Annual Friendship Festival coming to city

A festival in Oberlin is seeking to make the community a bit friendlier.

The Oberlin Friendship Circle will hold its annual Oberlin Friendship Festival from 4-6 p.m., April 8, in the Root Room in the school’s Carnegie Building, 52 W. Lorain St.

Brian King, treasurer of the Oberlin College student organization, said the festival was first held about 10 years ago and is free and open for all.

“That’s just, sort of, a fun festival celebrating the idea of friendship,” King said.

The mission of the Oberlin Friendship Circle is to promote the idea of friendship as a means to social change, peace and conflict resolution, he said.

“The Friendship Festival is a way we tried to institutionalize this concept,” King said. “The point of it being: trying to get beyond, maybe, a peace that is stagnant, perhaps, or like a cold war, by trying to engage more dialog and listening.”

The festival will feature food, live music, games, arts and crafts and short talks by members of the community, he said.

Before the festival begins, though, at 2 p.m., a screening of the film “Me, the ‘Other’” will take place at the Apollo Theatre, 19 E. College St.

The film is a documentary about a diverse group of students living in Washtenaw County, Mich.

After the film is played, the director, Shidan Majidi, and some cast members will take part in a panel discussion beginning at 4 p.m.

“With this film, we set out to tell stories of a diverse cast of characters who are on some level experiencing prejudice in their lives,” Majidi said in a news release on the film. “They come from various backgrounds, but in that deep place inside, they are all essentially one … and we are one of them.

“My personal hope for this film is to expose that sacred place inside where beyond the clouded isms of race, religion, class, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical appearance — lies a place of light, warmth, hope and pure love called the human soul.”

A trailer for the film can be viewed here.

King said events like this can begin to close the gap between communities.

He highlighted the seeming divide between the admittedly liberal Oberlin College and the more conservative communities surrounding it.

“There are these gaps just within our own community,” King said. “I’m not saying one is better than the other; but I’m saying there obviously isn’t some listening going on.”

“The Friendship Festival is a way we tried to institutionalize this concept. The point of it being: trying to get beyond, maybe, a peace that is stagnant, perhaps, or like a cold war, by trying to engage more dialog and listening.”

— Brian King, treasurer of the Oberlin College student organization