Rockin’ with anti-violence

Learn more about Artists and Musicians of Latin America’s collaboration with Vote That Jawn’s June 3 event below. 

By Hannah Gerber

From May 27-July 2, 2026 ArtPhilly is hosting a citywide and multi-disciplinary art festival in conjunction with the nation’s 250 anniversary celebration called What Now. Vote that Jawn will be holding an event on June 3 focusing on amplifying youth voters through performances and workshops.

One of the partners for this event will be the Artists and Musicians of Latin America at Esperanza. The organization is dedicated to music education for students through learning Latin music. Focusing on the promotion and preservation of music from Puerto Rico as well as music from all over Latin America, educating students both about music and culture, but also the Spanish language. 

At Vote That Jawn, the newly formed PARADOX, AMLA Anti-Violence High School Rock Band, will be performing for the first time. Daniel de Jesus, the director of music education at AMLA, shared that the students will be performing an original piece based on “themes around antiviolence.” They will also be performing a cover of “Zombie” by The Cranberries.

De Jesus shared that the inspiration behind the anti-violence high school band was “to engage and think about music that has a social justice message, [...] a message of peace, a message of communal peace.” They asked the teens to think about what would need to happen, “to make our world function in a way where violence is removed, where we can live in a world without war, you know, without conflict.” 

Encouraging youth to think beyond the world they currently live in and imagine what would need to change to reach that world, starts the standard for youths to start to think about their civic responsibility. 

De Jesus shared, “Amplifying youth voices is important because I think it’s valuable that we create a society in which we continue to push for new ideas.” He continued to point out that youth are living a life that is affected by and defined by the older generations, and that their perspective adds a new perspective that politicians may not even be aware of.

Music as a form of activism and expression is a tangible way “to create awareness." Jesus continued, “popular music touches the zeitgeist, gets people in conversations, gets people thinking and then therefore affects action.” 

Hear PARADOX, the AMLA Anti-Violence High School Rock Band,  share what social issues they are passionate about when they perform their concert at What Now on June 3 at 6 p.m.