A Celebration of Welcome: The Event
For the Flourish team, we genuinely hope that Oklahoma City will be the most welcoming city in the world. To that, our hope for “A Celebration of Welcome” was for individuals to learn from a generation of young people who are navigating multiple worlds and have had to learn to be the wisest and hold on to what is true the most when practicing and receiving welcome in the U.S. The invitation was for visitors to stop and ask how they personally practice welcome, and how they might further incorporate practices of welcome in their own lives. We know that welcome isn’t a one-time thing, but a repetition and altering of who we are as people and as a community.
“A Celebration of Welcome” was an immersive and interactive experience for visitors focused on:
Encouragement in the ways welcome is being practiced in our city
Inspiration for a more welcoming city
Insight into tangible ways to practice welcome in our own lives
Offering food, drink, storytelling, and hospitality
Curating original exhibit contributions of students who have both experienced and offered welcome in Oklahoma City.
Central to this event were ten projects and presentations about how students in Oklahoma City practice welcome. From these projects, our team coordinated food, artwork, and informational sections for visitors to learn more about immigration pathways to the United States, and how Oklahoma City can grow fuller in practices of welcome for all members of our city. Visitors also engaged with a community art piece in which they contributed to and which unfolded over the course of the three days. Additionally, visitors could learn from informational sections on refugee resettlement, asylum seeking, family reunification, DACA, and VISA applications.
The most powerful part of any experience are the organic ways the people meet and learn from each other– “A Celebration of Welcome” was no different. Our team was encouraged by the ways visitors participated, learned from, and listened to students and the ways students humbly shared about their experiences and goals to expand welcome through their education. This looked like visitors not only learning about welcome, but also engaging with students as peers in their artwork and writing, asking about their artistic processes to develop their work. Visitors also loved the way the event food was connected to student projects– one student’s mom made enchiladas!
Additionally the art piece was a site of lots of engagement for visitors. Set up as a piece to participate with, visitors could see the piece from any vantage point of the venue, and as they moved through projects got closer and closer to the piece. Several visitors who came early on Monday or Tuesday returned later with friends and family members to walk through the experience again– we’re so honored to have folks give so much of their time to this focus!
We would also be remiss if we didn’t share how thankful we were not only to the engagement from the Yale staff, but for their full investment in the theme and student work– many folks went above and beyond to make this such a great and welcoming event for visitors and students alike.
