After school on Wednesday, March 4, SBHS’ Amnesty International chapter hosted Art 4 Amnesty event.
The event was hosted in honor of National Week of Student Action, which runs from March 9 to 13 this year. According to Amnesty International, during this week, student groups across the nation organize and take action for human rights in creative, impactful ways, all focused on the same topic. This year, Amnesty’s campaign focuses on demilitarizing and stopping the nationwide violence used by the US’s immigration enforcement body.
SBHS’s event was run in support of this campaign. The focus of the art allowed students to learn about the human rights violations occurring in the nation while being able to freely paint on tote bags. All in all, it was a mix of both creativity and education in order to raise awareness for Amnesty’s mission against violence.
Weeks prior, students were given the opportunity to submit artworks inspired by human rights issues they are passionate about. And at the event, participants were able to vote on their favorite of these pieces. The winner of this contest was senior Seher Kaur’s piece, Hide Your Children, a political commentary on the recent brutality of immigration enforcement on children. Kaur wrote the following description for her piece:
“My artwork includes a depiction of five year-old Liam Ramos in the outfit he was wearing when an ICE agent used him as bait to get someone in his house to open the door. In striking contrast, it also includes bright bold text in the background that reads ‘ocultar a tus hijos,’ which translates to ‘hide your children.’ My art addresses one of the main humanitarian issues facing America today: the traumatic experiences of Americans whose legal right to exist is being violated by ICE. ICE is–and has been–harassing the people of America, and Liam’s case only emphasizes the fact that no one is safe from ICE–not even children. His presence in a political piece also represents another issue: the fact that a five year old is a symbol instead of a kid running around carefree. He shows how ICE has fundamentally uprooted the lives of everyone nationwide, no matter your age, race, or political stance.”
Junior Malavika Parulekar, who attended the event, said, “Art 4 Amnesty was a really thought out event and it allowed me to be expressive, where I painted my tote bag freely with my friends, but at the same time it taught me a lot about real violence that happens in America because of new policies on deportation, and I feel a lot more aware and informed now after the event.”
Through Art 4 Amnesty, the club intends to show the impacts on activism that art can have when it is publicized to the world. And when art speaks on human rights, its message can resonate to all around the globe as well in order to make a change.
