Office of Multicultural Student Services: OMSS Outreach

eXploring XCultural Conflicts Project [XC]2

The Exploring Cross-Cultural Conflicts Project, or the [XC]2 Project, is an initiative within the Office of Multicultural Student Services (OMSS) dedicated to promoting engaged dialogue and debate around the topics of race, culture and ethnicity. We are especially interested in exploring the political and ethical underpinnings and contexts of the belief systems in which these ideas are couched and promoted.

The University community and experiences, influence the community-at-large, directly and indirectly, through its production of ideas, works and graduates. In turn, competing societal and community interests provides the defining contexts for the University. The interplay of these historic, geographic and social contexts of the University provide the initial contexts for envisioning and presenting Project topics and issues.

OMSS conceives and conducts a variety of programs and activities addressing multicultural issues in the university and in our community. While the design elements of each program or activity are unique, depending on specific community and individual needs or circumstances, the underlying objective that binds all programs and activities together is to encourage the pursuit of higher education among underserved communities.

In recent years, OMSS has become more active in building collaborative, community-based programs and activities. This shift in emphasis away from university-based activities allows for increased utilization of university resources by the community as well as increased participation by university personnel in community outreach activities. The goal is demystify some of the social and communicative barriers individuals from the university and the community have of each other.

Black Boy

Actor Charles Holt performed his one-person dramatization of Richard Wright's autobiography, Black Boy. Adopted for the stage by Wynn Handman (American Place Theatre), Black Boy challenged the audience into examining or re-examining its own thinking and beliefs about race relations in the U.S. Black Boy was performed on July 1, 2005, at Paliku Theatre (Windward Community College).

Download PDF copy of Black Boy program.[click here]

United Nations Association (UNA)

With the United Nations Association-Hawaii Chapter, OMSS has co-sponsored selected features from the United Nations Association Film Festival.

2005
Crapshoot: The Gamble with Our Wastes
Farming the Seas
A Great Wonder: Lost Children of Sudan
Juvies

Download PDF copy of event flyer.[click here]

2004
Empty Oceans, Empty Nets (Indonesia/Italy/Senegal/USA)
Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey (USA)
In the Light of Reverence (USA)

Download copy of event flyer.[click here]

Filipino-American Historical Society of Hawaii (FAHSOH)

OMSS has colloborated with FAHSOH in numerous activities over the past three decades. Recent collaborations include the following:

Unbending Cane (book)
Documenting Filipino Lives in Hawaii (forum)
The Legacy of Filipino Plantation Workers in Hawaii (forum)
2006 Filipino American National Historical Society Conference (June 29-July1) [download Call for Papers]

Japanese American Citizens League - Honolulu Chapter (JACL-Honolulu)

Over the past several years OMSS has co-sponsored several JACL Day of Remembrance (DOR) events. DOR events commemorate the Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, which led to the mass exclusion of all Japanese Americans on the West Coast and their subsequent internment in American style concentration camps.

2005
Screening of Yuri Kochiyama
Yuri Kochiyama and Saleem Ahmed, speakers

2004
Screening of Tribute and Remembrance: Asian Americans After 9/11
Vicky Shu, speaker

2003
From “Military Necessity” to “National Interest”: From EO 9066 to the Patriot Act (Forum)
Chris Iijima and Hakim Ouansafi, Panels
Rough-cut screening of Hidden Internment: The Art Shibayama Story

2002
Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress
Mitchell Maki, author and speaker
Poetry readings by from Poets Behind Barbed Wire
Martin Romauldez and Bishop Yoshiaki Fujitani, readers

For more information about [XC]2 projects, please contact Clement Bautista via email or by calling 956-7348.

Programs: College Recruitment Kule'a Program Future Techers Workshop Together In Excellence Bin-I Project Filipino Community Network Student Organization for Leadership, Justice and Advocacy