For a second year, Portland State will bring students and the community together to celebrate diversity. The ROOTS Festival is a celebration of the crossroads at which people of various backgrounds, including race, ethnicity, gender, sex and politics find themselves, while providing a forum to explore those differences.

"I am excited about the ROOTS Festival," said Daniel O. Bernstine, PSU president. "It gives us all a chance to celebrate the diversity that is PSU."

Organized by Portland State student leaders and building on last year's success, the celebration has expanded. This year's theme for the Festival is "Diversity in Communication," examining diversity in the media. Various mediums will be explored by artists and academics including film, music and print publications.

"We hope everyone will join us in engaged conversation about diversity while also having fun," said Makerusa "Mak" Porotesano, president of the Pacific Islanders Club and ROOTS festival coordinator. "I believe that bringing people together from different cultural backgrounds makes us a much stronger campus and community."

This years festival begins May 31, 2007, at 10 a.m. in the South Park Blocks. All events are free, excluding the dance (cost is $3). For more information, please contact Rudy Soto at 503-290-8798.

ROOTS Festival Activities
Thursday, May 31, 2007
10 a.m.–4 p.m., South Park Blocks
Park Blocks Fair including food vendors, artists, music, dance and interactive art projects.

7 p.m., Smith Memorial Student Union Multicultural Center (1825 SW Broadway)
Keynote speaker Renee Mitchell, Oregonian metro columnist.

Friday, June 1, 2007
11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. , Smith Memorial Student Union Multicultural Center
Panel discussion focusing on media and its relation to minorities. Panelists consist of community members from local and campus media outlets.

1:30 p.m.–3 p.m., Smith Memorial Student Union, room 294
Film screening of "Turn Off Channel Zero," and discussion to follow on negative media images with Opio Sokoni, KBMS Portland radio talk show host and director.

3–6 p.m., Smith Memorial Student Union Multicultural Center
The social justice theater group "Illumination Project will engage the audience in rehearsing ways of solving oppressive problems. Community forum and reflection will follow.

9 p.m.–12 a.m., Native American Student and Community Center
The celebration will conclude with a global dance party. Cost is $3.

Portland State is the largest population and most diverse of students than any other university in Oregon with 23,500 students as well as the most diverse student population. This year's festivities, happening May 31 and June 1 in the Smith Memorial Student Union and Park Blocks, are expected to draw large crowds to the Portland State campus. Students and the greater Portland community are encouraged to attend the two day event.

Multiple student organizations have worked together to organize this year's ROOTS Festival including the Association of African Students (AAS), Arab-Persian Student Organization (APSO), Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU), Black Cultural Affairs Board (BCAB), Filipino American Student Association (KAIBIGAN), Las Mujeres, Pacific Islanders Club (PIC), United Indian Students in Higher Education (UISHE), and student services including the Multicultural Center (MCC), Native American Student and Community Center (NASCC), and Student Activities and Leadership Programs (SALP).

Source: Leah Meijer, 503-725-5665
Las Mujeres