Cultures come together at Night Market on A Walk

[Josh Imhof | features editor] Rocio Garzon (left) and Ismail Safy (right) table for the International Students Organization at the Night Market on April 8.

Eliyahu Gasson | editor-in-chief

On Wednesday night, hundreds of students gathered on A Walk in front of Mellon Hall to shop for items such as food, drinks, cultural items and accessories.

The night market, modeled after open-air markets in other countries, was organized by the Filipino American Student Association (FASA) and featured stalls from other cultural clubs on campus.

“We thought this would be a good opportunity to showcase our cultures and to show what it’s like in night market life, especially since that’s very well known in Asian countries and other countries as well,” said Caitlin Ortiz-Luis, the treasurer and vice president of FASA.

[Josh Imhof | features editor] Abby Zook (left) and Emily Chen (right) talk about table items at the Asian Student Association table.

Students who wanted to shop didn’t need to spend any real money. Instead, they had a chance to wait in line to spin a wheel that would decide whether they would get anywhere from three to 15 tickets which they could use to spend on items they wanted. To make the market feel authentic, students had to barter for items they wanted against prices set by the students running the stalls.

Damaria Wedderburn, the president for Ebony Women for Social Change, was helping her club sell peach cobbler and banana pudding. The club set the starting price for either offering at three tickets, but was willing to negotiate down to two.

“Of course, that’s subject to change as we go down,” Wedderburn said.

Wedderburn said Ebony Women for Social Change chose the desserts because of their cultural significance.

[Josh Imhof | features editor] Loni Scott (left) and Damaria Wedderburn (right) hand out banana pudding and peach cobbler.

“It’s like a staple in households. I grew up on these,” she said.

With only one line for tickets and a large turn out, it took some time for attendees to get to the wheel. Teresa Steffens, president of the Asian Student Association (ASA), which helped run the night market, said that’s something they would address next year.

Still, she said, she was happy with the high attendance.

“There’s so many people here, so I’m really, really grateful that a lot of these people decided to show up and support our orgs, and I’m really proud of all our orgs here,” Steffens said.

Some of the items, like a calligraphy for sale at ASA’s table, were priced higher than 15 tickets. Attendees who wanted those higher-value items would have to make a second trip to the wheel, which meant another wait in line.

“So if people wanted to go in line multiple times, gain a lot of tickets, then we’ll definitely sell it to them,” Steffens said.

“Just to make it a challenge.”

Eliyahu Gasson can be reached at gassone@duq.edu