LIVERMORE — On March 27, Las Positas students and faculty came together to celebrate love, peace and culture in the One Love Festival, emblematic of Bob Marley’s reggae classic from which the festival takes its name, “One Love.” The event preached Marley’s lyrics, “let’s get together,” with a showcase of art, fashion, dance and food that anyone could participate with. On the quad, affinity and student groups from hosted stands with activities relevant to their cultures. The groups included Umoja, Puente club, Dream Center, Black Student Union, Asian American Pacific Islanders, K-Pop Dance club, Christ-in-Action club, LGBTQ+ Presidential Task Force, Sexuality and Gender Alliance and more. Even a class, Ethnic Studies, performed for a class project.
The festival was the first of its kind, spearheaded by Stella del Rosario, a Senior Instructional Assistant for the English Center. She was responsible for pioneering, organizing and executing the event. One Love Festival’s intent, to unify the campus, was very successful with about 80 students gathered at its peak.
“I think it is safe to say that the heart of the campus is beating again. After COVID has us on lockdown, for so long, we’ve bounced back more focused and determined to create the experience our students deserve,” Shawn Taylor, director of student equity and success, said.
Bob Marley’s “One Love”, released in 1965, a major point in history where the world was split culturally and it was common to see racial divide. In the song, Marley sings about unity and coming together as “One Love.” The song shined a light on the advantages of coming together and living as one. The song, though out of time, is impacting Las Positas students in the form of this festival.
Professor Thien-Huong Ninh tasked his Ethnic Studies class with writing a research essay, or contributing to the One Love Festival. “The majority of the class wanted to do it,” Ethnic Studies student Alexandria Kaady said.
Kaady performed a hula dance with other classmates in traditional floral dresses and rocked her Italian roots in a cultural fashion show. Other classmates were seen with their cultural inspired outfits.
“We split up into different groups to see who was going to do fashion shows, who’s going to do dances, who’s gonna do artifacts,” Kaady said.
The class hosted a fashion show, ethnic dances and a poetry reading. Also, Deyci Carrillo Lopez read excerpts from her book “Entre la Miel y el Fuego,” in collaboration with the Dream Center and UndocuAlly. Lopez also opened for Rupi Kaur, author of “Milk and Honey,” when Kaur read at the Paramount Theatre in 2022.
Ethnic studies students Giuliani Marina and Edgar Aguilar were drawn to the idea of teaching others about Mexican culture.
Giuliani displayed the typical sweets you would find in Mexico. Candies like cocadas, vero mango, cucharita and duvalin.
“Something that I really do love and appreciate is the traditional candies that we do have and that originate from Mexico. For instance, chocolate was actually invented in Mexico,” Giuliani said.
Edgar performed a spiritual Ecuadorian dance. He used his body going from top to bottom, side to side, his body moving with the beat, lost in the dance. A female performer then joined him, coming close shaking side to side; embracing one another spiritually.
“It represents all four seasons and every different movement I did was a different season,” Edgar said.
“All these different cultures out here, it’s just beautiful to see how diverse everything is, so it’s cool to bring everyone together.”
Other performances included a cultural dance lesson by Ashly Mejia Ferreras from the Black Student Union, a dance performance by Mikiah Aubert from Umoja and a K-Pop dance and lesson from the K-Pop Dance club.
One of the more popular booths was led by counselor Danielle Odom. Odom’s Umoja booth was focused on traditional African culture, more specifically music. The activity was to decorate your own drum with symbols that are personal to the individual, tying the decorating to their own birthdays.
The purpose was teaching “different symbols, their meanings, their names based on the day of the week that they were born.”
“I think it’s very important and I think the more that we understand each other, the more peaceful things can be,” Odom said.
Just as Bob Marley intended, people were taking time out of their day to talk amongst each other and share personal experiences..
“Let’s get together and feel all right.”
Gabriel Carver is a staff writer for the Express. Follow him @cup1dco.
