Lindsay France/University Photography

Mou Jian Lee '13 looks at the "Writing on the Wall" exhibit in the corridor between Olin and Kroch libraries.

A group of Cornellians are aiming to change how people on campus think about diversity by inviting people to write their experiences on the wall. No, it's not vandalism: It's the work of the Arts and Sciences Diversity Coalition.

Large-scale posters featuring writing and images by eight students and faculty members are on display in the corridor between Olin and Kroch libraries as part of the "Writing on the Wall: Cultural Experiences" exhibit.

Subjects ranging from one author's reflections on the crisis in Haiti to love letters written by an author's husband are expressed ("it is the shine of your heart that wakes me. your touch, rendering me drawing in air like a finger trace…") through such media as prose and captioned photographs.

The authors stood by their pieces April 10 to talk with viewers about their entries. The exhibit will be up for another week, giving passersby a chance to peer into the lives of the writers.

"That's all it's about: showing how interesting everybody is," said Myra Sabir, assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

The exhibit was born out of Sabir's Life Writing Project, a workshop in which students write about and explore significant events from their own lives. Two students from the project, Joanna Smith '13 and Ruth Boansi '13, as well as Torree Nwachakwa '13 and Doretha Dawkins '13, went on to found the Arts and Sciences Diversity Coalition.

Following the success of a similar event that the group planned last semester in Goldwin Smith Hall, Olin Library approached the coalition to plan an installation. The group fielded and selected submissions from the Cornell community for the exhibit.

"I think that this project is a wonderful idea because it gives people an opportunity to share their stories -- where they've been, where they're going, everything that's contributed to their current status. It's really interesting to see other people's perspectives of current events and how it affects them," said Jaroda Strapp '13, who viewed the exhibit April 10.

Contributors to the installation were able to reflect not only on their own experiences, but on those of their peers as well"You can look at the different issues through someone else's lens. It's really the same story, but it's told differently," said Makafui Fiavi '10, who had a piece in the installation.

Part of the coalition's goal is to change the way people on campus think about diversity. Reimagining diversity was evident in professor of anthropology Frederic Gleach's submission, in which he combined pictures of objects, places and people.

"When people think cultural diversity, they seem to automatically think about people," Gleach said. "With my core interests in visual and material culture, one of the things that we focus on is the way that objects and places and texts relate to people and participate in social interactions with people."

The members of the coalition reimagine this idea further.

"A lot of times when people say diversity, there's a twisted notion that diversity is a group of people who look alike, act alike, who are of the same ethnic background and they're together. The coalition is setting out to change that," said Doretha Dawkins '13, one of the planners of the event and a member of the Diversity Coalition. "It's integrating everything that you've ever learned and everyone that you know to build community, rather than breaking it down and separating it."

Kristen Tauer '10 is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.