The Jewish Student Organization hosted a campus-wide Passover Seder on April 24 in Evans Lively! While this year’s Seder was relatively small in number—with about 38 students, President John and Susie Roush, faculty, staff, and community members in attendance—the rituals were participatory and engaging, focusing on social justice themes. Passover is a time when Jews are commanded to remember the hardship of slavery and the Exodus from Egypt. The table included the traditional symbols: matzah, the bread of affliction and freedom; horseradish, a reminder of the bitterness of slavery; parsley a sign of spring and hope; salt water the tears of oppression; a roasted egg, a symbol of the sacrifice and rebirth; the shank bone (or the vegetarian’s version, a beet), a remembrance of the lamb blood marking the doorposts; charoset (a mixture of fruit, nuts and wine), signifying the mortar of the bricks the slaves made; wine, a symbol of joy; and cups filled with wine and water to symbolically welcome the prophets Elijah and Miriam. Our Seder plate also included more modern symbols: an orange to symbolize the inclusion of women and LGBTQA people; olives, a sign of our hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians; and fair-trade chocolate, an acknowledgment that we must be mindful of the labor that is involved in things that we consume and must try not to participate, knowingly or unknowingly, in systems of oppression. In addition to telling the tale of the journey from slavery to freedom, asking questions, sharing stories of our own families’ migration and acknowledging our obligations to help refugees, and repair the world, we sang songs, including Passover parodies to the tune of ‘My Darling Clementine’ and ‘Gilligan’s Island.’ A good time was had by all! Centre’s JSO has planned a number of well attended programs this year, offering Jewish students new opportunities to celebrate their culture and traditions on campus and raising awareness about Jewish culture and religion for the community at large. (This information was provided graciously to us by Shana Sippy.)

On April 24, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion sponsored a convocation screening of "I Come From," a documentary about Voices Inside, a program sponsored by Pioneer Playhouse at Northpoint Training Center, a medium-security prison located in Boyle County. The Voices Inside program provides playwriting workshops to “inmates drawn to self-expression through creative writing. The emphasis of these one-on-one workshops is to focus on the process of turning each inmate’s personal journey into a scripted, communicated narrative.” The convocation was a packed house with Vahlkamp hitting capacity and some attendees sitting on the floor.

Convocations aim to bring us out of the Centre bubble by bringing the world to us. Part of the power of the Voices Inside convocation is that it was able to impact me profoundly without having to take me somewhere new or far away. The documentary humanized a population in Danville that is usually ignored, while providing hope for a system that has long been broken.- Rebecca Markham, '20.

The convocation "I Come From" both broke my heart and gave me motivation at the same time. It broke my heart because it showed the hardships and struggles of people whose lives have been affected by the ongoing mass incarceration issue in the States. It gave me the motivation because it emphasized the stories of the people's lives, and told it from their perspectives, giving them voices, just like the Voices Inside program featured in the film. That gave me the motivation to work harder, educate myself further, get more involved in the community of the people who are affected by this issue, and spread more awareness to the people around me. I am truly inspired by and thankful for the work of the Voices Inside and Pioneer Playhouse organizers and staffs, for they are bringing about changes much needed in the society. -Pai Masavisut, '20.

Quick Takes

The 2018-2019 year, Centre's Nonviolent Communication group offered 28 total hours of Nonviolent Communication training. A total of 279 students, staff, and community folx participated in a training at one level or another!

Title IX Corner

• SPEAC’s social norms campaign launched on Friday, April 26. Thank you to Meg Whelan, Director of Outreach, for trailblazing it. Stay on the lookut for social norms from Centre’s student organizations, and consider featuring your student organization next year.
• Thank you to everyone who participated in Take Back the Night. We appreciate your bravery and want to encourage self-care and community-care as we close the semester.
• Congratulations to Austin Pedroche, incoming chair of Title IX for Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He will succeed outgoing officer Eric Smith. The Office of Title IX is excited to collaborate with them.
• Thank you to Sister 2 Sister and Alpha Delta Pi for hosting Women Just Want to Have Fun, a safe, successful social gathering and fundraiser in the warehouse.
• Thank you also to SGA for inviting a representative from The Office of Title IX to participate in the SGA Forum.
• The last Ampersand drop-in space of the year will take place on Monday, May 6, 4:00p-5:00p in the Presentation Screening Room of the library. Stop by to talk to a confidential Ampersand counselor and educator for free. To learn more about Ampersand’s services, visit their website.
• There is still time to check out the Sexual Assault Awareness & Prevention Month book collection in the Grace Doherty Library. It features fiction and nonfiction works of diverse perspectives on sexual violence prevention and survivor advocacy.