César E. Chávez Community Action Center offered students an immersive experience while promoting community involvement on Wednesday at Tower Lawn.
Rhythm of Resistance: A Journey Through Bay Area Activism allowed students to learn about the history of activism through their five senses, according to a Sept. 23 Instagram post from the César Chávez Community Action Center.
Some activities offered were writing about what students would change if they had power, reading activism through poetry and music, and a Play-Doh art workshop.
Ange Grate, the events and outreach assistant for the César E. Chávez Community Action Center, helped coordinate the event.
“This event was created for the ‘In Solidarity series,’ (which is) about Bay Area activism and activism within California,” Grate said.
The “In Solidarity” series supports student leaders on campus through leadership development while focusing on social justice issues providing them with tools for the workforce, according to the Associated Students website.
Grate said the event hosts different on-campus organizations and outside sources to help students express what activism means to them.
The organizations present included LEAD Filipino, A.S Campus Community Garden and the SJSU Black Student Union.
Students in attendance at this event were encouraged to go to each booth and learn more about each organization.
After visiting each booth, students would receive a stamp on a paper they received when they checked into the event.
Students were also able to go to the tasting booth and redeem their completed stamped paper for boba.
“The takeaway is being able to reflect as a member of the community and how you can be an activist through all the different resources that we have on our campus, and within our community as a whole,” Grato said.
Diana Garcia Rodriguez, department coordinator at the César E. Chávez Community Action Center, said she has been working alongside Grate to bring the event to life.
“This is something (Grate) has been wanting to do since the summer,” Garcia Rodriguez said. “It’s to bring folks together and make it a very fun, high impact, low stakes event.”
Garcia Rodgruiez and Grate hoped to get students excited about the upcoming election and explore different movements that impact the Bay Area.
“Our hope is that folks love their community so much that they are inspired to create change,” Garcia Rodriguez said.
Marnelli Canosa, a health equity and outreach coordinator for LEAD Filipino, said she wants students to focus on civic engagement beyond the upcoming election.
“Within the nonprofit circles, we talk about how to get folks engaged past the election,” Canosa said. “Bills go through a cycle and so does civic engagement. Staying engaged holds our representatives and elective officials accountable.”
Canosa said she was giving students a look into the past about voting history and how people with multiple ethnicities weren't able to vote until recently.
Eesha Patel, a first-year business student, saw a flyer for this event on Instagram and was by the tents on Tower Lawn.
“I wanted to be more connected with campus, especially as a first-year,” Patel said. “It’s important to be informed and educated, especially for people advocating for social justice that is affecting real people in real-time.”
