On Friday, March 15^th, BHS held its second annual Culture Night.

The event opened with a guest speaker, Kim Harris, who spoke about the importance of diversity and inclusion throughout one’s life. She led attendees through an exercise where participants would partner up with a stranger and talk about experiences they had or values they held because of their cultural background.

Most spoke about their relationship with food.

Afterwards, Bellingham High School’s own Baile Folklorico group graced the audience with a performance. The group danced the “Flor de Piña” dance, a traditional dance from Oaxaca that involves pineapples.  They also perfomed the “Folklórico” dance, a choreographed Mexican dance that is characterized by its twirly skirts.

Following their beautiful performance, BHS senior Francisco Besabe took the stage to sing a few songs. Besabe received spirited applause at the end of every song, a testament to their quality.

“Everyone should come in to cultural night, it’s a very very communal, togertherness place to be,” said Besabe.

Then came the event with the most audience involvement of the night: Salsa dancing. Instructors from Café Rumba came and taught Culture Night’s attendees the basics of Salsa, then led them through a few simple dances.

Participants could be heard laughing as they danced, nearly every attendee having gotten up to follow along.

The advisor to the Multicultural club, Amanda Korthuis, said: “I’m so exited that we beat our record from last year. So far, I’ve handed out almost two-hundred dinner tickets, and last year we were about one-fifty. Also, I’m really proud of Crystal and Javen for putting this on, it’s a lot of work and they came through. I just think this is really important for the community as a whole to have a program like this, to have an event like this, to showcase our students and to bring families into our school, so yeah I’m just really happy that it’s so successful.”

Gallery • 7 Photos

Nayeli Arreola dancing at Culture Night