We Shall Overcome – mostly known as WSO these days – is a nationwide collective of musicians, poets, and other artists and activists who put on events all over the country to help those forced to live life at the rough end of austerity. We began in 2015, since when we’ve hosted well over a thousand events and raised well half a million quid for various causes. That total doesn’t include a cash value for the millions of items of donated food, clothing, sanitary products, and so on, that we’ve ensured have got to the front line in the fight against poverty. We support those who do the most to help our brothers and sisters who have been hardest hit by the savaging of the welfare safety net – foodbanks, homelessness support centres, soup kitchens, women’s refuges, etc.
We’re still here, and will be while we are needed. Our motto is “a raised fist and a helping hand”. The raised fist to signify our anger at the injustice, and the helping hand to symbolise our compassion and determination to do something about it. There’s much more information over on the webpages, where you can scroll through details of all past events and see those that are forthcoming. Events run throughout the year but the ‘big push’ is targeted to the first weekend of October, where venues in villages, towns and cities up and down the country collaborate in a nationwide festival of anti-austerity.https://weshallovercomeweekend.com/
Locally, we’ve hosted dozens of events, raising cash and collecting donations for a variety of causes – including Blind Eye, Emmanuel House, the Friary, Framework, Tracys Street Kitchen, Broxtowe Youth Homeless, a geographical spread of foodbanks, women’s support groups, and grassroots mental health groups. A wide array of local venues have been supportive – in the city centre itself as well as surrounding areas including Kimberley, Warsop, Bagthorpe, Kirkby, Long Eaton, Beeston, Stapleford, Hucknall and much more. Contributions have come from some of the county’s most loved musicians, poets, and storytellers, some of whom have donated tracks for Blind Eye’s EP.
There’s lots of ideas in planning for 2020, so please do get in touch if you’d like to be involved.
Our local facebook group is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wsonottingham/
And we’re on twitter as @wso_notts.
Comentarios