The pen might be mightier than the sword, but the mic may prove to be even more powerful than the written word. At least, that is the hope of Mighty Mic director Azadeh Ghafari, the entire Mighty Mic committee and partnering groups on campus. They intend to bridge speakers, music and film to raise the collective consciousness of students to current political issues.
Today, the second annual Mighty Mic benefit concert will be held in Ackerman Grand Ballroom at 6 p.m. The free concert will feature bands including OK Go, Rock & Roll and Zion-I, and will also include a screening of “Darfur Now,” the 2007 documentary looking at the ongoing conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Ghafari, a fourth-year history and political science student, conceived the idea for a social awareness benefit concert two months after she transferred to UCLA last year. She had worked for the International Social Justice Network on campus and wanted to hold a benefit concert in order to open students’ eyes to the current political oppression worldwide. After finding out that several organizations, such as Amnesty International and UNICEF, wanted to do the same thing, Ghafari orchestrated a group of seven students to organize the event.
“We’re different groups that can come together and put on a benefit show, put on different speakers and raise awareness throughout the show, but at the same time raise a lot of funds for nonprofits,” said Ghafari.
The first Mighty Mic event raised money for the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan as well as Doctors Without Borders. However, due to the success of last year’s sold-out event, this year’s organizing committee grew to around 50 members.
“The whole purpose is to bring a lot of perspectives of students,” Ghafari said. “From North Campus we have a lot of art students and (international development studies) students, political science and history majors. Because we chose to do our project on the Afghanistan women and Doctors Without Borders, we were working with a lot of South Campus pre-med majors last year.”
Held during Genocide Awareness Week, this year’s event hopes to raise awareness and money for the ongoing genocide in Darfur as well as other past genocides. By raising money for Darfur, which Ghafari believes shows the importance for social change, she hopes that people will see the ties to past events in human history.
“Darfur is a really trendy issue right now,” said Ghafari. “But, we feel that the conflict has been portrayed as Muslims attacking Christians. The conflict is more about economic and environmental issues than it is about ethnic minorities killing other ethnic minorities. This is why we chose to include other genocides such as the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide. … Their issues have not been brought to the forefront.”
In order for the event be successful, the Mighy Mic committee and partnering organizations on campus chose acts with strong pre-existing interests in political issues. One of the performers, Zion-I, is a hip-hop duo from the East Bay that uses provocative lyrics over a background of old school beats and retro-sounding loops in order to promote awareness among listeners.
“We’re about social change and doing something positive in our community,” said Amp Live, producer and member of Zion-I. “The Darfur situation had been going on for a while, and we felt like we wanted to bring attention to it to cause some change for people in need.”
Zion-I was asked to join the Mighty Mic bill after they had gained notoriety playing Darfur benefit shows in Santa Barbara and at UC Berkeley.
“It helps put musicians on a wider platform,” said Amplive. “A lot of people listening to us at concerts realize that their favorite artists are aware and promoting these issues.”
One important aspect of the benefit concert to Ghafari was that it would remain free for the audience. Though there is a suggested donation of $15, the Mighty Mic organizers felt that it was more important to keep it a grassroots event that promotes important causes rather than hire acts simply to draw crowds.
“If we can raise money for nonprofits, that would be great,” Ghafari said. “But if you can get one person and get them interested in a cause they never heard about, for example like the Rwanda genocide, it’s worth it. I’d rather have the place filled and have anyone who wants to come be able to. The money will come later.”
Overall, Ghafari hopes that the audience takes the lasting message of the importance of getting involved and informed about what is going on around you from the concert.
“There’s nothing remotely special about what I’m doing or other people are doing,” Ghafari said. “But we hope to make people realize that even on campus you have a voice, whether it is through music or the arts or anything.
“I find it very important for those of us who live in this free country and have the opportunities that we do to be able to speak out for other people who can’t do so.”