A wise wizard dressed in gray once said “The world is not in your books … it’s out there.” Today, those words come to life as students get an opportunity to learn a culture beyond the content of a textbook.

The Cultural Arts and Education Ensemble and the College of Education will host the inaugural Cultural Arts and Education Showcase featuring local performing artists and a reading by Mary Weems from her book “Blackeyed: Plays and Monologues.”

Douglas Hoston Jr., a mentee of Weems getting his Ph.D. in cultural studies and social thought in education, described the event as a way of sparking imagination and relaying information through a creative method.

“Each culture is telling its own story instead of a grand narrative,” Hoston said.

One of the purposes of the showcase is to portray cultures through art such as music, dancing and literature. This shows that there are more ways to learn than just reading from a book, Hoston said, and this is an opportunity to see that.

Weems, an independent scholar whose lectures are described more like performances, said her book covers numerous topics related to the black as well as the broader human experience. These include racism, alcoholism, domestic violence, losing a loved one, and breast cancer, among others.

“The main role of an artist is to speak truth and power, and I hope people take that away from my work,” Weems said.

The second half of the event will include Weems reading excerpts from her book. During the first half people can see performances in dance, music, reading poetry and combinations of the three.

Some of the pieces are performed by Group Effort Dance Company, including contemporary and hip-hop numbers and some interpretative dance during the reading of a poem. Group Effort’s co-chair Tori Young, a comparative ethnic studies and secondary education sophomore, described the event as incredibly diverse.

“(There are) groups from all over campus that come from different areas of culture and art and education,” Young said. “You don’t have a lot of showcases like that.”

While there will be a DJ to provide music, some of it comes from a jazz band led by drummer Machado Mijiga, a music education and jazz performance junior. He described the showcase as a chance to combine the two worlds of arts and education at their fullest.

“My role … is to come up with a way to musically express the thematic ideas (Hoston) is trying to get across through music and dance,” Mijiga said.

To teach culture through various art forms offers a new opportunity for students to learn something they can’t find in a book, putting the perspective of art among the other disciplines, Young said. One of the ways culture is spread is through art forms, such as dancing and even graffiti.

“(Weems’) theory says that there are imaginative ways of knowing and imaginative ways of teaching,” Hoston said.

Young said her experience of learning culture through art came from growing up in a Puerto Rican culture and becoming part of a salsa dance group at a young age. She spent six years immersing herself in the culture she learned through a dance form and not from a book.

One of the important things to learn about a culture is the language, as it has a huge impact on the culture as a whole, Young said. Respecting other cultures is important, even when what’s normal in one culture may seem strange in another, she said.

“Respect is definitely a thing that needs to be taken account for,” Young said. “Having an open mind and working with people you may not be able to speak the same language to.”

Mijiga’s experience came from his music studies, including a course in musicology that studied culture through music. He said one of the important things to keep in mind is neutrality and objectivity when studying other cultures.

Oftentimes, there are people who go into studying a certain ethnic group and come in with expectations. This closes out opportunities to learn about that culture from someone who’s experienced it their entire life, Mijiga said.

“Since the beginning of humankind, people have used artist expression as a way of showing what was going on in their world,” Weems said.

Even with the push for learning through art, it’s not necessary to just throw the textbook out the window. For some, learning about cultures through reading books is a better way to learn.

Then there are some who can’t take much form a textbook, and need to learn through demonstrative art, Mijiga said. There are different types of learning and intelligences, offering different avenues for learning.

“Keep an eye out for future programs that are similar to this,” Mijiga said. “Embrace the arts.”

The showcase will take place from 5 – 7 p.m. today in the CUB Senior Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public.