In a collaboration between members of the New London community and Connecticut College, local young artists will join students, a professor and student groups to express social justice through the arts on Nov. 6 from 6-9 p.m. in the 1962 Room, College Center at Crozier-Williams.
The idea for the event originated with the Connecticut College student organization SOAR (Students Organized Against Racism), and is a collaboration with the Student Government Association’s Student Activities Council and Unity House, the College’s multicultural center.
Admission is free and open to the public and includes a catered dinner of Sicilian, Spanish and Caribbean dishes donated by Connecticut College student organizations Spectrum, La Unidad and Queer People of Color. Members of the community may contact gdarosa@conncoll.edu to reserve a place.
Performances will include a folklorico piece by MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán); songs by the “Miss Conduct” a cappella group; poetry, hip hop dance, rap, and artwork by students; and a reading of James Baldwin’s essay “The Artist’s Struggle for Integrity" by faculty adviser and professor of French and Africana Studies Nathalie Etoke. Ten young people from Writers’ Block Ink, a New London organization that provides classes in performing arts and helps youth to create original productions addressing social issues, will perform a skit.
“Our hope for this event,” explains SOAR member and event spokesperson Georbina DaRosa '17, “is to gather the Connecticut College and New London Community in a night of the arts. We want people to be aware that the arts is a powerful tool, a healing mechanism, a political act, and a conscious effort to facilitate and participate in social change. If we want change, love and respect among us and others, we must actively promote it through our own art.”