The local Keene community wanted to see how full they could make Fuller Park on Saturday, Sept. 27, for the seventh annual Keene International Festival (KIF).
The community came out to support local businesses and organizations on the warm, fall day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with local food displaying an array of cuisines from Greek and Indian to Finnish and Jamaican.
Ritu Budakoti, educator and a founding member of KIF, said the beginnings of the festival started in 2006 with planning from local educators and local organizations.
“We were just feeling that everybody is doing something, but in isolation,” said Ritu Budakoti. “How can we join forces and do for the greater good?”
She added the broader goals were to build a welcoming community that celebrates the region’s diversity. Her son Shrihan Budakoti, an eighth-grade student at Keene Middle School, sang traditional Indian songs and echoed similar feelings about KIF.
“I was born in India and I was raised here in Keene,” said Shrihan Budakoti, adding he wanted to sing to share his culture.
“I really think that we can just make our community more inclusive with a lot of other people. You can see flags around, you can see people around,” said Shrihan. “I think that’s the whole point of [KIF], and it makes me really happy.”
KIF also ran a line-up of diverse performances from global cultures, such as international songs performed by Keene High School Choir, traditional Indian dances performed by the Keene Bollywood Group and a traditional Nepali dance performed by KSC senior Lochan Sharma and junior Nisha Poudel.
Both from Nepal and members of the Global Cultural Club (GCC), it was Sharma and Poudel’s second and third years, respectively, performing for KIF.
Sharma, a Nepali student living in America, described himself as a non-dancer. He said he was excited by the prospect of performing and having another Nepali student to work with.
“I’m not a dancer by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoy doing it,” said Sharma, who enjoyed the festival as well.
“The opportunity it gives people from different cultures [is] to show off what they can do,” said Sharma.
Poudel, an international student from Nepal, said she really enjoyed performing and participating in KIF. She added that she was inspired by her love for dancing in Nepal.
“I think for me, being an international student, being at [KIF], I get to see a piece of home,” said Poudel. “I feel like it brings the whole community together.”
The two have performed together before during the multicultural fair that was held on campus during the spring semester last year by the GCC.
“We [GCC] like to do [the multicultural fair] in spring just for [Keene State]. We like to show the cultures at Keene State College,” said Poudel.
Other members of the GCC came to KIF as part of a club outing, said General-Secretary of the club and KSC senior Rokeya Sarah, an international student from Bangladesh.
“[KIF] is integrated into one of our meetings,” said Sarah. “Throughout our meetings, we encourage people to come in since we are performing.”
Sarah also said she felt KIF offers a “little taste of home” for her as well. “I get to listen to some traditional music, get to perform [and] get to advertise my culture over here. [It] makes me feel included.” She added that it makes her feel special; “coming here [KIF], meeting all new people, [getting] to know the other people of other nationalities, is a very good deal.”
Vice President for Institutional Community and Belonging Dottie Morris and Professor of English Brinda Charry were both in attendance on Friday; Charry said she was pleased with the number of people who came out.
“There has been such a turnout, I think the organizers were a little concerned this year [but] there’s good turnout,” said Charry. She added, “It is important in times like these to acknowledge and recognize there are people from all over and we are able to live amicably and get along and be friends.”
“It’s good for everybody, not just people who are seen as ‘different’,” said Morris about its importance to building community. “It allows for us to see so many different ways that the human experience can be expressed. It’s not just skin color [or] dress. It’s all about the food, it’s all about the fun, it’s about the dancing, it’s about the joining with each other on that level where we can connect.”
It was important to Matthew Leese as well, director of vocal activities at Keene High School, as an immigrant himself who moved to the U.S. from New Zealand for graduate school and became a U.S. citizen in 2018. “I feel it’s really important to celebrate people’s differences. We shouldn’t try to be the same as each other.”
Leese said it was important for him to expose the students in Keene High School (KHS) choir to a repertoire from various “cultures, languages and traditions.” He also wanted to showcase the students’ ability to learn and accomplish difficult or challenging pieces, such as “O Sapo,” a Brazilian folksong that was performed in Brazilian Portuguese, which is notably difficult to sing, said Leese before the students’ performance of the piece.
Jónatas, an attendee from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, said this had been his first time at KIF and he has only been in Keene for roughly a year.
He had seen the KHS choir performance of “O Sapo,” and had said he enjoyed the performance of the students, describing the performance as “beautiful” and the pronunciation of the Brazilian Portuguese as “very good.”
Timothy Fitzpatrick can be contacted at
tfitzpatrick@kscequinox.com
