Fifth Annual Window on the World festival is April 26

Tennessee Technological University’s annual Window on the World (WOW) festival will fill the Roaden University Center with all things international Saturday April 26. Of particular interest will be the first floor’s International Food Court and Young at Art family activities.

The OVC Room will be transformed into an art and craft studio for all ages to fashion their own handicrafts from around the world.

Surrounding the room will be miniature shelters from different cultures created by Lois Rood’s anthropology students. There will also be continuous global entertainment in the OVC Room.

Altogether there will be eight tables of art and craft activities. One will feature origami in the form of Samurai hats for younger children. Prescott Central Middle School students will teach older kids how to fold paper cranes. The school is participating in a Thousand Cranes for Peace project in which a Japanese school has sent materials and instructions for folding the cranes, which will then be sent back to the Japanese school in a gesture of international goodwill.

At another table the Young at Art can design-a-mug with flags of the world. Personalized rainsticks and dreamcatchers are the activity at one table. And yet another will guide children in creating Chinese hangings with characters symbolic of family, truth, love and other themes.

Other highlights include Hispanic paper flowers, French dolls called Panins, Indian block prints, Scandinavian heart baskets and international paper dolls. Fleetguard and Wal-Mart have both been generous in their support of the festival and especially activities for WOW’s Young at Art.

Just outside the OVC Room will be the International Food Court. While in the past food tables have been sprinkled throughout the festival, at WOW 2003 all the main vendors will be placed together. Individual booths here and there may also have some snacks, but the International Food Court is the place to come for …

Mediterranean dishes

World Foods’ Katariina and John McCrea promise to tempt diners with such Mediterranean delights as gyros, muffaletta sandwiches, Greek salad, pasta salad, tabouli and hummus. As if that weren’t enough, the international grocery and delicatessen owners are also bringing specialty desserts of cannoli and baklava and may add some of the English imports that have become increasingly popular at their 22 North Cedar deli.

Indian delicacies

Rajan Dogra’s samosas—veggie-stuffed pastries—have become a staple at WOW, along with his rice pilaf, cucumber raita and other tasty Indian dishes.

Bosnian food

Yasmina Hadjimiratovic and company will provide WOW attendants with the new, east-meets-west flavors of Bosnian cooking. There will be spinach pies, moussaka, banana rolada and sweets such as tufahija, walnut-stuffed apples in syrup.

Among the other offerings slated are Italian food from Marie Williams, French and Polish dishes from Susan Soeder, Greek food from Gondola Restaurant, Fusun Ayik’s Turkish dishes, British specialties from JoAnn Jackson and international ice creams from Dismas House.

WOW 2003 will celebrate international cultures Saturday, April 26 from 11:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. in the Roaden University Center of Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville. This fifth Window on the World will showcase performers, artists, craftspeople, chefs, booksellers, and others with ethnic specialties.

Funded by CenterStage and sponsored by the Globalization Committee of the College of Business, WOW 2003 will be a fun, free, family event. It will also be a litter-free event, thanks to volunteers from the Cookeville High School Interact Club.

WOW also includes a symposium on Friday, April 25 from 11:00 a.m. until noon in the RUC’s Multi-Purpose Room. World traveler and dancer Travis Jarrell will present a program on "The International Language of Dance."

For information on the web, please check www.tntech.edu/wow/. For more information or to volunteer for WOW 2003, please contact Katie Kumar at kjkumar@tntech.edu or by calling 931-372-6197 / 931-528-7968 (evenings).

--Tracey LeFevre

This information posted 25 March 2003