With acts ranging from original songs accompanied by guitar to imitations of Michael Jackson’s dances, the Office of Minority Student Affairs’s (OMSA) first “coffee house” drew a diverse crowd to sip coffee, watch performances, and mingle on Tuesday night.

In line with the informal feel of the evening, a demonstration of Wushu, a modern martial art, was interrupted when friends brought forward a candle-lit birthday cake and sang “Happy Birthday.”

“I wished my friends will never embarrass me like this again,” said fourth-year in the College Peter Li after he had blown out his birthday candles.

Li and third-year in the College Gary Lee, who performed the Wushu demonstration, said they were hoping to recruit for their club at the event.

“It’s extreme cultural art,” Li said. “We figured it would fit in here.”

The event was organized by first-year in the College Latricia Booker, OMSA’s Student Assistant for Community Building. Other events hosted by OMSA include a weekly movie night and a potluck dinner for all the cultural RSOs.

Booker said she is working hard at “finding out what people want to improve the campus climate.”

The event was hosted in the Amandla Student Resource Center, which is scheduled to move from Harper to a larger space on 57th Street and Woodlawn Avenue within two years. Sharyn Green, a third-year graduate student, said she would be much more willing to showcase her dance skills if there were less of a chance of colliding with walls.