Cardozo High School is one of the most diverse schools in Queens. With over 3,000 students, our school celebrates students of many cultures. Cardozo’s annual multicultural show is a way for the students to represent their cultures in unique and artistic ways to show to the whole school. This year’s show featured many talented students from all over the world, such as band performances, dancing, and singing.
The show took place on May 22nd in Cardozo’s large gym, as the auditorium is still under renovation. Though situations were less than ideal, the performers did their best to make the most of it.
“It sucks that we have to perform in the gym, but it’s good that we’re able to get parents in for free… not everyone wants to pay to see their kids perform,” stated Jessie Cossin, a senior a part of the ‘Oogway Ascends’ instrumental group.
Cossin describes the process of how their bandmates picked the song that their group would play, “We thought it’d be kinda funny to play a song from Kung-fu Panda: ’Oogway Ascends,’ so [Nicholas] got everyone he could, said ‘hey, do you wanna play in this?,’ and we thought it was fun. We were able to mix different grades too; like we have a person from each grade level (freshmen-seniors) in it,” Cossin said.
The band expressed difficulty finding time to practice but were overall able to come together in their performance. “The music wasn’t hard,” said Nicholas Wong, the junior behind the instrumental group. “It was more like finding the time to get the whole group together to practice.”
Although some performed for fun, others were extremely focused on representing their own background. “My culture is extremely important to me because it essentially is the way I connect with my family and others,” said Ethan Ali, an 11th grader who performed ‘El Triste’ in a solo.
“It also speaks for itself, Mexico as a nation is strong and my people are proud because of how culturally diverse we are. The multicultural show gave me courage to sing, which is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now,” explained Ali.
Joyeeta Nandy, a sophomore who is a part of the South Asian Student Association & Hindu Student Council, had the same sentiment, performing with her group to show her appreciation for South Asian culture.
“I represented the South Asian community. South Asian culture is important to me because this is one the richest cultures in the world. South Asia is a very diverse community with many different cultures, traditions, languages and more within it,” stated Nandy.
The show had over 10 different acts, including multiple dance performances such as Jele by Jam Republic, Super Shy by KDC ||, Latin Sensation, and Desi Girls from Bollywood. There were various singers too, of course, with Haley Fraser, who sang “The Winner Takes All” and duo Daniele Naz and Zipphora Parks, who sang “Pelikula,” a Filipino love song.
It’s a wonderful experience that Cardozo students were able to connect with their own culture—whether it be for fun, or to show their pride. Regardless of circumstances, all performers did wonderfully in representing what is important, and in being proud of where they come from.
