Article by Freelancer Aya Hussein
Maryland Day, held April 30, had all departments thinking creatively on how to celebrate. The Nyumburu Cultural Center’s kid’s carnival and talent showcase brought people together.
Nyumburu Social Director and Maryland Day Event Coordinator Anne Reese Carswell has been a part of Maryland Day since it first started 24 years ago. For the last two years, Maryland Day has been an exclusively virtual event.
“The [Maryland Day] committee still had us engaged, because they did things online,” Carswell said. “But yeah, I’m glad that we’re back. Hopefully we won’t have to do this [online] again.”
Maryland Day was a chance for over 100,000 people from the surrounding community to come to campus with their family and friends to enjoy events put on by a variety of different campus organizations, Carswell said.
“There’s a lot of freebies, a lot of giveaways on campus,” Carswell said.
Nyumburu hosted a variety of different activities for the people visiting including a “kid carnival” with a bouncy castle, slide, basketball hoop and face painting artist. There was also free cotton candy, popcorn and snow cones.
“People would be in line after four o’clock still trying to get service. We had that all the time,” Carswell said. “They come early and they leave late.”
The main event of the day, however, was the Nyumburu Talent Showcase that ran from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m at the Nyumburu Amphitheater. The showcase showed the community various aspects of Black culture through singing, dancing, spoken word and fashion.
University of Maryland student Ella Quarcoo was in the crowd throughout the entirety of the showcase. She expressed how beautiful it was to have a cultural event for students to show their talents.
“I believe it’s a great avenue for them to showcase their talents. Also, I feel like we have more programs like this, it’s going to bring students together and bring all the families together,” Quarcoo said. “Because looking at the crowd of people enjoying, relaxing, and it’s great.”
Carswell explained how important it was to have the cultural event and how it helped people to learn more about Nyumburu.
“It’s a family affair,” Carswell said. “We come and let people explore our world.”