Culture Builds Community at Kiser NSC

by Tierra Blackwell, CBC Intern

It was exciting planning and preparing for Culture Builds Community (CBC)’s most recent community celebration, entitled “Culture Builds Community” located (this time) at Kiser Neighborhood School Center (NSC). The festivities took place on Tuesday, November 10, and if you did not attend, you truly missed a wonderful night of fun for the entire family.

This multicultural celebration was the peak of the Son de Madera residency from November 7-12. For the two days prior to the community celebration, the members of this Mexican band had been in Kiser hosting student workshops, teaching the kids about their instruments, songs, and dances from their traditional son jarocho music style. This seemed to be an experience that not only the children, but the school faculty and staff, deeply enjoyed.

Being that this was the first residency and community celebration extended to the Old North Dayton area, there had been much planning involved in trying to establish and build upon new relationships in this area. The decision to make the Tuesday evening celebration one of a multicultural aspect allowed for us to extend an invitation to the various cultural clubs and ethnic restaurants of the area to participate in the activities and to share their culture with the residents of that area. What I learned from reaching out to local organizations such as the American Czechoslovakian, German, and Polish clubs, was that (as in most cases) there is an on-going need to expose traditional cultural roots to the younger generations in order to instill awareness and pride. Since these goals are inclusive our CBC’s vision, linking our vision and building connections just made sense!

The Culture Builds Community event collaborated with Kiser’s monthly family night and opened with a large community potluck. What better way to share cultures than through the taste of delicious food! The foods featured were representative of Mexican, Italian, American, Czech, and German ethnic dishes donated by a number of restaurants and community members. Even the Kiser middle school students in the afterschool program joined in by cooking a large portion of homemade tacos and skillet corn.

Activities led by the Hispanic Catholic community followed the potluck and included face painting, mask decorating, and displays educating the community of the Hispanic holiday, Day of the Dead. The children, especially, had a blast! The Son de Madera concert began as festivities continued, along with intermission dance performances by the American Czechoslovakian club and a Hispanic youth dancing group. The festivities ended with raffling free turkey dinners provided through the afterschool program and artwork that had been displayed throughout the night. The school’s gymnasium was full of life, energy and music. It was an exciting way to expand the CBC program and bring community folks together on one accord!