Press Release

Bunker Hill Community College Students Create Production on Social Issues

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Students at Bunker Hill Community College will present Shine a Light, an original performance using the arts to speak out on poverty, war, sexual assault, HIV/AIDS and other social issues. The event, free and open to the public, will be at 6 p.m., Friday, December 10, 2010, in the A300 Auditorium on the Charlestown Campus

“With rap, folk, theatrical performances, dance and the spoken word, students have created a powerful statement about social justice,” said Monica C. Poole, Assistant Professor of History and Social Sciences, advisor to the student group. Their original works will draw their inspiration from writings by Maya Angelou and Ursula K. LeGuin.

“Words communicate ideas, and ideas that spread to a community can affect the physical reality of that community,” said Jorge García, one of the performers, who is studying to become a community college history teacher. “We are presenting Shine a Light to give voice to some important things we all think are wrong with our society today.”

The works presented will include “Take a Minute,” a dance about preventing AIDS; “A Circle Never Ends,” an acoustic rock piece; “Imagine” by John Lennon; and “Still I Rise,” a poem by Maya Angelou. At the event, the College Office of Community Engagement will hand out flyers with suggestions on how to take action on the issues presented. Shine A Light is the inaugural performance of the Take A Bow Common Interest Learning Community, part of the College-wide Engaged Campus initiative, designed to help students remain in college and succeed.

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About Bunker Hill Community College
Bunker Hill Community College is the largest community college in Massachusetts, enrolling approximately 18,000 students annually. BHCC has two campuses in Charlestown and Chelsea, and a number of other locations throughout the Greater Boston area. BHCC is one of the most diverse institutions of higher education in Massachusetts. Sixty-five percent of the students are people of color and more than half of BHCC's students are women. The College also enrolls nearly 600 international students who come from 94 countries and speak more than 75 languages.