The second half of the event featured performances by spoken-word poet Saul Williams, DJ Kuttin Kandi and rappers Dead Prez.

Marsha Zeesman, senior communications strategist with the ACLU, said the organization was trying to appeal to young people by combining music and political dialogue.

“We’re getting a much better sense of college students,” she said. “We’re trying not to talk at them. We’re trying to listen to them.”

Nancy Uhlar Murray ’67, director of the Bill of Rights Education Project at the Massachusetts ACLU, cast the event as political outreach rather than as a recruitment effort.

“It’s partly a matter of building the organization, but also a matter of building an inter-generational front to roll back the post 9/11 threats to civil liberties,” she said.

Although many students admitted they had come mostly for Dead Prez, most maintained they had some interest in the politics being discussed.

“[Dead Prez] is very political, very radical. It’s a bit Black Pantherish, actually,” said Max E. Kennedy ’04.

Many non-students were also in the audience. Abigail B. Satinsky, an employee at the Hi-Rise Bakery, echoed the sentiments of many on Flynt’s appearance.

“I don’t think there’s any problem with [Flynt] coming here and speaking. But I’m not going to thank him for who he is,” she said.