Making Noise

About a month before the Day of Silence, a group of our friends were thinking of the best way to hold a Breaking the Silence event. Between our two individual high schools it was decided to pool the resources of our GSA’s and have a concert fundraiser. Could there be a better way to have a Breaking the Silence gathering than to rock out and make a lot of noise?

Early on in the planning, we made committees and delegated all the different duties which would have to be taken care of for the show. We determined that we had to find a venue, book bands, make tickets, pre-sell tickets, sell tickets and water during the show, get water donated to sell, and determine where the money we raised would go. Some of those duties were easier than the rest. For instance, there is a Unitarian Church very close to both of our high schools and they were happy to host us. One of the two GSAs involved had huge event planning meetings where they made posters and tickets. We (the GSA leaders from both schools) met a few times to keep each other updated and to ensure that we weren’t forgetting anything.

Planning a concert has many aspects which we didn’t initially realize would have to be completely thought through before our Breaking the Silence concert came to fruition. We had to have the required amount of chaperones for the church space, and most of them ended up being family members of the organizers. The sound system at the church had some continual problems and so we had to make sure there would be technicians there while the bands were playing, which was not too difficult to check. We also didn’t plan a strict ending time. If the concert ran after 10PM the janitorial staff would have to be paid significant overtime out of the show’s profits. The last thing we didn’t foresee was the destruction of equipment. One of the band members kicked over a microphone stand and broke the microphone. The damage wasn’t significant, but it was something that had to be paid out of our profits, leading us to realize that briefing the band members before the concert would have been a good idea.

After having the bands and other main information set for the concert we had to figure out where to donate the money that was raised. We decided that donating smaller amounts to each of three organizations- one local, one national, one international- would be the best expression of our goals. The three organizations finally decided upon were the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth (LIGALY), the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), and Amnesty International.

The actual event was amazing. We booked six bands made up of high school or college students(Passive voice), all of which were very different and unique in sound. Aside from the band members, chaperones, and organizers, about 50 people attended. The vast majority of the attendees were students from one of the two high schools that the organizers were from, but there were some other local youth, and even a couple of girls from New Jersey. Most of the people there who weren’t students at either of our high schools were people we met through other gatherings, such as the Student Anti-Homophobia Leadership Summit (SAHLS), and another GSA conference we had recently attended. The support and camaraderie evidenced by the trips several people made to see the concert were amazing.

All in all the bands and the attendees had fun and the fundraiser was a huge success. For us, however, this was more than just a fundraiser. It gave us the opportunity to bring together our activism work and our favorite activity, music. The concert let some people who were completely uninvolved in GLBTQ activism to get some exposure to it (at least a little) and gave those already involved a chance to raise money for amazing organizations while having a really great time.

..................... Jasmin Khani, 17 Roslyn High School—Roslyn Heights, NY

Gina Farinaccio, 18 Port Washington High School– Port Washington, NY