BRATTLEBORO-It promises to be an afternoon of humanitarian support and fine music as a host of regionally and internationally recognized musicians queue up for Life Aid for Palestine, a benefit concert on Sunday, Sept. 7, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, and on livestream.
Organized by local advocates for Palestinian justice and liberation and co-sponsored by Southern Vermont for Palestine, the event, according to its press release, comes "at a time when many of us are feeling helpless in the face of the atrocities happening in Palestine," says organizer Michael Hanish.
"This is an opportunity to join together in active solidarity to stand with Palestine and to raise our voices - through music, through giving, through our presence - for life and liberation," he continues.
Beyond the coalescing, the event's main objective is to raise funds for the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), for the Good Shepherd Collective, and for Yusuf el-Mbayed, a young Palestinian journalist and community organizer and activist in Gaza "with whom Vermonters and others worldwide have built a meaningful relationship," according to the release.
Berkeley, California–based MECA, founded in 1988, is, as described on its website, "a nonprofit organization working for the rights and well-being of children in the Middle East." With World Central Kitchen, MECA is setting up and running community kitchens in Gaza to provide more than 20,000 hot meals to families daily.
Hanish explained in a recent Commons interview that MECA will direct Life Aid contributions toward those solar-powered soup kitchens.
The Good Shepherd Collective (GSC), a small co-op in Palestine formed in 2017, commits to "resisting injustice and dismantling the structures of settler-colonialism" (goodshepherdcollective.org). Among its activities, GSC engages in investigative reporting and data-driven analysis of events in Gaza. Producing a weekly newsletter to which anyone can subscribe, "they aggregate information, do statistical analysis, and chronicle as much as possible" to relay to outside journalists, Hanish explains.
Yusuf el-Mbayed may be the best known of the Sept. 7 concert's beneficiaries. Explaining Life Aid's origins, Hanish says: "We got to know Yusuf over a year ago through a project Kate Casa initiated, called 'Vermonters Read for Gaza' which featured 20 Vermont communities reading parts of Yusuf's essay about his family farm. That farm has now been bombed five times and sits under an Israeli tank position.
"Conversations happened since then; [friends in Ireland] joined in and we started raising money for Yusef's work," covering events in Gaza, tending to his community's essential needs, and aiding his 16-member extended family, says Hanish.
"Death and dispossession," Hanish reports, "have hounded them and they are now floating somewhere in Gaza City; Yusuf spends some of his days camped out at one of the crossings where food aid is delivered, thrown down for Palestinians to fight over, where people are shot and killed just for seeking aid, for being there. Yusuf's incredible resilience, radiance, humor, and honesty - among other things - were the inspiration for this concert and are the spirit and energy that drives it forward.
"We're not putting out a specific message with this concert, except [to gather] aid for Gaza and solidarity," Hanish says, speaking passionately: "I'm Jewish. I went to a socialist Zionist summer camp. [...] I spent six months in Israel, mostly in Jerusalem, thinking about going to the university there. [...] And when I started to become aware of what was going on - after the 1973 war - I began to seriously question what they were doing."
It's understood, Hanish acknowledges, that "just supporting Palestine is extremely political these days."
"We're trying to keep from saying we demand a ceasefire," he says. "We're trying to keep from saying, 'Israel's committing genocide.'" He warns that people in the program may very well express those opinions.
But that's not the main point of the event.
"It's aid for Gaza, for people who are being butchered, for people who are starving to death, the people who have no water to drink, no place to live, people who are being oppressed beyond anything that we've ever seen," Hanish says. "We see Gaza and the West Bank as the crucial, pivotal, moral, and political moment of our lives."
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The lineup of musicians donating time and talents so all proceeds - after hard expenses - go to beneficiaries is as follows, with descriptions from LifeAidForPalestine.com:
• John Sheldon, who's been writing songs for half a century for the likes of James Taylor and performing with the likes of Van Morrison. Having played extensively with his own bands and releasing 15 CDs of his music, Sheldon's recently been composing for and performing in theatrical works and in his own musical monologue, "The Red Guitar."
He'll do a few tunes, Hanish says; then, with Paul Richmond, the afternoon's emcee, he'll offer an improvisation-based act, "No Other Words."
Richmond, who performs nationally and internationally, solo and with "Do It Now," has been honored more than once as Beat Poet Laureate by the National Beat Poetry Foundation.
• Scott Ainslie is on the bill. Having learned from senior blues and southern Appalachian old-time musicians, he brings a portion of their legacy to the stage with him as a songwriting roots musician.
• Joel Veena will perform North Indian classical music on the 20-stringed Hindustani slide guitar: "traditional and original repertoire framed by fascinating tales from the lore of Hindustani music."
• The benefit also features Kwartetto Mambo - John Clark (French horn), Wes Brown (bass), Julian Gerstin (congas/percussion), and Dan DeWalt (piano/trombone) playing "soulful original music: jazz, Cuban grooves, lovely ballads, oddball pop tunes, and on-the-spot improvisations, mixed with a twisted sense of humor."
• Patty Carpenter and the Dysfunctional Family Jazz Band (DFJB) are in the lineup. The Guilford-based singer-songwriter's family foursome offers a repertoire spanning jazz, American, soul, and folk. "The way they work, the way they live, and the way they make music is an expression of family, through and through."
• Samirah Evans will appear, too. Known for her dynamic, soulful approach to jazz and blues, among other genres, her style is also heavily influenced by the music of New Orleans where she was a longtime in-demand singer. An artist associate in jazz voice at Williams College for over 10 years, she'll be joined Sept. 7 by Benny Kohn (pianist), Ronald Smith (saxophonist), and Jo Sallins (multi-instrumentalist).
• Dawoud "The Renegade Sufi" Kringle, is a composer, mystic, and "sonic architect" who "wields his Dautar a [guitar-sitar-cello hybrid of his own vision] like a blueprint for auditory liberation." His music "is disruption with purpose: music that doesn't entertain but awakens."
• Craig Macrae, an oud player and associate professor at Berklee is on the bill, as is Northampton-based musician and publisher Michel Moushabeck, founder of Interlink Press, the only Palestinian-owned publishing house in the U.S.
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The evening also features three speakers and two short films: a video of Yusuf el-Mbayed speaking from Gaza and an excerpt from Robbie Leppzer's film An Artist Responds to War, about Peter Schumann, founder and director of Bread and Puppet Theater.
In the lobby, concertgoers can learn more about Interlink Publishing; MECA, Good Shepherd, Kristy's Power of the Seed, Southern VT for Palestine, and Vermont Workers' Center, among other organizations, and they can purchase Palestinian products.
In the event press release, co-organizer Samia Abbass adds: "As the crisis in Palestine deepens, the need grows exponentially. This event is a small but crucial gesture of connection, compassion, and to justice."
And Hanish stresses therein: "Life Aid for Palestine is not just a concert. It is an act of solidarity - a reminder that even from far away, we can extend our care and share responsibility for what is happening with our tax dollars."
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Tickets are $15–$25, with no one turned away for lack of funds. Pre-show starts at 12:30 p.m.; no reserved seats. This event has been endorsed by Southern VT for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace VT/NH, Vermont Coalition for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Western Massachusetts Coalition for the Liberation of Palestine. For more information and tickets, visit lifeaidforpalestine.com. Organizers want the public to know that one's donation is one's ticket to the concert or the livestream. "Please read the text carefully on the iDonate page," they advise, noting that "the donation is in Euros (check conversion rate via Google)."
Annie Landenberger is an arts writer and columnist for The Commons. She also is one half of the musical duo Bard Owl, with partner T. Breeze Verdant.
This Arts column by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.