The second annual Spartan Remix hit the Union on Thursday night, as more than 1,000 students and staff filtered through the event’s various destinations.
Spartan Remix is the fall welcoming for the Council of Racial and Ethnic Students, or CORES.
Spartan remix unites all
Get to know Trinidad Esparza, a food science management junior and a chair for Cultural de las Razas Unidas on the Spartan Remix board, and Nicholas Allen Pfost, a social relations and policy junior and vice president of People Respecting the Individuality of Students at MSU. Both performed at the opening of Spartan Remix 2009. Esparza, a Mexico native, danced with other CRU members during his performance, while Pfost told the audience about the history of lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender rights.
CORES is a coalition of four student groups on campus: the Asian Pacific American Student Organization, or APASO; the Black Student Alliance, or BSA; Culturas de las Razas Unidas, or CRU; and the North American Indigenous Student Organization, or NAISO; which helped host Spartan Remix with the Alliance of Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender and Straight Ally Students.
The event was designed not only to bring together MSU students, but also members of ethnic student groups across campus, event co-coordinator Justin Ford said.
“People got to see lots of different things and all the different floors got traffic,” said Ford, a communication, arts and sciences senior. “People got exposed to a lot of different things that our campus has to offer.”
Starting at 7 p.m. in the Union Ballroom, the event had performances from each of the CORES groups that Ford said were some of the visitors’ favorite events of the night.
What stood out to communication freshman Michelle Truong was LBGT’s drag performance.
“I’ve never seen one before and I really wanted to see it,” Truong said.
Drag queen Moltyn Decadence hit the ballroom stage to the sound of Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface” and even managed to work in a costume change in the middle of the act.
“People were talking about that throughout the evening,” Ford said.
Prior to the performance, social relations and policy junior Nicholas Allen Pfost talked about how drag culture has become associated with the gay rights movement.
“Drag and drag culture is used as a way to reclaim our identity,” Pfost said.
NAISO’s main performance was a large drum circle, which Ford said encouraged the audience members to get involved.
During the drum ensemble, many left their seats to join others dancing to the Native American beats.
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“It’s a spirit of community and no matter where you come from we all have one common goal,” Ford said.
To round out the opening festivities, members of CRU twisted to the salsa, BSA performed a spoken word monologue and APASO unveiled its own synchronized group dance.
After the opening performances, students were able to travel around to each group’s station, which were in separate rooms around the Union. There also were three dances, which Ford said had lines out the door for about two hours.
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