Keene State College students and members of the Keene community enjoyed a night of live music last Thursday, Feb. 4, at Scores Sports Bar and Grille.
The event was sponsored by NextGen Climate and featured Keene band Roots of Creation.
NextGen members have been canvassing Keene’s campus encouraging young people to commit to vote and informing students of where their polling stations will be for the primary election on Feb. 9.
NextGen’s Campus Organizer Brian Rogers, a KSC alumus, worked hard in coordinating what he called the “Concert for Climate Action.”
The event was a success and Rogers said he believed NextGen succeeded in spreading awareness of climate issues and promoting the significance of voting.
Tim Smith / Photo Editor
“The primary election is an important time for young people to come together. I thought teaming up with a great band like Roots of Creation would be really effective in encouraging folks to take advantage of their right to vote and to push justice and change,” Rogers said.
Rogers continued, “We’re not telling people who to vote for, we at NextGen just think it’s really important to participate in politics, hopefully with the environment in mind.”
The event was said to be well-received by students and senior Victoria Folk shared that her and her friends had been highly anticipating Roots of Creation’s show.
“We were all really excited and the show totally lived up to our expectations. I think it’s awesome that NextGen is working for a good cause and I definitely plan to vote in the primaries,” Folk said.
KSC senior Julie Flynn said that her and her friends “danced the night away.”
Tim Smith / Photo Editor
“It was great to get a reggae type band in Keene for the night. NextGen did really well with finding a cool and different way to reach out to students,” Flynn said.
Flynn also said that many students were previously unaware about the rules of voting, a problem that Rogers is actively trying to eliminate.
“Our hope for the concert and our presence on campus in general is to inform the students about their given right to vote,” Rogers said.
Along with the concert, NextGen Climate co-hosted a Voter Protection Training with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Keene State Democrats. The event educated the students who attended on the details of the voting process, for example what forms of identification are necessary in order to register and what time the polls open.
NextGen Climate offered rides to the polls on Feb. 9, outside of Hoot-N-Scoot. Students were not able to miss the orange signs and all of the fellows who will be encouraging students to go and vote, and get some pizza and hot chocolate as well.
Aryanah Haydu can be contacted at ahaydu@kscequinox.com
