Students present their cultures through song and dance

Elliot Bailey, A&E Editor
Originally published on February 14, 2015

Ballard’s first multicultural assembly was held between 2nd and 3rd period today. Several student groups and two private groups performed dances and songs representative of their cultural origin.

“Sometimes we hear stereotypes or we hear something like a joke that’s stereotypical, or just things that we hear on the news, and we don’t really explore in depth certain cultures sometimes,” senior Wing Hadrann, Multicultural Committee President said. “So I think that this [assembly] gives a chance for everyone who doesn’t do that an educational opportunity.”

The assembly, which attempts to combat stereotyping and promote understanding of the cultures that meet in Ballard hallways, is the first of its kind at Ballard.

The Asian Pop Culture club, which is also headed by Hadrann, has performed twice in Ingraham’s multicultural assembly which has been running since the 80s.

Hadrann says that funds had always been a difficulty and that this year’s fundraisers — bake sales and after-school Italian soda vending — have helped make the assembly at her own school a possibility.

“For past years we’ve never really done funds because, for us, we were just a Ballard club that was invited by a different school to perform,” Hadrann said.

That changed when the idea of the multicultural assembly came home with Ballard students.

The assembly featured the cultural origins of many different student groups, in many interesting ways.