Panel and vigil honor victims of mass shootings across U.S.

The Grand Hall of the Rice Memorial Center hosted a Sep. 3 panel discussion and vigil for victims of the recent shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. Following a welcome by Rice President David Leebron, professor José Aranda introduced the evening’s panelists: Jones College junior Emani Brown and graduate student Sophia Martinez Abbud, both of whom call El Paso home; Dena Marks Sokolow, associate director of the Southwest Regional Office of the Anti-Defamation League; and Rice professors Richard Tapia, Jennifer Bratter and Luis Duno-Gottberg.

Following the panel discussion, Black Student Association president Drew Carter and Hispanic Association for Cultural Enrichment at Rice co-president Laura Vargas read aloud the names of all 31 victims from both mass shootings. Houston Poet Laureate Leslie Contreras Schwartz ’02 offered a poetry reading, and a moment of silence was concluded with a solemn performance of “Amor Eterno” by Rice’s Mariachi Luna Llena. (Photos by Jeff Fitlow)