Findlay, Ohio, Oct. 8, 2003 — The University of Findlay’s Campus Program Board will present its first Diversity Weekend Oct. 24-25 in the Alumni Memorial Union, Multipurpose Room.

The weekend is a result of CPB listening to student requests for creative and culturally diverse entertainment on campus. The plan is that Diversity Weekend will be an annual event on campus.

Events kick off on Friday, Oct. 24, at 8 p.m. with Asian American comedian Steve Byrne. A graduate of Kent State University, Byrne is the son of an Irish father and a Korean mother. The material for his comedy show deals with fitting in as an Asian American, his interesting childhood and his observations of being a single male in the world of dating.

Byrne has appeared on BET’s Comic View, Que Loco and Club 54 in Canada. He was in the Discovery Channel’s The Science of Laughter with Kathy Griffin and has been seen on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend. He lives in New York City and is a regular at Comic Strip Live and The Comedy Cellar.

Following Byrne’s presentation, Shihan, a Puerto Rican slam poet will perform. A native of New York’s Lower East Side, Shihan has established himself as an accomplished spoken word artist and slam winner. Recently, he was featured twice on HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry, and his credits include being named grand slam champion at the Los Angeles 2001 finals and the Hollywood 2000 finals. He was a 2001 grand slam finalist at the World Famous Nuyorican Poets’ Café in New York City and was a core poet on the 2000 Slamamerica Bus Tour, which visited 30 cities in 30 days.

Shihan has been featured throughout the United States, including at the 2000 Tony Awards after-show at New York City’s China Club and on As She Sees It, the number-one rated show on the Oxygen channel. He has written for the NBA, Reebok and MTV’s Rock the Vote campaign. Shihan runs one of the largest poetry slam venues in the country, Da Poetry Lounge in California. He is also frequently recognized for his television ads for Pepsi. Shihan lives in Hollywood, Calif.

The weekend’s events will conclude on Saturday, Oct. 25, at 8 p.m. with a performance by the dance group Step Afrika!, a powerful collaborative project between young artists from the United States and members of the South African Soweto Dance Theatre.

Founded in 1996, Step Afrika! performs a repertoire of step, tap, clogging, hip-hop, house and freestyle as well as the South African dances of Zulu and gumboot. The group serves as a leader in arts education, specializing in the history, development and performance of stepping. The company conducts step residencies and clinics for the Kennedy Center and in schools and community-based organizations across the country.

Tickets are $10 for all three shows. Each UF student receives a free ticket with identification. Tickets are available by calling the Office of Student Activities at 419-434-4606.