Wake Forest’s only student-run intercultural club, Culturality, has brought diverse groups together for fun cultural events for the past three years.
Senior Juan Londoño, Culturality’s co-founder and current president, explained that he started the club in 2023 because he felt students should have more opportunities to enjoy different cultures.
“Whenever there is a Wake Forest-sponsored cultural thing, a lot of it is like a lecture or reading,” Londoño said. “That’s great, but there are so many other ways to interact with cultures and learn about them. Our events give whoever wants to come options to interact with the culture, and they get to do what they want with it.”
Sophomore and treasurer David Burda believes that Culturality successfully draws students to their events by providing delicious food.
“We believe that food is a really good way to experience other cultures, and it’s a good way to bring people to our events,” Burda said. “It’s a good way for people to feel welcome.”
Traditional events
One popular Culturality tradition is “Trick or Treat Around the World,” an annual Halloween event that invites students to engage with other cultures.
“We rent out two floors in Tribble and invite a bunch of different affinity groups to say a little bit about their culture and give out cultural snacks,” Burda said. “It’s always a good time.”
In November, the club organizes a “Cults-Giving” feast, an alternative experience to Pitsgiving.
“We poll our member body and see what kind of cultural foods they want to experience,” Burda said. “We’re not competing with Pitsgiving, but it gives members an opportunity to try more foods from different cultures or their own culture that they can’t get as much access to on campus.”
Culturality celebrated Mardi Gras on Feb. 17, with food, music and mask-making on the lower quad. Local vendors BJ’s Brewhouse and Camino Bakery supplied jambalaya and king cakes for the celebration.
Burda said the club chose to have a Mardi Gras event because they wanted to bring more attention to the holiday.
“We try to look for underrepresented events on campus,” Burda said. “We saw that Mardi Gras doesn’t have a lot going on during that time.”
Collaborating with other identity groups
Burda said that student engagement has been at an all-time low across campus for the past semester, so Culturality is focusing on collaborating more with other identity groups to increase attendance.
“Doing these collaborations with all these different clubs allows us to draw in a large variety of people,” Burda said. “We decided to bring together the French Club [and] Hillel [for Mardi Gras], and we’re going to have jazz music playing. We’re going to be in a wide open space, which has easy access to people. The music will draw people in, [and] the smell of the jambalaya will bring people in.”
Hillel vice president Zach Klein said that he was excited to collaborate with Culturality. The organization had gragers, or noisemakers, at the Mardi Gras event to celebrate Purim, a Jewish holiday which will occur in March.
“It represents the festivity, the culture,” Klein said. “That’s what Purim’s all about.”
Klein added that Hillel hoped to increase their own student engagement by collaborating with Culturality.
Diverse celebrations are open to all
Londoño said he appreciates the diversity of students that Culturality events draw.
“I think it’s a good sign that we have people from all cultures come to our events,” Londoño said.
He added that Culturality events are designed to be as welcoming as possible for Wake Forest’s student population.
“The biggest thing is that it’s open to everyone, regardless of your cultural background,” Londoño said. “Learning about cultures and interacting with them is for everybody. A lot of diversity and cultural awareness programs are under attack in a lot of places in the country, so we understand how important creating spaces for students and for different cultures is.”
Culturality announces its events on Instagram @wfuculturality.
