By Mackenzie Farkus

Staff Writer

Simmons College’s first annual Multicultural Week kicked off  on Monday, March 27 with help from the Multiculturalism and Inclusion Council and other student organizations on campus.

“Planning [this week] was really exciting,” Danna Leal, a first-year, said. “Since it’s the first annual week, we had a lot of freedom in the events we picked out. This meant that we got to schedule events that we thought would be very popular among the Simmons community.”

The events Flavors of Boston and a Multicultural Art Gallery, both in the Kotzen Room, started the week with food from local multicultural restaurants in Boston and artwork by Simmons students.

On Tuesday, the Like Minds Coalition hosted Diversi-tea, a discussion of multicultural and diversity issues over tea and snacks. From 8-9:30 p.m., the Multiracial Advocacy and Relations at Simmons (MARS) wrapped up the day with an Open Mic with a performance and Q&A session by Boston-based poet Jonathan Mendoza.

Students will have the opportunity to celebrate the final days of Multicultural Week by attending two remaining events on Wednesday and Thursday. The Multicultural Game Night, which will occur on Wednesday at 7-9 p.m. at Quadside, will feature board games from around the world such as Mancala and Parcheesi. On Thursday, Hillel  will be hosting a dance lesson with instructor Rebecca Powell at the Holmes Sports Center Gym from 7:30-8:30 p.m.

“Simmons Hillel is very excited to partner with SASS as part of Multicultural Week,” Emily Cole, sophomore and Vice President of Hillel, said. “We have never sponsored a dance event and we think this will be a great insight into a facet of Jewish and Israeli culture that even we do not often explore, so we are excited to provide this.”