Listen, Discuss & Experience: Diversity Day at CSW
Today was Diversity Day at CSW. This annual event offers a full day of workshops exploring a variety of diversity-related topics, ranging from cultural traditions and stereotypes to gender, class and body image.
“The fact that our entire community generates, presents and participates in the tremendous breadth of content for Diversity Day is extraordinary and speaks to the type of school that we are,” shared Johára Tucker, Director of Social Justice and Multicultural Programming.
The Diversity Committee, steered by two student coordinators (Satinder Parmar ’17 and Fayona Thomas ’17), worked closely with Johára, committee advisor and math teacher LeeAnn Brash, and fellow students to organize the program for the day, including the outstanding selection of workshops, many of which were student-led, such as Black Bodies Pink Tights; Dudes, Dads & Dictators; Traditional Chinese Ink Painting; Israeli Dancing; and Brazilian Rhythms. A new component this year included department-led workshops, with faculty and staff presenting a wide-range of sessions, including Latin American Food & Festival; Informed Consent in Scientific Research; Audism Unveiled; White Privilege; and Teaching Race. Many workshops were led collaboratively by faculty, staff and students.
A keynote presentation by Adriel Luis, a visual artist, musician, writer, educator and Smithsonian Museum curator, rounded-out the Diversity Day offerings. Through creative, spoken word poetry, theatrical skits and music built with audio files from his travels around the world, Adriel engaged and challenged the audience with works that present the difficult tensions that exist in American culture related to race, gender and sexuality. Adriel’s overall message was one of embracing diversity and diverse experiences and students had the chance to engage with Adriel further on these and other topics during lunch in the dining hall following his presentation.
After a full slate of afternoon workshops and presentations, Diversity Day 2016 concluded with dialogue debriefs in advisory groups and the encouragement to keep the conversation going on what diversity is and what it means to our community.
The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.