Social Advocacy students organized Saturday's panel discussion and art show at the IMC in Urbana. The program begins at noon. Poster courtesy Social Advocacy class (click to enlarge)

URBANA — Uni High's very own Social Advocacy class will host a roundtable discussion and art show Saturday at the Independent Media Center in Urbana.

Titled "We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest," the discussion on social justice will feature a variety of speakers, including class member Rachel Harmon, who will talk about Social Advocacy class and the work she did last year in organizing events for Black History Month.

Other speakers include Aaron Ammons from C-U Citizens for Peace and Justice and Rebecca Ginsburg from the Education Justice Project, which teaches college classes at the Danville Penitentiary.

Also speaking are Janelle O'Dea from the Campaign of Comprehensive Sex Education and Teen Awareness Group and Ellen Banranowski, a third-grade teacher from Champaign whose students wrote a book for kids who have family members in jail.

Social Advocacy teacher Suzanne Linder will moderate the event as a representative from Books to Prisoners, a nonprofit group that sends free books to prisoners all over the United States.

The Social Advocacy class, made up of nine students, is currently split into three groups, each of which is working on separate projects that will help local, national, and international causes. The panel was organized by the national group, which consists of senior Stephen Prochaska and juniors Harmon, Alexx Engles, and Cheyenne Stewart.

The main topic of the panel will cover people's experiences with building social justice movements, along with the phenomenon of the prison-industrial complex and how it can be changed or how it should be abolished.

The discussion will be followed by food and art. The book the third graders made will be on display along with artwork by Danville inmates and art from the Justseeds Art Collective, made up of artists who did a whole portfolio of pieces about the prison-industrial complex.

Said Engles: "It should hopefully be really interesting, especially because what we are trying to do is have it be more cross generational, so there will be both young and old people."

The panel discussion actually evolved from an idea the Social Advocacy students had for an art show that would display and sell work by artists who are incarcerated at Danville. The students further expanded on the idea with the help of Sarah Ross, a local artist and community activist who has been working for some time with the Danville inmates.

"They wanted to do something more than just the art show, so they decided on the panel," said Linder.

Besides organizing Saturday's program, this group is also working with inmates to produce art that can later be sold to support Books for Prisoners, an organization that both Linder and Uni librarian Frances Harris have assisted as volunteers.

"It would be cool if we could figure out some other ways to help Books for Prisoners," said Engles, "but I think we want to educate ourselves as much as possible on what exactly is going on with the prison-industrial complex, especially with this economic crisis and how this will affect the people in prison right now."

In addition to this, the four students are helping the class's international group make a teaching kit that people can use to educate themselves on the Israeli-Palestinian situation.

Social Advocacy's local group is working with the Salvation Army, the TIMES Center shelter for homeless men, and Restoration Urban Ministries for its project on economic decline.

"We just want to get young people more involved in politics and social justice movements because a lot of people have just considered youth to be the more apathetic part of America," said Engles. "I guess we are trying to overturn that image that young people don’t care about what’s going on, because there are young people who care. So if you do care and if you do want to learn more about this stuff, you should go to this panel."