World Neighbors Fourth Annual ASU Diversity Festival Tuesday By Jeff Eason Most of us who are busy with work and school will not be able to give into our wanderlust for at least another couple of months. Even if you have to wait until the summer comes to do some traveling, you can still get a feel for other places and cultures by attending the Fourth Annual Diversity at Appalachian State University on Tuesday, April 5th starting at 3 p.m. Native American dancer, Summer Brook Courtney-Jones Tibetan sand artist, Tenzin Deshek The ASU Diversity Festival will feature food, dance, music, crafts, demonstrations, art and lots more. It is designed to entertain and inform visitors on the differences and similarities that all of us share with our world neighbors. The event is sponsored by the ASU Equity Office and is free and open to the public. The Fourth Annual Diversity Celebration at ASUwill open with a traditional Native American water blessing. Cherokee storyteller Jacque Red Leaf Garneau will perform the water blessing and ASU Chancellor Ken Peacock will say a few words of welcome prior to the blessing. The water blessing will take place in the Solarium at the Plemmons Student Union on the ASU campus in Boone on Tuesday, April 5th at 3 p.m. The event is sponsored by the Native American Council and Diane Sides is the faculty advisor. Garneau is a full-blooded Cherokee-Choctaw who lives in a two-room lodge in the mountains of North Carolina. She is an elder of her tribe and spends a good deal of time teaching people about the traditional ways of the Native Americans from our region. Organizers of Appalachian State University’s Fourth Annual Diversity Celebration have put together one of the largest collections of international entertainment the High Country has ever seen. The festival will be held at the Plemmons Student Union on the ASU campus in Boone on Tuesday, April 5th from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. The theme for this year’s festival is “The More You Know, the More You Grow—Water the Garden!” Headliner acts for the Diversity Festival include the band Back Then performing music from the 1950s and 60s, Dock Rmah with traditional Vietnamese music, the Ebony Hillbillies playing bluegrass music, the ASU Gospel Choir, Appalachian storyteller Orville Hicks, the Freylach Time Klezmer Band featuring music from Eastern Europe, and Lisa Baldwin and Dave Haney with bluegrass and country music. Other notable entertainers at this year’s event include jazz band 4’Taye, poets Jaclyn Shambaugh, Monica Sanders and Lisa Kwong, African-American clogger Arthur Grimes, the Alpha Phi Alpha step dancers, the Appalachian Dance Ensemble, string ensemble Blue Ridge Viols, Dancing for Jesus, the Eclectic Souls Marching Band, spoken word poetry and freestyle rap, the Mi Tierra Mariachi Band, Scottish Country Dancers, Sissoko Cheick Adama with African dance and music, Stephanie Heidemann with 13th century Spanish devotional songs, Steely Pan Band, Sule Greg Wilson with African American music and dance, and Summer Brook Courtney-Jones presenting the fancy shawl Native American dance. At the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, the Diversity Festival will present a demonstration in the Asian art of the creation of a sand mandala by an artist, Lama Tenzin Deshek, who practices techniques that have been handed down for generations. Other demonstrations will be held at the Plemmons Student Union and they include Native American bead working, stone carving and the telling of traditional Cherokee folk tales. The Diversity Festival will feature a number of presentations and workshops from a wide variety of presenters including BGLAAD, Dancing for Jesus, assorted educators, High Country Christian Homeschoolers, Hispanic Student Association, K-12 International Outreach Office, Playback Theatre Company, and Scottish Country Dancers. The festival will also feature a large area in the student union with exhibit tables for various organizations and ethnic food provided by area restaurants. The event will take place in the Blue Ridge Ballroom, the Linville Falls Room, the Whitewater Room, Crossroads Coffee House, the Multicultural Center, the Roan Mountain Room, and the Yadkin River Room, as well as on the stage inside Cascades Café. Food Vendors A huge array of ethnic foods will be available at the Diversity Festival from a number of High Country restaurants caterers and vendors including The Parthenon, Ci-Ci’s Pizza, Dos Amigos, Joe’s Italian Restaurant, New China Buffet, Papa John’s, Golden Corral, Coca-Cola, Sushi with Gusto, and Janice’s Cakes. Parking Beginning at 3 p.m., a free shuttle service will be provided every half hour between the rear parking lot at the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center and Plemmons Student Union. Additional parking is available in the Rivers Street Parking Deck. Rates are $2 for the first half hour and $1 for each subsequent hour. Sponsors Diversity Festival sponsors include ASU’s Office of Diversity, Equity Office, Office of Multicultural Student Development, Freshman Seminar, Hubbard Center, Student Governament Association, Office of International Programs, Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, and Mast General Store. The 4th Annual Diversity Festival is free and open to people of all ages. For more information, contact the ASU Equity Office at 262-2144.