Op-ed: What’s Next? The Mid-Ohio Valley Multi-Cultural Festival
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Last year, 2020, would have been the 25th Mid-Ohio Valley Multi-Cultural Festival. As has been announced, this year the Mid-Ohio Valley Multi-Cultural Festival will not hold the 3-day, in-person festival held for the 24 years prior to the pandemic. Why not? The most basic value is that we are here to celebrate and uplift the people of the Mid-Ohio Valley and the diversity of cultures represented here and in our culture.
We dearly want our fellow residents to be healthy, happy, and surviving for the future, and we are still unsure how much the risk of COVID-19 will be reduced by June 18. If we who are able all get vaccinated, and do our best to prevent the spread of the virus, perhaps we can be down to 50 cases per 100,000 over two weeks, but the spread is far above that now. If the case numbers are reduced that far, we will all celebrate, while being wistful for the festival. However, we currently cannot guarantee that the risk will have fallen adequately, and we do not want to risk the health of any of our volunteers, performers, vendors, or attendees.
It takes all year to plan, seek grants, find and arrange for performers and the equipment for the festival, find volunteers, and publicize the festival; the last date when we could still prepare to put on the festival is long past.
Over the last quarter-century we have hosted Celtic singers and dancers, a Mariachi band, African drummers, Middle Eastern belly-dancers, bluegrass bands, Native American drummers and hoop dancers, R&B, jazz, storytellers, magicians, acrobats, puppeteers, polka bands, salsa music and dancers, zydeco--just to name a few. We've eaten lumpia, calzones, barbecue, crepes, naan, apple dumplings, burritos, sausage, ice cream, and many other delights that may have been old favorites or new to your tastebuds. We are proud of our success in finding and sharing new cultures through art, music, dance, and food.
We recognize that we need to appreciate our own culture before we can appreciate others', and we may not even recognize our own culture when it is the dominant culture. It can be like trying to explain to a fish what water is, when water is the only world it knows. To that end, we highlighted Appalachian heritage as well as local performers. For instance, we have had a blue grass night, as well as cloggers. We also offer the opportunity for local organizations to interact with the public, on a variety of topics, including recycling, health issues, and the offerings of the library and WVUP.
Since the beginning, we have had opportunities for children, with as many as 300 children making multicultural craft projects each festival. (One of the most popular is the making of rainsticks, where the young people get to use real hammers.) Children often come back year after year, and the Children's Activity Center is often a destination for grandparents to visit with their grandchildren. Volunteers make this possible, by helping children make their crafts and even by hosting an activity. Individuals, and groups such as the Master Gardeners, Scout troops, and the Boys and Girls Club have helped make the Children's Activity Center possible.
Founded by Gene Donaway and Bea Corra, the festival was started to help move our communities forward after the KKK parades in Parkersburg and Belpre in the early 1990s. Before Gene's death, MOVMCF also had jazz fests, and fall conferences to address racism, but since then, we have focused on the festival itself, because the people involved were overextended. We can do more when more of us work together.
The pandemic has uprooted our lives, businesses, and social activities. Many of us have lost someone close to us. We do not know what volunteers and the public will feel comfortable or interested in doing. In the midst of all of this have been the increased attacks on Asian Americans and other targeted groups, and the murder of George Floyd, which aroused protests around the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. The need to help people appreciate the humanity of people they see as "others" is even more evident. What can our community and our world be when we don't see "others," but see people who are like us, even if they look different?
Because of all that has happened, we want to think freshly about opportunities to bring people together, that may make the festival be different, or may be activities done in collaboration with other groups. Not only do we need more people to be involved with the festival, the larger goal needs all of us.
What are your ideas for bringing people together? What would you like to learn? Who would you like to be able to ask questions of? We want to know, and we want your help.
If you have thoughts, questions, skills, or ideas you want to share with us, please contact us via our Facebook page, Mid-Ohio Valley Multi-Cultural Festival, or email us at movmcf@gmail.com.
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Charlotte Owens and Bea Corra are MOVMCF board members.