Norwich celebrates rich ethnic diversity
Norwich — Music, dancing and food from dozens of ethnic groups that now inhabit the greater Norwich area converged at Howard T. Brown Memorial Park on Wednesday, with young Peruvian dancers swaying their bright red skirts to the Klezmer sounds performed by Klezmenschen.
"There's one Klezmer song everyone knows,” band member Faye Ringel said, keying up the song “Hava Nagila.”
More than 300 people attended the fourth annual Celebrate Cultural Diversity event, sponsored by three local Rotary clubs: Norwich Rotary, Sunrise Rotary and the Rotary Community Corps.
The event included presentation of the Lottie B. Scott Diversity Award to Alice Facente, community health nurse at the William W. Backus Hospital, and a new community diversity award to the Norwich Arts Center for promoting arts and events representing numerous cultures.
A special honor also was presented to Jacqueline Owens, who will retire in December after 30 years as president of the Norwich branch of the NAACP. The award didn't mean Owens took the night off, as she spent much of the evening at the NAACP dessert booth, handing out her sweet potato cookies.
The entertainment centered at the Brown Park gazebo for three hours. The dozen Peruvian dancers, ranging in age from 6 to 14, spread out their performances of several traditional dances, starting with the Anaconda Dance of the Amazon Forest.
Group manager and dance teacher Marlene Carrilla of Norwich named the group “Kuskiraymi,” meaning celebration of spring.
“That's because my girls are blooming!” Carrilla said.
The group includes nine girls and three boys who practice in Carrilla's basement. Their elaborate costumes — different for each dance — were handmade in Peru, she said.
Amy Carlosviza, 12, said she, her sister, Diane, 13, and brother, Joseph, 10, were the original group members three years ago, along with Carrilla's daughter, Amy Contreras, 13. They quickly spread the word to other relatives and friends and the troupe keeps growing.
They shared the performance stage Wednesday with Chinese dancers, African drummers, Klezmenschen, Salsa dancers — who offered lessons — and belly dancers.
The food booths proved no less popular.
At the Sikh booth, patrons got a taste of Sikh culture along with the Punjabi food of Northern India, provided by the Indian restaurant Maharaja in Mansfield. Poster boards in front of the booth explained that “Singh” is the last name for a Sikh man, while “Kaur” is the last name for a woman. There are 30 million Sikhs living throughout the world, another poster said.
“Sikh values: Truth, Justice, Freedom,” another poster said.
Swaranjit Singh Khalsa, booth sponsor, also created a “Welcome to Norwich” sign in the Sikh language. He said he made it as a sample to show city leaders and suggest that the city should make a giant, permanent billboard with “Welcome to Norwich” written in 20 or more languages.
“Our main theme is 'this is our city,'” he said.
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