The warm weather brought a crowd to the Olin Quad where students were able to listen to live music, tie-dye shirts and eat good food-all in the name of spreading awareness about human rights.
The event, named Jamnesty, was organized by Bradley’s student run organization Amnesty International, which is headed by its three co-presidents, Ben Elkind, Symone Buckner and Andrea Kim.
Amnesty is a non-governmental organization with its stated mission “to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.”
Elkind said this was the third year for Jamnesty, and the event was a way to get the local community involved through giveaways and having local artists perform.
Elkind said the concert also allowed him to talk with other students about petitions they could sign to free two men overseas who had been thrown in jail for basic human rights.
“Letter writing doesn’t always do a lot, but when you are in Amnesty you can definitely make a difference,” Elkind said. “We also deal with human rights issues here in America. There are still a lot of human rights violations here in the states.”
In addition to the petitions, Elkind also informed students of a non-partisan organization scheduled to speak on campus April 11. The group, named LiNK (Liberty in North Korea), aids North Korean refugees and their crisis in general by providing assistance and promoting awareness.
Senior English secondary education major Wassim Elhouar said he showed up to the concert to voice his support for Amnesty and what the organization is fighting for.
“You’ve got good local music, food and tie-dye shirts,” Elhouar said. “And the best thing is that it’s for a great cause.”
There was a list of human rights activities planned for the event, junior communications major Symone Buckner said.
“All the activities here have something to do with human rights, like the Dunk of Oppression and the Fight for Your Rights tug-of-war,” Buckner said. “We’re lucky it’s nice outside, but we’re still waiting for someone brave to get into the dunk tank.”
Buckner said Amnesty usually has the event later in April and having it so early worried her so much so that she said she was continually checking the weather to reassure her it would be warm outside.
In addition to the tank and tug-of-war, the organization also had a large area of the quad set off for tie-dying shirts – something Buckner said always brought out a crowd.
Buckner said she just wants to raise awareness about human rights, and she hopes this event will continue to grow and “ignite passion in people about human rights violations.”
Click on the photos to see more images.
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All photos by Michael Wenzel.
