity on recipes such as Spanish arroz (/) display d_uring the annual con polio and pasta ltaliana ~ ~ Multicultural weeR this March. _ satisfiecj the taste buds of eager ~ Students of all gr~de~ eeland hunger-stricken students . '0 -· .ebrated the-beauty of the1r cui~'It was nice to look at cuisine · ture and nationality -with flags, from all around the world and · see how different it is," said food; dance,andmore. Flag day . irijtiat~dthe week. sophomore Vito Arena. Whether hanging around the FinaUy, as the week reached Students from Dr. Sato's Japanese classes do the S -8 h' oran us 1 dance at this year's Festival of Nations. · · · . .
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shoulders ,or wavinghlgh above the h d . d .ea ' .many stu en ts proudly displayed their coun-
its clima~ the. Festival of Na. . tiOns performance stunned the audience with its beauty and
' The night was filled with the Spanish speaking world, the tries' s~mbols. lnterna.tiona) · grace. Whether it was tradiperforrnances from South Asia. jazz clubs and .the salsa dane- music filled the halls Ih be- tiona! Chinese dance or modThere was a traditional anc;l· . ing. Then students from the -tween classes, rephicii;Jg the ern Korean pop, the audience ,m odern Indian .q_a nc_e _to Fr~hch classes acted out scenes usual music. "It was a good fullyernbraced the ·traditional "Sh~h~rezaad:" )1n Ar~~~~n;-!_ frz; m Le Pet:it Prince by - shapg~;"_ s~.:dfres~l_,l}ah l~r~an d,anc~s pu~ O,n di_splay. Ms. PunJab! modern an(i traditional . Antonie de Saint-Exupery. The ~onarsk1. · I had fun walkmg Betancourt, one of the teachers dance to "Dus Bahane," and · performances were concluded from class to class." · that helped contril?~te to the another traditional Indian dance with the readin·g ofa Spanish . . Tuesday was tra'd itional show's successful outcome, felt to"KajraRe." poem recited by jonio~s · dressday.whenstudents~adthe therewas"anicebalanceoftraThe soothing musicfrom the M~nique East and Abby Rani . . oppo~tumt_y to wem: atitlwntic ditional and modern dances" traditional Hawaiian dance · The night was a success re- clothmg from their cultures. · this year. Despite the numerous pleased the audience as did a gardless of the technical diffi- · Glittering sari~ andsatin ki!llo- · te:.chnical difficulties that took special danc·e ·from the West In" culties that occurred as the .. nos wereamong the most<;o~- place, the performance still -left dian song "Ya Dun No.'' Many ·· night when on~ Some perfor- mon costumes. As junior an impac-t and appreciation for cultures also combined to bring . mances were cut outofthe pro- !.oan~~ Rong -e·ommen ted, foreign forms of dance: Sophothe audience · an African ·gram last minute such as .the Multicultu_raldre~ssetus :apart moreAdamEiessawifoundthis Makossa Dance and lndiari · Japanese skit. th!ough o~r. uniquedi!lerences, yea~;~ p~rformance a "refreshRaghav Dance. . . · ·. "That's completely unfair!" __ b~tat the sam~ time_, ~t br.o ught . ing .experience.'; "It 's fun to Many other cultural dance . a performer from the skit ex- us closer :together. rhrough watch all 'YOUr friends up on sequences filled the night as claimed. ·· school participapo.n.': . stage," he said, "and see them well. There was the traditional There were many diffiCU'I- · To tie all fiv¢ sense~ ,into the ·· -in a di~ferent!ight." Armenian Folkdance which . ties with the music throughout. was adapted frorri the Antranig . the night. Many songs were Dance Ensemble, the tradi- ·playedduringthewrongperfortional Irish dance .that was ac~ mance. The performers, how- · companied by a performance ever, handled these malfuncfromjunior Mike Morrissey on tions with ease. "We prepared the bagpipes just in time forSt.. for consequences during -prac- ·· Patrick's Day; _a spectacular tice ," sophomore and performer performance from the Latin Pallabi Kundu said . Another American/Caribbean g-roup comment from sophomore and with Sabor Latino, and a tri1di- ' performer tiona! Greek dance .with a modGeorge Vourderis stated , ern twist. Short skits were ·a "Despite some technical diffipart of the night, too. Ms. culties, we still came-through, Betancourt's AP Spanish class and we all had a lot of fun . That Junior Adelle Platon and sophomore Precious Sipin show their performed a short play about beats everything." Filipino pride by wearing their country's tlag.
AIDS Day p.2
Get to know
.FBLA p.2
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Learning and competing (n Japanese · p. 3
SING! revisited jJ.4