 "Photo: Peter Franklin")
Business senior Jenny Weon stuffed bags full of pencils and flyers as she ran from table to table, talking to different groups to ensure that plans would go as smoothly as possible.
Weon, chairman of the Asian American Culture Committee, organized the seventh annual "You Bring Out the Asian in Me," held at the Texas Union Ballroom on Thursday evening.
Weon said the event, which featured various multicultural sororities, fraternities and dance groups, is a yearly attempt to welcome new and returning Asian-American students and features comedic, theatrical and spoken-word performances.
"This is a good event to put on, and it feels good seeing a bunch of people in the same place having fun," Weon said.
Weon said the committee researches different performers to attend each year and always includes one student group performance among guest speakers, who are invited to attend. Thursday's performers included the University's Texas Bhangra, a Punjabi dance group; guest speakers; spoken word artist Stephen Bor; and the Magnetic North hip-hop group.
"We try to show that Asian-Americans do have a huge support group at UT and build a sort of community between all of us," Weon said.
The event was hosted by the Asian Desi Pacific Islander American Collective and the Texas Asian Pan-Hellenic Council.
Lifelong friends from New York City Theresa Vu and Derek Kan comprise the hip-hop dance group Magnetic North. This is the first time the group has performed at the event, but they have performed at various other UT functions. Both said they have been dancing for more than 10 years as a way of breaking from the social norm.
"By performing, we are trying to break out of this mold and do something different," Vu said.
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