The University of Connecticut’s Asian American Cultural Center (AsACC) hosted a mask-making session and “Bridgerton” watch party on Thursday, March 12.
Members of the UConn community gathered in the evening at the AsACC programming room, located on the fourth floor of the Student Union. The dim lighting and provided fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies created a cozy atmosphere before the mask-making began.
There were a variety of mask designs to choose from, each with their own unique shapes to cover the wearer’s face. Paint, markers, stickers and colorful rhinestones were available for attendees to make use of.
When the decorating began, the programmers started a recently released episode of “Bridgerton” — an alternative history romance drama that focuses on a royal English family in the early 1800s. The characters were participating in a masquerade ball, creating some continuity between the activity and the show.
Bonnibel Lilith Rampertab, a sixth-semester English and history major and a campus correspondent at the Daily Campus, attended the event to support cultural center events on campus. She said she works with the Influencing Readiness, Inspiring Success program, ran by UConn’s LGBTQ+ cultural center, the Rainbow Center, and came with the student she was mentoring.
“We want to support other cultural centers and their events and their programming,” Rampertab said. “So me and my mentee decided that since we could make it to this, we were gonna go. The masks were a plus.”
Rampertab said she picked out a mask that reminded her of the masks featured in Team Cherry’s indie video game “Hollow Knight.” She designed the mask with the game characters as inspiration but added elements of Hindi culture as well, she said.
“I thought that it would be cool to implement parts of my culture with other interests I have and be passionate about who I am and how I exist,” Rampertab said.
The event was put together by AsACC programmers Shar Bista, Raisa Yousuf and Lea Wakefield.
Bista, a sixth-semester allied health major, said the programmers went with the Bridgerton theme because new episodes had just been released. She said they were also inspired by a similar event held by the Rainbow Center earlier in the semester.
“I went to a different event in the Rainbow Center a few months ago where they had a watch party and so many people showed up and everyone was visibly having a great time, so I thought it would be a good event for the programmers to hold as well,” Bista said.
After the event, Bista said she thought it ran well, even though there were not specific instructions or structure for the activity.
“I feel like a lot of our events, they’re not very structured,” Bista said. “It’s more people come in, they take their time to get ready, and then we kind of just let them start on the activity. I would say this one went well, at least what I heard, people were laughing and making masks and everything.”
Yousuf, a fourth-semester nursing major, said the mask-making activity was one of many events being held by AsAAC this semester. They hosted events for lantern-making and vision board creation earlier in the semester, and she said the center tries hosting at least one event per month.
“We program these types of events, and we focus on belonging, advocacy and education, and we try and implement at least two of those themes whenever we hold events,” Yousuf said. “So just making sure people are having a good time, we’re able to make a good welcoming environment and have fun and maybe learn something too.”
Yousuf said the center’s next event will be a celebration for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. She said the event will take place on Monday, March 23.
A calendar that lists AsAAC’s April events can be found on the AsAAC website.