MIT's Campus Committee on Race Relations will sponsor several events celebrating racial and cultural diversity as part of its second CCRR Week, March 6-10.
CCRR Week is intended to educate, entertain and promote further awareness and appreciation for cultural difference within the MIT community. Most of the events are run by student groups.
This year, the committee is focusing on fewer events in hopes of drawing more attendees, said Lily Burns, staff associate in the Office of the President and one of the CCRR Week organizers.
Events will include an "Islamic Equality" dinner, which will feature a discussion with Imam Abdol Alim Musa, on Tuesday, March 7. The dinner will begin at 6 p.m. in Walker Memorial, Morss Hall. Imam Musa
is most well known for protesting U.S. aggression against Islam, in the form of international and domestic police brutality.
On Thursday, March 9, there will be a screening of "Nuestras Voces: Being Latina at MIT," a documentary produced by Latina MIT students and alumnae and by faculty in the foreign languages and literature section.
In the film, Latina students who came to MIT from Chilean, Cuban, Dominican, Mexican and Puerto Rican families share their challenges and successes. The screening starts at 4 p.m. in the Mezzanine Lounge at the student center.
True Colors, a Cambridge-based dance troupe of LGBT students aged 14 to 22, will perform at 7 p.m. Thursday night in Simmons Auditorium. The troupe's education director, Brenda Cotto-Escalera, is a former MIT professor of theater arts and music.
All events are open to all members of the MIT community. For more information, visit web.mit.edu/ccrr/ccrrweek.html.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 1, 2006 (download PDF).