Secaucus festival will celebrate North Jersey diversity Sunday with food, art, music
Bollywood dancing. Sufi music. African drumming.
Those will be some of the highlights of the International Diversity Fair that will be held at the Secaucus Recreation Center, 1200 Koelle Blvd., on Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m.
The fair will include performances from various cultural organizations based in North Jersey and beyond such as the Wayne-based Turkish Cultural Center of New Jersey and the South Asian performing arts school, Kulture Kool, which has several North Jersey locations including Rutherford and Glen Ridge. And there will be food vendors, readings from local authors, an art competition, and other family-friendly activities such as a cricket exhibition and a foosball game.
The fair also marks the first anniversary of when several North Jersey ethnic organizations got together to form the Diversity Center, a nonprofit with a mission to create a community center to bring multiculturalism all in one place.
New Jersey is one of the most diverse states in the nation as nearly 45% of the state's 9 million residents are people of color with 21.5% of residents Hispanic, 12.3% Black, and 9.9% Asian. According to the American Immigration Council, the top countries of origin for immigrants in the Garden State are India, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Ecuador and the Philippines.
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Archana Athalye, one of the co-founders of the Diversity Center who also heads Kulture Kool, said that this first-ever fair by the Diversity Center has been in the works for the past five months and is the first major event for the center. Last year, the center held a one-week summer camp where children learned about different cultures. It plans to hold another one in July in Rutherford.
"We have also over the last year done several assemblies, library workshops through schools and local institutions to promote the concept of diversity, cultural education and inclusion," Athalye said. "The Diversity Fair is our first big public event where we have more than about 18 cultures represented."
Athalye said those attending the fair will need to register before the event. Admission for adults and children ages 5 and older is $5 while free for children below 5 and all performers.
According to Athalye, a native of India, the Diversity Center came about because over the years, she found that when meeting with other cultural educators in North Jersey, they felt there should be a collaborative effort where they could help each other amplify their various cultures. That's when they settled on the ambitious goal of opening a community center.
"It would be something like a YMCA, but it would be focusing more on performing arts. There would be dance studios, it would have music and recording studios. Wellness centers, arts studios. Specifically, arts, cultural arts," Athalye said.
She said the plan is over the next couple of years to raise money to open the community center in a location in Hudson County, which she cites for its proximity to a large, diverse population and as well as proximity to public transportation, but Bergen County and Essex County are also under consideration.
The team behind the Diversity Center include Ruchika Grover, who works with Athalye at Kulture Kool, Venessa Manzano of the Filipino School of New York & New Jersey, Loura Zijdel-Eelkema and Veerle Vandecasteele from Klokhuis, a Dutch language school with locations in New Jersey and New York including one in Morris County. Another founder, Sabina Wasonga-Gitau, a Montclair resident who hails from Kenya, will be one of the presenters at the fair.
Zijdel-Eelkema, who was born in the Netherlands, said she is looking forward to being at the fair where Klokhuis will do a traditional clog dancing performance, and to being there when the community center opens in the future. She spoke of the importance of the Diversity Center.
"The basic thing why we got together as a group of women is to get to know different cultures and get respect for each other. You can only get that if you get to know each other," Zijdel-Eelkema said. "What we're trying to do with the Diversity Center is to create an understanding of each other."
Ricardo Kaulessar is a culture reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Atlantic Region How We Live team. For unlimited access to the most important news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com
Twitter: @ricardokaul
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ group plans International Diversity Fair March 19 in Secaucus
