MIT will offer a series of presentations and performances celebrating racial and cultural diversity as part of the Campus Committee on Race Relations' first CCRR Week, March 5-12. Events in the series are being sponsored by different cultural groups across campus.
The goals of CCCR Week are to educate, entertain and promote further awareness and appreciation for cultural difference within the MIT community.
Performances will include the one-man play "Black Boy," based on Richard Wright's 1945 autobiography depicting the hardships and discrimination he suffered growing up in the South. Actor Charles Holt plays all roles in this performance, portraying Wright from age four to 28.
Other performances include "��Yo Soy Latina!" a play originally performed Off-Off-Broadway that explores life as a Latina in the United States. Also planned is a performance of "Haitian Drum and Dance," presented as part of the Western Hemisphere Project's Series on Haiti.
Toni Lester, an associate professor of law at Babson College, will discuss her compilation of writings, "Gender Nonconformity, Race, and Sexuality: Charting the Connections" on March 9. Evelyn C. White, author of "Alice Walker: A Life," will discuss her biography of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author the next evening, March 10. White will be joined by Professor Helen Lee from MIT's Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies. Both events will feature Q & A sessions with the writers.
CCRR Week will also include discussions and film screenings focused on race and ethnicity issues. A schedule of events can be found at the CCRR web page.
Later in the term, undergraduates from the Martin Luther King Jr. IAP Design Seminar plan to distribute rubber bracelets to promote unity and cultural understanding at MIT. This initiative is funded in part by the CCRR Grants Committee.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 2, 2005 (download PDF).
