Brookline students host concert to aid Roxbury school

By Brock Parker, Globe Correspondent

A group of Brookline High School students is holding a jazz and world music concert Saturday, March 6. to raise money and help buy books for an elementary school in Roxbury.

Students with the Brookline High School-Emerson Literacy Partnership are hoping the concert will raise about $10,000 for the Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary School in Roxbury.

The concert, being billed as IntelliJam, will feature performer Zili Misik, a women's world music group, jazz musicians Bo Winiker and Jamie Saltman, the Emerson School Chorus, and the Brookline High School Camerata.

Sarah Plovnick, a junior at the high school who founded the partnership, said she learned about a shortage of books at the Emerson School through her temple.

The elementary school does not have many books and instead of a dedicated library it has classroom libraries and rolling book shelves, Plovnick said.

The school has a number of immigrant students, and Plovnick said that the limited access to books makes it more difficult for them to learn English.

Last year, Plovnick founded the partnership with nine other high school students and Roger Grande, an adviser with Brookline High School's social justice program.

The partnership has already held book drives to help the elementary school, and contributions to Intellijam will go directly toward buying books and bookshelves for the elementary school, and supporting literacy at the school and the partnership between the two communities.

The concert will be at the Brookline High School auditorium from 3 to 5 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults, $7 for students, and can be ordered online in advance at bhsemerson.bhsweblab.net/page/how-to-donate.

Brock Parker can be reached at brock.globe@gmail.com.