On Thursday, the Multicultural Greek Council held its fifth annual talent showcase, offering an opportunity to any Seawolf interested in showcasing their talents.
Senior Spanish and early childhood studies major Jennifer Bolanos and senior women and gender studies major Analesia Campos were the MCs for the night. Prior to introducing the first act, Campos shed some background information on her organization, Lambda Theta Nu, and the significance of the stepping and strolling act that took place later in the show.
“We want to honor the organizations that started the tradition of stepping and strolling,” Campos said. “The Divine Nine took the time to invite us to learn and adapt their culture.”
According to campos, The Divine Nine are the first nine historical African-American organizations.
“We respect everything they have done for us; they paved the road for all of the multicultural organizations today,” Campos said. “Tonight, when one of the MGC organizations is performing, just know that it is in honor of the Divine Nine.”
In addition to stepping and strolling, there were a variety of acts showcased throughout the night from different Greek organizations including Alpha Gamma Delta, Alpha Omicron Pi, Sigma Omega Nu and Kappa Alpha Psi, as well as individual non-Greek students like Tyler Perez and the Blue Baronz.
“It was a wonderful first experience, especially since we used machetes during our performance,” said senior criminal justice major Elena Chavez. “As a first time experience, being in front of so many people, we are able to show everyone that there are multicultural Greek organizations, and being able to showcase our sororities’ culture here was really special to me.”
The MGC Talent Showcase gave the opportunity for individuals to showcase their talents, as well as the ability for MGC organizations to spread knowledge of the culture of the organizations through their passionate performances onstage.
“I think our organization is very special in that way, especially since in our culture only men dance with machetes, but our founding mothers wanted to break those barriers and promote women empowerment,” Chavez said. “So for us to use the machetes during our performance was a very special thing for me and it was really exciting to be up there and show our strength.”
Anyone interested in participating in the show had to sign up on Orgsync prior to the event. However, MGC allowed any last-minute audience members to step up on the stage the night of the show.
There are seven MGC organizations at Sonoma State, including Epsilon Sigma Rho, Kappa Alpha Psi, Lambda Sigma Gamma, Lambda Theta Nu, Sigma Pi Alpha, Sigma Lambda Beta and Sigma Omega Nu, and everyone from any of these organizations all come from different backgrounds and ethnicities.
MGC President Jennifer Bolanos explained one of the reasons MGC hosts this yearly talent show is to promote the MGC more, so the community knows there are multicultural Greek organizations that they can potentially join.
About 20 percent of the campus population at Sonoma State University is involved with Greek Life, and despite the various amounts of fraternities and sororities that welcome students with open arms, many members within the Greek community agree that Sonoma State highly promotes and prides themselves on the strength of the Greek community.
“This is just another way to build Greek unity and unity among all Sonoma State students.” Bolanos said. “We advertise it out for all the students to showcase their talents.”
