About 35 students and teachers gathered in Central’s cafeteria from 7-9 p.m. on March 15 to enjoy musical performances, poetry slams, presentations and art reflecting a common purpose: tackling critical human rights issues throughout the world. The event, the annual Human Rights Club Art Show, showcased a variety of student talent pertaining to this year’s theme, “What does it mean to be human?”

When thinking of a theme for this year’s Human Rights Club Art Show, senior Maggie Jia thought deeply about why human rights issues occur. After some reflection, she found that a failure to understand human beings as unique, important individuals often led to violations of human rights. When organizing this year’s art show, Jia and her co-organizers, seniors Sunny Liu and YooJung Chun tried to present answers to the question, “What does it mean to be human?”

Junior Christopher Schnecke joined Human Rights club his sophomore year due to a newfound interest in politics and helping others. His passion for solving human rights problems started in International Relations class when he watched the movie “Blood Diamonds.”

“I just find it awful that it’s 2014 and there’s still slave labor in use today,” Schnecke said. “I personally relaly like the poem ‘Blood Diamonds’ by [junior] Esther Lu because it’s about conflict resources, resources extracted using child labor.”

Schnecke’s passion inspired him to write a poem about forced labor and submit it for display at the show.

Freshman Sheckhinah Cooper, an enthusiastic member of the Human Rights club, especially enjoyed the performances during the event.

“[The performers] definitely put a lot of thought into it,” Cooper said.

Most of all, Cooper hopes that the Human Rights Art show was able to change the outlooks of those who attended.

“I hope that [people] learn more about Human Rights Club itself and what the issues are,” Cooper said.