Local citizen group South Shore Ceasefire Now (SSCN) hosted yet another community event to raise money and awareness for humanitarian aid in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
On July 21st, over 100 spectators gathered in, and outside, the Broad Cove Hall to listen to the sweet sounds of several local and visiting artists.
The concert was a slight deviation from the group’s usual events. Since their inception in October 2023, SSCN has organized rallies, movie screenings, and postcard writing campaigns.
“We just felt that there was a need for our actions to start to look differently and bring people together in ways that we know that music can do it no other way,” says SSCN volunteer Aliyyah Fazil.
SSCN had been hoping to include a concert in their events for a while but it took them longer to coordinate with various artists for it to come together. After artist Nico Paulo’s successful benefit concert in St John’s, they knew they had to pull something together during her tour visit to Nova Scotia. Once the line-up was solidified, SSCN knew they’d have a successful evening.
The energy built over the night between solo performances by Nico Paulo and Pamela Hart, who was also joined by the Forever Chorus. The night was wrapped up by Palestinian rapper BASYL, who came down from Halifax to grace Broad Cove with his unique and melodic R&B sound.
The evening raised $1,762 for the Palestinian Red Crescent which provides humanitarian assistance as well as health and social services to Palestinians.
The group of locals plans to continue their work in organizing and providing a space for South Shore’ers to stand in solidarity with Palestine. Fazil says the group is talking through how to sustain themselves, and continue their work after a month off in August. It is clear to Fazil that the community wants these events to take place and that SSCN is ready to support the need.
“I think we all feel so helpless and hopeless about it, that I think we all felt a need to do what we can in our small capacity or small communities.”