By Havyn Basconcillo and Myiesha Manzoor
Thursday, September 26th, was ESSJ’s annual Cultural Fest event, 926. The members in the Ethnic Studies and Social Justice Program got together to create a fun and exciting event for the community at James Logan High School. It took place in Colt Court during both lunches so all students and staff could enjoy the delicious ethnic food being sold; they chose to sell cultural food for this event to showcase the diverse cultures at Logan. The ESSJ students have a culture fest every year to raise money for their program so they can fund future events and field trips.
“ESSJ has been planning the Cultural Fest for the past month. Santos has been very driven in guiding the seniors and the juniors in his classes on organizing and creating the event itself, creating tables and creating the whole organizing layout of how it’s going to be structured, who’s going to be tabling, what educational workshops that they’re providing, and all of the in betweens of how to run an event.” said Mr. Penalosa, one of the ESSJ teachers.
This event was specifically meant for the ESSJ students to run; each grade level got to choose the details of what they were selling, the prices, how to market, and the cultural significance of their items. Collin Shaw, a sophomore at Logan and one of the main runners for the Agua Fresca stand expresses the cultural significance behind the event. “The cultural significance behind the event is to show representation of other cultures other than […] Eurocentric people. So this event really expresses […] other cultures and what type of food they eat, and […] their own culture.”
Giavanna Depario, a student of the junior ESSJ cohort, talked about the cultural meaning behind the event and why it is called the 926 market. “It’s initially based off of the 626 market in the Bay Area, and that is where people just go and share food. We wanted to bring that to Logan, but take a twist, put the nine rather than the six and the Bay Area One is typically very Asian, but we wanted ours to have all of the perspectives.”Congratulations to all the ESSJ students for putting on the 926 event, the food and performances during both lunches made it a successful event!
