My Final Stop of the Semester: We Day Illinois

Two weeks ago, I was invited to We Day Illinois to tag along as my honey project co-founder Nick Helfand spoke to a crowd of tens of thousands about the work we do in Ecuador.  We Day is an annual series of stadium-sized events that brings together “world-renowned speakers and performers…with tens of thousands of youth”, and “offers educational resources and campaigns to help young people turn the day’s inspiration into sustained action”.  The venue was ornate. Filling the entire Allstate Arena, the stage was decorated with projectors and monitors showing recorded videos and a live feed of the show, massive speakers lined the walls, and the presenters were superstars.  My personal favorites included Selena Gomez, Magic Johnson, and Ezra Frech, a nine-year-old record-breaking paraplegic runner.

As one of three panelists speaking about what it means to be a young entrepreneur, Nick had the opportunity to be interviewed by Dennis Haysbert (the actor featured often in Allstate Commercials).  The crowd roared in applause when he answered Mr. Haysbert’s questions, and we realized how lucky we were to have been featured in this incredible event.

My favorite part of the experience was having the opportunity to meet other incredible young social entrepreneurs. In the “green room”, waiting for Nick’s turn to take the stage, we introduced ourselves to a group of other young adults anxiously waiting for their names to be called to take the stage.  I was blown away by the work that these individuals were doing. Trisha Prabhu, a 14-year-old student at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois, for example, designed “Rethink”, a computer program that gives adolescents who are trying to post an offensive message on social media a second chance to reconsider their decision.

Reflecting, while We Day may not have directly connected to international relations, it was the most inspirational public event I attended this year.  Most of the crowd was comprised of students from public schools in lower-income areas of the city. The event brought these students together and inspired them with motivational messages from people they recognize from their TVs, radios, and the movies.  In terms of how this connects to my inquiry strand, what did strike me was the potential that these types of events have in bringing cultures and people of different backgrounds together.  If there were We Days dedicated primarily to combating xenophobia and familiarizing American children with other cultures, our youth’s understanding of the world might be a little different.

For my independent research, I couldn’t help but look into the type of press coverage We Day Illinois received.  A CBS local news story, for example, raved about the day, citing performances by Common and Jennifer Hudson.  The article (http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/04/30/celebrities-help-young-volunteers-mark-we-day-in-illinois/) also explained something I did not previously know, that schools got free tickets by “performing both a global and a local act of volunteerism or charity.”

"Bolero and Other Works", Reminding Us That Dance Can Bridge Divides

On Sunday, March 15^th, I was invited to attend Chicago Repertory Ballet performance of Bolero and Other Works at the Victory Gardens Theatre.

The show, described as Modern or Contemporary Ballet, was divided into a number of different pieces, each with a unique backdrop, musical beat, costume set, and style of movement.  Some pieces were light and up beat, and others were darker and slower, with dancers taking long pauses to breath deeply or sit motionless.

This event was quite unlike any dance show I had previously attended.  Perhaps the most apparent dissimilarity could be seen in the dancers themselves. In other experiences, I had watched mostly petite, flawless ballerinas leap in the air. Their male counterparts, with bulging legs and v-shaped torsos, would pick them up and then perform their own, gravity-defying jumps to the crescendos in the music.  A new experience to me, the dancers in Bolero and Other Works were less dancer-like and more gymnast-esque. The women were far more muscular and broad than other dancers I had seen.  They were in incredible shape, but they also defied the stereotypes for what a dancer’s body should look like.  

While I wasn’t able to immediately draw a connection between the performance and my inquiry strand, “how countries relate to one another”, reflecting on the show, I now recognize how this event connects.

A lesson I’ve learned through attending public lectures and actually visiting foreign nations in both South America, Central America, and Europe is that sometimes, formal political discourse is not the most effective means of cultivating healthy international relationships.  Instead, it is often valuable for countries to rally around a shared appreciation for culture as a way to gain a deeper understanding of each other’s ways of life.  In many cases, dance can bring nations together.  Whether it be that two countries express their cultures similarly through dance, or have wildly different performing arts traditions, exchanging cultural experiences can be worthwhile.  To offer an example, the dance company that my sister belongs to is beginning an exchange program with the Escuela Nacional de Ballet Cubana (National Cuban Ballet), in which dancers from each school will be visiting the opposite school.  This program is not only meant to improve the dancers’ abilities, but also to help bridge the divide between Cuba and the U.S..

For my independent research, I found a piece written in the Huffington Post entitled “‘Dancing In Jaffa': Ballroom Dance Champion Brings Israeli, Palestinian Kids Together To Dance”. The article covered a 10-week program directed by world champion ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine in which Jewish and Palestinian Israeli children come together for an extensive course in Latin Dance.  As referenced in more detail in the video attached to the link, Dulaine explains, as I attempted to above, why dance “can be powerful tool for teaching the value of mutual respect”. To access this page, please click this link (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/24/dancing-in-jaffa_n_5682927.html).