On the evening of Wednesday, May 21, the Diversity and Intercultural Center (D&IC) sponsored Unity Fest, an event aiming to celebrate various forms of student expression through music, dance, poetry and more. The event was a collaborative effort between the D&IC and the Committee on Diversity Affairs (CODA). While this event has been held at Lawrence before as the “Cultural Festival,” this year is the first year it was called “Unity Fest.” However, the events and activities of the festival remained the same.
Unity Fest was originally set to be held in the Wriston Amphitheater, but the performances were moved into the Buchanan Kiewit Wellness Center due to rain. This meant that the event stretched from within the Wellness Center out to the Kaeyes Mamaceqtawuk Plaza, with several food trucks stationed there during student performances. Unity Fest offered students two tickets for food and drinks from Area 509, El Diablos, Mai’s Deli, Hawg Tyed, Pina Limón and AmberLulu Bubble Tea (previously known as UniUni).
Junior Quintin Fernandez noted how the indoor space changed the overall feeling of the event in comparison to previous years, affecting the experience of both the performers and the audience.
“The sounds reverberated more intensely and immediately,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez also claimed that having the performances in the Wellness Center brought everyone closer together.
Inside the Wellness Center, students gathered to share and witness each others’ music, writing and personal histories. For roughly an hour of the festival, groups such as Lawrence’s AfroFusion dance troupe and the Lawrence Cheer Team performed dances for the attendees. Several students also recited pieces of original poetry and writing, including junior Jas McGee, who spoke on her experience of reckoning with the history of slavery in the United States, its lasting impacts on her life and how her feelings surrounding this history have been misinterpreted.
The final act of the evening was a performance by the student band NOIR, composed of Fernandez and seniors Seckou Soumare, Ben Lewis and Josué Ríos López. NOIR performed two original songs, with audience members joining Soumare to sing the chorus to their song “PHYSICAL.” This performance was NOIR’s second-to-last performance on campus aside from LUaroo, since most of their members will be graduating at the end of this year.
While NOIR concluded the official series of performances for the evening, DJ Jay Nastyyy then performed a set for the attendees who remained in the Wellness Center until the end of the event.