Frontier’s ‘Cultural Kaleidoscope’ event aims to teach students to be global citizens

SOUTH DEERFIELD — The booming sound of drums erupted from Frontier Regional School last month as high school students took a break from their everyday curriculum to learn tai chi, taekwondo, henna, pierogi cooking, Chinese brush painting, sign language, Latin and African dance, and other art forms from cultures around the globe during the second annual “Cultural Kaleidoscope” event.

“At the core of the event is teaching students to be global citizens, that the world is much bigger than our little town or our little county,” Frontier’s Community Outreach Coordinator Christine Wu said outside the auditorium, where ninth graders learned to play African drums. “This is a fun way for them to get exposure to the arts of other cultures.”

For the daylong event’s second year, high schoolers picked from “18 different workshops, 18 different worlds,” as Wu described, and left their binders in their backpacks to drum, kick, dance, paint, write stories, cook and listen.

Outside the school, a conical wigwam rustled in the wind beside the tennis courts where Jennifer Lee of Plainfield, a member of the Narragansett tribe, taught students about local Native American history and culture.

When Lee was in school, she said, she never learned about Indigenous people and history.

“When I was in grammar school, our alphabet said, ‘A is for apple, I is for Indian,'” Lee remembered.

In the wigwam, Lee taught students not only about local Indigenous tribes’ pasts, but their stories today.

“There’s much more of a Native presence here than people understand, because it’s just not taught,” Lee said, mentioning the Pocomtuc, Nonotuck, Agawam, Wampanoag and Nipmuc tribes nearby. She encouraged students to attend local powwows.

“Powwows are always educational,” Lee said.

Inside, “Bad Bunny” boomed inside a classroom as students painted bright yellows, greens, blacks and reds on coconut husks to create their own vejigante masks. Puerto Rican artist Natasha Colon Ortiz described vejigantes as “insidious-type creatures that play tricks and scare off the evil spirits,” symbolizing ancestors returning to the new world. With their signature sharp teeth, protruding tongues and horns, the vejigantes dance in many carnivals in Puerto Rico, including the Fiestas de Santiago Apóstol or Carnival de Loíza.

“I love the artistry of them,” said Ortiz, who saw the vejigantes in action in Puerto Rico. She taught the high schoolers the rich meanings of the colors, patterns and symbols on the masks before students painted their own. “Our symbols are super important to us and a way of communicating to each other.”

Ortiz described expressing oneself through artmaking as a form of self-love and self-respect that often fizzles out during the teenage years.

Looking out at the students focused on their masks, Ortiz said, “This is one of the most important ages to really find your uniqueness, your creativity, your self-respect, your self-love, and express that in as many ways as you can.”

Next door, students worked in near silence as Grace Yanli taught Chinese brush painting.

“I like to share my skill, my time to service the community,” said Yanli, who often travels to teach the ancient art form.

Senior Ellyana Rivadeneira-Goodwin chose the workshop for its focus on art. An avid artist, she is currently taking two art classes and is planning to take two more next semester.

“I like how holding the brush is different,” Rivadeneira-Goodwin said as she painted the last few strokes on two swallows.

Being half white and half Hispanic, she said she feels like she gains something from learning about other cultures.

“I like learning about different cultures; it’s one of my favorite things to do,” Rivadeneira-Goodwin said. “Culture is something we can share. It’s beautiful.”

After the workshops, students packed into the auditorium for a performance by percussionist Tony Vacca; local Latin dance instructors Angelique and Ali, also known as A-Squared; the WOFA African drum and dance troupe; and Indian classical dancer Nandana Binu. Later in the evening, residents gathered for a community potluck.

“We don’t often represent everyone who’s in our student body, and this is an attempt to say, ‘We’re diverse and let’s celebrate that,'” Wu said. “Reading and writing and arithmetic are absolutely important, but our social development, our understanding of our place in the world, is just as important.”