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SALISBURY, MD---ºÚÁÏÍø invites students, faculty, staff and the surrounding community to celebrate Multicultural Festival Week with events from Tuesday-Wednesday, April 26-27.

Activities begin with SU’s annual Diversity Awards presentation 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, in the Montgomery Room of the Commons. Co-sponsored by the Offices of the President and Provost and the Student Government Association (SGA), these awards recognize members of the campus community whose dedication and contributions support the University’s diversity initiatives.

At 7 p.m. that evening, the SGA holds its annual Multicultural Showcase in the Wicomico Room of the Guerrieri University Center. Performers include the SU Step Squad, Poms, Gospel Choir, Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS) and African Students Association, as well as Untouchables Dance, Inc. and Squawkappela. Admission is free and the public is invited.

Multicultural Festival Day is Wednesday, April 27, and SU celebrates with activities from 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Pergola, Gazebo and University Hill. This year’s theme is “International Fusion.”

Performance highlights include musician Amadou Kouyate, who plays a musical montage on the 21-string kora and rhythmic presentations on djembe and koutiro drums. He represents the 150th generation of the Kouyates of Manding Diali, a family well known in West Africa for its long lineage of musicians and oral historians, and the first generation born of his father’s lineage in the United States.

Steel Kings steel drum band, SU Pom Squad and Untouchables Dance, Inc. Students from Dr. Bryan Horikami’s Cultural Communications class present information on foreign cultures during the afternoon. Other activities include hip-hop airbrushing; cultural food samples; henna tattoos; and Chinese, Arabic and Russian name writing. Student organizations also participate, and student radio station WXSU offers T-shirts to radio contest winners.

Sponsored by the Offices of Multicultural Student Services and Career Services, the Student Organization for Activity Planning, the Multicultural Alliance and the Vice President of Student Affairs Office, admission is free and the public is invited. Rain location is the Wicomico Room of the Guerrieri University Center. For more information call 410-548-4503.

That evening, multicultural events continue with SU’s annual Caribbean dinner from 4:30-7:30 p.m., featuring the Steel Kings. The menu includes  crab cakes with citrus salsa, rum-glazed ribs, Jamaican jerk wings, spicy Jamaican potato wedges with sour cream sauce, pigeon peas and rice, grilled corn with lime butter, allspice, onion- and chili-spiced wilted greens, mango cheesecake, Key Lime pie, mojito cake and tembleque.

Co-sponsored by University Dining Services, and the offices of Cultural Affairs and Multicultural Student Services, cost is $10.36, $6.30 for children ages 6-12, free for children ages 5 and under.

For more information on Multicultural Festival Week call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu.