Grammy-Winning Artist Miguel to Perform at Adelanto Free #SchoolsNotPrisons Concert

Staff Writer

Thursday, October 19th, 2017

ADELANTO – A free concert to raise awareness and join forces to bring change to what some say is harsh and unfair treatment to those immigrants seeking political asylum will be held in the City of Adelanto on Friday night.
The City of Adelanto is home to the ICE Processing Center owned by the for-profit Geo Group. This facility houses around 1600 immigrants as detainees wait for a decision on whether they will or will not be granted political asylum, which is a human right under the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Artists including Grammy-winning artist Miguel who is of Mexican and African-American descent and is best known for his hit-single Adorn will be performing at the concert. “It’s important now, more than ever, for us to recognize the humanity in one another,” said Miguel. “I’m just hoping to help educate myself on the realities of our immigration policy and also shed whatever light I can on the families dealing with cruel and unjust treatment in Adelanto.” The event will be emceed by comedian Cristela Alonzo among others. In addition to Miguel, Los Rakas, Ceci Bastida, and Buyepongo will be performing.

The mission of the free community arts and music festival is to seek closure of cruel and unjust immigrant prisons, beginning with the Geo Detention Center, which is the largest immigrant prison in the State of California. The #SchoolsNotPrisons conce , will educate the public about how these prisons can harm the health and safety of the communities which surround them. The schools not prisons name came from the fact that in the past nearly 40 years, California has built 22 prisons, but only one UC campus. Nearly ¾ of the state funding for Elementary and High Schools, half for colleges and universities and 90% of what is used for prisons comes from the same funds according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.

The upcoming #SchoolsNotPrisons tour, which began last summer and has made stops throughout California, promotes a vision of community safety focused on prevention rather than incarceration, and supports local advocacy campaigns that call for more effective, community-based alternatives rather than severe forms of punishment, particularly for vulnerable populations.

Several speakers impacted by these detention centers on a personal level will be speaking at the peaceful community event that is targeted to an all-ages crowd. The event will be tobacco-free, alcohol and drug-free. “I was held for a very long time, almost ten years, and I can tell you this: these ‘detention centers,’ as they call them, they’re prisons without a doubt,” said Sylvester Owino, who is seeking asylum and was incarcerated for more than nine years. He will also be speaking from the stage at Friday’s night’s event. “I came to the U.S. from Kenya, where I was afraid for my life. These prisons are profiting off of people like me, holding them for years for no good reason. We have to end it.”

Admission to the concert is free and will be held on Friday, October 20, 2017, at the Adelanto Stadium- formerly known as Maverick’s Stadium located at 12000 Stadium Way. The gates will open at 5:30 p.m. and the concert is set to begin at 6:00 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to register through Eventbrite because the event is expected to reach capacity. The #SchoolsNotPrisons is funded by The California Endowment and The California Wellness Foundation. The tour stop is presented by Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC), the Inland Empire-Immigrant Youth Collective, and the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ), and produced by Revolve Impact.

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