In the ring, two sumo wrestlers face off, eyes filled with steely determination. Across the street, people eat crepes, drink bubble tea and pop balloons filled with paint. Not even in the largest cities of the world would one see events this diverse packed so closely together, but that’s exactly what happened this past Saturday, Sept. 11, on Boyer Avenue. The Interest House Community (IHC) once again held its annual Block Party on the streets of Whitman College.
“We thought it would be nice to show the front of the interest houses, instead of the sides,” said Patrick Herman, Resident Director of the IHC, in response to the change of location from Otis Street to Boyer.
For Herman, the Block Party is an opportunity for the IHC to show what it is all about.
“We want the Block Party to be a community event . . . Really, it’s great when non-residents come by. If they’re having trouble with French homework, they can come by La Maison and get help. If they have heard something in the news and want to talk about it, there are the residents of the Global Awareness House. We really want [the IHC] to be an open community for everyone, not just the residents.”
A key to making the IHC inviting was to fill the Block Party with fun events. Though the dunk tank was missing this year, there were plenty of alternatives.
“They had a bouncy castle, they had inflatable sumo wrestling, they had salsa dancing,” said junior Carolyn Hart. “No one taught me how to salsa dance last year.”
Among the other activities available were writing games from the Writing House, paper cutouts from the Asian Studies House and a giant-sized version of Candyland courtesy of the Community Service House.
“This year’s Block Party kicked last year’s butt,” concluded Hart.
But fun wasn’t the only thing on the agenda of the IHC.
First-year Leah Siegel expressed a concern echoed by many who are unfamiliar with the IHC.
“Because I’m not a French major, I’m worried I may not be as in-the-know about French goings-on and French things in general as I need to be,” she said.
Diana Dulek, a sophomore living at the Writing House, has experienced that perception of expertise.
“We feel that pressure,” she said, concerning the idea that IHC residents are experts in their fields. But she added that it’s “mostly a self-imposed thing . . . We’re not all English majors. Hopefully [people] will get a feel for that when they see us.”
This issue is something Resident Director Herman has had to deal with directly.
“People say, ‘I don’t have classes in the subject; it isn’t my major,’ but it really is meant to be your interests,” said Herman. “To be honest, it is intimidating going up to a house. It’s not like a dorm hall where you can go and have a sense of anonymity . . . That’s why we really want [the Block Party] to be an icebreaker event.”
An important thing many houses did this year was to include sign-up lists. These allow people to keep in mind when each house is going to host its various events. The Fine Arts House even went so far as to make bookmarks with their activities listed on them.
This sense of intimacy is exactly what Herman wanted.
“The scale of [the Block Party] as recently as four years ago was much bigger . . . It was intentionally scaled back in magnitude so there is a higher focus on the community,” said Herman.
For students such as Siegel, the approachability of this smaller scale event boosted the IHC’s sense of inclusion.
“Before I had a very vague preconceived idea of what the IHC was like,” said Siegel. “Now it seems to me like a much more cohesive community than I thought it was. It seems like a really cool place to be.”
