Rock for Rights!

Rock for Rights! 2007

Rock out, get educated, and change the world!

“Rock for Rights!” is a new organization targeting high school students in the West Hartford community.  The event on December 15th will be a fair to get students educated about some of the issues that plague our global society, as well as how they can get involved and get active about what concerns them.  The “Rock” part refers to a concert that will be occurring at the same time and location as the fair.  High school bands from town, as well as larger, regional bands will be playing throughout the afternoon.  There will also be speakers and clips from movies to further educate kids.  Our motivation is the idea that high school students have incredible passion and potential for activism… they simply need to be educated about the issues and inspired to do something about it. 

Another layer of “R4R” is that the students are working very hard to pull the West Hartford community together.  Students from Hall, Conard, Kingswood-Oxford, Northwest Catholic and Watkinson are working together to speak to local businesses, activists, organizations, and politicians.  Most of the foci of the tables will be on human rights, peace, environmental issues and sustainability projects, amnesty (letter writing to incarcerated peoples around the world), soldiers’ rights, students’ rights, hunger (both home and abroad), and women’s health issues (again, home and abroad), as well as organizations that use various media to reach youth.

In addition to tables and bands, we are working to secure many donations for raffles from local businesses and restaurants in West Hartford Center, Blue Back Square, and Bishops Corner.  We will also be selling unique “Rock for Rights!  2007” t-shirts at the event.  The front will have our hand-heart-music note logo, and the back will publicly thank all of those businesses, organizations, and community members who have helped us make this event a reality, as well as names of all the bands who perform.  (Sweatshop free shirts, of course!)  Any money that is raised through tickets and t-shirts for this event will be used to put the show on (paying for bands, sound, shirts, etc.) and any profit that is made will be fed directly into the schools that helped produce it.  Each school has a human rights / global improvement club; they can do what they want with their portion of the proceeds.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

When:  December 15, 2007   12pm-7pm

Where:  West Hartford Town Hall

Bands:  ZOX, Barefoot Truth, Among Criminals + local student bands

Tickets:  $20; includes “Rock for Rights! 2007” t-shirt (adult sizes)

T-shirts:  $10 on day of event

 For more information email rock4rights@gmail.com or Facebook us at Rock West Hartford

If you are interested in giving donations or hosting a table, please email us!

 

Supervising Faculty:  Steph Sperber (Social Studies, Hall HS)

West Hartford in Top 100 for music education

It should be music to residents’ ears to learn that West Harford is one of a handful of Connecticut towns to make the American Music Conference’s list of Top 100 American Communities for Music Education this year.

Only a few other Connecticut towns made the cut – Bethel, Bristol, Cheshire, Greenwich, Mystic, South Windsor, Torrington and Wilton among them.

According to the AMC, “Thousands of teachers, school and district administrators, school board members and parents and community leaders, representing communities in all 50 states, participated in the Web-based survey. The 2007 roster includes school districts from 31 states that are committed to quality music education programs and providing access to music education. The districts were measured across a variety of program support, curricular and programmatic criteria. Because the criteria in the survey are measured proportionally, large communities and small ones are able to participate on an equal footing.”

“While music education has been linked to higher SAT scores, math grades and future success in life, the survey also found that many students hailing from a ‘Best 100’ community have continued their musical pursuits professionally as educators, or playing for renowned symphonies, opera houses, orchestras and on Broadway,” the survey sponsor reported.

Now, of course, we all know that West Hartford’s schools have great music programs. The Pops and Jazz concert at Hall, for example, is always phenomenal. The talent in this town is stunning, especially to a plunker like me who can’t even keep a beat.

Still, it’s a great thing to be recognized and I’m glad that the nation took notice of what is done here. Our teachers, students and taxpayers all have reason to be proud. 

West Hartford lucky to have own symphony

Just a quick plug for the great West Hartford Symphony, which is a true asset to the town. Its next concert is Sunday, March 4 at 3 p.m.