Gripping a bullhorn in her right hand and a crumpled passage from Martín Espada’s poem “Heal the Cracks in the Bell of the World” in her left, senior Margo Fuchs paid homage to the 17 people who died during the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida one month prior.

“Here the bells rock their heads of bronze as if to say:/ melt the bullets into bells, melt the bullets into bells,” she read, standing in front of a crowd of Upper School students and faculty gathered in the field adjacent to South Pond.

Fuchs was one of six students who shared art during the rally, which included an excerpt of Toni Morrison’s Nobel Lecture and a reading of “26,” by Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Themes of sorrow, community, frustration, and rebuilding were expressed through poetry, music, and vibrant posters. Student organizers encouraged participants to wear orange due to the color’s association with gun-violence prevention.

Senior Maya Plotnick and junior Hannah Kershner performed a duet of “Lean on Me,” by Bill Withers, to open the rally. “I thought about the significance of it a little bit but didn’t really realize it until I was actually singing it,” Plotnick said. “Whether you think this is political or not, putting all that aside and just listening to the song made me realize just how important it was to be with people during this time.”

Earlier this year, freshmen Grace Conrad and Natalie San Fratello founded Youth Art Activism Movement, a club dedicated to using art to encourage other people to get involved in social issues like reproductive health care and women’s rights. During the afternoon breakout sessions, Conrad and San Fratello guided students in reflection and the making of art.

“We think that art is a really good way to do that because it shows a lot of different perspectives,” Conrad said. “Especially for this event in particular, there’s been a lot of emotion today, and we just wanted a place where people could feel like they could digest all of that.” Students created a mural on yellow contact paper using colorful markers.

Freshman Rohan Dhingra drew an American flag in red above the phrase “No more silence, end gun violence” at the session. “The time to enact change on gun violence and that issue is way past due,” Dhingra said. “It shouldn’t take another mass shooting for us to realize that change needs to happen.”

To conclude the first half of the day, the Upper School sang “This Land is Your Land,” by Woody Guthrie.“With music, you don’t even need the lyrics–it’s just the song itself that brings people together,” Plotnick said. “I think music is really powerful, and that was proven today.”