PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Community leaders have announced details for a two-day festival in Nicetown, with a goal of deterring gun violence. Part of the festival will address an important question on the minds of some Philadelphia communities ravaged by the crisis.
This year’s 21st annual Nicetown Give Back festival will feature free food, entertainment, a walk for peace, and a panel discussion on combating gun violence.
“[It’s] a showcase of all kinds of talent, local talent, national talent, and then culminating all the way down to the Saturday evening concert when we will have Miss Pamela Williams, the ‘Saxtress.’” said Majeedah Rashid, with the Nicetown Community Development Corporation.
She said organizers hope to bring more transparency to how anti-violence funding is used.
“People need to understand exactly when they hear, they hear a million dollars here, half a million there, $200,000 there, and they hear some bad things about mismanagement of misappropriations of funds and things like that … those things happen and they're dealt with, but we have these boots on the ground, grassroots organizations that are just in the mix, doing their job and doing it the right way,” said Rashid.
“This is what we want them to see when they see Nicetown CDC, EMIR Healing Center, Men Who Care of Germantown, CeaseFire and all these other organizations and what they do.”
The theme of this year’s event is collaboration, and Joe Budd, from Men Who Care, said the aim is to bring the entire community together. “We call it a give back, but it's also about community building, community engagement,” he said.
“That is our goal, to bring everybody in to make a difference, because we need the whole community fighting this thing and gun violence and education and housing and all of these different things.”
The festival will take place Friday and Saturday at Nicetown Park, at 4301 Germantown Avenue.
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