Culture is Not a Costume

In an attempt to raise awareness about cultural appropriation in advance of Halloween, Mosaic NY often stages various guerrilla theatre activities around the holiday. In 2016, members stormed the dining hall repeating a trick or treat chant with a cultural appropriation education twist and in 2017, members created posters to place around campus of members holding images of culturally appropriative costumes with the tagline, "my culture is not a costume." They also tabled in the student center during lunch rush with an interactive game that asked people to take images of Halloween costumes available for purchase online and place them on one of two poster boards. One read "appropriate" and the other "appropriated." Members then talked about the choices with their peers, focusing on dialogue rather than being authorities on the matter. At the end of the discussion, participants were given "culture is not a costume" buttons to wear. 

Photo credit Chris Williams