On October 2, Thelmo’s Diversity Committee hosted the opening ceremony for the returning UNITY project that takes place between Hepburn Hall and Park St.
According to Thelmo’s Diversity Chair Shedrack Bogonko, the event has been a steady tradition for a few years now. “It’s a collaborative art project that focuses on the intersection of different identities and challenges the community to focus on what brings us together and makes us one,” he said. “It will be an art display within two weeks that would strive to spark interests and conversations on campus and around the Canton community about intersectionality and interconnectedness.”
When asked why Thelmo thinks that this project would be suitable for the SLU campus, Bogonko said that this project shows Thelmo’s commitment to diversity and inclusion on campus. “We in Thelmo believe the UNITY project is an interesting way to spark conversations around diversity and inclusion,” he said.
Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion Kimberly Flint-Hamilton thinks that the UNITY project has been taking and will continue to take initiative on demonstrating the value of both diversity and inclusion on SLU campus. “When it comes to diversity and inclusion, people tend to focus on the diversity like their differences and identities that are not shared with others, but the inclusion part is much more important,” Flint-Hamilton suggested. “Because it is what makes you feel valued and how a community can show you and others that we value and respect you.”
With the UNITY project, she believes that community members of our campus and the Canton area can find “thirty-two ways that we could be different but a dozen or more ways that we share the same values, desires, preferences, and identity.”
Furthermore, she suggested that the project could be an opportunity for all students to remove their fear and anxiety, join the project, and slowly work together to break down the barriers that prevent conversations from happening. “There are fears that get in the way of students who want to reach out and express themselves, and fear is like a big stone wall,” she said. “However, by joining the project, you are fulfilling your desire to break down the barriers, and I believe that the desires are there in every student.”
Flint-Hamilton also recalled enjoying viewing the formation of the threads made by community members that participated in this project. “After about a week, you could see all the threads forming, almost like a tapestry with different layers,” she said. “And it is both an appropriately vivid and accessible way to view and understand the value of diversity in a community.”
This event is the open call for everyone and inviting them to tie strings of yarn that represent their identity and characteristic to 32 poles between Hepburn and Park St.
This visual presentation of diversity is hoped to create the “thread” that connects St. Lawrence campus as a community. The opening ceremony of the project was on October 2 and the project will last for two weeks, creating the opportunity for students, faculty, staff, alumni and Canton community members to participate.
Flint-Hamilton stated that she strongly supports the UNITY project that Thelmo’s Diversity department is bringing on campus. “I love working with those students who find themselves in positions to celebrate our campus’s diversity,” Flint-Hamilton said. “The creativity that comes out of Thelmo in general and in particular the Diversity Chair is just phenomenal.”