The student group Community Roots is sponsoring a free concert this weekend in the hopes that it will inspire further discussion about racism at the university.
Community Roots is co-hosting the event along with other student groups, such as the Black Student Union. The event is headlining with rapper Doug E. Fresh and will also feature performances from Daniel Lee, I&I, Soulfege, Omekongo and several students.
The group hopes the concert will encourage students to participate in its upcoming campaign to collect testimony about students’ experiences with race on campus, said Daniel Lewkowicz, a senior history major and a Community Roots board member.
“The concert is basically the opening act in this entire thing,” Lewkowicz said.
Community Roots plans to set up a website as well as collection points where students can submit their stories. It will then use the information to help create policy requests, which Community Roots hopes to present to the university administration, Lewkowicz said.
Lewkowicz wouldn’t say exactly what kind of requests the group plans to make.
“As far as saying what policy we’re working on, it’s a little too early for that,” he said.
The concert comes as a response to several racially charged incidents both on the campus and beyond, including the noose found outside of the Nyumburu Cultural Center, the Jena 6 controversy and the swastika painted on a car parked outside of a fraternity house.
The swastika, in particular, told Lewkowicz something. “It’s not just the black community” that is affected by racism, he said, “and it never really was.”
The concert is set for 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29 at the Nyumburu Amphitheater.
newsdesk@dbk.umd.edu
