For Immediate Release — Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Contact:
Mary E. McCrank
Media Relations Officer
(585) 245-5516
SUNY Geneseo's Cultural Harmony Week Includes Visit
by Cambodian Genocide Survivor Dith Pran
GENESEO, N.Y. — The State University of New York at
Geneseo has announced the schedule for its seventh annual Cultural Harmony
Week, which will run Oct. 24-29.
The theme for Cultural Harmony Week 2005 is "InterFace: The Intersection of East & West Cultures."
"We want to evoke an image of all people being connected. We
interface with each other. At times we are all so multicultural that literally
our faces and features can be interchanged," said Michelle Singletary, interim
director of the college's Office of Multicultural Affairs and coordinator of
Cultural Harmony Week.
This theme will be explored over a six-day period with a
wide range of programming, including the annual Cultural Harmony Week Lecture,
an art exhibit and much more. All events are free and
open to the public.
One of the highlights of the week will be a lecture by Dith
Pran, who survived one of the bloodiest genocides in human history, the
Cambodian tragedy set forth by the Communist Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. His story
was portrayed in the Academy Award-winning movie "The Killing Fields." Another
highlight will be a visit by Cathy Bao Bean, author of "The Chopsticks-Fork Principle: A
Memoir and Manual."
Here is a line-up of Cultural Harmony Week 2005:
Asian Pacific American History Project of Greater
Rochester Photo Exhibit Opening and Reception
4:30-5:45 p.m., Monday, Oct. 24, Lockhart Gallery, 26
Main St., Geneseo
The exhibit will formally open with a reception and will run
through Nov. 11. The photo exhibit is of Asian life and the intersection of
Western and Asian cultures in the Greater Rochester area. A sneak preview of
the exhibit also will be available from 2-5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, during the
college's Family Weekend.
"Identity Through Art: Six Rochester Area Asian American
Artists"
6 p.m., Monday, Oct. 24, Newton Hall 204
The Asian Pacific American History Project of Greater
Rochester will screen this documentary and lead a discussion about the film.
The documentary was produced by Rehema Trimiew and Yoshihiro Shimizu, MFA
students in film studies at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Cultural Harmony Week Lecture: Dith Pran
7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 25, Newton Hall 214
Dith Pran survived one of the bloodiest genocides in human
history, the Cambodian tragedy set forth by the Communist Khmer Rouge in the
1970s. His story was portrayed in the Academy Award-winning movie, "The Killing
Fields." Pran and Sydney Schanberg, then a correspondent for The New York
Times, covered the events leading up to the
genocide, including the fall of the capital to the communist Khmer Rouge.
Arrested by the Khmer Rouge, they were sentenced to execution, but eventually
released. Exiled to the killing fields, the forced labor camps in the Cambodian
countryside, Pran endured starvation and torture for four years. In 1976,
Schanberg received a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Cambodia, and he
accepted the award for himself and Pran. In October of 1979, Pran escaped to
Thailand and to freedom. A photojournalist
for The New York Times since 1980, Pran was appointed as Goodwill
Ambassador by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1985. He has
testified several times before the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific
Affairs of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives and has received
four honorary doctorate degrees. The 1998 Ellis Island Medal of Honor
recipient, he is a member of the Asian American Journalist Association.
Tirelessly working to expose the genocide, he compiled the stories in Children
of Cambodia's Killing Fields: Memoirs of Survivors. Determined to educate the world and
assure that the Cambodian genocide is not forgotten, nor repeated, Pran founded
The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project.
Oxfam Hunger Banquet
6-8 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 26, MacVittie College Union
Ballroom
The Jewish Student Union produces this annual event to raise
money for Oxfam America. An experiential dinner, participants in the Hunger
Banquet leave with more than just food on their minds. They learn about
distribution of wealth and poverty around the world. Tickets are $5 and may be
purchased at the MacVittie College Union Ticket Office.
Pan-Asian Student Dialogue with Author Cathy Bao Bean
3:30-5:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 27, Sturges Auditorium
(Sturges Hall 219)
Cathy Bao Bean will lead a discussion among the Asian
students enrolled at Geneseo about issues of importance within mixed Asian
communities. Geneseo's Asian students include international students; newly
emigrated, first-generation, and fourth-generation Americans; and urban and
suburban students who were adopted and raised in America. Some students are
multilingual, while others speak only English, and the students come from a
variety of nationalities and cultures from East and Southeast Asia. This
dialogue is aimed at gaining cross-cultural understanding and strengthening
ties within the college's Asian student community.
"Living & Laughing by The Chopsticks-Fork Principle"
with author Cathy Bao Bean
7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 27, Newton Hall 204
Rooted in the telling of one family's life, "The Chopsticks-Fork Principle: A Memoir and Manual"
is a story for all families. In this humorous and poignant memoir, the author,
an immigrant from China, recounts how she figured out to be herself, as well as
how to raise a son whose white American artist father did things like paint the
lawn. As Bean attempts to satisfy disparate cultural norms, she provides us
with a unique window into the experience of a bicultural family. "The Chopsticks-Fork Principle" also
is a manual that explains how anyone who steps outside the home can benefit by
greater awareness of the diversity within and around us.
GENseng Production
4 p.m., Friday, Oct. 28, Sturges Auditorium (Sturges Hall
219)
GENseng, the college's Asian American theater troupe, will
explore ideas related to the sexual objectification of Asian women and men in
this production. During a facilitated discussion after the performance,
participants will examine several related issues including the sexual
objectification of other people of color, media influences and other sources of
stereotypes.
Cruise Around the World, Residence Life Office: Creating
Campus Community Involvement
5 p.m., Friday, Oct. 28, Red Jacket Quad
The Office of Residence Life invites you to Cruise Around
the World. Students will move through 15 ports of call (residence halls) to
visit different "countries." Travelers who successfully cruise through each
hall will be entered into a raffle for door prizes, including a new DVD player.
All travelers will need a "passport," which can be obtained from service desks
in the residence halls.
Intercultural Night Dinner
6 p.m., Saturday Oct. 29, MacVittie College Union
Ballroom
The sixth annual Intercultural Night Dinner is a tradition
started by alumnus Runa Rajagopal, whose vision was an evening of food and
culturally based entertainment representative of the many ethnicities and
cultures that call SUNY Geneseo home.
For details, call (585) 245-5620.
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