On the evening of April 28, 2023, Lick-Wilmerding High School students, staff and families flowed into the Ehrer Theater for the annual Multicultural Show, put on by the LWHS Kababayan Club (KABA), awaiting a night of performances from all across the globe.
This year’s show consisted of twelve acts spanning from singing to martial arts, performed by LWHS students across all grade levels. “There’s Irish, there’s Japanese, there’s Indian and so many more cultures performing,” Tess Gotico ’23, the leader of LWHS KABA said.
The show has always been hosted by KABA, which Gotico described as “the LWHS affinity space for Filipino students.” The Multicultural Show has been an integral part of KABA for as long as she can remember, and she looks forward to it every year.
There is a reason that students come back year after year to participate in the Multicultural Show. “It’s really important for everyone to have a space to celebrate their culture. And I feel like this is a perfect show to either feel seen by seeing your culture on stage, or just showing off your own personal culture and showing off your talents to everybody,” Gotico said.
The show began with an Irish dance performed by Tara Manning ’25 and her friend Tilly Haskell, who dance together at the Kennelly School of Irish Dance.
Mayen Thorsen ’25 honored her Nigerian ancestry in her solo performance of “By Your Side” by the British-Nigerian singer Sade. Following Mayen’s performance, Gotico, Nicole Joseph ’23 and Colin Yao ’24 danced the choreography of Kpop/Jpop XG’s hit song “LEFT RIGHT,” an upbeat dance-pop number. After the trio bowed and exited the stage, Ausar Honable ’24 came on with a large iaitō sword to showcase the Japanese sword style Iaido.
Julia Howe ’26 and Lucy Sun ’26, adorned in matching shoes and traditional clothing, sang an arrangement of “Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin” by Teresa Teng.
Siddarth Chibber ’26 learned to play an Indian classical instrument called a sarod during lockdown, and he presented his talents in the show with a composition titled Raag Zila Kafi. After Chibber’s performance, Shima Konishi-Gray ’23 danced with members of her Daly City based competitive dance group, APT.
Galicia Stack Lozano ’24 sang the Puerto Rican song, “En Mi Viejo San Juan,” a piece that bears personal significance for her and her family.
Aditi Shankar ’24 has been practicing the South Indian classical style of dance called Bharatanatyam for over 8 years, and performed the dance “Nrittanjali”.
Lori Agbabian ’24 sang the Armenian song Yerevan Erebuni.
Eliana Fassil ’24 performed a mix of Eritrean and Ethiopian dances with her friends from outside of LWHS both this year and last year. “The performance meant the world to me,” she said. “I wanted to dance again because it tells a story about our culture that words just cannot describe.”
“The rehearsal process was a bit grueling. We practiced in a common area in the neighborhood my friends and I all live in with a mini speaker. It was really cold and we’d sometimes stop because of how silly we’d look in front of people passing by,” Fassil said. “Getting to spend quality time with my friends before they all graduate, dancing to music and goofing off really shaped the overall experience.”
Fassil shared a similar sentiment to Gotico about the role the show plays in the LWHS community. “I wanted to participate in the multicultural show in order to showcase where I’m from. I’m the only East African at this school and wanted to shed light on my culture,” Fassil said.
The Multicultural Show plays an important part in cultural awareness at LWHS, for both those performing and those in the audience. Katie Flemming ’24, who attended the show to support her close friends Fassil and Stack Lozano, said, “I love seeing this part of their lives that we don’t really get to see at school every day.”
“I definitely feel like the show allowed me to connect people on a different level because it showed me a bit about how they connect to their cultural identity,” Nathan Rivera ’24, who is involved in KABA, said.
In addition to planning the event, KABA performed the final act of the show. “We’re singing a song that’s pretty familiar to the Filipino American community called ‘Lemonade’ by Jeremy Passion. We were messing around with it in Ms. OG’s office while we were planning the event. We were like, ‘you know what? It would be so funny if we did a little performance too,’” Gotico said before the show. “Lemonade” is a mellow, breezy love song — the perfect way to close out a warmhearted night of cultural appreciation.
