Brown House Hosts Culture Night

With a fairly constant stream of guests coming through the doors and just enough room for people to squeeze into the living room, the Brown House Culture Night last Friday demonstrated this year's Brown House residents' desire to provide an open, welcoming place on campus. The House's first official activity this semester, the night was complete with dishes from over five countries, as well as a showing of the movie "Life in a Day." While senior Sarah Wangai, resident of the Brown House, said they hoped the night would serve as "mostly a hang-out time," the event also reflected the House's theme: "Unity in Diversity."

Junior Esther Lee, who is Korean but grew up in the Philippines, said this year's residents hope to provide an "open place of new experiences and cultures." Each year, groups of students applying to live in the Brown House submit a potential theme that will guide the residents and the activities they host for the campus. This year's seven residents utilized their multicultural experiences and backgrounds to formulate their theme. They all come from a variety of backgrounds and the combined list of countries they have lived in includes Kenya, China, Korea, the Philippines, Honduras, Japan and the United States. Among the diversity, however, the residents assert they want to create a place where similarities and connections can be made. Their vision for the Brown House is a place where people can meet and connect, where students can find those similarities among all the differences. As junior Liesl McCloskey explained, they envision the Brown House as a "connection for different groups."

The relaxed atmosphere of Friday's Culture Night reflected this desire to provide a place for people to meet and connect. While the majority of the attendees appeared to be international students and those who have traveled for semester abroad programs, the event did draw a large crowd. Wangai said it was "encouraging that this many people came." After allowing time for people to sample and enjoy hodduk (Korean pancakes), dumplings, mandazi (a Kenyan pastry), and the other international foods, Lee introduced and started the film "Life in a Day."

"Life in a Day" was created from over 4500 hours of film footage taken July 24, 2010, and submitted to YouTube. Director Kevin Macdonald edited the footage to create the hour-and-a-half film to showcase intimate moments of life, whether routine or devastating, terrifying or triumphant. The man confessing his fear of the "disease" homosexuality, the girl climbing a human tower, montages of people going to the bathroom and waking up -- all provide a glimpse of what life looks like for people around the world. There is not much that ties the clips together other than the fact they were filmed on the same day and that some clips answer similar questions like "What's in your pocket?" and "What do you fear?" The film provides a remarkable glimpse into the variety of ways people go about their day, and, though YouTube is not always known for superb film quality, most of the footage is quite impressive.

While none of the Brown House residents had seen the movie prior to the Culture Night, Wangai thought the film showed how "we're all similar in some ways and different in some ways," and fit well into their vision for the night and the Brown House in general.

The Brown House residents are planning more events for this semester, including another possible Culture Night. Future activities will be announced by campus-wide e-mail.