Students came out to Tower Lawn at the San José State campus on Thursday to participate in the festivities of the Rooted Social Justice Music and Art Festival.
The festival was hosted by César E. Chávez Community Action Center, which helps students take part in civic engagement as well as advocate for social justice and activism, according to an SJSU web page.
Diana Garcia Rodriguez, the department coordinator of César E. Chávez Community Action Center, said that this festival is an annual event and that it was her third year hosting and planning the event.
“We need spaces to celebrate as well and really reflect on what there is in the world,” Rodriguez said.
Another organization that was at the event was the Black Leadership Opportunity Center. They handed out stickers, advertised for other Black organizations and gave attendees the opportunity to make vision boards.
Somto Obasi, a second-year management information systems student, said vision boards are artistic collages that students can make with images that reflect where they want to be in the future.
Obasi said he wanted to help with tabling at the event and wanted to represent the Black Leadership Opportunity Center as a Black person.
There were multiple activities for people to participate in, including face painting, mural art and woodblock art.
Also at the event was music performed by local Bay Area artists and win giveaways. Various food venues distributed free foods such as bao buns from Bun Me Up, popcorn from Peter’s Kettle Corn and drinks from Breaktime Tea all for free.
Many clubs and organizations used the festival as an opportunity to inform students about what they do on campus and around the community.
Centro is the nickname for the Chicanx/Latinx Student Success Center, a group on campus that advocates for Latinx students and focuses on community engagement and student empowerment, according to an SJSU web page.
Ariana Ramos, a student success leader for Centro, participated in tabling and said she was glad to have the opportunity to inform people about the club.
“We ran into some people where even into their last year of college they were like ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t know about Centro,’ ” Ramos said. “It always shocks me, but at least we could put the word out there.”
Ramos said she learned about the club in a Zoom call during her first year at SJSU and would have never known about it if she didn’t attend that meeting.
Now a fourth-year student, Ramos said she wants more students to come to similar events in order to be more informed about what the campus has to offer.
“More conversation will give students the ability to have the safe space to ask questions (and) be able to be curious and see what else is on campus,” Ramos said.
Obasi said he also sees the importance of more student conversation and involvement.
“I see myself go through the same routes on campus everyday and it limits the people that I meet,” Obasi said. “I think events like these (allows) me (to) meet more people on campus.”
